Female reporter is allowed to enter masters locker room

A female columnist said she was denied access to interview in the players locker room Sunday. A Masters spokesman said it was a misunderstanding and that the locker room is open to female journalists.

Tara Sullivan, columnist veterinary syringes for the Bergen Record of New Jersey, said on Twitter: "Bad enough no women members at Augusta. But not allowing me to join writers in locker room interview is just wrong."

Steve Ethun, director of communications for the Masters, issued an apology.

"It was a complete misunderstanding by a security guard," Ethun said. "Our policies fall in line with all of those of major sporting events in that she should have been rightfully allowed access to our locker room. … That was a misunderstanding by that particular security guard. … We offer our apology. It should not have happened, and that's not our policy whatsoever."

Ethun was asked if the fact that Augusta National Golf Club has no female members was a factor in the "misunderstanding?"

"Only our chairman (Billy Payne) can talk about membership issues," Ethun said.

Melanie Hauser, a woman covering her 28th Masters (currently for Coach Bags pgatour.com), said the locker room has been open to female journalists since 1985. She said the access was gained with support from the Golf Writers Association of America.

"I can tell you've I've been in that locker room a number of times," Hauser said. "I've stood there with Greg Norman many times."

Added Ethun: "When you hire this many people, miscommunication does take place. While we do our best to control all of our communications with the right amount of training, this specific person bridge rectifier misunderstood our policy. … It shouldn't have happened."

Iowa tornadoes destroyed about 100 homes. After reeling

A tornado a quarter-mile wide flattened a grain elevator and destroyed homes and buildings on Saturday in the small western Iowa town of Mapleton.

The tornado damaged more stainless steel pipe than half of Mapleton, a town of 1,200 in western Iowa, Mayor Fred Standa said yesterday. He estimated that 20 percent of the town was razed, but no serious injuries were reported.

Many of the huge, centuries-old trees that the town was named for were pulled from the ground and wrapped around houses and tossed atop cars, Standa said. A huge motor home flipped on its side.

The tornado destroyed 12 to 15 blocks in the southwest corner of Mapleton when it struck about 7:20 p.m. on Saturday, Monona County Sheriff Jeff Pratt said.

About a hundred homes were destroyed and 500 to 600 residents displaced, he said.

The tornado was on the ground for 3 1/2 miles and measured electronic ballast three-quarters of a mile wide at one point, according to the National Weather Service office in Valley, Neb.

The twister was measured to be on the lower end of an EF3, which carries wind speeds of 136 to 165 miles per hour.

The twister was one of several reported in Iowa.

The National Weather Service said it was assessing damage in Sac, Pocahontas, and Kossuth counties yesterday after unconfirmed reports of tornadoes there as well.

In Mapleton, the roof was blown off a high school, power impact crusher lines were downed, and gas fumes filled the town after utilities were damaged, prompting officials to shut off service. Pratt said gas service will remain off for the next two weeks, but electricity should be restored in the next day or so.

Governor Terry Branstad issued an emergency proclamation covering Mapleton and surrounding Monona County on Saturday so the state could spend money to respond to the storm, his office said. He toured Mapleton on yesterday afternoon.

The smell of natural gas hung thick in the air yesterday as forklifts and pickup trucks hauled debris down streets lined with fallen trees.

Tamara Adams, 37, piled branches on the curb, next to the 30-foot-tall tree that rested on top of her house. She said she closed her outside basement door just as the tornado tore the roof off a store that sits diagonally from her house.

“That sound,’’ she said. “I’ll never get it out of my head. It had a life. You could hear cold room it breathing and growling.’’

Terry Siebersma, who runs a liquor store with his wife, was in his shop when he heard the tornado sirens and saw the sky turn green. Siebersma, 53, said he rushed to the basement. Upstairs, he heard autoclave bottles breaking.

He emerged several minutes later, walked to a back storage room and discovered the roof missing and one wall on the verge of collapse

Monta Ellis hurt as Warriors lose to Kings

The Warriors' drive toward a feel-good ending to this season took a nasty hit Sunday.

Guard Monta Ellis' head slammed against the hardwood with exercise bike less than a minute left as the Warriors fell 104-103 to the Sacramento Kings at Oracle (ORCL) Arena.

Ellis will not travel with the team for Monday night's game at Denver. As the rest of the Warriors headed for the airport, he was on his way to a hospital for further examination.

Ellis was driving to the basket with 58.9 seconds left when he was undercut by big man DeMarcus Cousins, who was trying to take a charge. Ellis remained down for a few moments. When he tried to get up, he staggered and had to be supported as he stood. He eventually was helped off the court and checked out without taking his free throws.

"You could tell by the look in his eyes he had no idea where he was at," Warriors forward David Lee said after totaling 24 points and 14 rebounds. "He was trying to go to the free-throw line to shoot free throws and kind of walked toward the fans for a second. I was like, 'Come on, trainer. Get out here.' "... You've got to be careful with those kinds of things because that's not like a twisted ankle or something. It can be real serious."

Ellis, who was nursing a tender ankle to begin with, finished with seven points on 2-for-9 shooting
with four assists in 26 minutes. It appeared as if coach Keith Smart was going to sit Ellis the rest of the autoclave night after he took him out with 3:36 left in the third quarter. But Smart put his best player back in with 3:19 left after the Kings took a 97-93 lead on a 3-pointer by guard Tyreke Evans and a fast-break layup by guard Marcus Thornton.

Ellis immediately nailed a jumper, and point guard Stephen Curry cut Sacramento's lead to 98-97 with a 15-footer with 2:30 left.

But that's as close as the Warriors would get.

The Warriors entered the game on a three-game roll over playoff-bound teams -- the Dallas Mavericks, the Portland Trail Blazers and the Los Angeles Lakers -- before suffering this disappointing loss axial fan against one of the worst teams in the league.

With two games left, Monday night at Denver and Wednesday against Portland, the Warriors still can reach the 36-win plateau, which would mark a 10-game improvement over last season. But what could have been looms too large for some to overlook.

"Our goal in training camp was to get to the playoffs," said forward Dorell Wright, who had 19 points and a career-high six steals while playing all 48 minutes. "When you fall short of that, it's never something you're proud of. We've improved. We definitely did that. We're a young team. We're still growing. But our ultimate goal in training camp was playoffs."

Another school of thought exists, however. The Warriors had significant roster overhaul, including two new starters. Their key offseason acquisition, Lee, was acclimating to a new position in a new system. The coaching staff was basically cone crusher put together the day before training camp.

Still, the Warriors made strides on the court together and moved closer to becoming a playoff team. They are hoping to have at least a 10-win improvement to show for it.

"I would say anywhere else other than here would say it's a good season," Smart said. "It's not what we want. But I think I've done everything I can possibly do. "... We know the ultimate success is getting this team to the playoffs."

Microsoft future Windows phone 7 development of host

Its smartphone software has only a sliver of the market, after the company redesigned it from the ground up and gave it a new name, Windows Phone 7. Still, many are watching and waiting after Nokia, the world's largest phone maker, said it plans to make Windows Phone 7 its primary smartphone platform.


This week, Microsoft will try to get developers off the electronic ballast fence to make more applications for Windows Phone 7.


At Mix 2011, a Web and Windows Phone app development conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft plans to hold workshops on building apps for Windows Phone 7. Boot-camp sessions begin Monday, and Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president with Microsoft's mobile business, is expected to give a keynote speech on Wednesday.


Microsoft frustrated users recently when it fumbled a software update to Windows Phones that was supposed to add copy-and-paste and other performance enhancing features to speed phone performance. Belfiore said on Microsoft's website, "We are sorry the process has been rocky."


"They need to show that they are emphasizing quality in the platform" at Mix after the update problems, said Rob Sanfilippo, research vice president at Directions on Microsoft, an independent analyst firm in Kirkland. "Then the secondary thing will be what are the new features coming this year?"


At Mobile World Congress in February in Barcelona, Spain, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer announced several new features that will be coming to Windows Phone 7 this year: Twitter integration with the phone's address book, multi-tasking and Internet Explorer 9. He also showed an experimental project showing an Xbox Kinect game that a second player could stainless steel pipe control with a Windows Phone 7.


The company will likely give a progress report this week on when those features will be arriving and how developers can start building them into phone applications.


The Mix conference used to focus more narrowly on Web development, but it has grown to include Windows Phone 7 app development. The conference drew about 1,000 people in 2010. On Tuesday, Microsoft Corporate Vice President Dean Hachamovitch is scheduled to talk about progress with Microsoft's newly introduced Web browser, Internet Explorer 9.


Microsoft will hold workshops on designing websites in HTML5, cloud computing on Windows Azure, development of its video and animation software Silverlight and mobile software.


Microsoft said it now has 11,500 apps available for Windows Phone 7. The company also dropped hints in a blog post that its competitors double count apps published in different languages and "lite" apps such as wallpaper. Apple boasts 350,000 apps on iTunes. Google says the Android marketplace has more than 150,000 free and paid apps.


Phone sales have not added up to a blockbuster, but bridge rectifier observers say progress has been decent for a new entrant. Microsoft said at the end of January that phone manufacturers bought 2 million software licenses for Windows Phone 7. Microsoft has not given numbers on how many customers have bought phones with the software installed on it.
Google said its Android platform is growing by 300,000 phones a day, and analysts expect Android to become the dominant smartphone platform this year.


Microsoft had 5 percent of the mobile-smartphone market share in 2010, according to research firm IDC in Framingham, Mass., and is expected to grow to 5.5 percent in 2011.


Symbian, Nokia's operating system, had the largest share with 37 percent in 2010 but it's expected to fall to 21 percent this year. Android, which had 23 percent share in 2010, is expected to grow to 40 percent. Research In Motion's Blackberry, which had 16 percent in 2010, is projected to fall slightly to 15 percent. Apple iPhone's iOS, with 16 percent share in 2010, is expected to stay level in 2011.


Research firm Gartner in Stamford, Conn., Coach Bags released similar projections for Microsoft and Android growth on Thursday, but predicted iPhone would grow by a few percentage points.


Will Stofega, IDC analyst, said what could change everything is the Microsoft-Nokia partnership announced in February, an arrangement that has yet to be completed and which hasn't produced phones people can buy. While Nokia's smartphones are not as popular in the U.S., the Finnish phone maker has immense market share in the rest of the world.


"What everybody is waiting for is still the big bang," Stofega said. He thinks Microsoft could move into second place behind Android in 2015 if the partnership comes out the way the companies say it will.


Neither company has said when Nokia would begin selling Windows Phone 7 units. Stofega says he expects large numbers of those sales to start in the first half of 2012.


"We'll have a better understanding of what's happening toward the end of the year," he said. "It's going to take them quite some time to sort out what they need to sort out, get everyone on the same page and optimize the veterinary syringes design, but we know they're really, really racing to sort of put together the complete package."

New Book on Google Shows Gaffes in China

When Google opened for business in China in 2006, Eric E. Schmidt, its chief executive, said, “Google has 5,000 years of patience in China.” Coach Bags but its divorce from the country just four years later was inevitable because operations there were troubled from the start.

That is the conclusion of Steven Levy, a longtime technology journalist who spent three years reporting inside the company to write “In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works and Shapes Our Lives.” The New York Times obtained a copy of the book, which arrives in stores April 12.

The book, a wide-ranging history of the company from start-up to behemoth, sheds light on the biggest threats Google faces today, from the Chinese government to Facebook and privacy critics.

Though Google, which declined to comment for this article, bridge rectifier left China after accusing government officials of breaking into company computers and activists’ Gmail accounts, a long sequence of problems led to that decision.

There were missteps from the start. When the Google founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, visited China in 2004, they needed coaching on how to behave, Mr. Levy writes. On a visit to India, they had been compared to college backpackers, riding in rickshaws. Al Gore, the former vice president, had to warn them that they were politically na?ve and that the Chinese would think they were arrogant if they acted like that in China.

Many Chinese Internet users preferred the search engine Baidu out of patriotism, and the government even redirected traffic from Google to Baidu, according to Mr. Levy. Google never figured out how to manage business customs in China. It fired the head of government relations in China after she gave iPods to Chinese officials, which she charged to her Google expense account.

Google itself made it hard for its workers in China to succeed, Mr. Levy writes. It refused to grant the money to advertise in China, and the founders never visited the country once Google opened an office.

But one problem was bigger than all the rest, according to the book. Though Google prides itself on giving engineers access to its code base to invent new products, it blocked the engineers in China because it said government seamless steel pipe officials might force them to reveal private information. Experienced engineers, who felt distrusted, could not work on new products and had to spend time on tasks like testing Google searches, something that less-qualified people do at other Google offices.

A year before Google discovered the break-in that spurred it to leave the country, a group of executives, led by Andrew McLaughlin, the former head of public policy, and David C. Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer, began pushing for Google’s departure.

Other battles that Google is fighting today, against Facebook and critics of its privacy policies, also had their roots years ago.

Mr. Schmidt, Google’s outspoken chief who will be replaced by Mr. Page on Monday, has made public gaffes when speaking about privacy. Mr. Levy reveals that he has made gaffes inside the company, too. Mr. Schmidt asked that Google remove from the search engine information about a political donation he had made. Sheryl Sandberg, a Google executive who is now Facebook’s chief operating officer, told him electronic ballast that was unacceptable.

The fight against Facebook began in earnest last year, when Urs H?lzle, the company’s first engineering vice president, wrote a memo, which insiders called the Urs-Quake, warning that Google was behind in social networking and needed to recruit people to work on it immediately.

They named the project Emerald Sea and recreated an 1878 painting by that name in front of the elevators where they worked, according to the book. It showed an enormous wave knocking over a ship. That ship could be Google, it warned — the company would either sail on the social networking wave or drown in it.
In an interview, Mr. Levy attributed Google’s social networking failures to its inability to play catch-up with a competitor.

“They’re supernervous about Facebook,” he said. “Google’s not strong in the rear view cone crusher mirror. Google’s strong when they’re looking out their windshield.”

The eu to Microsoft Google filed antitrust litigation fire

Microsoft is filing a formal complaint with the European Commission, insisting that arch-rival Google’s competitive practices unfairly dominate the European search market.

“We’re concerned by a broadening pattern of conduct aimed at stopping anyone else from creating a competitive stainless steel pipe alternative,” Brad Smith, Microsoft’s senior vice president and general counsel, wrote in a March 30 statement posted on the Microsoft on the Issues blog. “We’ve therefore decided to join a large and growing number of companies registering their concerns about the European search market.”

Smith then unleashes a litany of complaints against Google: that the company restricts other search engines from properly cataloging YouTube videos in search results, that it prevents those YouTube videos from running well on Windows Phones, that it blocks access to book publishers’ content, that it restricts advertisers’ access to their own data.

“Advertising revenue is the economic propellant fueling the billions of dollars needed for ongoing search investments,” he wrote. “By reducing competitors’ ability to attract advertising revenue, this restriction strikes at the heart of a competitive market.”

Microsoft also claims that Google “contractually blocks leading Websites in Europe from bridge rectifier distributing competing search boxes,” and that it “discriminates” against competitors by ratcheting up the price for prominent placement in Google advertisements.

This represents Microsoft’s first-ever antitrust filing with the European Commission. It comes as something of an irony, considering how that same regulatory body pursued Microsoft for years over the supposed anti-competitive practices related to Internet Explorer. Under pressure, Microsoft eventually released a “Web browser choice screen” designed to give Windows users in the European Union a selection of browsers other than IE.

Google already had a response to Microsoft’s filing.?

“We’re not surprised that Microsoft has done this, since one of their subsidiaries was one of the original complainants,” a Google spokesperson wrote in a March 31 email to eWEEK. “For our part, we continue to discuss the case with the European Commission and we’re happy to explain to anyone how our business works.”

By “one of their subsidiaries,” the spokesperson is referring to Ciao! from Bing, an online-community portal aimed at a handful of Western European markets. In February 2010, the European Commission notified Google that Ciao, Coach Bags along with U.K. price-comparison Website Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr, had filed complaints about Google’s effect on European search-engine competition. Foundem is a member of ICOMP, a lobbying group sponsored by Microsoft.???

Opposition hopes to get the information who famously Libyan fled

A member of the rebels fighting forces loyal to Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says members of the Transitional Council have begun efforts to gain “strategic” information from defecting Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa in their objective to axial fan force the embattled leader from power.

Awad Juma says recent defections are, in his words, the beginning of the end of Gadhafi’s over four-decade year rule.

“I don’t think a foreign minister defecting [from] his government is insignificant. The guy [Moussa Koussa] has got a lot of information to tell; he’s got information about [the 1988 Pan Am] Lockerbie bombing. He was [the] hand to carry out a lot of dirty jobs for Gadhafi. So, saying it is not significant, I think Gadhafi is playing down the loss as if it’s not important,” Juma said.

“They [Transitional Council] are already trying to get in touch with him [Moussa Koussa]. But, he is watching his steps carefully because he didn’t declare that he is joining the rebels yet. I don’t know if he wants some guarantees,” he added.

Juma says the defections are growing signs of weakness of the Gadhafi administration despite its sharp denial that the defections have had no effect on the ongoing crisis.

“There is Ali Treki [who] refused appointment to replace the representative to the United Nations. He declared his resignation from Gadhafi’s regime. And, this is another beginning of his fall because they have been with cone crusher him for 42 years,” Juma said.

“We know that Gadhafi is holding the whole cabinet at gunpoint in his barracks with their families. Even if one of them goes on a mission, he goes by himself, while his family is held at gunpoint until they come back. This sounds like fiction, but this is what Gadhafi does,” he added.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has repeated his strong opposition to putting any American forces in Libya.



Gates insisted Thursday there will be no U.S. military boots on the ground “as long as I am in this job.”?He spoke as U.S. media reported that the Central Intelligence Agency has small teams working with anti-government rebels in the North African country,



Reports say the teams were sent to gather intelligence and make contact with opposition forces.?Gates said he could not “speak for the CIA” about its role.?He acknowledged the United States has information only “on a handful of [the] rebels” trying to topple Gadhafi.
Gates told a U.S. congressional hearing that political and economic pressures will eventually drive Gadhafi from power. He says the NATO-led operation now under way can degrade the Libyan leader's electronic ballast military capacity, but that Gadhafi's removal will happen only over time and by his own people.

Standards Set for Joint Ventures to Improve Health Care

The Obama administration proposed long-awaited regulations on Thursday encouraging doctors and hospitals to band together, coordinate care and cut costs.

In return, Coach Bags the government offered financial rewards to health care providers that slow spending growth and meet detailed federal standards for the quality of their services.

The proposed rules explain how doctors, hospitals, nursing homes and home health agencies can qualify for federal bonus payments by forming joint ventures known as accountable care organizations.

Proponents — Democrats and some Republicans — see these entities as a potential boon to patients, a way to transform a health care system that is notoriously fragmented.

Federal officials predicted that 1.5 million to 4 million of the 47 million Medicare beneficiaries would be involved in the program, with the creation of 75 to 150 accountable care organizations.

“These organizations will increase coordination among doctors and hospitals, improve the quality of care and help lower costs,” said Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services. Better care can cost less, she asserted, because diagnostic tests are not duplicated and fewer patients are readmitted to hospitals.

Until now, accountable care organizations were like unicorns, creatures that flourished in the bridge rectifier imagination but proved persistently elusive in the natural world. The rules define the new entity as a team of doctors, hospitals and other providers that “work together to manage and coordinate care” for people in the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program.

The new entities are specifically authorized for Medicare patients under the health overhaul that President Obama signed in March last year. However, federal officials and health care executives said the standards would also guide similar efforts in the private sector, for people with commercial insurance.

The new law has already set off a wave of mergers, joint ventures and alliances in the health care industry, as providers try to position themselves to cash in on the new incentives.

Officials from the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission said Thursday that they would relax enforcement of antitrust laws to promote collaboration by doctors and hospitals that could show seamless steel pipe how consumers would benefit.

In a joint statement on enforcement policy, the two agencies acknowledged that, “under certain conditions, accountable care organizations could reduce competition and harm consumers through higher prices or lower quality of care” — a fear expressed by some consumer advocates as well.

To minimize this risk, the antitrust agencies said they would closely review any proposed accountable care organization that would have more than 50 percent of the local market for any service.

In an interview, Jon Leibowitz, the chairman of the trade commission, said that doctor-hospital collaborations would be subject to “a relaxed form of antitrust scrutiny” if they met Medicare’s standards for clinical cooperation.

Melinda R. Hatton, senior vice president and general counsel of the American Hospital Association, said her electronic ballast group was disappointed with the joint statement. “The antitrust laws still appear to be a barrier to clinical integration among health care providers who try to coordinate services for patients,” Ms. Hatton said.

Doctors and hospitals would have to inform Medicare beneficiaries if they were going participate in an accountable care organization. And they would have to tell patients that the providers might profit from the arrangement.

Dr. Donald M. Berwick, administrator of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said the new entities would not restrict the ability of patients to choose their doctors and hospitals.

“Medicare beneficiaries retain all the rights they have to see any Medicare provider they wish,” Dr. Berwick said. “There’s no loss of choice at all.”

Nora Super, a lobbyist for AARP, the organization for older Americans, said it was good that patients would be informed. But she said, “We are concerned that the draft regulation may not provide patients with timely information, leading some to learn about an A.C.O. only after arriving at a doctor’s office.”

Medicare beneficiaries can opt out, but may pay a price. If a beneficiary’s doctor becomes part of an accountable care organization and the patient does not wish to receive care coordinated by the new entity, the beneficiary can go to a different doctor, the rules say.

Medicare will distribute 50 percent to 60 percent of its savings to hospitals and doctors who meet its quality standards and hold costs below benchmarks set by the government.

Federal health officials predicted that the government impact crusher would pay $800 million in such shared savings to providers in the next three years. Even after these payments, they said, Medicare would save $510 million, and its savings could be as much as $960 million over three years.

Under the proposed rules, each accountable care organization must agree to take responsibility for at least 5,000 Medicare beneficiaries. The government could cancel its contract with any organization that stints on care or tries to save money by avoiding high-risk, high-cost patients.

Is there proof the dyes are safe?

Although there is no clear indication that artificial food dyes cause hyperactivity or other behavioral problems in children, enough uncertainty exists to justify more research, an cold room advisory panel told the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.



The panel of medical and environmental experts narrowly voted against recommending that more information about dyes be added to food labels. But panelists acknowledged the chemicals can cause problems for some children, including those who already have hyperactivity disorders.



The FDA had asked the panel whether existing research supported the agency's conclusion that there is no proof food coloring causes hyperactivity among children in the general population.



Critics said the FDA asked the wrong question.



"The question they should have asked is, 'Is there proof the dyes are safe?'" said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a public advocacy group that petitioned the FDA to ban the dyes.



Examples of foods with artificial coloring include Jell-O, Skittles, M&M's, Mountain Dew and Fruit Loops, the center said.



"I'm skeptical that FDA will take any action," Jacobson said after the advisory impact crusher panel acted. "It's probably settled for some number of years."



The FDA is not required to follow the advice of its advisory panels, but it usually does so.



The panelists, meeting in suburban Washington, wrestled with murky data, much of it old, and with the difficulty of gauging the accuracy of research that tried to measure sometimes subtle changes in children's behavior based on observations of parents and other adults.



"It's not like measuring blood pressure," said panelist Lisa Lefferts, an environmental health consultant.



Still, she said, even studies that fall short of conclusive proof don't exonerate the chemicals. "There's something going on," Lefferts said. "Parents know that. But it's hard to measure."



Lefferts supported bolstering food labels, which failed on an 8-6 vote.



All but three of the 14 panelists agreed that a causal relationship between dyes and hyperactivity has not been established. All but one voted to recommend more studies on the safety of color additives.



The panel's discussion frequently turned on whether the standard for action should be scientific certitude, which is clearly lacking, or enough evidence to prompt public health warnings.



Panelist Charles Voorhees, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Cincinnati, said he was electronic ballast struck by the persistent but inconclusive evidence of possible harm.



"After 35 years, [the hypothesis] won't quite go away," Voorhees said. "It's within the latitude of the FDA to express to consumers that there may be a concern."



Other panelists objected to the suggestion that a warning label could specify possible problems for only some children.



"That's not how a mother or father reads it. They read it as 'my child,'" said A. Wesley Burks, a professor at Duke University Medical Center. "It's scary more than it's educational."



The petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest to remove the dyes, filed in June 2008, asked the FDA to ban eight of nine approved synthetic food colorings and to put warning labels on food containing the dyes until they could be bridge rectifier removed from the market. Dozens of other FDA-approved dyes, made from natural ingredients such as plants, animals and minerals, were not included in the center's request.

Never heard of Earth Hour? Just turn off the lights Saturday

Get ready to fade to black. Millions of people around the world are expected to turn off cold room their lights at 8:30 p.m. local time Saturday -- no matter what time zone they're  in -- to observe Earth Hour.

Never heard of it? It was started in 2007 by the WWF conservation organization to make a statement about energy overuse and how it affects the planet.

Times Square, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Las Vegas Strip, Niagara Falls, the Opera House in Sydney, and many more landmarks around the world plan to douse the lights, according to Earth Hour's website.

In Southern California, the Queen Mary will blast its horn at 8:30 p.m. to electronic ballast indicate the beginning of Earth Hour. Then the Long Beach landmark will turn off lights on its smokestacks, the string of lights atop the ship and other areas as well as encourage guests staying in staterooms to do likewise.

The free event from 7 to 9 p.m. on the ship's Verandah Grill will include a mix of other activities, from an "Unplugged" musical performance to a video about some of the ship's uniforms made from recycled bottles.

Check out the Queen Mary's website to RSVP (even though it's free).

The nearby Hotel Maya at 700 Queensway Drive in Long Beach plans to dim its jaw crusher lights throughout the property and offer candlelight dining at its restaurant Fuego  -- with special drinks created for the occasion.

The U.S. stock profits, GDP growth progress

US stocks advanced, giving the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index its biggest weekly rally since February, after Oracle Corp.’s profit forecast beat analyst estimates and the rate of economic growth was revised higher.

The Australian dollar advanced too, hitting a high of 102.94 US cents - a record since seamless steel pipe it began trading freely in 1983 - before easing back to 102.6 US cents. It was also buying 72.8 euro cents, 64 pence and 83.5 yen.

Oracle, the world’s top supplier of database software, climbed 1.6 per cent. US shares of Accenture Plc, the world’s second-largest technology-consulting firm, rallied 4.5 per cent after its sales forecast beat analyst’s projections. Bristol- Myers Squibb Co. advanced 3.3 per cent after the pharmaceutical company won US approval a melanoma drug.

The S&P 500 gained 0.3 per cent to 1,313.80 at 4 p.m. in New York. The gauge climbed 2.7 per cent this week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 50.03 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 12,220.59 today, bringing the week’s advance to 3.1 per cent. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 6.64 points, or 0.24 per cent, to 2,743.06, extending the week’s gain to 3.8 per cent.

Australian shares were poised to open slightly lower when trading resumes on Monday. The SPI futures index was down 9 points at 4764. At the market close of Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was 43 points, or 0.91 per cent, higher at 4742.6,  capping its best weekly gain - 2.4 per cent - since November. The broader All Ordinaries index rose 46.1 points, or 0.96 per cent, to 4840.3.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, which bridge rectifier measures the cost of using options as insurance against declines in the S&P 500, fell 0.5 per cent to 17.91, extending its retreat since March 16 to 39 per cent.

“Corporations are making money amid this pace of economic growth,” said Kevin Caron, a market strategist in Florham Park, New Jersey, at Stifel Nicolaus & Co., which has about $US90 billion in client assets.

“We saw a solid GDP number. The fact that Oracle reported a decent forecast would be consistent with that trend. As long as the data is supporting the recovery, the S&P 500 can get to $US100 a share of earnings over the next year and a half. That means the index rising to 1,500.”

Recouping losses

US stocks rose yesterday, recouping losses that followed Japan’s March 11 earthquake, as corporate profits beat estimates and a government report showed a decline in jobless claims. The S&P 500 has advanced 4.5 per cent in 2011, extending last year’s 13 per cent rally, amid government stimulus measures and an eighth straight quarter of higher-than-estimated earnings.

The US economy grew at a 3.1 per cent annual rate in the fourth quarter, led by a jump in consumer spending that will be hard to match early in the year as energy prices surge. The revised increase in gross domestic product compares with a 2.8 per cent estimate issued last month, figures from the Commerce Department showed today in Washington.

Stocks rose even as the Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan final index of consumer sentiment decreased to 67.5 from 77.5 in February. The preliminary estimate issued earlier this month was 68.2. The median forecast of 67 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News projected a reading of 68.

Emergency aid

European Union leaders at a two-day meeting in Brussels agreed to cut the startup capital for the future euro emergency aid mechanism, while Portugal continued to rule out a rescue after the parliament’s rejection of budget cuts led Prime Minister Jose Socrates to offer to quit.

A bailout may total as much as 70 billion euros ($97 billion), two European officials with direct knowledge of the matter said, as credit-rating cuts threatened to deepen Portugal’s debt woes.

“The market has digested a lot of uncertainties in the past couple of weeks, with the tragedy in Japan and the unrest in Libya,” said Charles Stamey, who helps manage $US42 billion at Manning & Napier

Advisors Inc. in St. Petersburg, Florida. “I certainly think the market is looking for some good news and this is a bit of it,” he said of Oracle’s forecast.

Oracle climbed 1.6 per cent to $US32.64 after the company late yesterday forecast profit Coach Bags excluding acquisition costs and some other expenses of 69 cents to 73 cents this quarter, beating the average analyst estimate of 66 cents. Earnings on that basis were 54 cents a share in the period that ended Feb. 28, also exceeding analysts’ projections.

Accenture rallies

Accenture added 4.5 per cent to $US54.29. Third-quarter net revenue, or sales before reimbursements, will grow to a range of $US6.3 billion to $US6.5 billion, the Dublin-based company said. The average analyst estimate in a Bloomberg survey was $US6.08 billion. The company also increased forecasts for full-year net revenue growth to a range of 11 per cent to 14 per cent, from 8 per cent to 11 per cent, and for earnings per share to $US3.22 to $US3.30, from $US3.08 to $US3.16.

“Very robust results from enterprise bellwethers Oracle and Accenture will reassure people that the enterprise capex cycle remains a powerful tailwind,” London-based analysts Jonathan Tseng and Andrew Griffin at BofA Merrill Lynch Global Research wrote in a report to clients.

Bristol-Myers Squibb rose 3.3 per cent to $US27.29. The pharmaceutical company won US approval for ipilimumab, the first drug in a new family of medicines to treat advanced melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.

Smithfield Foods Inc. gained 2 per cent to $US24.44. The world’s biggest pork processor said it sees no “backup” in Japanese orders and that the nation is shifting to fresh pork, according to a Barclays Plc presentation.

Research In Motion Ltd. slumped 11 per cent to $US56.89 after the axial fan maker of the BlackBerry smartphone forecast first-quarter revenue and profit that trailed estimates.

Earnings will be $US1.47 to $US1.55 a share as the company spends more on research and steps up marketing for its PlayBook tablet and new smartphones, RIM said late yesterday. Analysts had predicted profit of $US1.66 on average, excluding some costs.

Libyan rebels into Ajdabiya town

Libyan rebels say they have entered the government-controlled city of Ajdabiya from the east, in a bid to wrestle control of the strategic eastern city.

Many fighters belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi were impact crusher held hostage after fierce fighting on Friday, they said.

Pro-Gaddafi forces are now mainly positioned in the west of the city, having previously held the entire city, they said.

Earlier on Friday, western warplanes bombed Gaddafi's tanks and artillery outside the town to try to break a battlefield stalemate and help rebels retake the strategic area.

Plumes of smoke filled the sky as the pace of coalition air strikes escalated, forcing terrified residents to flee Ajdabiya, which is 160km south of the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.

"We entered the town," Colonel Mohammed Ehsayer, who defected from the army to join the rebellion told AFP news agency at a rebel outpost a few kilometres east of the city.

Misurata fighting

Forces loyal to Gaddafi shelled an area on the outskirts of the city of Misurata on Friday, killing six people including three children, a rebel said.

The Libyan port, the North African country's third biggest city, has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels and forces loyal to Gaddafi since an uprising began on February 16.

Officials and rebels said on Friday aid organisations were able to deliver some supplies to Misurata.

"There is a fairly regular supply going into Misurata," Simon Brooks, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross operations in eastern Libya, told Reuters.

"But we are deeply concerned about the reports we are receiving about fighting in the city."

Casualties have overwhelmed the local medical clinic and prompted electronic ballast international concern about the safety of civilians.

Residents say electricity, water and regular land and cell phone service to Misurata are not functioning.

Reports from the city cannot be verified independently because Libyan authorities have prevented journalists from going there.

On Thursday, government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim said the government was in total control of the city, a claim denied by rebels.

AU proposal

Meanwhile, on the diplomatic front, the African Union said it plans to facilitate talks to help end the conflict in Libya between government and rebel forces.

"The AU action is ... aiming at facilitating dialogue between the Libyan parties on reforms to be launched to
eliminate the root causes of the conflict," the union's commission chairman Jean Ping told a meeting in

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Friday.

He said that the process should end with democratic elections in Libya.

It was the first statement by the AU, which had rejected any form of foreign intervention in the Libya crisis, since the UN Security Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and a Western coalition began air strikes on Libyan military targets.

Call for ceasefire

Libya's delegation to the meeting, at which the rebels were not represented, called for an end to air strikes and said the government was committed to upholding a ceasefire it declared on Sunday.

The delegation said Tripoli is ready to implement an AU roadmap to resolve the Libyan crisis, while also demanding a halt to the Western-led coalition's military intervention.

"We are ready to implement the Road Map envisaged ... (by) the High-Level Committee mandated by the Peace and Security Council of the African Union," said a statement from the delegation headed by Mohammed al-Zwai, secretary general seamless steel pipe of the General People's Congress.

The AU roadmap calls for an immediate end to all hostilities, "cooperation on the part of the relevant Libyan authorities to facilitate humanitarian aid," and "protection for all foreign nationals, including African migrant workers."

The delegation called on the international community to oblige the "other parties" in the conflict to respect a ceasefire, referring to the opposition, and demanded "the cessation of the air bombardment and the naval blockade carried out by Western forces and the United States".

Anita McNaught, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Libyan capital of Tripoli, said it was not the first time that a Libyan delegation "conducted a little freelance foreign policy on the sideline" and that there was no way of telling if the offer was sincere.

"In much the same way we had the foreign ministry go out on a limb a few days ago and say that they declared a ceasefire," she said.

"That was in complete contradiction of the facts on the ground and also the rhetoric coming from Colonel Gaddafi himself who wasn’t saying anything to do with a ceasefire.

"He was saying: We'll fight to the death; we'll chase you into your homes. We'll pursue this war to the end."

"A rebel spokesman in Benghazi said they weren't consulted in this initiative. Some reports say they were even invited to the meeting others say they were but refused to go. Others are saying there isn't an opening for negotiating, that they simply bridge rectifier want the bombing to stop and Gaddafi and his family to leave."

Japan's nuclear crisis a long way from over

BEIJING/TOKYO, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Problems continue to arise at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, despite progress in restoring the power needed to cool down its overheating reactors.

In recent days, injuries to workers, black smoke rising from No. 3 reactor and abnormal radiation have come one after another.

Some experts say the crisis might not end soon, Coach Bags while others insist its effects will be limited.

The crisis arose from the shutdown of the plant's cooling systems, which are critical to bringing down temperatures in the reactors' cores and stabilizing its nuclear fuel. The systems shut down after the March 11 earthquake and ensuing tsunami wiped out the power supply.

Workers are making efforts to bring the six-reactor facility's cooling systems back online and are spraying stricken reactors with seawater to cool damaged reactors and fuel rods The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant uses boiling water reactors, which went into emergency shutdown when the earthquake hit. The backup power started automatically to circulate cooling water to carry away the residual heat.

However, the earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. The emergency diesel power generators also failed when the tsunami arrived.

With the cooling system shut down, the residual heat built up, bringing down the water level of the fuel pool and threatening eventual core meltdown.

In 1979, a partial core meltdown occurred at Three Mile Island in the United States bridge rectifier due to a cooling system failure. It remains the most severe nuclear leak accident in the country and forced the evacuation of at least 150,000 local residents.

Fortunately, Fukushima workers on Monday reconnected power lines to all six reactors, marking a critical first step in getting the overheated reactors under control after days of public anxiety. But much still needs to be done before electricity can be turned on. It is not clear what condition the equipment is in.

The plant's operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) admitted Friday it might take at least another month to achieve a cold shutdown of all reactors, when temperatures inside fall below boiling point and its cooling systems are back at atmospheric pressure.

"We are still in the process of assessing the damage at the plant, so we can't put a deadline on when the cooling operations will work again. It may take more than a month, " a TEPCO spokesman said.

The biggest worry for the public is radiation leaking from the reactors. Previously, in order to avoid damaging the reactors, the plant released the potentially devastating build up of pressure, with some radioactive particles emitted into the air.

According to the latest news, a possible breach has been found in No. 3 reactor, which might be a crack or a hole in the stainless steel chamber of the reactor core or in the spent fuel pool that is lined with several  feet of reinforced concrete.

Suspicions of a possible breach were raised when two workers were exposed to radiation 10,000 times the normal level and suffered skin burns while dealing with an emergency at the No. 3 reactor.

The two workers, in their 20s and 30s, who were seamless steel pipe laying power cables with their feet submerged in the water of the turbine room at the troubled No. 3 reactor, sustained injuries, including skin burns caused by beta rays. This suggests the reactor or its spent nuclear fuel pool is damaged.

A total of 17 workers have been exposed to radiation exceeding 100 millisieverts since the March 11 earthquake.

Radioactive leaks were detected after a series of explosions and fires at four of the plant's six reactors and the government on Friday suggested residents living within a 20 to 30 kilometer distance of the stricken plant voluntarily evacuate the area.

The radiation leak from the plant has contaminated sea water, food produce, milk and water supplies in regions as far away as Tokyo, 240 km southwest of the plant.

However, some experts said, with continued follow-up measures, the situation was still under control.

Judging from historical experience, the effects of the nuclear leak would be limited.

Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency currently only rates Fukushima at 5 out of 7 on its warning level, the same electronic ballast level as the 1979 accident at Three

Mile Island.

Many international organizations also said people outside Japan need not worry about the health effects of the nuclear leak.

FAA Issues New Rules For Air Traffic Controllers

The Federal Aviation Administration gave air traffic controllers new procedures Friday as officials try to
contain the fallout from an incident earlier this week in which two airliners landed at Reagan National

Airport without assistance because the lone controller on duty was asleep.

Regional radar facilities are now required to alert controllers working jaw crusher alone at night in an airport tower that a plane is approaching, FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said in a statement. The radar controllers are "to confirm that there is a controller prepared to handle the incoming flight," he said.

Regional controllers have also been reminded that if no controller can be raised at an airport tower, proper procedures require they offer pilots the option of diverting to another airport, Babbitt said.

Controllers at a regional FAA radar facility in Warrenton, Va., about 40 miles from Reagan, didn't offer that option to the pilots who were unable to reach the airport's tower between 12:04 and 12:28 a.m. on

Wednesday.

Repeated phone calls from the regional facility to the tower also went unanswered.

The planes — an American Airlines flight from Dallas and a United Airlines flight from Chicago with a combined 165 people on board — landed safely.

Pilots can always decide on their own authority to divert to another airport, said Rory Kay, a former Air

Line Pilots Association safety chairman and an international airline captain.

The controller on duty in the tower — a veteran air traffic supervisor — acknowledged to investigators who interviewed him Thursday that he had dozed off, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The controller, who has not cold room been identified, was working his fourth 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift in a row, according the board, which is investigating the episode.

The incident has renewed concern about the potential safety consequences of controllers suffering from fatigue, a longstanding concern of the board.

It has also sparked criticism of FAA's practice of scheduling a single controller on overnight shifts at some airports, but especially at Reagan, which is in Arlington, Va., and just across the Potomac River from downtown Washington.

"This is not a mom-and-pop airport for small planes, and is in the vicinity of some very sensitive airspace," Kay said.

At least one congressional committee has launched its own investigation, and the issue is expected to be raised next week when the House takes up a bill to provide long term authority for FAA programs.

On Wednesday night, less than 24 hours after the incident, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ordered a second controller be added to the overnight shift at Reagan

About 30 other airports around the country also have a single controller on duty on the overnight shift. In some instances, the controllers work alone for only a part of the shift.

FAA is examining whether staffing on those overnight shifts should be increased.

On Friday, the safety board recommended to the FAA that it no longer allow air traffic controllers to provide supervisory oversight while performing operational air traffic duties. The recommendation wasn't directly related to this week's incident. But if FAA were to follow the board's recommendation, the agency would effectively have to assign at least two people — a supervisor and a controller — to every shift.

In a previous letter to FAA, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman pointed to several previous airport accidents in which the air traffic supervisor on Coach Bags duty was also working as a controller directing air traffic instead of being free to devote attention entirely to the supervising of controllers.

In T Mobile company, AT&T - pursuit of intense lobbying influence

AT&T remained confident Tuesday that it will win over regulators to approve its $39 billion seamless steel pipe bid to buy T-Mobile USA, even as critics continued to bash the deal as anti-competitive and bad for consumers.

Bolstering its chances, AT&T has one of the most muscular lobbying operations in Washington. Last year, it enlisted an army of about 90 lobbyists and has had on its roster well-known former lawmakers, including Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and John Breaux (D-La.) of the Senate and J.C. Watts (R-Okla.) of the House of Representatives, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

It is also one of the biggest campaign contributors among any corporation in history and has spent $15 million annually on lobbying efforts since 2005, according to the nonprofit group. The Republican chairmen of three key House committees — Fred Upton (R-Mich.), Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) — together have received more than $200,000 over their political careers from AT&T’s political action committee, the center’s data show. They did not immediately return phone calls for comment.

Experts and consumer advocates say the merger, which would create a wireless behemoth by combining the nation’s second- and fourth-largest cellular carriers, raises serious doubts for federal antitrust regulators. But they also note that AT&T is especially well-positioned to make its case.

Critics point to a key detail in AT&T’s proposed transaction as a sign of the company’s confidence that it will ultimately win over regulators: AT&T must hand over $3 billion to T-Mobile, plus some valuable wireless spectrum, if the deal gets nixed.

“Why are they so confident?” asked Craig Aaron, the managing director of Free Press, a Washington-based nonprofit group that examines media and Internet policy. “I have to believe that they must have made the rounds in Washington to find out.  . . . You’d have to think that they have this confidence because of all that lobbying clout that they bring to bear.”

Congress does not have direct oversight over the bridge rectifier deal; AT&T needs approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the Justice Department.

Michael Balmoris, an AT&T spokesman, said the company did not shop the idea of the merger with regulators before announcing the deal. In a presentation to investors this week, Wayne Watts, AT&T’s senior executive vice president and general counsel, said the company “fully understands and respects” the regulatory process.

In the presentation and on a Web site promoting its cause, AT&T argued that the merger will bring wireless access to 95 percent of the U.S. population and reach far-flung locales — fulfilling a key goal of President Obama. AT&T also contended that previous wireless company mergers have resulted in lower prices for consumers.

Critics of the deal doubt prices will come down in this case. And they worry about what AT&T will do with its influence in Washington.

Aaron said the firm’s lobbying clout is partly due to James W. Cicconi, a company senior executive vice president. Last year, GQ magazine ranked Cicconi as No. 4 on its list of top “influencers” in Washington, right behind Haley Barbour, the Mississippi governor and possible GOP presidential candidate.

Cicconi was instrumental, Aaron said, Coach Bags in brokering a deal that paved the way for the FCC to pass rules governing whether providers of wireless Internet connections can control Web content.

“He’s shown himself to be a savvy strategist,” Aaron said. “Back in 2008 , President Obama said he wasn’t going to take a back seat to anyone in net neutrality. Of course, the following year, FCC backed away and changed its position, and that was largely due to lobbying by AT&T with direct pressure at the FCC.”

Art Brodsky, a spokesman for Public Knowledge, a nonprofit public-interest group, said many critics of the deal are also wary of William Daley, the White House chief of staff. In the early 2000s, Daley was president of SBC Communications, which later merged with AT&T, and then worked for JPMorgan, which is helping finance the AT&T/T-Mobile merger.

“A bunch of us are saying there’s no way he should touch this,” Brodsky said. “The FCC chairman has been known to consult with people at the White House all the time, and JPMorgan is in line for millions of dollars in fees out of this deal.”

The White House did not return a phone call or -mail requesting comment about Daley’s potential involvement.

AT&T’s financial contributions tend to benefit Republicans more than Democrats, according to the nonprofit watchdog: During the 2010 election cycle, 55 percent of the company’s $4 million to federal-level politicians aided Republicans and 44 percent helped Democrats.

“AT&T is one of the biggest fish on the block,” said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “They are massive. They employ a number of lobbyists and former members of the government. There are very few companies that impact crusher have multiple former Congress members working for them. They are in a rare position even for big companies when it comes to the strength of their lobbying force.”

Japan factory to suspend, Asian shares fell problems

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Asian stocks fell for the first time in four days as Japanese companies announced production halts and earthquakes struck shaded pold motor near the Fukushima nuclear plant that was crippled after a March 11 temblor and tsunami.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest carmaker, declined 1.5 percent in Tokyo after extending production halts. Sony Corp. dropped 0.6 percent after the electronics maker suspended some work at five factories. Fujitsu Ltd., Japan’s No. 1 computer- services provider, dropped 4.8 percent. Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd. plunged 7.6 percent in Sydney after Australia’s second-biggest airline forecast an annual loss.
“There are still a lot of uncertainties surrounding the nuclear fallout, as well as aftershocks, and we won’t be seeing a stable market for a while,” said Yoshinori Nagano, a senior strategist in Tokyo at Daiwa Asset Management Co., which oversees about $104 billion. “No one thinks the nuclear crisis has ended completely.”

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 0.5 percent to 132.36 as of 10:30 a.m. in Tokyo. About five stocks fell for every three that climbed on the index.

A series of earthquakes struck Japan’s Fukushima prefecture today, where Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s damaged nuclear plant is located, starting with a magnitude 6.0 temblor at 7:12 a.m. local time, according to Japan’s Meteorological Agency.

Quakes of magnitude 4.1, 5.8, 4.9 and 4.3 followed as of 8:03 a.m., and there was no threat of tsunami waves, the agency said in its website. The Japan Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said there has been no impact on the Fukushima plant from the latest temblors.

Nikkei Falls

“Anxieties about the nuclear issues aren’t gone yet, but the situation is improving,” said Hiroichi Nishi, an equities manager in Tokyo at Nikko Cordial Securities Inc. “Some industries and stocks that declined significantly lately will be bought back.”

Japan’s Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1.4 percent. South Korea’s Kospi Index slipped 0.1 percent impact crusher and Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index was little changed. Futures on the Standard&Poor’s 500 Index slid 0.3 percent today. The index retreated 0.4 percent yesterday as the price of oil rose amid unrest in Libya and concern grew that Europe won’t find an immediate solution to its debt crisis.

The MSCI Asia Pacific Index lost 3.4 percent this year through yesterday, compared with a gain of 2.9 percent by the S&P 500 and a drop of 1.5 percent by the Stoxx Europe 600 Index. Stocks in the Asian benchmark are valued at 13.3 times estimated earnings on average, compared with 13.4 times for the S&P 500 and 10.9 times for the Stoxx 600.

Reconstruction Agency

The Nikkei 225 plunged 10 percent last week on concern the effects of the earthquake and damaged reactors will hurt a recovery in the world’s third-largest economy.

Japan said it may set up a reconstruction agency to oversee earthquake repairs, while data showed the central bank pumped record liquidity into lenders as the nation grappled with its worst disaster since World War II.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano told reporters in Tokyo the government will weigh “some sort of system or organization” to oversee spending following the earthquake, adding that it’s too early to say when a spending bill will be compiled. The Bank of Japan said yesterday lenders’ deposits with the central bank more than doubled since March 11 to 41.62 trillion yen ($513 billion).

Tokyo Electric Power workers began restoring power to the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant in northern Japan as government tests showed radiation has leaked into the sea and contaminated some food.

Lights are on in the control room at Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant’s No. 3 reactor, while some lights are electronic ballast on at reactor No. 4, the company said today. Reactors No. 5 and 6 were already supplied with electricity.

The United States new review questions to get nuclear waste

The radiation levels, while not acceptable, are manageable," he said.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has essentially accepted the industry's rationale on the jaw crusher safety of dense-packing fuel rods. Over the last two decades, the agency has repeatedly approved license applications by utilities to pack more rods into the pools.

Nuclear safety experts say that plants have packed up to five times more spent fuel rods than the pools were designed to store, though Nuclear Energy Institute officials say the pools contain no more than twice their original capacity.

The only advantage to keeping the pools packed so tightly is the cost of the dry casks, which would run about $5 billion to $10 billion nationwide, said Frank N. von Hippel, a Princeton University physicist who first disclosed the problem in a paper he co-wrote in 2003. He said he considers fixing the fuel pool problem one of the most important steps toward making U.S. nuclear plants safer.

"It is such a huge risk that it is worth the cost," he said. "We may not be as lucky as the Japanese were to have the wind blowing the radioactive emissions out to sea."

The reason so much waste has built up is the failure of the Energy Department to hold to its decades-old pledge to take ownership of it, triggering multibillion-dollar law suits by utilities against the government.

Under federal law, the waste was supposed to go to a repository at Yucca Mountain, about 100 miles north of Las Vegas. President George W. Bush approved the plan in 2002. But President Obama has taken steps to kill the plan, saying he wants to find a different site.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu warned last week that it could be decades before any permanent solution for the waste is developed, so the heavily packed fuel pools will be around for a long time.

"The utilities say that even if an accident happens here, they can deal with it," said Lyman of the Union of Concerned Scientists. But, he said, the Fukushima accident shows that some events will cold room be difficult to anticipate and plan for.

"The Japanese have run out of pages of their operating manual, and they are just making things up," he said.

Anti-aircraft weapons outbreak in tripoli

Anti-aircraft fire has erupted over the Libyan capital, Tripoli, after a day of heavy fighting between pro-democracy fighters and forces loyal to leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Anti-aircraft crews began firing shortly after nightfall in the capital on Tuesday Coach Bags, four nights after an international military coalition launched an operation enforce a no-fly zone over the country.
"We've been hearing big noises. We've heard some explosions in the last 10 minutes," Al Jazeera's Anita McNaught, reporting from Tripoli, said.
"We haven't seen any smoke on the horizon. People are firing guns in defiance. We're in the loyalist heartland here where people are utterly defiant of the international effort to force Gaddafi to surrender, as they would see it.
"The anti-aircraft fire has not been as intense [as Monday night when two naval installations outside the city were hit]. Perhaps they feel in the immediate neighbourhood that most of the significant targets have already been hit."
The AFP news agency reported that at least two blasts were heard at a distance before the capital's air defences opened fire.
Several strong detonations followed, said the journalists who were unable to determine the site of the explosions.
They said anti-aircraft fire streaked into the night sky for around 10 minutes, especially in the area near Gaddafi's residence, not far from the hotel where the international press corps is housed.
In the previous night's operations, the coalition air campaign suffered its first loss with the crash of a US fighter jet in the rebel-held east.



Both crew ejected safely.



The no-fly zone is intended to protect civilians from attack by forces loyal to Gaddafi in their battles with opposition fighters bridge rectifier. The United States announced on Tuesday that it is shifting its focus to widen the no-fly zone across the north African country.
Despite the strikes, Gaddafi has remained defiant. The Libyan leader made a public appearance at his Bab Al-Aziziyah compound in Tripoli that was the target on Sunday of a coalition missile strike, Libyan state television reported.



In televised remarks, Gaddafi said Libya was "ready for battle, be it long or short".



"We will win this battle," footage showed him telling supporters at the compound. "The masses were the strongest anti-air defences."
Fighting rages
The developments came after a day of intense fighting in the three Libyan cities of Misurata, Ajdabiya and Zintan.
Forces loyal to Gaddafi have been shelling Misurata for days, pressing their siege of the embattled western city. Four children were killed in the shelling on Tuesday and at least 40 people were killed on Monday, a resident said.
There was also fierce fighting seamless steel pipe further east in Ajdabiya. Opposition fighters were seen retreating in the face of an attack by government forces.
Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley, reporting from an area close to Ajdabiya, said there had been clashes outside the city.
"There's been heavy fighting and heavy shelling going on ... the rebels told me there have been heavy casualties and there are a number of corpses between here and the town [of Ajdabiya] that they have been unable to reach," he said.
Meanwhile, around 106km south of Tripoli, Libyan pro-democracy fighters forced government troops to withdraw from the outskirts of Zintan, breaking a siege of the town.
A resident of Zintan told the Reuters news agency that at least 10 people were killed in the bombardment by Gaddafi's forces.
"Gaddafi's forces bombarded Zintan this morning and killed 10 to 15 people," Abdulrahman said.
"After the bombardment they retreated from the eastern area of Zintan. But they have not withdrawn from the northern area electronic ballast. There is still a huge number of soldiers there, backed with 50 to 60 tanks and several vehicles."

Yemen's President salih civil war threat, called for dialogue

The mood in the capital, Sanaa, was tense amid reports that opposing military units cold room, some supporting Saleh and some backing recently defected military commanders, had faced off in skirmishes around the country.
The United States and Saudi Arabia, with strong vested interests in Yemen’s ongoing counterterrorism cooperation, worked behind the scenes to promote a solution, but made no public expressions of support for Saleh, who has been in power for 32 years.
“We continue to consult with our regional partners, including Saudi Arabia, about the situation in Yemen,” an Obama administration official said, declining to comment further. The White House has had no direct contact with Saleh since a call made Sunday by John O. Brennan, President Obama’s chief counterterrorism adviser.
Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates told reporters traveling with him in Moscow that it was “not my place” to comment on events in Yemen. “We are obviously concerned about instability” there, he said, describing the focus of U.S. worry as a possible “diversion of attention” from the threat posed by the al-Qaeda offshoot in Yemen.
According to news wire reports and Internet postings by Yemenis, Saleh’s army repelled an attack by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula on a military position east of Lawdar, a city in the southern part of the country, killing 12 militants and injuring five. Armed militants have been on a rampage in the southern city of Aden, breaking into nightclubs, throwing out patrons and setting fire to buildings, the Associated Press reported.
Clashes were also reported in the north between pro-revolution Houthi rebels and tribes loyal to the government.
Six weeks of largely peaceful protests against Saleh appeared to reach a tipping point Monday, when dozens of senior military officials, diplomats and government officials resigned to protest the killing Friday of more than 50 demonstrators by government snipers.
“Friday broke our hearts; yesterday opened our eyes,” said Mohammed al-Basha, who has not resigned his position as spokesman for the Yemeni Embassy in Washington but described himself as a “neutral”civil servant.
“We saw people of our generation killed with head shots and chest wounds,” he said. “We don’t want that pain again.”
In a meeting with military and tribal leaders late Monday night, Saleh agreed to a plan under which he would leave office at the end of the year jaw crusher. He had initially dismissed the proposal when it was advanced weeks ago by a coalition of opposition political parties that joined with the youthful and civil society protesters, and the opposition Tuesday told him it was no longer on the table.
“We reject Saleh’s offer to step down, and we tell him that the next couple of hours will be decisive for his regime,” Mohammed Qahtan, a spokesman for an opposition political bloc, said Tuesday.
Maj. Gen. Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, the powerful commander of Yemen’s northwest military district, who was the most prominent defector Monday, called on Saleh to resign to save the country from disaster. “The military is the property of the people and its protector,” Mohsen said. “It does not work for any specific person.”
In a televised speech to his National Defense Council, Saleh vacillated between threats of a “bloody” civil war and appeals for dialogue. In an apparent effort to split the opposition, he warned that youthful protesters would be victimized by the political factions that have joined them.
To military defectors, he said: “Those who want to reach power through coups should know what they are seeking is impossible.”
Late Tuesday evening, a government spokesman reiterated Saleh’s calls for “direct and transparent dialogue” with Yemeni youth.
The opposition political groups,electronic ballast called the Joint Meeting Parties, denied fears expressed on the street that they or the military were interested in a deal with Saleh. “Civil society youth are now controlling politicians, military and the tribes,” Qahtan said. “Military commanders will not steal the revolution from the people.”
Ali Amrani, the leader of a bloc of politicians who have left the ruling General Peoples Congress party over the past month, said that Saleh must leave but did not rule out an exit strategy agreed to by all sides, including Saleh and his remaining backers, to avoid chaos.
“Those with the revolution have numerous ideological differences,” he said, “and we need to make sure that the sides don’t start disputes immediately at the fall of Saleh.”
The protesters are suspicious of Mohsen’s motives, said Gregory Johnsen, a Yemen expert at Princeton University. “But at the same time, they’re willing to make a deal for the moment to get rid of Saleh.”
Mohsen, a longtime ally of the president bridge rectifier and the most powerful military figure in the country, “is taking advantage in order to ensure for himself a position in a post-Saleh government,” Johnsen said.