Texas DA slain in his home; had armed himself

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland took no chances after one of his assistant prosecutors was gunned down two months ago. McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere he went and took extra care when answering the door at his home.

"I'm ahead of everybody else because, basically, I'm a soldier," the 23-year Army veteran said in an interview less than two weeks ago.

On Saturday, he and his wife were found shot to death in their rural home just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas.

While investigators gave no motive for the killings, Forney Mayor Darren Rozell said: "It appears this was not a random act."

"Everybody's a little on edge and a little shocked," he said.

The slayings came less than two weeks after Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict, and two months after Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse was killed in a parking lot a block from his courthouse office. No arrests have been made in Hasse's slaying Jan. 31.

McLelland, 63, is the 13th prosecutor killed in the U.S. since the National Association of District Attorneys began keeping count in the 1960s.

Sheriff David Byrnes said Sunday that there was nothing to indicate for sure whether McLelland's slaying was connected to Hasse's. He declined to discuss it further. The sheriff also said he had no indication that white supremacist groups were involved in the killing of the DA.

Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Evan Spencer Ebel, a former Colorado inmate and white supremacist who authorities suspect shot Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies two days later about 100 miles from Kaufman.

El Paso County, Colo., sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Joe Roybal said Sunday that investigators had found no evidence so far connecting the Texas killings to the Colorado case, but added: "We're examining all possibilities."

McLelland, in an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado slaying, raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

McLelland, elected DA in 2010, said that Hasse hadn't prosecuted any cases against white supremacists but that his office had handled several, and those gangs had a strong presence around Kaufman County, a mostly rural area dotted with subdivisions, with a population of about 104,000.

"We put some real dents in the Aryan Brotherhood around here in the past year," McLelland said.

McLelland said he carried a gun everywhere he went, even to walk his dog around town, a bedroom community for the Dallas area. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

"The people in my line of work are going to have to get better at it," he said of dealing with the danger, "because they're going to need it more in the future."

The number of attacks on prosecutors, judges and senior law enforcement officers in the U.S. has spiked in the past three years, according to Glenn McGovern, an investigator with the Santa Clara County, Calif., District Attorney's Office who tracks such cases.

For about a month after Hasse's slaying, sheriff's deputies were parked in the district attorney's driveway, said Sam Rosander, a McLelland neighbor.

The FBI and the Texas Rangers joined the investigation into the McLellands' deaths.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, 65, were the parents of two daughters and three sons. One son is a police officer in Dallas. The couple had moved into the home a few years ago, Rozell said.

"Real friendly, became part of our community quickly," Rozell said. "They were a really pleasant, happy couple."

___

Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers Michael Graczyk in Houston, Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth and P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-da-slain-home-had-armed-himself-175942683.html

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Egyptian TV satirist released after questioning

A bodyguard secures popular Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office to face accusations of insulting Islam and the country's Islamist leader in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

A bodyguard secures popular Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office to face accusations of insulting Islam and the country's Islamist leader in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian popular television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, waves to is supporters as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 31, 2013 for accusations of allegedly insulting Islam and the country's leader. The acceleration in legal action targeting protesters, activists and critics comes against a backdrop of continued unrest in the country. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Popular Egyptian television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, waves to is supporters as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office to face accusations of insulting Islam and the country's Islamist leader in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian popular television satirist Bassem Youssef, who has come to be known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, waves to is supporters as he enters Egypt's state prosecutors office to face accusations of insulting Islam and the country's Islamist leader in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Government opponents said the warrant against such a high profile figure, known for lampooning President Mohammed Morsi and the new Islamist political class, was an escalation in a campaign to intimidate critics. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

CAIRO (AP) ? A popular television satirist known as Egypt's Jon Stewart was released on bail Sunday after nearly five hours of interrogation over allegations that he broke the law by insulting Islam and the president.

Bassem Youssef is the most prominent critic of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi to be called in for questioning in recent weeks in what the opposition says is a campaign to intimidate critics amid wave after wave of political unrest in deeply polarized Egypt.

Arrest warrants have been issued for five prominent anti-government activists accused of instigating violence.

Deputy chief prosecutor denied the interrogation was part of an intimidation campaign and said his department was enforcing the law and seeking to establish some guidelines on freedom of expression.

"The prosecution is the protector of social rights and we work on implementing the law. ... There must be guidelines for those working in the media to observe so as not violate the law," Hassan Yassin told The Associated Press.

Morsi last week accused private media of fanning violence and argued that it was being used for political aims.

But Yassin denied that the prosecutor's office was operating at the behest of the presidency to go after Morsi critics, saying it has also interrogated and sentenced Islamists.

"There is no contact between us and the presidency. ... Just like we moved against someone who insults Christianity, we moved against someone who is accused of insulting Islam," he said.

Youssef is the host of the weekly political satire show known for his skits lampooning Morsi and Egypt's newly empowered Islamist political class. But he also mocks the opposition and the media.

The fast-paced show has attracted a wide viewership, while at the same time earning its fair share of detractors. Youssef has been a frequent target of lawsuits, most of them brought by Islamist lawyers who accused him of "corrupting morals" or violating "religious principles."

Youssef frequently imitates Morsi's speeches and gestures. He has fact-checked the president, and in one particularly popular episode earlier this year, he played video clips showing remarks by Morsi, made in 2010 before he became president, calling Zionists "pigs."

The remarks caused a brief diplomatic tiff with the U.S. administration, and Morsi had to issue a statement to defuse the flap.

In his last episode this week, Youssef thanked Morsi for providing him with so much material.

Youssef has also made regular jokes about comments by Islamic clerics and Islamic stations TV presenters, exposing contradictions between their comments and public speeches and what he considers the spirit of Islam.

Prosecutor Mohammed el-Sayed Khalifa was quoted on the website of the state-owned Al-Ahram daily that he has 28 plaintiffs in the case against Youssef accusing him of insulting Islam, mocking prayers, and "belittling" Morsi in the eyes of the world and his own people.

The plaintiffs are mostly regular citizens, according to Shaimaa Abul-Kheir, a representative of the New-York based Committee to Protect Journalists who was allowed to attend the interrogation.

In remarks to a TV presenter on CBC, the private station that airs his program, Youssef said on Saturday that his program does not insult Islam but aims to expose those who "distort" it.

"We don't insult religion. What we do is expose those so-called religious and Islamic stations which have offended Islam more than anyone else," he said. "If anyone is to be investigated for insulting religions, it should be all those who use Islam as a weapon and a political tool to swallow the others using religion."

When asked if programs in Egypt should be less scathing than those of the West, Youssef said: "We will give (the West) an example of how freedoms are respected after the revolution," he said of the 2011 uprising that ousted longtime authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak.

After turning himself in for questioning, Youssef first tweeted a series of quips from the prosecutor's office.

"They asked me the color of my eyes. Really," one said.

A news broadcaster at a TV station affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, Misr 25, accused Youssef of "mocking" the investigation. His tweets later were erased and he wrote that some reports from inside the interrogation room were "incorrect."

Amr Moussa, a former presidential candidate, called the warrant for Youssef's arrest a "provocation to Egyptians who are known for their love of what is funny."

"There is nothing odious about criticizing the president," he said in an emailed statement. "This humanizes the president."

Gamal Eid, a rights lawyer, said accusing Youssef of insulting religion ? as opposed to just the president ? is a tactic aimed at increasing public sympathy for the investigation.

"The accusation of insulting religion would mobilize more people against him," Eid said.

A prosecution official said Youssef was to pay a bail of 15,000 LE ($2,200), pending the completion of an investigation. Youssef tweeted that the bail is for three separate cases.

Eid, the rights lawyer, said the release on bail means all options are open.

"The prosecution could continue investigation, put the case aside or send it to trial."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-03-31-Egypt/id-bf37cf2e36b84f7d85902eda18d31077

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Tetris Blitz to offer deeper, faster take on classic puzzle game

This ain't your daddy's Tetris - get as many rows as you can in two minutes and customize with power-ups

At GDC 2013, we took some time to talk with EA about the latest mobile iteration of the classic puzzle game franchise, Tetris. Tetris Blitz promises to be a whole new experience: there's no failure, just two frantic minutes of dropping blocks and lining up rows as quickly as possible.

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/XO2eQp090IE/story01.htm

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Lawmakers tighten belts amid automatic budget cuts

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Members of Congress are traveling less and worrying more about meeting office salaries. Their aides are contending with long lines to get inside their offices and fewer prospects of a raise. Such are the indignities thrust upon the men and women who brought the country $85 billion in government spending cuts this month.

There probably won't be much sympathy for a senator or congressman making $174,000 a year who is in no danger of being furloughed or laid off, at least until the next election. Still, there has been an effort, especially in the Republican-led House, to show that no one should be exempt from sacrifice.

"As those who are charged with the care of taxpayers' dollars, we need to lead by example," Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., who chairs the House Administration Committee, said last week in promoting a bill to slash the budgets of House committees by 11 percent.

Earlier in March ? after Congress and the White House failed to come up with an alternative to across-the-board cuts in most federal programs ? the House imposed an 8.2 percent reduction in lawmakers' personal office budgets. That came on top of 11 percent cuts to members' office budgets during 2011-2012.

"We've drastically reduced travel both for myself and my staff," said Republican Rep. John Campbell, who must cross the country to visit his southern California district. He said he tends to stay in Washington on two-day weekends rather than return home. "I'm more productive here when I'm not rushing to get home," he added.

Campbell said other "little things" he is doing to economize include reducing the office phone bill, cutting off magazine and newspaper subscriptions and using email rather than letters to communicate with voters.

Rep. Luke Messer, a freshman Republican from Indiana, said he hired fewer people when he came to Washington because "we essentially began the term knowing there was a high possibility of a sequester"? Washington-speak for the automatic spending cuts.

So far, congressional staffers appear to have escaped the furloughs that are likely to send thousands of public servants home without pay for several workdays over the next six months and disrupt some government services. "I hope to avoid that," said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., "but we will take any steps to ensure we don't exceed our budget." Under House rules, a lawmaker must pay for excess spending out of his or her own pocket.

The fiscal pressures are weaker in the Senate, where senators have staff budgets about double the amount of the $1.3 million average in the House and where the office cuts ordered because of the sequester were limited to 5 percent.

While staffers still have their jobs, they may have a harder time getting to them. Security officials have cut costs by closing 10 entrances and several side streets around the Capitol complex, creating long lines to get through screening stations. People "have started to adjust to those changes at the entrances," although it is still a challenge on busy days, said Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer.

Gainer, who oversees nearly 1,000 security and administrative employees, said he hopes to abide by the 5 percent sequester cut without layoffs by enlisting 70 or 80 people for a voluntary retirement program.

Some House members also are feeling the pinch during the two-week Easter break, a prime time for foreign "fact-finding" tours. House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, announced last month that members must book commercial flights rather than make use of more convenient but more expensive military aircraft.

Some Democrats have complained the GOP enthusiasm for frugality has come at too high a cost.

"At a time when most members of this body are representing newly formed congressional districts with a need to open new offices or move to new locations, we find ourselves with an 8.2 percent decrease in the very operating budgets that support constituent services," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

Wasserman Schultz, who also is the Democratic Party's chairwoman, criticized House Republicans for cutting budgets while spending some $3 million for the legal defense of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act, which bars federal recognition of same-sex marriages.

"We are past the point of cutting what we want, and we are now into cutting what we need ? our ability to attract and retain expert staff," said Rep. Robert Brady of Pennsylvania, the senior Democrat on the House Administration Committee.

Brad Fitch, president and CEO of the Congressional Management Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to improve congressional operations, said it's still possible that House members will have to resort to furloughs or layoffs. So far, he said, they have been able to cope with the cuts of the past three years with less drastic steps, such as reducing the size of their staffs through attrition, making more use of interns and using email rather than mass mailings.

At the end of 2011, Fitch's group recommended 46 possible ways for members to cut $90,000 from their 2012 budgets, ranging from pay freezes, holding more town hall meetings by telephone, delaying purchases of new computers, eliminating Washington staffers' visits to district offices, closing district offices, eliminating bottled water from offices and reviewing spending on food and beverages for constituents.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-tighten-belts-amid-automatic-budget-cuts-165316275--politics.html

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Crowdsourcing the WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page ? Continued

Photobucket.com ? Click the pic to view at source

Image Credit: Photobucket.com ? GISP2 ? Moberg ? Keigwin ? HadCRUT3

By WUWT regular ?Just The Facts?

During the first crowdsourcing thread for the under construction WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page, we had a number solid recommendations and WUWT moderator D.B. Stealey dropped a virtual mountain of links into comments here and here. The result is that the original WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page has more than doubled in size and continues to grow as more comments from the prior crowdsourcing thread are added. Given the large number of additions and the fact that we now have a number of near-duplicate graphs, it seemed prudent to continue this crowdsourcing exercise to gain further input on the validity and value of each and all of the graphs.

There?will likely be at least one more crowdsourcing thread for the?WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page, in order to assess a number of the currently disputed, questionable and falsified graphs, including Briffa et al., 1998, Jones et al., 1998, Mann et al., 1998, Pollack et al., 1998, Jones et al., 1998, Mann et al., 1999, Mann et al., 2000, Briffa et al., 2001, Esper et al., 2002 and Jones and Mann 2004, AR4 section 6.6.1.1 2007 and Marcott et al. 2013. Note that two (1, 2) of the graphs currently on the Paleoclimate page have a Disputed label, as per this comment and Alley?s own graph, the x axis label should read Years Before Present (1950 AD) not (2000 AD)

However, disputes aside, a gigantic thank you to D.B. Stealey, and all of those who have contributed to the WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page. The following are some of the new additions to the WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page:

472 Years

Tony B ? Climate Etc. ? Click the pic to view at source

1,205 Years 800 ? 2005

BioCab.org ? Click the pic to view at source

2,000 Years

PLUSAF.com ? Click the pic to view at source

2,500 Years

Photobucket.com ? Click the pic to view at source

3,000 Years

Photobucket.com ? Click the pic to view at source

4,000 Years

GreenWorldTrust.org.uk ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years GISP2 Ice Core

BP.Blogspot.com ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years Vostok Ice Core

BP.Blogspot.com ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years

WUWT ? Easterbrook Figure 5 ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years Vostok Ice Core

McLean.ch ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years GISP Hadley

Photobucket.com ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years GISP Hadley

Photobucket.com ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years GISP Hadley

WUWT ? GISP ? Hadley ? Click the pic to view at source

10,000 Years GISP

J. Esper et al. ? Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) ? Click the pic to view at source

++12,000 Years

JoNova.com ? Click the pic to view at source

20,000 Years

NOAA NCDC ? Click the pic to view at source

100,000 Years GISP2

Imageshack.com ? Click the pic to view at source

110,000 Years GISP2

University of New Hampshire ? Click the pic to view at source

118,000 Years

JoNova.com ? Click the pic to view at source

140,000 Years Antarctic/Vostok

BP.Blogspot.com ? Click the pic to view at source

140,000 Years

C3Headlines.Typepad.com ? Click the pic to view at source

140,000 Years

Wikipedia ? Click the pic to view at source

400,000 Years Antarctica/Vostok

APPINSYS.com ? Click the pic to view at source

420,000 Years

Arizona University ? Click the pic to view at source

423,000 Years Antarctic/Vostok

BP.Blogspot.com ? Click the pic to view at source

450,000 Years

EssayWeb.net ? Click the pic to view at source

450,000 Years

GlobalWarmingArt.com ? Click the pic to view at source

740,000 Years

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC) ? U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) ? Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) ? Click the pic to view at source

800,000 Years

Robert Bateman ? Click the pic to view at source

65,000,000 Years

ImageShack.us ? Click the pic to view at source

545,000,000 Years

570,000,000 Years

ImageShack.us ? Click the pic to view at source

4,500,000,000 Years

Biology Cabinet ? BioCab.com ? Click the pic to view at source

(Please note that WUWT cannot vouch for the accuracy of the data/graphics within this article, nor influence the format or form of any of the graphics, as they are all linked from third party sources and WUWT is simply an aggregator. You can view each graphic at its source by simply clicking on it.)

Please post your thoughts, recommendations, graphs, links, research, suggested graph titles, etc., for the <a href=?http://wattsupwiththat.com/reference-pages/global-weather-climate/paleoclimate/?>WUWT Paleoclimate Reference Page</a> in comments. Thanks JTF

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Source: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/03/30/crowdsourcing-the-wuwt-paleoclimate-reference-page-continued/

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Google launching same-day delivery service for online shoppers ...

MICHAEL LIEDTKE ? ? ? 14 hrs.

Internet search leader Google is taking another step beyond information retrieval into grocery delivery.

The new service, called Google Shopping Express, will initially provide same-day delivery of food and other products bought online by a small group of consumers in San Francisco and suburbs located south of the city. The company, based in Mountain View, Calif., didn't say how many people will be part of the test.

If the pilot program goes well, Google plans to expand delivery service to other markets.

"We hope this will help users explore the benefits of a local, same-day delivery service, and help us kick the tires on the new service," Google said in a Thursday statement.

The delivery service is part of Google's effort to increase consumer reliance on the Internet, so it will have more opportunities to show online ads, which generate most of its revenue.

Google has learned that the more time people spend online, the more likely they are to use its dominant search engine or one of its other popular services, like its YouTube video site or Gmail, that include advertising.

The delivery service also could spur merchants to buy more online ads if Google's same-day delivery service encourages consumers to do more of their shopping online. Having to wait days or, in some cases, more than a week for the delivery of online orders ranks among the biggest drawbacks to Internet shopping.

It's a problem that Amazon.com and eBay, which operate the largest e-commerce sites, already have been trying to solve by offering same-day service in some U.S. markets. Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, also offers same-day delivery in five markets.

A mix of national, regional and neighborhood merchants are enlisting in Google Shopping Express. The best-known names on the list include Target and Walgreen. All the merchants in the Google program will sell certain items through a central website. Google has hired courier services to pick up the orders at the merchant stores and then deliver them to the customer's home or office.

Although the couriers will be working on a contract basis, they will be driving Google-branded vehicles and wearing company-issued uniforms.

It remains unclear whether Internet shopping and same-day delivery can be profitable. Online grocer Webvan collapsed in 2001, largely because it couldn't devise a pricing plan that would pay for the costs of same-day delivery without alienating shoppers unwilling to pay too much extra for the added convenience.

Google is still trying to figure out how much to charge for its same-day delivery service. For the six-month test period in the San Francisco area, consumers won't have to pay a surcharge. Google instead will receive a commission from participating merchants.

The expansion into same-day delivery comes at the same time that Google is preparing to close some of its older online services so it can devote more attention and money to other projects.

The realignment has irked some Google users. The biggest complaints have centered on Google Reader, which allows people to automatically receive headlines and links from their favorite sites, and iGoogle, which allows Web surfers to design a page consisting of the Google search engine surrounded set up other online features, such as local weather reports and stock market quotes.

Google Reader is scheduled to close in July and iGoogle will shut down in November.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/business/google-launching-same-day-delivery-service-online-shoppers-1C9143458

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Robot ants successfully mimic real colony behavior

Friday, March 29, 2013

Scientists have successfully replicated the behaviour of a colony of ants on the move with the use of miniature robots, as reported in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. The researchers, based at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (Newark, USA) and at the Research Centre on Animal Cognition (Toulouse, France), aimed to discover how individual ants, when part of a moving colony, orient themselves in the labyrinthine pathways that stretch from their nest to various food sources.

The study focused mainly on how Argentine ants behave and coordinate themselves in both symmetrical and asymmetrical pathways. In nature, ants do this by leaving chemical pheromone trails. This was reproduced by a swarm of sugar cube size robots, called "Alices", leaving light trails that they can detect with two light sensors mimicking the role of the ants' antennae.

In the beginning of the experiment, where branches of the maze had no light trail, the robots adopted an "exploratory behaviour" modelled on the regular insect movement pattern of moving randomly but in the same general direction. This led the robots to choose the path that deviated least from their trajectory at each bifurcation of the network. If the robots detected a light trail, they would turn to follow that path.

One outcome of the robotic model was the discovery that the robots did not need to be programmed to identify and compute the geometry of the network bifurcations. They managed to navigate the maze using only the pheromone light trail and the programmed directional random walk, which directed them to the more direct route between their starting area and a target area on the periphery of the maze. Individual Argentine ants have poor eyesight and move too quickly to make a calculated decision about their direction. Therefore the fact that the robots managed to orient themselves in the maze in a similar fashion than the one observed in real ants suggests that a complex cognitive process is not necessary for colonies of ants to navigate efficiently in their complex network of foraging trails.

"This research suggests that efficient navigation and foraging can be achieved with minimal cognitive abilities in ants," says lead author Simon Garnier. "It also shows that the geometry of transport networks plays a critical role in the flow of information and material in ant as well as in human societies."

###

Garnier S, Combe M, Jost C, Theraulaz G (2013) Do Ants Need to Estimate the Geometrical Properties of Trail Bifurcations to Find an Efficient Route? A Swarm Robotics Test Bed. PLOS Comput Biol9(3): e1002903. doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002903

http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1002903

Public Library of Science: http://www.plos.org

Thanks to Public Library of Science for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

This press release has been viewed 37 time(s).

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127509/Robot_ants_successfully_mimic_real_colony_behavior

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Hagel says number of furlough days being reduced

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Pentagon says it's easing the impact of automatic budget cuts on as many as 800,000 civilian employees, sharply reducing the number of unpaid furlough days they will have to take in coming months.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday a new spending law lets the military services cut furlough days from 22 to 14.

The spending bill was signed earlier this week by President Barack Obama. It shifts $10 billion to operations and maintenance to give the Pentagon more flexibility to deal with billions of dollars in automatic, across-the-board cuts that kicked in March 1.

Hagel says the move will reduce the amount of cuts the military has to make in the 2014 budget year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-says-number-furlough-days-being-reduced-191025003.html

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Fay Kanin, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and Academy President, dies at 95

By Brent Lang

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Fay Kanin, an Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning screenwriter, died Wednesday of natural causes. She was 95.

In addition to her award-winning work, Kanin served as the second female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science, the nonprofit organization behind the Academy Awards, from 1979 to 1983.

"She was committed to the Academy's preservation work and instrumental in expanding our public programming," the Academy said in a statement. "A tireless mentor and inspiration to countless filmmakers, Fay's passion for film continues to inspire us daily."

Kanin's credits bridged the small and big screen, and she often specialized in romantic comedies that explored the age-old theme of the battle of the sexes. She received her Oscar nomination for penning the 1958 romantic comedy "Teacher's Pet," which served as a vehicle for Doris Day. Other film credits included "My Pal Gus," a 1952 comedy with Richard Widmark; "The Opposite Sex," a 1956 musical remake of "The Women"; and "Rhapsody," a 1954 musical romance starring Elizabeth Taylor.

On TV, Kanin won three Emmys - two for writing "Tell Me Where It Hurts" (1974), which followed a disenchanted housewife who forms a discussion group, and another for producing "Friendly Fire" (1979), which starred Carole Burnett and dramatized a family's discovery that their son had been killed by accidently by U.S. troops.

Kanin's career was briefly derailed after she and her husband, screenwriter Michael Kanin, ran afoul of the House Un-American Activities Committee and were blacklisted in the early '50s for their alleged Communist sympathies. The couple was unable to work for two years until director Charles Vidor asked them to write the screenplay for "Rhapsody."

In addition to her work with the Academy, Kanin served as the president of the Screen Branch of the Writers Guild of America and as chair of the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress, and was involved in other film industry organizations.

Although she worked regularly and was in demand at a time in which screenwriting remained closed to all but a handful of women, she shied away from making too much of her glass ceiling shattering legacy.

"I don't think you think of yourself as a pioneer," Kanin said. "I just felt very fortunate."

Kanin remained married to her husband for five decades. The couple got married in 1940 and Michael Kanin died of lung cancer in 1993. They had two sons, Joel and Josh, and two grandchildren. Josh died at age 13 of lung cancer.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fay-kanin-oscar-nominated-screenwriter-academy-president-dies-232707885.html

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A Big Picture From a Small Projector - NYTimes.com

Sometimes even a four-inch smartphone screen may not seem enough. If so, would 200 inches do?

The iPower Sight can ? according to the manufacturer, iPowerUp ? take what is on your phone, tablet or computer screen and enlarge it, projecting an image up to 200 diagonal inches from a device that is itself pocket-size.

Both measures may be a shade optimistic. No doubt the projector is small, at about 4 by 4 by ? of an inch and just over three ounces, but you would still need a pretty big pocket. And while it can project a focused image at up to 200 inches, you wouldn?t want to do that unless you had a completely darkened room and a nicely reflective projection screen.

It was easy enough to watch an image enlarged to around 50 inches on a white wall on an overcast day. Considering the size of the projector, the quality was quite good. The Sight uses a DLP chip, which is covered with minuscule mirrors to reflect LED light to the screen. It is the same technology that has long been used in many full-scale, high-end projectors.

The Sight?s lamp kicks out 85 lumens, which is brighter than most similarly sized projectors, and it has resolution of 854 by 480 pixels, which qualifies as high definition, but you will not want this to replace your 1080p plasma TV. Unlike your TV, the Sight can run about two hours on battery power, or plugged in for a movie marathon.

The videos I projected from YouTube looked good. Noise didn?t distract me from Psy?s horsie dance, but I could find it if I looked for it.

The projector?s built-in speaker is as anemic as the one you would find on your phone or tablet. If you want to add some quality sound, you will need to connect to a separate speaker dock.

If what you?re looking for is a decent picture from a small package, perhaps for presentations, entertaining the kids on a trip or making video games wall-size in a dorm room, the iPower Sight is far, far superior to huddling around your phone.

Currently the projector is only available direct from iPowerUp for $350.

Source: http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/03/29/a-big-picture-from-a-small-projector/

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Robotic surgery tied to temporary nerve injuries

By Genevra Pittman

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - One in 15 people undergoing robot-assisted prostate, kidney or bladder surgery develops a nerve injury related to pressure from positioning on the operating table, a new study suggests.

Patients on the table getting those types of robotic surgery need to be tilted steeply - with their head by the floor and their feet in the air - to give the surgeon better traction, researchers explained.

"When somebody is in that position, there's a chance they could slide down - it's like a big ramp," said lead author Dr. Tracey Krupski, from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville.

"When you slide, you then could be pulling, or having the drag on some of the nerves. It's like a constant pulling on the muscle."

Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration announced it would be taking a closer look into safety reports regarding da Vinci surgical robots, made by Intuitive Surgical. The robots cost about $1.5 million each.

For the new study, Krupski and her colleagues reviewed records from 334 robot-assisted urology procedures done at their institution in 2010 and 2011. Those included prostate, kidney, adrenal gland and bladder surgeries.

A total of 22 patients - between six and seven percent - woke up with a positioning injury after their procedure, including weakness, numbness or immobility in the hands or feet. More than half of the injuries resolved within a month, but five lasted more than six months, the study team reported in The Journal of Urology.

Patients were more likely to be hurt during longer procedures: surgeries without a positioning injury lasted four hours, on average, compared to five and a half hours for those in which a person was injured.

Krupski said the new findings shouldn't raise the alarm over robotic surgery safety.

"I don't think it means that we need to stop doing it," she told Reuters Health. "The benefits of a robotic approach far outweigh the six percent chance that we saw this happen."

Doctors and nurses can try to prevent the injuries by paying close attention to what's happening to their patients during surgery, she said, and going in to check on their positioning and slightly readjusting them when necessary.

"I think the issue of careful patient positioning and avoiding nerve injury is something that's there with every patient," said Dr. Myriam Curet, a surgeon at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and chief medical advisor for Intuitive Surgical.

"When you're putting a patient in a steep position, those issues are heightened," she told Reuters Health, adding that some non-robotic surgeries require that type of positioning as well.

"I think it's part of the discussion that any surgeon has with their patient about what the risks of surgery are."

Krupski agreed the most important message from her study is simply making patients aware of the possibility of nerve injury - so they know what's going on if it does happen to them.

"You tell the patients that, ?You might transiently wake up with one of these things that the vast majority of the time goes away,'" she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/10ltpD4 The Journal of Urology, online March 4, 2013.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/robotic-surgery-tied-temporary-nerve-injuries-180335373.html

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Police: Man forced 13-year-old into prostitution, tattooed her eyelids

By NBCMiami.com

A 13-year-old girl, who was forced to work as a prostitute, was branded with eyelid tattoos that read ?Suave? and ?House,? an arrest report said.

The girl told authorities she met Roman C. Thomas III, 25, at USA Flea Market in Liberty City, a Miami neighborhood, on March 12. After they talked for a while, she agreed to go with Thomas to his Miami Shores motel, where he told her that he was pimp, and that he wanted her to prostitute herself, the Miami Police arrest report said.

At the motel, the girl met Shanteria Sanders, 23, who has a tattoo of the word ?Suave? across her chest, authorities said.

Thomas and Sanders coerced the girl to become a prostitute, and eight sexually provocative photographs were taken of the girl and used in an ad on Backpage.com, the report said.

Thomas, who was arrested along with Sanders on March 18, described her as a ?new girl? and called her ?Sparkle,? the report said.

She told authorities Thomas told her to charge men $50 for 15 minutes of sex, $70 for 30 minutes, and $100 for an hour, the report said.

He gave her condoms and taught her how to talk to the men, authorities said. He also told her where to hide the money in the motel room, and he waited outside with Sanders while the act was performed, the report said.

---

The girl said Thomas beat her when he found less money than he anticipated, according to authorities.

? ?he placed duct tape on her mouth and threatened to kill her if she tried to leave him,? the report read.

Besides tattooing her eyelids, he gave the girl alcohol, marijuana and other drugs, police said.

The girl said although she never had sex with either Thomas or Sanders, the two of them had sex while she was in the motel room, and invited her to participate, the report said. Sanders then told Thomas to leave the girl alone, the report said.

Both Thomas and Sanders face charges including human trafficking, false imprisonment, lewd and lascivious exhibition and delivery of a controlled substance to a child under 18. They both deny the allegations.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a25c48e/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C290C175221330Epolice0Eman0Eforced0E130Eyear0Eold0Einto0Eprostitution0Etattooed0Eher0Eeyelids0Dlite/story01.htm

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BracketRacket: A quiz, a thought and Peeps

Welcome to BracketRacket, your one-stop shopping place for all things NCAA.

For our first Sweet 16 edition, we've got a geography quiz by Shockers and Explorers, a coach in rarified air, a former Ohio attorney general rooting for Michigan State and Jim Larranaga's thought for the day. All that and some Bracket Bits that include all of Dunk City's postseason dunks and, in honor of Easter, Peeps.

___

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ

Who says academics go by the wayside during the NCAA tournament?

La Salle and Wichita State took a geography quiz at the West Regional in Los Angeles, and the Shockers passed. Belying their name, the Explorers need to brush up a little.

Here's an excerpt of how it went from AP Sports Writer Beth Harris:

Question: Where is La Salle located?

Answer: "Philly, right? I believe it's Philly," Shockers guard Malcolm Armstead said.

Correct.

Question: Where is Wichita State located?

Answer: "What state is it in?" asked La Salle guard Ramon Galloway.

And it went downhill from there.

"I saw a store down here called Which Wich," Explorers guard Tyrone Garland offered, not-so-helpfully naming a national sandwich chain.

Guard Tyreek Duren pitched in: "Steve Zack said we passed the Wichita exit when we were going to the airport. He pointed it out and said, 'That's who we play.'"

Informed of their opponent's confusion, Shockers forward Cleanthony Early, of Middletown, N.Y., admitted he was initially stumped, too.

"I didn't know where Wichita was either before I went there," he said. "I had to do my research. When I first heard of it, I couldn't even pronounce it correctly."

After losing to the Shockers in the Sweet 16, the Explorers probably know a little bit more about Wichita as well.

___

ONE IS NOT LIKE THE OTHERS

Forgive Dana Altman and the Oregon Ducks if they have a bit of an inferiority complex this weekend.

And no, this isn't a gripe about the selection committee's seeding.

The Ducks, being covered at the Sweet 16 by AP National Writer Nancy Armour, are in the Midwest Regional semifinals with a veritable Who's Who of college hoops.

Their opponent, Louisville, is a two-time national champion and was in the Final Four last year. Cardinals coach Rick Pitino is a surefire Hall of Famer, with two NCAA titles, 660 wins ? and counting ? and a 49-18 record in March alone.

There's also Duke, which won its fourth national title two years ago and whose coach, Mike Krzyzewski, has more wins than anyone else in Division I. (Coach K has a side gig, too, leading the U.S. men to gold medals at the last two Olympics.)

And don't forget Michigan State, which may as well include the Final Four on its schedule for as many times as Tom Izzo and the Spartans wind up there.

"Fortunately, it's our team going out there," Altman said.

Altman is no slouch, either. Oregon is the third school he's taken to the NCAA tournament, and the Ducks have had 20-win seasons in each of his three years as head coach. But Oregon is not exactly a tournament mainstay; this is the Ducks' first appearance since 2008, and their first trip to the regional semifinals since 2007.

"All three of those programs, because of their coaches, have great records, great traditions," Altman said. "We're trying to build a tradition. We're trying to build something that consistently competes year in and year out. That's a big challenge for us."

___

FORCED TO CHOOSE

Richard Codray is the former Ohio attorney general and lives in Columbus, so he roots for Ohio State football.

He also went to Michigan State at the same time as Magic Johnson, so he pulls for Spartans basketball.

That left the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a dilemma while filling out his NCAA tournament bracket. But it came down to picking a team ? he has the Buckeyes and Spartans reaching the Final Four ? Codray went with Michigan State.

"I always go with my heart," Codray told AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode.

Codray's roommate at Michigan State had a few classes with Magic and he saw firsthand the impact the oversized and gregarious point guard had on the school.

"It was really exciting and fun to watch," Codray said. "Of course he left after two years and went on to fame and fortune. The rest of us toiled for four years finding ourselves. He's a great personality, he just glows and picks everybody up around him."

___

HOLD THAT THOUGHT

During his Final Four run with George Mason, Miami coach Jim Larranaga became known for giving a "thought for the day" to his players.

He's carried on the practice with the Hurricanes, although it's hard to tell what effect it has, as AP Sports Writer Joseph White in Washington D.C. found out.

"Every day he gives us a thought, and something that sticks with us, and it's not something that's complicated," forward Julian Gamble said, "just something that's very simple and just to let you know that we have to enjoy these moments."

If that's the case, Gamble was asked, can he name a favorite "thought for the day?"

"Can't think of one. Know one?" he said, turning to teammate Shane Larkin.

"I can't think of one," Larkin said.

But Gamble made a nice recovery, saying: "The one for this game is keep 'em out of the paint and block out on rebounds, so that will be my favorite one for now."

Larranaga will have to come up with a new thought, one that will last the entire offseason, after the Hurricanes lost to Marquette in the Sweet 16.

Hopefully, it'll be one that sticks.

___

BRACKET BITS

That speck in the middle isn't a postage stamp. It's the court inside Cowboys Stadium for the Sweet 16: http://bit.ly/YGOWYA

Apparently the cordial feelings between Ohio State and Arizona aren't just between the coaches: http://bit.ly/10VBWPv

In honor of Easter, a bracket made out of Peeps: http://bit.ly/YGPJZm

Dunk City's dunks during the postseason, all of them: http://deadsp.in/XColZj

A couple of celeb sightings at Sweet 16 games: Drew Carey at Ohio State-Arizona in LA, San Francisco 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh at Syracuse-Indiana in DC.

___

STAT OF THE DAY

Dunk City is rattling the search engines along with rims.

According to Yahoo! Search, Florida Gulf Coast University is dominating as the most-searched team after becoming the first No. 15 seed to reach the Sweet 16.

Searches for the Eagles spiked 3,367 percent this week and FGCU has gotten more searches than North Korea, Lindsay Lohan and Justin Bieber.

FGCU has been searched more than any of the remaining teams in the tournament, ahead of better-known schools such as Syracuse, Duke, Michigan and Kansas.

___

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"We're so used to people not giving us credit. ... That fuels our fire," Marquette's Vander Blue said after the Golden Eagles beat Miami to reach the Elite Eight for the first time since 2003.

___

THURSDAY'S RESULTS

East Region

Marquette 71, Miami 61

Syracuse 61, Indiana 50

West Region

Ohio State 73, Arizona 70

Wichita State 72, La Salle 58

___

FRIDAY'S SCHEDULE

South Region

At Arlington, Texas

Kansas (31-5) vs. Michigan (28-7), 7:37 p.m.

Florida Gulf Coast (26-10) vs. Florida (28-7), 30 minutes following

Midwest Region

At Indianapolis

Louisville (31-5) vs. Oregon (28-8), 7:15 p.m.

Duke (29-5) vs. Michigan State (27-8), 30 minutes following

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bracketracket-quiz-thought-peeps-083117291--spt.html

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EBay sets aggressive 2015 target, shares climb

By Alistair Barr

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc aims to handle $110 billion of sales on its marketplace in 2015 by expanding globally and using mobile technology to lure more shoppers, an aggressive target that drove its shares 4 percent higher on Thursday.

The forecast by eBay Marketplaces chief Devin Wenig was higher than Wall Street had expected and represents a 47 percent jump in gross merchandise volume, or GMV, from 2012's $75 billion.

GMV is a closely watched measure of eBay's performance. Doug Anmuth, an analyst at JP Morgan, had predicted 2015 GMV of $101 billion.

After bleeding market share to Amazon.com Inc for years, Chief Executive John Donahoe began a turnaround effort in 2009 that set the Internet commerce company back on track by borrowing from its larger rival's playbook.

He took what was then a muddled auctions website and made it easier for shoppers to buy new items at fixed prices and get more free shipping and returns - essentially mimicking the Amazon experience. He also embraced mobile technology, creating shopping apps for smartphones and tablets that brought in new customers.

But eBay's online marketplace is still growing less than Amazon's and some analysts are concerned its growth may struggle to keep up with the overall expansion of the online retail sector.

On Thursday, eBay's Wenig told analysts and investors that the company's core business will deliver "at least" market rates of growth.

EBay's stock rose 4.1 percent to $54.20 in the afternoon.

"They are saying they have fixed the core marketplace, and they are now positioned to drive incremental growth from local, mobile and global initiatives," said Colin Sebastian, an analyst at R.W. Baird.

CEO Donahoe said that the company would enable $300 billion of commerce in 2015, up 71 percent from $175 billion in 2012.

That forecast includes sales on eBay's online marketplace, payments processed by PayPal and other transactions touched by the company's various businesses, such as GSI Commerce.

"That's one of the ways we will measure our success," Donahoe said during eBay's investor day at its headquarters in Silicon Valley.

To get this done, eBay is focusing on three main sources of potential growth - global expansion, local commerce and mobile applications that it hopes will encourage consumers to shop more on its marketplace and use PayPal more to pay for those purchases.

EBay is aiming to increase sales in emerging markets and BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China, by four times current levels in three years, Wendy Jones, an executive overseeing the global push, said.

By the end of 2015, as much as 25 percent of eBay active users and over 12 percent of global sales will come from BRIC countries and emerging markets, she added.

EBay's top executives will give other, new three-year financial forecasts later on Thursday.

Expectations run high on Wall Street. Anmuth of J.P. Morgan, is expecting revenue of $21.16 billion in 2015 and earnings of $3.98 per share that year, versus $14 billion and $2.36 a share in 2012.

The analyst is also calling for 2015 PayPal transaction volume of $246.9 billion that year.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Tim Dobbyn, and Kenneth Barry)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ebay-ceo-says-company-enable-300-billion-commerce-154139664--sector.html

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Shiri Appleby Gives Birth to Baby Girl!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/shiri-appleby-gives-birth-to-baby-girl/

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Nations close to deal on U.N. arms trade treaty: envoys

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - United Nations members on Wednesday were close to a deal on the first international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade, though delegates and rights groups said India, Iran or others could still block agreement.

Arms control campaigners and human rights groups say one person dies every minute worldwide as a result of armed violence and a treaty is needed to halt the uncontrolled flow of arms and ammunition they say fuels wars, atrocities and rights abuses.

United Nations member states began meeting last week in a final push to end years of discussions and hammer out a binding international treaty to end the lack of regulation over cross-border conventional arms sales.

The world body's 193 member states received the last revision of the draft treaty ahead of the final day of the drafting conference on Thursday. Reuters questioned delegates from over a dozen countries who said they were cautiously optimistic that the treaty would be adopted unanimously.

"India, Syria and Iran are countries that could still cause trouble," a European diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. "But I'll wager the treaty will pass by consensus."

Iran, which is under a U.N. arms embargo over its nuclear program, is eager to ensure its arms imports and exports are not curtailed, diplomats say. Syria is in a two-year-old civil war and hopes Russian and Iranian arms keep flowing in, they added.

But they are under pressure to back the draft, envoys said.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. official declined to say whether Washington would support the draft treaty.

"We are continuing to review the text with an eye toward ensuring that it accomplishes all of our goals, including that it protect the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade and, of course, that it not infringe upon the constitutional right of our citizens to bear arms," he said.

Several U.N. diplomats predicted Washington would vote yes.

The National Rifle Association, a powerful U.S. pro-gun lobbying group, opposes the treaty and has vowed to fight to prevent its ratification if it reaches Washington. The NRA says the treaty would undermine domestic gun-ownership rights.

The American Bar Association, an attorneys' lobby group, has said that the treaty would not impact the right to bear arms.

'DEFICIENCIES'

Other major arms producers like Russia and China, which had initially resisted the treaty, along with Germany, France and Britain were also expected to support the draft, diplomats said.

The chief British delegate, Ambassador Joanne Adamson, said the new draft treaty has many improvements over earlier drafts.

"These (improvements) include inclusion of ammunition in the scope of the treaty, a new article on preventing diversion of arms, and strengthened section on exports which are prohibited," she said. "Human rights are at the heart of this text."

The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States - the world's biggest arms exporter - reversed U.S. policy on the issue after President Barack Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support an arms treaty.

The point of an arms trade treaty is to set standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons. It would also create binding requirements for states to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.

Several human rights groups and arms control advocates, including Amnesty International, Oxfam and Control Arms, praised the new draft. They said it had shortcomings, but was a major improvement over an earlier draft that had too many loopholes.

"While there are still deficiencies in this final draft, this treaty has the potential to provide significant human rights protection and curb armed conflict and violence if all governments demonstrate the political will to implement it," Brian Wood of Amnesty International said.

But he made clear that there were problems with the text, including an overly narrow scope of types of arms covered. It covers tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers and small arms and light arms.

Predator drones and grenades are among the weapon categories that are not covered explicitly in the draft treaty.

Anna Macdonald of Oxfam said there were "some improvements" in the draft, though some problems remained that she wanted fixed in the final hours before a decision is made by U.N. member states.

"We need a treaty that will make a difference to the lives of the people living in Congo, Mali, Syria and elsewhere who suffer each day from the impacts of armed violence," she said.

Daryl Kimball, head of the Arms Control Association, predicted that "over time, the treaty will help tip the scales in favor of human rights and human security when states consider arms sales in the future."

Rights groups complained about one possible loophole in the current draft involving defense cooperation agreements. Several diplomats who also oppose this loophole said it could exempt certain weapons transfers from the treaty.

Three delegates dubbed that provision the "India clause," because it was something India pushed hard for, they said.

(Reporting By Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nations-close-deal-u-n-arms-trade-treaty-023925539.html

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