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IPL governing board picks interim chairman

2012-03-15T06:03:00.000-07:00

With Lalit Modi suspended amid allegations of corruption dating back to the inaugural season in 2008, the Indian Premier League's governing council on Monday elected another national cricket board vice president as its interim chairman.

Shashank Manohar, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India, which sanctions the IPL, said Chirayu Amin would manage the league while charges against IPL chairman Modi were investigated.

Manohar said Modi was being investigated over the initial bids for Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab in the original 2008 auctions, a broadcast deal, bid rigging of two new clubs last month and his own behavior.

In …

Bargain hunt lifts stocks

2012-03-15T03:37:00.000-07:00

Wall Street found a foothold Monday as investors, still anxiousthat a credit crunch could crimp U.S. growth, took advantage of lowprices after last week's steep losses. The Dow surged more than 90points. Some solid earnings and …

Small Ga, Fla banks closed; first failures of '12

2012-03-15T01:15:00.000-07:00

WASHINGTON (AP) — Regulators have closed small banks in Georgia and Florida, the first failures of 2012 following 92 closures last year.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on Friday seized First State Bank, based in Stockbridge, Ga., with $536.9 million in assets and $527.5 million in deposits, and Central Florida State Bank of Belleview, Fla., with $79.1 million in assets and $77.7 million in …

Energy BBDO loses leader

2012-03-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

Five years were enough for Marty Orzio. Energy BBDO/Chicago's chief creative officer said Thursday he is leaving the agency -- and Chicago -- to return to New York, where he had been a significant player in the ad industry for many years before taking on the Energy BBDO assignment.

An Energy BBDO spokesman said Orzio had no specific new job offer in place but simply wanted to get back to the Big Apple, where his wife resides. Energy BBDO will immediately undertake a search for a new creative leader, but it was unclear how long that might take, or whether Orzio would stay around long enough to welcome his replacement, who will surely need to establish some chemistry with the …

Snow Chief favorite at Santa Anita

2012-03-14T20:32:00.000-07:00

Snow Chief, early favorite for the May 3 Kentucky Derby, will puthis reputation on the line today when he meets several other Derbyaspirants in the $500,000 plus Santa Anita Derby (Ch. 7, 4:40 p.m.).

"Snow Chief is as ready as any horse can get for today's race,"said trainer Mel Stute. "And if he wins today I'm quite certain Ihave the horse to beat in the Derby."

Stute thinks Badger Land, who won the $300,000 Flamingoyesterday at Hialeah Park, is the horse Snow Chief must beat in the112th Derby at Churchill Downs.

"That colt is a good one," Stute said. "We've beaten him andwhile I think he has improved, Snow Chief has also improved and issuch a hard-trying …

Sunnis: Arrest Warrant Targets Sect

2012-03-14T18:12:00.000-07:00

BAGHDAD - An arrest warrant against a Sunni Cabinet minister is another step by the Shiite-led government to marginalize the country's Sunni minority, the official's political organization said Wednesday.

The comments were made one day after Iraqi commandos raided the Baghdad home of Culture Minister Asad Kamal al-Hashimi and detained about 40 of his guards. The minister was not at home at the time, but officials said a warrant had been issued for his arrest in a 2005 assassination attempt on another politician.

Those moves have angered Sunni groups and politicians, who warn they could jeopardize U.S.-backed reconciliation efforts. The United States has been pushing for a …

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2012-03-14T15:51:00.000-07:00

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Teamsters bar race by son of Hoffa

2012-03-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

James P. Hoffa, son of missing former union leader Jimmy Hoffa,is ineligible to run for the presidency of the Teamsters in theunion's December, 1992, election, a union elections official ruledFriday. Hoffa, a Detroit lawyer, contended he had been a dues-payingmember of the union for more than two decades and was hired in April,1990, as an administrative assistant for Teamsters Local 283 inWyandotte, Mich. Elections officer Michael Holland ruled Hoffa didnot meet a union constitutional requirement that candidates work asdrivers for 24 months before nomination. Hoffa vowed to appeal. Pepsico to spend $1.5 billion: Food and beverage conglomeratePepsiCo Inc. said Sunday it plans to …

Judge moves toward declaring Natalee Holloway dead

2012-03-14T11:11:00.000-07:00

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A judge has ruled that the father of Natalee Holloway can proceed with legal steps to declare her dead six years after she disappeared in Aruba.

Probate Judge Alan King issued a decision Friday afternoon after Holloway's father, Dave Holloway, asked for legal closure to the case.

The next step is to run a …

High-stakes gay marriage trial to begin in US

2012-03-14T08:50:00.000-07:00

America's debate over same-sex marriage will take center stage in a California courtroom at a closely watched federal trial that could ultimately become the landmark case that determines whether homosexual Americans have a right to marry.

The case will decide a challenge to the West Coast state's ban on gay marriage that was approved by voters in 2008. The ruling probably will be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, and its ruling in the case could set precedent for whether gay marriage would become legal nationwide.

"This could be our Brown vs. Board of Education," said former Clinton White House adviser Richard Socarides, referring to the 1954 …

Crudity in eye of beholder

2012-03-14T06:30:00.000-07:00

When the subject of the crudity of our day arises, as it so oftendoes, I like to tell this story from Herodotus:

An Egyptian army mutinies, fleeing toward Ethiopia. Thepharaoh, Psammetichus, finds out and confronts the soldiers, beggingthem to reconsider. Think of your wives and children back in Egypt,he says.

At that, a deserter pulls aside his tunic and says, "Where Ihave this, I will have wives and children."That's a crude story - charmingly crude, in my eyes, because themacho bluster resonates over the eons and makes the anonymousEgyptian foot soldier seem very real.I tell this as introduction to a letter I received this week. Alone person who wrote to object …

Bahrain crackdown widens; dissent comes from roofs

2012-03-14T04:09:00.000-07:00

SITRA, Bahrain (AP) — The nighttime cries of dissent went out from the rooftops shortly after the text messages came through. For nearly 15 minutes, just as the messages exhorted, they called out to the sky: "God is Great!" as soldiers and police took hold of the streets below.

In the capital, Manama, and in Shiite villages like Sitra, the hub of Bahrain's oil industry, Bahrain's crackdown on the monthlong uprising expanded, drawing the full fury of the Sunni monarchy and its Saudi-led allies, who see the Shiite demands for a say in running the country as a threat to the 200-year-old rule.

Bahrain's royal family is gambling that it can survive the sectarian faultlines that …

Sarkozy in the West Bank town of Bethlehem for meeting with Abbas

2012-03-14T01:18:00.000-07:00

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has arrived in Bethlehem for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Tuesday's visit to the West Bank is Sarkozy's only meeting with Palestinian leaders during his three-day visit to the region. The visit marks Israel's 60th anniversary and is aimed primarily at cementing the improved relations between France and Israel after years of frosty ties.

Sarkozy has met with Israeli leaders, given a speech before parliament and has had a sit-down with the parents of an Israeli soldier of French citizenship held by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Sarkozy is accompanied in Bethlehem by his glamorous wife, the model-turned-singer Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. Earlier in the day, she visited a children's hospital in Jerusalem.

Mind of fetus a curious topic

2012-03-13T22:26:00.000-07:00

Scientists are examining the brain-building work that goes on ina fetus. Their question: What does a fetus know, and when does thefetus know it?

Although the facts are clear - evidence is mounting that fetusesare busily shaping their own development - what that means is thebasis of heated debate. One side says this credits fetuses withthoughts and feelings. The other calls that an absurd leap.

"All the things a fetus can do are also seen in common insects,"said Scott Robinson, co-editor of the book Behavior of the Fetus."Now, what do you want to conclude from that?"

Besides any implications for abortion or prenatal care, theresearch approaches the keystone of human nature.

"This gets right to one of the last great mysteries," said MyronHofer, psychiatry professor at Columbia University in New York."That is, human consciousness."

The research is important, scientists say, partly because ittraces human traits to their absolute origin. And it has played arole in changing the medical view of newborns, long considerednothing more than a bundle of reflexes.

Researchers have discovered: At about 10 weeks, a fetus will begin touching its face with itshands, sometimes even putting its fingers in its mouth. At about 2 months, a fetus will respond by moving if it is touchedin the area around its mouth. At about 4 months, a fetus will quicken its swallowing of amnioticfluid when that fluid is sweetened, and slow it down when a bitterflavor is added. At about 6 months, a fetus has rapid-eye-movement sleep - the kindassociated with dreaming. Fetuses respond to various stimuli, including pain and familiarmusic. Within minutes after birth, a baby will suck a computer-connectednipple at the rate necessary to trigger a recording of its mother'svoice. It will prefer her voice as it sounds in the womb over herreal-world voice - indicating a preference developed in utero. Also,when a baby's mother regularly read Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hatthroughout her pregnancy, it will suck the nipple that activates arecording of her voice reading that story.

New technologies - high-resolution ultrasound and brain-wavesensors - make much of the fetal research possible. Scientists alsoare borrowing techniques from colleagues who study rats, sheep andother animals.

The newest research suggests a busy role for fetuses in theirown development. That research and studies by San Diego psychologistDavid Chamberlain and Toronto psychiatrist Thomas Verny have led tosome of the boldest interpretations of fetal awareness.

In his article "The Sentient Prenate," Chamberlain calls fetuses"sensitive, perceptive, conscious . . . active, curious (and)emotional."

He also claims that through hypnosis he has uncovered someclients' in-utero feelings of rejection - one man's mother ultimatelyadmitted she'd tried to abort him - that had subconsciously troubledthem into adulthood.

Verny tells the story of an Ontario symphony conductor who knewthe cello parts to certain compositions just from his mother'splaying them while she was pregnant with him.

None of that impresses empirical scientists, including WilliamFifer, a Columbia University researcher and a leader in fetalresearch.

"So, we now know the brain is being shaped in utero," Fifersaid. But he calls it "false logic" to then give that shaping braintoo much credit. "A bird can recognize the call of a mate or its ownbaby," Fifer said, "but we don't necessarily ascribe consciousness toit."

Oil Prices Climb in Asian Trading

2012-03-13T19:35:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE - Oil prices gained Thursday on figures showing that supplies of U.S. gasoline and other refined products fell in the most recent week, and ahead of an OPEC meeting later in the day.

The market also got a lift from Wall Street's recovery from its plunge Tuesday that stirred concerns about the U.S. economy's health and future demand for energy.

Traders expect ministers from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to keep their output targets steady when they meet in Vienna, Austria, later Thursday. Some analysts have pointed out that maintaining current OPEC quotas could leave the market with a surplus in the second quarter, which could hurt prices.

"The market is waiting for the OPEC meeting today," said Tetsu Emori, chief commodities strategist with Mitsui Bussan Futures in Tokyo. "People may be nervous about it, and are short-covering in case prices go up after the meeting."

Light, sweet crude for April delivery rose 36 cents to $58.52 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, mid-afternoon in Singapore. The contract on Wednesday edged up 23 cents to settle at $58.16 a barrel.

April Brent crude on the ICE Futures exchange in London gained 24 cents to $61.30 a barrel.

Meanwhile, traders gauged the violence in Nigeria, Africa's biggest crude producer, where militants released two Italian oil worker hostages who were seized more than three months ago. But the militants vowed more kidnappings of oil workers and attacks on oil installations.

"We will step up our attacks against creek- and land-based installations around the delta. Car bombs will also be freely utilized within and outside the Niger Delta," the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta said, adding the freed Italians "will be replaced by other hostages who will again be taken off oil installations thought to be secure."

More than a year of stepped-up violence in the Niger Delta has cut daily output in Nigeria by nearly one quarter.

Wednesday's weekly petroleum inventories report from the U.S. show that crude oil stocks rose less than expected from the previous week. The Energy Department said crude inventories rose last week to 325.3 million barrels, up by 1.1 million barrels. Analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires expected a bigger gain of 1.4 million barrels.

Gasoline inventories fell by 2.5 million barrels last week, above expectations of a 2.1 million barrel decline. Inventories for distillate stocks - which include heating oil and diesel fuel - fell by 2.8 million barrels, more than estimates of a 1.9 million barrel drop.

Demand for both gasoline and distillate fuel increased last week from the same period last year.

However, inventories for crude, gasoline and distillates remain at the upper end of average for this time of year.

Heating oil futures added 0.46 cent to $1.7136 a gallon while natural gas prices fell slightly to $7.076 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Bank of Japan keeps rate steady, raises bond buys

2012-03-13T16:41:00.000-07:00

Japan's central bank kept its benchmark rate steady and boosted its purchase of government bonds Wednesday to keep ample cash in the monetary system as the nation grapples with a debilitating global slowdown.

The Bank of Japan has little room left to go on standard monetary policy, such as lowering interest rates, with its benchmark interest rate already close to zero. Wrapping up a two-day meeting, the bank's board voted unanimously to keep its key overnight call rate at 0.1 percent.

That compares with the U.S.'s targeted range of between zero and 0.25 percent and the euro-zone's 1.5 percent.

The Bank of Japan also raised its monthly government bond purchase to 1.8 trillion yen ($18.3 billion) from the previous 1.4 trillion yen, effective this month.

Late Tuesday, the bank said it is considering providing loans to commercial banks in an effort to shore up their capital base and encourage banks to lend themselves. Analysts said the move, if adopted, would be unusual for central banks. It is still unclear what the central bank's final plan might be.

"The options left for what the Bank of Japan can do are limited, and so it has decided to carry out what it can do," said Yasuo Yamamoto, economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.

Bank of Japan Gov. Masaaki Shirakawa said much of the problem of financing for major companies ahead of the closing of the fiscal year later this month was fixed, but money shortages were likely to drag into the coming fiscal year, threatening the health of the economy.

"The difficult financial conditions are expected to continue," Shirakawa told reporters at a press conference. "We decided it was crucial to continue to aggressively provide ample cash to ensure stability in the financial system."

Investors were encouraged by the bank's efforts, and the benchmark Nikkei 225 index climbed for a fourth day, rising 0.3 percent to 7,972.17closing Wednesday up 0.29 percent.

"Investors took heart from the bank's moves. The Bank of Japan is not sitting still. It is taking action aggressively to ensure the smooth liquidity in the financial market," said Masatoshi Sato, strategist at Mizuho Investors Securities Co.

Other central banks are resorting to unusual moves to cope with the continuing global crisis. The Bank of England, which earlier this month cut rates to its lowest ever level of 0.5 percent, has announced a 75 billion pound ($103.6 billion) plan to buy assets, such as government securities and corporate bonds.

The Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve's policymaking body, is also meeting this week, and it remains to be seen what additional measures it might take with rates basically at zero.

The Bank of Japan expressed deep concerns about the economy, battered by declining exports and weakening domestic demand as corporate profit drops and unemployment rises.

"Under these circumstances, economic conditions have deteriorated significantly and are likely to continue deteriorating for the time being," it said in a statement.

But it said it expects the Japanese economy to start recovering by the latter half of fiscal 2009, which runs through March 2010.

The central bank acknowledged the capital strength of Japanese financial institutions may be hurt by the prolonged slump in the world's second-largest economy as well as massive losses on securities.

The central bank already buys commercial paper, corporate bonds and stocks from financial institutions to help shore up their balance sheets.

Most Japanese companies' fiscal year ends March 31, and fears are growing bankruptcies and unemployment could rise in coming weeks. Gross domestic product fell at a 12.1 percent annual rate in the October-December quarter _ the worst drop since the oil shock of 1974 and double the pace of the recent decline in the U.S.

Sabathia, Indians Beat Santana, Twins

2012-03-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

MINNEAPOLIS - Racing toward the AL Central title, the Cleveland Indians stopped in Minnesota to beat Johan Santana yet once more.

C.C. Sabathia threw eight shutout innings to lead the Indians past the Twins 5-0 on Monday and extend their lead over the defending division champs to 10 1/2 games.

That's the biggest deficit for third-place Minnesota during this disappointing year in which Santana (14-11) dropped all five starts against Cleveland. The last time a Twins pitcher went 0-5 in one season against the same opponent was 1974, when Joe Decker lost five straight to the Oakland Athletics.

Ryan Garko homered, and each of the three batters walked by Santana scored. The left-hander gave up six hits and four runs in six innings, and he struck out three.

Sabathia (16-7) bested Santana for the second time in a week. He gave up six hits and one walk while striking out six. Sabathia allowed two runs or fewer for the ninth straight start.

He improved to 4-1 against the Twins this year.

Rafael Perez pitched the ninth for Cleveland to complete the six-hitter.

Minnesota was as many as 12 1/2 games behind the Detroit Tigers last season before rebounding to win the division, but a year ago on this date the Twins had already cut the lead to five games.

They're not playing nearly as well as last season, either, and that includes the two-time AL Cy Young Award winner. Santana is clearly still one of baseball's most dominant pitchers, but the Indians have not been intimidated one bit.

With one no-decision, Santana posted a 4.38 ERA in 39 innings over his six starts against the division leaders this year.

Cleveland had at least two runners in each of the first three innings, scoring once in each of those frames. Travis Hafner hit a hard chopper over the mound with two on and no outs in the first that Santana snared to start what would have been an easy double play.

Shortstop Jason Bartlett dropped the ball, though, for his 24th error to load the bases. Victor Martinez hit a sacrifice fly later, and Franklin Gutierrez did the same in the third. Ben Francisco hit an RBI double in the second, and Hafner had one of those himself against Matt Guerrier in the seventh.

Notes:@ Alexi Casilla had a career-high four hits for Minnesota. He was thrown out trying to go from second to third on a sharp grounder to shortstop in the first inning. ... The Indians are in a stretch of 23 games in 23 days. They started a 10-game road trip on Monday.

Storm delays rescue of ill woman from Antarctica

2012-03-13T10:49:00.000-07:00

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Efforts to evacuate an ill American woman from the South Pole have been delayed due to a storm, a newspaper reported.

Renee-Nicole Douceur, whom doctors suspect suffered from a stroke or brain tumor in late August, had hoped to fly Monday to the city of Christchurch in New Zealand.

But a planned rescue flight from Chile, which was due to fly into a British research station in Antarctica en route to the South Pole, was not able to land because of bad weather, the Christchurch newspaper The Press said. The weather could clear and allow a landing some time during the weekend, the paper said.

The 58-year-old Douceur had earlier asked for an emergency evacuation but was turned down due to concerns over the safety of making such a flight. Her symptoms include faulty vision, as well as speech and memory problems.

Douceur, who is from the small coastal town of Seabrook in New Hampshire, works as a manager for contractor Raytheon Polar Services Co.

US official: Nuclear inspection in Syria possible

2012-03-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

LONDON (AP) — The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency will likely consider a special inspection of Syria to answer nagging questions over its nuclear activities, the U.S. ambassador to the organization said Tuesday.

Glyn Davies said a number of countries on the IAEA's board of governors support plans to invoke the rarely used sanction.

Like Iran, Syria is suspected of hiding weapons-related nuclear activities and has blocked access to a suspected nuclear site destroyed by Israeli warplanes in September 2007.

"We need to keep the focus very much on Iran — but stay tuned on Syria, because Syria I think would love to just stave off any serious action to get to the bottom of what they were doing," Davies told reporters in London.

A recent IAEA report said that uranium particles found at the Dair Alzour desert facility indicate possible covert nuclear activities. The finding supported Western allegations that the bombed target was a nearly completed nuclear reactor which the U.S. alleges was of North Korean design and intended to produce weapons-grade plutonium.

Agency experts inspected Dair Alzour in June 2008, but have since been barred from revisiting.

"Because Syria has stonewalled for years ... the number of questions have continued to accumulate about what it is Syria was up to," Davies said.

He said there was a growing consensus among nations on the IAEA board that the issue must be addressed.

"A number of countries are beginning to ask questions about whether it might not be time to use that instrument of a special inspection, so that the agency can go in — or at least go to Damascus," Davies said.

Davies acknowledged that a special inspection — a sanction under which the IAEA's requests for access are made legally binding — had not been authorized for many years.

The Carnegie Endowment For International Peace claims records show the provision has been used only twice — in 1992 to inspect Romania's suspected nuclear weapons program and in 1993, when North Korea refused inspectors access to facilities.

Syria denies allegations it has been helped by Iran and North Korea in developing a covert nuclear weapons program. However, a recent IAEA report said Syria had acknowledged it carried out some small-scale nuclear experiments it had previously not owned up to.

Davies said that upcoming meetings are likely to be dominated by work to encourage Iran to return to negotiations over its alleged nuclear weapons program, but added that Syria would probably be discussed before the year's end.

"We are not going to postpone this indefinitely, we can't. The agency needs to do its duty, and needs to get answers to these questions and certainly a special inspection is one of the tools that's available — so that's something that needs to be considered and looked at," he said.

The U.S. diplomat said the six nations negotiating with Iran over its nuclear work are awaiting a response from Tehran to a letter sent last month by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton calling for talks to resume as quickly as possible.

Ashton sent the note to Iran following new rounds of U.N. and European Union sanctions.

"We are hoping the response to Ashton is forthcoming, and that we can get going again on this dialogue," Davies said.

Davies said that despite some recent rhetoric from Iranian officials he was "guardedly positive that we will get to that point."

He said diplomats from the U.S., France and Russia plan to meet in Vienna in the coming months to discuss their offer to swap Iran's low-enriched uranium for higher-enriched uranium in the form of fuel rods, which Tehran needs for a medical research reactor. No date is yet set for the meeting.

Fury over 'rip-off' power charges

2012-03-13T03:38:00.000-07:00

Campaigners today called for an official inquiry into energyfirms' profits.

Unison and the National Right to Fuel Campaign claimed that hikesin energy charges in the last year were almost pounds2.5 billionmore than the extra production costs.

Industry watchdog Ofgem was urged to launch a probe into claimsthat the average family was paying pounds100 a year to finance a"golden hole" in energy firms' accounts.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, said: "It's all verywell Ofgem calling for windfall profit taxes in the future but whatis it doing about the current rip-off? We want action taken now.

"Hard-working families are desperately worried about increasingfuel bills, rising housing costs, food costs and millions of publicsector workers are being told they must accept pay cuts.

"Pensioners are finding it a huge struggle, despite the winterfuel payments that have been wiped out by these greedy companies."

Lesley Davis, chairman of the right to fuel campaign, added: "Itbeggars belief that these energy companies are announcing furtherprice increases when we know that, while consumers paid pounds8.2billion more for their gas and electricity in 2006 than they did in2003, fuel costs rose by some pounds4.5 billion.

"A significant part of the remainder can be accounted for bycompanies earning higher profits at the expense of low-incomeconsumers."

Energy Minister Malcolm Wicks and a spokesman for Ofgem said theindustry was competitive. They urged people to shop around forbetter deals, saying some firms were pounds100-a-year cheaper forgas and electricity than rivals.