but not diplomatic relations with the country.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has closed its embassy in the Central African Republic and ordered the ambassador and his diplomatic team to leave the country as rebels there continue to advance and violence escalates, U.S. officials said Thursday.

A Pentagon spokesman, Lt. Col. Todd Breasseale, said that at the State Department's request, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta had directed U.S. Africa Command to evacuate U.S. citizens and designated foreign nationals from the U.S. Embassy in Bangui "to safe havens in the region."

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. Embassy had temporarily suspended operations, but not diplomatic relations with the country.

"This decision is solely due to concerns about the security of our personnel and has no relation to our continuing and long-standing diplomatic relations" with the Central African Republic, Ventrell said in a statement.

Shortly after announcing the evacuation Thursday, the State Department warned U.S. citizens against travel to the Central African Republic, saying it could not "provide protection or routine consular services to U.S. citizens" and urging Americans who have decided to stay to "review their personal security situation and seriously consider departing" on commercial flights. Four days earlier, the State Department had issued a warning recommending against travel to the country and authorizing its non-emergency personnel in Bangui to leave.

U.S. officials said about 40 people were evacuated on an U.S. Air Force plane bound for Kenya. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the details of the operation.

The departure of Ambassador Laurence Wohlers and his staff comes as the president of the Central African Republic on Thursday urgently called on France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching this capital city, but French officials declined to offer any military assistance.

Rebels have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north, and residents in the capital of 600,000 people fear insurgents could attack at any time.

The developments suggest the Central African Republic could be on the brink of another violent change in government, something not new to the impoverished country. The current president, Francois Bozize, himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion.

Speaking to crowds in Bangui, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France, Central African Republic's former colonial ruler.

About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday that France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize's government. Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels.

President Barack Obama late last year sent about 100 U.S. special operations forces to the region — including Central African Republic — to assist in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of the notorious Lord's Resistance Army. Forces have been hunting the elusive warlord in Central African Republic, South Sudan and Congo.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://bangui.usembassy.gov/service.html

health and technology news.

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During the last decade, researchers have labored intensively to find new methods to photograph the complex networks of nerve cells that make up the brain and spinal cord, an attempt to overcome the severe limitations of earlier imaging technologies. The emerging science of connectomics, intended to map such connections, will be made possible by deploying these techniques.

In 2007, Jeff Lichtman, Joshua Sanes and colleagues at Harvard University came up with one of the most notable examples of the new brain-cell imaging methods. Brainbow lights up neurons in about 100 different hues, enabling a precise tracking of neural circuitry and synapses, the gaps between brain cells.

>>View the Neural Pointillism Slide Show

Scientists engineer a mouse or another model animal with a gene that randomly causes each neuron to express differing amounts of a red, green or blue fluorescent protein, producing a palette of varying pastel-like colors. Slices of tissue are photographed and recombined to produce detailed imagery of the brain’s structural topography. (The original discovery of what is called green fluorescent protein by Martin Chalfie, Osamu Shinomura and Roger Y. Tsien, from which these new multi-colored fluorescent proteins are derived, was awarded the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.)

Follow Scientific American on Twitter @SciAm and @SciamBlogs.

Visit ScientificAmerican.com for the latest in science, health and technology news.

© 2012 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.

not right now."

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(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)

Following talks with congressional leaders that yielded no news of  a "fiscal cliff" agreement, President Barack Obama on Friday evening pressured lawmakers to reach a deal this weekend as the public's patience wears thin.

"America wonders why it is that in this town for some reason they can't get stuff done in an organized timetable, why everything always has to wait for the last minute," Obama said during a statement delivered in the White House briefing room. "The American people are not going to have any patience for a politically self-inflicted wound to our economy, not right now."

The president confirmed that following his Friday afternoon meeting with congressional leaders, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have been tasked to reach an agreement to reduce the deficit and avoid the "fiscal cliff"—automatic spending cuts and tax increases set to go into effect Jan. 1.

But in the absence of a deal, Obama said he will "urge" Reid to "bring to the floor a basic package for an up-or-down vote" that would increase taxes on households earning more than $250,000, extend unemployment insurance and disarm a sequestration—provisions the president has supported.

But Republicans have been rejecting any tax increases, even for the wealthiest earners.

"If members of the House or Senate want to vote 'no,' they can," Obama said of his plan. "But we should let everybody vote. That's the way this is supposed to work."

The president referred to Friday's meeting, which also included House Speaker John Boehner, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, as "good and constructive" and said he remained "modestly optimistic" about Congress' ability to reach a deal.

But he blamed Congress for the 11th-hour holdup.

"The economy is growing, but sustaining that trend is going to require elected officials to do their jobs," Obama said.

No details on the proposals offered Friday were released by the White House or the lawmakers present.

According to a readout from the speaker's office, Boehner began the meeting by reminding those gathered "that the House has already acted to avert the entire fiscal cliff and is awaiting Senate action." Plan options were discussed and the speaker said the House will consider Senate-amended, House-passed legislation.

Following the meeting, McConnell said on the Senate floor that he was "hopeful and optimistic" about a deal.

"We had a good meeting down at the White House. We are engaged in discussions—the majority leader and myself and the White House—in the hopes that we can come forward as early as Sunday and have a recommendation that I can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference," McConnell said. "And so we’ll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours."

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NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. (AP) — Police investigating the week-old disappearance of a 10-year-old Las Vegas girl said Thursday they think they found the child's body in an undeveloped housing tract in North Las Vegas.

Authorities couldn't immediately confirm the body was Jade Morris pending positive identification and notification of family members by the Clark County coroner, Las Vegas police homicide Capt. Chris Jones said.

But, "I can tell you that the likelihood is that this is our victim," Jones said.

He also said that the body belongs to a black girl.

Coroner Michael Murphy said he did not expect positive identification until Friday.

Jade was last seen by her family at about 5 p.m. Dec. 21 when Brenda Stokes picked her up for a shopping outing, police said. Police said Stokes was a trusted friend of the girl's father, and family members have told reporters that the two dated for several years.

Stokes, who also uses the name Brenda Wilson, was later arrested after she was accused of slashing a co-worker with razor blades at the Bellagio resort casino.

Stokes, 50, is now in jail and Jones said she has not cooperated in the investigation about the girl's whereabouts.

A passer-by called 911 about noon Thursday, and North Las Vegas police found a girl's body in unkempt brush near palm trees in a small traffic circle near Dorrell Lane and North 5th Street.

The location is a short distance from the northern 215 Beltway and about 10 miles from the downtown Las Vegas outlet mall off Interstate 15 where Stokes was to have taken the girl shopping.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach family members on Thursday were unsuccessful.

Stokes picked up the girl about 5 p.m., and two hours later returned to another friend the red 2007 Saab sedan that she borrowed for the shopping trip, Jones said.

Later, Stokes got a ride with a friend to the Bellagio resort on the Las Vegas Strip, where she was arrested after allegedly attacking a female co-worker, Joyce Rhone, with a razor in each hand as Rhone dealt blackjack about 9:30 p.m.

Rhone, 44, was hospitalized with deep cuts on her face, including one from her ear to the edge of her mouth. A police arrest report said Rhone also had several smaller cuts around her right eye.

Records show that Stokes was being held Thursday on $60,000 bail at the Clark County jail on felony battery with a weapon, burglary and mayhem charges that could get her decades in prison.

She told a judge Wednesday that she had not obtained a lawyer. She was due again in Las Vegas Justice Court on Friday.

The arrest report says casino video shows Stokes attacking Rhone before a casino patron and security officers intervene. Officer Marcus Martin said the video is evidence that may be shown by prosecutors in court but will not be made public by police.

Police said Stokes later told investigators that she attacked Rhone over harassing phone calls and an unspecified betrayal that ended their seven-year friendship.

Stokes also told police she visited her doctor last week, seeking to be admitted to a hospital "due to feeling like she wanted to hurt someone."

She is reported to have told investigators she hadn't taken a prescription anti-anxiety drug on Friday, and that, "Sometimes people just snap."

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MOSCOW - President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a law banning Americans from adopting Russian children, abruptly terminating the prospects for more than 50 youngsters preparing to join new families and sparking critics to liken him to King Herod.

The move is part of a harsh response to a U.S. law targeting Russians deemed to be human rights violators. Although some top Russian officials including the foreign minister openly opposed the bill, Putin signed it less than 24 hours after receiving it from Parliament, where it passed both houses overwhelmingly.

The law also calls for the closure of non-governmental organizations receiving American funding if their activities are classified as political — a broad definition many fear could be used to close any NGO that offends the Kremlin.

The law takes effect Jan. 1, the Kremlin said. Children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said 52 children who were in the pipeline for U.S. adoption would remain in Russia.

The ban is in response to a measure signed into law by President Barack Obama this month that calls for sanctions against Russians assessed to be human rights violators.

That stems from the case of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian lawyer who was arrested after accusing officials of a $230 million tax fraud. He was repeatedly denied medical treatment and died in jail in 2009. Russian rights groups claimed he was severely beaten.

A prison doctor who was the only official charged in the case was acquitted by a Moscow court on Friday. Although there was no demonstrable connection to Putin's signing the law a few hours later, the timing underlines what critics say is Russia's refusal to responsibly pursue the case.

The adoption ban has angered both Americans and Russians who argue it victimizes children to make a political point, cutting off a route out of frequently dismal orphanages for thousands.

"The king is Herod," popular writer Oleg Shargunov said on his Twitter account, referring to the Roman-appointed king of Judea at the time of Jesus Christ's birth, who the Bible says ordered the massacre of Jewish children to avoid being supplanted by a prophesied newborn king of the Jews.

A painting depicting the massacre and captioned "an appropriate response to the Magnitsky act" spread widely on the Internet. The phrase echoed Putin's characterization of the ban while it was under consideration.

U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell expressed regret over Putin's signing the law and urged Russia to "allow those children who have already met and bonded with their future parents to finish the necessary legal procedures so that they can join their families."

Vladimir Lukin, head of the Russian Human Rights Commission and a former ambassador to Washington, said he would challenge the law in the constitutional Court.

The U.S. law galvanized Russian resentment of the United States, which Putin has claimed funded and encouraged the wave of massive anti-government protests that arose last winter.

The Parliament initially considered a relatively similar retaliatory measure, but amendments have expanded it far beyond a tit-for-tat response.

UNICEF estimates that there are about 740,000 children not in parental custody in Russia while about 18,000 Russians are on the waiting list to adopt a child. The U.S. is the biggest destination for adopted Russian children — more than 60,000 of them have been taken in by Americans over the past two decades.

Russians historically have been less enthusiastic about adopting children than most Western cultures. Putin, along with signing the adoption ban, on Friday issued an order for the government to develop a program to provide more support for adopted children.

Lev Ponomarev, one of Russia's most prominent human rights activists, hinted at that reluctance when he said Parliament members who voted for the bill should take custody of the children who were about to be adopted.

"The moral responsibility lies on them," he told Interfaxe. "But I don't think that even one child will be taken to be brought up by deputies of the Duma."

Many Russians have been distressed for years by reports of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents. The new Russian law was dubbed the "Dima Yakovlev Bill" after a toddler who died in 2008 when his American adoptive father left him in a car in broiling heat for hours.

In that case, the father was found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter and Russia has complained of acquittals or light sentences in other such cases.

The Investigative Committee, Russia's top investigative body, on Friday complained that its attempts to have the acquittals overturned or reconsidered had been ignored by the United States. Under U.S. law, acquittals are final except in rare cases.

Russians also bristled at how the widespread adoptions appeared to show them as hardhearted or too poor to take care of orphans. Astakhov, the children's ombudsman, charged that well-heeled Americans often got priority over Russians who wanted to adopt.

A few lawmakers even claimed that some Russian children were adopted by Americans only to be used for organ transplants or become sex toys or cannon fodder for the U.S. Army. A spokesman for Russia's dominant Orthodox Church said that children adopted by foreigners and raised outside the church will not enter God's kingdom.

___

Mansur Mirovalev and Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow contributed to this story.

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Brain cells in rhesus monkeys fire…

Brain cells that fire only when monkeys act unselfishly may provide clues to the neural basis of altruism, according to a new study.

In the study, the cells fire in rhesus monkeys when they gave juice away, but not when they received it. The findings, published Dec. 23 in the journal Nature Neuroscience, may shed light on why many animals (including humans) exhibit kind, unselfish behavior that doesn't directly benefit them.

The new findings provide a "complete picture of the neuronal activity underlying a key aspect of social cognition," Matthew Rushworth, a neuroscientist at Oxford who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email."It is definitely a major achievement."

Do-gooder impulse

Why animals act unselfishly has been a longstanding mystery. Yet they routinely do: Monkeys will go without food rather than shock compatriots, and mice will also starve rather than hurt friends.

This primitive do-gooder impulse in animals may have evolved into the altruism we see in humans today, said study co-author Michael Platt, a neuroscientist at Duke University.

But understanding how altruism works in the brain has been trickier. When people do something unselfish such as give to charity, reward circuits that usually fire when eating chocolate or doing something pleasurable are activated, Platt told LiveScience.

Clearly, though, people feel a difference between doing good for themselves and being kind to others. That raised the question of how the brain encodes unselfish, other-oriented acts separate from personal gain.

Playing for juice

To find out, Platt and his colleagues taught rhesus monkeys to play a simple computer game where they looked at different shapes to either give themselves, a nearby neighbor monkey, or nobody a squirt of juice.

Unsurprisingly, monkeys almost always give themselves juice when they have the option.

After teaching the monkeys the rules of the game, the researchers set up another trial where they could either give the other monkey juice or give it nothing. None of the choices led to a tasty juice squirt for the actor monkey. [Image Gallery: Cute Gelada Monkeys]

During the trials, electrodes in the monkey's brain recorded the electrical firing from neurons in brain regions suspected of playing a role in altruism.

Helper monkeys

The monkeys consistently preferred doling out juice to other monkeys over giving nothing. When the researchers replaced the second monkey with another bottle of juice, the monkeys showed no preference for dispensing juice, showing that they were motivated by the reward to the other monkey.

A brain region called the orbitofrontal cortex, which is known to play a role in reward processing, fired when monkeys got juice squirts for themselves.

"The orbitofrontal cortex seems to be all about your personal reward. It's egocentric," Platt said.

Intriguingly, however, some neurons in a region called the anterior cingulate gyrus fired when the monkey got its own juice, while others fired when monkeys gave their neighbors juice.

That same brain region has been implicated in other social processes. For instance, a person's anterior cingulate gyrus fires when he watches his romantic partner get pinched, for instance, Platt said.

While it's not clear exactly what's going on in the monkeys' brains, the results suggest that this brain region may be partly responsible for creating primitive forms of empathy.

Platt speculates that this region may operate similarly in humans and may encode vicarious experiences when others are happy or sad.

"That vicarious experience and reward is perhaps what actually drives giving behavior and perhaps drives charity in people," he said.

Follow LiveScience on Twitter@livescience. We're also on Facebook &Google+. 

8 Humanlike Behaviors of Primates 7 Ways Animals Are Like Humans Top 10 Mysteries of the Mind Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama was not planning to make a new offer to avert the tax increases and spending cuts that loom on January 1 at a White House meeting with congressional leaders on Friday, a source familiar with the meeting said.

At the meeting, Obama was set to ask lawmakers to hold a vote on a "fiscal cliff" plan that would allow taxes to rise on those who earn $250,000 and up, and that would extend unemployment insurance benefits, according to the source.

Obama believes his plan would pass with a majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, the source said.

The president was meeting with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi - the first time the group has met together since November.

If congressional leaders object to his plan, Obama will ask them for a viable counterproposal, the source added. If lawmakers have no alternative approach, he will seek an up-or-down vote in Congress on his plan, the source said.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal and Roberta Rampton; editing by Todd Eastham)

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In this frame grab taken from APTN…

BANGUI, Central African Republic (AP) — Renewed fighting between government forces and rebels seeking to overthrow the president broke out Friday in Central African Republic's third largest city, a military official said, hours after the U.S. ambassador and his team were evacuated from the capital.

Government soldiers appeared to be in control of Bambari following the clashes, according to military officials. The town is located about 385 kilometers (240 miles) from the capital and had been under rebel control for five days.

The United States evacuated about 40 people, including the U.S. ambassador, on an U.S. Air Force plane bound for Kenya, said U.S. officials who insisted on anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the operation. The United States has special forces troops in the country who are assisting in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the fugitive rebel leader of another rebel group known as the Lord's Resistance Army. The U.S. special forces remain in the country, the U.S. military's Africa Command said from its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.

The evacuation of the U.S. diplomats came in the wake of criticism of how the U.S. handled diplomatic security before and during the attack on its consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11. The ambassador and three other Americans were killed in that attack.

French diplomats are staying despite a violent demonstration outside its embassy earlier this week. Dozens of protesters, angry about a lack of help against rebel forces, threw rocks at the French Embassy in Bangui and stole a French flag. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius spoke via phone with President Francois Bozize, asking him to take responsibility for the safety of French nationals and diplomatic missions in Central African Republic.

Bozize on Thursday urgently called on former colonial ruler France and other foreign powers to help his government fend off rebels who are quickly seizing territory and approaching the capital. But French President Francois Hollande said France wants to protect its interests in Central African Republic and not Bozize's government.

This landlocked nation of some 4.4 million people has suffered decades of army revolts, coups and rebellions since gaining independence in 1960 and remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The current president himself came to power nearly a decade ago in the wake of a rebellion in this resource-rich yet deeply poor country.

Speaking to crowds in Bangui, a city of some 600,000, Bozize pleaded with foreign powers to do what they could. He pointed in particular to France. About 200 French soldiers are already in the country, providing technical support and helping to train the local army, according to the French defense ministry.

"France has the means to stop (the rebels) but unfortunately they have done nothing for us until now," Bozize said.

Bozize's government earlier reached out to longtime ally Chad, which pledged to send 2,000 troops to bolster Central African Republic's own forces.

The rebels behind the most recent instability signed a 2007 peace accord allowing them to join the regular army, but insurgent leaders say the deal wasn't fully implemented. The rebel forces have seized at least 10 towns across the sparsely populated north of the country, and residents in the capital now fear the insurgents could attack at any time, despite assurances by rebel leaders that they are willing to engage in dialogue instead of attacking Bangui.

The rebels have claimed that their actions are justified in light of the "thirst for justice, for peace, for security and for economic development of the people of Central African Republic."

Despite Central African Republic's wealth of gold, diamonds, timber and uranium, the government remains perpetually cash-strapped.

The rebels also are demanding that the government make payments to ex-combatants, suggesting that their motives may also be for personal financial gain.

Paris is encouraging peace talks between the government and the rebels, with the French Foreign Ministry noting in a statement that negotiations are due to "begin shortly in Libreville (Gabon)." But it was not immediately clear if any dates have been set for those talks.

The U.N.'s most powerful body condemned the recent violence and expressed concern about the developments.

"The members of the Security Council reiterate their demand that the armed groups immediately cease hostilities, withdraw from captured cities and cease any further advance towards the city of Bangui," the statement said.

___

Larson reported from Dakar, Senegal. Jason Straziuso in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this story.

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FILE - In this Aug.30, 2007 file…

PARIS (AP) — Europeans are finding fewer reasons to pop open a bottle of Champagne as another year of economic troubles and high unemployment saps the region's appetite for the finer things. But while the latest industry figures show that sales might be on the wane in Europe, other markets, particularly Japan and the United States, are developing a taste for a glass of bubbly.

In what is certain to be bad news for the vineyards, France — Champagne's largest market — is drinking fewer bottles. Sales of Champagne for the country were down 4.9 percent, and 5 percent elsewhere in the 27-country European Union, in the first nine months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011, according to CIVC, the national association of growers and producers of the wine.

Nineteen months of rising unemployment and growing fears that the worst is yet to come have taken their toll on France — nearly seven in 10 French are worried about their country's future, according to a recent poll.

"The French are pessimist by nature," said Antoine Chiquet, whose family has been producing Champagne for three generations and wine for eight. "We had a difficult election, we're in an economy where Europe's foundations are being questioned."

Nonetheless, the country managed to drink 175.7 million bottles of Champagne from Nov. 1 2011 to Oct. 31 2012, according to CIVC — enough for nearly 3 bottles a year for every man, woman and child but about 10 million bottles fewer than the previous year. In contrast, the U.S. consumed enough sparkling wine for about 1.5 bottles per person in 2010, the latest figures available from the California-based Wine Institute.

But while the news out of France and Europe is bad, CIVC figures show export sales were up 3 percent in the first three quarters of the year. Top markets included the U.S., Japan and, to a lesser extent, China. A total of 19.4 million bottles of Champagne went to the United States and 7.9 million went to Japan — the only two countries outside Europe in the top seven export markets.

Takayasu Ogata, a Tokyo-based sommelier, said Champagne and sparkling wine consumption is climbing in Japan at a time when overall wine demand peaked about 2000. According to the French figures, Champagne consumption alone was up nearly 7 percent over a year there.

"Both individuals and restaurants are taking to Champagnes with personality, including those that are from small makers but taste good," he said.

Lower price is another reason. Gone are the days when a bottle of Moet & Chandon went for 5,000 yen ($60) or more in Japan. These days, you can get real Champagne for as little as 2,000 yen ($25).

Of course, for those with rich tastes and a budget to match there are still lots of expensive Champagnes, selling for 10 times that, according to Ogata, who works at Venture Republic, an Internet retailer, and is in charge of wines.

Beer remains the drink of choice for many "salarymen," but younger people and women are taking a liking to Champagne, Ogata says.

"It's about the bubble — a sense of gorgeousness," he said in a telephone interview. "There's that thrill to opening up a bottle of Champagne."

China is also emerging as a potentially strong market for a glass of fizz, although the numbers remain small. In 2011, the latest figures available, it ranked 19th in export markets for Champagne, apparently because consumers are less discriminating about precise origins. According to an EU ruling, only sparkling wine made in a particular region in northeast France is allowed to carry the name Champagne. The United States makes some exceptions, as long as the labeling is clear.

"People enjoy the 'boom' moment of opening sparkling wine. It is fun. It offers a more festive atmosphere and it tastes good," said said Yu Ming, a 29-year-old who operated a bar in Beijing's Sanlitun nightlife district until 2010. In China, he added, "people call all sparkling wine Champagne. They don't care where it is from or whether the fermentation is inside the bottle."

The sales manager at the BHG supermarket in a luxury shopping mall in Beijing confirmed that Champagne budgets are largely out of reach in China, saying most customers at the chic store will instead choose sparkling wine: "The most expensive Champagne is 7,800 yuan ($1,250) a bottle at my store, but the most expensive sparkling wine is only 268 yuan ($43)," said the manager, who gave his surname, Hou.

Chiquet, whose label Gaston Chiquet produces about 200,000 bottles a year, said France and Europe generally will remain the most important markets for Champagne. But for the numbers to climb again "we'll have to rediscover optimism."

"Champagne remains a drink for celebrating the big events of life," said Chiquet. "Happily for sales, at the end of the year, the French rely on tradition. Still, we're not going to catch up. Unfortunately, what's lost already is lost."

___

Associated Press writer Yuri Kageyama in Tokyo and researchers Fu Ting in Shanghai and Flora Ji in Beijing contributed to this report.

___

http://www.gastonchiquet.com/

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Senate leaders are working to craft legislation by Sunday that averts the year-end "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, but many details needed to be worked out after a crucial meeting with President Barack Obama on Friday.

U.S. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid and his Republican counterpart Mitch McConnell, termed the meeting "constructive" and "positive" and said they would keep working on trying to find a solution over the weekend.

After adjourning on Friday, Reid he would probably not call the Senate back into session until about 1 p.m. EST/ 1800 GMT on Sunday to give leaders time to hash out a deal.

"We are engaged in discussions, the majority leader and myself and the White House, in the hopes that we can come forward as early as Sunday and have a recommendation that I can make to my conference and the majority leader can make to his conference," McConnell said on the Senate floor.

"So we'll be working hard to try to see if we can get there in the next 24 hours. So I'm hopeful and optimistic," he added.

An aide to House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner said it was agreed at the White House meeting that the Senate should act first.

"The speaker told the president that if the Senate amends the House-passed legislation and sends back a plan, the House will consider it - either by accepting or amending," the aide said.

However, Reid said it would be difficult to craft a solution that can win passage in both the House and Senate, adding that it involves "big numbers."

"Whatever we come up with is going to be imperfect," Reid said. "Some people aren't going to like it. Some people will like it less. But that's where we are and I feel confident that we have an obligation to do the best we can."

(Reporting By David Lawder, Rachelle Younglai; editing by Christopher Wilson)

年末ジャンボ10枚買うなら、バラか連番か？

年末ジャンボ10枚買うなら、バラか連番か？
株式会社リクルートマーケティングパートナーズ（本社：東京都千代田区 代表取締役社長：鬼頭秀彰）が運営する3000点以上のIT製品情報を掲載する無料会員制サイト『キーマンズネット』は、ITに関する身近でちょっと気になるテーマについて、投票形式で白黒をつけるコーナー「情シスのスイッチ」を公開しているが「年末ジャンボを10枚買うならどちら？」、「会社から支給されるパソコン、どちらがうれしい？」の2つをお題にしたアンケート結果を実施。その結果を公開した。

■年末ジャンボを10枚買うならどちら？
バラで買う・・・53％
連番で買う・・・47％

年の瀬恒例の「年末ジャンボ宝くじ」を買う時、「バラで買う」という人は53％、「連番で買う」という人は47％という結果になった。わずかながら「バラ」派が多い。各派ともコメントからするとその思惑はほぼ統一されているようだ。「バラ」派は「連番だと、当選確認のときに1枚目でわかる。瞬間で夢が破れるのはイヤ」という意見に加え、「バラなら当たりが複数含まれる可能性だってある」ということを強く主張。「連番」派からは、「1等が当たるなら前後賞も欲しい」という意見が多く見られた。そして両派のコメントに散見するのは「確率はこっちの方がいい」という主張。いっそバラで10枚、連番で10枚両方購入したいものだ。

＜コメント（一部抜粋）＞
【「バラで買う」派のコメント】
・バラで買います。連番だと、ハズレがすぐにわかってしまうけど、バラなら最後まで夢が見れます。今年こそっ！（30代・女性）
・実際に買ったことはないのですが、どうせ運に任せるなら無作為にバラで買うかなと。そういう感覚で臨んで外したクジは数知れず、ですが・・・。（40代・男性）
・バラなら、1等が何本も当たる可能性もあるわけです。1等が10本も当たったらどうしよう！？（50代・男性）

【「連番で買う」派のコメント】
・確率で言えばバラだろうが連番だろうが同じハズ・・・なら連番のほうが前後賞も狙えてオイシイ。（20代・男性）
・やはり前後賞が魅力。当選番号照合時はバラ購入時より楽しみは減りますが。（40代・男性）
・高額当選番号のニアミスだったことが数回続き、連番買いするようになりました。ただ、それ以降、ニアミスすらありません。（40代・男性）


■会社から支給されるパソコン、どちらがうれしい？
メモリが大容量だが、ストレージが小容量・・・87％
ストレージが大容量だが、メモリが低容量・・・13％

会社から支給されるパソコン、うれしいのは「メモリが大容量だが、ストレージが小容量」だという人が87％、「ストレージが大容量だが、メモリが低容量」という人が13％という、かなり大差のつく結果となった。「メモリ大容量、ストレージ小容量」派のコメントは、「社内ではファイルはファイルサーバ、NASに保存するのでローカルストレージは不要」「メモリが多い方がPCの動作が快適」という主張で占められた。少数である「メモリ低容量、ストレージ大容量」派では、「社内ではWindowsが32bit版限定なので大量メモリは無意味」「業務として大ファイルを扱うのでストレージが必要」というコメントが見られた。この結果が、今のオフィスPCの現状を示しているのだろう。

【「メモリが大容量だが、ストレージが小容量」派のコメント】
・メールチェックしながら、表計算の表や画像を埋め込んだ文書を作成したりするので、メモリはあればあるほどありがたい。反対にストレージは（管理部署の許可が出れば）外部に接続して増やせるので。（50代・男性）
・仮想マシンを自PCで動作させるため、メモリは大容量がうれしい。自PCのバックアップをとるための仕掛けや装置が別途必要になってくるため、自PC内に大容量データを保持したくありません。（30代・男性）
・メモリーが少ないと動きが遅くなってしまうので、断然高容量のメモリーです。ストレージは、いざとなれば共有サーバーでもクラウドサービスでも使えば何とかなります。（50代・男性）

【「ストレージが大容量だが、メモリが低容量」派のコメント】
・ストレージの容量が大きくないと、業務上、不便となります。（20代・男性）
・業務アプリの制限でいまだに32bitOSが必須なので、大容量メモリは猫に小判。（40代・男性）
・メモリは最悪入れ替えます。ストレージ交換はできますが、会社支給のPCではご法度ですからね。（40代・男性）

＜調査概要＞
調査期間：2012年11月29日～2012年12月5日
有効回答数：622
調査対象：キーマンズネット会員【関連記事】 2013年の福袋、キーワードは「あなたの夢、かなえます！」 年末年始に撮りためた写真を整理する裏ワザ 「残念な上司」にならないための傾向と対策 住宅ローン借り換えの新法則「固定と変動どっちが得か？」 住宅ローン借り換えの新法則「ローン金利過去最低水準更新へ」

『ロンドンハーツ』出演者の基準は? 加地プロデューサーが番組作りの裏側を明かす

『ロンドンハーツ』出演者の基準は? 加地プロデューサーが番組作りの裏側を明かす
インパルス・板倉俊之が、25日放送の『ロンドンハーツ2012 売れっ子芸人45名集合 禁断の暴露&ドッキリXマス3時間半SP!!』の番組内で、27歳の一般人女性と交際中であることを明かしました。出会いは番組ロケ。照れながら彼女の好きなところを発表する板倉の姿が印象的でした。

　「子どもに見せたくない番組」の常連である同番組ですが、反面、人気番組としても長く支持を得ています。そんな『ロンドンハーツ』の演出・プロデューサーを務めているのが、加地倫三氏。時々、番組内にも登場するので、お馴染みのプロデューサーとも言えるでしょう。

　そんな加地氏が、書籍『たくらむ技術』のなかで、同番組の裏側を明かしています。例えば出演者の決め方。『ロンドンハーツ』は、VTR中心の企画もあるので、多くの出演者が必要ない時があります。

　「その場合は、おぎやはぎのように、ぐいぐい前に出ようとはしないけれど、打席に立てば高い打率を叩きだすタイプにお願いすることもあります。彼らは少人数でいる時こそ持ち味が活きる、と僕なりに分析しています。全員がきちんとしていると、それはそれで面白みがないと思えば、出川さんや狩野のような、ちょっと特殊なタイプの爆発力のある人にもお願いします。出川さんは、どこにいてもなんらかの見せ場が作れる（または作られる）人です」（加地氏）

　このように、出演者ありきで番組が構成されるのではなく、その回のテーマや、役割分担、配分なども考えた上で出演者が決まります。面白い人を10人集めるのではなく、バランスのとれた10人を集めることが重要なのです。

　「投球の組み立てを考えるのと同じです。核になる人は、ストライクゾーンに投げ込む渾身のストレート。それ以外の人は、胸元に投げ込んでのけぞらせるボール球だったり、遊び球、見せ球だったり、くさいところをつく変化球だったりするわけです」

　加地氏は、『ロンドンハーツ』だけでなく、『アメトーーク!』も担当しています。そんなアメトーークの基本フォーメーションは下記の通り。

　「まず、その回の『核』となる人。多くの場合、そのテーマについてすごく詳しい人や、そのテーマを体現しているような人が、安定感のあるトークをしてくれます。さらにその人をイジれる人。核になる人をからかったり、本筋ではないところでも笑いが取れたりできる人。ずっとテーマに沿ってキッチリ話が進んでいると、飽きられてしまうことがあるので、こういう人が必要です。」

　それ以外にも「かき回し役」もいた方がいいとのこと。「かき回し役」......、誰だか想像がつきますか?

　「とにかく大声で、その場を盛り上げたり、にぎやかにしてくれたりする人。フジモン（FUJIWARAの藤本）やザキヤマ（アンタッチャブルの山崎）のポジションと言えば、わかりやすいでしょう」

　こういった「かき回し役」以外にも、有吉のような、独自の視点で話ができるタイプがいると、ぐっと番組の幅が広がるのです。具体的な席順についても明かしています。

　「MC席の右側にひな壇がある場合、核になる人はMCに一番近い最前列左端の席です。例えば、ツッチーこと土田晃之くんやフットボールアワーの後藤くんのように『安定感』もあり、『イジれる人』を置きます。前列の右端には『かき回し役』のフジモンや劇団ひとり。2段目の左端や真ん中には、博多華丸・大吉の大吉くんや麒麟の川島くんのような安定感抜群の人に座ってもらいます。そして2段目の大外は、出川さん、狩野、アンガールズの田中くんのような『大ボケ』の人の位置です」

　一見、自由に座ってそうな席順ですが、実はプロデューサーなりの戦略があるようです。これからは、どのような基準で出演者が決まったのか、また、どんな意図があってこの席順になっているのか、プロデューサーの考えを想像しながら、番組を楽しんでみてはいかがでしょう。

　実はこういったプロデューサーの企みを見抜いている芸人は意外と多いとのこと。さすがプロの芸人です。【関連記事】 被災地への義援金はいくら送れば良い? 現代日本の「お金」信仰を問う第49回文藝賞受賞作『おしかくさま』 「にしこくん」の仲良しゆるキャラは、くまモン先輩とバリィ先輩 電子書籍購入で宇宙服が当たる？　ウェブストアでユニークなキャンペーン 花火を見て切ない気持ちになるのは日本人だけ？ 短所の渋滞を起こしている時に使いたい、ピース・又吉発案の四字熟語「馬面猫舌」

Chinese police bust trafficking rings, rescue 89 children

Chinese police bust trafficking rings, rescue 89 children

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police have rescued 89 children and arrested 355 suspects during a crackdown on nine child trafficking rings nationwide, state media reported on Monday.

Police began the operation on December 18 in provinces including Guangdong and Sichuan, two of China's most populous, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing the Ministry of Public Security.

Child trafficking is rampant in China, where population control policies have bolstered a traditional bias for male offspring, seen as the main support for elderly parents and heirs to the family name, and have resulted in abortions, killings or abandonment of girls.

The imbalance has created criminal demand for abducted or bought baby boys, but also for baby girls destined to be future brides attracting rich dowries.

The children are being cared for by the government and police are searching for their parents.

"We will collect the children's DNA and use it to find their parents within a national DNA database established for anti-trafficking purposes," Xinhua cited Chen Shiqu, director of the ministry's anti-trafficking office, as saying.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Alison Williams)

Pakistan, Afghanistan trying to turn Taliban into political movement

Pakistan, Afghanistan trying to turn Taliban into political movement

KABUL (Reuters) - Pakistan is genuine about backing a nascent Afghan peace process and shares the Kabul government's goal of transforming the Taliban insurgency into a political movement, a senior Afghan government official told Reuters.

Pakistan is seen as critical to U.S. and Afghan efforts to promote peace in Afghanistan, a task that is gaining urgency as NATO troops prepare to withdraw by the end of 2014 and hand over security responsibilities to government forces.

"They have told us that they share the vision contained in our roadmap which is basically to transform the Taliban from a military entity into a political entity to enable them to take part in the Afghan political process and peacefully seek power like any other political entity in Afghanistan," the official said, referring to Pakistan.

"This is the vision that they share."

The official's remarks signaled unprecedented optimism from Afghanistan that Pakistan - long accused of backing Afghan insurgents - was now willing to put its weight behind reconciliation efforts, which are still in early stages and vulnerable to factionalism.

Mutual suspicions between Afghanistan and its nuclear-armed neighbor, Pakistan, have hampered efforts to tackle militancy in one of the world's most explosive regions.

Pakistan has long been seen as determined to block the influence of old rival India in Afghanistan and has been believed to be quietly supporting the Taliban in the hope they would exclude from power rival, pro-India Afghan factions.

Afghanistan and Pakistan appear to now agree that it is in their interests to work more closely together, with the NATO deadline looming.

Failure to do so could embolden Taliban hardliners determined to re-impose their austere version of Islam.

"I think we are also seeing a situation where the extremist threat is developing in a direction that is getting out of everybody's control," said the senior Afghan government official. Pakistan is battling its own, home-grown Taliban.

"That is only bad news for everyone who has any interest in stability for their own country."

The official, who is closely involved in reconciliation efforts, said recent face-to-face talks between senior Taliban members and Afghan officials in France were an "enormously helpful" step in building a wider environment for peace.

The Taliban spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the discussions in France. The talks included former members of the Northern Alliance faction, which fought the Taliban for years, and Afghan peace negotiators.

The Taliban say they were represented by prominent figures in the movement such as Shahabuddin Delawar, from its political office, which is based in the Gulf Arab state of Qatar.

Until now, the Taliban and Afghan officials only made indirect contacts.

"We are very optimistic. We believe that they are genuine in this discussion with us," said the Afghan official.

Another track for talks, between the Taliban and the United States held in Qatar, was suspended by the militants. They said inconsistencies in the U.S. negotiating position were discouraging.

The Afghan official cautioned that in order to sustain Kabul's confidence, Pakistan would need to take further concrete steps after releasing some mid-level Afghan Taliban members from detention, who may be useful in promoting peace.

Pakistan would gain more trust from Kabul by meeting a request to release from detention the Taliban's former second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

Asked whether Pakistan had indicated it would hand him over, the Afghan official said: "Not in concrete terms".

WARRING FACTIONS

Pakistan's powerful army chief has made reconciling warring factions in Afghanistan a top priority, Pakistani military officials and Western diplomats told Reuters, the clearest signal yet that Islamabad means business in promoting peace.

General Ashfaq Kayani, arguably the most powerful man in Pakistan, is backing dialogue partly due to fears that the end of the U.S. combat mission in Afghanistan in 2014 could energize a resilient insurgency straddling the shared frontier, according to commanders deployed in the region.

The Afghan government official had a similar assessment.

"I think there is a sense that we are also getting, that cooperation from Pakistan now is bound to be meaningful, substantive," he said.

"The reason is frankly, most in Pakistan, in our view, have reached the conclusion that time is running out. That it is no longer just about Afghanistan's instability and Afghanistan's insecurity but it's very much a question of security for themselves."

Cooperation between Kabul and Islamabad has in the past been undermined by attacks which Kabul said were plotted in Pakistan.

On December 6, a Taliban suicide bomber with explosives hidden in his underwear and posing as a peace messenger, wounded Afghanistan's intelligence chief in Kabul. The Afghan Taliban claimed responsibility.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said the attack was planned in the Pakistani city of Quetta and that he would raise the issue with Islamabad.

The Haqqani militant network - which has more experience in guerrilla warfare than the Afghan Taliban - is seen as a potential spoiler in the peace process. The group is allied with the Taliban but diplomats say it is highly unpredictable.

Nevertheless, it would be welcomed to the peace process as long as it met certain conditions, said the official.

"From our point of view, the door of peace is open to anyone. The Haqqanis are a pretty challenging group of people," he said.

"But if they choose to come over to the peace process, then I am sure the peace process will include them."

Pakistan's intelligence agency denies Afghan accusations that it uses the Haqqani network and other militant groups as proxies to counter India in Afghanistan.

The Haqqanis have been blamed for several high-profile attacks on Western targets, including embassies, in Kabul, highlighting the resilience of insurgents after years of fighting Western forces equipped with superior firepower and technology.

The senior Afghan official said Afghanistan hoped to start formal negotiations with the Taliban next year.

"The Taliban should be able to make some form of transformation towards being a political entity soon," he said.

"The key period is 2013. If Pakistan and Afghanistan work hard enough we should be able to achieve some progress on that front."

(Additional reporting by Mehreeen Zahra- Malik in WANA and Matthew Green in ISLAMABAD; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Lebanese border means little in Syria's civil war

Lebanese border means little in Syria's civil war
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  The four rain-filled bomb craters all visible within 100 yards of Mahmoud Ismael’s house starkly illustrate how Lebanon’s northern border has become an active frontline in Syria’s civil war, drawing in rival Lebanese Shiite and Sunni factions.

  A fifth shell had struck the edge of the roof, knocking out chunks of concrete and sending heavy steel shrapnel scything into the cement parapet and the soft earth below.

  “It was a terrifying night. We all thought we would be killed,” says Mr. Ismael, surveying the damage.

  The Lebanese government, which follows a policy of neutrality towards the war in Syria, has found itself almost powerless to prevent pockets of north Lebanon becoming either bastions of support for the Syrian regime or de facto safe havens for the armed Syrian opposition.

  Recommended: Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

  Tensions between Lebanon’s Sunni and Shiite communities have been running high for several years. But they have been aggravated further by the increasingly sectarian nature of the conflict in Syria, which has pitted the majority Sunni opposition against the Alawite minority, a subsect of Shiite Islam which forms the backbone of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

  Nourat al-Tahta, like other Sunni-populated villages along the border in the northern Akkar province, is deeply supportive of the Syrian revolution and shelters refugees and Free Syrian Army militants alike. The villages in the area have been subjected to Syrian artillery shelling on a near nightly basis since May. The shelling is intended to hit FSA members who slip across the border into Syria at night as well as to punish those Lebanese who provide assistance and a safe haven for the militants.

  Get our FREE 2013 Global Security Forecast now

  Until recently, it was confined mainly to the scrubland outside the village, but in the past week, the bombardments have focused more closely on inhabited areas.

  “If it carries on like this we will have to leave,” Ismael says.

  According to a Lebanese member of the FSA who lives in the area, Nourat al-Tahta was the starting point three weeks ago for 20 Lebanese Sunni volunteers who set out to cross the border and join a rebel group. The volunteers fell into an ambush on the Syrian side of the border and 14 of them were killed, according to the militant. The shelling, he said, was the Syrian regime’s punishment on the village.

  The Syrian shelling and clandestine FSA activities underline how little state control exists in the northern Akkar. The Lebanese Army has sent some additional reinforcements to the border, but its ability to contain the violence is limited. Returning artillery fire into Syria is politically impossible for the Lebanese army, while chasing after FSA militants operating in Lebanon risks incurring the anger of local Lebanese Sunnis.

  Further east along the border, on the other side of 6,500-foot forested mountains that last week were lashed by torrential rain and capped in snow, lies the stony flatlands of the Shiite-populated northern Bekaa Valley, an area of strong support for the Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah, an ally of the Assad regime.

  On a recent afternoon, the steady crump of artillery explosions and the sharp pop of outgoing mortar rounds just inside Syria reverberated through the border town of Qasr as Hezbollah vehicles – SUVs with tinted windows and no license plates – raced through the narrow potholed streets of the town.

  Some 25 small villages populated by Lebanese Shiites lie just across the border from Qasr, in Syria. They have been the focus of repeated clashes in recent months, pitting the FSA against Syrian troops allegedly backed by Hezbollah militants.

  The fighting is expected to grow more intense in the coming days because the FSA’s Omar al-Farouq brigade, one of the largest and most successful Syrian rebel units, has redeployed much of its manpower from the border area opposite north Lebanon to Damascus, according to Syrian opposition sources. Lebanese and Syrian FSA militants, who had been resting in the Bekaa, are said to be heading into Syria to reinforce the rebels’ depleted ranks.

  The residents of Qasr believe that the Syrian rebels are seeking to empty the Shiite villages just over the border to create a corridor linking Sunni areas to facilitate movement across the top of north Lebanon.

  “Those villages won’t go down easily. They will defend them to the last bullet. They are willing to fight to the end,” Abu Ali, a member of Qasr’s municipality, says.

  The residents tell lurid tales of atrocities committed by the rebels whom they accuse of being Islamic extremists and many of whom they say are not even Syrians.

  “There is no Free Syrian Army, they are all Salafists who are attacking us and robbing our homes,” says Minjad al-Haq, a resident of Safsafah, one of the Shiite villages inside Syria who moved across the border in September to escape the fighting. “They are decapitating their prisoners. They say Allahu Akhbar three times then cut off their heads.”

  The emergence and growth of radical Islamist groups in Syria – such as Jabhat al-Nusra, which was recently proscribed by the US as a terrorist organization – and indications of Sunni radicalization in Lebanon have unnerved Lebanese Shiites who worry they could be targeted by triumphant Sunnis once the Assad regime falls. Some of those Sunni militants exist in the northeast corner of the Bekaa Valley, which has become a safe haven for the FSA and a conduit for militants to slip into Syria. All that separates Hezbollah and its Shiite supporters in the northwest pocket of the Bekaa from their Sunni FSA enemies in the northeast corner of the valley is a no-man's land of flat, stony earth.

  Although Hezbollah has fought the FSA just north of the border inside Syria, a tense calm exists south of the frontier.

  “The Shiites in Syria are in a defensive mode and the Sunnis are in attack mode,” says Abu Ali. “But if the Sunnis attack us here [inside Lebanon] we will attack them here.”

  But the sense that the Assad regime’s days are numbered is emboldening some Sunnis to cast their mind toward the next conflict.

  Khaled, a portly Lebanese Salafist from the Bekaa Valley who has fought with the FSA for 18 months, predicted that the Assad regime would collapse within eight weeks.

  “When we are done there, we will come after Hezbollah here,” he says. “We are going to finish them completely. The Free Syrian Army will come and clean Lebanon of Hezbollah then leave, just like we helped them clean Syria of Assad.”

  Related stories

• Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.
• Is Lebanon becoming Syria's Western front?
• Syria downplays troop buildup on Lebanese border

  Read this story at csmonitor.com

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Man who killed 2 firemen left note on killing plan

Man who killed 2 firemen left note on killing plan
Related Content prevnext

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Homes burn on Lake Road, Monday,…

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A Monroe County Sheriff's Department…

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Lake Rd. residents are evacuated…

WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — The ex-con who lured two firefighters to their deaths in a blaze of gunfire left a rambling typewritten note saying he wanted to burn down the neighborhood and "do what I like doing best, killing people," police said Tuesday as they recovered burned human remains believed to be the gunman's missing sister.

Police Chief Gerald Pickering said 62-year-old William Spengler, who served 17 years in prison for the 1980 hammer slaying of his grandmother, armed himself with a revolver, a shotgun and a military-style rifle before he set his house afire to lure first responders into a death trap before dawn on Christmas Eve.

"He was equipped to go to war, kill innocent people," Pickering said.

The rifle he had was a military-style .223-caliber semiautomatic Bushmaster rifle with flash suppression, the same make and caliber weapon used in the elementary school massacre in Newtown, Conn., Pickering said.

The chief said police believe the firefighters were hit with shots from the rifle given the distance but the investigation was incomplete.

Pickering declined to divulge the full content of the two- to three-page note left by Spengler or say where it was found, but read one line from it: "I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down, and do what I like doing best, killing people."

The human remains were found in the charred house that Spengler shared with his 67-year-old sister, Cheryl. A medical examiner will need to determine the identity and cause of death because the body is badly burned.

Spengler killed himself as seven houses burned around him Monday on a narrow spit of land along Lake Ontario in this suburb of Rochester. A friend said Spengler hated his sister but the chief said the note left by him did not give a motive.

No other bodies were found, and police late Tuesday said the on-scene investigation had been completed.

Two firefighters were shot dead in the ambush and two others are hospitalized in stable condition.

Spengler fired at the four firefighters when they arrived shortly after 5:30 a.m. Monday to put out the fire, Pickering said. The first police officer who arrived chased the gunman and exchanged shots.

Authorities said Spengler hadn't done anything to bring himself to their attention since his parole. As a convicted felon, he wasn't allowed to possess weapons. Monroe County District Attorney Sandra Doorley said Spengler led a very quiet life after he got out of prison.

A friend, Roger Vercruysse, lived next door to Spengler and recalled a man who doted on his mother, whose obituary suggested contributions to the West Webster Fire Department.

"He loved his mama to death," said Vercruysse, who last saw his friend about six months ago.

Vercruysse also said Spengler "couldn't stand his sister" and "stayed on one side of the house and she stayed on the other."

The West Webster Fire District learned of the fire after a report of a car and house on fire on Lake Road, on a narrow peninsula where Irondequoit Bay meets Lake Ontario, Monroe County Sheriff Patrick O'Flynn said.

Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as Spengler carried out his ambush. The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun - high powered ... semi or fully auto."

Two of the firefighters arrived on a fire engine and two in their own vehicles, Pickering said. After Spengler fired, one of the wounded men fled, but the other three couldn't because of flying gunfire.

The police officer who exchanged gunfire with Spengler "in all likelihood saved many lives," Pickering said.

The dead men were identified as police Lt. Michael Chiapperini, 43, the Webster Police Department's public information officer; and 19-year-old Tomasz Kaczowka, also a 911 dispatcher.

Pickering described Chiapperini as a "lifetime firefighter" with nearly 20 years in the department, and he called Kaczowka a "tremendous young man."

The two wounded firefighters, Joseph Hofstetter and Theodore Scardino, were in stable condition Tuesday at Strong Memorial Hospital, the chief said. Both were awake and alert and are expected to recover.

Hofstetter, also a full-timer with the Rochester Fire Department, was hit once in the pelvis, and the bullet lodged in his spine, authorities said. Scardino was hit in the chest and knee.

The shooting and fires were in a neighborhood of seasonal and year-round homes set close together across the road from the lakeshore. The area is popular with recreational boaters but is normally quiet this time of year.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Esch in Albany contributed to this report.

Eight killed in Yemen clashes; attacks in capital target officers

Eight killed in Yemen clashes; attacks in capital target officers

SANAA (Reuters) - At least six militants and two soldiers were killed in Yemen on Tuesday in fighting near a damaged oil pipeline east of the capital Sanaa, a defense ministry official and residents said.

Separately, gunmen and bombers targeted three senior military officers and the transport minister in a series of attacks in the capital Sanaa.

In one incident, two gunmen riding a motorbike shot dead Brigadier Fadel Mohammed Ali, an adviser to the minister of defense, outside the ministry's offices in Sanaa, a police source said. Further details were not immediately available.

Gunmen fired at the home of Transport Minister Waed Batheeb, wounding two of his guards, a transport ministry official said. A colonel was seriously wounded in an attack by gunmen and another officer survived a thwarted bomb attack on his car.

The fighting in turbulent Maarib province broke out when government troops backed by air strikes tried to secure the pipeline and repair damage inflicted last month by local militants, the official said.

He added that the army controlled the area surrounding the pipeline after Tuesday's clashes.

Yemen's oil and gas pipelines have repeatedly been sabotaged by Islamist fighters or tribesmen since an uprising erupted last year, causing fuel shortages and slashing export earnings for the impoverished country.

Yemen's stability is a leading security goal for the United States and Gulf Arab allies because of its strategic position next to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and shipping lanes, and because it is home to one of the most active wings of al Qaeda.

Under an agreement reached earlier this month between tribal chiefs and the government, tribes in Maarib were meant to stop militants from attacking the pipeline in return for a halt to air strikes in the area.

A local official said troops were deployed on Tuesday after tribesmen failed to secure the pipeline or to hand over fighters involved in the killings of 17 army officers and soldiers in an ambush earlier in December. They were killed while inspecting the pipeline.

The affiliation of the militants in Maarib is unclear. Local sources said some had links to al Qaeda, while others were involved in kidnapping foreigners to pressure the government to release jailed kinsmen.

OFFICER WOUNDED IN CAPITAL

Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has mounted operations in Saudi Arabia and attempted attacks against the United States, which has stepped up strikes by drones.

In the capital, the ministry of defense said one man was arrested on Tuesday for planting a bomb in the car of an officer at the Central Security Forces. The attempt to blow up the car was foiled, the ministry said. Colonel Sameer al-Gharbani, an officer in the Republican Guard, was critically wounded in an attack by unidentified gunmen, a source at the Guard said.

The string of attacks happened less than a week after President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi overhauled the armed forces as part of a Gulf-brokered power-transfer plan that helped ease former President Ali Abdullah Saleh from power in February.

(Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari; Writing by Mahmoud Habboush and William Maclean; Editing by Peter Graff)

Winter storms, tornado threats for Christmas in US

Winter storms, tornado threats for Christmas in US
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Forecasts of blinding snow, sleet and freezing rain threatened to complicate Christmas Day travel around the nation's midsection Tuesday as several Gulf Coast states braced for a chance of twisters, high winds and powerful thunderstorms.

A blizzard watch was posted for parts of Indiana and western Kentucky for storms expected to unfold Tuesday amid predictions of up to 4 to 7 inches of snow in coming hours. Much of Oklahoma and Arkansas braced under a winter storm warning of an early mix of rain and sleet forecast to eventually turn to snow.

Some mountainous areas of Arkansas' Ozark Mountains could get up to 10 inches of snow amid warnings travel could become "very hazardous or impossible" in the northern tier of the state from near whiteout conditions, the National Weather Service said.

After dawn Tuesday, the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety said bridges, overpasses and highways in several counties were already becoming slick and hazardous. Also, Kathleen O'Shea with Oklahoma Gas and Electric said the utility was tracking the storm system to see where repair crews might be needed among nearly 800,000 customers in Oklahoma and western Arkansas.

Elsewhere, areas of east Texas and Louisiana braced for possible thunderstorms as forecasters eyed a developing storm front expected to spread across the Gulf Coast to the Florida Panhandle, raising the threat of any tornadoes.

Quarter-sized hail reported early Tuesday in western Louisiana was expected to be just the start of a severe weather threat on the Gulf Coast, said meteorologist Mike Efferson at the weather service office in Slidell, La. He told The Associated Press by phone on Tuesday that Lake Charles, La., was placed under a tornado warning and a tornado watch was in effect over a wider area of southeast and south-central Louisiana until 2 p.m. EST.

Storms expected during the day Tuesday along the Gulf Coast could bring strong tornadoes or winds up to 70 mph, heavy rain, more large hail and dangerous lightning in Louisiana and Mississippi, Efferson said.

"We have a strong upper level system moving through the area," he said, adding the combination of warm moist air colliding with a cold front could also produce damaging straight-line winds on the Gulf Coast. "The real threats are going to be damaging winds and storms."

In Mississippi, Gov. Phil Bryant urged residents to be alert.

"Please plan now for how you will receive a severe weather warning, and know where you will go when it is issued. It only takes a few minutes, and it will help everyone have a safe Christmas," Bryant said.

Ten storm systems in the last 50 years have spawned at least one Christmastime tornado with winds of 113 mph or more in the South, said Chris Vaccaro, a National Weather Service spokesman in Washington, via email.

The most lethal were the storms of Dec. 24-26, 1982, when 29 tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi killed three people and injured 32; and those of Dec. 24-25, 1964, when two people were killed and about 30 people injured by 14 tornadoes in seven states.

In Alabama, the director of the Emergency Management Agency, Art Faulkner, said he has briefed both local officials and Gov. Robert Bentley on plans for dealing with a possible outbreak of storms.

No day is good for severe weather, but Faulkner said Christmas adds extra challenges because people are visiting unfamiliar areas and often thinking more of snow than possible twisters.

"We are trying to get the word out through our media partners and through social media that people need to be prepared," Faulkner said

During the night, flog blanketed highways at times in the Southeast, including arteries in Atlanta where motorists slowed as a precaution. Fog advisories were posted from Alabama through the Carolinas into southwestern Virginia.

Several communities in Louisiana went ahead with the annual Christmas Eve lighting more than 100 towering log teepees for annual bonfires to welcome Pere Noel along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. That decision came after fire chiefs and local officials decided to go ahead with the tradition after an afternoon conference call with the National Weather Service.

In California, after a brief reprieve across the northern half of the state on Monday, wet weather was expected to make another appearance on Christmas Day. Flooding and snarled holiday traffic were expected in Southern California.

___

Associated Press writer Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., and Ken Miller in Oklahoma City, Okla., contributed to this report.

Obama's Christmas vacation in Hawaii: Day 4

Obama's Christmas vacation in Hawaii: Day 4
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KAILUA, Hawaii (AP) — How President Barack Obama spent the fourth day of his Christmas vacation on Tuesday in Hawaii:

— GYM: Obama headed to Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe for his usual morning workout, the second of his trip since arriving early Saturday.

— LOUNGING: Obama spent most of the morning and early afternoon with his family in their rented beachside vacation home in Kailua, a sleepy Honolulu suburb on the east side of Oahu. The family opened gifts Christmas morning, ate breakfast and sang carols.

— PHOTOS WITH MILITARY: Obama and first lady Michelle Obama visited with military service members at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe, thanking hundreds of service members as they ate an early Christmas dinner. Obama gave a short speech, then took photos with individual service members and their families.

— DEPARTURE PLANNED: The White House said Obama would return to Washington, D.C., on a redeye flight Wednesday night, and that Michelle Obama and their daughters would remain in Hawaii.

Dakar mosque lit up for Christmas in Senegal

Dakar mosque lit up for Christmas in Senegal
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DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — After prayers at the mosque, Ibrahim Lo is off to do some last-minute Christmas shopping. Soon he is eyeing the rows of dolls wrapped in plastic bags on a wooden table as he searches for gifts for his four children.

A bouquet of inflatable Santa toys tied to a nearby tree bobs in the air at this outdoor market in the seaside capital as he makes his picks.

It looks a lot like Christmas in Senegal, where 95 percent of the 12.8 million residents are Muslim. Even the Grande Mosquee, a mosque that dominates the city's skyline, is aglow in holiday lights.

"When they go to school, the children learn about Santa," says Lo, wearing a flowing olive green robe known as a boubou. "We are born into the Senegalese tradition of cohabitation between Muslims and Christians. What is essential is the respect between people."

Senegal, a moderate country along Africa's western coast, has long been a place where Christians and Muslims have coexisted peacefully. Most Christians here are Catholic and live in the south of country and in the capital.

Hadim Thiam, 30, normally sells shoes but during December he's expanded to an elaborate spread of tinsel, cans of spray snow and fireworks.

"It's not linked to God. It's for the children," says Jean Mouss, 55, a Christian out shopping for holiday decorations at Thiam's stand. "We wish Muslims a Merry Christmas and invite them into our homes for the holiday."

Signs of Christmas are prevalent in this tropical seaside capital.

Green and flocked plastic trees of every size are sold on street corners alongside Nescafe carts and vendors splitting open coconuts. "My First Christmas" baby sleepers are folded neatly on the top of the piles of second-hand clothing for sale on the streets. There are French "buches de Noel" and chocolate snowmen for sale in the upscale patisseries.

At lunchtime, a chorus of schoolchildren singing "Silent Night" echoes across a courtyard. The main cathedral is now a spectacle of lights each night — no easy feat for a city often subjected to power cuts.

Still, not everyone in Senegal thinks embracing Christmas is all in good cheer. Mouhamed Seck, a Quranic teacher and imam for a mosque in a Dakar suburb, says taking part in the holiday is supporting a non-Muslim's religion.

"Islam forbids Muslims from taking part in these festivities," he says.

Parents who celebrate Christmas, though, say it's a secular time to celebrate with their families on a national holiday.

"To make my two children happy, I buy gifts for them and ask their mother to prepare a very hearty meal but we don't go to Mass," says Oumar Fall, 46, who has a 10-year-old and a 13-year-old.

Santa Claus, known in this former French colony as Pere Noel, also makes the rounds at upscale shopping centers and grocery stores in the weeks before Christmas.

Mamadou Sy, 40, had been working at a hotel in Morocco until his visa recently expired. Now back in Senegal, he's making extra money this December as a Santa at the seaside Magicland amusement park.

Like children everywhere, some are frightened by him, but most just want pictures — and presents.

"Senegal is a unique case where 5 percent of the country is Christian," he says, seeking shade while wearing his red fur costume and hat. "Christians celebrate Muslim holidays and Muslims celebrate Christian holidays."

The tradition even extends to Senegalese schools. Therese Angelique Soumare's students all get together for a Christmas party the weekend before the holiday with their parents. The teachers put presents under a tree and Santa Claus shows up to hand them out.

"Everyone celebrates because it's for the children. Here in Senegal we are good neighbors," she says as she picks out gifts for the party. "We sing, we dance and we love seeing the children's joy."

___

Associated Press writer Sadibou Marone contributed to this report.

DUI charge: Jan. 4 court date for Idaho Sen. Crapo

DUI charge: Jan. 4 court date for Idaho Sen. Crapo

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A conservative U.S. senator from Idaho who has said he doesn't drink because of his Mormon faith has been charged with drunken driving.

Sen. Michael Crapo, a three-term Republican with a reputation as a social and fiscal conservative, registered a blood alcohol content of .11 percent after police pulled his car over in this suburb south of Washington, D.C., authorities said.

The 61-year-old lawmaker, who faces a court date Jan. 4, apologized in a statement issued hours after his arrest early Sunday.

"I am deeply sorry for the actions that resulted in this circumstance," Crapo said in the statement Sunday night. "I made a mistake for which I apologize to my family, my Idaho constituents and any others who have put their trust in me. I accept total responsibility and will deal with whatever penalty comes my way in this matter."

He also said he would take measures to ensure "this circumstance is never repeated."

Crapo, who was elected in 1998 and is in his third Senate term, is expected to take over the top Republican spot next year on the Senate Banking Committee. He also serves on the Senate's budget and finance panels and has been active on environmental and health issues. Crapo was a member of the so-called "Gang of Six" senators that worked in 2011 toward a deficit-reduction deal that was never adopted by Congress. He also served for six years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Police in the suburb of Alexandria said Crapo was stopped early Sunday after his vehicle ran a red light. Police spokesman Jody Donaldson said Crapo failed field sobriety tests and was arrested at about 12:45 a.m. Sunday He was taken to the Alexandria jail and released on an unsecured $1,000 bond at about 5 a.m. Sunday.

"There was no refusal (to take blood alcohol tests), no accident, no injuries," Donaldson said. "Just a traffic stop that resulted in a DUI."

Police said Crapo, who was alone in his vehicle, registered a blood alcohol level of .11 percent. The legal limit in Virginia, which has strict drunken driving laws, is .08 percent.

In Virginia, the driver's license of anyone who registers a blood alcohol level of .08 percent or higher is automatically suspended for seven days. A first-time conviction for DUI carries a mandatory, minimum $250 fine and license revocation for one year, according to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

A Crapo spokesman declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding the arrest.

Crapo had told The Associated Press in past interviews that he abstains from drinking alcohol.

A Mormon who grew up in Idaho Falls, Idaho, Crapo was named a bishop in the church at age 31. He is an attorney who graduated from Brigham Young University and Harvard Law School. He has five children with his wife, Susan, and three grandchildren.

The Mormon church prohibits the use of alcohol, as well as coffee, tea and other substances. About one-quarter of Idaho residents are Mormon.

___

Associated Press writers Norman Gomlak in Atlanta and Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

Santa trackers show old Saint Nick moving west

Santa trackers show old Saint Nick moving west
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PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) — Volunteers at a Colorado Air Force base monitoring maps showing Santa Claus' progress have answered more than 41,000 phone calls from children asking about the jolly old elf.

Phones have been ringing nonstop Monday at Peterson Air Force Base, headquarters of the North American Aerospace Command's annual Santa-tracking operation.

Hundreds of helpers at NORAD are taking calls and tracking Santa's location on large projection screens. They're posting updates for nearly 1.2 million Facebook fans and more than 120,000 Twitter followers.

The maps show Santa is nearing Denmark on his journey west. NORAD says he has delivered more than 3.5 billion presents so far.

The volunteers started taking calls at 4 a.m. Mountain time and will keep updating until 3 a.m. on Christmas morning.

Serpico: Pacino played me better than I did

Serpico: Pacino played me better than I did

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police whistle-blower Frank Serpico says Al Pacino played him better than he did himself.

Pacino played the detective who exposed widespread police corruption in the 1973 movie "Serpico." The Daily News (http://nydn.us/RMNYcB ) interviewed the real-life Serpico in Ghent, in New York's Hudson Valley, for a story published Sunday.

The 76-year-old retiree spoke weeks after the death of fellow whistle-blowing ex-detective David Durk.

Serpico smiled as an interviewer noted he is ranked No. 41, just behind Lassie, on the American Film Institute's list of movie heroes. He says that's "good company."

The newspaper says Serpico keeps busy trying to finish a book and taking solitary walks.

Serpico and Durk's efforts resulted in front-page newspaper stories and a city panel that recommended reforms to prevent police corruption.

Catholic Church urges Irish to oppose abortion law

Catholic Church urges Irish to oppose abortion law

DUBLIN (Reuters) - The head of Ireland's Catholic Church urged followers in his Christmas Day message to lobby against government plans to legalize abortion.

Ireland, the only EU member state that currently outlaws the procedure, is preparing legislation that would allow limited access to abortion after the European Court of Human Rights criticized the current regime.

The death last month of an Indian woman who was denied an abortion of her dying foetus and later died of blood poisoning has intensified the debate around abortion, which remains a hugely divisive subject in the predominantly Catholic country.

"I hope that everyone who believes that the right to life is fundamental will make their voice heard in a reasonable, but forthright, way to their representatives," Cardinal Sean Brady said in a Christmas message on Tuesday.

"No government has the right to remove that right from an innocent person."

Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, a regular Mass goer, is bringing in legislation that would allow a woman to have an abortion if her life was at risk from pregnancy.

The country's Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that abortion was permitted when a woman's life was at risk but successive governments have avoided legislating for it because it is so divisive.

The death of Savita Halappanavar, who repeatedly asked for an abortion while she was miscarrying in an Irish hospital, highlighted the lack of clarity in Irish law that leaves doctors in a legally risky position.

Halappanavar's death re-ignited the abortion debate and prompted large protests by groups both in favor of and against abortion.

Kenny and his conservative Fine Gael party have been criticized for tackling the abortion issue and some party members have indicated that they may not be able to back the law.

Relations between the Irish government and the once dominant Catholic Church are at an all-time low in the wake of years of clerical sex abuse scandals.

Kenny told parliament last year that the Vatican's handling of the scandals had been dominated by "elitism and narcissism" and accused it of trying to cover up the abuse. The speech prompted the Vatican to recall its ambassador, or nuncio, to Ireland.

Brady, who has faced calls this year to resign over accusations he failed to warn parents their children were being sexually abused, said in his Christmas message that he wanted relations with government to improve.

"My hope is that the year ahead will see the relationship between faith and public life in our country move beyond the sometimes negative, exaggerated caricatures of the past."

(Reporting by Carmel Crimmins; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Bolivia's Morales visits Cuba after Chavez surgery

Bolivia's Morales visits Cuba after Chavez surgery

HAVANA (AP) — Bolivian President Evo Morales has made a lightning trip to Havana where key ally Hugo Chavez is convalescing after cancer surgery.

Morales did not speak to foreign journalists during his weekend visit. Cuban state-run media didn't confirm that he visited Chavez, but said he came "to express his support" for the Venezuelan president. The Cuban government had invited media to cover Morales' arrival Saturday and departure Sunday but withdrew the invitation with no explanation.

Photos released by Cuban media showed President Raul Castro greeting Morales at the airport in Havana.

Morales aides said Monday he planned to make a statement later about Chavez.

Chavez underwent on Dec. 11 his fourth cancer-related operation since last year, two months after winning reelection to a six-year term. Venezuelan officials say his condition is stable.

Airbus coming to Mobile named Ala. top 2012 story

Airbus coming to Mobile named Ala. top 2012 story

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- The decision by European aircraft manufacturer Airbus to build commercial aircraft in Mobile is Alabama's top news story for 2012.

The Airbus announcement was a happy reversal for Alabama, which initially lost a chance at an aircraft plant. The company's announcement came about a year after officials were left disappointed that Air Force tankers wouldn't be built in Mobile.

Airbus's announcement tops The Associated Press list of top stories in Alabama for a year that also saw the return of former Republican Chief Justice Roy Moore to his old position.

In other big stories, two former Auburn University football players were among the three killed in a shooting that sparked a huge manhunt in central Alabama.

And the owner of the VictoryLand casino was among those acquitted on corruption charges.

Chilling emergency audio from NY fire, shooting

Chilling emergency audio from NY fire, shooting
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WEBSTER, N.Y. (AP) — Emergency radio communications capture someone saying he "could see the muzzle flash coming at me" as a New York state gunman ambushed firefighters responding to a blaze he had set to trap them.

The audio draws a chilling picture of the attack police say William Spengler carried out Monday morning in the Lake Ontario community of Webster.

The audio posted on the website RadioReference.com has someone reporting "firefighters are down" and saying "got to be rifle or shotgun."

Spengler set a blaze to lure the firefighters into his ambush. He killed two and wounded two other firefighters and an off-duty police officer before killing himself.

Jupiter, Moon Align in Christmas Skywatching Treat

Jupiter, Moon Align in Christmas Skywatching Treat
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On Christmas night, December 25,…

As darkness falls on Christmas night, check out the east-southeast sky. Shining brilliantly to the upper left of the bright, nearly full moon will be a silvery "star" with a steady glow.

But that's not a star, or Santa returning to the North Pole. Rather, it's the largest planet in our solar system, Jupiter, serving as a sort of holiday ornament with Earth's nearest neighbor to cap off a year of interesting skwyatching events.   

As viewed from the eastern and central United States, the moon and Jupiter will appear closest together during the late afternoon or early evening hours on Tuesday (Dec. 25). From New York, they’ll be closest together at 6:25 p.m. EST (2325 GMT); from Chicago, it’ll be 5:18 p.m. local time (2318 GMT).

Jupiter will appear just a bit over one-half degree from the limb of the moon. (One-half degree is roughly equal to the moon’s apparent width). In the western United States, the closest approach will come before sunset, but moon and planet will still appear to be quite close together as darkness falls. [Video: Jupiter and the Moon Converge on Christmas] 

The pair will be slowly separating as Tuesday night shifts to Wednesday morning; the moon moves across the sky at roughly its own diameter each hour. 

Jupiter will remain a bold light high in the east-southeast at nightfall. This week, it doesn't set in the west until around 5 a.m. local time. Appearing brighter than any nighttime star, Jupiter is now levitating in front of the constellation Taurus (the Bull), not far from the famous V-shaped Hyades star cluster and despite the nearby presence of the orange 1st-magnitude star, Aldebaran, which fills this region of the sky with overbearing brightness. 

What kind of telescopic observation can be made of the gas giant now? Almost every kind. From mid-northern latitudes you can even watch a full rotation of Jupiter, with the cloud features of every longitude displayed, during a single nightlong vigil. And as always, a fascinating dance of Jupiter's four large Galilean satellites will await viewers on any night who watch with a small telescope or even steadily held binoculars.

As darkness falls over the eastern U.S. on Tuesday, you'll see two Jupiter moons — Ganymede and Callisto — on one side of the giant planet, while a third, Europa, hovers by itself on the other side. 

As the evening progresses, Ganymede and Europa will gradually pull away from Jupiter. Then, at 7:15 p.m. EST (0015 GMT Wednesday), the fourth Galilean satellite, Io, will emerge from Jupiter's shadow and appear on the side of the planet occupied by Europa. 

Slowly, as Tuesday night wears on, Io will become easier to see as it moves away from Jupiter and toward Europa. At 11:40 p.m. EST (0440 GMT Wednesday), you’ll see Io passing Europa. 

And Jupiter itself will continue to be a great target throughout the entire winter season for those who got binoculars or a telescope as a holiday gift.

Joe Rao serves as an instructor and guest lecturer at New York's Hayden Planetarium. He writes about astronomy for The New York Times and other publications, and he is also an on-camera meteorologist for News 12 Westchester, New York. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook & Google+. 

Night Sky: Visible Planets, Moon Phases & Events, December 2012 Geminid Meteors And Visible Asteroids: December Skywatching | Video 6 Stellar Places for Skywatching in the US Copyright 2012 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Find room for God in fast-paced world, pope says on Christmas eve

Find room for God in fast-paced world, pope says on Christmas eve

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, leading the world's Roman Catholics into Christmas, on Monday urged people to find room for God in their fast-paced lives filled with the latest technological gadgets.

The 85-year-old pope, marking the eighth Christmas season of his pontificate, celebrated a solemn Christmas Eve mass in St Peter's Basilica, during which he appealed for a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and an end to the civil war in Syria.

At the mass for some 10,000 people in the basilica and broadcast to millions of others on television, the pope wove his homily around the theme of God's place in today's modern world.

"Do we have time and space for him? Do we not actually turn away God himself? We begin to do so when we have no time for him," said the pope, wearing gold and white vestments.

"The faster we can move, the more efficient our time-saving appliances become, the less time we have. And God? The question of God never seems urgent. Our time is already completely full," he said.

The leader of the world's some 1.2 billion Roman Catholics said societies had reached the point where many people's thinking processes did not leave any room even for the existence of God.

"Even if he seems to knock at the door of our thinking, he has to be explained away. If thinking is to be taken seriously, it must be structured in such a way that the 'God hypothesis' becomes superfluous," he said.

"There is no room for him. Not even in our feelings and desires is there any room for him. We want ourselves. We want what we can seize hold of, we want happiness that is within our reach, we want our plans and purposes to succeed. We are so 'full' of ourselves that there is no room left for God."

PEACE CANDLE

Bells inside and outside the basilica chimed when the pope said "Glory to God in the Highest," the words the gospels say the angels sang at the moment of Jesus' birth.

Earlier on Monday the pope appeared at the window of his apartments in the apostolic palace and lit a peace candle, as a larger-than-life nativity scene was unveiled in St Peter's Square below.

Reflecting on the gospel account of Jesus born in a stable because there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn, he said when people find no room for God in their lives, they will soon find no room for others.

"Let us ask the Lord that we may become vigilant for his presence, that we may hear how softly yet insistently he knocks at the door of our being and willing.

"Let us ask that we may make room for him within ourselves, that we may recognise him also in those through whom he speaks to us: children, the suffering, the abandoned, those who are excluded and the poor of this world," he said.

He asked for prayers for the people who "live and suffer" in the Holy Land today.

The pope called for peace among Israelis and Palestinians and for the people of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq and prayed that "Christians in those lands where our faith was born may be able to continue living there, that Christians and Muslims may build up their countries side-by-side in God's peace."

The Vatican is concerned about the exodus from the Middle East of Christians, many of whom leave because they fear for their safety. Christians now comprise five percent of the population of the region, down from 20 percent a century ago.

According to some estimates, the current population of 12 million Christians in the Middle East could halve by 2020 if security and birth rates continue to decline.

At noon (1100 GMT/6 AM ET) the pope will deliver his twice-yearly "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) blessing and message from the central balcony of St Peter's Basilica.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; Editing by Myra MacDonald)

Memorial service for Sen. Inouye held in Hawaii

Memorial service for Sen. Inouye held in Hawaii
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HONOLULU (AP) — The late Sen. Daniel Inouye was remembered Sunday as an American hero whose legacy as a war veteran and longtime senator would be felt across Hawaii for years to come.

The memorial service at Honolulu's National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific was attended by about 1,000 people, including President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Hawaii's congressional delegation and a number of other senators, cabinet secretaries and other dignitaries.

"Daniel was the best senator among us all," Reid told those assembled, adding later: "Whenever we needed a noble man to lean on, we turned to Sen. Dan Inouye. He was fearless."

The cemetery, a strikingly beautiful site located in an extinct volcano, is the final resting place to thousands of World War II veterans. More than 400 members of the storied Japanese-American 442nd Regimental Combat Team — of which Inouye was a part — are buried at the site.

Adm. Samuel Locklear, commander of the Navy's U.S. Pacific Command, said this also will be Inouye's final resting place.

"We have lost an irreplaceable American," he said.

Several 442nd veterans attended the Sunday morning service, the latest in a number of tributes and honors for Inouye following the 88-year-old's Dec. 17 death from respiratory complications.

Buses that brought people to the service flashed the words "MAHALO Senator Daniel K. Inouye" — using the Hawaiian word for thank you.

A 19-gun cannon salute was fired as Inouye's coffin arrived at the cemetery. The service also featured a flyover by F-22 military jets and the playing of "Taps" by Democratic Sen. Jon Tester of Montana.

Inouye's widow, Irene, who was seated with the president and first lady Michelle Obama in the front row, dabbed her eyes as a band of bagpipes and drums band played "Danny Boy."

Inouye was the first Japanese-American elected to both houses of Congress and the second-longest serving senator in U.S. history, at 50 years.

He was a high school senior in Honolulu on Dec. 7, 1941, when he watched dozens of Japanese planes fly toward Pearl Harbor and other Oahu military bases to begin a bombing that changed the course of world events.

He volunteered for a special U.S. Army unit of Japanese-Americans and lost his right arm in a battle with Germans in Italy. That scratched his dream of becoming a surgeon and he went to law school and into politics instead.

"He was a shining star of the greatest generation," fellow Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Akaka said at the service.

Akaka, who served with Inouye for 36 years, also highlighted Inouye's role in steering federal money to build roads, schools, housing and other infrastructure in Hawaii over the decades, from the beginning of statehood.

"Dan Inouye is Hawaii, and Hawaii is Dan Inouye," Akaka said.

Inouye's chief of staff, Jennifer Sabas, said Inouye was calm, in control and giving out instructions until the very end. Then, "he penned 'aloha,' and went on to a better place," she said.

"Aloha, boss," she said in closing, as she stood beside his flag-draped coffin.

Several services have already been held in Washington and in Hawaii for Inouye. He lay in state at both the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Thursday and the Hawaii state Capitol on Saturday. A public service is planned for Friday on Kauai. His burial is expected to be a private, family event.

Obama eulogized Inouye during a service at Washington's National Cathedral on Friday, saying that Inouye's presence during the Watergate hearings helped show him what could be possible in his own life.

The president arrived early Saturday in Honolulu for his annual Christmas family vacation. He made a brief visit to the grave of his grandfather, World War II veteran Stanley Dunham, after Sunday's service.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly and Anita Hofschneider contributed to this report.

Contact Becky Bohrer at https://twitter.com/beckybohrerap

NRA’s LaPierre slams critics of school gun plan

NRA’s LaPierre slams critics of school gun plan

LaPierre speaks at Friday's press conference. (Getty)

Two days after suggesting a "good guy with a gun" be stationed at every school in the country in response to the deadly shootings in Newtown, Conn., National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre blasted critics of his plan.

In an interview broadcast on Sunday's "Meet The Press," LaPierre reiterated the statements he made Friday at a press conference in Washington, when he said the answer to preventing shootings like the one at Sandy Hook Elementary Sch00l is armed security in every school--in effect, protecting children with guns.

“If it’s crazy to call for putting police in and securing our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," LaPierre said. “I think the American people think it’s crazy not to do it."

At one point during the often contentious exchange, host David Gregory held up a high-capacity magazine clip that carries 30 bullets, asking if the NRA would support a federal limit on the capacity of such clips.

"Isn't it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?" Gregory asked.

"I don't believe that's going to make one difference," LaPierre responded.

"You're telling me that it's not a matter of common sense that if you don't have an ability to shoot off 30 rounds without reloading, that, just possibly, you could reduce the loss of life?" Gregory asked.

"I don't buy your argument for a minute," LaPierre said. "There are so many different ways to evade that, even if you had that."

“Is there no new gun regulation you would support?” an exasperated Gregory asked. LaPierre refused to answer.

At Friday's press conference, LaPierre--who did not take questions from reporters--argued that had someone at the school been armed, "innocent lives might have been spared."

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," he said.