Iran's parliament orders ties with Britain reduced

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's parliament on Sunday approved a bill requiring both Iran and Britain to withdraw their respective ambassadors from each other's countries, following London's support of recently upgraded U.S. sanctions on Tehran.

Tehran's relations with Britain have become increasingly strained over the past few months, largely driven by increasing tensions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The West says Iran is developing weapons; Tehran denies the claims.

During an open session broadcast live by state radio, 171 out of 196 lawmakers present voted for the bill requiring Iran to reduce its relationship with Britain to the level of charge d'affaires within two weeks. Ismail Kowsari, a lawmaker and one of the sponsors of the bill, told the official IRNA news agency that the bill would lead to the removal of ambassadors.

Britain's Foreign Office on Sunday said the decision to order the country's ambassador, Dominick John Chilcott, to leave Tehran was regrettable.

"This unwarranted move will do nothing to help the regime address their growing isolation, or international concerns about their nuclear program and human rights record," the ministry said in a statement. "If the Iranian government acts on this, we will respond robustly in consultation with our international partners."

The bill needs ratification by a constitutional watchdog to be a law. It also requires reduction of the volume of trade to a "minimum" level. It allows Iran's foreign ministry to restore ambassador-level relations if the "hostile policy" of Britain changes.

Parliament's decision is seen as a reaction to London's support of a new U.S. package of sanctions in Iran. The measures were coordinated with Britain and Canada and build on previous sanctions to target Iran's oil and petrochemical industries and companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity.

The annual volume of trade between Iran and Britain is about $500 million.

Iranian oil exports are a large component of this trade. In the first six month of 2011, Iran sold some 11,000 barrels of crude to Britain per day, some 0.5 percent of Iran's daily production.

British Midland International airline carries some 80, 000 between Tehran and London per year in its daily flight. Some 100.000 Iranians live in Britain.

The tension between the two countries is not limited to the nuclear dispute.

Earlier in October, the mayor of Tehran ordered a lawsuit to be filed contesting the ownership of the land on which Britain's embassy has stood since the 19th century.

In September, Iran detained and summoned a group of people for their alleged links to BBC's Farsi-language service.

Since the turmoil which followed Iran's 2009 elections, Tehran has repeatedly accused Britain of fomenting unrest. London denies the charge.

___

Associated Press writer David Stringer contributed to this report from London.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2011-11-27-ML-Iran-Britain/id-ca64bc7f80fe46d4b05edcc37b76d939

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NASA launches super-size rover to Mars: 'Go, Go!' (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? A rover of "monster truck" proportions zoomed toward Mars on an 8 1/2-month, 354 million-mile journey Saturday, the biggest, best equipped robot ever sent to explore another planet.

NASA's six-wheeled, one-armed wonder, Curiosity, will reach Mars next summer and use its jackhammer drill, rock-zapping laser machine and other devices to search for evidence that Earth's next-door neighbor might once have been home to the teeniest forms of life.

More than 13,000 invited guests jammed the Kennedy Space Center on Saturday morning to witness NASA's first launch to Mars in four years, and the first flight of a Martian rover in eight years.

Mars fever gripped the crowd.

NASA astrobiologist Pan Conrad, whose carbon compound-seeking instrument is on the rover, wore a bright blue, short-sleeve blouse emblazoned with rockets, planets and the words, "Next stop Mars!" She jumped, cheered and snapped pictures as the Atlas V rocket blasted off. So did Los Alamos National Laboratory's Roger Wiens, a planetary scientist in charge of Curiosity's laser blaster, called ChemCam.

Surrounded by 50 U.S. and French members of his team, Wiens shouted "Go, Go, Go!" as the rocket soared into a cloudy sky. "It was beautiful," he later observed, just as NASA declared the launch a full success.

A few miles away at the space center's visitor complex, Lego teamed up with NASA for a toy spacecraft-building event for children this Thanksgiving holiday weekend. The irresistible lure: 800,000 Lego bricks.

The 1-ton Curiosity ? 10 feet tall, 9 feet wide and 7 feet tall at its mast ? is a mobile, nuclear-powered laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and with unprecedented skill, analyze them right on the spot.

It's as big as a car. But NASA's Mars exploration program director calls it "the monster truck of Mars."

"It's an enormous mission. It's equivalent of three missions, frankly, and quite an undertaking," said the ecstatic program director, Doug McCuistion. "Science fiction is now science fact. We're flying to Mars. We'll get it on the ground and see what we find."

The primary goal of the $2.5 billion mission is to see whether cold, dry, barren Mars might have been hospitable for microbial life once upon a time ? or might even still be conducive to life now. No actual life detectors are on board; rather, the instruments will hunt for organic compounds.

Curiosity's 7-foot arm has a jackhammer on the end to drill into the Martian red rock, and the 7-foot mast on the rover is topped with high-definition and laser cameras.

With Mars the ultimate goal for astronauts, NASA will use Curiosity to measure radiation at the red planet. The rover also has a weather station on board that will provide temperature, wind and humidity readings; a computer software app with daily weather updates is planned.

No previous Martian rover has been so sophisticated.

The world has launched more than three dozen missions to the ever-alluring Mars, which is more like Earth than the other solar-system planets. Yet fewer than half those quests have succeeded.

Just two weeks ago, a Russian spacecraft ended up stuck in orbit around Earth, rather than en route to the Martian moon Phobos.

"Mars really is the Bermuda Triangle of the solar system," said NASA's Colleen Hartman, assistant associate administrator for science. "It's the death planet, and the United States of America is the only nation in the world that has ever landed and driven robotic explorers on the surface of Mars, and now we're set to do it again."

Curiosity's arrival next August will be particularly hair-raising.

In a spacecraft first, the rover will be lowered onto the Martian surface via a jet pack and tether system similar to the sky cranes used to lower heavy equipment into remote areas on Earth.

Curiosity is too heavy to use air bags like its much smaller predecessors, Spirit and Opportunity, did in 2004. Besides, this new way should provide for a more accurate landing.

Astronauts will need to make similarly precise landings on Mars one day.

Curiosity will spend a minimum of two years roaming around Gale Crater, chosen from among more than 50 potential landing sites because it's so rich in minerals. Scientists said if there is any place on Mars that might have been ripe for life, it may well be there.

The rover should go farther and work harder than any previous Mars explorer because of its power source: 10.6 pounds of radioactive plutonium. The nuclear generator was encased in several protective layers in case of a launch accident.

NASA expects to put at least 12 miles on the odometer, once the rover sets down on the Martian surface.

McCuistion anticipates being blown away by the never-before-seen vistas. "Those first images are going to just be stunning, I believe. It will be like sitting in the bottom of the Grand Canyon," he said at a post-launch news conference.

This is the third astronomical mission to be launched from Cape Canaveral by NASA since the retirement of the venerable space shuttle fleet this summer. The Juno probe is en route to Jupiter, and twin spacecraft named Grail will arrive at Earth's moon on New Year's Eve and Day.

Unlike Juno and Grail, Curiosity suffered development programs and came in two years late and nearly $1 billion over budget. Scientists involved in the project noted Saturday that the money is being spent on Earth, not Mars, and the mission is costing every American about the price of a movie.

"I'll leave you to judge for yourself whether or not that's a movie you'd like to see," said California Institute of Technology's John Grotzinger, the project scientist. "I know that's one I would."

___

Online:

NASA: http://marsprogram.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/

Lego: http://legospace.com/

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rover

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Family of U.S. student freed in Egypt gives thanks (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Joy Sweeney's Thanksgiving wishes were granted in a predawn email on Thursday notifying her that her son and two other American students arrested on suspicion of throwing gasoline bombs in Egypt would be freed.

Sweeney said she was notified by email at 5:30 a.m. CST that Egyptian authorities would not appeal a judge's release order for her son Derrik Sweeney, 19 as well as Gregory Porter, 19, and Luke Gates, 21. They were detained this week during the protests in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

"I've gone from the low lows to the high highs," she said in a telephone interview with Reuters from the family's home in Jefferson City, Missouri.

"Oh my God, I'm absolutely ecstatic to have this news on Thanksgiving. He won't be home today but he'll be home soon," said Sweeney, who owns an art gallery and is executive director of Council for Drug Free Youth, a non-profit organization.

She had spoken with him for a minute shortly after he was detained.

"Initially I think they were treated roughly. He said they were not treated well at the beginning. Those his exact words," Sweeney said.

As for what her son was doing at the protests, she said, "He wanted to go there to observe the Egyptian culture and to be with them."

PLASTIC BOTTLES

Asked whether the students had the makings for gasoline bombs as initially alleged by Egyptian authorities, she quoted her older son, Josh, 27, a former Air Force serviceman who served in Iraq, who noted the students were carrying plastic bottles.

"'If they were accused of having Molotov cocktails, they would have had glass bottles,'" she quoted him as saying.

The students -- Sweeney of Georgetown University, Porter of Drexel University, and Gates of Indiana University -- were studying abroad at American University's Cairo campus.

Indiana University spokesman Mark Land, who is in contact with Gates's parents, did not have details on how he was treated.

He said the students' release had been slowed because of a holiday but should be in "a couple of days."

Gates plans to return immediately to Indiana after his release. "His parents have spoken with him and he seems to be doing OK," Land said.

Mark Toner, a spokesman for the State Department, said the United States was trying to confirm reports of the release and was in contact with the students' families.

"We appreciate the ongoing expeditious consideration of this case by the Egyptian authorities," he said in a statement.

Drexel spokeswoman Niki Gianakaris called the Thanksgiving email from Cairo "very encouraging news about Greg and the other two students" but had no further information.

Sweeney had been due to return to the United States on December 22 at the end of the semester. His older brother, a Northrop Grumman employee working in Kunduz, Afghanistan, was planning to stop in Cairo and join him for the trip home for Christmas.

"Josh said, 'There goes my trip to Cairo,'" their mother said.

(Additional reporting by Eric Johnson in Chicago and Dave Warner in Philadelphia; Editing by Ian Simpson)

.

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/us_nm/us_egyptprotest_students_parents

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They call it 'guppy love': Biologists solve an evolution mystery

Thursday, November 24, 2011

Guppies in the wild have evolved over at least half-a-million years ? long enough for the males' coloration to have changed dramatically. Yet a characteristic orange patch on male guppies has remained remarkably stable, though it could have become redder or more yellow. Why has it stayed the same hue of orange over such a long period of time?

Because that's the color female guppies prefer.

"Sometimes populations have to evolve just to stay the same," said Greg Grether, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and co-author of a study published Nov. 23 in the online edition of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, a major journal for research in evolutionary biology.

"In this case, the males have evolved back over and over again to the color that females prefer," said Grether, who noted that there are many examples in which there is less variation among populations of a species than life scientists would expect.

The new study, funded by the National Science Foundation, "provides a neat solution to a mystery that has puzzled me for years," he said.

The orange patches on male guppies are made up of two pigments: carotenoids (which they ingest in their diets and are yellow) and drosopterins (which are red and which their bodies produce). Carotenoids are the same pigments that provide color to vegetables and fruits. Plants produce carotenoids, but animals generally cannot; guppies obtain most of their carotenoids from algae.

UCLA's Kerry Deere, the lead author of the study, conducted experiments in which she presented female guppies (Poecilia reticulata) with a choice of males with low, medium and high levels of drosopterin to see which males they preferred. In her experiments, the females were given a wider range of pigment choices than they would find in the wild. Deere, who was a graduate student of ecology and evolutionary biology in Grether's laboratory at the time and is currently a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in human genetics, conducted more than 100 mate-choice trials.

The females strongly preferred the intermediate males, those whose patches, or spots, were the right hue of orange ? not too red and not too yellow.

"The females preferred the males with an intermediate drosopterin level by a highly significant margin," Deere said.

"Males that are closer to this preferred hue probably have more offspring," Grether said.

If guppies were dependent only on carotenoids for their orange coloration, one would expect to find large changes in the color of their orange patches because the availability of algae varies by location. Guppies are native to Trinidad and Venezuela; the ones in this study were from Trinidad.

(Unlike the colorful guppies sold in pet stores, female guppies in the wild do not have bright coloration like the orange patches. Males are not as ornate, or as large, as the pet-store variety either.)

"A pattern I discovered 10 years ago, which was mysterious at first, is that in locations where more carotenoids are available in their diet, guppies produce more of the drosopterins," Grether said. "There is a very strong pattern of the ratio of these two kinds of pigments staying about the same.

"To human eyes at least, as the proportion of carotenoids in the spots goes up, the spots look yellower, and as the proportion of drosopterins goes up, the spots look redder. By maintaining a very similar ratio of the two pigments across sites, the fish maintain a similar hue of orange from site to site. What is maintaining the similar pigment ratio across sites and across populations? The reason for the lack of variation is that genetic changes counteract environmental changes. The males have evolved differences in drosopterin production that keep the hue relatively constant across environments. As a result of Kerry's experiment, we now have good evidence that female mate choice is responsible for this pattern."

While there are many cases in nature in which genetic variation in a trait masks environmental variation, there are very few examples where the cause is known.

"I originally assumed if there was variation among populations in drosopterin production, it would be the populations where carotenoid availability was lowest that were producing more of these synthetic pigments to compensate for the lack of carotenoids in their diet. But we found the opposite pattern," Grether said. "They're not using drosopterins as a carotenoid substitute; they're matching carotenoid levels with drosopterins. Why they are doing that was a mystery. The answer appears to be that it enables them to maintain the hue that female guppies prefer."

###

University of California - Los Angeles: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu

Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/115457/They_call_it__guppy_love___Biologists_solve_an_evolution_mystery

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Justin Bieber discusses paternity accusation with Letterman (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? David Letterman told Justin Bieber he could "smell a weasel" when the pop star was accused of fathering a fan's baby.

In a preview of The Biebs' appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman" Wednesday night, Letterman describes his anger at Mariah Yeater's paternity claim.

Letterman may be unusually sensitive to the possibility of people trying to extort money from celebrities: In 2009, he admitted to having sex with women who work for him on the "Late Show" after one of their boyfriends tried to blackmail him.

"You know what? That made me see red," Letterman told Bieber about Yeater's claim of a backstage tryst with Bieber after a Los Angeles concert.

"Really? You saw red? You were angry? Why were you angry?" a smiling Bieber asked Letterman.

"I could smell a weasel," said Letterman.

"I think I can smell a weasel, too, a little bit," Bieber said. "I know, it's pretty crazy ... people make up false accusations."

You can watch a preview, in which Bieber also describes taking a DNA test, and is confused by the word "disrobing," here: http://www.thewrap.com/tv/column-post/justin-bieber-letterman-i-smelled-weasel-baby-mama-drama-video-33025

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111123/people_nm/us_justinbieber

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Fujifilm's XS-1 bridge camera: 26x zoom, EXR sensor, ?699 in the UK (video)

Fujifilm claims it's 'reinvented' the bridge camera with the latest in its X line of premium snappers. The XS-1 is affixed to a Fujinon lens that opens up to f/2.8 and stretches all the way from 24mm to 624mm (in 35mm parlance) in an effort "cater perfectly for every photographic need" and prevent you from ever longing for the flexibility of a DSLR. It even sports a Super Macro Mode for focusing down to a rather intimate single centimeter. Behind the lens sits the same 12-megapixel EXR CMOS found in the X10, which means you get an undersized 2/3-inch sensor instead of the superior APS-C format found in the X100 and many DSLRs. Read on for more specs in the press release plus a short promo clip, and expect to see this hit British shelves in February for £699 ($1090).

Continue reading Fujifilm's XS-1 bridge camera: 26x zoom, EXR sensor, ?699 in the UK (video)

Fujifilm's XS-1 bridge camera: 26x zoom, EXR sensor, ?699 in the UK (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Nov 2011 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Trash Talkin? Tuesday

Trash Talkin’ Tuesday

Whiskey For Pregnant Women?–The Frisky Michelle Obama’s Offends NASCAR Crowd?–HollyWire Mike Rowe Facing a Lawsuit?–Right Celebrity Katy Perry Squashes Pregnancy Rumors–The Celebrity Cafe Pauly D [...]

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Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2011/11/22/trash-talkin-tuesday-24/

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Life Insurance Term Verses Whole ? Is Term Life Insurance Better ...

Posted by TabaresDingle955 | November - 22 - 2011 | Comments Off

There has been an on-going battle in the life insurance industry involving term life insurance and whole life insurance. The industry has survived the battle but the consumer is still asking the same question. Which one is better? The question is flawed because these two policies serve two different purposes. The real battle comes over the concept of buying term and investing the difference or the purchase of permanent life insurance. The proponents of buy term and invest the difference surmise that the policyholder would do better investing the difference in premium costs that you save by purchasing a term policy rather than a whole policy. Permanent life insurance was never created to be an investment. It was created to take care of permanent life insurance needs. The cash value accumulation within permanent life insurance is an added benefit and not an investment feature. The best life insurance portfolio is a combination of both permanent and term life insurance.

Permanent Life Insurance ? Permanent life insurance should be purchased for permanent needs. Final expenses and life insurance for retirement are two basic permanent life insurance needs. Life insurance at retirement is critical because it gives you more options to use your retirement benefits for income rather than life insurance.

Term Life Insurance ? Term life insurance is for temporary needs. Term life insurance will compliment your permanent base of life insurance. Decreasing term and level term riders can be added to your permanent policy to take care of temporary needs like mortgage protection and short term debt.

It is important to understand why you are purchasing life insurance. You will be much more content when you establish in your own mind the reasoning behind the purchase. Do a little mini-need analysis. Think about what is important to you and who is important to you. Life insurance is a gift of love.

For extra details about excel VBA there?s a lot of information not detailed in this article, find those details at Author?s site to uncover extra information.

Source: http://www.31night.com/2011/11/life-insurance-term-verses-whole-is-term-life-insurance-better-than-whole-life/

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3 police officers found dead in Mexico border city (AP)

PIEDRAS NEGRAS, Mexico ? Assailants kidnapped and killed three police officers in the Mexican border city of Acuna, authorities said Monday.

Acuna Public Safety Department said in a statement that the three were on patrol in the same unit when gunmen kidnapped them early Monday.

The officer's bodies were found an hour later in a residential area of Acuna, which is across the border from Del Rio, Texas. They had been shot and their hands were handcuffed, the police department said.

Authorities say the Zetas and the Sinaloa drug cartels are fighting each other to control smuggling routes in the state of Coahuila, where Acuna is located.

Last week, gunmen killed a federal prosecutor for the state of Coahuila when he was about to leave his home in the city of Torreon.

A day earlier, gunmen set a fire at the office of the Torreon newspaper El Siglo and fired shots at it. No injuries were reported.

Authorities in the neighboring state of Durango said soldiers dug up the remains of seven people from a pit.

Durango state prosecutors said troops found the remains in the town of San Juan del Rio, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) north of the state capital, the city of Durango. They gave no other details.

More than 400 bodies have been found in a series of clandestine graves in Tamaulipas and Durango states since April. They are believed to be a result of turf battles between drug cartels.

In Hidalgo, the home state of Zetas leader Heriberto Lazcano, state police chief Damian Canales said authorities detained eight local police officers for allegedly working for the Zetas.

Canales said six of those detained were officers for the town of Actopan and two for the state capital of Pachuca. He said they were detained after the arrest of the former police chief in the town of Arenal, who authorities allege was in charge of recruiting police officers to work for the Zetas.

Canales said the Pachuca city police officers told investigators the Zetas paid them about $360 a month.

Also on Monday, military authorities said soldiers in the border state of Chihuahua detained two police chiefs while they were meeting with an alleged drug trafficker.

Soldiers detained the police chief and a police officer for the town of Gran Morelos and the police chief for the town of Belisario Dominguez while they met with a boss for La Linea, a gang of hit men for the Juarez Cartel, the Defense Department said in a statement.

It said an anonymous phone call led the troops to the meeting in the town of Belisario Dominguez. Soldiers arrested two other men and seized three handguns and four automatic rifles, the statement added.

President Felipe Calderon has been pushing to clean up local and state police forces, whose officers are often corrupt or are coerced by threats into helping drug gangs.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/latam/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111122/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_drug_war_mexico

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