Space Pictures This Week: Space "Horse," Mars Rover, More





































































































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GOP Senators More Troubled After Rice Meeting













Emerging from a closed-door meeting, three Republican senators said Tuesday they are more troubled than ever with comments made days after the deadly Sept. 11 raid in Libya by Susan Rice, the U.N. ambassador and President Barack Obama's possible choice for secretary of state.



Sens. John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte met privately with Rice and acting CIA Director Michael Morell for more than an hour on her much-maligned explanations of the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed the U.S. ambassador and three other Americans.



Ayotte said Rice told the lawmakers that her comments in a series of national television interviews five days after the attack were wrong. However, that failed to mollify the three lawmakers, who have talked about blocking her nomination if the president taps her to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.



"We are significantly troubled by many of the answers that we got and some that we didn't get concerning evidence that was leading up to the attack on the consulate and the tragic death of four brave Americans and whether Ambassador Rice was prepared, or informed sufficiently, to give the American people the correct depiction of the events that took place," McCain told reporters.



Said Graham: "Bottom line I'm more disturbed now than I was before that 16 September explanation."








Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video










The three insisted that they need more information about the Libyan raid before they even consider Rice as a possible replacement for Clinton.



"I'm more troubled today," said Ayotte, who argued that it was clear in the days after the attack that it was terrorism and not a spontaneous demonstration prompted by an anti-Muslim video.



Despite lingering questions over her public comments after the Benghazi attack, Rice has emerged as the front-runner on a short list of candidates to succeed Clinton, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., seen as her closest alternative.



The strong statements from the three senators clouded Rice's prospects only two days after Republican opposition seem to be softening. Rice planned meetings on Wednesday with Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is in line to become the top Republican on the Foreign Relations Committee, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.



Corker said Tuesday that he had concerns with a possible nomination.



"When I hear Susan talk she seems to me like she'd be a great chairman of the Democratic National Committee," Corker said. "There is nobody who is more staff supportive of what the administration does. That concerns me in a secretary of state."



Rice's series of meetings on Capitol Hill will be a critical test both for Republicans, who will decide whether they can support her, and the administration, which must gauge whether Rice has enough support to merit a nomination.



A senior Senate aide said the administration was sounding out moderate members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, such as Corker and Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. Assessing the prospects for Rice before Obama makes any announcement would avoid the embarrassment of a protracted fight with the Senate early in the president's second term and the possible failure of the nominee.



Rice is scheduled to meet with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., her most vocal critic on Capitol Hill, and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H. McCain and Ayotte are members of the Senate Armed Services Committee.





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Syria warplanes hit village near Turkey






ATME, Syria: A Syrian warplane bombarded the village of Atme near the northwestern border with Turkey on Monday, prompting hundreds of panicked residents to flee, an AFP journalist said.

The fighter jet overflew Atme three times at a low altitude and dropped at least six bombs or rockets into populated areas near a school that houses a rebel command centre, without causing any casualties, witnesses said.

The journalist observed six points of impact on three houses, a garden and a road. Residents spoke of three bombs while others said rockets caused the damage.

The rebel command centre, which also houses the Damascus Eagles brigade of the Free Syrian Army, was not affected.

A warplane again bombed the area of Atme and the nearby border crossing of Bab al-Hawa at 3:00pm (1300 GMT). The jet made four sorties, bombing twice, each time using decoys first to avoid possible anti-aircraft fire.

Two plumes of smoke rose over the hills around Bab al-Hawa, the reporter said.

With each overflight, the aircraft verged on Turkish airspace. People familiar with the terrain claimed it had briefly crossed into Turkey, from where the hum of high altitude jets could be heard.

"The MIG flew very low. It made three passes," according to Mahmud, the owner of one of the damaged houses.

One of the missiles plummeted into his garden, leaving a large crater in the ground, shattering windows and scattering furniture.

"The whole family was in the house. Thank God, nobody was hurt," he told AFP.

"This is what Bashar (al-Assad) sent us to solve the problems of Syria. And thanks to (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan for this no-fly zone," he said sarcastically, referring to the Syrian president and the Turkish prime minister.

The village of Atme, just two kilometres (1.2 miles) from the border, was once home to 7,000 people.

Ongoing violence has forced many to seek shelter in a refugee camp in nearby Qaa village, or even in makeshift camps in the surrounding olive groves.

The bombing did not hit the camps but caused a mass panic among the refugees, hundreds of whom climbed over barbed wire fences for safety in neighbouring Turkey.

"The Turkish border guards fired in the air, but it was useless. Hundreds of families, with bundles on their heads, entered Turkey," said a witness.

By the late afternoon, the guards ordered the refugees to return back the way they came. With no alternative, most returned to the muddy, cold and unhygienic tents on the other side.

The region in Idlib province is a hub for the rebellion and Atme and its environs in particular are home to numerous rebel groups.

- AFP/fa



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Manmohan Singh unveils direct cash transfer scheme for subsidies

NEW DELHI: In a landmark step, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday announced the much-awaited direct cash transfer scheme wherein the subsidy amount will go directly into the bank accounts of the beneficiaries.

The government will implement the scheme for cash transfer to the beneficiary's account in 51 districts from January 1, 2013.

Manmohan Singh chaired the first meeting of the National Committee on Direct Transfers and asked ministries "to work in right earnest" for implementation of this pioneering initiative.

"They will need to digitize their databases, most of which are with the states, and seed them with Aadhaar numbers. You will be provided help by both the Unique Identification Authority and the IT ministry. But, you will in turn need to assist the states," he said in his closing remarks.

"Direct cash transfers, which are now becoming possible through the innovative use of technology and the spread of modern banking across the country, open the doors for eliminating waste, cutting down leakages and targeting beneficiaries better."

"We have a chance to ensure that every rupee spent by the government is spent truly well and goes to those who truly deserve it," he added.

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Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed


Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.


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Cracks in the Conservative Armor?













So much for pledges?


As lawmakers return to Washington today, the deadline to put on the brakes before the country plunges off the fiscal cliff is now in sight, and it appears that both sides are open to some wheeling and dealing.
For Republicans, that may mean breaking a promise many of them made not to raise taxes.


"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC's George Stephanopoulos yesterday in a "This Week" interview. "Republicans should put revenue on the table."


Infographic: What to Know About the "Fiscal Cliff"


But for Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist, the spirit of the pledge seems as alive as ever even as GOP lawmakers like Graham publicly contemplate defecting.


"What the pledge does of course is allows elected officials to make it clear openly to their voters where they stand," Norquist said in an interview with ABC's David Kerley. "Are they going to be with reforming government or raising taxes to continue more of the same?"






Peter Foley/Bloomberg/Getty Images











Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Dick Durbin on 'This Week' Watch Video









Norquist is casting the pledge as lawmakers' "commitment to their constituents" -- rather than to him -- and he told ABC News over the weekend that the hundreds who have signed it "are largely keeping it."


But other prominent Republicans are joining Graham, including Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who signaled his openness to re-thinking the pledge yesterday on NBC's "Meet The Press."


"The world is changed and the economic situation is different," King said.


Watch: Nancy Pelosi on the status of the fiscal cliff


Of course, Graham on "This Week" and other GOP members of Congress who appeared on the Sunday talk shows qualified their support for raising revenue on not raising tax rates but rather on capping certain deductions.


And for all the talk of taxes, there's another elephant in the room that gets a lot less attention: Entitlement reform.


"I will violate the pledge -- long story short -- for the good of the country only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.


Also appearing on "This Week," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., acknowledged that "meaningful reforms" for Medicare should be on the table.


"Only 12 years of solvency lie ahead if we do nothing," Durbin said. "So those who say don't touch it, don't change it are ignoring the obvious."


But how many other Democrats are going to be willing to see serious reform as part of the discussion?



Read More..

Republicans ease on tax as US budget talks resume






WASHINGTON: As Congress prepared to dive back into "fiscal cliff" talks on Monday after the Thanksgiving holiday, there were encouraging signs that Republican intransigence on tax could be easing.

For the second time in days, a leading Republican, this time Senator Lindsey Graham, edged toward violating something that had been sacrosanct -- a longstanding pledge signed by many in his party never to raise taxes.

Strings were attached -- concessions by Democrats on social welfare programs like health care for the elderly. But his change of heart was a hopeful sign that the Republican leadership is ready to make tough choices in order to strike a deal.

Both Republicans and Democrats are well aware of the need for the country to get its fiscal house in order, as America tries to rein in a huge debt that has been growing bigger by the day and reduce deficit spending.

If no deal is reached before the end of the year, a poison pill law of tax hikes and massive spending cuts, including slashes to the military, comes into effect with potentially catastrophic effects for the fragile US economy.

After months of stalemate, congressional leaders met on November 16 with President Barack Obama -- who is deemed to have a considerably stronger negotiating hand after handily winning re-election 10 days earlier.

Just five weeks now remain in the calendar year to conclude an agreement before the expiration of tax cuts put in place during the presidency of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

Obama has said that any deal he concludes would have to include an increase in taxes on wealthy taxpayers, something congressional Republicans so far have rejected.

The plan he proposes -- and presented to voters on the campaign trail -- would raise the tax rate for top earners, but keep Bush-era tax rates for individuals who make less than $200,000 per year and families earning less than $250,000.

Republicans insist raising taxes on the wealthy would be counter-productive and only serve to slow economic growth and ensure that the country continues to be plagued by economic stagnation.

They insist that higher taxes would dampen spending and hiring and investment by business owners.

The top income tax rate, which now stands at 35 percent, will automatically revert to 39.6 percent at the beginning of 2013 unless there is a new budget deal.

Republicans say they prefer to look at ways to bring in more tax revenue by completely overhauling the old and unwieldy US tax code, including closing what they say are "special interest loopholes" likely to hit the poor and the middle class as well as the rich.

Graham, speaking Sunday on ABC's "This Week" program, said it was fair to ask his party to do this in turn for Democratic concessions on reducing government spending on social welfare programs, known here as entitlements.

"When you're $16 trillion in debt, the only pledge we should be making to each other is to avoid becoming Greece, and Republicans -- Republicans should put revenue on the table," Graham said.

He was alluding to Grover Norquist, a powerful conservative political player in the US budget debate, who over the past two decades has persuaded many Republicans to sign a pledge not to raise taxes.

"I want to buy down debt and cut rates to create jobs, but I will violate the pledge, long story short, for the good of the country, only if Democrats will do entitlement reform," Graham said.

Graham's apparent willingness to ignore the no higher taxes pledge came just days after another prominent US senator, Saxby Chambliss, said he would not be not bound by the promise either.

"I care more about my country than I do about a 20-year-old pledge," Chambliss said.

Economists have said that closing loopholes and ending deductions will likely not generate sufficient money to chip away at the national debt, and that a combination of tax increases and spending cuts will be needed.

Speaking on the same program as Graham, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin insisted that tax rates for the highest earners do have to up.

"How in the world are you going to reduce deductions and generate enough revenue for meaningful deficit reduction," Durbin said.

Some experts said that there need not be a "grand deal" by the end of the year, because they could give themselves an extension by passing new legislation.

"Anytime Congress puts handcuffs on itself, it still has the key to those handcuffs. It can open the handcuffs anytime they want, or say. 'OK, we'll change the lock'," said Roberton Williams at the Tax Policy Center, an independent think tank.

-AFP/ac



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Mamata intolerant, wants only yes men: Katju

KOLKATA: Terming West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as "intolerant", Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju Sunday said she only wants "yes men" around her. However, he praised her for feeling for the 'aam aadmi'.

"I had praised her earlier...She has got the good quality of integrity. I think she feels for the aam aadmi," said Katju.

"But she must realise that in democracy you have to act in a democratic manner. This is the defect in her. She is very intolerant," he said at a Calcutta Press Club programme.

The press council chief's criticism of the chief minister came on a day the local media reported about the disciplinary proceedings launched against an Indian Police Service officer for writing two books critical of the government.

"She is not prepared to listen to others. You have to listen to others. Ultimately you take the decision yourself, but after getting good advice," said Katju, a retired Supreme Court judge.

Quoting Chanakya - the shrewd minister of Maurya emperor Chandragupta - Katju said: "A good ruler is he who appoints good advisers and listens to good advisers."

He quoted a saying in Hindi which means if the king says cat has carried away the camel, you must say yes. "Yes, this is the defect of your chief minister," he said.

"She wants yes men. But you must not have yes men around you," he warned.

But Katju also said that Banerjee has shown some improvement in the state. "But she needs to improve more."

Read More..

Distant Dwarf Planet Secrets Revealed


Orbiting at the frozen edges of our solar system, the mysterious dwarf planet Makemake is finally coming out of the shadows as astronomers get their best view yet of Pluto's little sibling.

Discovered in 2005, Makemake—pronounced MAH-keh MAH-keh after a Polynesian creation god—is one of five Pluto-like objects that prompted a redefining of the term "planet" and the creation of a new group of dwarf planets in 2006. (Related: "Pluto Not a Planet, Astronomers Rule.")

Just like the slightly larger Pluto, this icy world circles our sun beyond Neptune. Researchers expected Makemake to also have a global atmosphere—but new evidence reveals that isn't the case.

Staring at a Star

An international team of astronomers was able for the first time to probe Makemake's physical characteristics using the European Southern Observatory's three most powerful telescopes in Chile. The researchers observed the change in light given off by a distant star as the dwarf planet passed in front of it. (Learn how scientists found Makemake.)

"These events are extremely difficult to predict and observe, but they are the only means of obtaining accurate knowledge of important properties of dwarf planets," said Jose Luis Ortiz, lead author of this new study and an astronomer at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia, in Spain.

It's like trying to study a coin from a distance of 30 miles (48 kilometers) or more, Ortiz added.

Ortiz and his team knew Makemake didn't have an atmosphere when light from the background star abruptly dimmed and brightened as the chilly world drifted across its face.

"The light went off very abruptly from all the sites we observed the event so this means this world cannot have a substantial and global atmosphere like that of its sibling Pluto," Ortiz said.

If Makemake had an atmosphere, light from the star would gradually decrease and increase as the dwarf planet passed in front.

Coming Into Focus

The team's new observations add much more detail to our view of Makemake—not only limiting the possibility of an atmosphere but also determining the planet's size and surface more accurately.

"We think Makemake is a sphere flattened slightly at both poles and mostly covered with very white ices—mainly of methane," said Ortiz.

"But there are also indications for some organic material at least at some places; this material is usually very red and we think in a small percentage of the surface, the terrain is quite dark," he added.

Why Makemake lacks a global atmosphere remains a big mystery, but Ortiz does have a theory. Pluto is covered in nitrogen ice. When the sun heats this volatile material, it turns straight into a gas, creating Pluto's atmosphere.

Makemake lacks nitrogen ice on its surface, so there is nothing for the sun to heat into a gas to provide an atmosphere.

The dwarf planet has less mass, and a weaker gravitational field, than Pluto, said Ortiz. This means that over eons of time, Makemake may not have been able to hang on to its nitrogen.

Methane ice will also transform into a gas when heated. But since the dwarf planet is nearly at its furthest distance from the sun, Ortiz believes that Makemake's surface methane is still frozen. (Learn about orbital planes.)

And even if the methane were to transform into a gas, any resulting atmosphere would cover, at most, only ten percent of the planet, said Ortiz.

The new results are detailed today in the journal Nature.


Read More..

No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to $425 Million


Nov 25, 2012 10:37am







ap powerball jackpot jt 121125 wblog No Powerball Winner; Jackpot Grows to Record $425 Million

                                                                (Image Credit: Charlie Neibergall/AP Photo)


The Powerball jackpot has swelled to $425 million, the largest in the lottery’s history, after no tickets matched the winning numbers in a drawing Saturday night.


The Powerball numbers for Saturday were 22-32-37-44-50, and the Powerball was 34.


Iowa Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer said the jackpot could get even bigger before Wednesday, because sales tend to increase in the run-up to a big drawing.


The previous top windfall was $365 million. The jackpot was claimed by eight co-workers in Lincoln, Neb., in 2006.


PHOTOS: Biggest Lotto Jackpot Winners


While millions of Americans can have fun dreaming about how they’d spend the jackpot, the odds of winning are 1 in 175,000,000, according to lottery officials.


To put that in perspective, a ticket holder is 25 times less likely to win the jackpot then they are to win an Academy Award.


Even still, the old saying holds true: “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”




SHOWS: Good Morning America






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