Careers of America's Future Generation

Keeping Research and Leadership at Home
Nine leaders offer their opinions on what the U.S. should do to hold onto its braintrust and stay on the cutting edge of innovation

Can the U.S. maintain its edge? If so, how? Nine leaders offer their answers.
by Vivek Wadhwa
Small Biz

Globalization is reality. U.S. businesses see tremendous opportunities abroad and will increasingly locate their operations closer to growth markets. They will also outsource engineering jobs to reduce costs and move their research functions closer to their offshore development sites. It is not clear what the long-term impact of this trend will be, but what is clear is that at stake is the U.S. standard of living and world economic leadership.

In a previous column, I wrote about globalization research that my students and I had completed at Duke University (see BusinessWeek.com, 11/7/06, "The Real Problem with Outsourcing").

Our research showed corporations saw great advantages in offshoring. They saved money on salaries and overhead, were able to create 24/7 development cycles, and gained access to new markets and customers. They weren't going abroad because of a shortage of engineers in the U.S. or deficiencies in the U.S. workforce, they were simply doing what gave them an economic and competitive advantage.

Postcards for the Edge
The risk with this is that the next jobs likely to be outsourced are in research and design, and the U.S. will lose its ability to "invent" the next big technologies. We may already have lost our edge in telecom—University of Texas professor Ted Rappaport's research shows that all but five of the 57 major telecom research initiatives over the past few years were located outside the U.S. He believes that as a result, U.S. students have lost interest in entering graduate school to pursue research in the telecom field.

Cisco's (CSCO) recent announcement that it would move 20% of its senior managers from Silicon Valley to Bangalore by 2010 shows the trend is accelerating. So, what can the U.S. do to keep its edge? We asked nine business experts what they believe the U.S. should do to keep research at home so that the next technology discovery is made here, rather than in the countries that are building a core competence because of our outsourcing.

Intel (INTC) Chairman Craig Barrett believes we have already lost the race in primary and secondary education. We are losing our position as a top educator of science, technology, engineering, and math students. We are losing our lead in university research, and we have "our head in the sand on government policy."

Education for All
Barrett, Sun (SUNW) Chairman and Co-founder Scott McNealy, IBM (IBM) Executive Vice-President of Innovation and Technology Nick Donofrio, Microsoft (MSFT), Senior Vice-President of Research Rick Rashid, and former MIT President and President-elect of the National Academy of Engineering Charles Vest stress the need to improve K-12 education, encourage students to study more math and engineering, bring in the best and brightest talent from around the world, and up the ante in basic research. Each person has a unique perspective, but all agree on what must be done.

McNealy also says we should "open-source education"—let everyone, everywhere, learn as much as they want, as fast as they want, about any subject they'd like.

Yet CNN anchor Lou Dobbs predicts utter disaster for our middle class and says that Corporate America has chosen to put our middle-class workers into direct competition with the cheapest labor in the world. He says CEOs have to be talking about how to drive innovation in the U.S. and find a conscience, or Washington will have to adjust public policy.

Motivated Workforce
Ralph Wyndrum, president of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE-USA), looks at the problem from the perspective of U.S. engineers and worries about the manufacturing sector being outsourced and taking engineering design and R&D with it. He says engineers must hone their competitive edge through continuing education to keep pace with changing technology by focusing on productivity, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

Rockefeller Foundation President Judith Rodin believes a highly motivated, productive workforce confident in, and committed to, employer success is crucial to U.S. competitiveness.

She believes that the solution starts with the workers who make the U.S. what it is. She prescribes a comprehensive look at Social Security, private retirement savings, and health care.

Sycamore Networks (SCMR) Co-Founder and Chairman Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande believes that the $200 billion the U.S. spends yearly in research isn't spent effectively. He says innovations happen in a vacuum, so he donated $20 million to MIT to change the way research is commercialized by bringing academics and entrepreneurs together.

Can the U.S. maintain its edge? If so, how? Edited excerpts of each of the nine leaders' answers follow.

Scott McNealy, Sun Chairman and Co-founder
Here's a good first step: Lift the cap on H1B visas. The current policy in the U.S. is flatline thinking. Talk about a barrier to entry—literally. The 60,000 visas the government offers each year is an arbitrary number and is long-depleted before the government's fiscal year even begins. Imagine if Vinod Khosla and Sergei Brin had not been able to stay in this country. No Sun, no Google. Fewer jobs in Silicon Valley, and a heck of a lot less taxpayer dollars for Uncle Sam.

Here's another idea: Open-source education. People always ask me how we can get our kids interested in math and science; how we're going to develop the engineers of tomorrow. There's a surprisingly simple answer: share. Why not open-source education and let anyone, anywhere learn as much as they want, as fast as they want, about any subject they'd like.

They'd find out what they're good at (maybe it's math, maybe it's science, maybe it's economics), and we could get them into the workforce sooner. They could work at solving some of the biggest problems, like finding the cure for bird flu. This is beyond No Child Left Behind: It's no child, parent or teacher held back.

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This is a truly profound article which stipulates what future generations shall have to overcome. It will be necessary to provide our children and grandchildren with the options necessary to have a high quality of education. This is quite attainable for some of us. My concern is what shall happen to the majority of Americans who may be able to obtain a great career which will allow them to have dignity and options which increase the quality of the life which they acquired up to the point of providing for themselves. Hopefully, many people are preparing for this particular possibility. Awareness is the first key of what needs to be maintained in order to maximize the lifestyle of future generations. Especially, considering there are many in public schools without the resources to attain the most significant education given in the United States. If the majority of those students have not been given a suitable option, there will be many consequences given the fact that the economy will definitely suffer. Let me know what you think?

What shall become of Cuba's finances?

How Cubans heal their economic ills
By Robert Plummer Business reporter, BBC News

Elderly Cubans re-sell newspapers to supplement their incomes
My defining experience of Cuban economics came during a visit to the island in 1999.
I was following the Havana tourist trail by visiting the Floridita bar on the Avenida Belgica, where American author Ernest Hemingway used to go for his regular double frozen daiquiri with no sugar.

Suddenly an old man came into the bar carrying a stack of copies of the official newspaper, Granma.

I offered him the cover price, a mere 20 Cuban centavos, but he angrily demanded more.
I assumed he was charging over the odds because I was clearly not a local, and went away thinking that if a Cuban was trying to cheat a tourist over the price of the Communist Party newspaper, revolutionary idealism was definitely dead.

I later discovered that I could not have been more wrong - about the cheating, at any rate.
It is established practice in Cuba for elderly people on low state pensions to buy copies of the newspapers and re-sell them to the public for one peso each.

It helps them to make ends meet and allows their fellow Cubans to assist them without compromising their dignity.

Chicken tonight
A visitor to Cuba can easily find more such examples of how ordinary people have found ways to raise their low standard of living by operating below the radar of an inflexible, centralised state planning system.

Many of these dodges do centre on tourism. For instance, you may wonder why the Saturday breakfast buffet at your hotel in the holiday resort of Varadero often includes mountains of fried chicken - not normally something you would eat first thing in the morning.

Fried chicken for breakfast? Only in Cuba
The likely explanation is that the staff are not expecting you to eat it.

Anything that is left over, they are allowed to take home - and with the weekend about to get under way, they are preparing to go back to their families with enough food to satisfy a houseful of relatives.

Likewise, if you talk to the young woman who plays the piano in the hotel bar, you will probably find that she is a conservatory-trained musician who realised she could make more money playing for tourist tips than she could in concert halls.

Still, at least she has a legitimate skill to sell, unlike many of her contemporaries who have resorted to prostitution in an effort to obtain money from tourists.

'Special Period'
Conditions in Fidel Castro's Cuba were not always as bad as this, although people have been subject to food rationing ever since the US economic embargo was imposed in 1962.
What really caused Cubans' living standards to plummet was the collapse in 1991 of the Soviet Union, which had bankrolled the country's inefficient economy as a means of irritating Washington.

Cuba's distinctive humped buses were created in the 1990s
The end of the Cold War brought a halt to plentiful supplies of cheap crude oil in exchange for Cuban sugar, as Russian President Boris Yeltsin served notice that he was pulling the plug on Soviet subsidies.

The rest of the 1990s were known as the "Special Period" - a time marked by widespread food and fuel shortages.

The country was forced to come up with some creative solutions to its problems, including the creation of the two-humped "camel" buses - immense tractor-trailers that can carry a couple of hundred people.

Under pressure, President Castro authorised a few tentative steps towards a more market-oriented system. In 1993, the US dollar was allowed to circulate, while opportunities sprang up for the small-scale entrepreneur as tourism became the country's biggest industry.

Turn and turn again
But this modest liberalisation was never intended to be permanent - and as soon as Mr Castro felt more confident, he went into reverse gear.

Since 2000, subsidised Soviet oil has been replaced by subsidised Venezuelan oil, as Havana looks to Hugo Chavez to prop up its tottering economy.

Cuba is now relying on Venezuelan largesse
China, too, has been providing support in the form of trade credits, technology and investment capital.

This change in Cuba's fortunes soon led the regime to reassert its economic supremacy. In 2004, US dollar transactions were banned and a 10% tax imposed on dollar-peso conversions.

As for the self-employed Cubans who run restaurants in their homes ("paladares") or rent out rooms to tourists, their numbers have fallen dramatically.

In 1995, more than 200,000 of them were officially licensed, but a decade later, fewer than 100,000 remained.

Cuban officials have stressed that Fidel Castro's death - which the US has said may come within months - will not bring any changes to this rigid system.

Mr Castro's brother Raul, his designated successor, is just as fiercely opposed to the free market, and any easing of policy will not come without a fight.

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Now, this bit of news allows for understanding of quite a few differences in Cuba which are not done in the United States. Perhaps, the changes will be made in Cuba which will provide an opportunity for the people of this country to retain their dignity plus a bit more financial stability. There are many people of the world who did not satisfy the people of their own country. In my world, I do not believe any one person may have more of an advantage than other in stating that their country has been neglected due to leadership. Even America is guilty of this which is what Katrina and New Orleans demonstrated with clear clarity. Understand this was done while financing another country. If home does not come first, what good you do outside the home is tainted. Especially if you have the resources to allow an improved quality of life to be maintained and deliberately choose to ignore the situation with indifference of your own.

Cuba's Leader

Chavez admits Castro gravely ill

Mr Castro handed over his executive powers in July 2006Cuban leader Fidel Castro is battling to save his life, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said.

Mr Chavez, a close friend of Cuba's left-wing leader, said he hoped Mr Castro would recover but admitted he faced a hard struggle.

Mr Castro, 80, has not been seen in public since undergoing surgery in July and handing over political power.

Mr Chavez spoke at the Latin American summit in Brazil in a rare admission of the state of Mr Castro's health.

Chavez hopeful
Venezuela's president said he spoke to the Cuban leader by telephone for half an hour several days ago.

I hope he lives 80 more years, I hope he lives 100 more years
Hugo ChavezVenezuelan president"He is going through a difficult situation but just like he says, the machine that they have to fix is 80 years old," Mr Chavez told the Mercosaur trade summit.
"I cannot give details [of his health] because I am not his doctor, and even if I was I would not give them to you.

"He's back in the Sierra Maestra and locked in a battle for his life," Mr Chavez said.
The Sierra Maestra is a rugged mountain range in south-east Cuba with a long history of guerrilla warfare.

After Fidel Castro returned to Cuba from exile in Mexico, he and his fellow rebels hid out in the Sierra Maestra from where they were able to expand their 26 July Movement, building up their guerrilla forces and starting the revolution which in 1959 overthrew the regime led by Fulgencio Batista.

"There are those who want Fidel to die... [but] we have confidence he will recover completely.
"I don't know when Fidel will die, I hope he lives 80 more years, I hope he lives 100 more years."

'Slow recovery'
There have been steady reports suggesting that Mr Castro's condition is extremely serious.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Dr Jose Luis Garcia Sabrido, head of surgery at Madrid's Gregorio Maranon public hospital, described Mr Castro's recovery as "slow but progressive".

Dr Garcia Sabrido examined the Cuban leader late last year.

Earlier this week a Spanish newspaper quoted medical sources as saying Mr Castro opted for a risky medical procedure that led to grave complications.

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Hopefully, the health of Fidel Castro will improve. If not for his health, perhaps his health will improve by the people of Cuba combining all of their faith and prayers together for the sake of their leader. He is the most controversial leader in the world. Probably, more so to the United States than Saddam, though he has protected himself along with his country as well as could be done. The issue which is probably most interesting at this point would be who will be the person chosen to continue to lead the country of Cuba should his health not improve. I guess, this is something which will be shown at some point in the future.

Adoption is an Option

Transplants come under scrutiny
By Emma Wilkinson BBC News, health reporter

Surgeons are starting to carry out womb, face and hand transplantsTraditionally organ transplants have been carried out to save a person's life, be it with a new heart, kidney, or set of lungs.

But surgeons are increasingly looking at transplants as a way of improving a patient's quality of life.

Womb, face and hand transplants have all hit the headlines in recent months and these elective procedures raise difficult ethical questions.

For example, what happens if the donor organ is rejected.
The criteria for selection is crucial. We have to get the right person.

Neil Hubard
Neil Hubard, a spokesperson for the Face Trust, said in the case of womb and face transplants, donor selection was much more stringent than with life-saving transplants such as heart or kidneys.

"The criteria for selection is crucial. We have to get the right person. Then we look at very very fine tissue matching."

Patients must also be assessed for their psychological suitability.

"The people who want this kind of transplant are in a hell of a psychological state," he said.

"And one of the reasons selection is absolutely crucial is we have to advise people that taking immunosuppressants over long periods of time can be life-threatening and life-shortening."

Rejection
In the case of womb transplants, surgeons are only planning to keep the donor organ in place for one or two pregnancies before removing it again.

People who are willing to undertake something like a face transplant are probably not of an open mind,

Dr Richard NicholsonBulletin of Medical Ethics
Doctors are also looking into new ways of avoiding rejection in face transplants, for example with the use of creams.

He said that painstaking research on face transplants had been going on for the past 14 years and there had been eight to nine years of womb transplant research in the UK.

"The key thing is that we and other teams believe in taking a very long and cautious route and we're not going to rush it."

Dr Richard Nicholson, editor of the Bulletin of Medical Ethics pointed out that non-vital transplants were not necessarily a new phenomenon as the first even transplants to be done were of the cornea.

However, he expressed serious concern about the new forms of transplant that science was beginning to make available.

Dr Nicholson warned that patients may not fully appreciate the implications of agreeing to a transplant - and have unrealistic expectations.

"People could have grave psychological problems," he said.

"They can be informed about the risks, but people who are willing to undertake something like a face transplant are probably not of an open mind.

"We know that people have unrealistic expectations of medical research and believe they are bound to do better than if they didn't have the procedure."

He also warned that the possibility of rejection was not only potentially damaging psychologically - it could make a bad situation worse physically too.

"When something is rejected it becomes a great deal more difficult to replace it with another organ.

Inevitable
Mr Robert Johnson, past president of the British Transplantation Society said it was inevitable that surgeons would try to find new applications for procedures such as transplantation once they had been shown to work.

"The thing to bear in mind is that transplantation is a very dangerous exercise because you break down the body's defence mechanisms and that is absolutely justifiable when you are doing something life-saving.

"I can understand that people are prepared to take the risk with face transplants as they are almost prepared to do anything and there is justification for hand transplants providing it is right down at the wrist.

"But with wombs I think you're very close to the dividing line."

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What marvels of childbirth?!!

US doctors plan womb transplant
By Jeremy Cooke BBC News, New York

Women may be given new hope of having a babyA team of doctors in New York say they are planning to perform the first womb transplant in the US.

The procedure would potentially allow women who have had their wombs damaged or removed to develop a pregnancy and give birth.

The plan is use a womb from a woman who has died.

A womb transplant has been tried once before, in Saudi Arabia in 2000, but then the womb came from a live donor, and was rejected after three months.

If a pregnant uterus rejects you have got a serious medical problem
Dr Sherman SilberInfertility expert
Ethics of non-vital transplants
If the New York team are successful, it could bring new hope of becoming a mother to millions of women worldwide, many of whom have had their wombs removed due to illnesses such as cancer.

The New York surgeons have been running trials over the last six months which they say have confirmed that it is possible to remove the wombs of deceased donors in the same way as hearts, kidneys and livers are taken for transplant.

The next step would be to place a donated uterus into a recipient through an incision below the navel.

Caesarean section
The recipient's own embryo - which would have been harvested and frozen prior to the treatment - would be transferred into the transplanted womb allowing the pregnancy to develop.

After birth by Caesarean section the uterus would be removed to minimise the risk of tissue rejection.

Dr Giuseppe Del Priore, who is leading the transplant project, said: "Transplant medicine has improved sufficiently to allow us to consider non-vital transplants.

"That is why we are talking about face, hands, and other things as well."

Some in the medical community here are warning that the procedure would be extremely dangerous.

Dr Sherman Silber, an infertility expert from St Louis, said: "At any time during the nine months of pregnancy it could very easily reject, and if a pregnant uterus rejects you have got a serious medical problem."

But the surgeons directly involved believe the risks can be minimised and that many infertile women will enthusiastically pursue the opportunity to give birth to their own child.

Hundreds of women have inquired about the procedure at the Downtown Hospital, and 40 to 50 are currently being screened.

However, a transplant is not expected "any time in the near future".

There have been many women, couples and other people who have wanted children to no avail. My empathy is truly with them. Though, people need hearts, kidneys, pancreas, liver and other types of transplants for the enjoyment of denying death at that particular moment and years to come. This particular transplant is quite a bit different. In the sense that no one will die without this type of surgery. It is not a life threatening illness. It is not a life saved by this particular procedure being conducted. It allows the possiblity of a new life to enter this world. Also, it allows the possiblity of an existing life to become more complicated due to a surgery. A surgery performed when there is no life threatening illness occurring. Now, while it is a noble cause, it makes me wonder about the preservation of the life which can find other methods to have joy and happiness. Now, I am not judging anyone by any means, but it is food for thought. What do you think?

Guarantees for the First Election post-Bush

First fruits of new e-voting certification process: two companies get thumbs-up from federal testers
1/19/2007 1:12:52 PM, by Nate Anderson

How do Americans know that electronic voting machines are reliable? They have to trust the word of the private testing laboratories that examine the machines. But how do people know that the testing laboratories themselves are reliable? That's where the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) comes in. As part of the 2002 Help America Vote Act, the NIST is charged with providing technical guidance to the Election Assistance Commission as the EAC certifies testing laboratories. Yesterday, the NIST recommended that SysTest Labs and iBeta Quality Assurance receive the first full accreditations from the EAC.

Six labs have currently applied for accreditation: SysTest, iBeta, InfoGuard, BKP Security, Wyle, and Ciber. Last summer, the EAC granted interim accreditation to Wyle and SysTest, though it found some documentation problems at Ciber and refused to give the company the green light. Now that the NIST process is firmly in place, interim accreditation will be replaced by a full accreditation process that takes 9 to 18 months to complete.

NIST bases its program on ISO/IEC 17025, a set of "General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories." Because there are currently no standard tests for evaluating voting machines, each laboratory has created its own testing suite. NIST accreditation is designed to ensure that the testing process at each lab can produce precise data with repeatable results, not that the tests themselves are well-designed.

Recognizing that this is a weakness, NIST will start development work this year on a standard series of tasks that all laboratories will eventually be encouraged to adopt. There is no word on when the new tests will be ready.

The government does require seven basic areas to be tested. Voting machines first need to be evaluated to make sure they conform to federal design standards, and then they are run through a physical configuration audit in which the lab makes sure that the machine actually matches the documentation. The third part of the test is a source code review, followed by a functional configuration audit that tries to determine if every function mentioned in the manual actually exists and works. A system integration test, reliability and accuracy tests, and security testing round out the requirements.

Now that the EAC has received the first two NIST recommendations, it still needs to act on them for the accreditation to become official.

The EAC also issued a letter last week asking both voting machine manufacturers and testing labs to refrain from political activity. Saying that the companies involved had a "significant responsibility as the public places its trust in these organizations," the EAC asked labs and manufacturers to "adopt policies that prohibit the organization and its employees from engaging in act of these that may create the appearance of a conflict of interest or partisan bias."

Big Brother is Definitely in Sight

New York to use cell phone photographers to help fight crime
Mayor says city will equip 911 call centers to accept photos and video sent from cell phones to help nab criminals.

By Marguerite Reardon Staff Writer, CNET News.com -->
Published: January 18, 2007, 3:51 PM PST
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New York City plans on recruiting average citizens armed with cell phone cameras to help fight crime.

On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in his State of the City Address that the city plans to install new technology so that 911 call centers can receive digital images and videos sent from cell phones and computers.

"If you see a crime in progress or a dangerous building condition you'll be able to transmit images to 911 or online to NYC.gov," he said.

The technology will also eventually be extended to 311, a hotline established during the mayor's first term in office to deal with nonemergency, quality-of-life concerns. Bloomberg said the new video and picture capability would hold "city agencies accountable for correcting (issues) quickly and efficiently."

A representative from the mayor's office said Thursday that the program is in the initial stages of planning. No budget has been established for the project, and no vendor has been selected to provide the technology that would be used.

Bloomberg said during his speech that no other city was doing something similar. In truth, several 911 call centers around the country are adopting technology that allows them to accept digital pictures and video.

A Connecticut-based company called PowerPhone announced in August new software that allows cell phone photos and video from callers to be delivered to 911 call centers. The company's product is being used in at least half a dozen deployments including call centers in Douglas County, Colo.; Seward, Alaska; Tolland County, Conn. and Dade County, Miss.

PowerPhone calls its technology Incident Linked Multimedia (ILM). It is sold as part of a larger piece of software known as PowerPhone's Total Response Computer Aided Call Handling software, a collection of software that provides 911 operators with specific instructions for handling different emergencies.

The way the photo-sharing software works is that when a caller is on the phone with a 911 operator, he tells the operator he can send a picture. The caller then hangs up the phone, and the operator sends a text message to the caller asking for the photo. The caller replies with an attached photo or video clip. Currently, cellular phone technology does not allow callers to send photos to 911 operators while maintaining the original voice connection.

Cingular Wireless, soon to be called AT&T Wireless, plans to offer a service that allows video to be shared while talking on a phone, but subscribers on either end of the call will need new 3G-enabled phones to allow the function.

While some public safety agencies have started accepting cell phone photos to a generic e-mail address, PowerPhone's software allows the photos or video to be incorporated directly into the 911 call record. The image can also be forwarded to responders who are on their way to the scene.

"The key to our technology is linking the photos and video to the incident," said Chris Salafia, CEO of PowerPhone. "This allows pictures to be forwarded to first responders, and images can be easily found after the fact during an investigation."

With over half the world's 741 million cell phones equipped with some kind of digital imaging, a service that allows people to use cell phones to capture important information about suspicious activities or crimes can be very helpful to authorities, Salafia said.

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There have been numerous reports of cell phone images being used to help solve crimes. In July 2005, police in London used cell phone images to identify attackers in the London bombings.

The Associated Press reported in March 2006 that a 15-year-old girl in New York City used her cell phone camera to snap a picture of a man who was exposing himself to her on the subway. In June 2006, CBS2chicago.com reported that a man who tried to lure four teenage girls into his car was arrested after the same girls spotted him a month later and took a camera phone shot of his license plate.

But while this technology may sound great, it doesn't come cheap. Salafia said its full computer-aided call handling suite with the Incident Linked Multimedia module could cost around $10,000 per license. In a small call center with four operator terminals, the entire system would cost roughly $40,000. At a time when many call centers are struggling to find enough money to upgrade their systems to handle enhanced 911 calls from cell phone callers, accepting video and photos may be low on their list of priorities.

"Getting the money to fund these projects is one of the big challenges," he said. "We're working within the industry and with government agencies to make grants available."

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It is truly a daunting thought to know that you can have a camera shoved in your face without stardom accompanying your life. What if you innocently are mistaken for the criminal in the video shot? Though, you have to admit it is very progressive in recording crimes. Hopefully, that will be the primary use of this particular avenue used to identify criminals. Though, it would seem there is quite a bit of leniency in identifying someone without establishing what crime was committed or if a crime has been committed by the particular person identified via camera. Well, Bloomberg is still in the early stages of planning regarding this particular venture. Let us see what happens. Maybe, all issues will be addressed prior to implementation. If successfully implemented, the rest of the country will soon follow his example. Let me know what you think.

AP News Alert
Jan 19 10:02 AM US/Eastern


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Ohio Rep. Bob Ney has been sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a congressional bribery scandal

Wow!! Who has ever heard of such a brief article regarding the news? Definitely not me, especially considering a crime worthy of an "actual represetantive" receiving such a lengthy sentence. Plus, it is the crime of a politician convicted of bribery for goodness' sake. What do you make of this? Is this ordinary news or what?!!

Agreement clears U.S. for Iranian resolutions

N. Korea: 'Agreement' Reached With U.S.
Jan 19 9:36 AM US/Eastern
By BURT HERMANAssociated Press Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea said it reached an agreement with the U.S. during talks this week on its nuclear program, and the top U.S. nuclear envoy expressed optimism Friday that progress could be made when wider arms negotiations reconvene.

North Korea's Foreign Ministry said three days of talks in Berlin between U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and North Korea's main nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan had been held "in a positive and sincere atmosphere and a certain agreement was reached there." No further details were given.

Hill said the talks laid the foundation for progress when six-nation nuclear negotiations resume and that he had agreed with his North Korean counterpart "on a number of issues." He also declined to elaborate.

"I am pretty convinced that we have the basis for a good session of the six-party talks," Hill told reporters in Seoul after meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon and nuclear envoy Chun Yung-woo.

"I feel we do have a chance of making some progress at the next round, absolutely," he said.
The last round of six-nation talks in Beijing in December _ two months after the North conducted its first-ever nuclear test in October _ ended without any breakthroughs.

The negotiating countries, which include South Korea, the U.S., Japan, China and Russia, had been seeking to outline how to implement a September 2005 agreement in which the North pledged to disarm in exchange for aid and security guarantees.

But North Korea refused to discuss its arms program and again demanded the U.S. lift its blacklisting of a Macau bank. The U.S. had accused the bank of being complicit in the communist country's alleged counterfeiting and money laundering, leading the bank to freeze North Korean assets worth about $24 million.

The North did not directly mention the financial dispute in its statement Friday, but said progress was made in overcoming obstacles to the six-nation talks.

"We paid attention to the direct dialogue held by the (North) and the U.S. in a bid to settle knotty problems in resolving the nuclear issue," the North's ministry said in the statement, released by the country's official Korean Central News Agency.

On arriving in Seoul earlier Friday, Hill said he hoped six-nation talks would be held again before the Lunar New Year holiday celebrated across Asia that falls this year on Feb. 18.

"It's up to the Chinese (hosts) but I would think we'll have a six- party meeting pretty soon," he said.

The U.S. is holding separate negotiations with North Korea on the financial dispute, but the last session that was held alongside the nuclear talks in December made no progress.

Hill said the next financial talks could take place as early as next week, but added a location had not yet been decided. The U.S. had proposed the two sides meet in New York, while the North wants to hold the talks in Beijing.
___
Associated Press reporters Kwang-tae Kim and Bo-mi Lim contributed to this report.

Global Warming Changes the World

Storms in Europe Kill 46, Disrupt Travel
Jan 19 9:39 AM US/Eastern
By DAVID RISINGAssociated Press Writer


BERLIN (AP) -- Europeans labored Friday to restore services across the continent after hurricane-force winds toppled trees, brought down power lines and damaged buildings, killing at least 46 people and disrupting travel for tens of thousands.

Berlin's new main train station was shut down after a two-ton girder fell from the side of the glass facade onto an outdoor staircase. The station was evacuated after the beam plummeted 130 feet Thursday night, but there were no injuries.

"I can see maybe the glass falling, but not the steel," said Thomas Mueller, an electrician who had stopped by the downtown station to survey the damage. "They just built this thing eight months ago."

Virtually the entire German national railway system shut down during the storm, with trees over many tracks and overhead power lines down, and services were being restored gradually Friday.

"We've never had such a situation in Germany," Deutsche Bahn CEO Hartmut Mehdorn said.

Off the coast of France, a coast guard tug was called upon to tow a damaged British container ship containing explosives to safety, a day after its crew of 26 was rescued from the stormy seas.
More than 1 million homes had no electricity in the Czech Republic, which was hit by winds of up to 112 mph, another 1 million households in Germany suffered power losses, while tens of thousands in Poland and Austria also were hit with outages.
The flow of Russian oil through a Ukrainian pipeline to other parts of Europe was restored Friday after a temporary shutdown caused when the storm knocked out power to a pumping station. The interruption occurred Thursday night on a section of the Druzhba, or Friendship, pipeline from the city of Brody in western Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary, but Oleksandr Dikusarov, a spokesman for the Ukrtransnafta pipeline company, said the flow of oil was fully restored Friday afternoon.


The storm led to the deaths of at least three people in the Czech Republic, 12 in Germany, 14 in Britain, six in the Netherlands, three in France, two in Belgium and six in Poland.

It was the highest death toll from a storm in Europe since 1999, when gales downed trees and driving snow brought on avalanches, killing more than 120 in three days.

Climate researchers had been predicting stormy weather this year for parts of Europe, saying that unusually high temperatures in the North Atlantic, around 1 to 2 degrees above normal _ would allow winds to accumulate more moisture and surge in energy.

"In times of rapid climactic change, extreme events arise more frequently," said Peter Werner of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research.

Europe has been experiencing an extremely warm winter and has already been hit by several wind storms.

Most of the people killed in the storm were motorists, but in Germany they also included two firefighters _ one hit by a falling tree and the other dying of a heart attack _ and an 18-month old infant in Munich hit by a terrace door that was ripped from its hinges.

In London, a toddler was killed when a brick wall was knocked over by the wind and collapsed on him.

Frankfurt Airport reported that flights were again leaving regularly Friday after some morning delays and 200 cancellations Thursday.

National carrier Lufthansa canceled 331 flights across Germany on Thursday, affecting nearly 19,000 passengers, but intercontinental flights were largely on time again Friday, spokesman Thomas Jachnow said.

British Airways canceled 34 incoming flights to London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the two main London-to-Scotland rail routes ran reduced services.

Eurostar was running full service again, after one early Paris-to- London train was canceled.

Meanwhile, London Bridge station was reopened after being closed after part of a roof collapsed.
British train companies warned of delays through the day as repairs were carried out.

Thousands of Dutch commuters were stranded overnight when the service was halted on all trains because of obstructions to the tracks and downed power cables.

By early Friday, most Dutch trains were running again after engineers worked through the night to clear debris and repair power lines, the railway said.

German subways, trams and buses were largely back in service, but only a few long-distance trains were running.

"Bringing the service back is like a puzzle _ it goes bit by bit and we're now at the first pieces," railway spokesman Martin Walden said.

The German Weather Service said the storm was the strongest to hit the country since 1999.
The highest winds were felt in the southern state of Bavaria, where gusts of up to 126 mph were recorded.
___
Associated Press writers around Europe contributed to this report.

Storm Worm hits computers around the world
Fri Jan 19, 2007 8:52am ET


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HELSINKI (Reuters) - Computer virus writers attacked thousands of computers on Friday using an unusually topical email citing raging European storms, a security company said.

The virus, which the company named "Storm Worm," was emailed to hundreds of thousands of addresses globally with the subject line "230 dead as storm batters Europe."

An attached file contained so-called malware that can infiltrate computer systems.

"What makes this exceptional is the timely nature of the attack," Mikko Hypponen, head of research at Finnish data security firm F-Secure, told Reuters. . Hypponen said thousands of computers, most in private use, had been affected.

He said most users would not notice the malware, or trojan, which creates a back door to the computer that can be exploited later to steal data or to use the computer to post spam.

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Alternative Energy Becomes Pressing

Companies press Bush, Congress on climate: reports
Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:11am ET


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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Major corporations are joining environmental groups to press President Bush and Congress to address climate change more rapidly, news reports said on Friday.

The coalition, including Alcoa Inc., General Electric Co., DuPont Co., and Duke Energy Corp. plans to publicize its recommendations on Monday, a day ahead of the president's annual State of the Union address, The Wall Street Journal reported.

The group also includes Caterpillar, PG&E, the FPL Group, PNM Resources, BP and Lehman Brothers, The New York Times reported.

The group, known as the United States Climate Action Partnership, will call for a firm nationwide limit on carbon dioxide emissions that would lead to reductions of 10 to 30 percent over the next 15 years, the NYT reported.

The Journal said the coalition will discourage the construction of conventional coal-burning power plants and a cap on greenhouse-gas emissions.

The coalition's diversity could send a signal that businesses want to get ahead of the increasing political momentum for federal emissions controls, in part to protect their long-term interests, the Times said.

Officials from the companies were not immediately available for comment.

Bush in his speech next week is likely to support a massive increase in U.S. ethanol usage and tweak climate change policy, sources familiar with the White House plans said on Tuesday. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.

Riddance of Satellites

U.S. tells China concerned by satellite-killer test
Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:57pm ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, Australia and Canada have voiced concerns to China over the first known satellite-killing test in space in more than 20 years, the White House said on Thursday.

"The U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."

Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite about 537 miles above the Earth on January 11 through "kinetic impact," or by slamming into it, Johndroe said.

Canada and Australia had joined in voicing concern, he said. Britain, South Korea and Japan were expected to follow suit, an administration official added.

On a visit to New York, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia raised concerns with the Chinese some days ago.

"So far, the answer from the foreign affairs people in China, including the ambassador in Canberra, is that they are not aware of the incident and they are getting back to us," Downer told reporters.

"What we don't want to see is some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space. The danger there is that you get into a situation where other countries, including the U.S. I suppose, would have to start to look for ways to protect satellites in space," he said. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.


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Meltdown of the Mehdi Army

U.S. seizes Sadr aide as Gates visits Iraq
Fri Jan 19, 2007 9:15am ET


BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iraqi troops seized a prominent spokesman for Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr on Friday, confronting a movement that has a key role in the ruling coalition but is accused by Washington of running death squads.

The midnight raid near Baghdad's Sadr City district, which Sadr's aides angrily called an "American provocation", came as Defense Secretary Robert Gates flew in to the southern city of Basra to meet the commander in Iraq, General George Casey.

Dealing with Sadr and his Mehdi Army militia is a burning issue for U.S. forces and Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki as they prepare what many see as a last-ditch effort to rein in sectarian violence that is pushing Iraq into civil war.

Gates said Iraq was at a "pivotal moment" and failure would be a "calamity" for U.S. interests.

Sadr, a young populist cleric with a mass following and some backing from Shi'ite Iran, is an ally of Maliki, who has been criticised by Washington and leaders of the once dominant Sunni Arab minority for failing so far to disarm the Mehdi Army.

Maliki, however, has said this month he will crack down on Shi'ite militias and said 400 Mehdi Army members had been arrested in mainly Shi'ite southern Iraq over recent days.

Friday's move appeared to be part of a campaign of targeted operations which senior Shi'ite politicians have told Reuters are being mounted against key figures in the Mehdi Army. It was not clear which was the main suspect among at least three people arrested, including Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji, a spokesman for Sadr. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.


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Israelis finally explore peaceful options

Israel transfers promised tax revenues to Palestinian leader Abbas
Jan 19 4:09 AM US/Eastern


JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel has freed a promised US$100 million in frozen tax funds and transferred the money to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, an official in Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said Friday.

The transfer, made Thursday night, gives the moderate leader a boost ahead of crucial weekend talks in Damascus with the top Hamas leader and is the first such Israeli payment since the militant Islamic Hamas won control of the Palestinian government last March.

The funds are part of the customs duty and value added tax Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority under partial peace accords. Israel halted transfer of the revenues when Hamas won parliamentary elections and set up its Cabinet.

Israel, the United States and the European Union define Hamas as a terror group because of its history of suicide bombings against Israelis over the past decade, which have killed hundreds and its continued refusal to recognize Israel and renounce violence. The international community has frozen foreign aid that has kept the Palestinian Authority afloat since it was created in 1994.

The Israeli official said the money would be transferred directly to Abbas for use in humanitarian efforts and to boost his security force. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision had not yet been formally announced, said Israel was satisfied by assurances that the money would not go to the Palestinian Finance Ministry, which is controlled by Hamas.

Long Awaited Reprieve from the cost of Oil

Oil Prices Fall to $50.40 a Barrel
Jan 19 3:31 AM US/Eastern
By DERRICK HOAssociated Press Writer


SINGAPORE (AP) -- Oil prices fell in Asian trading Friday after the U.S. Energy Department said U.S. crude inventories rose by the most in more than four years.

Light, sweet crude for February delivery dropped 8 cents to $50.40 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange mid- afternoon in Singapore. Overnight in New York, the contract briefly fell below $50 a barrel for the first time since May 2005 before settling at $50.48.

Crude futures have slipped for eight of the first 12 trading sessions of 2007, partly on mild winter temperatures in the U.S. Northeast, a key consumer of heating fuels, and growing energy stockpiles.

Skepticism about the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries' commitment to delivering 1.2 million barrels of production cuts that were supposed to have started in November also weighed on oil prices.

Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin & Gertz in Singapore, said the dramatic increase in U.S. crude inventories "is a result of imports going up and indicates that OPEC production cuts have not really come through."

"In the short term, market sentiment is overwhelmingly bearish and it's possible for (the) price to go lower than $50. A lot is based on OPEC's plans to cut production," Shum said. "If OPEC maintains supply discipline and sticks to production cuts, the oil market will gain."

Crude stockpiles rose by 6.8 million barrels to 321.5 million barrels in the week ended Jan. 12, the Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report. It was the biggest barrel-by-barrel gain since October 2002. Analysts had been expecting an increase of just 325,000 barrels, according to a Dow Jones Newswires survey.

Gasoline stockpiles rose by 3.5 million barrels and distillates, which include heating oil and diesel, rose by 900,000 barrels. Both were at or above the upper end of the average range for this time of year, the EIA said.

February Brent crude on London's ICE Futures exchange added just 2 cents to trade at $51.77 a barrel.

Heating oil futures lost 0.14 cents to $1.4693 a gallon while natural gas prices rose 5.1 cents to $6.375 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Safety of Fish Farms

Escapes from Norway's fish farms threaten wild salmon
Jan 19 2:49 AM US/Eastern


Hundreds of thousands of salmon escape from Norwegian fish farms each year carrying parasites that pose a serious threat to wild salmon, a growing phenomenon that has fish farmers, environmentalists and authorities worried.

Some 790,000 salmon and trout slipped through the nets last year, compared to 722,000 the previous year.

This despite the fact that the salmon are continuously monitored. Underwater cameras and divers are constantly on the lookout for small holes in the nets of the aluminium cages that lie 35 meters (115 feet) under the surface.
The escapes are "a crime against the environment", Peter Gullestad, the head of the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, told AFP, adding: "Norway is facing its biggest ecological challenge."
The fish that escape from Norway's 1,000 fish farms, located in fjords and rivers along the 21,347 kilometers (13,264 miles) of coastline, threaten the maritime ecosystem.

"Salmon lice is the biggest threat" to stocks of wild salmon in the long term, explained Espen Farstad, a spokesman for the Norwegian hunting and fishing association NJFF.


The lice, which live in salt water and are known by the Latin name Lepeophtheirus salmonis, bite the salmon until they bleed, feeding off of the fish's mucus and causing the least resistant fish to die.

Most susceptible are young wild salmon swimming in the fjords and rivers before they head off to the open sea, as their immune systems are not yet fully developed.

The lice is a problem at all salmon farms around the world. In Norway, it poses a particular problem since fish is the country's second-largest natural resource export after oil and gas.
Also, as farmed salmon increasingly mix with wild salmon, the genetic composition of the latter changes.

"In the future, the entire genetic system of the wild fauna could be modified," Farstad warned.
"We are doing everything we can to prevent salmon from escaping from their cages and infecting the nearby rivers," insisted Bernt Wictor Haugen, a fish farmer in the Finnmark region in Norway's far north.

The industry is using frogmen, anti-lice baths, antibiotics, vaccines, and any other methods available to help fish farms and commercial fishing co-exist in harmony.

But for environmental organisations, not enough is being done.

"The fish farmers are not taking the problem seriously enough. The farms at fault should be punished," said Maren Esmark of the Norwegian branch of WWF.

She wants authorities to introduce severe sanctions on the fish farms. The complaints filed to the police are seldom followed up, according to Gullestad.

The fisheries ministry meanwhile says that the fish farm escapes are a top priority, as Norway has a reputation as a world leader to defend.

In 2006, fish farm exports totalled 18.7 billion kroner (2.2 billion euros, 2.9 billion dollars), up 24 percent from a year earlier, according to the Norwegian fisheries export committee EFF.

The increase is due primarily to rising demand for salmon and the arrival of cod and halibut farms.

Norway is Europe main's supplier of fish, both farmed and wild, with a market share of 62 percent in 2006.

And last year, fish farm exports for the first time exceeded exports from the traditional fishing sector, reaching 17 billion kronor.

In July, a special committee was set up by the fisheries ministry to improve security at the fish farms.

"Now all fish farm equipment has to be certified by the committee. A very strict inspection takes place once a year," said Rune Bildeng, an advisor to the fisheries ministry.

In order to meet the new demands, Norway's fish farms are slowly being turned into ultra-modern fortresses, resembling less and less the traditional fish farms.

"But a well-monitored salmon will always be better on the plate," insisted fish farmer Bernt Wictor Haugen.

Recently, a friend of mine commented on the health conscious safety of farm-raised fish. He expounded that fish in the wild were not as healthy nor as tasteful as farm_raised fish. This particular information lends food for thought to my thoughts on the subject of wild versus farm-raised fish or herbs. Maybe, it simply validates my opinion when my thoughts were unacceptable for the persuasiveness necessary to change his thoughts regarding the idea of farm-raised fish.

Measles Deaths Drop by 60 Percent
Jan 18 10:11 PM US/Eastern
By MARIA CHENGAP Medical Writer


LONDON (AP) -- Global measles deaths have dropped by 60 percent, health authorities announced in a report Friday, and one senior official called it a "historic victory" for public health.

Nearly 7.5 million children were saved from dying of measles between 1999 and 2005, thanks to increased immunization campaigns, the World Health Organization said. More than 360 million children aged 9 months to 15 years were vaccinated against measles during that period.

Measles is one of the most infectious diseases that exists. Though it is no longer a major problem in the West, in poor countries, the disease can kill as many as 30 percent of the children it infects, particularly in those with weakened immune systems.

"This is a historic victory for global public health," said Dr. Margaret Chan, WHO's director-general. Health authorities had hoped to cut measles mortality rates in half by 2005, but found that they had exceeded that goal by 10 percent. In Africa, the results were even more striking: measles deaths fell by 75 percent on the continent.

"It's not very often that global health initiatives not only achieve their goals, but actually exceed their goals faster than expected," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The measles success achieved to date, Gerberding said, has encouraged the global community to aim even higher, as they set a new goal of reducing measles deaths by 90 percent by 2010.

According to Geneva-based WHO, the next phase of this initiative is projected to cost about $500 million, of which $150 million has already been committed.

In a study published Friday in the British medical journal The Lancet, WHO scientists estimated that the number of measles deaths fell from 873,000 in 1999 to 345,000 in 2005.

Because surveillance figures from countries are not available, WHO based its figures on a modeling system that estimates the number of measles cases based on coverage rates achieved during vaccination campaigns. Experts said the numbers should be reasonably accurate.

If the 2010 goal is met, health officials may then start considering whether it might be feasible to eradicate measles. Like smallpox and polio, an effective vaccine exists, making it a potential candidate for eradication.

Still, the problems plaguing polio, which was originally supposed to be eradicated by 2000, may undermine any proposed measles campaign.

"The continuing failure to meet the polio eradication goals will cast much skepticism and pessimism on any similar global venture for measles," said Dr. Samuel Katz, co-inventor of the measles vaccine. Katz is also an infectious diseases specialist at Duke University.
"Donor and participant fatigue take their toll," he said.

To date, the effort to eradicate polio has cost $4 billion. And while health officials are tantalizingly close to the finish line _ polio incidence has been cut by 99 percent _ it remains stubbornly endemic in Afghanistan, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Whether or not measles eradication will be attempted will depend largely on if the 2010 goal can be met.

"That will be another milestone to measure if elimination is possible," said Dr. Vance Dietz, chief of the global measles department at the CDC.

"It may be that by then, we are so far ahead that regardless of what's happened with polio, people will want to move ahead," he said.

The Measles Initiative was launched in 2001 to reduce measles deaths worldwide. Its major partners are the American Red Cross, the CDC, the U.N. Foundation, UNICEF and WHO.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Mortality of Male Drivers

Risk of Death Higher for Male Drivers
Jan 18 6:28 PM US/Eastern
By SETH BORENSTEINAP Science Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- That age-old stereotype about dangerous women drivers is shattered in a big new traffic analysis: Male drivers have a 77 percent higher risk of dying in a car accident than women, based on miles driven.

And the author of the research says he takes it to heart when he travels _ his wife takes the wheel.

"I put a mitt in my mouth and ride shotgun," said David Gerard, a Carnegie Mellon University researcher who co-authored a major new U.S. road risk analysis.
The study holds plenty of surprises.

_The highway death rate is higher for cautious 82-year-old women than for risk-taking 16-year-old boys.
_New England is the safest region for drivers _ despite all those stories about crazy Boston drivers.
_The safest passenger is a youngster strapped in a car seat and being driven during morning rush hour.

The findings are from Traffic STATS, a detailed and searchable new risk analysis of road fatality statistics by Carnegie Mellon for the American Automobile Association. Plans are to make the report public next week, but The Associated Press got an early look.

The analysis calculates that overall, about one death occurs for every 100 million passenger miles traveled. And it shows that some long-held assumptions about safety on U.S. highways don't jibe with hard numbers. It lists the risk of road death by age, gender, type of vehicle, time of day and geographic region.

"We are finding comparisons that are surprising all the time," said study co-author Paul Fischbeck, a Carnegie Mellon professor of social and decision sciences. "What is necessary now is to go through and do that second level of analysis to figure out why some of these things are true."

For example, those dangerous 82-year-old women are 60 percent more likely to die on the road than a 16-year-old boy because they are so frail, said Anne McCartt, a research official at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, who was not part of the study.

"It's an issue not of risk-taking behavior, but of fragility," McCartt said. The elderly are more likely to die when they are injured in an accident, she said, an explanation that Gerard and Fischbeck validate.

These elderly women have the nation's highest road death risks even when they're not driving _ five times higher than the national average.

Right behind octogenarians in high risk are young male drivers, ages 16-23 with fatality rates four times higher than average.

That can be attributed to "inexperience and immaturity," McCartt said.

Drivers aged 40 and 50 tie for the lowest risk of dying in an accident. But if you're a male out at 2 a.m. Saturday on a motorcycle in the South, you may want to take out some more insurance.

By combining a batch of data of all types, you can construct the safest possible scenario on the road: That would involve a 4-year-old girl in a van or school bus, stuck in a Wednesday morning rush hour in New England in February.

Of all the ages to be in a car, 4-year-olds have the lowest death risks _ probably because they are in child car seats and their parents drive more carefully, Fischbeck said.

"They are really protected, they're being driven around in times of day when it's very safe (and often in minivans)," Fischbeck said. "It's a win-win-win-win situation."

As for men being more likely to die than women? McCartt and Fischbeck said men take more risks, speed more, drink and drive more.

"They do stupider things," said Fischbeck, a former military pilot who has twin toddlers and a "totally unsafe" 1974 Volkswagen Thing.

Fischbeck's study didn't get into specific car makes, but found larger vans to be the safest with a death rate less than half the national average for cars, and the drivers themselves played a role.

"It's a combination of they're safe and the people who drive them are dull," Fischbeck said.

School buses, massive vehicles driven during normally safe hours, have a death rate that is one-50th that of average passenger vehicles.

But the death rate on motorcycles was nearly 32 times higher than for cars. One of the riskiest combinations in the database are men between ages 21 and 24 who drive motorcycles between midnight and 4 a.m. Their road fatality risk is 45,000 times higher than normal.

The most deadly hour is at 2 a.m., which is often when bars close and many deaths are alcohol-related, Fischbeck said.

The fewest deaths per mile driven are at 8 a.m., mostly because the roads are so clogged with traffic _ and teenage drivers are in school, McCartt said.

That explains New England's No. 1 ranking for lowest death risk on the road, she said.

Heavy traffic "makes it much more difficult for people to speed," McCartt said.
___

Cingular's Service with AT*T

AT and T offers unlimited mobile-to-home calling plan
Fri Jan 19, 2007 1:01am ET


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By Sinead Carew
NEW YORK (Reuters) - AT and T Inc. said on Friday it will let subscribers who pay at least $110 a month make unlimited calls between their mobile and home phones, as it moves to stop customers from defecting to cable rivals.

The service, dubbed AT and T Unity, is offered as a perk to subscribers who pay for both the $50 a month unlimited local and long-distance calling plan for their home or business and the $59.99 a month unlimited wireless plan.

AT and T, which brought Cingular Wireless under one roof through its purchase of BellSouth Corp., plans to bundle wireless and fixed-line services to compete against cable TV providers, which now also offer telephone and Internet services.

Ralph de la Vega, president of AT and T's regional wireline business, which operates 68 million telephone lines in 22 states, expects the offer to reduce customer cancellations, known as churn, and help attract new customers.

"You can take it to the bank that churn is lower, that customers are happier," de la Vega said in a phone interview.

AT and T said roughly half of Cingular's 58.7 million wireless customers already use AT and T's land-line services. The company plans to market the new option in Cingular stores throughout the wireline operating region.

But Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin said the offer may have just a limited appeal, say to subscribers of wireless family plans, who tend to use up a lot of minutes calling home from multiple phones. Continued...

© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.


Is it not interesting that people whom happen to spend over $100 per month for wireless service plus landline service should be entitled to receive extra benefits of their cellular service? It makes one wonder what took AT and T's management quite a while to give an incentive to their cellular market...hmm. Maybe, whatever plan comes next will answer this thought.

US boy, 9, faces federal charges after flight of fancy
Jan 19 1:46 AM US/Eastern


A nine-year-old US boy could face federal charges, officials said, after a cross-country odyssey that saw him board two planes without a ticket before touching down in Texas.

Samaj Booker is being held at a juvenile center in San Antonio after a bizarre journey that has exposed airport security standards and left red-faced US airlines scratching their heads.

The drama began on Sunday when police in Lakewood, just outside Seattle, gave chase to a stolen vehicle, reaching speeds of up to 90-miles per hour before the car finally came to a stop with engine problems.

But officers were astonished to discover that the driver was nine-year-old Booker. "He didn't drive badly at all and was even able to avoid stop-sticks at one point," designed to deflate tires when thrown in front of a vehicle, Lieutenant David Guttu of Lakewood police told AFP.

Booker was returned to his mother but she reported him missing as a runaway early the following morning.

Booker made his way to Seattle Tacoma Airport where the 4ft 9in, 80lb youngster then persuaded agents with Southwest Airlines to allow him to board a flight to Phoenix.

According to a statement released from Southwest Airlines, Booker presented himself as a 12-year-old at the ticket counter, requested a boarding pass saying his mother was already in the boarding area.

His information matched a paid, ticket-less reservation for the flight and the boy was issued a boarding pass.

The flight originating in Seattle landed in Phoenix where Booker was allowed to change planes and land in San Antonio.

When he attempted to board another plane to get to Dallas it was determined his information didn't match a reservation and police were called.

Guttu says the nine-year-old was "pretty dedicated, highly motivated and focused" to get out of Washington state and back to Dallas where family members including his maternal grandfather live.

His mother told police he wasn't happy in Washington and "only considered Dallas his home" and he wanted to go home. He had lived in Lakewood for a couple of months.

Family from Dallas are scheduled to pick up the boy from the San Antonio juvenile center where he is being held.

Meanwhile prosecutors in Washington state are gathering information to determine how they will proceed.

Booker may eventually be served with a summons and a court date to answer federal charges of eluding police, stealing a vehicle and driving without a licence.

Perhaps, I missed some crucial and pertinent information which should allow better judgement of this particular circumstance, but honestly who should have known that a 9 year old would be charged with federal crimes!! Now, a minor child should have accountability for themselves due to the blunders of airlines as well as homeland security. Due to his resourcefulness in gaining access across state lines with no deterrence from anyone but his mother, he should pay for everyone's culpability in not gaining enough insight to stop a 9 year old child. What faith it restores in the Department of Homeland Security from terrorists? Who would have known that the people of America should feel so much better when the Department of Homeland Security is conducting such a positive deterrent amidst all of the terrorists while an unaccompanied child fo 9 years old has not encountered any problems dealing with them? My goodness!! What should become of such a child?! Maybe I am misguided, but should anyone wonder what would cause such a young child try to remove himself from his mother in such an uncompromising manner? Hmmm.