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Thursday, February 28, 2013
The Weirdest Thing on the Internet Tonight: Drifting
DHS official retires after immigrants are freed
FILE - In a March 13, 2012 file photo, Gary Mead, executive associate director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations, speaks to reporters by a soccer field at a new civil detention facility for low-risk detainees in Karnes City, Texas. Mead, the senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement the same day the agency said that hundreds of people facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to looming budget cuts, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The government said he had told his bosses weeks ago that he planned to retire. Mead disclosed his departure in an email to his staff Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2013. The announcement of the release of the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Will Weissert, File)
FILE - In a March 13, 2012 file photo, Gary Mead, executive associate director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations, speaks to reporters by a soccer field at a new civil detention facility for low-risk detainees in Karnes City, Texas. Mead, the senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement the same day the agency said that hundreds of people facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to looming budget cuts, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The government said he had told his bosses weeks ago that he planned to retire. Mead disclosed his departure in an email to his staff Tuesday afternoon, Feb. 26, 2013. The announcement of the release of the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day. (AP Photo/Will Weissert, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The senior Homeland Security Department official in charge of arresting and deporting illegal immigrants announced his retirement the same day the agency said that hundreds of people facing deportation had been released from immigration jails due to looming budget cuts, according to a letter obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press. The government said he had told his bosses weeks ago that he planned to retire.
Gary Mead, executive associate director over enforcement and removal operations at Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, disclosed his departure in an email to his staff Tuesday afternoon. The announcement of the release of the illegal immigrants had come earlier in the day.
President Barack Obama's spokesman, Jay Carney, said Wednesday that the decision to release the immigrants was made without any input from the White House. He described the immigrants as "low-risk, non-criminal detainees."
The announcement that a few hundred illegal immigrants were being released was among the most significant and direct implications described so far by the Obama administration about the pending, automatic budget cuts that will take effect later this week under what is known as sequestration.
Republicans in Congress quickly criticized the decision and pressed the Homeland Security Department for details.
In an email to his staff obtained by the AP, Mead said he was leaving the agency at the end of April "with mixed emotions." He did not say what prompted his departure. Mead did not immediately respond to an email and a telephone call.
A spokeswoman for the agency, Gillian Christensen, said there was no connection between Mead's announcement to his staff and the decision to release the illegal immigrants. She said Mead had told senior leaders in the agency several weeks ago that he planned to retire.
Mead said Tom Homan will succeed him as acting executive associate director.
At the White House, Carney said the decision to release what he described as "a few hundred" of the 30,000 illegal immigrants in federal detention was made by "career officials" at the immigration agency. He said the immigrants who were released were still subject to deportation.
"All of these individuals remain in removal proceedings," Carney said. "Priority for detention remains on serious criminal offenders and other individuals who pose a significant threat to public safety."
ICE is required by Congress to maintain 34,000 immigration jail beds. As of last week, the agency held an average daily population of 30,733 in its jails.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano warned this week that DHS might not be able to afford to maintain those 34,000 jail beds and that mandatory budget cuts would hurt the department's core missions.
"I don't think we can maintain the same level of security at all places around the country with sequester as without sequester," said Napolitano, adding that the impact would be "like a rolling ball. It will keep growing."
According to the National Immigration Forum, it costs the government about $164 a day to keep an illegal immigrant facing deportation jailed. In a report on immigration detention costs last year, the advocacy group said costs for supervised release can range from about 30 cents to $14 a day.
Republican lawmakers have decried the jail releases. The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, sent a letter Wednesday to ICE Director John Morton asking who was released and what was being done to keep track of them.
"This decision reflects the lack of resource prioritization within the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is indicative of the department's weak stance on national security," McCaul wrote.
___
Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
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First lady's anti-obesity campaign prompts change
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Wal-Mart is putting special labels on some store-brand products to help shoppers quickly spot healthier items. Millions of schoolchildren are helping themselves to vegetables from salad bars in their lunchrooms, while kids' meals at Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants automatically come with a side of fruit or vegetables and a glass of low-fat milk.
The changes put in place by the food industry are in response to the campaign against childhood obesity that Michelle Obama began waging three years ago. More changes are in store.
Influencing policy posed more of a challenge for the first lady, and not everyone welcomed her effort, criticizing it as a case of unwanted government intrusion.
Still, nutrition advocates and others give her credit for using her clout to help bring a range of interests to the table. They hope the increased awareness she has generated through speeches, her garden and her physical exploits will translate into further reductions in childhood obesity rates long after she leaves the White House.
About one-third of U.S. children are overweight or obese, which puts them at increased risk for any number of life-threatening illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
While there is evidence of modest declines in childhood obesity rates in some parts of the country, the changes are due largely to steps taken before the first lady launched "Let's Move" in February 2010.
With the program entering its fourth year, Mrs. Obama heads out Wednesday on a two-day promotional tour with stops in Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri. She has been talking up the program on daytime and late-night TV shows, on the radio and in public service announcements with Big Bird. She also plans discussions next week on Google and Twitter.
"We're starting to see some shifts in the trend lines and the data where we're starting to show some improvement," the first lady told SiriusXM host B. Smith in an interview broadcast Tuesday. "We've been spending a lot of time educating and re-educating families and kids on how to eat, what to eat, how much exercise to get and how to do it in a way that doesn't completely disrupt someone's life."
Larry Soler, president and chief executive of the Partnership for a Healthier America, said Mrs. Obama has "been the leader in making the case for the time is now in childhood obesity and everyone has a role to play in overcoming the problem." The nonpartisan, nonprofit partnership was created as part of "Let's Move" to work with the private sector and to hold companies accountable for changes they promised to make.
Conservatives accused Mrs. Obama of going too far and dictating what people should ? and shouldn't ? eat after she played a major behind-the-scenes role in the passage in 2010 of a child nutrition law that required schools to make foods healthier. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 2008, once brought cookies to a school and called the first lady's efforts a "nanny state run amok."
Other leaders in the effort, such as New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, have felt the backlash, too. Last fall, Bloomberg helped enact the nation's first rule barring restaurants, cafeterias and concession stands from selling soda and other high-calorie drinks in containers larger than 16 ounces.
Despite the criticism, broad public support exists for some of the changes the first lady and the mayor are advocating, according to a recent Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll.
More than eight in 10 of those surveyed, 84 percent, support requiring more physical activity in schools, and 83 percent favor government providing people with nutritional guidelines and information about diet and exercise. Seventy percent favor having restaurants put calorie counts on menus, and 75 percent consider overweightness and obesity a serious problem in this country, according to the Nov. 21-Dec. 14 survey by telephone of 1,011 adults.
Food industry representatives say Mrs. Obama has influenced their own efforts.
Mary Sophos of the Grocery Manufacturers Association, which represents the country's largest food companies, including General Mills and Kellogg's, said an industry effort to label the fronts of food packages with nutritional content gained momentum after Mrs. Obama, a mother of two, attended one of their meetings in 2010 and encouraged them to do more.
"She's not trying to point fingers," Sophos said. "She's trying to get people to focus on solutions."
A move by the companies signaling willingness to work with Mrs. Obama appears to have paid off as the Obama administration eased off some of the fights it appeared ready to pick four years ago.
The Food and Drug Administration has stalled its push to mandate labeling on the front of food packages, saying it is monitoring the industry's own effort. A rule that would require calorie counts on menus has been delayed as the FDA tries to figure out whom to apply it to. Supermarkets, movie theaters and other retailers have been lobbying to be exempted.
The industry also appears to have successfully warded off a move by the Federal Trade Commission to put in place voluntary guidelines for advertising junk food to kids. Directed by Congress, the guidelines would have discouraged the marketing of certain foods that didn't meet government-devised nutritional requirements. The administration released draft guidelines in 2011 but didn't follow up after the industry said they went too far and angry House Republicans summoned an agency official to Capitol Hill to defend them.
Besides labeling its store brands, Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, also pledged to cut sodium and added sugars by 25 percent and 10 percent, respectively, by 2015, and remove industrially produced trans fats.
Leslie Dach, an executive vice president, said sodium in packaged bread has been cut by 13 percent, and added sugar in refrigerated flavored milk, popular among kids, has been cut by more than 17 percent. He said Wal-Mart shoppers have told the company that eating healthier is important to them. Giving customers what they want is also good for business.
New York reported a 5.5 percent decline in obesity rates in kindergarteners through eighth-graders between the 2006-07 and 2010-11 school years, according a report last fall by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which studies health policy. In Philadelphia, the decline was 4.7 percent among students in grades K-12 between the 2006-07 and 2009-10 school years, the foundation said.
Declines also were reported in California and in Mississippi, where Mrs. Obama stops Wednesday.
In Philadelphia, an organization called the Food Trust has worked since 1992 to help corner stores offer fresh foods, connect schools with local farms, bring supermarkets to underserved areas and ensure that farmers' markets accept food stamps, according to Robert Wood Johnson.
New York City requires chain restaurants to post calorie information on menus. Licensed day care centers also must offer daily physical activity, limit the amount of time children spend in front of TV and computer screens, and set nutrition standards.
Both cities also made changes to improve the quality of foods and beverages available to students in public schools.
___
Online:
Let's Move: http://www.letsmove.gov
___
Follow Darlene Superville and Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap and http://www.twitter.com/mcjalonick
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Monday, February 25, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
Tribal fighting in Darfur leaves 60 dead
KHARTOUM, Sudan (AP) ? Sudan's state news agency says 60 people were killed in renewed fighting between two Arab tribes over mining rights in the northern Darfur region.
The United Nations says fighting broke out last month in the Jebel Amir area, leaving 100 dead in January and forcing 70,000 people to flee their homes.
The state news agency said the fighting Saturday was the worst since a cease-fire agreement was reached last month. The agency said fighting began when a group of armed tribesmen in vehicles and riding camels attacked the El-Sireaf area in North Darfur.
Sudan's western region of Darfur has been afflicted by violence since 2003, when rebels took up arms against the central government in Khartoum. Fighting between government forces and among tribes breaks out periodically in the area.
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Best apps to help you prepare your taxes
Question: I'm getting ready to do my taxes soon and would like to know if there are any good mobile apps or websites that will make this less painful and stressful (besides the obvious tax prep tools, of course). Help me get all the stuff I need organized!
Answer: Ah, tax season. Just the thought of it gives some of us headaches. The good news is there are lots of free and inexpensive apps and tools that can greatly simplify this awful process, from getting organized to filing your return. Here's what we recommend.
Get your tax documents in orderIf you have an uncomplicated return (one W2, for example, and take the standard deduction), congratulations: You don't have to worry much about organizing your tax records. For everyone else, though, managing the piles of receipts and other documents is a big part of the pain. Several apps can help with that.
Evernote: The Swiss Army knife of note taking and capture tools, Evernote excels at keeping your documents categorized into notebooks. You can set up a tax notebook and then either sub-notebooks or tags for different categories like income statements, interest earned, charitable contributions, and the like. Combine Evernote with compact scanner Doxie or ScanSnap, and you can quickly file your receipts in Evernote. Another strategy is to use webapp automation serviceIFTTT to automatically send any emails you tag in Gmail with a tax label to your Evernote tax notebook. Handy!
Shoeboxed: If scanning and managing all those papers isn't your thing, take a look at receipt scanning solution Shoeboxed. As we've previously mentioned, you can mail, email, or upload your receipts to Shoeboxed and they'll OCR and categorize the documents for you. You can export those receipts to popular tax programs, as well as Evernote, and mobile apps are available. A free account lets you store 5 documents per month, while premium plans starting at $9.95 give you more capacity.
Slice: Slice is a brilliant receipt and package tracking webapp and mobile app. It scans your Gmail for receipts and gives you an overview of your entire purchase history. Last year, I used the convenient listing to find tax-deductible receipts I had forgotten about.
Expensify (pictured right): If you can take deductible expenses like car mileage and meals and entertainment expenses when you travel for business, Expensify has your back. The mobile apps and web receipts extension capture all those stray receipts and attachments and can turn them into IRS-approved eReceipts. It's a great app for independent contractors.
Your personal finance program and financial accounts: Of course, don't forget to consult your personal finance tool, such as popular Mint or Quicken to see spending by category and find all those deductible expenses. Both can port your information to TurboTax.
Also, your year-end statements from your credit card or bank can also come in handy if you're hunting down your tax-related expenses. (American Express has an awesome searchable and sortable view of statements by category.)
TaxCaster by TurboTax (pictured right): Want a sneak peek at how much of a refund (or tax bill) you'll get this year? This free tax refund calculator will estimate your taxes based on your quick inputs. It's available online, for Android, and for iOS.
Bloomberg BNA Quick Tax Reference: This app for Android,iPhone, and BlackBerry gives you instant access to tax rates and other handy information, such as IRA limits, mileage rates, and more. It's developed for financial professionals, but also offers useful tools like quickly calculating your total tax.
TaxACT Central: A companion app to the popular, free tax filing service, TaxACT Central can answer your tax questions and keep you organized, with a convenient checklist of what you need to file. You don't have to use TaxACT for filing to make use of the Android or iPhone app.
File your taxes and monitor your refundWe generally recommend going to a tax professional unless you have a very simple return. If yours isn't complicated, though, mobile and desktop apps can streamline filing your return and tracking your refund.
TurboTax SnapTax (pictured right): You can file your taxes in as little as ten minutes using this simple Android and iPhone app. Snap a photo of your W2, answer a few questions, and file right from the phone or online. (Isn't the future great?) This app is only for those who: make under $100,000 ($120,000 if married); only have W2, interest, or unemployment income; and don't own a home. Free to try, but $24.99 to file both federal and state.
H&R Block also offers mobile tax apps. The 1040EZ for Smartphone prepares your simple federal and state returns for free on Android and iPhone. There's also a iPad app not limited to 1040EZ returns, with free federal filing for simple returns and an additional fee for state filing.
Of course, both of these tax services (and many others) have desktop and/or webapps. Not all tax preparation software will give you the same results, though.ConsumerSearch has rounded up reviews of the top four tax prep applications, and Get Rich Slowly has an excellent (yet older) price comparison of these solutions and services.
IRS2Go: From Uncle Sam himself, IRS2Go doesn't let you file taxes from the Android oriPhone apps, but you can check the status of your refund, get tax law updates, request a copy of your tax records in the mail, and watch IRS YouTube videos. (Perhaps not the most exciting download, but we are talking about the IRS and taxes here.)
Grab these apps and put them in a new tax organization folder and you'll be set for this tax season and beyond.
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Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/best-apps-help-you-prepare-your-taxes-1C8506274
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
US troops in Niger to set up drone base
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama said Friday that about 100 American troops have been deployed to the African nation of Niger. Two U.S. defense officials said the troops would be setting up a base for unarmed drones to conduct surveillance.
Obama announced the deployment in a letter to Congress, saying that the forces "will provide support for intelligence collection and will also facilitate intelligence sharing with French forces conducting operations in Mali, and with other partners in the region."
The move marks a deepening of U.S. efforts to stem the spread of al-Qaida and its affiliates in the volatile region. It also underscores Obama's desire to fight extremism without involving large numbers of U.S. ground forces.
The drone base will allow the U.S. to give France more intelligence on the militants its forces have been fighting in Mali, which neighbors Niger. Over time, it could extend the reach not only of American intelligence-gathering but also U.S. special operations missions to strengthen Niger's own security forces.
One of the two U.S. defense officials who discussed the development confirmed the American troops would fly drones and other surveillance platforms from Niger military airstrips, tracking militant and refugee movement inside Mali and around the border. The U.S. will share that intelligence with Niger's military, the official said.
Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the project.
The drones at the Niger base will be unarmed and used for surveillance, not airstrikes. Still, the development of a base in Niger raises the possibility that it could eventually be used for launching strikes.
Obama said in his letter to Congress that the U.S. forces have been deployed with the consent of Niger's government. The forces were also deployed with weapons "for their own force protection and security," the president said.
Last month, the U.S. and Niger signed a status-of-forces-agreement spelling out legal protections and obligations of American forces that might operate in Niger in the future.
Africa is increasingly a focus of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, even as al-Qaida remains a threat in Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere. Last month's terrorist attack on a natural gas complex in Algeria, in which at least 37 hostages and 29 militants were killed, illustrated the threat posed by extremists who have asserted power propelled by long-simmering ethnic tensions in Mali and the revolution in Libya.
A number of al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist groups operate in Mali and elsewhere in the Sahara, including a group known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which originated in Algeria and is active in northern Mali. Last month, French forces intervened to stop the extremists' move toward Mali's capital, and Washington has grown more involved by providing a variety of military support to French troops.
France has said it will eventually pull out of its Mali operation so that African forces can help stabilize the West African country.
___
AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-troops-niger-set-drone-011915164--politics.html
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Russia leases planes to Cuba, writes off Soviet debt
HAVANA |
HAVANA (Reuters) - Russia will lease eight jets worth $650 million to its Cold War- era ally Cuba and will partially write off the country's multi-billion-dollar, Soviet-era debt under agreements signed during Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Havana on Thursday.
Moscow will write off part of the $30 billion debt and will offer a 10-year refinancing plan for the remaining amount, according to the preliminary agreement, Russia's industry and trade minister Denis Manturov told reporters on the sidelines of the talks.
"There was an accumulated debt on loans allocated by the Soviet Union and we have now prepared an agreement that should undergo all the necessary procedures," he said.
Manturov said the final decision on debt settlement will be signed by the end of the year.
Russia will also lease three Ilyushin-96-400 long-haul jets, three AN-158 regional planes and two TU-204SM mid-range aircraft to Cuba under the agreements inked in the presence of Medvedev and Cuban leader Raul Castro.
Moscow will provide sovereign guarantees to a syndicate of Russian banks financing the deal, Manturov said.
Medvedev and Castro were seen chatting informally and broadly smiling during the ceremony. The Cuban leader greeted reporters in Russian.
Russia and Cuba enjoyed close relations during the Cold War between the Soviet Union and Washington.
The volume of trade between the two countries last year was roughly $200 million. Oil companies from Russia, the world's largest energy exporter, are drilling into Cuba's offshore oil deposits.
(Reporting By Alexei Anishchuk; Editing by Stacey Joyce)
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Correction: Obit-Magic Slim story
In an obituary Feb. 21 for blues guitarist Magic Slim, The Associated Press erroneously described his album "Bad Boy." It is a collection of original songs and covers, not a mix of covers.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Blues guitarist Magic Slim dies in Pa. at age 75
Chicago-style blues guitarist Magic Slim dies in Philadelphia at 75; got sick while on tour
By MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
Magic Slim, a younger contemporary of blues greats Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf who helped shape the sound of Chicago's electric blues, died Thursday. He was 75.
He died shortly after midnight Thursday at a Philadelphia hospital, said his manager, Marty Salzman. The musician had health problems that worsened while he was on tour several weeks ago in Pennsylvania, Salzman said.
Magic Slim and his backing band, the Teardrops, performed a no-holds-barred brand of Chicago-style electric blues, led by his singing and guitar playing, and were regulars on the music festival circuit.
Slim's given name was Morris Holt. The Mississippi native established himself in Chicago's thriving blues community in the 1960s, but more recently lived in Lincoln, Neb.
Holt's story was one of persistence. Like many bluesmen from rural Mississippi, he left a life that revolved around cotton fields and moved to Chicago in 1955. But competition on the South Side was fierce in those days, and he moved back home after failing to establish himself.
Playing plantation parties and small gigs, he honed his skills to a fine edge and enlisted his brothers, Nick and Douglas, as his backing band. They returned to Chicago, where they formed the Teardrops and refused to be dismissed.
Younger than many of the renowned bluesmen in Chicago, he maintained a career well into the 21st century. Holt and the Teardrops won blues band of the year at the 2003 Blues Music Award, and he released a record last year.
"If you were going to take somebody who'd never seen blues to one of their shows, it would be like putting them in a time machine and putting them in 1962," Salzman said. "No frills, no rock 'n' roll. It was just straight-ahead, real-deal blues."
Holt came by the sound authentically. Born in Torrance, Miss., in 1937, he grew up in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta. His first love was piano, but he lost the little finger on his right hand to a cotton gin and switched to guitar. Like many of his contemporaries, he started out on a one-string instrument he made by nailing a piece of wire stolen from a broom to the wall.
He moved to Grenada at age 11 and met Magic Sam, an older guitarist and influential blues figure. Sam taught him about the instrument and gave him his first job as a bass player years later when he first moved to Chicago.
He didn't make his first recordings until 1966. He released his first album, "Born Under A Bad Sign," on a French label in 1977 and put out an album of original songs and covers, "Bad Boy," last year.
Salzman said that bleeding ulcers sent Holt to the hospital, but that he also suffered from heart, lung and kidney ailments.
___
Scolforo reported from Harrisburg, Pa. AP Music Writer Chris Talbott contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/correction-obit-magic-slim-story-220120984.html
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Friday, February 22, 2013
Learn more about Coach Ron Rolston
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Ron Rolston will serve as the interim head coach of the Buffalo Sabres, until the end of this season. Rolston is the 16th head coach in Sabres franchise history, coming from the Rochester Americans with a 63-44-17 regular-season record.
Rolston spent the 2011-12 and 2012-13 seasons in Rochester, after spending seven seasons as head coach with USA Hockey?s National Team Development Program. Rolston was the first coach in U.S. history to lead the U.S. under 18 team to three gold medals at the International Ice Hockey Federation World Under 18 Championship.
Rolston served as head coach for the U.S. National Junior team at the IIHF U20 Championship in 2007 and 2009, with his team winning the bronze medal in 2007.
Rolston has served as an assistant coach at four NCAA Division I hockey programs, including Lake Superior State University, Clarkson University, Harvard University and Boston College.? While Rolston was at Lake Superior State University, his team won two national championships.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wivb_local/~3/6tdN0cerwCY/learn-more-about-coach-ron-rolston
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New flu drug stops drug-resistant strains of virus in its tracks
Feb. 21, 2013 ? A new class of influenza drug has been shown effective against drug-resistant strains of the flu virus, according to a study led by University of British Columbia researchers. Published online February 21 in the journal Science Express, the study details the development of a new drug candidate that prevents the flu virus from spreading from one cell to the next.
The drug is shown to successfully treat mice with lethal strains of the flu virus.
In order to spread in the body, the flu virus first uses a protein, called hemagglutinin, to bind to the healthy cell's receptors. Once it has inserted its RNA and replicated, the virus uses an enzyme, called neuraminidase, to sever the connection and move on to the next healthy cell.
"Our drug agent uses the same approach as current flu treatments -- by preventing neuraminidase from cutting its ties with the infected cell," says UBC Chemistry Prof. Steve Withers, the study's senior author. "But our agent latches onto this enzyme like a broken key, stuck in a lock, rendering it useless."
Watch a video of the flu virus at work at http://youtu.be/kSLRmj0APZw.
The World Health Organization estimates that influenza affects three to five million people globally each year, causing 250,000 to 500,000 deaths. In some pandemic years, the figure rose to millions.
"One of the major challenges of the current flu treatments is that new strains of the flu virus are becoming resistant, leaving us vulnerable to the next pandemic," says Withers, whose team includes researchers from Canada, the UK, and Australia.
"By taking advantage of the virus's own 'molecular machinery' to attach itself," Withers adds. "The new drug could remain effective longer, since resistant virus strains cannot arise without destroying their own mechanism for infection."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Jin-Hyo Kim, Ricardo Resende, Tom Wennekes, Hong-Ming Chen, Nicole Bance, Sabrina Buchini, Andrew G. Watts, Pat Pilling, Victor A. Streltsov, Martin Petric, Richard Liggins, Susan Barrett, Jennifer L. McKimm-Breschkin, Masahiro Niikura, and Stephen G. Withers. Mechanism-Based Covalent Neuraminidase Inhibitors with Broad Spectrum Influenza Antiviral Activity. Science, 21 February 2013 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232552
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/Zu0RrKpBR8o/130221143904.htm
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
Indian police: 3 sisters, aged 5-11, raped, killed
NEW DELHI (AP) ? Indian police said Thursday that they have launched a manhunt for men suspected of raping and killing three sisters, aged 5 to 11, in the latest case of sexual violence to grip the country.
The sisters' bodies were found in a village well in Bhandara district in Maharashtra state on Feb. 14 after they had gone missing from school, police officer Javed Ahmed said. The area is more than 1,000 kilometers (630 miles) south of New Delhi, the capital.
As the victims' mother accused police of a shoddy investigation, enraged villagers forced shops to close, burned tires and blocked a national highway passing through the area for several hours on Wednesday, demanding justice.
"The police did not take the case seriously and did nothing for two days," the CNN-IBN television news channel quoted the mother as saying. Her name was withheld.
One police officer has been suspended for not acting promptly, Indian Heavy Industries Minister Praful Patel, who represents Bhandara district in Parliament, told reporters in New Delhi.
"It is unacceptable. All of us have to hang our heads in shame," Patel said.
Cabinet Minister Manish Tewari called the killings a "very, very heinous assault" and announced that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was sending 1 million rupees ($18,300) to the family. The central government has asked state investigators to keep them informed of the investigation.
The fatal gang rape of a young woman in a moving bus in New Delhi on Dec. 16 set off nationwide protests about India's treatment of women and spurred the government to hurry through a new package of laws to protect them.
The gang rape victim and her male friend, who also was badly beaten up in the attack, were dumped naked on the roadside, and the woman died from her injuries two weeks later in a Singapore hospital. Five men are being tried on rape and murder charges in that case.
A new law enacted by the government has increased the sentences for rape from the existing seven to 10 years to a maximum of 20 years. It also provides for the death penalty in extreme cases of rape that result in death or leave the victim in a coma. It has also made voyeurism, stalking, acid attacks and the trafficking of women punishable under criminal law.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indian-police-3-sisters-aged-5-11-raped-171741011.html
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Daily iPhone App: QuestLord is a retro RPG trip back in time
A lot of apps these days show that developers are always thinking about what they can do in a new way: How can we change up controls for a touchscreen device, or use the power of the iPhone to create a new experience? QuestLord, however, is very decidedly old school. It's an RPG from the first-person perspective, similar to the old Elder Scrolls games, and while it obviously runs on the latest and greatest iOS devices, the interface is almost stubbornly retro. You just press a few different on screen buttons to move around, talk, or fight, and the game just sticks to the standard RPG conventions: Do quests, level up, and so on.
Rather than come off as boring or simple, however, QuestLord feels familiar, like the scent of an old book. Yes, it's nice to see innovation, and yes, it's always fun to see developers try something new, but once in a while, it's great to see someone just stick with the old, and do it really well. That's what QuestLord is -- if you like these old 2D RPGs, you'll feel right at home here.
If you didn't play those games back in the day, you might think QuestLord is a little too low-fi, and that's fine -- its pixelated graphics are no match for more modern games. But I really like QuestLord, and I'm happy to pay the $1.99 to experience a new title that seems like it was made quite a while ago.
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Source: http://www.tuaw.com/2013/02/20/daily-iphone-app-questlord-is-a-retro-rpg-trip-back-in-time/
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Event Is Church's Major Fundraiser; Proceeds Benefit Local Charities
Georget Photos prepares dolmathes, one of the Greek dishes that will be featured at the upcoming Greek Festival at St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church in Winter Haven. Pictured below is the filling for dolmathes.
PAUL CRATE | LEDGER MEDIA GROUP
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2013 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 4:44 a.m.
WINTER HAVEN | There's more than one way to stuff a grape leaf to make dolmathes, one of the Greek delicacies available next weekend at the St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church of Polk County.
Georget Photos, wife of the church's priest, the Rev. Dean Photos, will be showing how to stuff grape leaves and other cooking techniques at the church's annual Greek Festival, offering everything Greek for the thousands who show up for the event Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
There will be live Greek music and dancing, Greek dancing lessons, cooking demonstrations, church tours, authentic Greek food and pastry, youth entertainment, antiques vendors and a Greek grocery store and boutique. Ouzo, Greek and American beer and wine will also be available.
A $2 admission charge is good for all three days and children under 12 are free.
The Photoses and many volunteers have been busy for weeks preparing the quantity of food required to serve their guests. Today is the day when volunteers are coming to the church hall to help stuff the more than 5,000 grape leaves needed for the festival.
John Balasis, festival chairman, said there will be food served in the church hall and in a tent outside and he hopes everyone will come.
"This is our church's major fundraiser," he said. "We use the proceeds to operate the church and to contribute to local charities, as well as national and international Eastern Orthodox church charities.
Athenian fish, Greek meatballs, Mediterranean baked chicken, lamb shanks, souvlaki (a pork tenderloin shishkabob), spankopites (Spinach pie) and Tiropites (cheese pie), and the grape leaves will be served in a combination plate or a la carte in the church hall. An appetizer plate with marinated octopus, kalamari, saganaki served with tomatoes, olives, onions and pita will also be available.
In the tent, Balasis will be carving the meat for gyros and serving Greek fries, a souvlaki sandwich, grilled octopus, saganaki (flaming cheese) Grecian kalamari (squid).
There also will be a children's menu that includes the Greek meatballs, pork tenderloin and chicken.
Phyllo pastries, including baklava and a shredded phyllo pastry with custard and whipped cream, are also available. The Greek cookies will include powdered sugar shortbread, Greek butter cookie twists and Greek anisette biscotti.
Georget Photos is a Greek cooking expert, having just finished a Greek cookbook now on its way to the printer. She also offers Greek cooking classes. She recently prepared some of the recipes that will be served at the festival, which runs from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the church, 1030 Brad- bury Road, off Recker Highway.
Stuffed grape leaves are a Greek staple. Even though her recipe uses beef, she said the grape leaves also can be stuffed with fruit and nuts and served with a Greek yogurt sauce or a cucumber-yogurt sauce.
Balasis said his mother skipped the grape leaves, using zucchini or yellow squash blossoms instead.
The secret to a wonderful Baklava, the normally honey-filled phyllo delight, is using a honey-sugar syrup instead of pure honey if the baklava isn't going to be served within 24 hours of making it. Georget Photos make a chocolate version.
The recipes below are from her soon-to-be-published cookbook, tentatively titled "The Joyful Cook's Heavenly Guide to Greek Cuisine."
Source: http://www.theledger.com/article/20130216/news/130219470
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Monday, February 18, 2013
Cyprus votes for leader to steer it past financial storm
NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cypriots went to the polls on Sunday to elect a president who must negotiate a financial rescue to save the island country from a bankruptcy that would reignite the euro zone debt crisis.
The eastern Mediterranean nation's worst economic crisis in four decades eclipsed its almost four-decade-old partition as the main issue in this year's election, which conservative leader Nicos Anastasiades was tipped to win.
Polls showed Anastasiades, the most pro-bailout figure among the main presidential contenders, with a 15-point lead over his closest leftist rival, Stavros Malas that might even secure the outright majority needed to avoid a run-off a week later.
An air of despondency about the country's grim economic prospects hung over Greek Cypriots as they trickled to the polls. Results from over half a million votes expected to be cast were due by 1830 GMT.
Election officials reported a low morning turnout in mild late-winter sunshine. Most early voters were elderly, dressed in their Sunday best and heading to church mass.
"We don't want to sign a bailout immediately without looking at the terms and conditions; we want something tolerable," said Kyriakos Georgiou, a 73-year-old retired pharmacist. "We have an economic crisis but they can't be grabbing us by the throat."
Investors are keen to see Anastasiades, 66, a lawyer who has led the Democratic Rally party since 1997, clinch victory and get working on a bailout deal with lenders immediately.
He has pledged a quick agreement with the European Union and International Monetary Fund on a rescue, which investors want thrashed out before the island's woes derail progress made in shoring up the rest of the euro zone's periphery.
"It is the survival of our country which is at stake," Anastasiades said after voting in the port town of Limassol, accompanied by his three grandchildren.
Nailing down a deal has proven tricky because almost any way of solving the crisis - from restructuring debt to slapping losses on banks - could set a precedent for other troubled states and damage sentiment just as confidence slowly returns to the euro zone.
Fears that Cyprus will never be able to pay back its debt, and German misgivings about its commitment to fighting money laundering, have further complicated talks on a rescue, which have dragged on for eight months.
"Everything is at stake, like it has never been before," said Kyriakos Iacovides, publisher of the Cyprus Mail newspaper.
"The country must be rebuilt, Cyprus must be rehabilitated in the EU. We need a strong leadership to rebuild the country."
Cyprus sought financial help last year after its banks suffered huge losses from Greece's sovereign debt restructuring. The island, which has been shut out of international financial markets since May 2011, needs about 17 billion euros in aid - a sum worth as much as its entire economy.
Current President Demetris Christofias, a communist, is not seeking re-election.
DULLEST CAMPAIGN
The last polls showed Anastasiades with just over 40 percent share of the vote, comfortably ahead of Communist-backed Malas and the other main challenger, independent George Lillikas.
Malas has campaigned on a pro-bailout but anti-austerity platform while Lillikas has rejected onerous terms tied to any bailout, saying Cyprus could swiftly extricate itself by using the natural gas reserves that lie under its shores.
"What we have are two weak candidates against a potentially unpopular figure. Anastasiades is a polarizing figure in Cypriot politics, respected but not necessarily liked," said Hubert Faustmann, an associate professor at the University of Nicosia.
"The economy has dominated, and this must be one of the dullest election campaigns I have ever seen. Somehow it hasn't electrified people. They could be jaded."
Anger at unemployment hitting a record high of 15 percent cast a pall over campaigning, where rival candidates jockeyed to cast themselves as the best man to steer Cyprus through its economic storm.
Anastasiades ran on a slogan declaring, "The crisis needs a leader," while Malas retorted with a campaign proclaiming, "The crisis needs a credible leader."
Reuniting Cyprus after its division nearly 40 years ago into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north and the internationally recognized southern state run by Greek Cypriots has lagged far behind as an election issue.
Cypriots, still coming to grips with a cocktail of pay cuts, tax hikes and benefit cuts imposed last year in preparation for a bailout, have been little impressed by any of the rhetoric.
"I hope that things will be better in terms of the economy and jobs, but I doubt it," said Georgios Poullos, a 41-year-old who is unemployed. "It's not in our hands. I think whoever gets in won't change it."
(Writing by Deepa Babington; Editing by Stephen Powell and Todd Eastham)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cyprus-goes-polls-elect-president-seal-bailout-deal-055823841.html
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Predicting key property in Andromeda's satellites
Feb. 14, 2013 ? Using modified laws of gravity, researchers from Case Western Reserve University and Weizmann Institute of Science closely predicted a key property measured in faint dwarf galaxies that are satellites of the nearby giant spiral galaxy Andromeda.
The predicted property in this study is the velocity dispersion, which is the average velocity of objects within a galaxy relative to each other. Astronomers can use velocity dispersion to determine the accelerations of objects within the galaxy and, roughly, the mass of a galaxy, and vice-versa.
To calculate the velocity dispersion for each dwarf galaxy, the researchers utilized Modified Newtonian Dynamics, MOND for short, which is a hypothesis that attempts to resolve what appears to be an insufficient amount of mass in galaxies needed to support their orbital speeds.
MOND suggests that, under a certain condition, Newton's law of gravity must be altered. That hypothesis is less widely accepted than the hypothesis that all galaxies contain unseen dark matter that provides needed mass.
"MOND comes out surprisingly well in this new test," said Stacy McGaugh, astronomy professor at Case Western Reserve. "If we're right about dark matter, this shouldn't happen."
McGaugh teamed with Mordehai Milgrom, the father of MOND and professor of physics and astrophysics at Weizmann Institute in Israel. Their study, "Andromeda Dwarfs in the Light of MOND" will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.
Astronomers and physicists need some way to explain why galaxies rotate faster than predicted by the law of gravity without flying apart. That spurred researchers to theorize that dark matter, first assumed by Dutch astronomer Jan Oort in 1932, is gathered in and around galaxies, adding the mass needed to hold galaxies together.
Dissatisfied with that hypothesis, Milgrom offered MOND, which says that Newton's force law must be tweaked at low acceleration, eleven orders of magnitude lower than what we feel on the surface of Earth. Acceleration above that threshold is linearly proportional to the force of gravity -- as Newton's law states -- but below the threshold, is not, he posits. When the force law is tweaked under that limitation, the modification can resolve the mass discrepancy.
Early in his career, McGaugh believed in dark matter. But, over time, he's found the hypothesis comes up short in a number of aspects while he's found increasing evidence that supports MOND.
In this paper, researchers tested MOND with dwarf spheroidal galaxies. These very low-surface brightness galaxies are satellites of larger galaxies. By the standards of galaxies they are tiny, containing only a few hundred thousand stars.
"These dwarfs are spread exceedingly thin. Their light is spread over hundreds to thousands of light-years. These systems pose a strong test of MOND because their low stellar density predicts low accelerations," McGaugh said.
McGaugh and Milgrom used the luminosity of the galaxies, an indicator of stellar mass, and MOND to make their calculations and predict the velocity dispersions of 17 faint galaxies. In 16 cases, the predictions closely matched the velocity dispersions measured by others. In the last case, the data from independent observers differed from one another.
"Many predictions were bang on," McGaugh said. "Typically, the better the data, the better the agreement."
The scientists also used MOND to predict velocity dispersions for 10 more faint dwarf galaxies in Andromeda. They are awaiting measurements to refute or verify this prediction.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- Stacy McGaugh, Mordehai Milgrom. Andromeda Dwarfs in Light of MOND. Astrophysical Journal, 2013 [link]
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/8GHpa7WYkb4/130214120614.htm
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Much-investigated ref denies fixing soccer matches
FILE - In this Wednesday, June 1, 2011 file photo, referee Ibrahim Chaibou, red top, is surrounded by Argentina soccer players after he awarded a penalty against them during an international friendly soccer match with Nigeria Super eagles at the National stadium in Abuja, Nigeria. Chaibou has refereed at five international games that a top betting monitor has flagged as suspicious, including this Nigeria-Argentina game. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, file)
FILE - In this Wednesday, June 1, 2011 file photo, referee Ibrahim Chaibou, red top, is surrounded by Argentina soccer players after he awarded a penalty against them during an international friendly soccer match with Nigeria Super eagles at the National stadium in Abuja, Nigeria. Chaibou has refereed at five international games that a top betting monitor has flagged as suspicious, including this Nigeria-Argentina game. (AP Photo/Sunday Alamba, file)
ZURICH (AP) ? It was in the final minutes of a June 2011 soccer game between Nigeria and Argentina when the little green flags on computer screens in London started to change color.
Nigeria was leading 4-0 in the exhibition match of little significance, and more and more money was being laid down around the world on the possibility that one of the teams would score another goal before the game was over. Monitors hired by the soccer governing body FIFA to detect deviations from expected betting patterns ? helped by computer algorithms ? spotted something fishy.
The game's 90 minutes of regular time ended without another goal. Referee Ibrahim Chaibou ordered additional time added to the clock ? normal in most soccer games to make up for stoppages in play throughout the contest for injuries or other minor delays. He added six minutes ? a substantial amount for such a minor game.
When that time ran out, the game continued, with the score still at 4-0. The clock reached 98 minutes.
That's when Chaibou called Nigerian defender Efe Ambrose for touching the ball with his hand ? an infraction that brought a penalty kick for Argentina.
___
EDITOR'S NOTE: This story is part of a months-long, multiformat AP examination of how organized crime is corrupting soccer through match-fixing, running this week.
___
Ambrose couldn't believe it. Video replays showed the ball touching him halfway up his thigh, with his arm behind his back and his hand nowhere near the ball. The replay also suggested that Chaibou had a clear view of the play.
But the referee pointed straight to the spot and patted his elbow twice as if to confirm his call beyond any doubt. Nigerian players crowded around him, one even laughing in bemusement. Argentina scored the penalty, and the game ended 4-1.
Within days, both FIFA and the Nigerian Football Association announced they would look into the possibility that the match had been fixed.
___
The world's most popular sport is under sustained attack from criminal gangs that corrupt players, referees and soccer officials into rigging matches ? determining in advance the result of a game, or how many goals are scored and when.
The profits from betting on fixed games are so vast that at least two organized crime groups have recently switched from drug trafficking to match-fixing, Interpol chief Ron Noble told The Associated Press. Sportradar, a European company that monitors worldwide betting, says up to 300 games a year could be fixed in Europe alone.
Referees are tempting targets for match-fixers because their decisions can significantly alter a game's outcome. They also make bad calls all the time for reasons that have nothing to do with corruption, so any investigation centers on collaborating evidence, such as unusual spikes in betting or confessions from people paid off by crime gangs.
Chaibou, a slim, bald 46-year-old from the West African country of Niger, is one of football's most-investigated international referees. Matches in which he officiated have been investigated by FIFA, the Nigerian Football Association and the South African Football Association. At least five of his matches have been flagged as suspicious by betting monitoring companies, an action that usually prompts FIFA and national football organizations to look into the possibility that it was fixed.
None of those have resulted in formal charges or sanctions, and Chaibou denies any connection to match-fixing. He says he has retired from soccer and now works in Niger's military.
In a telephone interview from his home in Niger's capital of Niamey, Chaibou acknowledged that soccer authorities have been questioning him about matches he officiated, including the Argentina-Nigeria game.
"The people from FIFA have already asked me. ... They asked me all the questions about this goal. They asked around everywhere, a bit to everyone," he said. "I judged it to be a penalty, so I gave a penalty ... to make everyone happy. That's it."
It wasn't the first time Chaibou had officiated a suspicious match. In 2010 and 2011, he was the referee at five exhibition matches between national teams in Africa, the Middle East and South America that were flagged by a leading betting monitoring company as potentially fixed, according to confidential company reports seen by the AP.
Before the FIFA-South African investigation was completed, Chaibou turned 45 and was forced to retire from FIFA's approved international referee list in December 2011 due to age limits. That also automatically canceled the investigation, since FIFA investigates only active referees, and no sanctions were issued.
"Ibrahim Chaibou left football before FIFA could launch any potential disciplinary action against him," the FIFA media department said in an email, adding that Chaibou "could of course be investigated again, should he return to soccer."
Chris Eaton, a former security chief for FIFA, said the governing body's investigators tried and failed to question Chaibou in the six months before his retirement, a development he called disappointing.
"People who have serious allegations of corruption against them ought to be properly investigated, if only to clear them of the allegations or confirm them," he said.
FIFA, which has pledged a zero-tolerance fight against corruption in soccer, manages a list of about 2,000 elite referees and linesmen who are qualified to handle national team and international club matches. Each year, FIFA's 209 national associations propose candidates between the ages of 25 and 45 who have worked in top-tier matches for at least two years. A referees committee has veto power over the nominations.
To be accepted, referees must have achieved acceptable grades in domestic matches and must pass FIFA-approved fitness and medical tests. They cannot hold an official position at any soccer club. Successful candidates get to wear a FIFA crest on their shirt.
In 2010, Chaibou was hired for matches in South Africa, Bahrain, Bolivia and Ecuador and small tournaments played in Egypt.
Many of them were organized by Wilson Raj Perumal, who has been convicted of match-fixing in Finland for Asian crime syndicates, and wrote about the fixes in a series of jailhouse letters to a Singaporean journalist in which he linked Chaibou to suspicious matches in South America. After serving his sentence and being released, Perumal has been helping law enforcement authorities in Hungary and Italy uncover rigged games. He has given testimony that is considered a major breakthrough in uncovering match-fixing in Europe.
Perumal's company hired Chaibou to officiate at two games in 2010 ? South Africa-Guatemala and Bahrain-Togo. The first was investigated by FIFA and the South African soccer federation; the second involved a team of impostors. Eaton said that when Perumal was arrested in Finland in February 2011, he had Chaibou's number on his phone.
Chaibou also officiated two other games in South America ? Bolivia-Venezuela and Ecuador-Venezuela ? in October and November 2010, respectively, according to documents provided by FIFA. Both of those matches raised flags with betting monitors, according to confidential betting reports. In a letter written from jail, Perumal claimed the Bolivia match was "sold to an investor in China" ? a euphemism for Asian crime gangs.
In Ecuador, the home team won 4-1, helped by penalties scored by both teams that were "similarly questionable," according to a confidential betting monitoring report.
When asked by the AP whether he knew Perumal, Chaibou became combative.
"You already asked me this question last time. I told you I don't know him. I don't know him!" he said, his voice rising. "I told you I don't know these people."
In two previous calls to Chaibou, AP had not mentioned the name.
___
In 2010, Bahrain's soccer federation hired Perumal to arrange an exhibition match between its national team and that of Togo.
But when the match was played in the Bahraini capital of Manama in September of that year, the rag-tag team from Togo contained none of the players from its national squad. Its coach was not that of the Togolese team, but rather Tchanile Bana, who was serving a two-year ban by Togo for a previous soccer scam.
Bahrain won 3-0, but its coach still complained angrily after the game; the score would have been even more lopsided if officials had not nullified several Bahraini goals on offside calls.?
The referee was Chaibou.
From his prison cell in Finland, Perumal wrote to a Singaporean journalist that "Ibrahim Chaibo (sic) was put in charge of this match to keep the score as low as possible."
Perumal said he wagered "against the current" of other Singapore bettors who knew about his ties to the Togo game and who put down money on the Africans losing by a lot.
Chaibou denied that anyone influenced the match: "These are refereeing decisions. That's all."
Asked whether Perumal had dictated the outcome, Chaibou hung up.
He did not answer further calls from the AP.
FIFA did not investigate because there was no formal complaint by either national federation about the match, which has become notorious in the soccer world for hurting the image of international exhibitions.
___
Two weeks before the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Chaibou refereed another game that caught the eye of journalists as well as betting monitors, who watch information from 300 betting agencies.
The South African Football Association had hired the Football4U agency, later linked to Perumal, to arrange a string of exhibitions, including a May 31 match against Guatemala. Chaibou was the referee.
The monitoring systems noted suspiciously strong pre-match backing for a South African victory, despite the fact the team was resting several regulars, and for at least three goals to be scored in the game, according to a confidential monitoring report.
South Africa won 5-0, with two of the goals coming from the three handball penalties awarded by Chaibou. The first was called on defender Gustavo Cabrera, who replays showed was clearly standing outside the penalty area. Guatemala was awarded a penalty in the 50th minute when South Africa defender Lucas Thwala blocked a shot with his chest; the South African goalkeeper made the save on the ensuing penalty kick. Chaibou gave South Africa another penalty kick four minutes later, and the team scored.
The South African Football Association immediately became suspicious and dropped all of Perumal's referees, canceling Chaibou's plans to officiate its next game against Denmark.
Chaibou denied that anyone had pressured him to influence the outcome of the match.
On Dec. 15, 2012, the South African Football Association announced that a FIFA report found "compelling evidence" that one or more of its games was fixed in 2010. It said referees hired by Perumal were thought to have manipulated its exhibition games before the World Cup for betting purposes, adding that no players were thought to have been involved. It did not name the referees. It has not imposed sanctions but the investigation continues.
Eaton, who has since joined the Qatari-funded International Centre for Sport Security, said he will continue to investigate Chaibou. It is his responsibility, he said, "to protect all sport from the influence of criminals infiltrating sport and corrupting individuals within sport."
"The allegations against referee Chaibou mean he is a person of interest to the ICSS Integrity Unit and its investigators," Eaton said.
Chaibou insists he has never fixed a match.
"It's got nothing to do with me," he said. "I refereed my matches and went home peacefully. End of story."
___
Sports Writer John Leicester in Paris and Assistant Europe Editor Sheila Norman-Culp in London contributed to this story.
___
Follow Graham Dunbar on Twitter at gdunbarap(at)twitter.com
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