Analysis of 2,000 years of climate records finds global cooling trend ended in the 19th century

Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
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Contact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7530
National Science Foundation

20th-century warming, researchers say, 'reversed' the trend

The most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth's continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend--caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity--ended late in the 19th century.

The study also finds that the 20th century ranks as the warmest or nearly the warmest century on all of the continents, except Antarctica. Africa had insufficient data to be included in the analysis.

Global warming that has occurred since the end of the 19th century reversed a persistent long-term global cooling trend, say the researchers.

A consortium of 78 authors from 24 countries, some of them supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), also note in research published in the May 2013 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience that there were regional differences in temperature evolution.

"This is an example of a large international team effort, collaborating to synthesize new scientific results from a very large, publicly available dataset," said Paul E. Filmer, program director for the Paleoclimate, Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology and ArcSEES programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate.

The researchers are members of the "2K Network" of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The Swiss National Science Foundation and the US NSF jointly support the PAGES International Project Office.

"Global warming that has occurred since the end of the 19th century reversed a persistent long-term global cooling trend," the researchers write in the report.

Because long-range cooling was caused by natural factors that continued to exist in the 20th century, the authors argue, the warming of the 20th century makes it more difficult to discount the effects of the increase of greenhouse gases in the global increase of temperatures measured in recent decades.

However, the researchers note, their study was not specifically designed to assess the extent to which temperature changes can be attributed to various natural and human-caused factors.

"The new results show that climate change is, as usual, more complicated than we expected: long, millennial natural cooling trends were punctuated by warming episodes that turned out to be more local than we thought," Filmer said.

"The natural forces driving the cooling are still present today, but since the nineteenth century an additional, stronger, warming driver has been added: human activity. We cannot match the temperature records since then without factoring in this new driver."

The PAGES 2K study aggregates proxy data, or information from a variety of sources that stand in for actual temperature measurements of past climate.

These primarily include tree-ring analysis, which provides a picture of growth, which in turn is based in part on air temperatures; tree pollen, which registers changes in dominant species; dome corals, which register sea surface temperatures in their annually banded skeletons; the make-up of water molecules contained in ice cores from the Arctic, Antarctic and glaciers in the temperate regions of the globe; and various physical and biological properties of lake sediments.

Darrell S. Kaufman, an NSF-funded researcher at the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University and the lead co-author of the PAGES research, focuses on climate signals as recorded in arctic lake sediments.

His NSF-supported grant, Nonlinearities in the Arctic climate system during the Holocene focuses on how climate feedbacks and perturbations result in rapid changes.

"The predominant long-term cooling trend is common in proxy records we study in Alaska and elsewhere in the Arctic. Finding it at lower latitudes and especially in the southern hemisphere was surprising and has important implications for our understanding of the processes that drive climate change."

Coauthor Nicholas McKay, a postdoctoral scholar working with Kaufman at Northern Arizona University, added "my role in the study was to make sure that the patterns we were observing in the data were robust features of the dataset."

Added McKay: "The primary results: The long-term cooling trend, the century-scale differences between regions, and the warmth of the 20th century, are apparent no matter how you look at the data."

The Division of Polar Programs in the Geosciences Directorate supports both Kaufman and McKay.

The PAGES 2K Network analysis focuses on the last 2,000 years because temperatures are well represented in proxy records. Beyond 2,000 years ago, the abundance of information about climate variability decreases and fundamental features of the climatic system diverge from more recent conditions.

While the researchers do not make explicit correlations in their study between the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during the 20th century and the increased global temperatures, they note that their analysis will serve as a benchmark for future studies.

"Our reconstructions and proxy data compilation," they write, "will be useful in future studies, serving as a benchmark for comparisons with climate-model simulations aimed at understanding the cause of global cooling, and the extent to which externally forced and unforced variability can explain temperature fluctuations at the continental scale."

###

Additional information about the study is available at the PAGES Website.

-NSF-

---

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 23-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Peter West
pwest@nsf.gov
703-292-7530
National Science Foundation

20th-century warming, researchers say, 'reversed' the trend

The most comprehensive evaluation of temperature change on Earth's continents over the past 1,000 to 2,000 years indicates that a long-term cooling trend--caused by factors including fluctuations in the amount and distribution of heat from the sun, and increases in volcanic activity--ended late in the 19th century.

The study also finds that the 20th century ranks as the warmest or nearly the warmest century on all of the continents, except Antarctica. Africa had insufficient data to be included in the analysis.

Global warming that has occurred since the end of the 19th century reversed a persistent long-term global cooling trend, say the researchers.

A consortium of 78 authors from 24 countries, some of them supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), also note in research published in the May 2013 issue of the journal Nature Geoscience that there were regional differences in temperature evolution.

"This is an example of a large international team effort, collaborating to synthesize new scientific results from a very large, publicly available dataset," said Paul E. Filmer, program director for the Paleoclimate, Sedimentary Geology and Paleobiology and ArcSEES programs in NSF's Geosciences Directorate.

The researchers are members of the "2K Network" of the International Geosphere Biosphere Program (IGBP) Past Global Changes (PAGES) project. The Swiss National Science Foundation and the US NSF jointly support the PAGES International Project Office.

"Global warming that has occurred since the end of the 19th century reversed a persistent long-term global cooling trend," the researchers write in the report.

Because long-range cooling was caused by natural factors that continued to exist in the 20th century, the authors argue, the warming of the 20th century makes it more difficult to discount the effects of the increase of greenhouse gases in the global increase of temperatures measured in recent decades.

However, the researchers note, their study was not specifically designed to assess the extent to which temperature changes can be attributed to various natural and human-caused factors.

"The new results show that climate change is, as usual, more complicated than we expected: long, millennial natural cooling trends were punctuated by warming episodes that turned out to be more local than we thought," Filmer said.

"The natural forces driving the cooling are still present today, but since the nineteenth century an additional, stronger, warming driver has been added: human activity. We cannot match the temperature records since then without factoring in this new driver."

The PAGES 2K study aggregates proxy data, or information from a variety of sources that stand in for actual temperature measurements of past climate.

These primarily include tree-ring analysis, which provides a picture of growth, which in turn is based in part on air temperatures; tree pollen, which registers changes in dominant species; dome corals, which register sea surface temperatures in their annually banded skeletons; the make-up of water molecules contained in ice cores from the Arctic, Antarctic and glaciers in the temperate regions of the globe; and various physical and biological properties of lake sediments.

Darrell S. Kaufman, an NSF-funded researcher at the School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability at Northern Arizona University and the lead co-author of the PAGES research, focuses on climate signals as recorded in arctic lake sediments.

His NSF-supported grant, Nonlinearities in the Arctic climate system during the Holocene focuses on how climate feedbacks and perturbations result in rapid changes.

"The predominant long-term cooling trend is common in proxy records we study in Alaska and elsewhere in the Arctic. Finding it at lower latitudes and especially in the southern hemisphere was surprising and has important implications for our understanding of the processes that drive climate change."

Coauthor Nicholas McKay, a postdoctoral scholar working with Kaufman at Northern Arizona University, added "my role in the study was to make sure that the patterns we were observing in the data were robust features of the dataset."

Added McKay: "The primary results: The long-term cooling trend, the century-scale differences between regions, and the warmth of the 20th century, are apparent no matter how you look at the data."

The Division of Polar Programs in the Geosciences Directorate supports both Kaufman and McKay.

The PAGES 2K Network analysis focuses on the last 2,000 years because temperatures are well represented in proxy records. Beyond 2,000 years ago, the abundance of information about climate variability decreases and fundamental features of the climatic system diverge from more recent conditions.

While the researchers do not make explicit correlations in their study between the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere during the 20th century and the increased global temperatures, they note that their analysis will serve as a benchmark for future studies.

"Our reconstructions and proxy data compilation," they write, "will be useful in future studies, serving as a benchmark for comparisons with climate-model simulations aimed at understanding the cause of global cooling, and the extent to which externally forced and unforced variability can explain temperature fluctuations at the continental scale."

###

Additional information about the study is available at the PAGES Website.

-NSF-

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/nsf-ao2042313.php

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From outsiders to bombing suspects in Boston

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

FILE - This combination of undated file photos shows Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. The FBI says the two brothers are the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, and are also responsible for killing an MIT police officer, critically injuring a transit officer in a firefight and throwing explosive devices at police during a getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left Tamerlan dead and Dzhokhar captured, late Friday, April 19, 2013. The ethnic Chechen brothers lived in Dagestan, which borders the Chechnya region in southern Russia. They lived near Boston and had been in the U.S. for about a decade, one of their uncles reported said. Since Monday, Boston has experienced five days of fear, beginning with the marathon bombing attack, an intense manhunt and much uncertainty ending in the death of one suspect and the capture of the other. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun & Robin Young, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev sought to embrace American lives after emigrating from Russia ? joining a boxing club, winning a scholarship and even seeking U.S. citizenship. But their uncle last week angrily called them "losers" who failed to feel settled even after a decade of living in the United States.

The disparity between the brothers' struggle to assimilate in the U.S. and their alleged bombing of the Boston Marathon reflects what counterterror experts describe as a classic pattern of young first- or second-generation immigrants striking out after struggling to fit in. The U.S. has long been worried about people in America who are not tied to any designated terrorist group but who are motivated by ideologies that lead them to commit violent acts. Some are motivated by radical religious interpretations; others feel ostracized by their communities.

Three U.S. officials involved in the investigation said the brothers had no links to any terrorist groups. After interrogating Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Monday, U.S. officials believe they were motivated by their faith, apparently an anti-American, radical version of Islam. Another official called them aspiring jihadists. All three officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in a police shootout Friday. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, and he could face the death penalty if convicted.

The psychological aspects of radicalization have been studied for years, and while there are some similarities among terrorism cases, there is not a single profile of a violent extremist in the U.S.

Complicating the challenge is that the threat often is rooted in an ideology protected by the Constitution.

Violent extremists can feel caught between two worlds ? the one their families left behind to seek better opportunities, and the other in which they feel trapped.

On the Russian social networking site Vkontakte, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev described his world view as "Islam" but his personal goals as "career and money" ? a far more capitalistic goal than Muslim teachings that wealth ultimately belongs to God.

"There's a sort of weird identity crisis," said Kamran Bokhari, a Toronto-based expert on jihadism and radicalization for the global intelligence company Stratfor. "In many ways, these people are radicalized of extreme religious persuasions in the West that's not even reflective of what's back home. So they're sort of frozen in time, where they're rejecting the reality in front of them."

The brothers emigrated in 2002 or 2003 from Dagestan, a Russian republic that has become an epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from the region of Chechnya.

It's still not clear what investigators believe motivated Tamerlan and Dzhokhar to attack. FBI agents interviewed Dzhokhar and got enough details to make "a strong case" against him, a U.S. intelligence official said.

The brothers' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, vehemently dismissed any suggestion that the bombings ? which killed three and wounded at least 180 ? were motivated by religious views. He called the men "losers" who felt "hatred to those who were able to settle themselves."

"Anything else to do with religion, with Islam ? it's a fraud, it's a fake," Tsarni told reporters. He said someone possibly "radicalized them, but not my brother who just moved back to Russia, who spent his life bringing bread to the table."

Tsarni also told reporters he hadn't spoken to his nephews in months.

One of the brothers' neighbors, Albrecht Ammon, recalled an encounter in which the older brother argued with him about U.S. foreign policy, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and religion.

Ammon said Tamerlan described the Bible as a "cheap copy" of the Quran, used to justify wars with other countries.

"He had nothing against the American people," Ammon told The Associated Press. "He had something against the American government."

Dzhokhar, on the other hand, was "real cool," Ammon said. "A chill guy."

The cases of homegrown and first-generation terror suspects in the U.S. are few, but the U.S. intelligence community has long been concerned about such potential attackers, particularly the threat posed by people like the Tsarnaev brothers who have no formal terror ties.

"And what makes them especially worrisome is that they're really difficult for us to detect and, therefore, to disrupt," Matt Olsen, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said in June 2011 about homegrown violent extremists.

Last year, 14 Muslim-Americans were indicted for violent terror plots, down from 21 in 2011. The numbers peaked at a decade-high in 2009, when 50 Muslim-Americans were indicted, according to a February 2013 study on terror rates by University of North Carolina professor Charles Kurzman.

The U.S. intelligence director's office has declined to provide official government data on homegrown terrorists, or comment on the Tsarnaev brothers and the investigation into the bombings.

But an August 2011 White House policy paper on countering and preventing violent extremism in the U.S. said that while the numbers remain limited, "violent extremists prey on the disenchantment and alienation that discrimination creates, and they have a vested interest in anti-Muslim sentiment."

Kenneth Wainstein, who served as the White House homeland security adviser and a top Justice Department lawyer under President George W. Bush, said homegrown and newly immigrated militants develop their extreme views over time and are often borne out of sense of isolation. It's a problem that has not been as prevalent in the United States as in Europe, which has a larger number of ethnic and nationalist divisions.

"But I think we have seen, over the last few years, some pretty clear and sobering examples of people inspired by overseas terror groups and terror propaganda," Wainstein said Friday, before Dzhokhar was captured. "They fit more in the category of where you have people who are radicalized here without any apparent connection overseas. A kid can go into his room get radicalized on the Internet without direct connect with anyone overseas, or even without going down the street to the radical preacher. That makes it very hard to detect that person, and poses a significant problem for the intelligence community and law enforcement."

Investigators also are looking at the six months Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent last year in his ancestral homeland in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya to see whether he was radicalized by the militants in the area who have waged a low-level insurgency against Russian security forces for years.

While there, he regularly attended a mosque and spent time learning to read the Quran, but "did not fit into the Muslim life," according to his aunt, Patimat Suleimanova.

She said he seemed more American than Chechen.

___

Associated Press writers Pete Yost and Arsen Mollayev, in Makhachkala, Russia, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at https://twitter.com/larajakesAP and Eileen Sullivan at https://twitter.com/esullivanap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-23-Boston%20Marathon-Homegrown%20Threats/id-98bb0b434dbe41a59e0204134dcf4e5a

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Jupiter's atmosphere still contains water supplied by the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact

Apr. 23, 2013 ? Astronomy & Astrophysics is publishing Herschel observations of water in Jupiter's stratosphere. It is a clear remnant of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet impact on Jupiter nearly 20 years ago.

In July 1994, the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 (SL9) hit Jupiter and left visible scars on the Jovian disk for weeks. This spectacular event was the first direct observation of an extraterrestrial collision in the solar system, and it was followed worldwide by professional and amateur astronomers.

SL9 was discovered orbiting Jupiter by astronomers David Levy and Carolyn and Eugene M. Shoemaker on March 24, 1993. It was the first comet observed orbiting a planet rather than the Sun. SL9 was found to be composed of 21 fragments. Soon after that, orbital studies showed that the comet had passed within Jupiter's Roche limit in July 1992. Inside this limit, the planet's tidal forces are strong enough to disintegrate a body held together by its own gravity, thus explaining SL9's fragmentation. Even more interestingly, the studies showed that SL9's orbit would pass within Jupiter in July 1994 and that the comet would then collide with the planet, with impacts in the southern hemisphere near 44?S latitude.

The SL9 impact and its subsequent scars on Jupiter were observed for weeks, but its chemical impact on Jupiter's atmosphere lasted even longer. Emission from water vapor was observed during the fireball phase of the SL9 impacts, but from that observation, it was difficult to assess how this would modify Jupiter's composition on the long term. In 1997, the ESA Infrared Space Observatory (ISO) detected water vapor in the stratosphere of Jupiter. At that time, astronomers suspected that it might be a consequence of the SL9 impact because comets are known to be water-rich bodies. However, there were other possible sources of water: interplanetary dust particles produced by cometary activity and asteroid collisions, icy rings, or one of the 60 Jovian satellites.

Nearly twenty years after this major impact, astronomers are still observing its consequences on Jupiter. T. Cavali? and his colleagues [1] observed Jupiter with the ESA Herschel Space Observatory, which is sensitive enough to map the abundance of water vs. latitude and altitude in the Jovian stratosphere. These observations, which have now been published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, show a clear north-south asymmetry in the distribution of water, with more water in the south. They indicate that 95% of the water currently observed on Jupiter comes from the comet.

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Journal Reference:

1. T. Cavali?, H. Feuchtgruber, E. Lellouch, M. de Val-Borro, C. Jarchow, R. Moreno, P. Hartogh, G. Orton, T. K. Greathouse, F. Billebaud, M. Dobrijevic, L. M. Lara, A. Gonz?lez, H. Sagawa. Spatial distribution of water in the stratosphere of Jupiter fromHerschelHIFI and PACS observations. Astronomy & Astrophysics, 2013; 553: A21 DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201220797

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/CXcnp-4LL4M/130423102335.htm

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Babies Calm Down When Carried [STUDY]

By: Cari Nierenberg, MyHealthNewsDaily Contributor
Published: 04/18/2013 12:45 PM EDT on MyHealthNewsDaily

A new study from Japan confirms what many mothers may know instinctively: Picking up and carrying a fussy baby usually calms down and relaxes the child, making the move a good one for both moms and infants.

When mothers in the study carried their babies while walking around, the infants became noticeably more relaxed and stopped crying and squirming. The babies' rapidly beating hearts also slowed down, evidence that the children were feeling calmer.

"Infants become calm and relaxed when they are carried by their mother," said study researcher Dr. Kumi Kuroda, who investigates social behavior at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Saitama, Japan. The study observed strikingly similar responses in mouse babies.

Since carrying (meaning holding while walking) can help stop an infant from crying, Kuroda said, it can offer mothers a way to soothe short-term irritations to their children, such as scary noises or vaccinations.

The findings were published online today (April 18) in the journal Current Biology.

A strong calming effect

For the small study, researchers monitored the responses of 12 healthy infants ages 1 month to 6 months. The scientists wanted to discover the most effective way for mothers to calm a crying baby over a 30-second period ? simply holding the baby or carrying the infant while walking.

Young babies carried by a walking mother were the most relaxed and soothed, compared with infants whose mothers sat in a chair and held them, the study found. As a mother stood up and started to walk with her child cradled close in her arms, scientists observed an automatic change in the baby's behavior.

These results held even after the researchers took into account other factors, such as the child's age and sex, and the mother's age and walking speed.

Kuroda said she was surprised by the strength of the calming effect from maternal holding and walking. In observing experiments on both humans and mice, she was amazed at how quickly the heart rate slowed, and by how much immediately after a mother started walking. (Mother mice pick up their young by the scruff of their neck with their mouths.)

According to the researchers, maternal walking may be more effective in calming infants than other kinds of rhythmic motion, such as rocking.

Advice for parents

When an underlying reason for crying persists, such as hunger or sustained pain, the infant may start crying again soon after the end of carrying.

That's why Kuroda recommended that when a baby starts crying, a brief period of carrying may help parents to identify the cause of the tears. She acknowledged carrying might not completely stop the crying, but it may prevent parents from becoming frustrated by a crying infant.

The findings also have implications for one parenting technique in which parents let babies cry as a way to help them learn to fall asleep by themselves, the researchers said.

"Our study suggests why some babies do not respond well to the 'cry-it-out' parenting method," Kuroda said.

Proponents of the technique advise parents to let infants, after a certain age, cry themselves to sleep ? without mom or dad comforting them ? in the hopes the baby will learn how to soothe himself or herself.

But Kuroda said that calming by maternal carrying, as well as crying during separation, are both built-in mechanisms for infant survival. These behaviors have been hard-wired for millions of years. "Changing these reactions would be possible as infants are flexible, but it may take time," she said.

Although this study looked at a baby's behavior in response to its mother, Kuroda said the effect is not specific to moms, and any primary caregiver for the infant can perform the carrying. The researchers observed the same carrying-induced calming effects when fathers, grandmothers and an unfamiliar female with caregiving experience carried babies who were under 2 months old, Kuroda said.

Pass it on: Picking up and carrying a crying infant will automatically calm the child.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/babies-calm-down-when-carried_n_3128115.html

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PFT: Is there a Russell Wilson in this year's draft?

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With the NFL Draft approaching, we?re taking a team-by-team look at the needs of each club. Up next is the team with the No. 30 overall selection, the Atlanta Falcons. They have a total of 11 picks, and aren?t afraid to make bold moves, so their picking somewhere north of 30 is a real possibility.

Defensive end: There?s already noise about the Falcons wanting to move up in the order, and it makes sense that their target would be a pass-rusher.

John Abraham was still producing right up until the time they released him, and they have to find someone to replace that production other than Osi Umenyiora, who has not produced at the same consistent level. If they can get into the top half of the first round, they can find someone in the Abraham mold, before the run starts.

Cornerback: This would be the other drastic need that could be the target for a move-up. It seems like forever ago they were three-deep with excellent players. But with Brent Grimes gone to Miami and and Dunta Robinson released and resurfaced in KC, they?re down to Asante Samuel and a bunch of guys.

Linebacker: You could probably run down the list of defensive positions, and the Falcons could stand to upgrade. Sean Weatherspoon is quite good, but the rest of their linebacking corps is fairly ordinary.

Tackle: The thinking is the release of Tyson Clabo opened the door for Lamar Holmes to start at right tackle, and that could work. But they still need cover here, particularly if newly rich left tackle Sam Baker goes back to the 2011 version instead of the 2012 salary-push version.

Guard: The retirement of Todd McClure leaves a big hole, but they could slide 2012 second-rounder Peter Konz over from right guard. But that leaves another vacancy. They have some in-house candidates, but need depth here.

As good as they are, they?re not as well-covered as you?d think. They have nothing to speak of in terms of depth on defense. Heck, they don?t even have a full complement of starting-caliber players on that side of the ball.

But their offensive skill-position talent is so good, it might not matter. As long as Matt Ryan, Steven Jackson, Julio Jones, Roddy White and Tony Gonzalez are together, the Falcons are going to be among the best in the NFC.

But until they get at least a little bit better on defense, it?s going to be hard for them to make the next step.

Their offseason efforts have focused on retaining their own, and making a few surgical signings of veterans who came looking for rings. Their team is good enough that 11 draft picks aren?t making their 53-man roster, so they might as well make some moves, and see if they can plug some starters in on defense.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/21/searching-for-this-years-russell-wilson/related/

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Walk Me Up Alarm Clock Forces You Out of Bed

Android: If you have a tendency to ignore or sleep through alarms, Walk Me Up can help by forcing you to get out of bed and move around.

The app uses your phone's accelerometer to count the number of steps you take after the alarm goes off. If you try to accelerate the process by shaking your phone, the counter resets. You can also set the alarm to vibrate, though that comes with the warning that this could interfere with the step count, depending on your phone.

Walk Me Up! Alarm Clock (Free) | Google Play

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/HFxAATI5PVM/walk-me-up-alarm-clock-forces-you-out-of-bed-477137078

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Number-saving comes to Nigeria mobile phone market

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) ? To know what it is like to make a mobile phone call in Nigeria, ask anyone to turn out their pockets or upend their purses. One, two, three and sometimes even four phones tumble out into view, all with different carriers in hopes of being able to connect a call without it dropping out in Africa's most populous nation.

Nigeria's four biggest telecommunications companies have faced federal fines and complaints from customers for years, though no one could drop their service out of fear of giving up their number. That changed Monday, when the Nigerian Communications Commission started a number exchange between the country's four main carriers, allowing customers to keep their number and switch carriers every 90 days for free.

Customers and those in the business believe the new program will force the carriers to provide better service at the risk of losing their customers. And at greatest risk is South Africa's MTN Group Ltd., whose long dominance in the market could be challenged as it faces increasing problems with poor service and attacks on its equipment.

"It means deepened competition, it means freedom for the subscribers," said Lanre Ajayi, the president of the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria. "It means if you're unhappy with an operator, you can easily move to another one without losing your telephone number ? which is essentially your identity."

Mobile phones are essential for communication in Nigeria, for consumers and even security forces alike. The state-run telephone company in Nigeria collapsed years ago. Internet access comes over routers with mobile phone SIM cards inside.

In Nigeria, there are some 95 million mobile phone lines, making it one of the world's top markets. In traffic and everywhere else, hawkers wave mobile phone recharge cards. While voice calls carried the majority of the network, data is increasingly being used across the country as well, as many use their phone as their primary device to reach the Internet.

While there are a number of providers, the dominant force in Nigeria remains MTN, which was one of the first companies to enter the market when it opened. Today, the company has some 47.4 million customers in Nigeria and has revenues there into the billions of dollars a year, according to its 2012 annual report.

However, the market has become more fluid in recent years. Bharti Airtel Ltd. of India has initiated a price war, slashing call costs to pennies. Abu Dhabi-based Etisalat also has made a big push for customers, mostly for their data speeds. Local firm Globacom Ltd. also remains a force.

Those lower costs, as well as cuts on its fiber lines and bombings of mobile phone towers by Islamic extremists in north Nigeria, hurt MTN's quality in the last year, said Brett Goschen, CEO of MTN's Nigerian subsidiary. Speaking to The Associated Press on Monday, he acknowledged the new number exchange system likely would see customers leave MTN in the short term.

"The price decreases in the market in the last couple of years has increased the traffic enormously and it has put pressure on our network," Goschen said. "I think the market realizes that and that's why we've been investing so significantly. ... We're slightly behind the curve from where we want to be, so that is a bit of issue."

Yet it remains unclear how well the service will take off, as some may believe it costs extra or don't want the hassle. It takes as long as two days for the number to clear and the new network to begin service. An AP journalist who attempted to carry his number over to a new provider Monday also got an error message.

But the competition for the lucrative and growing mobile market in Nigeria likely will become even more intense, as signaled by company official after company official who urged an audience in Lagos celebrating the service's start to switch to their carrier.

"It's a survival instinct," said Segun Ogunsanya, the CEO of Airtel's Nigerian subsidiary. "You must make sure your service is good."

___

Online:

Nigerian Communications Commission: www.ncc.gov.ng

Bharti Airtel Ltd. in Nigeria: bit.ly/HZKjNU

Etisalat in Nigeria: www.etisalat.com.ng

Globacom Ltd.: www.gloworld.com

MTN Group Ltd. in Nigeria: www.mtnonline.com

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/number-saving-comes-nigeria-mobile-phone-market-151649407.html

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oliviertomie: Counseling Blog ? Blog Archive ? Grief Loss ...

A closer connection to nature help people cope with grief and loss as=
well as the grieving process .

Nature p=
rovides a reference for life and death . It tells us it is a natural phenome=
non . Nature provides us with physical evidence that life does go on.

Sitting in nature allows us=
to become aware of the infinite circle of life .

Nature has evidence of : decay , restoration, and rebirth . Natu=
re can put life and death into perspective .

Emotional support from nature can take many forms with plants , anim=
als , and natural landscapes .

Nature c=
an help recovery time , improved health and increased emotional and mental w=
ell being .

People turn to nature as a way of relax=
ing and enhancing well being . The outdoors can be a great source of inspira=
tion , guidance , and growth. Nature is a great remedy for healing.

Sitting at a beach , hiking in the mountains , looking at t=
he grand trees , scrambling over rocks and crossing a stream , being out in n=
ature is vital for healing and health .?

The s=
ounds of birds chirping , the beautiful colors they display , the way they c=
an effortlessly fly in the air and coast so gently with such ease .?

Looking at the ruins of fires in Arizona one can obse=
rve new growth and new life taking place . Nature shows its ability to survi=
ve despite disasters: fires, lightening , floods , and more .

=

Being on nature can help one clear their head from life?s stresso=
rs and demands . This clarity allows time for awareness and reflection so we=
can heal or make life changes .

Seasons change yea=
r after year and this is a constant reminder that nothing is forever .?=

During grief we all need to be reminded by those c=
lose that we have endured and be commended for the effort to face the pain a=
nd loss and tragedy and for coping with the intrinsic struggles .

=

Uncategorized.

Source: http://www.lifeworksaz.com/counselors-blog/2013/04/grief-loss/

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Source: http://oliviertomie.blogspot.com/2013/04/counseling-blog-blog-archive-grief-loss.html

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Video: Newtown families: We're not giving up (cbsnews)

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Cardinals fans celebrate both programs' success

Louisville guard Peyton Siva carries the NCAA men's basketball championship trophy through the crowd at their welcome-home celebration Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Louisville guard Peyton Siva carries the NCAA men's basketball championship trophy through the crowd at their welcome-home celebration Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Louisville men's coach Rick Pitino, left, talks with women's coach Jeff Walz during a celebration Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. Louisville won the NCAA men's basketball tournament, and took second in the women's tournament. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Louisville's Bria Smith, right, and Sara Hammond watch the highlights of their team's run in the women's NCAA Final Four college basketball championship during a ceremony, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Louisville athletic director Tom Jurich speaks at a celebration of the university's men's and women's basketball teams on their tournament results, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. Louisville won the men's tournament, and took second in the women's. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

University of Louisville President James Ramsey addresses the crowd gathered to congratulate the university's men's and women's basketball teams on their NCAA tournament results, Wednesday, April 10, 2013, in Louisville, Ky. Louisville won the men's tournament, and took second in the women's tournament. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) ? They haven't stopped partying in Louisville.

The latest celebration Wednesday was a bit more structured as the NCAA champion Cardinals' men's team and runner-up women's squad received heroes' welcomes at the KFC Yum! Center. A near-capacity crowd awash in red thanked players and coaches for providing one of the most satisfying weeks ever with both playing for titles and the men delivering Louisville's first championship in 27 years.

Both Cardinals programs responded with short expressions of gratitude, allowing men's coach Rick Pitino to have the final word.

Hoarse from a whirlwind Final Four including his election to the Hall of Fame followed by his second title, Pitino drew a huge cheer by asking, "Wouldn't it be great if we somehow got back to Dallas?" for next year's championship.

That remains to be seen for Louisville's men, who were still digesting Monday night's 82-76 victory over Michigan in Atlanta.

In case they weren't sure of what they achieved, the stage featured tangible reminders. The NABC crystal ball trophy centered a display that included both of Big East championship trophies along with this year's hardware for winning it all.

The women's runner-up trophy was also displayed, symbols that elicited pride from University President James Ramsey.

"I've got a question to ask you: is this a pretty good time to be a Louisville Cardinal?" Ramsey said to the first of many large cheers inside the arena that included a packed plaza of fans.

Athletic director Tom Jurich echoed that sentiment before yielding to players and coaches from both programs, who received rock-star introductions and several ovations.

One of the biggest was for Cardinals guard Kevin Ware, whose horrific right leg break in the Midwest Region final victory over Duke made him an overnight sensation and the sentimental hero of Louisville's title run. He ambled up on the steps without crutches before grabbing them to walk to his chair, his words drowned out by a crescendo of cheers.

Guards Peyton Siva and Russ Smith drew their share of screaming as well ? particularly Smith, who wasn't scheduled to speak until fans began chanting "We want Russ!"

After Louisville's clinching victory, Russ Smith Sr. said his son plans to enter the NBA draft. The well-informed crowd's message was loud and clear as they greeted the Cardinals leading scorer with chants of "One more year! One more year!"

Smith said nothing about his plans but seemed to thank fans for a body of work supporting him during his career.

"As far as myself, I just want to say thank you, guys, for a tremendous three years," Smith said. "I'll never forget this."

While many present were there to celebrate the men's national championship, there was plenty of love for the Cardinals' women.

Louisville's surprising run through the tournament positioned the Cardinals to win dual before Connecticut squashed that dream with a 93-60 rout Tuesday night in New Orleans, Fans didn't soon forget the fifth-seeded Cardinals' memorable charge, highlighted by a monumental 82-81 upset of defending champion and top-seeded Baylor in the regional semifinal.

Junior guard Shoni Schimmel led that run with shooting, penetration and confidence, all of which were shown on the video screen. One of many players wearing T-shirts saying 'Party Crashers' on the back in reference to their unexpected presence in the Final Four, she hinted that a Final Four return was possible.

"Thank you for everything and we'll be back next year, don't worry," Schimmel said.

Pitino brought the official celebration to an emotional close by expressing his gratitude for the opportunity to work in a program that allowed him to achieve some personal milestones. Besides the Hall of Fame selection and becoming the first coach to lead two schools to national titles, last week saw his son, Richard, hired as Minnesota's coach and a thoroughbred he co-owns qualified for the Kentucky Derby.

None of that compared to what he felt upon watching a replay of Louisville's victory in New Orleans while attending the women's final. Seeing Chane Behanan's rebounding performance in the men's final made the 60-year-old cry in a Bourbon Street bar, but he was all smiles in the arena that has fueled his success.

And he made sure fans remembered how the Cardinals' run has made them feel.

"Back to back Big East championships, back to back Final Fours, with a national championship," Pitino said. "It's time to celebrate."

___

AP Freelance Writer Josh Abner contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-04-10-BKC-NCAA-Louisville-Celebration/id-6b7a786adff84998a6689a588f24bd6c

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A protein's well-known cousin sheds light on its gout-linked relative

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Johns Hopkins scientists have found out how a gout-linked genetic mutation contributes to the disease: by causing a breakdown in a cellular pump that clears an acidic waste product from the bloodstream. By comparing this protein pump to a related protein involved in cystic fibrosis, the researchers also identified a compound that partially repairs the pump in laboratory tests.

The mutation in question, known as Q141K, results from the simple exchange of one amino acid for another, but it prevents the protein ABCG2 from pumping uric acid waste out of the bloodstream and into urine. A buildup of uric acid in the blood can lead to its crystallization in joints, especially in the foot, causing excruciatingly painful gout.

"The protein where the mutation occurs, ABCG2, is best known for its counterproductive activity in breast cancer patients, where it pumps anti-cancer drugs out of the tumor cells we are trying to kill," says William Guggino, Ph.D., professor and director of the Department of Physiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "In kidney cells, though, ABCG2 is crucial for getting uric acid out of the body. What we figured out is exactly how a gout-causing genetic mutation inhibits ABCG2 function."

A description of the work with Q141K's effects at the cellular level were published online March 14 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Gout affects 2 to 3 percent of Americans, approximately 6 million people. It usually involves sudden attacks of severe pain, often in the joint at the base of the big toe and frequently in the wee hours of the morning, when body temperature is lowest. It has been nicknamed the "disease of kings," because it usually results from high-purine diets, food that only kings and other noblemen could afford in large quantities in bygone years: red meat, organ meats, oily fishes and some vegetables like asparagus and mushrooms.

While most gout can be remedied by dietary changes, about 10 percent of Caucasians get the disorder because their ABCG2 protein contains the Q141K mutation. This number is lower (around 3 percent) for African-Americans and much higher (31 percent) for Asians.

Guggino notes that the ABCG2 Q141K mutation was first connected with gout in 2008 through a large genomic study directed, in part, by Josef Coresh, M.D., a biostatistician and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. At the time, Guggino's laboratory was studying a protein frequently found mutated in cystic fibrosis patients: cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator, or CFTR. The structure of ABCG2 is quite similar to CFTR's, so Coresh suggested that Guggino's team apply their knowledge of CFTR to characterize ABCG2.

The team first genetically engineered several standard mammalian cell types to make regular or mutant versions of ABCG2. Cells with the mutated ABCG2 gene contained much less of the ABCG2 protein than cells making the regular form. Additionally, the researchers found that the mutation made it difficult for ABCG2 molecules to get to their proper place on the cell surface. Since ABCG2 pumps molecules from the inside of the cell to the outside, it is not functional anywhere but the cell surface.

The team then lowered the temperature at which the ABCG2-making cells were growing, and found more mutant ABCG2 at the cell surface. Guggino says this finding suggested that the lower temperature had stabilized ABCG2 and helped it achieve its proper 3-D conformation, because proteins that don't assume the right shape are likely to be broken into pieces for reuse, preventing them from reaching their final destinations.

When ABCG2 and CFTR are lined up, their structures are very similar. In fact, one of the most common cystic fibrosis mutations, a CFTR deletion of amino acid F508, lines up next to the Q141K mutation in ABCG2 and causes similar results in the protein's location and processing.

Knowing that the F508 deletion in CFTR creates instability in a certain part of the protein, the researchers introduced additional mutations intended to stabilize the wobbly region of the Q141K mutant ABCG2. As predicted, they found that this stabilization increased the amount of ABCG2 on the cell surface, suggesting again that ABCG2 had been saved from the recycling bin.

To confirm the involvement of the recycling process, the team fed the cells several small molecules known to help malformed proteins avoid degradation. One molecule, VRT-325, partially restores CFTR's activity. The same molecule was also able to increase the amount of mutant ABCG2 found in the cells and on their surfaces, and to decrease the amount of uric acid in the cells, bringing it within the normal range.

"Though there are many more lab tests needed before clinical trials can even be designed, our results represent an important step forward in both understanding how gout results from this mutation and finding a treatment," says Guggino.

###

Johns Hopkins Medicine: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org

Thanks to Johns Hopkins Medicine for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127645/A_protein_s_well_known_cousin_sheds_light_on_its_gout_linked_relative

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Senate confirms Sally Jewell for Interior chief

Sally Jewell, CEO of outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment Inc., won easy Senate confirmation Wednesday to be the nation's next interior secretary.

The Senate approved her nomination, 87-11, with all the no votes coming from Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., was among those who opposed Jewell.

At Interior, Jewell will oversee more than 500 million acres of national parks and other public lands, plus more than 1 billion acres offshore. The lands are used for energy development, mining, recreation and other purposes.

One of the first challenges Jewell will face is a proposed rule requiring companies that drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands to publicly disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations.

The administration proposed a draft "fracking" rule last year, but twice has delayed a final rule amid complaints by the oil and gas industry that the original proposal was too burdensome. A new draft is expected this spring.

Jewell also is expected to continue to push development of renewable energy such as wind and solar power, both of which are priorities of the interior secretary she succeeds, Ken Salazar.

President Barack Obama nominated Jewell last month to replace Salazar, who announced his departure in January.

Obama said in a statement Tuesday that Jewell's extensive business experience ? including her work as a petroleum engineer ? and her longtime commitment to conservation made Jewell the right person for the job.

"She brings an important mix of strong management skills, appreciation for our nation's tradition of protecting our public lands and heritage, and a keen understanding of what it means to be good stewards of our natural resources," Obama said.

Jewell, 57, of Seattle, also was a banker before taking over Kent, Wash.-based REI in 2005. She also served on the board of the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group that works to protect and enhance national parks.

Jewell has made it clear she intends to strike a balance between the dual roles of conserving and developing resources, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said. "That's exactly the right approach to take on the diverse issues facing Interior, including safely developing natural gas, maximizing jobs and opportunities from recreation and improving management of federal forests."

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she worked closely with Jewell on wilderness legislation in Washington state and was confident that Jewell "will bring her skills as an effective CEO in the business community to the Cabinet."

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Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MatthewDalyWDC

The department also provides services to 566 federally recognized Indian tribes.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-endorses-sally-jewell-interior-chief-215025760.html

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Suicide blast in Syrian capital kills at least 15

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows smoke rising from burned cars after a huge explosion shook the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus on Monday, killing more than a dozen with many more injured and sending a huge cloud of black smoke billowing over the capital?s skyline, Syrian state-run media said. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows smoke rising from burned cars after a huge explosion shook the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus on Monday, killing more than a dozen with many more injured and sending a huge cloud of black smoke billowing over the capital?s skyline, Syrian state-run media said. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians inspecting a damaged car at the scene of a car bomb attack near the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus on Monday, killing more than a dozen with many more injured and sending a huge cloud of black smoke billowing over the capital?s skyline, Syrian state-run media said. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows a Syrian fire fighter extinguishing a burning car after a huge explosion shook the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus, killing at least a dozen people with more than fifty injured and causing heavy material damage, a Syrian government official said. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrian fire fighters extinguishing burning cars after huge explosion shook the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus, killing at least a dozen people with tens more injured and causing heavy material damage, a Syrian government official said. (AP Photo/SANA)

This photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, shows Syrians inspecting a damaged car at the scene of a car bomb attack near the Sabaa Bahrat Square, one of the capital's biggest roundabouts, in Damascus, Syria, Monday, April. 8, 2013. A car bomb rocked a busy residential and commercial district in central Damascus, killing at least a dozen people with tens more injured and causing heavy material damage, a Syrian government official said. (AP Photo/SANA)

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? A suicide car bomber struck Monday in the financial heart of Syria's capital, killing at least 15 people, damaging the nearby central bank and incinerating cars and trees in the neighborhood.

The attack was the latest in a recent series of bombings to hit Damascus in the civil war, slowly closing in on President Bashar Assad's base of power in the capital. Rebel fighters have chipped away at the regime's hold in northern and eastern Syria, as well as making significant gains in the south, helped in part by an influx of foreign-funded weapons.

The blast was adjacent Sabaa Bahrat Square ? near the state-run Syrian Investment Agency, the Syrian Central Bank and the Finance Ministry ? and dealt a symbolic blow to the nation's ailing economy.

In the early days of the 2-year-old uprising, the grandiose roundabout was home to huge pro-regime demonstrations with a gigantic poster of Assad hung over the central bank headquarters.

The area was a very different scene Monday.

State TV showed several cars on fire and thick black smoke billowing above the tree-lined street. At least six bodies were sprawled on the pavement. Paramedics carried a young woman on a stretcher, her face bloodied and her white shirt stained red. A man placed a T-shirt over a victim whose face was blown off.

Firefighters struggled to extinguish flames that engulfed the two buildings as well as a row of cars near the roundabout. State media put the toll at 15 dead and 146 wounded.

Witnesses said the suicide attacker tried to ram the vehicle into the investment agency but was stopped by guards, forcing the bomber to detonate the explosives at the gate.

Visiting a mosque across the street that was damaged in the blast, Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi described the attack as "the work of cowards" and vowed the army would crush all armed groups fighting the government. Shattered glass and torn curtains littered the mosque's red carpet.

Some people wandering through the twisted metal, body parts and rubble on the street and directed their anger at countries supporting the rebellion.

"I want to say to Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey that the Syrian people stand firm behind their leadership, and they are steadfast and will never kneel down, and we will emerge victorious," said engineer Saeed Halabi, 54, calling the attack a "terrorist and cowardly act."

The U.N. estimates that more than 70,000 people have been killed in the civil war.

The Syrian regime denies there is a popular uprising and refers to the rebels as "terrorists" and "mercenaries," allegedly backed by foreign powers trying to destabilize the country.

The last large explosion in central Damascus took place March 21, when a suicide bomber at a mosque killed 42 people, including a top Sunni Muslim preacher who was an outspoken supporter of Assad.

A month earlier, a suicide car bombing near the ruling Baath Party headquarters ? just blocks away from Monday's attack ? killed 53, according to state media. Anti-regime activists put the death toll from that bombing at 61, which would make it the deadliest in the conflict.

There was no claim of responsibility for any of those bombings.

In the past, the Islamic militant group Jabhat al-Nusra has claimed responsibility for some of the suicide bombings targeting regime and military facilities. The U.S. says the group, which is one of the most effective rebel factions fighting Assad's forces, is linked to al-Qaida and has designated it a terrorist organization.

The bombings, along with now near-daily mortar attacks in the capital, have punctured the sense of normalcy that the regime has tried to cultivate in Damascus. Until recently, the city was largely insulated from the bloodshed and destruction in other urban centers.

The rebels launched an offensive on Damascus in July but were swept out in a punishing counteroffensive. Since then, government warplanes have pounded opposition strongholds on the outskirts, and rebels have managed only small incursions on the city's southern and eastern sides.

The recently elected prime minister of the main Western-backed Syrian opposition bloc, Ghassan Hitto, visited the northern province of Idlib, the Syrian National Coalition said on its Facebook page. The coalition posted photos of Hitto, dressed in a gray suit, meeting with rebel fighters. It was his second trip to Syria since he was selected last month to lead the opposition's interim government, which the U.S. and its allies hope will emerge as the united face of those fighting to topple Assad.

Also on Monday, the Syrian government rejected a request by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to allow international inspectors to have access to the whole country to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in the civil war.

The government is willing to allow the inspectors only into the village of Khan al-Assal in northern Syria, where an attack was alleged to have taken place on March 19.

Both the rebels and the regime have traded blame for the alleged attack, which has not been confirmed.

Speaking in the Netherlands, Ban said an advance team of inspectors is waiting in Cyprus, ready to move into Syria immediately to investigate the reported use of chemical weapons.

All reports of chemical attacks "should be examined without delay, without conditions and without exceptions," Ban said. "The longer we wait, the harder this essential mission will be."

His comments appeared aimed at increasing the pressure on Assad's regime and ensuring that U.N. inspectors are given access to all sites of reported chemical weapons attacks ? not just those the Syrian government wants them to see.

Syria's Foreign Ministry swiftly rejected the proposal, saying it would constitute "a violation of Syrian sovereignty."

"The secretary-general, while in The Hague, asked for additional tasks that would allow the team to deploy across all of Syrian territory, which goes against what Syria had asked from the U.N. and shows bad intentions," the ministry said in statement. "Syria cannot accept such maneuvers from the secretary-general of the U.N, taking into consideration the negative role played in Iraq which paved the way for the American invasion."

It added, however, that Syria is ready to grant inspectors access to Khan al-Assal.

Syria is widely believed to have a large stockpile of chemical weapons, but it is one of only eight countries in the world that has not signed up to the chemical weapons convention. That means it does not have to report any chemical weapons to The Hague-based organization that monitors compliance with the treaty.

Britain and France have followed up by asking Ban to investigate allegations of chemical weapons use in two locations in Khan al-Assal and the village of Ataybah, in the vicinity of Damascus, all on March 19, as well as in Homs on Dec. 23.

The delay in getting to the scene will hamper investigators, said Amy Smithson, a chemical weapons expert with the Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the United States.

"It is going to make it a bigger challenge. But it doesn't mean you should throw in the towel," Smithson said in a telephone interview.

Investigators will likely go after two key sources of evidence ? samples from the environment and from any possible victims or survivors of suspected chemical attacks.

"When the environment has changed, that makes it that much more challenging to get a clean environmental sample," Smithson said.

___

Lucas reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam, Bassem Mroue and Barbara Surk in Beirut, and Mike Corder in The Hague, Netherlands, contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-08-ML-Syria/id-868de211cfae4256b437a8f1dc1e0484

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White House celebrates the sounds of Memphis soul

First lady Michelle Obama waves to students as she introduces the panel of a workshop, ?Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul,? Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Mrs. Obama hosted an event for students before tonight's ?In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul?. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

First lady Michelle Obama waves to students as she introduces the panel of a workshop, ?Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul,? Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. Mrs. Obama hosted an event for students before tonight's ?In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul?. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Singers Justin Timberlake, left, and Charlie Musselwhite, listen as first lady Michelle Obama introduces the panel for the workshop, ?Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul,? Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. The workshop for students was before tonight's ?In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul?. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Singer and actor Justin Timberlake tells a story during a workshop, ?Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul,? Tuesday, April 9, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. First lady Michelle Obama hosted the event for student before tonight's ?In Performance at the White House: Memphis Soul?. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Singers, from left, Sam Moore, Mavis Staples, and Justin Timberlake, joke together during a workshop, ?Soulsville, USA: The History of Memphis Soul,? Tiesday, April 9, 2013, in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington. First lady Michelle Obama hosted a daytime event for students before tonight's ?In Performance at the White House". (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A White House celebration Tuesday night of Memphis soul music is an affirmation of the decades of hard work that went into making it a classic American music sound, said some of the artists tapped to perform.

"I'm proud to do this," said Sam Moore, half of the Sam & Dave soul duo, known for the hit "Hold On, I'm Comin.'"

Moore said he was kicking off the concert in the East Room after an introduction by President Barack Obama. The 77-year-old said it's his first time meeting Obama and he joked about possibly wearing a diaper ? just in case.

"You just hope you don't slosh in your shoe," he said in between rehearsals. Moore did not give away any details about his performance.

Artist William Bell said the concert reaffirms years of hard work that began in the early 1960s when Stax Records was created in Memphis, Tenn., and the label cranked out one soul and R&B hit after another for more than a decade.

Among its artists were Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, Bell and Sam & Dave.

"As kids coming up, we didn't think it would last this long," the 73-year-old Bell said of the music genre during a rehearsal break. He said he would perform one of his hits, "You Don't Miss Your Water."

Tuesday's concert is the 10th in the "In Performance at the White House" series. Scheduled performers include Alabama Shakes, Steve Cropper, Al Green, Ben Harper, Queen Latifah, Cyndi Lauper, Joshua Ledet, Charlie Musselwhite, Mavis Staples, Justin Timberlake, Bell and Moore, with Booker T. Jones as music director and band leader.

The program is scheduled to air next Tuesday on PBS stations nationwide. It will also be broadcast at a later date over the American Forces Network for service members and civilians at Defense Department locations worldwide.

Hours before the show, the first lady kicked off a workshop featuring Moore, Staples, Timberlake, Musselwhite and Harper for students from 16 schools and organizations in Virginia, California, Memphis, Tenn., New York City, Maryland, Florida and Washington, D.C.,

She noted Memphis' history as the birthplace of Elvis Presley's rock and roll and B.B. King's blues.

"And while you can hear both of those influences in Memphis soul, this music has a style and a story uniquely its own," Mrs. Obama said, before launching into the story of Stax Records.

She noted that the label also represented "somebody my husband thinks he sounds like" ? the Rev. Al Green. "Let's just tell him he does, OK? Since he is the president, we like to boost him up a little bit."

It was a reference to Obama singing a few bars of Green's "Let's Stay Together" in February 2012 during a Democratic fundraiser at New York's Apollo Theater.

Mrs. Obama also tried to encourage the students, including some aspiring musicians, by noting that the artists perched on stools in front of them have spent decades perfecting their talent to get where they are.

She recalled playing the piano as a young girl and said she regretted not keeping it up. But she said the skills learned through music can be useful in other avenues of life.

"The discipline, the patience, the diligence I learned through the study of music, those are all skills that I apply every single day in my life," Mrs. Obama said. "I applied them as a student, as a lawyer, as a first lady, and definitely as a mother."

Started in February 2009, the "In Performance at the White House" series has celebrated the music of Stevie Wonder, Paul McCartney, Burt Bacharach and Hal David, Hispanic music, music from the civil-rights era, Motown and the blues, Broadway and country music.

Tuesday's concert will be shown live on the White House website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/live

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-09-Obama-Memphis%20Soul/id-ced514f0d16042309065b9f6a4283908

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