Coroner: Speed may have killed self accidentally

Associated Press Sports

updated 1:03 p.m. ET Jan. 30, 2012

WARRINGTON, England (AP) -A coroner ruled Monday that Wales manager Gary Speed may have killed himself accidentally.

In an inquest at Warrington Coroner's Court, coroner Nicholas Rheinberg said Speed died of hanging but that there was insufficient evidence to prove that he had committed suicide.

Speed's body was found by his wife on Nov. 27 at their home.

"The evidence does not sufficiently determine whether this was intentional or accidental," Rheinberg said, adding that Speed could have fallen asleep with the cable around his neck while sitting on stairs in his garage.

"It seems likely that Mr. Speed was sitting for some time with a ligature around his neck. It may have been that this was some sort of dramatic gesture, not normally in Mr. Speed's character, but nonetheless, a possibility."

Speed's widow, Louise, told the inquest that Speed had sent a text to her just days before he died in which he mentioned suicide but also spoke positively and optimistically about the future and their two sons.

She said her husband's job as Wales manager placed stress upon him and their relationship but that they had been "working through" the issues.

The first man to play 500 games in the English Premier League and the youngest member of the midfield that carried Leeds to its most recent league title in 1992, Speed had overhauled Wales' ailing national team and coached a young squad to four wins in its last five matches before his death at 42.

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Arsenal recovers

Roundup: Arsenal kept its bid to end a seven-year trophy drought on track Sunday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45465223/ns/sports-soccer/

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Apple Buy Hollywood? That?s A Terrible Idea

Apple should not use its $100 billion in cash to buy, or buy into Hollywood. While it would most assuredly (ahem, cough) disrupt the system, it would not spur the kind of creative chaos and innovation that would lead to the Emerald City of any show, on demand, for free, to rent, or buy, or subscribe, and organized by taste or popularity, or you! In fact, Apple buying into Hollywood, would actually kill Hollywood. Here?s why:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/l6KZ0r94d4U/

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Space station dodges Chinese satellite debris

The International Space Station fired its thrusters Saturday in order to steer clear of orbital debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite test.

The dodging maneuver was required to avoid space junk from the Chinese satellite Fengyun 1C, which peppered low-Earth orbit with an estimated 3,000 pieces of shrapnel when it was intentionally destroyed by China five years ago. The remaining debris has required several similar avoidance maneuvers by the space station in recent years.

Rocket thrusters on the space station's Russian-built Zvezda service module fired at 6:50 p.m. EST (2350 GMT) in a 1-minute, four-second burn to slightly raise the laboratory's orbit, leaving it on a path that reaches just over 251 miles above Earth at the highest point, NASA officials said in an update.

Saturday's maneuver was "designed to place the station at the correct altitude and trajectory for future visiting vehicle activities and to avoid a repetitive coincidence of possible conjunctions with a piece of Chinese Fengyun 1C satellite debris," NASA officials explained.

A conjunction is what scientists call instances in which space debris will fly close enough to the station to cause concern. Since the space station orbits Earth at about 17,500 mph even a small piece of orbital debris can cause serious damage if it hits. [ Photos: Space Debris & Cleanup Concepts ]

The Fengyun 1C satellite debris had the potential to cause seven conjunctions with the space station, so steering the $100 billion safely into the clear was required, according to an earlier NASA update.

The space station is currently home to a six-man crew that includes three Russians, two Americans and one Dutch astronaut. NASA's Mission Control Center in Houston typically orders a dodging maneuver when debris is expected to fly inside a safety perimeter, which is shaped like a pizza box, that extends about 15 miles around the space station, as well as a half-mile above and below the orbiting lab.

When there is not enough time to plan a dodging maneuver, station astronauts can take shelter inside the Russian Soyuz vehicles that ferry them to and from the station until a piece of space junk has safely zoomed by. The Soyuz capsules, two of which are docked at the station now, each seat three people and can double as lifeboats.

Maneuvers to avoid space junk conjunctions are not uncommon for the space station and other satellites orbiting Earth.? Earlier this month, the space station fired its thrusters to avoid debris from a 2009 satellite crash between an U.S. and Russian spacecraft.

Space junk poses an ongoing threat to astronauts on the space station , as well as other satellites in orbit. To date, there are about 6,000 tons of space junk orbiting Earth ranging from tiny bolts and paint chips to huge spent rocket stages and dead satellites.

More than 500,000 pieces of space junk are currently tracked every day by NASA and the U.S. military's Space Surveillance Network in order to avoid collisions in orbit.

You can follow Tariq Malik on Twitter @tariqjmalik. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

? 2012 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46182311/ns/technology_and_science-space/

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Welch to GOP: Treat Paul with care (CNN)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192284785?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Azarenka routs Sharapova to win Australian title (AP)

MELBOURNE, Australia ? Victoria Azarenka started celebrating, then suddenly did a double-take to ask her coach, "What happened?"

The answer: She had just produced one of the most lopsided Australian Open final victories to capture a Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Azarenka routed three-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour, 22 minutes on Saturday night, winning 12 of the last 13 games after dropping her first service game and falling behind 2-0.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "I have been dreaming and working so hard to win the Grand Slam, and being No. 1 is pretty good bonus. Just the perfect ending and the perfect position to be in."

Azarenka had won 11 straight matches, including a run to the Sydney International title, and reached her first Grand Slam final. Her previous best performance at a major was a semifinal loss to Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon last year. Sharapova had all the experience, being in her sixth major final and having won three ? dating to her 2004 Wimbledon title.

But it didn't unnerve the 22-year-old Azarenka, the first woman from Belarus to win a singles major. She's also the seventh different woman to win a Grand Slam since Francesca Schiavone won the 2010 French Open, and the fifth different winner in as many majors.

Azarenka became only the third woman to earn the No. 1 spot after winning her first major title. She moved from No. 3 to No. 1 in the rankings, helped by Caroline Wozniacki's loss in the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Azarenka set up championship point with a stunning forehand, her 14th clean winner, and sealed it when Sharapova netted a backhand.

She dropped to her knees at the baseline with her hands over her face. She got up, held her hands up and jogged over to her coach, Sam Sumyk, in the stands to celebrate.

"The best feeling, for sure," Azarenka said. "I don't know about the game. I don't know what I was doing out there. It's just pure joy what happened. I can't believe it's over."

And she paid special credit to her grandmother, "the person who inspires me the most in my life."

Azarenka has been a distinctive presence at Melbourne Park as much for her shrieks and hoots with each shot and seemingly boundless energy as for her white shorts, blue singlet and lime green head and wrist bands.

Against Sharapova, she maintained the frenetic movement that has been the hallmark of her performance in Australia, her 25th consecutive major. She won the Sydney International title last weekend and is on a 12-match winning streak ? the first player since 2004 to win a WTA tour event the week before winning a major.

"She did everything better than I did today. I had a good first couple of games, and that was about it," Sharapova said. "Then she was the one that was taking the first ball and hitting it deep and aggressive. I was always the one running around like a rabbit, you know, trying to play catch-up all the time."

Sharapova also won only three games in a 2007 final loss to Serena Williams, who also conceded only three games in the 2009 final against Dinara Safina.

When Sharapova won the first two games, there was no indication of how lopsided the match would be. Azarenka took control after holding for the first time, breaking Sharapova at love and then holding again on a three-game roll.

Sharapova held, finishing off with an ace, to level the score at 3-3 in the first set but then didn't win another game.

Azarenka started dictating the points, coming to the net at times, hitting winners from the baseline and forcing the 24-year-old Russian to the extremes on both sides of the court. Sharapova seemed barely able to move by comparison, and had 30 unforced errors in the match.

The second set was completely lopsided and lasted only 36 minutes, with Sharapova winning only 12 points.

"As in any sport, you have your good days, you have your tough days and you have days where things just don't work out," said Sharapova, who has now been on the losing end of two of the most lopsided scorelines in a final at Melbourne Park.

In the men's doubles final, Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek denied Bob and Mike Bryan their record 12th Grand Slam title, beating the American twins 7-6 (1), 6-2.

The 33-year-old Bryans were attempting to secure their place as the most decorated doubles team since the Open Era began in 1968. They remain tied at 11 major titles with Australian duo Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge.

On Sunday, defending champion Novak Djokovic takes on Rafael Nadal in a men's singles final featuring the top two players in the rankings. Djokovic won three of the four majors last year and beat Nadal in six finals in 2011 among his 70 match wins for the season.

Azarenka had her best season in 2011, winning 55 of 72 matches to finish the year at No. 3.

There was a time when she'd momentarily flirted with the idea of quitting the sport during a quick trip home to Minsk after a loss at Doha. But she was quickly set straight by her family, including her grandmother, who had reportedly worked three jobs until the age of 71.

She couldn't get through to her family immediately "because my phone is freaking out right now," but she texted them from the court.

"I made a pretty smart decision, not walking out, right? That was pretty special," she said. "There's always ups and downs, now I'm up."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_on_sp_te_ga_su/ten_australian_open

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US natural gas supplies shrank last week (AP)

NEW YORK ? The nation's natural gas supplies declined last week, the government said Thursday.

The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration said in its weekly report that natural gas in storage shrank by 192 billion cubic feet to 3.098 trillion cubic feet for the week ended Jan. 20.

Analysts expected a drop of 171 billion to 175 billion cubic feet, according to a survey by Platts, the energy information arm of McGraw-Hill Cos.

Although last week's decline was larger than the five-year average draw of 173 billion cubic feet, the inventory level was still 21.4 percent above the five-year average of 2.551 trillion cubic feet, and 20.7 percent above last year's level of 2.567 trillion cubic feet, according to the government data.

Mild winter weather has kept thermostats down and natural gas supplies high.

Natural gas futures fell 3 cents to $2.70 per 1,000 cubic feet in New York.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/energy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_bi_ge/us_natural_gas_storage

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Prions more mobile than thought

Disease agents can jump from one species to another

Web edition : 2:46 pm

The protein-based pathogens known as prions may pass between different species more easily than has been thought, a team of French researchers reports in the Jan. 27 Science. By infecting engineered mice with prions from goats and cows, scientists also have shown that the invaders readily target tissues other than the brain.

?We may underestimate the threat posed by some of these diseases by focusing only on the brain,? says Pierluigi Gambetti, a prion researcher at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. ?It adds a new element to the equation.?

The research also raises the possibility that new prion strains recently identified in cattle and small rodents might be able to jump to other species, including humans.

?We should, in the future, be more exhaustive when looking at the possibility of prions being passed from one species to another,? says Hubert Laude, a professor at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Jouy-en-Josas and a coauthor of the study.

Prions closely resemble normal proteins made by a host. When prions invade a host, they propagate by forcing these normal host proteins, actually called prion proteins, to assemble improperly. When these malformed proteins accumulate in the brain, they cause mind-wasting conditions such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in people and scrapie in sheep.

For the most part, intrinsic biological differences between species prevent these pathogens from jumping hosts. But some prions are known to be transmitted between species, including Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which humans contract after being exposed to mad cow disease in cattle.

?This barrier can be very, very strong or easily broken,? Laude says. ?It depends on the species, the donor, host and also the strain of prion.?

To measure the strength of this barrier, Laude?s team used genetically engineered mice that expressed the normal human prion proteins. The scientists injected the mice with prions known to target similar proteins from cows or goats.

Laude?s team found misassembled proteins in the spleens of over half the mice, suggesting that this tissue might be more susceptible to infection. Malformed proteins were also detected in some of the animals? brains, though the mice all lived out a normal life span and didn?t exhibit any signs of disease.?

Taken together, these findings suggest that prions once believed to be limited to only one species can jump the barrier and affect other species.

Found in: Biomedicine

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/337970/title/Prions_more_mobile_than_thought

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Italy promises to back Afghanistan after 2014 (AP)

BERLIN ? German lawmakers have voted to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan by a year, signing off on a plan to gradually reduce troop levels toward an eventual complete withdrawal.

The plan was agreed to by a large majority Thursday. It extends the troop deployment through January 2013, but sets a ceiling of 4,900 soldiers, reduced from the maximum 5,350 over the last year.

The overall reductions are part of plans by the U.S. and other allies to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.

Also Thursday, Italian Premier Mario Monti assured visiting Afghan President Hamid Karzai that Italy would give economic and civilian support after 2014 withdrawal. The two signed a long-term cooperation agreement on the first stop of Karzai's European tour.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120126/ap_on_re_eu/eu_europe_afghanistan

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Arizona Gov. Brewer gets book critique from Obama

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book." Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer points at President Barack Obama after he arrived at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book." Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama arrives at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama talks with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. Brewer greeted Obama and what she got was a book critique. Of her book. The two leaders engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One?s steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time. Asked what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book." Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir that describes her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona?s controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes. Brewer also handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation for Obama to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)

President Barack Obama arrives at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

President Barack Obama signs autographs after arriving at Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2012, in Mesa, Ariz. (AP Photo/Matt York)

MESA, Ariz. (AP) ? Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer came to greet President Barack Obama upon his arrival outside Phoenix Wednesday. What she got was a critique. Of her book.

The two leaders could be seen engaged in an intense conversation at the base of Air Force One's steps. Both could be seen smiling, but speaking at the same time.

Asked moments later what the conversation was about, Brewer, a Republican, said: "He was a little disturbed about my book."

Brewer recently published a book, "Scorpions for Breakfast," something of a memoir of her years growing up and defends her signing of Arizona's controversial law cracking down on illegal immigrants, which Obama opposes.

Obama was objecting to Brewer's description of a meeting he and Brewer had at the White House, where she described Obama as lecturing her. In an interview in November Brewer described two tense meetings. The first took place before his commencement address at Arizona State University. "He did blow me off at ASU," she said in the television interview in November.

She also described meeting the president at the White House in 2010 to talk about immigration. "I felt a little bit like I was being lectured to, and I was a little kid in a classroom, if you will, and he was this wise professor and I was this little kid, and this little kid knows what the problem is and I felt minimized to say the least."

On the tarmac Wednesday, Brewer handed Obama an envelope with a handwritten invitation to return to Arizona to meet her for lunch and to join her for a visit to the border.

"I said to him, you know, I have always respected the office of the president and that the book is what the book is," she told reporters Wednesday. She said Obama complained that she described him as not treating her cordially.

"I said that I was sorry that he felt that way. Anyway, we're glad he's here, and we'll regroup."

A White House official said Brewer handed Obama a letter and said she was inviting him to meet with her. The official said Obama told her he would be glad to meet with her again. The official said Obama did note that after their last meeting, which the official described as a cordial discussion in the Oval Office, the governor inaccurately described the meeting in her book. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a private conversation between the president and the governor.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-25-US-Obama-Arizona-Governor/id-9cfd4282d27e410587427e388d73ed5c

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PSU's O'Brien: An 'honor' to follow Paterno

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Bill O'Brien says it's an honor to follow the late Joe Paterno as Penn State's next head coach.

In an interview Monday, O'Brien says he will create his own identity and that no one will ever replace Paterno, who won 409 games and two national championships.

Paterno died Sunday at age 85 just 65 days after his son Scott said his father had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

O'Brien says he never got to speak with Paterno in person following his hiring Jan. 7.

The two did talk by phone soon after O'Brien arrived. O'Brien says he wanted Paterno to know he would work hard to preserve the traditions of winning and academics in the new Penn State regime.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-23-Penn%20State-O'Brien/id-b7eda3b311414e849a35956d8b35b6a7

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Flamboyant online tycoon kept low profile in rural NZ (Reuters)

COATESVILLE, New Zealand (Reuters) ? Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom's online profile was larger-than-life, with fast women, faster cars and chartered planes, yet he lived like a virtual recluse in a sprawling, manicured estate on the outskirts of New Zealand's biggest city, Auckland.

Dotcom, also known as Kim Schmitz, faces extradition to the United States over charges of masterminding a scheme that made more than $175 million by infringing copyrighted content without authorization on his online file-sharing website.

The German national, who denies the charges, is currently in custody in a jail cell, and a New Zealand judge is due to decide by Wednesday whether he will get bail.

Neighbors in this nouveau riche community of hobby farms, vineyards and equestrian clubs sometimes saw Dotcom on the winding roads in one of his luxury cars, but no one Reuters spoke to had actually met the multi-millionaire, former hacker.

"We see him driving around, but he keeps to himself and we're quite close neighbors. I've seen him driving around with his 'GUILTY' number plate," said Libbi Darroch, as she groomed her 7-year-old showjumper Muffy at the Coatesville Pony Club.

Living just over the hill from Dotcom's rented 30-acre property, the Darrochs drive past the estate's back entrance, guarded by a security outhouse and surveillance cameras, to reach the shops or take their daughter to school.

"I've never seen him walking or anything. I think he does all his business in his mansion. All I thought was he had a funny number plate. People knew he was incredibly wealthy because of the huge rent he was paying," said Darroch.

Dotcom, 38, rents what is reportedly New Zealand's most expensive house, built by the founders of Chrisco Christmas hamper fame and worth an estimated NZ$30 million, with a monthly rental put at NZ$30,000-NZ$40,000.

At the nearby Coatseville general store, garage, cafe and gift shop, everyone told the same story - no one has actually met Dotcom, who reportedly stands two meters (six ft six inches) tall and weighs more than 130 kg (285 lbs).

Nor has anyone met his wife, who is heavily pregnant with twins, or his three children or know where they go to school.

CHAMPAGNE LIFESTYLE ONLINE

Since taking up residence here in 2010, Dotcom has ordered some NZ$4 million ($3.2 million) of renovations to the mansion, including a heated lap pool with underwater speakers, imported spring water and a NZ$15,000 custom ladder, according to media.

But any work on the estate, which looks like a world-class golf course with clipped lawns and staff moving about in golf carts, is organized by someone in his entourage, say locals.

Adding to the reclusive image, Dotcom claims to have become the world's top player of the video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" after racking up 702 hours of gaming in just months.

On New Year's Eve, Dotcom uploaded a video of his achievements on YouTube, looking at the camera and punching the air. The time lapse video shows Dotcom sitting in a chair playing the game on his computer as the sun goes up and down. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ltcCF_cAQ)

Dotcom spent NZ$500,000 for a 2010 New Year's Eve fireworks display over Auckland, but few city officials have publicly admitted meeting him. Former Auckland mayor John Banks said he met him after his fireworks donation, but added he hardly knew the multi-millionaire.

"He has been very generous to many charities and good causes as I understand it, and he was very generous to Auckland City when he volunteered to fund the fireworks display and did," Banks told local media Tuesday.

Banks said he had dined at Dotcom's estate once. "I'm a car enthusiast and he had a nice collection of cars. I got to speak to him for a few minutes," he said.

LOCAL SYMPATHY

This all contrasts with Dotcom's online image, with one video showing him surrounded by topless women and men spraying champagne on board a superyacht during a "crazy weekend" in Monaco that cost a reported $10 million.

"Fast cars, hot girls, superyachts and amazing parties. Decadence rules," said the commentary accompanying the so-called fun documentary, which Dotcom dedicated to "all my fans."

Dotcom was arrested Friday in a high-octane raid by New Zealand police, backed by helicopters, on his home in Coatesville, during which the former hacker was found holed up in a safe room.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates Dotcom personally made around $115,000 a day during 2010 from his empire. The list of assets seized when he was arrested, included nearly 20 luxury cars, one of them a pink Cadillac, works of art, and NZ$10 million invested in local finance companies.

Megaupload's lawyer has said the company simply offered online storage and has sought Dotcom's release on bail, but prosecutors say he is an extreme flight risk as he holds German and Finnish passports and probably has access to secret funds.

Despite having no contact with Dotcom, many people in this sleepy village were sympathetic, believing he has been treated harshly for someone not charged with a violent crime.

"He's innocent until proven guilty," said one woman at the Fernleigh Cafe. Another local protested that the police raid on Dotcom's house was heavy handed, with police rappelling down from a helicopter and busting down his bedroom door.

Jeff Ifrah, a U.S.-based white collar defense lawyer, wrote in a blog that the U.S. government had raised the stakes by treating the Megaupload case as though it was dealing with organized crime and ignoring that other online file-sharing sites had successfully defended themselves.

"These actions, more suitable to the type of steps that the government takes against an organized crime enterprise dedicated to murder, theft and racketeering, are astonishing," he wrote.

Tuesday, while Dotcom sat for a fifth day in a prison cell, there was little activity at his estate, bar the security guards moving about quietly in golf carts.

A Finnish flag flew above his mansion, while two statues of giraffes stood high on a hill overlooking the main entrance.

(Editing by Ed Davies and Ian Geoghegan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tech/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120124/wr_nm/us_internet_piracy_megaupload

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Saudis quit Arab monitoring mission in Syria

CAIRO?? Arab foreign ministers agreed Sunday on a new political roadmap for Syria that sees President Bashar Assad delegating power to a deputy and setting up a unity government as a prelude to early parliamentary and presidential elections.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told a news conference after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo that the Arab League would take its initiative to the U.N. Security Council and ask for its endorsement.

Earlier Sunday, the ministers extended a much-criticized monitoring mission to Syria for a month, but Saudi Arabia said it was withdrawing its observers.

"My country will withdraw its monitors because the Syrian government did not execute any of the elements of the Arab resolution plan," Prince Saud al-Faisal told fellow Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo.

"We are calling on the international community to bear its responsibility, and that includes our brothers in Islamic states and our friends in Russia, China, Europe and the United States," Saud said, calling for "all possible pressure" to push Syria to adhere to the Arab peace plan.

Saudi Arabia has been one of the harshest Arab critics of the crackdown, It recalled its ambassador from Damascus last year in protest.

Also Sunday, Syrian forces and army defectors clashed in a suburb of the tightly held capital of Damascus ? a sign that citizen protests against President Bashar Assad might turn into civil war.

The observer mission is supposed to be the first step toward implementing an Arab League plan to end the Syria crisis. Other points are pulling heavy Syrian weapons out of cities, stopping attacks on protesters, opening talks with the opposition and allowing foreign human rights workers and journalists in.

"There is partial progress in the implementation of the promises," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said in Cairo about Syria's implementation of the plan. Syria "did not carry out all its promises, although there are some implementation of pledges."

He added that the use of "extreme force" by Syrian forces have led to a reaction by the opposition "in what could lead to civil war."

So far the observer mission has not gone well. Though some credit it with tamping down violence in some places, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said Sunday that 976 people, including 54 children and 28 women, have been killed since the observers began their mission last month.

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The U.N. estimates some 5,400 have been killed since it began in March.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Arab League to "maximize" the effectiveness of the mission of the observers in Syria "to stop the killings."

"The deployment of the observers, has been disappointing ... Assad played games with observers," by moving around forces instead of removing them from cities, while the killing continues, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

The Arab League faced three options Sunday: ending the mission and giving up its initiative, extending it, or turning the crisis over to the U.N. Security Council, as some opposition groups have urged. There, however, it would face a possible stalemate because of disagreements among permanent members over how far to go in forcing Assad's hand.

Story: Rights group: West hasn't embraced Arab Spring

The mission's one-month mandate technically expired on Thursday.

The pullout of Assad's security forces from the Damascus suburb of Douma marked the second time in a week that troops have redeployed from an area near the tightly-controlled Syrian capital, an indication that Assad might be losing some control.

Diplomacy has taken on urgency as opponents of Assad's regime and soldiers who switched sides increasingly take up arms and fight back against government forces.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights' head Rami Abdul-Rahman said government troops had pulled back early Sunday to a provincial headquarters and a security agency building in the Damascus suburb of Douma after hours of clashes, although they still controlled the entrances. The clashes broke out after Syrian troops opened fire at a funeral on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon, the battles resumed between the defectors and troops loyal to Assad, according to the Observatory and the Local Coordination Committees, another activist group. The LCC said that heavy machine gun fire was used in the clashes, and five people were killed.

Abdul-Rahman had no information on casualties from the clashes but said security forces at an entrance checkpoint shot dead one man who was passing by on Sunday. He added that one person was shot dead in a nearby town of Rankous as well as another person in the northwestern province of Idlib.

The LCC said 12 people were killed in Syria Sunday. The LCC and the Observatory reported intense gunfire in the central city of Homs that left at least one person dead.

State-run news agency SANA said gunmen opened fire at the car of an army brigadier general, killing him and another army officers who was in the vehicle.

Syria-based activist Mustafa Osso confirmed that security forces had abandoned Douma.

A video posted by activists on social media showed five masked gunmen, one of them in uniform, who read a statement saying, "the city of Douma has been liberated from Assad's gangs." He warned Syrian troops not to try enter Douma or defectors would "fire rockets at the presidential palace" in Damascus and execute five prisoners they are holding.

The Associated Press could not verify the authenticity of the video.

Also Sunday, state-run SANA, said an estimated 5,255 Syrian prisoners have been released over the past week under an amnesty, raising the total freed since November to more than 9,000. Opposition groups say thousands are still being held.

The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Syria as the bloodshed escalates. The U.S. has long called for Assad to step down, and officials say his regime's demise is inevitable.

Two U.S. Senators plan to introduce a bill to stiffen the sanctions.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York would require President Barack Obama to identify violators of human rights in Syria, call for reform and offer protection to pro-democracy demonstrators. It would also block financial aid and property transactions in the United States involving Syrian leaders involved in the crackdown.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46091558/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Police arrest 2, identify suspect in Mumbai blasts (AP)

NEW DELHI ? Mumbai police have arrested two men involved in triple bomb blasts that hit India's financial hub six months ago, a top investigator said Monday.

The men were arrested in the eastern Indian state of Bihar and were brought to Mumbai to be formally charged for their role in the blasts that killed 27 people, said Rakesh Maria, head of the Anti-Terrorism Squad.

He said police have also unraveled a complex financial trail leading to the July explosions.

However, police have yet to find the top suspect, Yasin Bhatkal, he said.

Bhatkal is a leader of the domestic Indian Mujahedeen group that has been blamed for the blasts.

Maria said investigators visited 18 Indian states and talked to nearly 12,400 witnesses during the six-month investigation. Footage from 180 closed-circuit cameras installed near the blast sites was also studied, he said.

At least 137 people were injured in the rush-hour attacks in three busy Mumbai neighborhoods.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/terrorism/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_as/as_india_terror_arrests

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[OOC] A Forbidden Love

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Pretty

Member for 0 years

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uhm...May I reserve a male demon? This is the scenario I image:

A demon is sent into the Between Realm to find the Demon Prince a new slave. As he found a girl/boy and thought that he/she is suitable for the position he reported back to the prince and was told to collect that girl/boy in 4 days. When he comes back to the Between Real to collect he/she, he begins to fall for her/him? Will he disobey the Demon Prince or will he take the girl/boy he loves back to the Demon Realm to become a slave?

What do you think?

blackwolf

Member for 1 years

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Oh...I forget...Do you have a char sheet or we can do whatever we want?

blackwolf

Member for 1 years

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Post a reply

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Why bats, rats and cats store different amounts of fat

Friday, January 20, 2012

Animals differ in the amount of fat they carry around depending on their species, status and sex. However, the causes of much of this variation have been a mystery. The Bristol study shows that many differences can be understood by considering the strategies animals employ to avoid two causes of death: starvation and being killed by predators.

These causes of death often exert opposite pressures on animals, for example, storing lots of fat helps animals survive periods without food but also slows their running and so makes getting caught by a predator more likely. Animals can be stronger to compensate, but the energetic costs of extra muscle mean that the animal would starve quicker during a food shortage.

Led by Dr Andrew Higginson of Bristol's School of Biological Sciences, the researchers used mathematical models to explore how much muscle and fat animals should have in their body to give themselves the best chance of survival. They showed that an important consideration was how much carrying fat increases the energetic costs of movement. The models revealed that the size of this cost influenced whether larger animals should have more fat than smaller animals, or vice versa.

Dr Higginson said: "Our results explain differences between different families of mammal. For example, larger bats carry proportionally less fat than small bats but larger carnivores carry more fat than small carnivores. Among rodents, it's the medium-sized species that carry around the most fat! These differences agree with the models predictions if you consider the costs of carrying fat for these three groups. Bats fly and so have high costs of carrying extra weight, whilst carnivores spend much of their time resting and so will use less energy than busy scurrying rodents."

The work, published in The American Naturalist, also shows that much of the variation between animals in their amounts of fat and muscle can be explained by differences between the sexes, how much animals have to fight to get food, and the climate in which they live.

The researchers plan to put the theory to the test by looking in more detail at the amounts of fat stored by different animals. If their theory is correct, much of the mystery in how species and sexes differ in their amount of fat will have been solved.

###

University of Bristol: http://www.bristol.ac.uk

Thanks to University of Bristol 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.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/116911/Why_bats__rats_and_cats_store_different_amounts_of_fat

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Video: Final South Carolina Countdown

Discussing whether this is Mitt Romney's race to lose, with Steve Schmidt, Edelmen vice president; Ari Melber, The Nation; and Ed Rogers, former Bush duputy assistant.

Related Links:

Business & financial news headlines from msnbc.com

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Georgia?s most used iPhone and iPad accessories of 2011

I’m fortunate in that I get to try out and review a lot of iPhone and iPad accessories every year, but at the same time that makes it hard to

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Israeli strike kills two Palestinians in Gaza (Reuters)

GAZA (Reuters) ? An Israeli aircraft and tank strike killed two Palestinians close to the border fence in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medical officials said.

Residents of the north Gaza town of Beit Hanoun said Israeli planes and tanks had fired into the area.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed the attack and an army statement said: "Aircraft and armored corps soldiers targeted a terrorist squad that was planting an explosive device near the security fence in the northern Gaza Strip."

The statement said it was the second such attempt in 2012 by Palestinian militants to plant a bomb in an area of the border where the Israeli military regularly patrols. Israel has declared the frontier area a no-go zone for Gaza residents.

Palestinian medical officials said one man was killed at the scene and a second man later died at hospital of his wounds.

No Palestinian militant group claimed the men as members.

It was the first deadly military strike in the Gaza Strip since December 30, when an Israeli aircraft killed the leader of an al Qaeda-inspired faction.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Maayan Lubell; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Divers resume search for 21 missing from ship (AP)

ROME ? Divers resumed the search Thursday for 21 people still missing after a cruise ship capsized off the Tuscan coast, but rough seas forecast for later in the day added an element of uncertainty to the operation and plans to begin pumping fuel from the stranded vessel.

The $450 million Costa Concordia was carrying more than 4,200 passengers and crew when it slammed into a reef and capsized Friday after the captain made an unauthorized diversion from his programmed route and strayed into the perilous waters.

Eleven people have been confirmed dead, their bodies removed from the ship and frigid waters.

Divers were focusing on an evacuation route on the fourth level, now about 18 meters (60 feet) below the surface, where five bodies were found earlier this week, Navy spokesman Alessandro Busonero told Sky TG 24.

Officials restarted the search after determining the ship had stabilized after shifting on the rocks 24 hours earlier.

The ship's sudden movement also postponed the start of the weekslong operation to extract the half-million gallons of fuel on board the vessel, as Italy's environment minister warned Parliament of the ecological implications if the ship sinks.

"Today is an important day, the weather forecasts are negative, rough sea, we'll have to see how the ship reacts to that," firefighter spokesman Luca Cari said Thursday.

Authorities on Wednesday identified the first victim: Sandor Feher, a 38-year-old Hungarian musician working aboard, who a fellow musician said helped crying children into lifejackets, then disappeared while trying to retrieve his beloved violin from his cabin. His body was found inside the wreck and identified by his mother who traveled to Italy, according to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

Of the 11 dead and 21 missing, Italian officials have only released 27 names so far. They are two Americans, 12 Germans, six Italians, four French, and one person each from Hungary, India and Peru.

Among the missing are an Italian father and 5-year-old daughter. The girl's mother issued a fresh appeal to speed the search and for passengers who saw the pair to come forward to help determine where they were last seen.

"Don't stop, bring home my daughter. Get her out," Susy Albertini, 28, said on Italian television Wednesday evening after meeting with government and port officials in Tuscany.

Albertini last saw her daughter, Dayana Arlotti, on Thursday when she dropped her off at nursery school in Rimini on Italy's Adriadic coast, according to La Voce di Romagna newspaper. Her estranged husband picked up the girl afterward to prepare for the cruise.

William Arlotti, 36, had taken his daughter on on the cruise with his girlfriend, Michela Marconcelli, who survived. She reported seeing Dayana, who was wearing a lifejacket, slide into the water when the boat shifted, but said someone helped retrieve her, the newspaper reported.

Marconcelli said she was pushed forward onto the life raft, and lost track of her companion and his daughter.

Other missing include retirees Jerry and Barbara Heil of White Bear Lake, Minnesota. The couple were treating themselves after putting four children through college.

The Heil children said in a blog post Wednesday that their parents were not among the passengers whose bodies were recently recovered, and they were praying that weather conditions would improve so authorities could resume search operations.

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

The ship's operator, Crociere Costa SpA, has accused Schettino of causing the wreck by making the unapproved detour, and the captain has acknowledged carrying out what he called a "tourist navigation" that brought the ship closer to Giglio. Costa has said such a navigational "fly by" was done last Aug. 9-10, after being approved by the company and Giglio port authorities.

However, Lloyd's List Intelligence, a leading maritime publication, said Wednesday its tracking of the ship's August route showed it actually took the Concordia slightly closer to Giglio than the course that caused Friday's disaster.

"This is not a black-and-white case," Richard Meade, editor of Lloyd's List, said in a statement.

"Our data suggests that both routes took the vessel within 200 meters (yards) of the impact point and that the authorized route was actually closer to shore."

New audio of Schettino's communications with the coast guard during the crisis emerged Wednesday, with the captain claiming he ended up in a life raft after he tripped and fell into the water.

"I did not abandon a ship with 100 people on board, the ship suddenly listed and we were thrown into the water," Schettino said, according to a transcript published Wednesday in the Corriere della Sera paper.

Initial audio of Schettino's conversations made headlines on Tuesday, showing an increasingly exasperated coast guard officer ordering Schettino back on board to direct the evacuation, and the captain resisting, saying it was too dark and the ship was tipping.

The officer's order, "Get back on board, (expletive!)" has entered the Italian lexicon, becoming a Twitter hashtag and adorning T-shirts.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120119/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_italy_cruise_aground

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What The Golden Globes Tell Us About The Oscars

Some unexpected wins at the Golden Globes change the race leading up to next month's Academy Awards.
By Kevin P. Sullivan

Michelle Williams at the 2012 Golden Globes
Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images

Most people will tell you that they only care about the Golden Globes because of what the list of winners says about the Oscars. While the Globes aren't historically the best predictors of Academy Award winners, they do often give a signal of where things are, heading into Oscar night.

This year was no different, but don't expect people to be erasing their picks from their Oscar ballot just yet.

Here is what this year's Golden Globe winners tell us about the Oscars.

Sorry, Brad
This year's awards season has been marked by a lack of front-runners in most categories. Even with the dozens of critic organizations that have already awarded their year-end prizes, going into Globes night, no one performance or film stood out as the one to beat. (The closest one to a sure bet is Christopher Plumber for "The Beginners.") Until Sunday, three men could have realistically been considered favorites for Best Actor: Brad Pitt, Jean Dujardin and George Clooney. Since "The Artist" skated by on a questionable comedy categorization, both Dujardin and Clooney took home Golden Globe statues and landed themselves at the front of the Oscar pack. This is essentially the end of Pitt's Oscar run this year.

Best Actress Award Is Up for Grabs
Most analysts had considered Viola Davis the clear favorite to win Best Actress, but her loss Sunday night to the reigning queen of award shows Meryl Streep signals a change in the tide. The two actresses were neck and neck for the category, but lukewarm to negative reviews for "The Iron Lady" began to hurt Streep's chances just weeks before award season got into full swing. Since "The Help" was generally considered a better film, Davis got the vote of confidence from many over the often-nominated Streep. Though she had been considered one of the favorites going into the Golden Globes, Streep's victory is somewhat of an upset and proof positive that the Best Actress race is far from decided.

"The Descendants" vs. "The Artist"
These are the two films that have fought again and again for Best Picture awards for the past weeks, but the Globes did not offer any great insight for the Oscars. "The Descendants" and "The Artist" both took home the Best Picture award for their respective categories, despite the latter actually being a drama. The only thing we know for sure now is that these are the two films vying for Best Picture, with the "The Artist" maintaining a definite lead. Many considered "Hugo" a contender, and Martin Scorsese's win for Best Director gives some validity to those claims, but for all intents and purposes, any film that isn't "The Artist," "The Descendants" or "Hugo" should throw in the towel now.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

Related Videos

• 2012 Golden Globes: Highlights From The Show
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• MTV Style | 2012 Golden Globes Red Carpet Photos
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Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677351/golden-globes-oscars.jhtml

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1300-Year-Old Flask Holds Mayan Tobacco Remains

60-Second Science | More Science

A chemical analysis found evidence of nicotine in a Mayan flask dating back to 700 AD. Sophie Bushwick reports.

January 17, 2012

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People have used tobacco for well over a thousand years. And researchers recently found unique physical evidence of the ancient habit. They detected traces of tobacco in a 1300-year-old Mayan container. The work is in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry. [Dmitri V. Zagorevski and Jennifer A. Loughmiller-Newman, The detection of nicotine in a Late Mayan period flask by gas chromatography and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry methods]

Based on hieroglyphics and images of people smoking, archaeologists assumed that the Mayans used tobacco. In the hope of finding physical remains, the researchers examined the inside of a particular clay flask dating back to the year 700 AD. Analysis of the flask revealed the presence of nicotine, as well as a few products of nicotine oxidation.

The chemical analysis owes some of its success to a dirty container?because the inside of the flask was not cleaned, the nicotine residue remained uncontaminated. It also helped that the flask had a single purpose, and was not reused to hold multiple products. But the most important aid to this discovery was undoubtedly some Mayan writing on the container. Which roughly translated means: container for tobacco.

?Sophie Bushwick

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

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APNewsBreak: Mars rocks fell in Africa last July (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Scientists are confirming a recent and rare invasion from Mars: meteorite chunks from the red planet that fell in Morocco last July.

This is only the fifth time scientists have chemically confirmed Martian meteorites that people witnessed falling. The small rock refugees were seen in a fireball in the sky six months ago, but they weren't discovered on the ground in North Africa until the end of December.

Scientists and collectors of meteorites are ecstatic and already the rocks are fetching big bucks because they are among the rarest things on Earth.

A special committee of meteorite experts, which includes some NASA scientists, confirmed the test results Tuesday. They certified that 15 pounds of meteorite recently collected came from Mars. The biggest rock weighs over 2 pounds.

Astronomers think millions of years ago something big smashed into Mars and sent rocks hurtling through the solar system. After a long journey through space, one of those rocks eventually landed here. It plunged into Earth's atmosphere, splitting into smaller pieces and one chunk shattered into shards when it hit the ground.

This is an important and unique hands-on look at Mars for scientists trying to learn about the planet's potential for life. So far, no NASA or Russian spacecraft have returned bits of Mars, so the only Martian samples scientists can examine are those that come here in a meteorite shower.

Most other samples had been on Earth for millions of years ? or at the very least decades ? which makes them tainted with Earth materials and life. These new rocks, while still likely contaminated because they have been on Earth for months, are still more pure and better to study.

The last time a Martian meteorite fell and was found fresh was in 1962. All the Martian rocks on Earth add up to less than 240 pounds.

The new samples were scooped up by dealers from those who found them. Even before the official certification, scientists at NASA, museums and universities scrambled to buy or trade these meteorites.

"It's a free sample from Mars, that's what these are, except you have to pay the dealers for it," said University of Alberta meteorite expert Chris Herd, who heads the committee that certified the discovery.

He's already bought a chunk of meteorite and said he was thrilled just to hold it, calling the rock "really spectacular."

One of the key decisions the scientists made Tuesday was to officially connect these rocks to the July fiery plunge witnessed by people and captured on video. The announcement and naming of these meteorites ? called Tissint ? came from the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science, which is the official group of 950 scientists that confirms and names meteorites.

Meteorite dealer Darryl Pitt, who sold a chunk to Herd, said he charges from $11,000 to $22,500 an ounce and he's sold most of his already. At that price, the new Martian rock costs about 10 times more per ounce than gold.

___

Online:

The Meteoritical Society: http://bit.ly/xDh6zz

Tony Irving's list of Martian meteorites: http://bit.ly/yl7jBD

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120117/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rocks

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