April 29 (Reuters) - Leading money winners on the 2013 PGATour on Monday (U.S. unless stated): 1. Tiger Woods $4,139,600 2. Brandt Snedeker $3,150,564 3. Billy Horschel $2,567,891 4. Matt Kuchar $2,469,773 5. Adam Scott (Australia) $2,100,469 6. Steve Stricker $1,935,340 7. Graeme McDowell $1,910,654 8. D.A. Points $1,898,938 9. Phil Mickelson $1,764,680 10. Dustin Johnson $1,748,907 11. Jason Day $1,695,583 12. Kevin Streelman $1,646,743 13. Webb Simpson $1,565,192 14. Hunter Mahan $1,563,129 15. Russell Henley $1,525,734 16. Keegan Bradley $1,430,347 17. Charles Howell III $1,393,806 18. ...
Rarely has a senator done so much to prepare for reelection only to, in the end, retire instead. But that?s what happened with Sen. Max Baucus, and now Democrats are scrambling to recruit the one candidate who can prevent the Montana Senate seat from falling into Republican hands.
Baucus?s sudden retirement announcement Tuesday is such a surprise because he had worked so diligently to prepare for reelection?one far from assured given Montana?s conservative bent. (As one former campaign hand put it, ?Left field? This is out of the bleachers.?) The preparation was most evident in his fundraising: The six-term incumbent raised more than $1.5 million in the first three months of 2013, a prodigious total for any lawmaker but especially for one in a relatively inexpensive state for TV advertising. He had almost $5 million cash on hand.
In his votes and rhetoric, Baucus also looked like a lawmaker bent on courting red-state voters. He was one of four Democrats to oppose his colleagues? own budget proposal and the tax increases included in it. He voted against compromise gun-control legislation that expanded background checks despite it attracting the support of four Republican senators. Even two fellow Democrats up for reelection in red states next year?Kay Hagan and Mary Landrieu?backed the measure.
And just last week, Baucus called the implementation of Obama?s health care law a ?train wreck,? even though he helped shepherd the legislation through Congress, ?That caused a tizzy among many Senate Republican officials, who speculated the senator was attempting to save his own reelection campaign by performing early damage control on a politically toxic issue. ??
But even if retirement talk has been off the public?s radar, it?s been something the senator has been considering, according to one former Baucus aide. A contributing factor, according to the source, was the septuagenarian was not eager to balance legislative fights, fundraisers and another tough reelection battle.
Although the senator?s path to reelection was always going to be difficult in a state Mitt Romney won by double digits last year, he didn?t appear as endangered as colleagues such as Landrieu in Louisiana, Mark Begich in Alaska, and Mark Pryor in Arkansas. He had yet to draw a first-tier challenger?only state Senate Majority Leader Corey Stapleton and state Rep. Champ Edmunds had declared they were running. Just last year, incumbent Sen. Jon Tester won reelection in Montana.
Baucus is the fourth consequential Democratic retirement this year, joining Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa, Tim Johnson of South Dakota, and Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia. As with those previous retirements, his departure could give Republicans a golden opportunity to win a Senate seat and boost for their hopes of retaking the chamber.
But Democrats have been quick to suggest that former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who left office this year, is interested in running. The popular former statewide official, who doesn?t possess a potentially harmful voting record like Baucus has, might even be a stronger candidate than the incumbent.
?Democrats have had a great deal of electoral success in Montana over the last decade, and I am confident that will continue,? Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chairman Michael Bennet said in a statement. ?Democrats built an unprecedented ground game in Montana in 2012 when Senator Tester was reelected, and we will continue to invest all the resources necessary to hold this seat.?
Schweitzer, who won reelection as the state?s governor in 2008 with more than 60 percent of the vote, fits the model of the kind of candidate Senate Democrats like to recruit?someone who can carve out the necessary independent image for Democrats to win in red states.? He helped elect a Democratic successor, former state Attorney General Steve Bullock, into the governor?s mansion last year.
Some Montana Democrats are also floating the name of Stephanie Schriock, the president of EMILY?s List and a Montana native. The former chief of staff to Tester doesn't have the ideal background for the red-state race, but she would command a national fundraising base.?
SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Rescuers tried to free dozens of people believed trapped in the concrete rubble after an eight-story building that housed garment factories collapsed, killing at least 87. Workers had complained about cracks in the structure before it came tumbling down, but were assured it was safe.
Searchers cut holes in the jumbled mess of concrete with drills or their bare hands, passing water and flashlights to those pinned inside the building near Bangladesh's capital of Dhaka.
"I gave them whistles, water, torchlights. I heard them cry. We can't leave them behind this way," said fire official Abul Khayer. Rescue operations illuminated by floodlights continued through the night.
The disaster came less than five months after a factory fire killed 112 people and underscored the unsafe conditions in Bangladesh's massive garment industry.
Workers said they had hesitated to go to into the building on Wednesday morning because it had developed such large cracks a day earlier that it even drew the attention of local news channels.
Abdur Rahim, who worked on the fifth floor, said a factory manager gave assurances that there was no problem, so employees went inside.
"After about an hour or so, the building collapsed suddenly," Rahim said. He next remembered regaining consciousness outside.
On a visit to the site, Home Minister Muhiuddin Khan Alamgir told reporters the building had violated construction codes and "the culprits would be punished."
Among the textile businesses in the building were Phantom Apparels Ltd., New Wave Style Ltd., New Wave Bottoms Ltd. and New Wave Brothers Ltd., which make clothing for major brands including The Children's Place, Dress Barn, and Primark.
Jane Singer, a spokeswoman for The Children's Place, said that "while one of the garment factories located in the building complex has produced apparel for The Children's Place, none of our product was in production at the time of this accident."
"Our deepest sympathies go out to the victims of this terrible tragedy and their families," Singer said in a statement.
Dress Barn said that to its knowledge, it had "not purchased any clothing from that facility since 2010. We work with suppliers around the world to manufacture our clothing, and have a supply chain transparency program to protect the rights of workers and their safety."
Primark, a major British clothing retailer, confirmed that one of the suppliers it uses to produce some of its goods was located on the second floor of the building.
In a statement emailed to The Associated Press, Primark said it was "shocked and deeply saddened by the appalling incident." It added that it has been working with other retailers to review the country's approach to factory standards and will now push for this review to include building integrity.
Meanwhile, Primark's ethical trade team is working to collect information, assess which communities the workers come from, and to provide support "where possible."
John Howe, Cato's chief financial officer and executive vice president, told The Associated Press that it didn't contract with any of the factories directly but it's currently investigating what its "ties" were.
Howe said that one of Cato's domestic importers could have used one of the factories to fulfill some of the orders the retailer had placed. It's expected to have more information by Thursday.
Spanish retailer Mango denied reports it was using any of the suppliers in the building. However, in an email statement to the AP, it said that there had been conversations with one of them to produce a batch of test products.
Kevin Gardner, a spokesman at Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., the second-largest clothing producer in Bangladesh, said the company is investigating to see if a factory in the building was currently producing for the chain.
"We remain committed and are actively engaged in promoting stronger safety measures, and that work continues," Gardner added.
Workers said they didn't know what specific clothing brands were being produced in the building because labels are attached after the products are finished.
Charles Kernaghan, executive director of the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, which has an office in nearby Dhaka, says his staff is investigating the situation. He's hoping his team, working with local workers' groups, will be able to find out which brands were having their products made at the time of the collapse.
"You can't trust many buildings in Bangladesh," Kernaghan said. "It's so corrupt that you can buy off anybody and there won't be any retribution."
Sumi, a 25-year-old worker who goes by one name, said she was sewing jeans on the fifth floor with at least 400 others when the building fell.
"It collapsed all of a sudden," she said. "No shaking, no indication. It just collapsed on us."
She said she managed to reach a hole in the building where rescuers pulled her out.
Reports suggested the death toll was likely to rise.
"We sent two people inside the building, and we could rescue at least 20 people alive. They also told us that at least 100 to 150 people are injured and about 50 dead people are still trapped inside this floor," said Mohammad Humayun, a supervisor at one of the garment factories.
Tens of thousands of people gathered at the site, weeping and searching for family members. Firefighters and soldiers with drilling machines and cranes worked with volunteers to search for survivors.
An enormous section of the concrete structure appeared to have splintered like twigs. Colorful sheets of fabric were tied to upper floors so those inside could climb or slide down and escape.
Rescuers carried the body of a young boy from the building, but it was not immediately clear what he had been doing inside. The building, in the Dhaka suburb of Savar, housed a bank and various shops in addition to the garment factories.
An arm jutted out of one section of the rubble. A lifeless woman covered in dust could be seen in another.
Rahim said his mother and father, who worked with him in the factory, were trapped inside.
Mosammat Khurshida wailed as she looked for her husband. "He came to work in the morning. I can't find him," she said. "I don't know where he is. He does not pick up his phone."
Zahidur Rahman, a spokesman for Enam Medical College and Hospital, said Wednesday evening that 87 people had been confirmed dead. Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder said 600 people had been rescued.
The morgue of the medical college echoed with the sobs of people waiting for the bodies of their loved ones. "Where's my mother? Where's my mother? Tell me, tell me, oh Allah, oh Allah!" Rana Ahmed cried.
The November fire at the Tazreen garment factory drew international attention to working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year textile industry. The country has about 4,000 garment factories and exports clothes to leading Western retailers. The industry wields vast power in the South Asian nation.
Tazreen lacked emergency exits, and its owner said only three floors of the eight-story building were legally built. Surviving employees said gates had been locked and managers had told them to go back to work after the fire alarm went off.
___
AP Retail Writer Anne D'Innocenzio in New York contributed to this report.
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2013 file photo, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. speaks in Charleston, W.Va. Online privacy rules are changing. The question now is how much you'll care. Rockefeller planned a hearing Wednesday to press his proposal to subject companies to penalties by the Federal Trade Commission if they violate a consumer's "do not track" request. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert, File)
FILE - In this Jan. 11, 2013 file photo, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va. speaks in Charleston, W.Va. Online privacy rules are changing. The question now is how much you'll care. Rockefeller planned a hearing Wednesday to press his proposal to subject companies to penalties by the Federal Trade Commission if they violate a consumer's "do not track" request. (AP Photo/Tyler Evert, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Online privacy rules are changing. The question now is how much you'll care.
America's tech industry is finalizing voluntary disclosure standards on the sensitive information being sucked from your smartphone like your location, surfing habits and contacts. Senate Democrats are pushing for a clearer opt-out button for all online tracking. And Microsoft is offering a new browser that encourages people to block the technology that enables tracking.
Industry officials say they understand some people want greater control. But they are betting that consumers don't really mind trading some basic information about themselves for free access.
"Consumers are very pragmatic people," Lou Mastria, managing director of the Digital Advertising Alliance, said in an interview this week. "They want free content. They understand there's a value exchange. And they're OK with it."
Mobile applications like Google Maps, Angry Birds and GasBuddy have become popular, inexpensive ways to personalize smartphones or tablets and improve their functionality. Often free or just 99 cents to download, apps can turn a phone into a sophisticated roaming office or game console with interactive maps and 24-7 connectivity.
But like all those websites that offer medical advice or parenting tips, there's a hitch: They want information from you like your birthdate or ZIP code. Developers say data collection is necessary for the software to work as promised and to reward the intellectual creativity behind it.
"There's no free lunch," said Adam Thierer, a senior research fellow at George Mason University's Mercatus Center. "It's essentially a quid pro quo. You'll trade a little bit of information for all that free content and great services."
The online privacy debate has stumped Congress and prompted limited input from the Obama administration, mindful of consumers' concerns but reluctant to crush a growing industry in a difficult economy.
Some lawmakers, mostly Democrats but some libertarian Republicans, say consumers should have the option of not being tracked at all. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, planned a hearing Wednesday to press his proposal to subject companies to penalties by the Federal Trade Commission if they violate a consumer's "do not track" request.
Industry is pushing back. The Digital Advertising Alliance points to its web-based icon program that links consumers to an opt-out site of participating advertisers. They say some 20 million people have visited their site and only 1 million of those consumers chose to opt out of all ad tracking.
But privacy advocates, backed by the FTC, say the issue goes well beyond targeted advertising, particularly when it comes to a mobile device. Because a smartphone can divulge a person's location, the FTC warned in a recent report that detailed profiles of a person's movements can be collected over time and in surprising ways, revealing a person's habits and patterns and making them vulnerable to stalking or identity theft.
Some researchers also say they suspect retailers are engaging in "price discrimination" ? the practice of setting a price based on personal data, such as the average home price in their area or a person's proximity to a competitor.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of Electronic Privacy Information Center, said most consumers aren't even aware of the extent to which their information is being collected and how it's used. And as with any product on the market, companies should be required to take meaningful steps to make sure people don't get hurt, he said.
"You shouldn't be put at risk if a car is correctly designed when you go on the highway," Rotenberg said. "And that's our view of Internet-based services. People shouldn't have to lose their privacy to use Internet-based services."
FTC Commissioner Julie Brill says the biggest concerns are all the unknowns. The FTC has asked nine data brokers to disclose what information they collect on consumers and how they use it. Brill said she worries that companies might determine a person's eligibility for certain products and services based on information collected online, potentially violating credit reporting and fair lending laws, but without authorities knowing it.
"The industry is moving so quickly and changing so much that we need to make sure that the laws are keeping up with it," Brill said in a recent interview.
So far, the only solution to emerge has been voluntary industry standards. The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration has been coordinating among some 80 industry lobbyists, consumer advocates, academics and technology experts to devise the new disclosure standards for mobile apps that would offer consumers a quick, easy-to-read snapshot of what information is collected and whether it's shared with third parties.
While the final agreement isn't expected until later this spring, the privacy disclosures are expected to look less like a legal manifesto and more like a nutrition label. Just as some snacks are labeled as high in fat or sodium, some mobile apps might have to fess up to being bigger data collectors than others.
In the end, Thierer isn't sure consumers will care that they've been labeled by a marketing company as someone who, for example, likes to play "Angry Birds" and lives in Ohio.
"The problem is that a lot of these cases driving the debate are worst-case scenarios ... but in reality they are still hypothetical," Thierer said.
With shorts suits, sporty dresses and low heels ushering in a new season for fashion, spring of 2013 is already shaping up to be an exciting time to splurge on some trendy new accessories. But here at Smooth Fitness, the #1 internet retailer of home fitness equipment, we invite you to invest in a new kind of accessory: one that can help you slip back into those high-waisted cropped palazzo pants you?ve been unable to squeeze into since Christmas, just in time for bikini season. They?re called fitness accessories, and they?ll help you pull off any new style that strikes your fancy this spring.
Find Your Center
Ab wheel: Capable of providing one of the best core workouts of any fitness accessory on the market, the ab wheel helps you work muscles in not only your abdominals but also the oft-hard-to-reach lower back ? improving your posture all the while.
Stability ball: Supported by the Mayo Clinic as one of the best fitness accessories for strengthening your core, the stability ball is a staple in Pilates and yoga classes thanks to its emphasis on incorporating balance and spinal stability into every workout.
Build Your Strength
Kettle bells: The main difference between a kettle bell and other forms of resistance training is that you only use one at a time, which offsets your center of gravity and forces your body to work extra hard at maintaining balance. That means you?re challenging all kinds of different muscle groups as well as your heart and lungs ? all with just one simple fitness accessory.
Medicine ball: Originally used during World War I as a rehabilitation tool for the elderly, the medicine ball has come a long way to develop into one of the most versatile fitness accessories available. Choose between six- and ten-pound medicine balls here at Smooth Fitness to round out your home exercise with a flexible accessory that serves multiple functions in the world of strength training.
Smooth Fitness offers a variety of other home fitness accessories, including balance toners, exercise mats, wrist weights, resistance tubes and more! If you want to achieve the best wellness possible for you, you?ll need a comprehensive collection of home fitness equipment, and a key component of that is fitness accessories like the ones described here. So do your health a favor this spring! New fitness accessories from Smooth Fitness might be just what your home exercise routine has been missing.
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By Steve Slater LONDON (Reuters) - British bank Barclays' investment banking division beat expectations in the first quarter, outshining the wider group's earnings drop and sending its shares to a 6-week high. Overall profits at Britain's third-largest bank were down a quarter from a year ago, it said on Wednesday, due to the costs of new Chief Executive Antony Jenkins' plan to overhaul the lender after a series of scandals involving interest rate fixing, mis-selling of products and boardroom excess. ...
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ? President Barack Obama's new strategy for fighting the nation's drug problem will include a greater emphasis on using public health tools to battle addiction and diverting non-violent drug offenders into treatment instead of prisons, under reforms scheduled to be outlined by the nation's drug czar Wednesday.
Gil Kerlikowske, director of the National Drug Control Policy, is scheduled to release Obama's 2013 blueprint for drug policy at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore.
Millions of people in the United States will become eligible in less than a year for treatment for substance abuse under the new health care overhaul.
"We know that if drug treatment is done early it is usually more effective, and it's usually less costly than longer term, because drug addiction is a progressive disease," Kerlikowske told The Associated Press in an interview ahead of Wednesday's announcement.
The strategy also includes a greater emphasis on criminal justice reforms that include drug courts and probation programs aimed at reducing incarceration rates. It also will include community-based policing programs designed to break the cycle of drug use, crime and incarceration while steering law enforcement resources to more serious offenses, according to details of the strategy released by Kerlikowske's office.
"I think the important part is that a lot of criminal justice experts and police chiefs and sheriffs ? my colleagues for many years and myself included ? recognize that with a drug problem you can't arrest your way out of the problem, and so we really need to be smart on the drug problem," Kerlikowske, a former Seattle police chief, said.
Kerlikowske will be joined by Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Tony Batts, Baltimore's policy commissioner, and Dr. Eric Strain, director of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and Research at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.
Apr. 24, 2013 ? Because it has no source of energy, a dead star -- known as a white dwarf -- will eventually cool down and fade away. But circumstantial evidence suggests that white dwarfs can still support habitable planets, says Prof. Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University's School of Physics and Astronomy.
Now Prof. Maoz and Prof. Avi Loeb, Director of Harvard University's Institute for Theory and Computation and a Sackler Professor by Special Appointment at TAU, have shown that, using advanced technology to become available within the next decade, it should be possible to detect biomarkers surrounding these planets -- including oxygen and methane -- that indicate the presence of life.
Published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, the researchers' "simulated spectrum" demonstrates that the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), set to be launched by NASA in 2018, will be capable of detecting oxygen and water in the atmosphere of an Earth-like planet orbiting a white dwarf after only a few hours of observation time -- much more easily than for an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star.
Their collaboration is made possible by the Harvard TAU Astronomy Initiative, recently endowed by Dr. Raymond and Beverly Sackler.
Faint light, clear signals
"In the quest for extraterrestrial biological signatures, the first stars we study should be white dwarfs," said Prof. Loeb. Prof. Maoz agrees, noting that if "all the conditions are right, we'll be able to detect signs of life" on planets orbiting white dwarf stars using the much-anticipated JWST.
An abundance of heavy elements already observed on the surface of white dwarfs suggest rocky planets orbit a significant fraction of them. The researchers estimate that a survey of 500 of the closest white dwarfs could spot one or more habitable planets.
The unique characteristics of white dwarfs could make these planets easier to spot than planets orbiting normal stars, the researchers have shown. Their atmospheres can be detected and analyzed when a star dims as an orbiting planet crosses in front of it. As the background starlight shines through the planet's atmosphere, elements in the atmosphere will absorb some of the starlight, leaving chemical clues of their presence -- clues that can then be detected from the JWST.
When an Earth-like planet orbits a normal star, "the difficulty lies in the extreme faintness of the signal, which is hidden in the glare of the 'parent' star," Prof. Maoz says. "The novelty of our idea is that, if the parent star is a white dwarf, whose size is comparable to that of an Earth-sized planet, that glare is greatly reduced, and we can now realistically contemplate seeing the oxygen biomarker."
In order to estimate the kind of data that the JWST will be able to see, the researchers created a "synthetic spectrum," which replicates that of an inhabited planet similar to Earth orbiting a white dwarf. They demonstrated that the telescope should be able to pick up signs of oxygen and water, if they exist on the planet.
A critical sign of life
The presence of oxygen biomarkers would be the most critical signal of the presence of life on extraterrestrial planets. Earth's atmosphere, for example, is 21 percent oxygen, and this is entirely produced by our planet's plant life as a result of photosynthesis. Without the existence of plants, an atmosphere would be entirely devoid of oxygen.
The JWST will be ideal for hunting out signs of life on extraterrestrial planets because it is designed to look into the infrared region of the light spectrum, where such biomarkers are prominent. In addition, as a space-based telescope, it will be able to analyze the atmospheres of Earth-like planets outside our solar system without weeding out the similar signatures of Earth's own atmosphere.
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Velodyne is more known for its subwoofers than it is for making headphones, but the Velodyne vTrue takes the company's expertise in deep bass in a new direction. Velodyne refers to the $399.00 (direct) vTrue as a pair of "studio headphones," although we found them to be far too leaky to be considered for serious recording applications. In every other regard, they are solid, though, so we'll review them here as simply high-end, powerful headphones. In that regard, they perform quite well?if you love gobs and gobs of boosted bass and crisp, sculpted highs. Audio purists can probably stop reading now, but if you're looking for a powerful, bass-heavy headphone pair, the vTrue is a strong option.
Design The vTrue headphones are strikingly designed, with an aluminum contour on the earcups and a brown padded leather headband and earpads. Everything from the precision-friendly headband slide adjuster to the deep blue padding over the 50mm drivers inside the earcups feels thoughtfully designed. The vTrue strikes out only on a comfort level?these headphones are bulky, and after a while, you're likely to feel some pressure on your scalp.
The audio cables are detachable, and split to connect to each earcup. One included cable has an inline remote and microphone designed for use with Apple iOS devices and all iPods 3rd-generation and up. Both cables are clothbound in deep blue and measure four feet in length.
Call clarity through the inline mic is strong enough that your call partner will understand you, and you'll understand them just fine, but it's not excellent?the mic sounds a bit muffled at times, and we're also dealing with cellular fidelity.
Also included with the vTrue: a ?-inch adapter for larger headphone jacks and a black drawstring carrying pouch.
Performance On tracks with deep, sub-bass content, like the Knife's "Silent Shout," the vTrue is able to show off a bit. Audiophiles seeking flat, accurate response should look elsewhere, as the vTrue is a bass-boosted powerhouse. At maximum volume, the vTrue sounds as if it is just about to distort, but never really reaches the breaking point?and these headphones get quite loud. At safer, more reasonable listening levels, the bass response is intense and clean.
Luckily, Velodyne has the good sense to add some serious mid-high and high frequency tweaking so the sound signature isn't a muddy, undefined mess. On Bill Callahan's "Drover," the vTrue graces his vocals with a nice treble edge which helps it stand front and center in the mix. This is important, because the boosted bass response arms the constant drumbeat with some serious low-end thunder, making it also stand out quite a bit. Without the sculpted treble, his vocals would get lost and the mix would be too focused on the low-mids and lows.
Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" benefits from the high frequency sculpting, as well?the kick drum loop has a nice punchy attack, while the sub-bass synth hits that sit beneath the loop in the mix are delivered with some serious throttle. The vocals in this dense mix stand out in the same way Callahan's do on his track?the crisp edge they get from the vTrue helps separate them from the powerful lows and mids.
Classical tracks, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," can sound a tad too tweaked and sculpted. The highs are boosted, which occasionally makes the higher register strings and brass sound a bit too bright, but the lower register strings absorb the added bass response nicely. The large drum hits at the end of track sound a bit too bass-boosted, however?almost as if they are amplified instead occurring naturally in a concert hall.
In other words, these headphones don't offer a flat response in any sense?there's tons of bass, and lots of liberties are taken with the high-mids and highs, as well. The result is something bass lovers will enjoy and purists will probably want to avoid. If you're looking for headphones in the price range with a bit less boosting in the lows, the?Sennheiser Momentum?is a solid option and less bulky, while the TDK ST750 is a powerful pair that focuses more on the high-mids and highs.?If you like big bass, but the vTrue's price tag is too high, the?Denon Urban Raver AH-D320?offers a similar sound signature for a significantly lower price. And if it's a true studio headphone pair you seek, you can spend quite a bit less and still have top quality?Sennheiser's HD 280 Pro?is an excellent flat response option. The Velodyne True offers clean, bold performance with booming low-end, and it comes with two top-notch, detachable cables?if it were less expensive, it would get a higher rating.
YA'AN, China (AP) ? Residents awoke Sunday after spending the night outdoors or in their cars in a town near the epicenter of a powerful earthquake that struck the steep hills of China's southwestern Sichuan province, leaving at least 160 people dead and more than 6,700 injured.
The earthquake Saturday morning triggered landslides and disrupted phone and power connections in mountainous Lushan county five years after a devastating quake wreaked widespread damage across the region.
The village of Longmen was hit particularly hard, with authorities saying nearly all the buildings there had been destroyed in a frightening minute-long shaking by the quake.
In nearby Ya'an town, where aftershocks were felt nearly a day after the quake, residents sat in groups outside convenience stores watching the news on television sets. Fourteen-year-old Wang Xing sat with her family on chairs by the roadside in the cool night air, a large blanket on her lap.
Wang and her relatives decided to spend the night in their cars. "We don't feel safe sleeping at home tonight," said Wang, a student. She said the quake left tears on the walls of her family's house. "It was very scary when it happened. I ran out of my bed and out of the house. I didn't even have my shoes on."
Along the main roads leading to the worst-hit county of Lushan, ambulances, fire engines and military trucks piled high with supplies waited in long lines, some turning back to try other routes when roads were impassable.
Rescuers were forced to dynamite boulders that had fallen across roads to reach Longmen and other damaged areas lying farther up the mountain valleys, state media reported.
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang arrived Saturday afternoon by helicopter in Ya'an to direct rescue efforts, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported.
"The current priority is to save lives," Li said, after visiting hospitals, tents and climbing on a pile of rubble to view the devastation, according to Xinhua.
The China Earthquake Administration said at least 160 people had died, and more than 6,700 were injured. At least 96 people were killed in Lushan, and in the jurisdiction of Ya'an, which administers Lushan, 19 people were reported missing, the administration said.
The quake ? measured by the earthquake administration at magnitude-7.0 and by the U.S. Geological Survey at 6.6 ? struck the steep hills of Lushan county shortly after 8 a.m., when many people were at home, sleeping or having breakfast.
The quake's shallow depth, less than 13 kilometers (8 miles), likely magnified the impact.
Lushan, 115 kilometers (70 miles) west of the provincial capital of Chengdu, reported the most deaths, but there was concern that casualties in neighboring Baoxing county might have been under-reported because roads were blocked and power and phone services cut off.
It rained Saturday night, slowing rescue work, with forecasts predicting more rain in the next several days. The China Meteorological Administration warned of possible landslides and other geological disasters.
Tens of thousands of people moved into tents or cars, unable to return home or too afraid to go back as aftershocks continued to jolt the region.
Lushan, where the quake struck, lies where the fertile Sichuan plain meets foothills that eventually rise to the Tibetan plateau and sits atop the Longmenshan fault.
It was along that fault line that a devastating magnitude-7.9 quake struck on May 12, 2008, leaving more than 90,000 people dead or missing and presumed dead in one of the worst natural disasters to strike China in recent decades.
"It was just like May 12," Liu Xi, a writer in Ya'an city, said via a private message on his account on the Twitter-like Weibo service. "All the home decorations fell at once, and the old house cracked."
The official Xinhua News Agency said the well-known Bifengxia panda preserve, which is near Lushan, was not affected by the quake. Dozens of pandas were moved to Bifengxia from another preserve, Wolong, after its habitat was wrecked by the 2008 quake.
As in most natural disasters, the government mobilized thousands of soldiers and others, sending excavators and other heavy machinery as well as tents, blankets and other emergency supplies. Two soldiers died after their vehicle slide off a road and rolled down a cliff, state media reported.
The Chinese Red Cross said it had deployed relief teams with supplies of food, water, medicine and rescue equipment to the disaster areas.
Aerial photos released by the military and shown on state television showed individual houses in ruins in Lushan and outlying villages flattened into rubble. The roofs of some taller buildings appeared to have slipped off, exposing the floors beneath them.
The earthquake administration said there had been at least 712 aftershocks, including two of magnitude-5.0 or higher.
"It's too dangerous," said a person with the Weibo account Chengduxinglin and with a Lushan geotag. "Even the aftershocks are scary."
While rescuers and state media rushed to the disaster scene, China's active social media users filled the information gap. They posted photos of people fleeing to streets for safety and of buildings flattened by the quake. They shared information on the availability of phone services, apparently through data services.
__
Associated Press writer Didi Tang contributed from Beijing.
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If you?re a fan of consistency, you?ve got to admire the NCAA.
Of course, if you?re a fan of student-athletes growing through their educational experience, you might want to look elsewhere.
When it comes to enforcing petty rules, the NCAA is consistently wrong.
The organization might be a $6 billion industry, but it remains committed to ensuring that students don?t make a nickel ? even when that nickel has nothing to do with athletics and everything to do with their talents in other areas.
This story appears in the print edition of The Tribune. Subscribers can read the entire story online by signing in here or in our e-Edition by clicking here.
18 April 2013Last updated at 05:20 ETBy Jason PatinkinLoliondo, Tanzania
In a remote corner of northern Tanzania, Boeing 747 planes land on a private airstrip, trucks with United Arab Emirates (UAE) number plates drive across the plains, and anyone with a cell phone receives an unlikely text message:
"Dear guest, welcome to UAE."
For centuries, the sprawling savannah in the Arusha region of the East African nation was home to the Maasai people, but these days it can feel more like Dubai, one of the states that make up the UAE.
That is because this chunk of land in Arusha's Loliondo area near the Serengeti National Park has been leased to an Emirati hunting company called the Ortello Business Corporation (OBC).
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
My son is in secondary school because of the grass from here?
End QuoteMorkelekei GumeFemale Maasai herder
Since 1992, OBC has flown in wealthy clients to shoot lions and leopards, angering nomadic Maasai cattle herders who are blocked from pastures in the hunting grounds.
Now, Tanzania's government wants to give more land to the hunters by establishing a 1,500 sq km (579 sq mile) wildlife corridor exclusively for OBC.
The plan would displace about 30,000 people and affect tens of thousands more who graze cattle there in the dry season.
The Maasai have erupted in protest, saying their livelihoods will be destroyed. More than 90% of Loliondo's Maasai depend on rearing livestock on seasonal grasses there.
"Without land we cannot live," said Naishirita Tenemeri, a mother of three.
Ms Tenemeri raises cows and goats in Loliondo to pay for food and her children's schooling.
The Maasai have a history of losing their land in Tanzania since the British moved them from the Serengeti in 1959.
The former coloniser guaranteed future land rights, but post-independence governments further restricted grazing rights and the latest proposal would remove almost 40% of Loliondo's highland prairie and forested mountains.
Ruling party cards spurned
Earlier this month, Ms Tenemeri, wrapped in a traditional red-checked blanket known as a shuka, joined 1,000 people, mostly women, under thorny acacia trees at Olorien village to protest at the plans.
Some walked for days for the chance to show their anger by publicly giving up their membership cards for Tanzania's ruling party, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM).
"If I have no land then I have no place to deliver my children," said Morkelekei Gume, as she tossed her CCM card to the ground.
"My son is in secondary school because of the grass from here.
"If they need my land they can kill me."
Continue reading the main story
The women have been so outspoken because they bear the worst of the evictions, left jobless to care for children while the men move to cities, where many find work as security guards.
They have also led the protests since local politicians, who had said they backed the campaign against the wildlife corridor, later refused to resign from the party as they had promised to do.
The women's outcry spurred the deputy secretary general of the CCM to trek all the way to Olorien, a collection of huts eight hours by four-wheel-drive from the region's main city of Arusha.
Continue reading the main story
?Start Quote
These 1,500 sq km are a crucial breeding area for wildlife, a corridor for the iconic great migration of wildebeest, and a critical water catchment area?
End QuoteKhamis KagashekiTourism minister
CCM officials then denounced the planned corridor, but the ministry of tourism, and by extension Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, stands firm.
Mr Kikwete, who will stand down at the next election, in 2015, after two terms in office, has tried for almost a decade to give more land to OBC.
During a 2009 drought, he sent national police to help OBC block herders from a vital water source metres away from the company's current hunting ground.
The Maasai say more than half of their cattle died as a result.
Isaac Mollel, the executive directive of OBC's Tanzania branch, says people are only blocked from water resources during the July to December hunting season - which coincides with the dry season.
"If there is hunting going on, it is going to be dangerous if someone comes around and grazes," he said.
Royal visitors
For John Moina, who exports cattle from Loliondo to Kenya, Mr Kikwete's message was clear.
"The government is saying OBC is better than citizens of Tanzania," he said.
But Mr Kikwete's government can earn more income in Loliondo from tourism through OBC - which has catered for English royalty like Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, and the UAE royal family - than livestock.
And Loliondo is ideal for developing tourism.
It is rich in game with few visitors, and borders the Serengeti, Kenya's Maasai Mara National Park, and the Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
Tourism Minister Khamis Kagasheki defends the evictions, saying the project will promote conservation as the Maasai are exhausting the land.
"These 1,500 sq km are a crucial breeding area for wildlife, a corridor for the iconic great migration of wildebeest, and a critical water catchment area," he said in a press release.
However, academics say the Maasai barely affect wildlife.
"I would question those who say that the Maasai create more of a threat to wildlife than the hunting OBC is doing," said Benjamin Gardner of the University of Washington, who has studied Maasai land issues for two decades.
The Maasai rarely hunt, and use the corridor's highlands to avoid wildebeest that give birth in the lowlands and can spread disease to cattle.
If Loliondo's 66,000 Maasai plus their livestock are hemmed into only 2,500 sq km, they may overstress land and wildlife.
"There is no big drought now," said Samwel Nangiria, who heads a group of Maasai non-governmental organisations called NGO Network.
"But if they get the corridor it is going to affect twice as many people as 2009."
Regardless, Mr Kagasheki has vigorously defended the government's right to appropriate the land, accusing the Maasai of living in Loliondo illegally and blaming the unrest on foreign-funded groups.
OBC too points the finger at NGOs and says it has invested in the area over the last 20 years, digging five boreholes, building classrooms and a hospital.
"The people communicating for the Maasai are not the Maasai themselves. They make sure that [there is] no clear understanding between the investors and the indigenous people of Loliondo," Mr Mollel says.
In fact, he says their current five-year concession was supposed to allow them access to the whole of the 4,000 sq km Loliondo area - so the smaller corridor is actually a concession to the Maasai.
He also says that, in the government's eyes, the Maasai do not own the land, and it will help protect a drought-prone area.
Thirteen civil society groups from across Tanzania said in a statement that the Maasai do have title deeds for the corridor and the government is "going out of its ways to deliberately mislead the public".
Maasai representatives plan to take the government to court over the corridor, but fear this may not lead to a quick resolution of the problem as a case from 2009 remains unheard.
Mr Nangiria believes there has been deliberate administrative blocking of their legal action as it is a constitutional case which requires three judges, but there is only one judge in Arusha and the other judges have yet to be sent for.
"The government should stop interfering with the judiciary," the civil society groups said in a statement.
So the women under the acacia trees may be running out of options.
"Our government is taking us from our land," said Paulina Leysa to a group of fellow protesters.
Apr. 15, 2013 ? A team led by the Austrian physicist Anton Zeilinger has now carried out an experiment with photons in which they have closed an important loophole. The researchers have thus provided the most complete experimental proof that the quantum world is in conflict with our everyday experience.
The results of this study appear this week in the journal Nature (Advance Online Publication/AOP).
When we observe an object, we make a number of intuitive assumptions, among them that the unique properties of the object have been determined prior to the observation and that these properties are independent of the state of other, distant objects. In everyday life, these assumptions are fully justified, but things are different at the quantum level. In the past 30 years, a number of experiments have shown that the behaviour of quantum particles -- such as atoms, electrons or photons -- can be in conflict with our basic intuition. However, these experiments have never delivered definite answers. Each previous experiment has left open the possibility, at least in principle, that the observed particles 'exploited' a weakness of the experimental setup.
Quantum physics is an exquisitely precise tool for understanding the world around us at a very fundamental level. At the same time, it is a basis for modern technology: semiconductors (and therefore computers), lasers, MRI scanners, and numerous other devices are based on quantum-physical effects. However, even after more than a century of intensive research, fundamental aspects of quantum theory are not yet fully understood. On a regular basis, laboratories worldwide report results that seem at odds with our everyday intuition but that can be explained within the framework of quantum theory.
On the trail of the quantum entanglement mystery
The physicists in Vienna report not a new effect, but a deep investigation into one of the most fundamental phenomena of quantum physics, known as 'entanglement.' The effect of quantum entanglement is amazing: when measuring a quantum object that has an entangled partner, the state of the one particle depends on measurements performed on the partner. Quantum theory describes entanglement as independent of any physical separation between the particles. That is, entanglement should also be observed when the two particles are sufficiently far apart from each other that, even in principle, no information can be exchanged between them (the speed of communication is fundamentally limited by the speed of light). Testing such predictions regarding the correlations between entangled quantum particles is, however, a major experimental challenge.
Towards a definitive answer
The young academics in Anton Zeilinger's group including Marissa Giustina, Alexandra Mech, Rupert Ursin, Sven Ramelow and Bernhard Wittmann, in an international collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology/NIST (USA), the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (Germany), and the Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (Germany), have now achieved an important step towards delivering definitive experimental evidence that quantum particles can indeed do things that classical physics does not allow them to do. For their experiment, the team built one of the best sources for entangled photon pairs worldwide and employed highly efficient photon detectors designed by experts at NIST. These technological advances together with a suitable measurement protocol enabled the researchers to detect entangled photons with unprecedented efficiency. In a nutshell: "Our photons can no longer duck out of being measured," says Zeilinger.
This kind of tight monitoring is important as it closes an important loophole. In previous experiments on photons, there has always been the possibility that although the measured photons do violate the laws of classical physics, such non-classical behaviour would not have been observed if all photons involved in the experiment could have been measured. In the new experiment, this loophole is now closed. "Perhaps the greatest weakness of photons as a platform for quantum experiments is their vulnerability to loss -- but we have just demonstrated that this weakness need not be prohibitive," explains Marissa Giustina, lead author of the paper.
Now one last step
Although the new experiment makes photons the first quantum particles for which, in several separate experiments, every possible loophole has been closed, the grand finale is yet to come, namely, a single experiment in which the photons are deprived of all possibilities of displaying their counterintuitive behaviour through means of classical physics. Such an experiment would also be of fundamental significance for an important practical application: 'quantum cryptography,' which relies on quantum mechanical principles and is considered to be absolutely secure against eavesdropping. Eavesdropping is still theoretically possible, however, as long as there are loopholes. Only when all of these are closed is a completely secure exchange of messages possible.
An experiment without any loopholes, says Zeilinger, "is a big challenge, which attracts groups worldwide." These experiments are not limited to photons, but also involve atoms, electrons, and other systems that display quantum mechanical behaviour. The experiment of the Austrian physicists highlights the photons' potential. Thanks to these latest advances, the photon is running out of places to hide, and quantum physicists are closer than ever to conclusive experimental proof that quantum physics defies our intuition and everyday experience to the degree suggested by research of the past decades.
This work was completed in a collaboration including the following institutions: Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information -- Vienna / IQOQI Vienna (Austrian Academy of Sciences), Quantum Optics, Quantum Nanophysics and Quantum Information, Department of Physics (University of Vienna), Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics, National Institute of Standards and Technology / NIST, Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Berlin.
This work was supported by: ERC (Advanced Grant), Austrian Science Fund (FWF), grant Q-ESSENCE, Marie Curie Research Training Network EMALI, and John Templeton Foundation. This work was also supported by NIST Quantum Information Science Initiative (QISI).
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Vienna.
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Journal Reference:
Marissa Giustina, Alexandra Mech, Sven Ramelow, Bernhard Wittmann, Johannes Kofler, J?rn Beyer, Adriana Lita, Brice Calkins, Thomas Gerrits, Sae Woo Nam, Rupert Ursin, Anton Zeilinger. Bell violation using entangled photons without the fair-sampling assumption. Nature, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nature12012
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BALI, Indonesia (AP) ? Indonesian investigators on Sunday began working to determine what caused a new Lion Air passenger jet to miss a runway while landing on the resort island of Bali, crashing into the sea without causing any fatalities among the 108 on board.
The National Transportation Safety Committee is examining the wreckage of the Boeing 737-800 that snapped in half before coming to a stop in shallow water near Bali's airport on Saturday, said Transportation Ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan.
He said aviation authorities had already removed the plane's flight data recorder and were planning to tow the aircraft to a beach. Divers were searching for the cockpit voice recorder located in the tail. Experts are examining what could have caused the crash, including whether wind shear may have played a role.
The crash marked Lion Air's sixth accident in 11 years, and has renewed questions about how safe it is to fly in Indonesia. The country has struggled to clean up its poor air safety record while improving oversight.
All 101 passengers and seven crew members were safely evacuated from the budget carrier's flight, which came from Bandung, the capital of West Java province. Some swam from the wreckage, while others were plucked from the water by rescuers in rubber boats. Dozens suffered injuries, but most had been released from local hospitals by Sunday.
"I couldn't wait to land in Bali when the cabin suddenly turned dark. I heard a sound like an explosion and water was coming in," recalled Irawati, a 60-year-old woman who uses one name, like many Indonesians.
"I heard people shouting frantically: 'The plane crashed! Get out! Get out!' I did not even have the energy to move my body," she said. "I was so weak and frightened, and I was asking a flight attendant for help before I passed out."
Irawati told The Associated Press from her hospital bed that when she regained consciousness, the pilot and co-pilot were putting a life jacket on her and helping her down a rubber ladder. She was then pulled onto a surfboard by rescuers. She suffered neck injuries.
Another survivor, Andi Prasetyo, said there was no warning of any problem.
"The cabin crew had already announced that we would be landing shortly, and I was so excited when I saw the ocean getting closer, but suddenly ... it fell," he said. "I can't believe that the plane actually landed on the sea, and everything changed to dark. It was full of horrific screaming. None of us remembered about the life jackets under our seats. Everybody rushed to get out of the plane."
Officials said there were three foreigners on board ? two Singaporeans and a French national ? all of whom suffered slight injuries.
Lion Air spokesman Edward Sirait said the plane crashed about 50 meters (164 feet) ahead of the runway. The weather was cloudy with rain at the time of the incident.
He said the Boeing 737-800 Next Generation plane was received by the airline last month and was declared airworthy. The plane had landed in two other cities on Saturday prior to the crash.
Given that the aircraft was new, Sydney-based aviation expert Tom Ballantyne said a technical or mechanical problem would seem unlikely. He said it was fortunate that the plane landed flat in shallow water rather than nose-diving or hitting deep water, where it could have quickly been submerged.
"I'm surprised. The airplane split in two upon impact," he said, estimating it was likely traveling close to 300 miles (483 kilometers) per hour.
"It was coming into land and hit the water very hard. It's a miracle nobody was killed," Ballantyne said.
It was unclear whether human error may have played a role in the accident, and Sirait said the pilot was experienced, logging 10,000 flying hours. However, Indonesian aviation analyst Ruth Simatupang, a former investigator at the National Safety Transportation Committee, suspects some sort of miscalculation involving the landing.
"Something was obviously wrong with the pilot, and wind shear is a possibility that could lead to an unstable approach," she said. Sudden changes in wind speed or direction can lift or smash aircraft into the ground during landing.
The pilot and co-pilot will be grounded for two weeks for tests to ensure they were healthy during the flight and for questioning by investigators. They also have undergone alcohol and drug testing, and the preliminary results were negative, Herry Bakti Gumay, a Transportation Ministry official, told a news conference Sunday. In the past two years, three pilots, one co-pilot and a flight attendant from Lion Air have been arrested for illicit drug use.
The airline said it planned to suck the remaining fuel from the undamaged tanks in the plane's wings before towing it at high tide to avoid destroying the area's coral reefs. Bali is one of Asia's most popular destinations, drawing millions of vacationers with its world-class surf and beautiful beaches.
Rapidly expanding Lion Air is Indonesia's top discount carrier, holding about a 45 percent market share in the country, a sprawling archipelago of 240 million people that's seeing a boom in both economic growth and air travel. The airline has been involved in six accidents since 2002, four of them involving Boeing 737s and one resulting in 25 deaths, according to the Aviation Safety Network's website.
Lion Air is currently banned from flying to Europe due to broader safety lapses in the Indonesian airline industry that have long plagued the country. Last year, a Russian-made Sukhoi Superjet-100 slammed into a volcano during a demonstration flight, killing all 45 people on board.
Indonesia is one of Asia's most rapidly expanding airline markets, but is struggling to provide qualified pilots, mechanics, air traffic controllers and updated airport technology to ensure safety.
Lion Air, a private company which started flying in 2000, signed a $24 billion deal last month to buy 234 Airbus planes, the biggest order ever for the French aircraft maker. It also gave Boeing its largest-ever order when it finalized a deal for 230 planes last year. The aircraft will be delivered from 2014 to 2026 as the airline positions itself to take on AirAsia, which dominates budget travel in the region.
___
Karmini reported from Jakarta, Indonesia. Associated Press writer Margie Mason contributed to this report from Jakarta.
BEIJING (AP) ? A 7-year-old girl has become Beijing's first confirmed case of a new strain of the bird flu virus that has killed 11 people and sickened 37 others in eastern China, officials said Saturday.
The girl, whose parents are in the live poultry trade, was admitted to a hospital Thursday with symptoms of fever, sore throat, coughing and headache, the Beijing Health Bureau said. She was confirmed to be infected with the H7N9 virus on Saturday after tests by disease control and prevention centers, the bureau said.
The case in China's capital is the first one reported outside eastern China, where the virus was first spotted in late March, prompting massive slaughtering of live fowl and bans on the poultry trade in several cities, including the financial hub of Shanghai. Shanghai, the center of the outbreak, has reported 21 cases, including seven fatalities. One person was discharged after recovering, the local government has said.
The Beijing Health Bureau said the girl was recovering in a hospital and was in stable condition.
Shanghai authorities said Saturday that a 56-year-old man, the husband of a woman hospitalized with the virus earlier this month, became the city's latest case after testing positive for H7N9, but that it was inconclusive as to whether he had been infected by his wife.
Health officials believe people are contracting the H7N9 virus through direct contact with infected fowl and say there is no evidence the virus is spreading easily among people.
Neighboring Jiangsu province on Saturday confirmed two more cases ? a 77-year-old woman and a 72-year-old man, both in critical condition. The province has reported 14 cases, including one fatality.
Zhejiang province has reported 11 cases, including two reported Saturday by state media, and Anhui province has had two.
China has been more open in its response to the new virus than it was a decade ago with an outbreak of SARS, when authorities were highly criticized for not releasing information.
Astronauts' stays on the International Space Station generally last for around 6 months or more, so it makes sense that they'd start getting hit with a little nostalgia for the motherland they're so casually encircling. How nostalgic, you ask? Very: 1,129,177 photos worth, to be exact. Rocket scientist Nathan Bergey had the ingenious idea to turn these ISS snapshots into the ultimate space scrapbook—by plotting the coordinates of every single image taken from space. More »
LONDON (AP) ? Foreign ministers from the G-8 nations on Thursday condemned North Korea's aggressive rhetoric and the development of its nuclear missile programs, saying that Pyongyang's recent actions threaten international security.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague told a press conference that if North Korea conducts another missile launch or nuclear test, the G-8 ministers have "committed ourselves" to take further "significant measures" ? such as asking for more sanctions at the United Nations Security Council.
His remarks came just hours after North Korea delivered a fresh burst of rhetoric with claims it had "powerful striking means" on standby amid speculation that it is preparing to test a medium-range missile during an upcoming national celebration in the country.
In a communique following a meeting in London, the G-8 foreign ministers said Pyongyang's "current aggressive rhetoric" will only isolate North Korea. They urged North Korea to refrain from "further provocative acts" and engage in credible talks on abandoning all existing nuclear programs.
"G-8 foreign ministers condemned in the strongest possible terms the continued development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs by the Democratic People's Republic of Korea," the communique stated.
North Korea's decisions to launch a long-range rocket in December and conduct an underground nuclear test in February "seriously undermine regional stability, jeopardize the prospects for lasting peace on the Korean Peninsula and threaten international peace and security," the communique said.
The statement added that ministers are concerned about Pyongyang's plans to re-open its Nyongbyon nuclear facility.
Germany's foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, said North Korea's provocations are escalating a tense situation.
"This war rhetoric is not in any way acceptable and the G-8 has a united position on this," he said on the sidelines of the meeting.
The two-day talks among eight world powers focused on North Korea and the civil war in Syria. They also got some celebrity wattage from an appearance by Angelina Jolie, a U.N. special envoy for refugees who has teamed up with Hague to campaign for an end to sexual violence in war.
Hague ? flanked by Jolie and the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, Zainab Bangura ? announced that G-8 ministers pledged $36 million in additional funding to fight sexual violence in conflict.
Calling the issue "the slave trade of our generation," Hague said the ministers also agreed to declare that rape and serious sexual violence in conflict constitute war crimes and grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
Jolie welcomed the "long overdue stand" on sexual violence, saying that the international political will to combat sexual violence has been "sorely lacking."
Sexual violence has been used as a weapon in several conflicts, including the civil war in Syria, the Bosnian war, and during fighting in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On Syria, where the U.N. estimates that a two-year civil war has killed more than 70,000 people, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Syrian opposition leaders in London on Wednesday to discuss ways to step up nonlethal aid to rebels fighting against President Bashar Assad.
But there was no mention of assisting the rebels in Thursday's G-8 statement, reflecting divided opinion among the nations ? the U.S., U.K., France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia ? on how to address the Syria conflict.
The watered-down language in particular could reflect the position of Russia, which has consistently opposed actions that would increase pressure on Assad.
The communique said ministers are "appalled" at the deaths in Syria and the fact that the war has forced more than a million people to flee to neighboring countries. The ministers "reaffirmed their commitment" to supporting a political transition in Syria and condemned the ongoing use of heavy weapons against residential areas.
"The humanitarian situation in Syria is deplorable and continues to worsen," the communique said, urging greater humanitarian assistance and improved access to the Syrian people.
Hague offered slightly stronger language than the communique in a press conference after the talks, saying the Assad regime has shown a "flagrant disregard" for human rights and life.
"The world has failed" Syria so far, and "it continues to do so," he told reporters.
Britain and France have been pushing for the European Union to lift or amend its arms embargo on Syria, which prohibits any weapons from being sent to the Arab state.
The embargo requires a unanimous agreement by EU countries, and it will either be renewed or allowed to expire at the end of May. Hague said earlier this week that no decisions have been made on whether the U.K. will allow it to expire.
An expiration would effectively clear the way for Britain ? or any nation ? to make its own decision about whether to arm rebels.
On Thursday, Hague reiterated that if the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate, there will be a "strong case" for amending or lifting the arms embargo.
___
AP reporter Martin Benedyk contributed to this report from London.
Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd
