China urges EU to reach debt deal without delay (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China urged the European Union on Monday to deal with its debt crisis as soon as possible and prevent contagion from spreading, as the country's number four-ranked leader arrived for a visit of the continent, including Greece.

"We hope that the EU countries concerned will reach a comprehensive settlement plan as soon as possible and adopt effective measures to ease the euro debt crisis and prevent the crisis from spreading further," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters.

"China is confident that the EU has the ability and wisdom to overcome these straits. We have always provided what help we can to the countries concerned via bilateral and multilateral channels."

At a summit on Sunday, European Union leaders neared agreement on bank recapitalization and discussed how to leverage up the 440 billion euro ($600 billion) European Financial Stability Facility crisis fund to stave off bond market contagion.

Sharp differences remain, however, over the size of losses private holders of Greek government bonds will have to accept and how to scale up the EFSF without EU governments contributing more capital themselves. Final decisions were deferred until a second summit on Wednesday.

The mostly likely method for leveraging the euro zone's bailout fund involves using it to provide bond insurance while combining its firepower with a special purpose vehicle (SPV) drawing in cash from China or Brazil, EU officials said.

Jiang declined to comment on that idea, saying her ministry was not the appropriate agency to answer such a question.

"In principle, we support the efforts of the EU countries concerned in addressing this crisis," she said.

Quite why China would choose to fund an SPV scheme that guaranteed to take losses in the event of a debt restructuring or default in the euro zone left some investment bank economists puzzled.

China already has an estimated 600 billion euro exposure to euro zone debt, courtesy of the 25 percent or so of its $3.2 trillion of foreign exchange reserves that analysts believe to be invested in euro-denominated assets.

STRUCTURE KEY TO FRESH FUNDING

"As for whether China will continue to buy European debt really depends on what types of debt are on offer -- for countries that have been hit hard by the debt crisis, the risk is probably too high," said He Fan, an economist at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a top government think-tank.

"But we could do it under a multi-lateral framework; for example, we lend money to the IMF and let the IMF buy European debt. Bonds linked to the EFSF are safe but probably we haven't bought much because their yields are too low."

However a substantial investment in a new SPV, even via an entity backed by the International Monetary Fund, appears to some analysts an expensive way of insuring that exposure.

Tens of billions of euros would be required to give the EFSF the 1 trillion euro-plus firepower that economists say is needed at a minimum to safeguard the euro zone financial system.

Meanwhile there were precious few details emerging from Europe as to how any SPV might be structured.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Europe on Friday to stop its debt crisis from spreading across the bloc, warning that fundamental reforms were needed to staunch the euro zone's troubles, in comments made after the two sides postponed an annual summit.

Jia Qinglin, who heads a largely ceremonial advisory body to China's parliament and is the Communist Party's fourth-ranked leader, will repeat offers of support for and confidence in Europe during a visit this week that also includes heavily indebted Greece, state news agency Xinhua said.

Jia will "reiterate China's confidence in Europe's ability to cure the current financial malaise as well as Beijing's willingness to assist the debt-ridden continent in grappling with the challenge," Xinhua said in a commentary.

Jia will also go to the Netherlands and Germany.

China's relative lack of options on where to store its vast reserve of foreign exchange wealth give it strong reasons to press Europe to surmount divisions, contain the debt crisis and thereby protect Beijing's stake in its biggest trade partner.

The euro bloc's crisis has already taken a toll on Chinese exports, which grew at their slowest pace in seven months in September. Exports were a net drag on China's economic growth in the first nine months of this year.

China's top leaders have voiced regular support for European efforts to solve the debt crisis, though many analysts now say there are better ways for China to support Europe and its own economy than simply buying up high risk debt from euro zone governments struggling to stay solvent.

"Premier Wen Jiabao has always said China will help Europe tide over the current difficulties," said Lin Tun, an economist at China International Capital Corp, China's top investment bank.

"I don't think buying bonds is the only and best option for China at all. There are plenty of physical assets and other high-quality assets in Europe."

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Edwards and Ken Wills)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111024/bs_nm/us_greece_china

john galliano afi elk elk mol obama speech elizabeth taylor

Bransons, space tourists anxious for maiden flight

Few people know British billionaire Richard Branson better than his mother. After all, some say she instilled in him much of his resourcefulness and thirst for adventure.

From flying around the world in a balloon to swimming with sharks, the 87-year-old Eve Branson says her baby ? as she calls him ? has been in plenty of difficult and dangerous situations. All of his adventures have turned out fine, and she expects it will be no different with his efforts to get paying customers to the edge of the Earth on his Virgin Galactic spaceline.

"Everything he does is usually done pretty thoroughly," she says. "He tries very hard, my little baby."

Eve Branson acknowledges that her family is anxious to see the day when the first mothership and rocket take off from Virgin Galactic's remote desert base at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. But this adventure goes way beyond Richard Branson and his usual stuntman antics.

The aim, the daring businessman says, is to one day make traveling to space safe and affordable for the masses, not just those who can afford a $200,000 ticket.

While some might think the venture is dangerous, the thoroughness Branson's mother brags about has left hundreds of prospective space tourists with no second thoughts about flying with Virgin Galactic. More than 450 people from 46 different countries have already plunked down deposits.

Related: Space tourism poised to take off in next two years

The futuristic Spaceport America and the nearly 2-mile (3-kilometer) concrete runway are complete, and the spacecraft being developed for Virgin Galactic are done. All that's lacking are more rocket tests and powered test flights.

Branson said in an interview following Monday's dedication ceremony at Spaceport America that he expects enough tests to be done by Christmas 2012 so commercial flights can begin soon after. He and his children plan to be among the first to fly.

The hard part is waiting.

But Branson didn't waste an opportunity during his visit to share his excitement with some 150 space tourists.

  1. Don't miss these Travel stories

    1. Sport divers go deep for trinkets and treasure

      The recent discovery of a sunken British steam ship with 20 tons of silver might be a once-in-a-lifetime find. For recreational divers, though, there?s still plenty of treasure to hunt.

    2. Airline ancillary revenues expected to soar
    3. World's most entrancing islands
    4. Plane diverted over screaming passenger
    5. The best new attractions in Las Vegas

"Are you all pinching yourselves? Because I know I am," he told them while inside the spacious hangar.

Cosmic Log: Curacao takes another step toward space tourism

Sonja Rohde of Hagen, Germany, was among those listening. She was one of the first 100 people to sign up after bumping into Branson while on safari in Africa and learning about his plan.

Rohde, who is in her early 30s, had dreamed of becoming an astronaut when she was young. The more practical desires of her parents won out, but she didn't give up the dream of one day making it to space.

"I saw a documentary that said space travel would be possible for private individuals from 2050 on. I said 'OK, I'll do it even as a toothless grandmother, but I will do it,'" she said.

She met Branson in 2005, as he and New Mexico officials were negotiating details of the spaceport venture. It was then she realized that becoming the first German woman to reach space could happen a lot sooner.

Rohde said it was a magical moment ? the right time, the right place and a chance meeting with the right person.

Related: Space tourism dreams are fading as the years pass by

Now, she says it's like waiting for Christmas.

"You can hardly wait to finally take off," she said.

Rohde has attended every milestone since Virgin Galactic began its venture. She has also done some weightlessness training and has grand visions of what it will be like when she's finally aboard SpaceShipTwo.

G-forces pressing her into the seat. The sensation of traveling at four times the speed of sound. The sky changing from light to dark blue to purple and then finally black.

"I think it will fulfill everything I envision in a perfect space adventure because we will be able to see 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers) in every direction," she said. "I think it will be overwhelming and breathtaking to see our fragile Earth from above, and I think it will provide a deeper appreciation, a deeper understanding of the Earth."

The prospect of suborbital flights and someday traveling further into space also holds promise for New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez, who made her first visit to the spaceport for the dedication since taking office in January.

Martinez spoke to all the spaceport's practical benefits ? jobs, educational opportunities for New Mexico students, international recognition and partnerships that could spur more economic development.

But seeing Virgin Galactic's mothership WhiteKnightTwo taxi down the runway, lift off and fly over the spaceport as the moon was overhead evoked something more for the governor.

"I might have to add it to my bucket list," she said, noting later that it would have to become more affordable.

Branson boasted this week that it will be at least five years before Virgin Galactic has serious rivals in the commercial space tourism race. Until then, he might have to continue pinching himself.

"The aim is not just to make dreams come true for the people who can afford $200,000," he said. "The aim is make dreams come true for hundreds of thousands of people. ... That's a dream I think that we will make a reality one day."

When Branson first proposed the spaceline, his mother's response was, "Oh God, here we go again."

Standing on the tarmac with the spaceport looming large behind her and Virgin Galactic's sleek spacecraft sitting to the side, she said she never dreamed it would get to this point.

"We are making a little bit of history, aren't we? It's wonderful," she said. "We can't wish for any more, really."

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45002983/ns/travel-destination_travel/

google buzz trace cyrus hilary duff pregnant hilary duff pregnant psat psat brenda song

Pujols hits 3 homers, Cards cruise in Game 3

Slugger hits 3 mammoth HRs in 16-7 win; St. Louis takes 2-1 World Series lead

Image: Albert PujolsAP

Albert Pujols hits a three-run home run during the sixth inning on Saturday. He followed with a two-run shot in the seventh inning.

updated 3:22 a.m. ET Oct. 23, 2011

ARLINGTON, Texas - Albert Pujols began the game hoping to shake his slump and maybe get a hit.

He did that, and a whole lot more: He produced the defining game of his monster career, and perhaps the greatest hitting performance in World Series history.

Pujols launched three long homers, drove in six runs and finished with five hits ? tying Series records with each accomplishment ? as the St. Louis Cardinals romped past the Texas Rangers 16-7 on Saturday night for a 2-1 edge.

"Just pretty special," he said.

The three-time NL MVP matched Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson for the most home runs in a game, connecting on fastballs from three different pitchers. Pujols added two singles and set a Series mark with 14 total bases.

"Hopefully, at the end of my career, I can look back and say, 'Wow, what a game it was in Game 3 in 2011," Pujols said.

And to think, his night began with a groundout that left him 0 for 7 against Texas

"I mean, with Babe and Reggie, that's pretty good company right there," Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said.

The outburst by Pujols came a day after he was barbed by the media for not sticking around to talk about a Game 2 error and loss. This time, everyone was talking about him.

"When the opportunity presents itself to put him on the bag, I'm not going to let him swing the bat," Texas manager Ron Washington said. "But tonight, we just couldn't get the ball out of the middle of the plate and up, and he just didn't miss.

"I saw him on TV but I'll tell you, tonight was something special."

The Cardinals mashed their way to the highest-scoring game in their storied postseason history, breaking away after first base umpire Ron Kulpa's admitted blown call.

After two taut games in St. Louis, this suddenly turned into a messy slugfest. Pujols, the most feared slugger in the majors, was right in the middle ? he became the first player in Series history to get hits in four straight innings.

So much for any worries about Pujols making a dent.

"I was hitting the ball hard, but I wasn't getting any hits," he said. "But all it takes is one good game. I got five hits, what are they going to say about it?"

Texas fans booed after Kulpa's miss helped the Cardinals score four times in the fourth for a 5-0 lead. The crowd at Rangers Ballpark went silent when Pujols started swinging for the fences, and beyond. His three-run shot in the sixth rattled the windows of the club level high above left field.

Game 4 is Sunday night, with Derek Holland starting for the Rangers against Edwin Jackson. It will be the back half of a St. Louis-Texas style doubleheader ? earlier in the day, the Rams play the Dallas Cowboys right across the parking lot.

This game had an NFL score, too. The teams combined for 23 runs and 28 hits ? at Busch Stadium, they teamed for eight runs and 23 hits in two games.

"You leave a ball up in this park it's going to carry a little more than it does in St. Louis," Pujols said.

Pujols joined Ruth, who hit three homers in games against the Cardinals in 1926 and 1928, and Jackson's three-homer show against the Dodgers in 1977.

"It's an honor to be named in the same category as those guys," Pujols said.

Pujols' six RBIs matched Bobby Richardson in 1960 and Hideki Matsui in 2009. He tied the Series mark for hits in a game set by Paul Molitor in 1982.

Good-luck charm Allen Craig homered for St. Louis and Yadier Molina drove in four runs. The Cardinals broke it open by scoring four times in the fourth, three more in the fifth and four in the sixth.

Adrian Beltre kept delivering for Texas, getting four hits. Nelson Cruz hit his seventh homer of the postseason and Michael Young also connected for the Rangers. But after Ian Kinsler popped up with the bases loaded to end the fifth with Texas trailing 8-6, the Cardinals pulled away.

Pujols, however, showed exactly why he is the most prized free agent of all going into this winter.

The big slugger connected off Alexi Ogando in the sixth, hit a two-run drive to left-center off Michael Gonzalez in the seventh and tagged Darren Oliver for a solo shot to left-center with two outs in the ninth.

"When Pujols is at the plate, that's the first time he did damage. We fought back pretty good, the next thing you know he's up there batting with guys on base and brings them in," Oliver said. "That's what he does. That's why he's the hitter he is."

By the end, Rangers president Nolan Ryan was rubbing his forehead and it was hard to keep track of all the hits. Balls were rolling into the corners, sailing over the fence and going most everywhere.

In the seventh, a fan wearing a Rangers shirt threw a Wiffle ball toward St. Louis left fielder Matt Holliday as he was preparing to catch a routine fly. The Rangers said the young man and his friend were ejected.

Early in the game, it appeared Kulpa's call would be the focal point.

The Cardinals led 1-0 when Pujols led off the fourth with a single. Holliday followed with a perfect double-play ball, but was ruled safe by Kulpa at first. Replays clearly show part-time first baseman Mike Napoli caught second baseman Kinsler's high toss and slapped a tag on Holliday before he reached the bag.

Kulpa said he thought Holliday beat the tag. The Rangers argued, to no avail.

"Well, he missed the play and I knew he missed the play when I went out there," Washington said.

After the game, the umpire issued a mea Kulpa.

"I saw a replay when I walked off the field, and the tag was applied before his foot hit the bag," he said.

The Cardinals quickly scored four times, helped when Napoli threw wide to the plate for an error that let two runs cross. Texas fans booed as replays of the bad call circulated ? they won't be happy to learn, either, that Kulpa was born, raised and lives in the St. Louis area.

"Has nothing to do with it," Kulpa said.

For the Cardinals, perhaps it was a little evening up, albeit many years later. The call came four days before the anniversary of umpire Don Denkinger's missed call at first base in the 1985 World Series that severely cost St. Louis.

Starters Kyle Lohse of St. Louis and Matt Harrison were both pulled in the fourth inning. Soon after, it was clear that no pitchers were going to be too effective.

Lance Lynn earned the win with 2 1-3 innings of relief and Harrison took the loss.

Notes: La Russa earned his 68th postseason victory. He moved ahead of Bobby Cox into second place. Joe Torre leads with 84. ... Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki threw out the first ball. The 7-foot Nowitzki fired a fastball from the mound that Young scooped. There has never been a 7-foot major leaguer, though 7-1 pitcher Loek Van Mil is in the Angels' system.

? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


advertisement

More news
A night for the ages

DeMarco: Even after the single-greatest one-man offensive show in World Series history, Albert Pujols didn't want to talk about himself. But there's no escaping the series-changing nature of the Cardinals' 16-7 win in the pivotal Game 3 in the Rangers' back yard. And Pujols led the assault.

Pujols hits 3 homers, Cards cruise in Game 3

Albert Pujols joined Babe Ruth and Reggie Jackson as the only players to hit three home runs in a World Series game, tying records with five hits and six RBIs that led the Cardinals to a 16-7 rout of the Texas Rangers on Saturday night that gave St. Louis a 2-1 Series lead.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/44996960/ns/sports-baseball/

apple juice apple juice brad pitt brad pitt us constitution us constitution articles of confederation

David Arquette: Mr. Generosity Behind The Scenes At 'Dancing With The Stars' (omg!)

The $2.5 Million Bra jkucsak - OMG Now - 9 hours ago

Miranda Kerr unveiled the $2.5 million Victoria's Secret Fantasy Treasure Bra on Wednesday, which the Australian model will be wearing in the lingerie maker's fashion?? More??The $2.5 Million Bra

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/entertainment/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/omg_rss/rss_omg_en/http___omg_yahoo_com_news75114/43335125/*http%3A//omg.yahoo.com/news/david-arquette-mr-generosity-behind-the-scenes-at-dancing-with-the-stars/75114

law and order svu camaro zl1 bob sanders evan longoria janeane garofalo janeane garofalo neil degrasse tyson

Mom shielding kids is shot dead outside school

A gunman opened fire on a street as students were let out of school Friday afternoon, killing one parent who had tried to shield children from harm and injuring an 11-year-old girl and another parent, police and school officials said.

  1. Only on msnbc.com

    1. 'Occupy' protesters find allies among the wealthy
    2. Public display of fallen leaders' bodies a tradition
    3. Republicans criticize Obama over Iraq withdrawal
    4. Rapture hype (and humor) resurrected
    5. Dating after diagnosis: Love in the time of chemotherapy
    6. Live vote: Was Iraq war worth?human, financial cost?
    7. Flooded Thailand races to rescue pets, loose crocs

The shooting happened at about 2:30 p.m. Police told The New York Times that a man fired at least a dozen shots with an automatic pistol onto Watkins Street from the top of a five-story building on Pitkin Avenue.

A 34-year-old woman, Zurana Horton, who had hovered over students to protect them as shots were fired, was struck in the face and chest and was pronounced dead at the scene. A 31-year-old woman was hit in an arm and the chest and was hospitalized.

The 11-year-old girl, a sixth-grader at the Brooklyn school, injured one of her arms and had a graze wound on her cheek.

The girl's mother told NBC New York that "her face is opened up and she's scared to death. She's only a little girl."

The child's aunt said "somebody has died, my niece could have died, and another woman along with that could have died."

The family pleaded for people to come forward if they have information about the shooters.

The victims were not related, police said.

The two women and several children were outside the Peanut Lucky Supermarket, the Times said, diagonally across the street from the back of the elementary school when the gunshots rang out.

Horton ?was seen moments before she was shot, hovering over several children to protect them as the shots were fired,? police spokesman Paul J. Browne told the Times. ?She probably saved lives.?

Seven shell casings from a 9mm semi-automatic pistol were found on the nearby rooftop. Five other shell casings were found on the sidewalk in the front of that building, police said.

Three men were seen fleeing the scene, and police were questioning at least one person.

Police offered a $12,000 reward for information in the case, Browne said.

He told the Times that police believe the shooting was related to a fight between at least two groups of teenagers on the street who were ?throwing things at each other.?

The school's neighborhood, Brownsville, is in southeastern Brooklyn and is among the most crime-plagued in the city. It's also where tens of thousands of people, mostly black and Hispanic men, are stopped, questioned and frisked annually by police. Critics say the men are being unfairly targeted, and only about 10 percent of stops city-wide result in arrest.

Police say the tactic is a necessary crime-fighting tool that helps get illegal guns off the streets.

"Police conduct stops of individuals evincing suspicious behavior in areas where shootings occur in order to prevent, or at least lower, the frequency of tragedies like the one in Brownsville today," Browne said.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44995919/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

hennessy lymphoma cancer glenn beck cacao cacao spartacus blood and sand starz

Researchers trace evolution of diversity in Hawaiian Honeycreepers

ScienceDaily (Oct. 20, 2011) ? An international team of scientists has determined the evolutionary family tree for one of the most strikingly diverse and endangered bird families in the world, the Hawaiian honeycreepers.

Using one of the largest DNA datasets for a group of birds and employing next-generation sequencing methods, the team which included Professor Michi Hofreiter, of the University of York, determined the types of finches from which the honeycreeper family originally evolved, and linked the timing of that rapid evolution to the formation of the four main Hawaiian Islands.

The research, which will be published in the latest edition of Current Biology on 8 November, also involved scientists from the Smithsonian Institution and Earlham College in the USA and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

There were once more than 50 species of these colourful songbirds that were so diverse that historically it was unclear that they were all part of the same group.

Professor Hofreiter, of the Department of Biology at the University of York, said: "Honeycreepers probably represent the most impressive example of an adaptive radiation in vertebrates that has led to a number of beak shapes unique among birds. In our study we are, for the first time, able to resolve the relationships of the species within this group and thereby understand their evolution."

Heather Lerner, an assistant professor of biology at Earlham College, added: "Some eat seeds, some eat fruit, some eat snails, some eat nectar. Some have the bills of parrots, others of warblers, while some are finch-like and others have straight, thin bills. So the question that we started with was how did this incredible diversity evolve over time?"

The answer is unique to the Hawaiian Islands, which are part of a conveyor belt of island formation due to volcanic activity, with new islands popping up as the conveyor belt moves northwest. Each island that forms represents a blank slate for evolution, so as one honeycreeper species moves from one island to a new island, those birds encounter new habitat and ecological niches that may cause them to adapt and branch off into distinct species. The researchers examined the evolution of the Hawaiian honeycreepers after the formation of Kauai-Niihau, Oahu, Maui-Nui and Hawaii. The largest burst of evolution into new species, called a radiation, occurred between 4 million and 2.5 million years ago, after Kauaii-Niihua Oahu formed but before the remaining two large islands existed, and resulted in the evolution of six of 10 distinct types of species.

Co-author Helen James, a research zoologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History "This radiation is one of the natural scientific treasures that the archipelago offers out in the middle of the Pacific. It was fascinating to be able to tie a biological system to geological formation and allowed us to become the first to offer a full picture of these birds' adaptive history."

Using genetic data from 28 bird species that seemed similar to the honeycreepers morphologically, genetically or that shared geographic proximity, the researchers determined that the various honeycreeper species evolved from Eurasian rosefinches. Unlike most other ancestral bird species that came from North America and colonized the Hawaiian Islands, the rosefinch likely came from Asia, the scientists found.

Rob Fleischer, head of Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute's Center for Conservation and Evolutionary Genetics said: "There is a perception that there are no species remaining that are actually native to Hawaii, but these are truly native birds that are scientifically valuable and play an important and unique ecological function. I'm thrilled that we finally had enough DNA sequence and the necessary technology to become the first to produce this accurate and reliable evolutionary tree."

The diversity of Hawaiian honeycreepers has taken a huge hit, with more than half of the known 56 species already extinct. The researchers focused on the 18 surviving honeycreeper species but of those, six are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, four are considered endangered and five are vulnerable.

Professor Hofreiter said: "It is a tragedy that most species from this unique group of birds, one of the best examples of the power of natural selection we have on earth, are extinct or on the brink of extinction. We still have time to take actions to conserve the diversity that is left."

The next, step in the research is to use museum specimens and subfossil bones to determine where the extinct species fit into the evolutionary family tree, or phylogeny, to see if the new lineages fit into the overall pattern found in the current study. DNA analysis for the current study used specialized protocols developed by Professor Hofreiter and colleagues at the Max Planck Institute.

Recommend this story on Facebook, Twitter,
and Google +1:

Other bookmarking and sharing tools:


Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of York.

Note: ScienceDaily reserves the right to edit materials for content and length. For original reprint permissions, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Heather R.L. Lerner, Matthias Meyer, Helen F. James, Michael Hofreiter, Robert C. Fleischer. Multilocus Resolution of Phylogeny and Timescale in the Extant Adaptive Radiation of Hawaiian Honeycreepers. Current Biology, 2011 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2011.09.039

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

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

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/10/111020122158.htm

hawaii five o don t ask don t tell repeal michelle le steve o greg giraldo greg giraldo dancing with the stars

Ninjas Do Not Fight Fair [Video]

Ninjas are cunning foes. The purpose of the ninja is to flip out and kill people. Foolish Canadians learned this valuable lesson after challenging one ninja and being ambushed by scores of the deadly assassins. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/lntjnDcZbQE/ninjas-do-not-fight-fair

dexter season 6 ben roethlisberger homeland homeland andy rooney 60 minutes andre johnson andre johnson

Documents: Ohio exotics farm barely secured cages (AP)

ZANESVILLE, Ohio ? Authorities found numerous problems with conditions at a wild animal owner's property over the years, including big cats kept in cages without locks, a black leopard in a basement, lion and bear cubs housed in the same pen and a lion running loose, according to documents released Friday.

Several neighbors also complained over the years that Terry Thompson's horses regularly got out from the property where the wild animals were kept, and that he and his wife were starving bison and cattle they kept on a farm on the other side of town, the documents show.

Ohio has some of the nation's weakest restrictions on exotic pets, and authorities decided not to take Thompson's animals because there were no serious health problems.

Thompson, 62, freed dozens of lions, tigers, bears and other animals Tuesday, then committed suicide, triggering a big-game hunt in the Ohio countryside as police officers shot and killed 49 of the animals for fear they would harm humans.

Authorities and animal experts went to the farm three years ago during a cruelty to animals investigation and found that some of the cages weren't padlocked and were secured with plastic ties, according to the records released by the Muskingum County Sheriff's office.

They also thought the fences were low enough to allow the animals to get out.

Authorities in 2008 found animal pens scattered on the patio and driveway and several others inside the garage and basement. They had a black panther in the basement and two tigers and two lion cubs in the garage.

On a patio next to the Thompson's pool, two lion cubs and one black bear cub were housed in the same pen.

Terry Thompson's wife, Marian, was quoted in the records released Friday telling detectives that they took in the animals because no one else wanted them. She also said she was trying to end the practice.

"I'm going to put a stop to bringing in all these animals. I'm telling Terry, `No more,'" she said in a report filed April 13, 2005.

Authorities told the couple to fix the cages or they would get a court order forcing the changes.

In one 2005 complaint, a neighbor said horses from Thompson's property walked to her car, "and started licking the vehicle to get water from the rain."

Thompson's estranged sister, Polly Thompson, says her brother was likely overwhelmed financially when he committed suicide.

Terry Thompson had just returned to the property after a year in federal prison on possessing unregistered weapons charges.

Court records show that the Thompsons owed at least $68,000 in unpaid taxes to the IRS and the county, and he had two federal tax liens filed against him last year.

"I can just see him standing on that hill looking at every animal, thinking, 'How am I going to do this?'" Polly Thompson, 56, told the AP late Thursday.

"And I'm sure he thought, `Nobody wants me,'" she said.

Polly Thompson said her brother threw himself into any activity he undertook and it was no different when he began collecting wild animals about 15 years ago. His first animal was a lion cub named Simba, she said.

Her brother summed up his philosophy in a frequently quoted line, she said: "We're not here for a long time, just a good time."

Her brother got by financially on proceeds from a motorcycle business he sold, sales of horse trailers and other equipment and a small family inheritance. He was also a pilot who occasionally flew chartered planes for businesses.

Thompson reluctantly testified against her brother about five years ago when he was charged with starving bison and cattle kept at their parents' farm near Zanesville.

"Anybody that has animals should take care of them," she said in an interview at her home on 10 acres on the outskirts of Zanesville.

"I don't care who you are, if you can't take care of them, it's not right, you shouldn't have them," she said. "Who wants to testify against their brother?"

Deputies killed 48 animals ? including 18 rare Bengal tigers, 17 lions and eight bears ? in a hunt across the Ohio countryside that lasted nearly 24 hours and that has been criticized by some who say the animals should have been saved. Only a monkey was still missing, and it was probably killed by one of the big cats, the county sheriff says.

___

Seewer reported from Columbus. Associated Press writers Doug Whiteman and Ann Sanner in Columbus also contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111021/ap_on_re_us/us_exotic_animals_loose

fiji fiji ruby tuesday aliens lil kim michael j fox seattle times