Listening for a Safe Neighborhood

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Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands

ScienceDaily (Jan. 24, 2012) ? Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland.

"Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn't recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years," said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. "Even after 100 years, the restored wetland is still different from what was there before, and it may never recover."

Moreno-Mateos's analysis calls into question a common mitigation strategy exploited by land developers: create a new wetland to replace a wetland that will be destroyed and the land put to other uses. At a time of accelerated climate change caused by increased carbon entering the atmosphere, carbon storage in wetlands is increasingly important, he said.

"Wetlands accumulate a lot of carbon, so when you dry up a wetland for agricultural use or to build houses, you are just pouring this carbon into the atmosphere," he said. "If we keep degrading or destroying wetlands, for example through the use of mitigation banks, it is going to take centuries to recover the carbon we are losing."

The study showed that wetlands tend to recover most slowly if they are in cold regions, if they are small -- less than 100 contiguous hectares, or 250 acres, in area -- or if they are disconnected from the ebb and flood of tides or river flows.

"These context dependencies aren't necessarily surprising, but this paper quantifies them in ways that could guide decisions about restoration, or about whether to damage wetlands in the first place," said coauthor Mary Power, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology.

Moreno-Mateos, Power and their colleagues will publish their analysis in the Jan. 24 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.

Wetlands provide many societal benefits, Moreno-Mateos noted, such as biodiversity conservation, fish production, water purification, erosion control and carbon storage.

He found, however, that restored wetlands contained about 23 percent less carbon than untouched wetlands, while the variety of native plants was 26 percent lower, on average, after 50 to 100 years of restoration. While restored wetlands may look superficially similar -- and the animal and insect populations may be similar, too -- the plants take much longer to return to normal and establish the carbon resources in the soil that make for a healthy ecosystem.

Moreno-Mateos noted that numerous studies have shown that specific wetlands recover slowly, but his meta-analysis "might be a proof that this is happening in most wetlands."

"To prevent this, preserve the wetland, don't degrade the wetland," he said.

Moreno-Mateos, who obtained his Ph.D. while studying wetland restoration in Spain, conducted a meta-analysis of 124 wetland studies monitoring work at 621 wetlands around the world and comparing them with natural wetlands. Nearly 80 percent were in the United States and some were restored more than 100 years ago, reflecting of a long-standing American interest in restoration and a common belief that it's possible to essentially recreate destroyed wetlands. Half of all wetlands in North America, Europe, China and Australia were lost during the 20th century, he said. S

Though Moreno-Mateos found that, on average, restored wetlands are 25 percent less productive than natural wetlands, there was much variation. For example, wetlands in boreal and cold temperate forests tend to recover more slowly than do warm wetlands. One review of wetland restoration projects in New York state, for example, found that "after 55 years, barely 50 percent of the organic matter had accumulated on average in all these wetlands" compared to what was there before, he said.

"Current thinking holds that many ecosystems just reach an alternative state that is different, and you never will recover the original," he said.

In future studies, he will explore whether the slower carbon accumulation is due to a slow recovery of the native plant community or invasion by non-native plants.

Coauthors with Moreno-Mateos and Power are Francisco A. Comin of the Department of Conservation of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Restoration at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology in Zaragoza, Spain; and Roxana Yockteng of the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, France. Moreno-Mateos recently accepted a position as the restoration fellow at Stanford University's Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve.

The work was supported by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology and the National Center for Earth Surface Dynamics of the U.S. National Science Foundation Science and Technology Center.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Berkeley.

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Journal Reference:

1. David Moreno-Mateos, Mary E. Power, Francisco A. Com?n, Roxana Yockteng. Structural and Functional Loss in Restored Wetland Ecosystems. PLoS Biology, 2012; 10 (1): e1001247 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001247

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120124184157.htm

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Rapper Fat Joe?s Wife Filing For Divorce After 17 Years!

Rapper Fat Joe’s Wife Filing For Divorce After 17 Years!

Rapper Fat Joe and his wife of 17 years, Lorena, have split after he cheated on her! The hip-hop star, who lost over 100 pounds [...]

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/stupidcelebrities/~3/4wigLoDEseg/

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South Sudan to shut oil production over thefts (AP)

JUBA, South Sudan ? A South Sudan official says the country is shutting down its oil production because Sudan is stealing its oil.

South Sudan Minister of Information Barnaba Marial Benjamin said Monday that oil companies operating in the country were instructed to begin shutting down operations in the country's oil fields as of Sunday.

Benjamin said oil production cannot be easily stopped, so companies have been given two weeks to carry out the order.

South Sudan's oil flows through pipelines in Sudan. South Sudan has accused Sudan of stealing its oil.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_bi_ge/af_south_sudan_oil

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Brain scans spot early signs of dyslexia (Reuters)

CHICAGO (Reuters) ? Instead of waiting for a child to experience reading delays, scientists now say they can identify the reading problem even before children start school, long before they become labeled as poor students and begin to lose confidence in themselves.

Although typically diagnosed during the second or third grade of school - around age 7 or 8 - a team from Children's Hospital Boston said they could see signs of the disease on brain scans in children as early as 4 and 5, a time when studies show children are best able to respond to interventions.

"We call it the dyslexia paradox," said Nadine Gaab of the Laboratories of Cognitive Neuroscience at Children's, whose study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gaab said most children are not diagnosed until third grade, but interventions work best in younger children, hopefully before they begin to learn to read.

"Often, by the time they get a diagnosis, they usually have experienced three years of peers telling them they are stupid, parents telling them they are lazy. We know they have reduced self esteem. They are really struggling," Gaab said in a telephone interview.

Her study builds on an emerging understanding of dyslexia as a problem with recognizing and manipulating the individual sounds that form language, which is known as phonological processing.

In order to read, children must map the sounds of spoken language onto specific letters that make up words. Children with dyslexia struggle with this mapping process.

"The beauty is spoken language can present before written language so people can look for symptoms," said Dr. Sally Shaywitz, a director of the Center for Dyslexia and Creativity at Yale University.

Signs of early dyslexia might include difficulty with rhyming, mispronouncing words or confusing similar-sounding words.

"Those are all very early symptoms," Shaywitz said.

Dyslexia affects roughly 5 percent to 17 percent of all children and up to 1 in 2 children with a family history of the disorder will struggle with reading, have poor spelling and experience difficulty decoding words.

In her study, Gaab and colleagues scanned the brains of 36 preschool children while they did a number of tasks, such as trying to decide if two words start with the same sound.

They found that during these tasks, children who had a family history of dyslexia had less brain activity in certain regions of the brain than did children of similar ages, intelligence and socioeconomic status.

Older children and adults with dyslexia have dysfunction in these same areas of the brain, which include the junctions between the occipital and temporal lobes and the temporal and parietal lobes in the back of the brain.

Gaab said the study shows that when children predisposed to dyslexia did these tasks, their brains did not use the area typically used for processing this information. This problem occurred even before the children started learning to read.

"The important point of this paper is it shows the need to look for signs of dyslexia earlier," said April Benasich, director of the Carter Center for Neurocognitive Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, who was not part of the study.

Benasich studies language processing in even younger children - babies who have a family history of learning disorders.

"There is evidence to suggest that what is thought to be reading failure is there before the kids fail," she said.

Gaab said her study is too small to form the basis of any test for dyslexia but her team has just won a grant from the National Institutes of Health to do a larger study.

Ultimately, she hopes parents will be able to go to their pediatrician and ask for their child to be assessed.

"Families often know that their child has dyslexia as early as kindergarten, but they can't get interventions at their schools," she said in a statement.

"If we can show that we can identify these kids early, schools may be encouraged to develop programs," she said.

(Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/hl_nm/us_usa_dyslexia

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2 dead, 100 hurt in Ala. as storms pound South (AP)

CLAY, Ala. ? Violent weather including possible tornadoes roared across the heart of Alabama on Monday, injuring more than 100 people and killing at least two, including a man who lived in an area devastated by a deadly twister outbreak in the spring.

The storms flattened homes and peeled off roofs in the middle of the night in the rural community of Oak Grove near Birmingham. As dawn broke, residents surveyed the damage and began cleaning up across parts of central Alabama, an area that has a history of tornadoes going back decades.

In a sign Alabama has become all too familiar with severe weather, officials had to reschedule a meeting Monday to receive a report on their response to the spring twisters. Alabama's governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state.

Oak Grove was hit hard in April when tornadoes killed about 240 people statewide, though officials said none of the same neighborhoods was struck again.

Amber Butler and her family hid in her sister's brick home as the storm approached about 3:30 a.m. Butler's own home was destroyed.

"I just so speechless now, I don't know what to do," she said. "God Bless our friends and neighbors who have come to help. We've lost everything we had."

Butler lived near 83-year-old Bobby Frank Sims, who was killed when his home was leveled by a tree.

In Clay, northeast of Birmingham, 16-year-old Christina Nicole Heichelbech died, the Jefferson County coroner's office said. Rescue workers said her parents were injured.

"Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes," said Yasamie Richardson, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

The storm system stretched from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, producing hail, strong winds and rain. Possible tornadoes were reported in Arkansas on Sunday night.

In Alabama, searchers went door-to-door calling out to residents, many of whom were trapped by trees that crisscrossed their driveways.

Stevie Sanders woke up around 3:30 a.m. and realized bad weather was on the way. She, her parents and sister hid in the laundry room of their brick home in Clay as the wind howled and trees started cracking outside.

"You could feel the walls shaking and you could hear a loud crash. After that it got quiet, and the tree had fallen through my sister's roof," said Sanders.

The family was OK, and her father, Greg Sanders, spent the next hours raking his roof and pulling away pieces of broken lumber.

"It could have been so much worse," he said. "It's like they say, we were just blessed."

Jefferson County, where Oak Grove and Clay are located, suffered the most damage, followed by Chilton County, with most of the damage around Maplesville.

Oak Grove, a sprawling unincorporated area in the western part of the county was nearly wiped out on April 8, 1998, by a powerful tornado that killed 34 people and left about 260 people injured. It spread a wide path of destruction that left much of the previously heavily wooded western section of the county looking barren. The tornado destroyed Oak Grove High School, which has been rebuilt.

This general section of Jefferson County has been infamous for destructive tornadoes dating back to the 1930s.

State Climatologist John Christy said there seems to be a general path from central Mississippi going into north Alabama that gets attention for a large number of tornadoes ? and their intensity. One theory has to do with the distance from the Gulf of Mexico, just far enough to be effected by cold air coming from the north.

"It's the frequency and intensity of the storms that tend to align on this corridor," said Christy, a professor at the University of Alabama in Huntsville

The mayor of Maplesville, about 45 miles south of Birmingham, said a storm came through about 5 a.m., downing many trees and causing major damage to about five buildings.

More than 50 people were in the town's storm shelter next door to the fire department when the winds blew the top of a sweet gum tree, about one-foot in diameter, on to the steel building, but no damage was done and no one was injured.

"The shelter did what it was supposed to do," Mayor Aubrey Latham said.

The town built the dome-shaped shelter about five years ago with a FEMA grant because of past tornadoes that had hit the area.

___

Associated Press writers Dave Martin in Oak Grove, and Phillip Rawls and Bob Johnson in Montgomery contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_us/us_severe_weather

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James' passion, great range remembered (AP)

NEW YORK ? On her last album "The Dreamer," released just three months before her death, Etta James sings a mix of covers, from the R&B classic "Misty Blue" to the Ray Charles song "In the Evening." But perhaps the most curious tune included on the disc may be the Guns N' Roses staple "Welcome to the Jungle."

That a 73-year-old icon of R&B would tackle the frenetic rock song ? albeit in a pace more fitting her blues roots ? might seem odd. But the song may be the best representation of James as both a singer and a person ? rambunctious in spirit, with the ability to sing whatever was thrown at her, whether it was jazz, blues, pining R&B or a song from one of the rowdiest bands in rock.

"She was able to dig so deep in kind of such a raw and unguarded place when she sang, and that's the power of gospel and blues and rhythm and blues. She brought that to all those beautiful standards and rocks songs that she did. All the number of vast albums she recorded, she covered such a wide variety of material that brought such unique phrasing and emotional depth," said Bonnie Raitt, a close friend, in an interview on Friday afternoon after James' death.

"I think that's what appealed to people, aside from the fact that her personality on and off the stage was so huge and irrepressible. She was ribald and raunchy and dignified, classy and strong and vulnerable all at the same time, which is what us as women really relate to."

James, whose signature song was the sweeping, jazz-tinged torch song "At Last," died in Riverside, Calif., from complications of leukemia. Her death came after she struggled with dementia and other health problems, health issues that kept her from performing for the last two or so years of her life.

It was a life full of struggles. Her mother was immersed in a criminal life and left her to be raised by friends, she never knew her true father (though she believed it was billiards great Minnesota Fats), and she had her own troubles, which included a decades-long addiction to drugs, turbulent relationships, brushes with the law, and other tribulations.

One might think all of those problems would have weighted down James' spirit, and her voice, layering it with sadness, or despair. While she certainly could channel depression, anger, and sorrow in song, her voice was defined by its fiery passion: Far from beaten down, James embodied the fight of a woman who managed to claw her way back from the brink, again and again.

It's an attitude that influenced her look as well. Despite the conservative era, she dyed her hair platinum blonde, sending out the signal that she was far from demure, and owning a brassy, sassy attitude. She relished her role as saucy singer, a persona that she celebrated in her private life as well.

"In terms of 1950s rhythm and blues stars, she had kind of a gutsy attitude and she went out there and did what she did, and she was kind of bold ... and it had a huge influence," said David Ritz, the co-author of her autobiography "Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story." "I think her gutsiness and her lack of fear and just her courage (made her special). ... I believe that made her important and memorable."

Beyonce, who played James in the movie "Cadillac Records" about Chess Records, also spoke about her influence on other singers.

"I feel like Etta James, first of all, was the first black woman I saw with platinum, blonde hair. She wore her leopard and she wore her sexy silhouette and she didn't care. She was strong and confident and always Etta James," said Beyonce in a 2008 interview.

James could often be irascible. Ritz remembers when he was working with her on her autobiography, touring with her around the country, that one time he approached her with his tape recorder and she barked: "If see that tape recorder again I'm going to cram it up your (expletive)."

But at other times, she'd be effusive and warm and anxious to talk.

"Once she did talk, she was always candid and unguarded. She was a free spirit," Ritz said.

While Ritz put her in the category of other greats like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and Marvin Gaye, she never enjoyed their mainstream success. Though "At Last" has become an enduring classic, there were times when James had to scrounge for work, and while she won Grammys and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, she did not have the riches, the multitude of platinum records or the hits that some of her peers enjoyed.

"She at least enjoyed a great resurgence like John Lee Hooker did and B.B. King, (and) has had some great decades of appreciation from new generations around the world," said Raitt. "There's no one like her. No one will ever replace Etta."

And Ritz said the lack of commercial success does nothing to diminish her greatness, or her legacy.

"Marvin certain knew it and Ray knew it ... the people who know that she was in that category," he said. "Whatever the marketplace did or didn't do or whether her lack of career management didn't do, it has nothing to do with her talent."

And on Friday, the Queen of Soul was among those who paid tribute to James greatness, calling her "one of the great soul singers of our generation. An American original!

"I loved `Pushover,' `At Last' and almost any and everything she recorded! When Etta SUNG, you heard it!"

___

AP Entertainment Writer Chris Talbott and AP Writer Mesfin Fekadu contributed to this report.

___

Nekesa Mumbi Moody is the AP's music editor. Follow her at http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/music/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_en_mu/us_etta_james_appreciation

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PFT: Ravens botch set up for Cundiff's missed kick

Reuters

Shortly before Ravens kicker Billy Cundiff did his best Gary Anderson impersonation (to the chagrin of Matt Birk), Ravens receiver Lee Evans had the ball in his hands, in the end zone.? But Patriots defensive back Sterling Moore knocked the ball out of Evans? hands, and the ruling on the field was that the would-be touchdown pass was incomplete.

Though it wasn?t a scoring play, fewer than two minutes remained in the game.? Thus, the decision (or not) to review the play was to be initiated by the replay assistant in the booth.? Even though the slow-motion angle shown by CBS seemed to suggest that it may have been a catch, the replay assistant didn?t instruct referee Alberto Riveron to take a look via the on-field portable TV on wheels.

As to whether a catch was made, the standard is simple.? From Rule 8, Section 1, Article 3, Item 3:? ?If a player controls the ball while in the end zone, both feet, or any part of his body other than his hands, must be completely on the ground before losing control, or the pass is incomplete.?

There?s no Calvin Johnson component.? No requirement of a football move.? Possession plus two feet down equals a catch, and a touchdown.

So why didn?t the replay assistant direct Riveron to take another look?? Absent indisputable visual evidence that the call on the field was correct, the replay assistant must tell the referee to look for indisputable visual evidence to overturn it.

The league disagrees.? ?The ruling on the field of an incomplete pass was confirmed by the Instant Replay assistant, correctly, and as a result, there was no need to stop the game,? the league said in a statement forwarded to PFT by spokesman Michael Signora.? ?The receiver did not get his second foot down in the end zone with possession, and as a result, it was an incomplete pass.?

Former V.P. of officiating and current FOX rules analyst Mike Pereira expressed a similar sentiment via text message to PFT.? ?Clearly not a catch,? Pereira said.? ?Ball coming out before second foot clearly down. . . .? No need to review it because it was clearly incomplete.?

But where?s the harm in taking a look at the play?? The left foot may have been down a nanosecond before the ball was dislodged.? Why not have Riveron decide whether or not that was the case?? Moreover, a different camera angle may have shown that Evans had the ball before his left foot previously left the ground.? (There?s no doubt that the right foot was down while Evans had the ball.)

It could be that the replay assistant erred on the side of not giving Riveron a chance to make what could have been another Bill Leavy-style error.? Either way, under the league?s standard for initiating a booth review, we think a booth review should have been initiated.? And if it had been initiated, Riveron would have been faced with a decision that wouldn?t have been quite as easy as the league seems to think it would have been.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/22/ravens-take-a-timeout-back-to-baltimore/related

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Search resumes above waterline after ship shifts (AP)

ROME ? The cruise ship grounded off Tuscany shifted again on its rocky perch Friday, forcing the suspension of diving search operations for the 21 people still missing and raising concerns about the stability of the ship's resting place.

However, crews began combing the area above the waterline in the evening after officials determined the ship had stabilized enough, and they will evaluate the situation Saturday morning to see if the diving operation can resume, said Coast Guard spokesman Cmdr. Cosimo Nicastro.

The diving operation focuses on an area where passengers would have sought lifeboats, Nicastro said.

"We are ready to go for the morning," he said, as long as the partially submerged ship is not shifting.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into well-charted rocks off the island of Giglio a week ago. Eleven people have been confirmed dead.

It was not clear if the slight movements registered by sensors placed on board the Costa Concordia were just vibrations as the ship settles on the rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio or if the massive ocean liner is slowly slipping off the reef.

The sensors detected that the ship's bow was moving about 15 millimeters (half an inch) an hour and the stern about 7 millimeters (one-quarter inch) an hour, said Nicola Casagli of the University of Florence, who was called in by Italian authorities to monitor the ship's stability.

The Concordia's movements are being watched since any significant shift could be dangerous for divers trying to locate those missing since the Concordia ran aground Jan. 13. An additional fear is that movement could damage tanks holding a half-million gallons of fuel oil and lead to leaks.

The sea floor drops off sharply a few meters (yards) from where the ship is resting, and Italy's environment minister has warned it risks sinking.

Capt. Francesco Schettino, who was jailed after he left the ship before everyone was safely evacuated, is under house arrest, facing possible charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship.

On Friday, relatives of some of the 21 missing were at Giglio's port getting briefings from rescue teams.

Casagli told Sky TG24 that some movement in the Concordia was only natural given the immense weight of the steel-hulled ship, which is being held in place by two huge rocks at bow and stern.

But the latest movements indicate it isn't stable, he said. "These are small, regular movements that are being monitored because they're going in the same direction," he told Sky.

Late Thursday, Costa-owner Carnival Corp. announced it was conducting a comprehensive audit of all 10 of its cruise lines to review safety and emergency response procedures in the wake of the Costa disaster. The evacuation was chaotic and the alarm to abandon the ship was sounded after the Concordia had capsized too much to get many life boats down.

____

Andrea Foa contributed from Giglio, Italy.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120120/ap_on_re_eu/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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Obama tried to help the budget supercommitte. Really.

In September, the president proposed a budget to the supercommittee that included budget cuts meant? to please Republicans. Yet some say he failed to "reach across the aisle."

I?m pretty old school in that I believe elected officials are always worthy of respect, so I tried to be respectful in this dust up with Senator Pat Toomey on CNBC this AM.? The thing is, it?s important not to let anyone?elected official or otherwise?mislead like this, especially when their version is just so contradictory to the truth.

Skip to next paragraph Jared Bernstein

?

Before joining the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities as a senior fellow, Jared was chief economist to Vice President Joseph Biden and executive director of the White House Task Force on the Middle Class. He is a contributor to MSNBC and CNBC and has written numerous books, including 'Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed?'

Recent posts

Sen Toomey, who was a member of the failed supercommittee, argued that the President simply wouldn?t offer any help to the committee, nor would he countenance any cuts to entitlements.

Except for this:

In September, the President proposed a budget to the supercommittee.? There?s a chapter in that budget document called ?Health Savings? which proposes about $250 billion in Medicare savings and about $70 billion in Medicaid savings (both over 10 years).

When I pointed this out to the Senator, he complained about the lack of bipartisanship, reaching across the aisle, etc.? But again, as I pointed out, the President?s proposals were exactly that?a reach across the aisle to an issue?entitlement cuts?about which R?s have been clamoring and frankly, as I noted in the clip, go well beyond many D?s comfort zone.

I?m sorry, but with respect, it is impossible to take such politicians? calls for bipartisan compromise seriously when, on national TV, they refuse to acknowledge such efforts.? The President is, at this point, well within his rights to say, ?I tried.?

RELATED: Gas prices and five other liabilities for Obama in 2012

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best economy-related bloggers out there. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here. To add or view a comment on a guest blog, please go to the blogger's own site by clicking on jaredbernsteinblog.com.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/XLgIUNYLRPw/Obama-tried-to-help-the-budget-supercommitte.-Really.

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Romney tries to change the subject from his taxes

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, presents a birthday cake to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as he campaigns at Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. At rear center is Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, presents a birthday cake to South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley as he campaigns at Charleston Area Convention Center in North Charleston, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. At rear center is Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Susanne Royster of Mt. Peasant, S.C., is reflected in a button as she browses over merchandise supporting Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, before a campaign rally Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

GILBERT, S.C. (AP) ? Acknowledging he is working to fend off a surging Newt Gingrich, presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Friday tried to change the subject from his unreleased tax returns to the ethics investigation the former House speaker faced 15 years ago.

When asked if Gingrich should release the Ethics Committee report that resulted in a rare reprimand for a House speaker, Romney replied, "Of course he should."

Romney said: "Nancy Pelosi has the full record of that ethics investigation. You know it's going to get out ahead of the general election."

In fact, the 1,280-page committee report on Gingrich is already public. Campaign officials said Romney was referring to other documents that Gingrich has referred to and that Pelosi has also mentioned.

"Given Speaker Gingrich's newfound interest in disclosure and transparency, and his concern about an 'October surprise,' he should authorize the release of the complete record of the ethics proceedings against him," Romney spokeswoman Gail Gitcho said.

In December, Pelosi told Talking Points Memo that she had served on the committee that conducted the investigation and implied that more information about the investigation could come to light. At the time Gingrich said the House should retaliate against Pelosi if she released any additional information.

"We turned over 1 million pages of material," Gingrich said then. "We had a huge report."

Gingrich's campaign said Romney's criticism represented a "panic attack" on the part of his campaign.

Romney on Friday said again that he wouldn't release his tax returns until April, which would probably be after Republicans choose their nominee.

Romney's campaign is visibly rattled, given that his standing in polls has slid after a week of constant attack ads and self-made problems. He came to South Carolina after twin wins in Iowa and New Hampshire, only to see his Iowa victory thrown into question because of problems with the count. He's also spent a week trying to answer questions about his personal wealth and when he will release his tax returns.

"I realize that I had a lot of ground to make up and Speaker Gingrich is from a neighboring state, well-known, popular in the state," Romney said as he campaigned in Gilbert. "Frankly, to be in a neck-and-neck race at this last moment is kind of exciting."

Romney's campaign has rolled out endorsement after endorsement this week as he has tried to build a case that he is the most electable nominee. Ohio Sen. Rob Portman joined him on Thursday and Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell campaigned with him Friday.

But the campaign's attack message has jumped from rival to rival and topic to topic as he's fought to stay afloat here.

At the beginning of the week, Romney was attacking rival Rick Santorum over voting rights for felons. Then he went after Gingrich's claims that he created jobs under President Ronald Reagan, saying Gingrich was living in "fantasyland." Meanwhile, his surrogates held a series of conference calls attacking his rivals.

In Thursday night's GOP debate, Romney continued his string of off-message remarks about his wealth, saying he has lived "in the real streets of America." A multimillionaire, he has three homes, one each in Massachusetts, California and New Hampshire.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-20-Romney/id-3aea836b880d4741aa18ce8ac295e5cb

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GOP field feeds South Carolina's anti-federal mood

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, throws an apple out to the audience as he campaigns at Harmon Tree Farm in Gilbert, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, accompanied by South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, throws an apple out to the audience as he campaigns at Harmon Tree Farm in Gilbert, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich exits after a visit to Children's Hospital, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum speaks at Hudson's BBQ in Lexington, S.C., Friday, Jan. 20, 2012. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

Republican presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas speaks during a campaign rally in an airplane hanger, Friday, Jan. 20, 2012, in North Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) ? South Carolina is the land of Revolutionary War heroes and was the first state to secede from the union. But its suspicion of federal government intrusion is hardly part of its storied past.

It's a sentiment that all the Republican presidential candidates are playing to as they court GOP voters with this argument: that President Barack Obama has eroded individual rights by stretching the federal government's reach and that only they can get Washington to back off. This pitch resonates strongly in a state where the Confederate Flag still flies in front of the state Capitol.

"We're tired of having the feds tell us what to do here. It's part of who we are," says Cole Naus, a 32-year-old Republican from Florence who heard Rick Santorum speak in the run-up to Saturday's primary. "We know we can do it better here. We know what's best for our kids, our families and our workers."

There's a historical suspicion, even hostility, here when it comes to the federal government. Experts say those feelings are aggravated further by a president who is unpopular in the state.

"All that presents a potent cocktail of anger and frustration," said Jon Lerner, a Republican strategist who has advised South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and Rep. Tim Scott.

Indeed, feelings are raw among many in Republican-leaning South Carolina over three recent Obama administration policies or actions. And all the candidates, from Mitt Romney on down, have stoked the anger.

"Most of the things the federal government could do to get us back to work is get out of the way," Texas Rep. Ron Paul said Thursday during a debate in Charleston. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, added: "Let's not have the federal government extend its tentacles into every area of this country."

The candidates universally blame the Democratic administration for threatening 1,000 jobs at a Boeing Co. plant in North Charleston.

"The National Labor Relations Board, now stacked with union stooges selected by the president, says to a free enterprise like Boeing, 'You can't build a factory in South Carolina because South Carolina is a right-to-work state,'" Romney, the GOP front-runner, says in a television ad airing here.

The White House hopefuls rail against the Justice Department's decision to block the state's get-tough voter ID law.

"They pursue common-sense, anti-fraud measures that states have put in place all because they believe it's a partisan advantage," Santorum tells audiences here.

The candidates also seethe over a federal court's ruling against the state's new hardline immigration law.

As Gingrich recently argued: "It's pretty outrageous when the federal government fails to do its job and then attacks the states for trying to fill the gap created by the federal government."

These are sure-fire applause lines as they court GOP loyalists who vote in the primary. But the issues have little to do with the state's No. 1 concern ? jobs.

And in some cases, the candidates stretch the facts of the three direct confrontations between South Carolina and the Obama administration.

All have weighed in loudly on what until recently was a long dispute with the National Labor Relations Board over the Boeing Co. plant. The board charged that the aircraft maker was building the facility in South Carolina in retaliation over past contract disputes because South Carolina's right-to-work law means employees are not required to join labor unions.

The GOP candidates commonly re-interpret that argument as punishment for choosing a weak union state. They still bring up the issue even though it was resolved last month when Boeing and the Machinists union reached a contract extension and the labor board dropped its legal action. With South Carolina's unemployment approaching 10 percent, the candidates have stoked fears that the NLRB's actions are prompting companies to look overseas instead of at right-to-work states when they want to open new plants or expand operations.

Another issue is a federal judge's decision last month blocking several provisions of the state's new immigration law from taking effect this month. It includes the requirement that police check the immigration status of people pulled over for speeding if officers also suspect they are in the country illegally.

Candidates often assail the U.S. Justice Department's move as they work to convince a conservative Republican electorate that they're tough on border security.

The Justice Department also blocked the state's new voter ID law from going into effect.

Haley also has fueled sentiment against the federal government. She has described the decision to block the voter ID law as part of "the continued war on South Carolina" and has vowed to fight the federal government in court over the issue.

Her state is among at least a half-dozen that passed similar laws last year.

A tea party favorite, Haley also has said that dealing with federal regulations is the chief burden and top frustration of her job as governor.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said his department is committed to fighting laws that create barriers to voting. He reinforced the point on Monday, the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., as he stood on the north steps of the Capitol in Columbia.

"Let me be very, very clear ? the arc of American history has bent toward the inclusion, not the exclusion, of more of our fellow citizens in the electoral process," Holder said. "We must ensure that this continues."

But the arc in South Carolina plays out in a state whose Statehouse is packed with reminders of glorified federal fights: secession chiseled in marble; its heroes of civil war and segregation glaring from statues and paintings throughout.

__

Associated Press writer Jim Davenport contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2012-01-20-South%20Carolina-Federal%20Furor/id-e687b89615a34e458b360d66c14e8c77

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Euro zone inflation dips in December, opens door to ECB cut (Reuters)

BRUSSELS (Reuters) ? Consumer prices in the euro zone fell more than expected in December, data showed on Tuesday, signaling a retreat from a November peak and giving the European Central Bank more room to cut rates to historic lows as the economy heads for recession.

Inflation in the 17 countries sharing the euro was 2.7 percent in December on an annual basis, revised down from an earlier estimate of 2.8 percent for the month, the European Union's statistics office Eurostat said.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected inflation to remain at 2.8 percent in December.

Stripping out volatile energy prices, the main driver behind inflation in late 2011 that pushed it to a 3 percent peak in September, October and November, inflation was 1.9 percent.

That is at the ECB's target of below, but close to 2 percent that the Frankfurt-based bank judges to be right for price stability.

The euro zone's economy is anything but healthy at the moment, as it heads into a likely recession in 2012 after gross domestic product probably contracted in the fourth quarter of 2011 and is expected to do so again in the first quarter of 2012.

The bank has made two 25 basis points cuts since Mario Draghi took over as president in November and many economists expect the ECB to take rates to below 1 percent for the first time ever in the coming months. The ECB kept rates unchanged at its last meeting earlier this month.

Fuels for transport, heating oil, gas and electricity had the biggest impact on inflation in December, and a reading without energy and food took it down to 1.6 percent.

Energy inflation rates was a massive 9.7 percent in the month, compared to December 2010, Eurostat said.

(Reporting By Robin Emmott; editing by Jan Strupczewski)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120117/bs_nm/us_eurozone_economy

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Same Sex Romance Comes to a Galaxy Far, Far Away (Newsarama.com)

Same-sex relationships are coming to the "Star Wars" universe, courtesy of video game developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts' new massively multiplayer online role- playing game (or "MMORPGs" or "MMOs" for short), "Star Wars: The Old Republic," and the decision is getting people talking.

MMOs are games that create immersive virtual environments in which millions of players can interact with computer-generated characters as well as characters created by fellow gamers. While this is BioWare's first MMO, the developer is known among fans for the emphasis they place on romantic relationships between characters in their single-player role-playing games. In the past, BioWare games have featured same-sex relationships between men and women, and in the case of the immensely popular sci-fi game "Mass Effect," relationships between men and women with an asexual alien.

BioWare originally announced that players and their companions in "Star Wars: The Old Republic" would only be able to experience mixed-gender romantic relationships. After many inquiries from fans asking the developer to explain the decision, earlier this week a new forum post by Stephen Reid, the senior online community manager for the game, showed up on the company's official website announcing that those fans had been heard and same-sex romance will be added to the game.

BioWare's statement explained that while the game will still launch with only male/female relationships, they will be adding same gender romance options in future updates.

"Due to the design constraints of a fully voiced MMO of this scale and size, many choices had to be made as to the launch and post-launch feature set. Same gender romances with companion characters in 'Star Wars: The Old Republic' will be a post-launch feature. Because 'The Old Republic' is an MMO, the game will live on through content expansions which allow us to include content and features that could not be included at launch, including the addition of more companion characters who will have additional romance options."

"Companion characters" are computer-controlled characters that follow player-created characters around the virtual world, aiding them as gamers maneuver through the story.

The response to BioWare's announcement has been massive. There are 326 pages of comments as of Friday afternoon on the official "Star Wars: The Old Republic" forum alone. They range from "thank you for listening to our requests" to "how dare you expose my children to this."

The game has no firm release date, only a release window of "holiday 2011." It has also already received an ESRB rating of "T for Teen," meaning the game is recommended for players 13 and older. Neither facts have stopped detractors from crying foul, such as John Nolte on the blog "Big Hollywood," who starts his post on the subject with "Say goodbye to your child's innocence," and ends with the inaccurate proclamation, "Announcing the gay relationships AFTER the game has been sold is pure bait and switch."

The game already has reportedly broken preorder records for publisher Electronic Arts.

Got a comment? There's lots of conversation on Newsarama's FACEBOOK and TWITTER!

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/videogames/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/newsarama/20120117/en_newsarama/samesexromancecomestoagalaxyfarfaraway

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Scientists unite to capture a black hole

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Ohio Public Employee Pay Raises Cause Criticism (ContributorNetwork)

Publically funded social services agencies in Hamilton County have been widely criticized for approving raises during these harsh economic times, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The county commissioners approved pay raises and bonuses for numerous public agencies, some of which are requesting operating levy approval during the spring election, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The largest pay increase granted by Hamilton County Board of Commissioners went to Assistant County Administrator Jeff Aluotto. The $15,000 raise brings the public employee's salary to $130,000 per year, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Here are some facts and figures about the Hamilton County pay raises and bonuses:

* A total of 15 public agencies funded by Cincinnati area taxpayers received nearly $1.2 million in raises. The median increase of the 706 public employees granted raises was $1,425 per year. The county commissioners felt the raises were warranted because a number of positions were left vacant through attrition and many employees were forced to begin working 40 hour weeks, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

* Since 2008 Hamilton County has experienced budget cuts totaling $65 million, according to a county government budget report.

* County Board of Commissioners President Tom Chatham defended the raises, stating they were necessary to stop staff from resigning and going to work for other area public agencies which offered larger salaries, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Chatham also stated that is benefits residents when better employees are retained.

* The Public Health District granted 52 employees raises totaling $36,000, according to the meeting minutes.

* The Mental Health and Recovery Services Board approved raises for 33 public workers totaling $74,000, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Agency Director Patrick Tribbe now earns an annual salary of $225,014 per year. The agency plans to place a renewal levy on the November ballot. The agency oversees a $120 million budget to serve 27,000 drug and alcohol addiction clients.

* The Hamilton County Commissioners granted employees in the public defender's office a total of $227,094 in annual pay raises, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. The top two county administrators and three public defenders received raises of more than $10,000.

* The Hamilton County Developmental Disabilities Services Board President Martin Miller defended the public employee pay increases during an interview with the Cincinnati Enquirer. According to Miller, the raises were based upon merit and only those workers providing quality service were rewarded.

* Hamilton County's 2012 budget totals $206.8 million. The commissioners maintain control over 1,200 of the 4,600 county workers, according to the county government budget report. The commissioners approved $350,000 worth of administration budget cuts during the past two years.

* County Auditor Dusty Rhodes does not agree with the county public employee pay raises, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer. Rhodes called the increase outrageous during a recent newspaper interview. The county auditor did not agree with coaxing more taxpayer funds from levies or from government programs.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politicsopinion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120117/cm_ac/10845245_ohio_public_employee_pay_raises_cause_criticism

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Graham, Scott: If Romney Wins South Carolina, He Wins the Nomination (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | With the South Carolina Primary looming, politicians from the Palmetto State are everywhere one turns, appearing on talk shows and in videotaped segments, offering their opinions on the GOP presidential race and the importance of the South Carolina Primary itself. Sen. Lindsay Graham and Congressman Tim Scott appeared on NBC's "Meet The Press" today and asserted that a Mitt Romney win in their state basically seals the Republican nomination for the former Massachusetts governor. Were the two Republicans engaging in a little political hyperbole? And if not, how could that be, especially with 47 more primaries and caucuses to go in the 2012 nominating cycle?

"If for some reason he's not derailed here and Mitt Romney wins South Carolina, no one's ever won all three, I think it should be over," Graham told "Meet The Press." "That would be quite a testament to his ability as a candidate and a campaigner."

Scott agreed on the same episode. "If Romney wins South Carolina," he said, "I think the game is over."

But how can that be? Simply put: By the time the South Carolina Primary is held (Jan. 21), the war chests of the Republican campaigns will either be empty, nearly empty, or even running in the red. Most won't be able to stay in the race without continued financing. This happens during each presidential nomination cycle, where the candidates sink their money in the first several contests -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida. Without a good showing in these contests, many of the contenders drop out, winnowing the overall field. Those who have plenty of backing or get backing after posting strong results can expect their campaign coffers to be refilled and at least carry on through one or several more contests.

But Mitt Romney has won the first two contests (the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary), something no non-incumbent Republican candidate has ever done before. And even with strong anti-Romney sentiment in the Republican ranks, it does not appear to be strong enough to stop him. At least, not while the Republicans are fragmented.

Attempting to rectify that problem, a meeting of conservative evangelical Christian leaders over the weekend voted to endorse Sen. Rick Santorum (via the National Post ) in an effort to unify the Christian vote and support a candidate more conservative than Romney. With less than a week before the South Carolina Primary, it is uncertain if the move will be effective.

Romney, who has battled accusations that he is too liberal, that he flip flops on issues, and that he is not a true Christian (although that factor, that Romney's religion is seen as a cult by many evangelicals, is mostly subtext and rarely mentioned), has the lead in the South Carolina polls (as tracked by Real Clear Politics). His strongest contender appears to be Newt Gingrich, although Santorum made a strong bid in evangelical Iowa and helped produce the closest race in the Caucus' history. Santorum currently is polling in third and fourth in a dead heat with Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

But Graham and Scott may also be buying into the idea that South Carolina traditionally has picked the Republican nominee, which gives it a sort of benedictory status. According to NPR, since the Primary's inception in 1980, South Carolina has chosen the candidate that eventually became the Republican nominee for president.

But it does not have to be that way. By the time South Carolina has voted and allocated its 25 delegates, there still will have only been 55 delegates appointed (some non-binding). There will be 2,286 appointed by the end of the primary cycle.

But by the time Florida holds its Primary on Jan. 31 (the fourth contest in the cycle), the race will either be over or nearly so. Candidates will have reached the end of their financial limits, hoping for something to give their campaign a spark or make the frontrunner stumble. If Romney takes the first-in-the-South primary in South Carolina, it would appear that momentum would be in his favor going into Florida. Financial backers become reluctant to back long shots as the race gets to Florida (and beyond) and only a candidate like Rep. Ron Paul, who has a solid base of supporters that rally periodically with "money bombs" to refill his campaign coffers, will continue for any extended period after South Carolina without some sign of a surge.

Although Sen. Lindsay Graham and Rep. Tim Scott shouldn't be correct in their assertions, especially given the number of states left to hold primaries and caucuses and the great number of delegates yet to be allocated, they most likely are.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120115/pl_ac/10838621_graham_scott_if_romney_wins_south_carolina_he_wins_the_nomination

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Santo: Romney Not "Inevitable" (TIME)

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Myanmar frees more political prisoners, U.S. lauds move (Reuters)

YANGON (Reuters) ? Myanmar freed at least 200 political prisoners on Friday in an amnesty that prompted the United States to upgrade diplomatic relations as one of the world's most reclusive states opens up after half a century of authoritarian rule.

The move by Myanmar could embolden the opposition and put pressure on the West to lift sanctions. Among those freed are long-persecuted democrats and ethnic leaders whose proven ability to organize and inspire could increase pressure on President Thein Sein to accelerate nascent reforms.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States was ready to begin the process of exchanging full ambassadors after an absence of two decades, and would consider additional measures if the new civilian-led government's reforms continue.

The United States and Europe have said freeing political prisoners is crucial to even considering lifting the economic sanctions that have isolated the former British colony, also known as Burma, and pushed it closer to China during five decades of often-brutal military rule that ended last March.

U.S. President Barack Obama called the release a "substantial step forward" in the Asian country's democratic reforms. "Much more remains to be done to meet the aspirations of the Burmese people, but the United States is committed to continuing our engagement," Obama said in a statement.

As big as France and Britain combined, Myanmar lies between India, China and Southeast Asia with ports on the Indian Ocean and Andaman Sea, all of which make it an energy security asset for Beijing's landlocked western provinces and a U.S. priority as Obama strengthens engagement with Asia.

Its resources include natural gas, timber and precious gems. Myanmar is building a multibillion-dollar port through which oil can reach a 790-km (490-mile) pipeline under construction with Chinese money and workers.

It was unclear exactly how many political detainees were among the 651 inmates covered by the amnesty, the second ordered by authorities in four months. About 230 political detainees were released in an earlier general amnesty on October 12.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), a group that tracks prisoners, said at least 200 had been freed on Friday. These included Min Ko Naing and other members of the "88 Generation Students Group", who led a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 when thousands of protesters were killed.

Also freed was Shin Gambira, a Buddhist monk who led 2007 street protests crushed by the army. He was 27 years old when sentenced to 68 years in prison in 2007. Khin Nyunt, the once-powerful chief of military intelligence (MI), was also released from house arrest.

Appointed prime minister in 2003, he ushered in a then-derided seven-point "roadmap to democracy" but was purged a year later in circumstances that were never explained. He had been under house arrest ever since.

Speaking to reporters outside his home in Yangon, Khin Nyunt expressed hope for the country, citing recent meetings between the president and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and visits by dignitaries such as Clinton, who last month became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Myanmar in 50 years.

'GOOD SIGNS'

"These are good signs," he said, after stressing he had no plans to return to government. "I'm not going into politics."

Sai Nyunt Lwin, 60, a prominent ethnic Shan politician, said he and all other leaders of his former Shan Nationalities' League for Democracy (SNLD) were freed.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also welcomed the prisoner release, calling it the most significant to date, and called on the international community to respond "by helping build conditions for sustaining the reform process."

"The release of all political prisoners is a longstanding demand of the international community and I warmly welcome these releases as a further demonstration of the Burmese government's commitment to reform," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said in a statement.

The amnesty is a gamble for Thein Sein, a former general.

Freed dissidents will no doubt strengthen Suu Kyi's movement, but there are also concerns some could push for changes more radical than the government and Suu Kyi want.

Suu Kyi, a 1991 Nobel Peace Prize-winner released in 2010 from 15 years of house arrest, will run in a by-election for parliament in April and has said she trusts the new nominally civilian government that replaced the junta last March.

The United States downgraded its diplomatic representation in Myanmar to charge d'affaires following the military coup in 1988 and a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests in the country.

Clinton, citing progress on a number of fronts, said the next step was to identify a candidate to return to Myanmar as the U.S. ambassador.

"This is a lengthy process, and it will, of course, depend on continuing progress and reform. But an American ambassador will help strengthen our efforts to support the historic and promising steps that are now unfolding," Clinton said.

On Thursday, the government signed a ceasefire with ethnic Karen rebels to try to end one of the world's longest-running insurgencies, although fighting still rages with ethnic Kachins in the north. The government has also some eased media controls.

"The government should ensure that there are no obstacles to these activists participating in public life and upcoming elections," rights group Human Rights Watch said in a statement. It called for international monitors to be allowed in to account for political prisoners that might still be behind bars.

The exact number of political prisoners remains unclear.

Rights groups and the United Nations have put it at about 2,100. But Minister for Home Affairs Lieutenant General Ko Ko told U.N. Special Rapporteur Tomas Ojea Quintana in August the number was 600, or about 400 after the October 12 amnesty.

Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy put the total on Friday at about 500. It provides help to more than 460 people it considers "prisoners of conscience", said Naing Naing, the party official in charge of assistance. There were "a few dozen" more who did not seek its help, he said.

(Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Alan Raybould; Editing by Jason Szep and Will Dunham)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120114/wl_nm/us_myanmar_amnesty

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