UK gas supply gets little LNG relief as cold bites stocks

By Daniel Fineren

DUBAI (Reuters) - Three big Qatari liquefied natural gas (LNG) deliveries should help replenish vital heating supplies for snow-covered Britain this week, but UK gas stocks remain uncomfortably tight with weeks of abnormally cold weather still to come.

A late blast of winter weather has drained Britain's already modest gas stocks to around a tenth of their capacity, sparking fears of supply restrictions with the cold weather forecast to continue into early April.

The first of a trio of tanker loads of super-cooled gas from the world's largest LNG exporter docked at the Isle of Grain terminal near London on Sunday, with a second due in Wales on Monday and a third on Friday, tracking data on Reuters shows.

The Qatari tankers could supply a total of around 430 million cubic metres (mcm) of gas to Britain over the next week, compared with daily gas demand of around 370 mcm, while another tanker has set sail from Trinidad on Saturday after UK gas prices leapt on Friday when a key supply link from Belgium shut unexpectedly for 8 hours.

"We get our supplies from a diverse range of sources and the market is proving to be highly responsive to the UK's needs," UK Energy Minister John Hayes said in statement on Sunday afternoon, pointing to the three LNG tanker deliveries.

"A shipment of liquefied natural gas arrived today and two more are due over the coming week," he said, adding that good supplies by pipeline from Europe and the UK's own North Sea platforms had allowed some replenishment of UK gas stocks over the weekend.

With little LNG coming to the UK over the last few months, and bitterly cold weather driving up heating demand, UK gas stocks have been drained to just 10 percent capacity.

A slight dip in demand over the weekend, when gas use by industry falls, helped replenish gas stocks by about 7 mcm from Saturday to around 453 mcm on Sunday, according to data from National Grid.

The arrival of a trio of large LNG tankers from the Gulf and the expected delivery around Apr. 3 of a rare cargo from Trinidad could allay some jitters over very low UK stocks.

But it may take sustained high UK wholesale gas prices to lure many more gas tankers away from consistently higher paying buyers in Asia to the UK.

The Trinidad delivery could add another 80 mcm of gas to UK supply in the first week of April, but there are mounting concerns that more will be needed to supplement supply from the North Sea if gas stocks dry up completely as winter drags on.

According to Reuters analysis of AIS data transmitted by the world's fleet of LNG tankers on Sunday, there were no other ships indicating that they are heading to Britain.

It is possible that tankers currently sailing to the Americas from African or Middle Eastern producers could be diverted to Britain to cash in on the surge in UK gas prices at the end of last week.

There is no sign of any more Qatari LNG ships heading to Britain in the Mediterranean.

Two vessels sailing from Qatar towards the Suez canal are not indicating their final destination, but even if they do head to Britain, the Al Hamla is at least 12 days sail away while the Al Areesh is 15 days away from boosting Britain's gas supplies.

But Britain also has an additional 358 mcm of gas - almost a day of its total gas needs - still held as LNG in storage tanks at UK import terminals.

The UK, a net gas exporter until 2004, has become increasingly dependent on imports as its own production from the North Sea has declined rapidly over the last decade.

In a bid to diversify supply sources, it built some of Europe's largest LNG terminals in the middle of the last decade.

Until last year the two terminals in Wales and an older facility near London were big contributors to Britain's gas supplies and helped boost north-west European supplies through a link to Belgium.

A temporary flood of LNG in 2009-10 led to some new UK gas storage projects being put on hold as apparently plentiful supplies of LNG, especially from Qatar, challenged the economics of stocking gas in summer for use in the winter.

But LNG's share of UK gas supplies has shrunk significantly over the last year, as competition for finite Qatari LNG has intensified from high paying buyers in Asia while new LNG consuming markets have absorbed supply from producers in the Atlantic basin.

Much of continental Europe still gets its gas on long-term contracts from Russia and Norway, but Britain's supplies depend on UK market prices being more attractive to foreign suppliers than other markets.

(Editing by Ron Popeski, Mark Potter and Theodore d'Afflisio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/uk-gas-supply-gets-little-lng-relief-cold-175916333--finance.html

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No suspensions from Canada-Mexico brawl at Classic

Canada's Joey Votto watches a fight between teammates and Mexico during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 9, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Canada's Joey Votto watches a fight between teammates and Mexico during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 9, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Canada's Jay Johnson, right, and Mexico's Eduardo Arredondo, left, fight during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic game on Saturday, March 9, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Players from Canada and Mexico fight during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 9, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Canada and Mexico fight during the ninth inning of a World Baseball Classic game, Saturday, March 9, 2013, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Matt York)

PHOENIX (AP) ? The violent misdeeds of the Mexican and Canadian baseball teams will go unpunished.

The World Baseball Classic decided no players will be suspended in the aftermath of Saturday's nasty brawl between the teams. Video of the fighting spread across the globe, giving the WBC a major league dose of unwanted attention.

Organizers said Sunday that while the mayhem "runs counter to the spirit of sportsmanship and respectful competition," suspensions would not be appropriate because one team and possibly both will not advance to the second round.

Canada's 10-3 victory eliminated Mexico from the competition. But the Canadians were also sent home Sunday with a 9-4 loss to the United States, which advanced to the second round in Miami.

The organizers, in a statement attributed to World Baseball Classic Inc., said punishment would be inappropriate because of the format of the tournament, which is now held every four years.

"Because at least one club ? and potentially both ? will not advance to the second round, WBCI has determined that disciplinary measures would not have a meaningful corrective impact," the statement said.

The brawl began in the ninth inning Saturday when Canada's Rene Tosoni was hit by a pitch from Mexico's Arnold Leon after Canadian Chris Robinson reached on a bunt single.

The organization said it spoke with representatives of the Canadian and Mexican federations Saturday night.

"We are aware of the perspectives held by both sides in a competitive environment," the WBC said. "Nevertheless, we relayed to both teams that such an altercation is inappropriate under any circumstances and has no place in baseball."

Canada manager Ernie Whitt said the WBC "did the right thing."

When asked if the failure to take further action might give players license to such behavior in future WBC games, he said: "I certainly hope that's not the case. I know it's not the case with our team in there. ... We had guys that were worried about it yesterday because of the fact of what happened. I think that if it happened again, then there would be suspensions."

Seven players were ejected, four from Mexico and three from Canada.

Left unsaid was whether the WBC would look at changing the tiebreaker rule that was behind Robinson's decision to bunt for a base hit with his team leading 9-3 in the ninth. In the WBC's first round, a three-way tie is decided by overall run differential.

Mexico manager Rick Renteria said after the game he believed his players didn't realize there was a reason behind Robinson's decision.

"I think in just the heat of the moment you lose sight of it and maybe that's how it occurred," Renteria said. "It was just a misunderstanding."

A very violent misunderstanding.

While some players tried to hold back teammates, others tumbled to the ground in hand-to-hand combat with opposing players.

When Canada returned to the dugout, someone in the largely pro-Mexican crowd hurled a full water bottle that hit pitching coach Denis Boucher in the head. Canadian shortstop Cale Iorg grabbed the bottle and angrily threw it back in the stands. When play resumed, someone threw a ball from the crowd that almost hit Canada first base coach Larry Walker in the head.

That's when Whitt went to home plate umpire Brian Gorman and said if anything else is thrown at them from the crowd, he was pulling his players off the field. Several people in the crowd were escorted away by security personnel.

Robinson, who played for Baltimore's Triple-A club in Norfolk last season, was in the center of the intensity all afternoon. First, there was a home plate crash with Karim Garcia, who was out trying to score from second. Then Robinson's hard slide into second broke up a double play and allowed a run to score in the eighth. Finally, there was the bunt.

"The sad thing about the whole thing is we had a lot of great performances that were overshadowed by this incident," Whitt said. "And you look at the pitching of (Chris) Leroux and (Andrew) Albers and (Trystan) Magnuson, you look at the offense that we put out there with (Justin) Morneau and (Mike) Saunders. I mean, unfortunately, that was overshadowed by an ugly incident."

Mexico was frustrated in the late innings as its WBC hopes, so bright after a 5-2 victory over the United States a night earlier, were slipping away.

"We're not here to lose," Renteria said. "If you would say that that's a failure, well, we were here to win and we didn't. So, yeah, you can take it as a failure."

___

Follow Bob Baum at www.twitter.com/Thebaumerphx

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-10-WBC-After%20The%20Brawl/id-cea3c7b52e1542f48cf67667a8016941

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Valerie Harper Brain Cancer ? 'Rhoda' Star Opens Up In New TV ...

After revealing that she has terminal brain cancer, the ?Rhoda? star said in a new interview that she is ?scared? for her family, but she is ready to die. So sad.

Valerie Harper, 73, made the tragic announcement on March 6 that she had been?diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and in two new interviews she revealed how scared she is. The iconic TV actress appeared on?The Today Show?on March 11 to talk about her tragic illness, and she told host?Savannah Guthrie?that she ?doesn?t want to go? but she is ready to say ?bye bye? to her family. On The Doctors, she admitted that she wants to be ?less afraid of death.? So inspirational.

Valerie Harper Talks About Her Illness On ?The Today Show?

Valerie looked stunning when she appeared on The Today Show, and she certainly did not look like someone who has been given three months to live. She opened up to Savannah, and admitted that her terminal illness scares her.

?It is incurable so far,? said Valerie, who admitted that ?she is ready to say bye bye? to her family. She was so sad and honest when she said ?I don?t wanna go? and ?I?m scared. I?m scared for my family.?

The Rhoda star even revealed that she has tried to reason with her cancer!

?I said listen you little guys [the cancerous cells], you can live if you don?t kill me.?

Valerie said her?husband of 34 years, Tony Cacciotti, ?got hit like a ton of bricks? by the diagnosis, but they are ?committed to facing this challenge together.?

Valerie was also interviewed on The Doctors on March 11, where the doctors noted that her brain cancer could be a secondary cancer related to the lung cancer she suffered in 2009.

Valerie Opens Up About Her Cancer On ?The Doctors?

Following her Today Show interview, Valerie sat down with the The Doctors doctors?Travis Stork,?Lisa Masterson, and?Andrew Ordon, along with her own team of doctors to examine her diagnosis of brain cancer.

?What I have is rare. It?s also incurable, so far. [Those are the words] I?m looking up ? ?so far? ? because they?re doing research as we speak,? Valerie told the doctors.??More than anything, I?m living in the moment.?

?I really want Americans and all of us to be less afraid of death,? said the inspirational Valerie.??Know that it?s a passage, but don?t go to the funeral before the day of the funeral. While you?re living, live.?

Valerie admitted that she has broken down several times over her illness.

?I have moments of really sobbing, but I let myself do it.?I really cry and then I go, ?OK, you?ve been the drama queen. Are you over it? OK, now, make the pasta.? And I do.?

Valerie was then shocked by surprise appearances by former co-stars?Ed Asner?and?Cloris Leachman. Ed said via telephone??I think you?re the greatest.?

?I?m absolutely devastated by this news. Valerie has given such joy, laughter and love to the world. I join her fans and send much love and positive thoughts to her and her family during this difficult time.? said Valerie?s former co-star Mary Tyler Moore.

Valerie then admitted that her loving husband Tony knew about her diagnosis before she did.

?I didn?t get [the diagnosis] because my husband hid it,? Valerie shared. ?Poor baby. He was so bereft. [The doctors] said there is nothing we can do for her, and [she has] three to six months, maybe.?

The doctors admitted that Valerie?s cancer is extremely rare.

?I?ve taken care of over 10,000 patients with lung cancer in my career, and I?ve never seen this exact presentation,? said Dr. Ronald Natale.

?The blood-brain barrier is part of the problem with brain tumors, explained Dr. Rudnick. ?This blood-brain barrier, from an evolutionary standpoint, was designed to protect us. It was there to protect you against bacteria and infections, but unfortunately, now, what we find is that this barrier also protects us against chemotherapy.?

Valerie finished her interview by saying that she had been overwhelmed by the amount of support she had gotten from her fans and the public.

?There?s so much love out there for me.?It?s been great. It?s been an actually lovely experience for me.?

Valerie Reveals She Has Terminal Brain Cancer

In an interview with PEOPLE magazine,?The Mary Tyler Moore?star bravely announced that she has been diagnosed with?leptomeningeal carcinomatosis, a rare kind of cancer where cancer cells fill the fluid membrane surrounding the brain.

?I don?t think of dying. I think of being here now,? Valerie says.??I?m well past my expiration date already.?

Valerie is so inspirational. She has remained so upbeat and positive with her diagnosis, and her main concern is her family.

What do YOU think HollywoodLifers? Does Valerie have the right attitude?

??Eleanore Hutch

More Valerie Harper Cancer News:

1. Valerie Harper Reveals She Has Terminal Brain Cancer
2. Valerie Harper Will Appear On ?The Doctors? To Discuss Brain Cancer
3. Valerie Harper ? TV Icon Diagnosed With Terminal Cancer

Source: http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/03/11/valerie-harper-brain-cancer-today-show-interview/

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A Fantastical Look at Fixing the Curiosity Rover

After spending roughly $2.5 billion to build the Curiosity rover and deliver it to Mars, there's no way NASA would let something as trivial as a mechanical breakdown or software glitch stop its journey—not when we could just send up a repair-bot to fix it. Nicolas Hommel and Matthieu Findinier produced this bubbly animated short positing what it would take to get the mechanical Magellan of Mars back on its feet, er wheels. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/85WFJQmWjmM/a-fantastical-look-at-fixing-the-curiosity-rover

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What Happened When Humans Met An Alien Intelligence? Sex Happened

We have dreamed about it for so long. We've told stories, made movies, imagined what it would be like when we humans have our first "close encounter" with an intelligent alien, a creature about our size, who can gaze back, talk (even if we can't understand what's being said) who can scare us, thrill us, make us feel its mind. Who wouldn't want a moment like the one in E.T., when the little alien puts out his finger? But that's the movies.

We now know how big the universe is, how far the stars are from each other. Just as I was getting used to the idea that even if there's intelligent life out there, there's no way we'll ever be able to find the light years to get together, I opened Chip Walter's new book, Last Ape Standing, and discovered ? it's already happened.

First Encounter

We've already met our intelligent alien. We almost certainly had sex with them. And we did it here, right here on Earth, not so many generations ago.

In Chip's book, he describes one such encounter: We're in Europe, in a forest, maybe. It was an ordinary day, around 40,000 years ago, and a small band of Homo sapiens, some hunters, slender, looking much like us, their families nearby, are moving through the woods, looking for a boar, rabbits, something to eat, when all of a sudden "they" appear.

"Imagine this encounter, and its shattering effect," writes Walters. "Each group must have gazed at the other in bewildered amazement."

In an instant they would have seen that these creatures resembled them, but were clearly not one of them. Why didn't they communicate in the same way or even make the same sounds? This wasn't simply a different tribe ... this was another creature altogether, perhaps a god or an animal, or something in between.

God? Animal? Something In Between

On one side of that meadow stood ... us, or rather our ancestors, a group we now call Cro-Magnon (after the cave in France where their bones were discovered). We were modern humans 40,000 years ago, emigrants from Africa, baby-faced, scant of hair, but loaded with brain. We were smart. We probably carried sharp hunting tools of our own design, flint knives and spears for throwing and we had taught ourselves to kill animals from a distance ? animals like those aliens making mysterious noises on the other side of the meadow.

What did the other group look like? They looked kind of like us, but stronger. Their hands were huge, their shoulders big, rounded with muscle, their faces, ah, their faces came with enormous noses, rich with nasal membranes that could warm the cold, dry air they breathed up north, where they lived.

We were more recently up from Africa, still dark skinned. They'd been 200,000 years in Europe, had grown fair, freckled and some of them had red or blond hair. And while you wouldn't know it from looking, their brains were even bigger than ours, at over 1700 cubic centimeters. "That's about 300 ccs larger than your brain or mine," says Walter. We had never seen their like, but you, you reading this, you know them from photos and magazines. They were Neanderthals. And Neanderthals have gotten a bum rap for the last hundred years.

Caveman With A Club?

We think of Neanderthals as primitives, stooped, brutish, club bearing ? one of those not-quite-upright apes in a standard Evolution of Man cartoon. But they weren't stooped. That was an error. In 1908, a prominent French scientist, Marcellin Boule, examined a set of Neanderthal bones found in Southern France, put them together, and discovered an apish, bowed figure. He decided that's what all Neanderthals looked like, but he was wrong.

Boule's specimen was 40 to 50 years old, seriously old for a Neanderthal. He had suffered from chronic arthritis, "a disease that had cruelly twisted the man's spine," Walters writes. (Thus, the stoop.) "Walking must have been agonizing given the state of his bones. He died with no more than two teeth, which would have made eating the normal rough, Neanderthal diet nearly impossible. Yet this man's fellow tribesmen must have carried and fed him specialized foods for years, otherwise he would never have lived to such a ripe age."

So these people (and they were "people" ? we share a common ancestor; living up north for 200 million years had changed them and made them a different species), they were hardly "brutish." At the very least, they were gentle to their elders. They must have carried, fed and cared for that old fellow for years. What's more, there's evidence they thought about life in complicated ways.

There's a gravesite in Iraq where a Neanderthal was found, "positioned fetal-like, as though he were sleeping." Neanderthals buried their dead before we Homo sapiens did, and on this site, the skeleton appears to have once surrounded by flowers and evergreens. Investigators found traces of pollen below and around him, as if to say, "We didn't abandon this man. We too knew how to love, to grieve, and we laid him here with the same tenderness you have for your people, and like you, we wished him soft passage ..."

Neanderthals, says Steven Mithen of Reading University, may have spoken a more musical, tonal language, a mix of cooing and keening, singsong beats, accompanied by gestures. Chip Walter likes to think that in their speech, and early on with their burial practices, they may have been a touch "more softhearted than we are," but we really don't know.

So what happened that afternoon in our meadow, in that moment of very first encounter? Did we think, "Food!" and attack? Did we flee? Did they? Or did we watch them, wait, take tentative steps toward each other, wondering, "What are they? Can we get closer? Can we trust them?" "The big and primal question ? the mastodon in the room so to speak," writes Walters, is the simplest one: "Are they a friend or an enemy?"

Killing Them With Kindness?

Anthropologists differ on what happened. There is some evidence, but not a lot, that we regularly attacked and eventually annihilated the Neanderthals. There's evidence too, that we crowded them out of the best hunting sites, making it harder for them to earn a living (and they needed to eat more than we do to stay alive), But the third possibility, writes Chip Walter, is that "if we killed them at all, we killed them with kindness. We neither murdered them nor outcompeted them. We mated with them and, in time, simply folded them into our species until they disappeared."

Love The One You're With

About 35,000 years ago, Homo sapiens and Neanderthals lived within shouting distance of each other in France and Spain for, at the very least, a few thousand years. If they mingled, some might have gone farther. There is a skeleton of a boy, found in Portugal, who lived after the last Neanderthals died in southern Spain, whose body seems to be a hybrid, part them, part us.

But the clincher is in your cells. I'm talking about you, you reading this, unless you are 100 percent Yoruba or San (groups that never emigrated from Africa). In 2010, scientists at the Max Planck Institute in Germany, discovered that most humans on Earth, especially if they descend from Europe and most of Asia, carry about 1 to 4 percent Neanderthal DNA in their cells. Proportions will vary. British comedian Eddie Izzard, discovered he's 2.8 percent Neanderthal. You don't carry Neanderthal DNA unless someone up your family tree coupled with one.

So that's our proof: that our first encounter with an intelligent alien led to ... umm, well ... more.

Chip Walter's Book is Last Ape Standing: The Seven Million Year Story of How and Why We Survived. It's the story of our family tree, which includes, amazingly, 27 (and still counting) different varieties of walking, upright humans. Nature produced many, many different human species, only one line of which led to us. The rest just blinked out. Here's a gorgeous look at some of our predecessors:

As for close encounters, Neanderthals aren't the only intelligent humans who lived alongside us. In Siberia, a separate species called the Denisovans hunted and settled in the Altai Mountains 40,000 years ago. Another group, the Red Deer Cave people lived in south central China as recently as 11,500 years ago. And a mini-version of humanity, Homo floresiensis, often called "hobbits" may have been on an Indonesian island as recently as 17,000 years ago. Henry Gee, of Cambridge University, likes to think they may still be with us, hiding in some remote cave or forest in Indonesia.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/03/08/173813194/what-happened-when-humans-met-an-alien-intelligence-sex-happened?ft=1&f=1007

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Bin Laden spokesman pleads not guilty in NYC

This image made available by Al-Jazeera shows Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and spokesman. Abu Ghaith has been captured by the United States, officials said Thursday, March 7, 2013, in what a senior congressman called a "very significant victory" in the fight against al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera)

This image made available by Al-Jazeera shows Sulaiman Abu Ghaith, Osama bin Laden's son-in-law and spokesman. Abu Ghaith has been captured by the United States, officials said Thursday, March 7, 2013, in what a senior congressman called a "very significant victory" in the fight against al-Qaida. (AP Photo/Al-Jazeera)

A Homeland Security vehicle sits in front of a federal court in New York on March 8, 2013, where Sulaiman Abu Ghaithwhere, a senior al-Qaida leader and son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, pleaded not guilty to plotting against Americans in his role as the terror network's top spokesman. The case marks a legal victory for the Obama administration, which has long sought to charge senior al-Qaida suspects in U.S. federal courts instead of holding them at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Charging foreign terror suspects in federal courts was a top pledge by President Barack Obama shortly after he took office in 2009, aimed, in part, to close Guantanamo Bay. (AP Photo/Peter Morgan)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A senior al-Qaida leader and son-in-law of Osama bin Laden, captured in Jordan a week ago, pleaded not guilty Friday in a heavily secured New York courtroom to plotting against Americans before and immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks in his role as the terror network's top spokesman.

Bearded and balding, Sulaiman Abu Ghaith was escorted into the largest courtroom at the federal courthouse in Manhattan, where he entered the plea through a lawyer to one count of conspiracy to kill Americans in a case that marks a legal victory for President Barack Obama's administration.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John P. Cronan revealed that Abu Ghaith gave an "extensive post-arrest statement" that totaled 22 pages after he was arrested overseas the night of Feb. 28 and arrived in the U.S. March 1. The prosecutor said nothing about the contents of Abu Ghaith's statement.

A law enforcement official with knowledge of the case said Abu Ghaith initially agreed to be interviewed without an attorney at the FBI office in lower Manhattan immediately after his arrival. Later in the day, he requested an attorney and was interviewed with an attorney present. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk about the case.

Nearly a dozen deputy U.S. marshals guarded the ceremonial courtroom as about 80 spectators, mostly journalists, lawyers and court employees, watched the 15-minute proceeding before U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, a no-nonsense judge who promised to set a trial date when Abu Ghaith returns to court on April 8.

Black cuffs that bound his hands behind him were taken off Abu Ghaith after he sat next to his court-appointed federal defender, Philip Weinstein. His prison blue uniform covered a brown shirt. The judge told him he could remain seated.

Kaplan read him the charges he faced, including passages describing how Abu Ghaith appeared with bin Laden and current al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri the day after the Sept. 11 attacks and said a "great army is gathering against you" as he called on the "nation of Islam" to battle against Jews, Christians and Americans.

Then, the judge said, Abu Ghaith shortly afterward warned in a speech that "the storms shall not stop ? especially the airplanes storm" and advised Muslims, children and al-Qaida allies to stay out of planes and high-rise buildings.

Kaplan advised Abu Ghaith: "This is not a trial." He then read him his rights.

Through an interpreter, Kaplan asked whether Abu Ghaith understood his rights. Abu Ghaith nodded and said, "Yes, I do." Asked whether he had money to hire an attorney, Abu Ghaith shook his head and said no. He nodded and said yes when asked whether he had signed an affidavit describing his financial situation.

Bail was not requested, and none was set. Prosecutors said a trial would last about three weeks. After the proceeding, Abu Ghaith's lawyer declined comment.

The Obama administration has long sought to charge senior al-Qaida suspects in American federal courts instead of military tribunals at the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But it runs counter to demands by Republicans in Congress who do not want high-threat terror suspects brought into the United States.

Abu Ghaith was born in Kuwait and was bin Laden's son-in-law. The Department of Justice said he was the spokesman for al-Qaida, working alongside bin Laden and al-Zawahri, since at least May 2001. Abu Ghaith is a former mosque preacher and teacher.

In one video, he was sitting with bin Laden in front of a rock face in Afghanistan. Kuwait stripped him of his citizenship after Sept. 11.

In 2002, under pressure as the U.S. military and CIA searched for bin Laden, Abu Ghaith was smuggled into Iran from Afghanistan, prosecutors said.

Abu Ghaith's trial will mark one of the first prosecutions of senior al-Qaida leaders on U.S. soil. Charging foreign terror suspects in American federal courts was a top pledge by Obama shortly after he took office in 2009, aimed, in part, to close Guantanamo Bay.

Republicans have fought the White House to keep Guantanamo open. Several GOP lawmakers on Thursday said Abu Ghaith should be considered an enemy combatant and sent to Guantanamo.

Generally, Guantanamo detainees have fewer legal rights and due process than they would have in a court in America but could potentially yield more information to prevent future threats.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes in Washington and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-08-Bin%20Laden%20Spokesman/id-c6a74a0510f143f99c616cc2f7862f05

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Birds Need Tune To Stay Current

Savannah sparrows that kept up with the changes in their species' calls over the years had higher rates of reproductive success than the birds who sang the same old song. Amy Kraft reports.

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Unless you?re at a Chaucer convention, speaking middle English is not going to impress a potential romantic partner in 2013. Similarly, male Savannah sparrows have to make sure their vocalizations are up to date.

Researchers analyzed three decades of recordings of male Savannah sparrows. And birds that changed their tune over the years did better with the ladies. The research is in the journal Animal Behaviour. [Heather Williams et al, Three decades of cultural evolution in Savannah sparrow songs]

While introductory notes of the sparrow?s song stayed the same, the middle and end parts changed over time. In the 1980?s, songs concluded with longer, high-pitched trills. More recent songs contain a series of clicks in the middle and a shorter, low-pitched trill at the end.?

Researchers found that the male sparrows that adopted the newer songs had higher rates of sexual reproduction. Because you don?t want to be seen as behind the times. Indeed, Chaucer might have had his pick of the ladies in the 14th century. But few today can make heads or tails of his tales.

?Amy Kraft

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]????

?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=ac7021b52ed7582c9bf12591b7fe358d

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