Taliban announce start of spring offensive

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban have announced they will launch their spring offensive on Sunday, signaling plans to step up attacks as the weather warms across Afghanistan, making both travel and fighting easier.

The statement comes toward the end of a month that already has been the deadliest of the year.

The militant group's leadership vowed on Saturday that "every possible tactic will be utilized in order to detain or inflict heavy casualties on the foreign transgressors," including suicide attacks on military bases and diplomatic areas.

The leadership also threated more so-called insider attacks by members of the Afghan security forces against their colleagues or foreign troops. Such attacks threaten the strength of the Afghan forces as they work to take over responsibility from international troops. The latest one occurred in March, when a member of Afghanistan's government-backed militia program shot and killed five of his colleagues in Badghis province in northwest Afghanistan.

In a sign of Taliban's determination to replace Afghanistan's government with one promoting a stricter interpretation of Islamic law, they named their new offensive after a legendary Muslim military commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid. Also known as "the Drawn Sword of God," he was a companion of Islam's Prophet Muhammad.

Afghanistan's defense ministry responded by saying its security forces are prepared for Taliban's new campaign. "The Afghan National Army is ready to neutralize the offensive," the ministry said, adding that the soldiers now have the support and trust of many Afghans.

In another development, a NATO aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, and coalition forces were securing the site, the International Security Assistance Force said. Its brief statement provided no information about where the crash occurred or if there were casualties, but did say there was no indication it was downed by insurgents.

Mohammad Jan Rasoulyar, deputy governor of the southern Zabul province, said a helicopter belonging to foreign forces crashed on Saturday afternoon in the district of Shah Joy. He confirmed that the site was surrounded by foreign forces but had no information on the cause of the crash or whether anyone was hurt or killed.

The new Taliban offensive comes as U.S.-backed efforts to try to reconcile the Islamic militant movement with the Afghan government have so far failed. Insurgents already have intensified attacks this spring as they try to position themselves for power ahead of national elections and the planned withdrawal of most U.S. and other foreign combat troops by the end of 2014.

April has already been the worst month for combat deaths so far this year. According to an Associated Press tally, 257 people ? including civilians, Afghan security forces and foreign troops ? have been killed in violence around the nation. During that time 217 insurgents have died.

Last year during the month of April, 179 civilians, foreign troops and Afghan security forces were killed and 268 insurgents.

Still, the top U.S. commander in Kabul, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, said Wednesday that the security situation has improved across the country, with Afghan forces now leading 80 percent of all conventional operations.

"As the traditional fighting season begins, the insurgency will confront a combined " Afghan force of 350,000 soldiers and police, he said.

"The insurgency can no longer use the justification that it is fighting foreign occupiers ? that message rings hollow," Dunford said in a statement.

Meanwhile, late on Friday, the Taliban freed nine civilian de-miners it had captured in the southern province of Kandahar after negotiations involving tribal elders, provincial spokesman Javeed Faisal said.

The Afghan men were being driven back from a minefield last Sunday when they were captured. Afghanistan has a legacy of land mines going back decades and remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world.

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AP writer Rahim Faiez in Kabul contributed to this report.

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Follow Thomas Wagner on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/tjpwagner.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-announce-start-spring-offensive-073230771.html

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Boeing Dreamliner Flights Resume (Voice Of America)

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2 engineers detained in Bangla building collapse

SAVAR, Bangladesh (AP) ? Police say they have detained for questioning two engineers involved in approving the design of an 8-story building with garment factories that collapsed this week, killing at least 324 people.

Police said the two men, Imtemam Hossain and Alam Ali, were detained on Saturday. They did not say what role they played in approving the design of the building, which had three floors added to it illegally. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to the media. Two owners of one of the several garment factories in the building were also arrested, and the wife of the building's owner detained in an attempt to pressure her husband to surrender to the police.

Military spokesman Shahinul Islam said 324 bodies have been recovered and 2,419 survivors accounted for since the collapse of the building on Wednesday morning.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-engineers-detained-bangla-building-collapse-074112693.html

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Gunmen kill 10 in Philippine political violence

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Gunmen ambushed political campaigners for a southern Philippine town mayor, killing his daughter and nine other supporters and relatives, police said Friday. The mayor and eight other people were wounded.

Nunungan Mayor Abdul Manamparan and his supporters were riding on a truck when they were ambushed late Thursday on a remote mountain road as they headed back to the town center following a campaign rally, said Lanao del Norte provincial police chief Gerardo Rosales.

About 15 unidentified gunmen carried out the attack, Rosales said. Police investigators suspect the gunmen belong to a rival clan.

Manamparan, whose term as mayor ends this year, is running for vice mayor in next month's elections.

Rosales said Manamparan's daughter, Adnanie, and two relatives were among those killed. Two relatives, including a 15-year-old girl, were among the wounded.

A police report said an officer serving as the mayor's bodyguard was also wounded as he fought off the attackers with an M16 rifle before soldiers and policemen arrived.

Election season violence is common in the Philippines. In 2009, 58 people, including 32 journalists, were massacred by alleged followers of a powerful southern provincial clan in the country's worst political violence.

Last week, communist rebels ambushed the convoy of southern Gingoog City Mayor Ruth Guingona, wife of former Vice President Teofisto Guingona, killing two of her aides and wounding her and a police escort.

The New People's Army apologized for harming the mayor and her party but said her bodyguards fired at a rebel checkpoint, prompting them to return fire.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-kill-10-philippine-political-violence-031455539.html

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From hackers to security experts, the Balkan IT sector is booming

By Radu Marinas and Tsvetelia Tsolova

BUCHAREST/SOFIA (Reuters) - After hacking the Pentagon, NASA and Britain's Royal Navy for fun, TinKode got a real job as a computer security expert for a Romanian cyber safety consultancy.

TinKode was the name used by Romanian Razvan Cernaianu when he revealed security holes in government and corporate systems across the world, earning him a two-year suspended prison sentence.

"I was really passionate about carrying out what I call security audits," Cernaianu told Reuters "It's a hobby, so I did it for free. Moreover, I've always sent emails to those institutions to fix their problems."

Cernaianu, 21, is an example of a deep well of talent in Romania and Bulgaria. They may be the European Union's two poorest members, but their low labor costs, skilled workers and strategic location are underpinning a technology boom.

Multinational companies are using their expertise for customer support, software development and business process outsourcing. Oracle, SAP, IBM, Hewlett Packard and Siemens all have business centers or operations in the region.

Romania-founded GeCaD developed Microsoft's RAV antivirus software and Bucharest-based Softwin created BitDefender internet security technology more than a decade ago, reaching half a billion users worldwide last year.

The expertise is partly accidental - in the 1980s, Romania's communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu backed computer research and technical education to promote pride in the nation. Piracy flourished after the 1989 revolution as people who could not afford proprietary content bought cheap copies instead.

EXCEPTIONAL GROWTH

On the other side of the Danube, Bulgaria's communists focused on hardware, at one point producing and supplying 40 percent of all computers used in the Soviet bloc.

The tech sector accounts for up to 10 percent of the two economies, according to business associations - a rare bright spot in the recession-hit Balkan region.

Growth of the Romanian and Bulgarian IT sectors far outpaced the rest of ex-communist Europe, jumping by 45 percent and 80 percent respectively since their 2007 EU entry. Meanwhile, the tech sectors in Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic each grew by about 20 percent.

Romania's tech sector achieved year-on-year growth of 40 percent in the final quarter of 2012, which helped the country to avoid slipping back into recession.

Cernaianu, one of the world's most-wanted hackers until his arrest last year after a joint investigation by Romanian police, the FBI and NASA, now has a well-paid job and is co-owner of computer network security company CyberSmartDefence.

But the dirty side of the expertise still lingers.

Working from a tidy desk in a downtown Bucharest office, Cernaianu is from the same generation as the youngsters responsible for the Romanian town of Ramnicu Valcea becoming known as a global hacking hub.

Romanian hackers stole about $1 billion from U.S. accounts in 2012, according to the U.S. embassy in Bucharest. A report by Verizon this week said that Romania is the world's second-biggest hacking center behind China.

The FBI has even set up an office in Romania and helped to train specialist police agents.

Cernaianu says he never attacked a computer to steal money.

"We won't hire thieves," said CyberSmartDefence CEO Madalin Dumitru. "We're not afraid of such people (as Cernaianu); we use their intelligence and expertise."

BRAIN DRAIN

The investment in business outsourcing has created an estimated 15,000 jobs in Bulgaria, where an otherwise depressed economy has sparked nationwide protests that toppled the government in February.

"Why would you choose Bulgaria? Because it offers complex outsourcing and high-end software solutions," said Plamen Tilev, managing director of SAP Labs Bulgaria, which develops core software for the Germany company. "For low-end solutions, like code writing and checking, you'd go to east Asian countries."

The biggest fear is that Romania and Bulgaria become victims of their own success and suffer a brain drain. Tens of thousands of Romanians and Bulgarians have already left to work as IT specialists in the United States.

The populations of the two countries have plunged in the past decade and companies are pushing the governments to improve education, train more engineers and make it easier to bring in workers from neighbors such as Moldova, Serbia, Macedonia and Ukraine.

"There has been zero unemployment in the sector in the past 10 years," said Elena Marinova, who runs software business Musala Soft, which is now struggling to find qualified staff despite salaries about three times the national average.

Bulgarian universities produce about 2,000 IT specialists a year, but the industry says it creates 6,000 jobs a year in the country.

"The software industry is struggling to breathe because of the lack of people," said Petar Statev, head of the Bulgarian business association ICT Cluster.

(Editing by Sam Cage and David Goodman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hackers-security-experts-balkan-sector-booming-133718919.html

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This Book Trailer Is Better Than Most Movie Trailers

"A Delicate Truth," the new book from "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" author John le Carré, hit shelves today in the UK and got one hell of a film-quality book trailer to celebrate the occasion. Also, Deadline reported today "Departed" scribe William Monahan has already been hired to adapt it into a screenplay. You can check [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/25/delicate-truth-le-carre-trailer/

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Apple to dole out $100B to shareholders

NEW YORK (AP) ? Apple is opening the doors to its bank vault, saying it will distribute $100 billion in cash to its shareholders by the end of 2015. At the same time, the company said revenue for the current quarter could fall from the year before, which would be the first decline in many years.

Apple CEO Tim Cook also suggested that the company won't release any new products until the fall, contrary to expectations that there would be a new iPhone and iPads out this summer.

Apple Inc. on Tuesday said it will expand its share buyback program to $60 billion ? the largest buyback authorization in history. It is also raising its dividend by 15 percent from $2.65 to $3.05 per share. That equates to a dividend yield of 3 percent at current stock prices. The average yield for the 20 largest dividend-paying companies in the U.S. is 3.1 percent, according to Standard & Poor's.

Investors have been clamoring for Apple to give them access to its cash hoard, which ended March at an unprecedented $145 billion. Apple's tight grip on its cash, along with the lack of ground-breaking new products has been blamed for the steep decline in its stock price over the winter.

News of the cash bonanza coincided with the company's release of a poor quarterly outlook for the three-month period that ends in June.

Apple released its fiscal second quarter earnings after the stock market closed Tuesday. The company's stock initially rose 5 percent to $425 in extended trading, then retreated $2.63, or 0.7 percent, to $403.50 as the CEO talked about new products arriving in the fall.

The shares are still down 40 percent from a peak of $705.07 hit on Sept. 21, when the iPhone 5 went on sale.

"The decline in Apple's stock price over the last couple of quarters has been very frustrating for all of us ... but we'll continue to do what we do best," CEO Tim Cook said on a conference call with analysts after the release of the results. But he reinforced that the company's job is not to boost its stock price in the short term.

"The most important objective for Apple will always be creating innovative products," he added.

Apple's results beat the consensus estimate of analysts who follow the company, though it posted its first profit decline in ten years.

Net income was $9.5 billion, or $10.09 per share, down 18 percent from $11.6 billion, or $12.30 per share, in the same period a year ago.

Revenue was $43.6 billion, up 11 percent from last year's $39.2 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings of $9.97 per share on revenue of $42.3 billion, according to FactSet.

For the quarter that just started, Apple said it expects sales of $33.5 billion to $35.5 billion. In the same quarter last year, sales were $35 billion. Wall Street was expecting sales of $38 billion.

The June quarter is generally a weak one for Apple, since consumers tend to wait for the next iPhone, which the company usually releases in the fall. But a year-over-year decline is a signal that Apple is failing to capitalize on the continued growth of smartphone sales. Sales are tapering off in U.S. and other mature markets, and not many consumers in India and China can afford iPhones.

"Our fiscal 2012 results were incredibly strong and that's making comparisons very difficult this year," said Cook.

Apple shipped 37.4 million iPhones in the latest quarter, up 7 percent from a year ago. That confounded expectations that shipments might fall, but it was still a weak number compared to many previous quarters, when shipments doubled year over year. The average wholesale price of an iPhone also fell to $613 as Apple cut the price of its oldest model, the iPhone 4, to appeal to buyers in developing countries.

Apple started paying a dividend last summer and has been buying back a modest number of shares, enough to balance the dilution created by its employee stock option program but not to make a dent in its cash pile. The company says it's now expanding the buybacks, which started in October and are set to run till the end of 2015, from $10 billion to $60 billion. It's raising the quarterly dividend starting with the payment due May 16.

The company has faced continued pressure from Wall Street over the use of its cash, which earns less than 1 percent in interest. Investors reason that if the company has no better use for the money, it should be handing it over to shareholders. The company had said it was considering ways to use the money, and this year engaged in a public debate with a hedge fund manager who wanted it to institute a new class of shares to attract dividend-loving investors.

Paradoxically, cash-flush Apple will be borrowing money to support the buybacks and dividends. That's because two-thirds of its cash resides in overseas accounts. It doesn't bring the money into the U.S. because it prefers not to pay U.S. corporate income taxes on it. Instead, it will be using cash from U.S.-derived revenue and U.S. accounts, plus borrowed money.

Apple is effectively betting that the U.S. federal corporate tax rate of 35 percent ? one of the highest in the world ? will come down in the future, or that there will be a tax repatriation amnesty period, as there was in 2004.

When a company starts doling out its cash to shareholders, it's usually a sign that its growth is stalling and it's finding it hard to identify good ways to invest in its own business. But Apple is still growing fast by the standards of large companies, and its cash pile-up is a reflection of the extraordinary success of the iPhone.

Compared to its earnings, Apple's stock price is low. In buying Apple stock, investors are paying $9.20 for every dollar of Apple's annual net income. By comparison, they're willing to pay $24 for every dollar of Google's profit.

That suggests investors have concluded Apple will never again launch a revolutionary product like the iPhone or iPad. The commitment to bigger buybacks may reinforce that impression, said David Tan, a Georgetown University assistant professor of strategy who focuses on technology.

"How are we going to read into what this move says about Apple's long-term prospects?" Tan said. "Does this mean this is all that Apple has left to offer or is this just something temporary while we wait for the next big thing from the company?"

Investors have grown increasingly frustrated with Apple. The company has only been releasing updates to its existing line of mobile devices and computers since Cook became CEO 20 months ago instead of blazing technological trails as it did with the iPod's 2001 unveiling, the iPhone's 2007 debut and the iPad's introduction in 2010, said Lauren Balter, an analyst for Oracle Investment Research. At the same time, Samsung Electronics has been gaining market share with larger smartphone screens and other features while Google Inc. is creating a buzz with its own Nexus tablets. Google is also expanding into "wearable computing" with Internet-connected glasses that are expected to go on sale late this year or early next year.

"The market is tired of the same old thing at Apple," Balter said. "Investors are looking for innovation. The reality is that people are looking at other products now and they are looking at other cool features from competitors."

Apple is rumored to be working on a "smart" watch and a revolutionary TV set, but it hasn't confirmed that. On Tuesday's call, Cook sounded slightly more open to making an iPhone with a larger screen, saying merely that Apple would not ship a phone with a larger screen as long as that meant tradeoffs in other measures of screen quality, like brightness.

Cross Research analyst Shannon Cross said now that Apple has laid out plans for its cash hoard, investor focus will shift back to Apple's upcoming products.

"What I am hoping is now that we have gotten through this, people will start focusing a little bit more on the fundamentals," Cross said. "And I think the fundamentals this quarter showed that demand remains strong for their products. I don't think the Apple brand has been diminished at all, based on the numbers we have seen."

___

AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this report from San Francisco.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-dole-100b-shareholders-204956582--finance.html

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Rand Paul Believes in Amazingly Broad Police Powers for a Libertarian

Since his anti-drone filibuster, Kentucky Sen.?Paul has been celebrated as the leader of the libertarian wing of the Republican Party. But there are limits to his belief in national security limits.

RELATED: This Is What a Filibuster Should Be

Indeed, his latest explanation of his objections to using drones on American soil shows he actually believes in incredibly broad police power. "Here's the distinction ??I have never argued against any technology being used against having an imminent threat, an act of crime going on," Paul told Fox Business Network Tuesday,?The Hill reports. "If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50 in cash, I don't care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him. But it's different if they want to come fly over your hot tub, or your yard just because they want to do surveillance on everyone, and they want to watch your activities."

RELATED: The Tale of Rand Paul's Drone Filibuster

Maybe you find it comforting that Paul opposes drones spying on Americans in hot tubs. But his example of a liquor store robber is unsettling. His hypothetical comes into play after a crime is committed, and not when innocent people are in danger ("comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and $50").?A policeman can use deadly force if he thinks his life is threatened. But a drone, by definition, cannot have its life threatened. A drone doesn't issue a verbal warning ? "Stop or I'll shoot!" ? or a warning shot. Most models for the?escalation of force has have several warning steps before firing.

RELATED: How to Make a Filibuster Cameo Cool ? and Work for You in 2016!

Watch Paul's interview here:

RELATED: Rand Paul Gets His Answer on Drones: 'No'

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rand-paul-believes-amazingly-broad-police-powers-libertarian-184544106.html

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ZTE licenses Microsoft's Android-related patents

Just last week Microsoft added Foxconn's parent company to its growing list of licensees for patents it asserts are key to Android, and now ZTE has inked a deal with Ballmer and Co. as well. Now that the pact is in place, Microsoft says it's struck patent accords with roughly 20 hardware makers, and that 60 percent of phones sold with Google's open source OS are covered by such licenses. With HTC and LG already paying Redmond royalties for devices using Android, that leaves the likes of Google, Motorola and Huawei as the odd manufacturers out. If Motorola has its way, however, that won't change.

Filed under: Mobile, Microsoft, Google

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Source: Reuters

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/HMOH5nryqzM/

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Fish was on the menu for early flying dinosaur

Tuesday, April 23, 2013

University of Alberta led research reveals that Microraptor, a small flying dinosaur was a complete hunter, able to swoop down and pickup fish as well as its previously known prey of birds and tree dwelling mammals.

U of A paleontology graduate student Scott Persons says new evidence of Microrpator's hunting ability came from fossilized remains in China. "We were very fortunate that this Microraptor was found in volcanic ash and its stomach content of fish was easily identified."

Prior to this, paleontologists believed microraptors which were about the size of a modern day hawk, lived in trees where they preyed exclusively on small birds and mammals about the size of squirrels.

"Now we know that Microraptor operated in varied terrain and had a varied diet," said Persons. "It took advantage of a variety of prey in the wet, forested environment that was China during the early Cretaceous period, 120 million years ago."

Further analysis of the fossil revealed that its teeth were adapted to catching slippery, wiggling prey like fish. Dinosaur researchers have established that most meat eaters had teeth with serrations on both sides which like a steak knife helped the predator saw through meat.

But the Microraptor's teeth are serrated on just one side and its teeth are angled forwards.

"Microraptor seems adapted to impale fish on its teeth. With reduced serrations the prey wouldn't tear itself apart while it struggled," said Persons. "Microraptor could simply raise its head back, the fish would slip off the teeth and be swallowed whole, no fuss no muss."

Persons likens the Microraptor's wing configuration to a bi-plane. "It had long feathers on its forearms, hind legs and tail," said Persons. "It was capable of short, controlled flights."

This is the first evidence of a flying raptor, a member of the Dromaeosaur family of dinosaurs to successfully prey on fish.

###

University of Alberta: http://www.ualberta.ca

Thanks to University of Alberta for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127861/Fish_was_on_the_menu_for_early_flying_dinosaur

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Emotional intelligence trumps IQ in dentist-patient relationship

Apr. 22, 2013 ? IQ directly relates to how students perform on tests in the first two years of dental school. But emotional intelligence (EI) trumps IQ in how well dental students work with patients, report researchers from Case Western Reserve University's School of Dental Medicine and Weatherhead School of Management.

EI influences how well dental students recognize and manage their emotions and professional relationships, explain Kristin Victoroff, DDS, PhD, and Richard Boyatzis, PhD, in the current issue of the Journal of Dental Education article, "What is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental School Clinical Performance?"

EI differs from IQ, which measures the ability to think and perform on tests. EI, also a form of intelligence, is the ability to read one's own moods and those of others, remain calm under pressure and be optimistic and adaptable to change.

"Emotional intelligence is distinct from traditional intelligence or IQ," said Boyatzis, a Distinguished University Professor and professor of organizational behavior, psychology and cognitive science. He developed the EI management model and coauthored a book series on how to use it in business. He added that people need both to be successful.

The study evolved from discussions by heath-care educators about whether EI should be used in the admissions process or as a measure in clinical practice.

Boyatzis explained that other standardized admissions tests are equally incapable of predicting success in other fields, like medicine and management. "Such tests predict grades in courses but not effectiveness in professions. This is the first test of this relationship in dentistry, and one of the clearest studies of the dynamics," he said.

Until now, no evidence was available to determine if EI had a connection to clinical education, said Victoroff, the associate dean for education and associate professor of community dentistry.

The highly competitive admission process to dental school involves high scores on academic and perceptual ability tests. But that could change as educators understand the important role of EI in patient care.

Educators questioned why some high-performing students in the classroom didn't fare as well in the clinic. Researchers wondered if EI was a factor.

Students at Case Western Reserve dental school were among the first in dentistry to see if EI impacted clinical successes, as it does in corporate management.

The researchers recruited third- and fourth-year students, who receive clinical training under the guidance of two preceptors (part-time faculty who are practicing community dentists) that assess clinical performance.

One hundred of the 136 students from the two classes participated. Students themselves plus other individuals they work with were asked to complete a 72-item questionnaire from the Emotional Competence Inventory-University. EI competencies are grouped in four areas: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness and relationship management.

Overall clinical performance was determined by averaging the preceptors' assessments of a student's overall clinical performance over several rating periods.

In determining a student's overall clinical performance, preceptors consider such factors as diagnosis and treatment planning skills, work ethic and time utilization, preparation and organization, professionalism, patient management, knowledge and technical skills and ability to self-assess one's work.

The analysis looked at the clinical grade and the EI assessment to see if there was a correlation between high EI scores and high clinical performance. The researchers ruled out the student's year in school and gender in the analysis after finding those factors made no significant differences.

Their findings showed that a high EI related to excellent clinical performance. The researchers found EI skills in self-management were significant predictors of clinical grades. Self-management skills involve self-control, achievement orientation, initiative, trustworthiness, conscientiousness, adaptability and optimism.

They did not find a strong EI-clinical association to self- and social-awareness.

EI scores for relationship management, which relates to the ability to influence others, were harder to determine due to the transient nature between the student dentist and patient during the two-year clinical training.

The researchers concluded that teaching EI competencies could better serve patients and help students succeed. They recommended future studies extend EI assessments to practicing dentists to determine EI's impact in the professional setting.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Kristin Zakariasen Victoroff and Richard E. Boyatzis. What Is the Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Dental Student Clinical Performance? Journal of Dental Education, 2013 [link]

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/ByWdRRzl-Mo/130422175714.htm

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Boston bombing suspect still hospitalized, guarded

Police officers stand near statues of former Boston Red Sox greats, from left, Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, the first game held in the city following the Boston Marathon explosions, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Boston. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, late Friday, after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Police officers stand near statues of former Boston Red Sox greats, from left, Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, the first game held in the city following the Boston Marathon explosions, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Boston. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, late Friday, after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

This Friday, April 19, 2013 image made available by the Massachusetts State Police shows 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, hiding inside a boat during a search for him in Watertown, Mass. He was pulled, wounded and bloody, from the boat parked in the backyard of a home in the Greater Boston area. (AP Photo/Massachusetts State Police)

An official wearing SWAT gear walks behind a fenced off area outside of Fenway Park during a baseball game between the Kansas City Royals and the Boston Red Sox, the first game held in the city following the Boston Marathon explosions, Saturday, April 20, 2013, in Boston. Police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect, late Friday, after a wild car chase and gun battle earlier in the day left his older brother dead. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

This Friday, April 19, 2013 image made available by the Massachusetts State Police shows 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, hiding inside a boat during a search for him in Watertown, Mass. He was pulled, wounded and bloody, from the boat parked in the backyard of a home in the Greater Boston area. (AP Photo/Massachusetts State Police)

This Friday, April 19, 2013 image made available by the Massachusetts State Police shows a police vehicle probing the boat where 19-year-old Boston Marathon bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was hiding in Watertown, Mass. He was pulled, wounded and bloody, from the boat parked in the backyard of a home in the Greater Boston area. (AP Photo/Massachusetts State Police)

BOSTON (AP) ? As the lone surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing lay hospitalized under heavy guard Saturday, the American Civil Liberties Union and a federal public defender raised concerns about investigators' plan to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev without reading him his Miranda rights.

What Tsarnaev will say and when are unclear ? he remained in serious condition and apparently in no shape for interrogation after being pulled bloody and wounded from a tarp-covered boat in a Watertown backyard. The capture came at the end of a tense Friday day that began with his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, dying in a gunbattle with police.

U.S. officials said an elite interrogation team would question the Massachusetts college student without reading him his Miranda rights, something that is allowed on a limited basis when the public may be in immediate danger, such as instances in which bombs are planted and ready to go off.

ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero said the legal exception applies only when there is a continued threat to public safety and is "not an open-ended exception" to the Miranda rule, which guarantees the right to remain silent and the right to an attorney.

The federal public defender's office in Massachusetts said it has agreed to represent Tsarnaev once he is charged. Miriam Conrad, public defender for Massachusetts, said he should have a lawyer appointed as soon as possible because there are "serious issues regarding possible interrogation."

There was no immediate word on when Tsarnaev might be charged and what those charges would be. The twin bombings killed three people and wounded more than 180.

The most serious charge available to federal prosecutors would be the use of a weapon of mass destruction to kill people, which carries a possible death sentence. Massachusetts does not have the death penalty.

President Barack Obama said there are many unanswered questions about the bombing, including whether the Tsarnaev brothers - ethnic Chechens from southern Russia who had been in the U.S. for about a decade and lived in the Boston area - had help from others. The president urged people not to rush judgment about their motivations.

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said Saturday afternoon that Tsarnaev was in serious but stable condition and was probably unable to communicate. Tsarnaev was at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where 11 victims of the bombing were still being treated.

"I, and I think all of the law enforcement officials, are hoping for a host of reasons the suspect survives," the governor said after a ceremony at Fenway Park to honor the victims and survivors of the attack. "We have a million questions, and those questions need to be answered."

The all-day manhunt Friday brought the Boston area to a near standstill and put people on edge across the metropolitan area.

The break came around nightfall when a homeowner in Watertown saw blood on his boat, pulled back the tarp and saw a bloody Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hiding inside, police said. After an exchange of gunfire, he was seized and taken away in an ambulance.

Raucous celebrations erupted in and around Boston, with chants of "USA! USA!" Residents flooded the streets in relief four days after the two pressure-cooker bombs packed with nails and other shrapnel went off.

Michael Spellman said he bought tickets to Saturday's Red Sox game at Fenway Park to help send a message to the bombers.

"They're not going to stop us from doing things we love to do," he said, sitting a few rows behind home plate. "We're not going to live in fear."

During the long night of violence leading up to the capture, the Tsarnaev brothers killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman and took part in a furious shootout and car chase in which they hurled explosives at police from a large homemade arsenal, authorities said.

"We're in a gunfight, a serious gunfight. Rounds are going and then all of the sudden they see something being thrown at them and there's a huge explosion," Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau said Saturday of the melee.

The chief said one of the explosives was the same type used during the Boston Marathon attack, and authorities later recovered a pressure cooker lid that had embedded in a car down the street. He said the suspects also tossed two grenades before Tamerlan ran out of ammunition and police tackled him.

But while handcuffing him, officers had to dive out of the way as Dzhokhar drove the carjacked Mercedes at them, Deveau said. The sport utility vehicle dragged Tamerlan's body down the block, he said. Police initially tracked the escaped suspect by a blood trail he left behind a house after abandoning the Mercedes, negotiating his surrender hours later after an area resident saw blood and found the suspect huddled in his boat.

Chechnya, where the Tsarnaev family has roots, has been the scene of two wars between Russian forces and separatists since 1994. That spawned an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings in Russia and the region, although not in the West.

Investigators have not offered a motive for the Boston attack. But in interviews with officials and those who knew the Tsarnaevs, a picture has emerged of the older one as someone embittered toward the U.S., increasingly vehement in his Muslim faith and influential over his younger brother.

The Russian FSB intelligence service told the FBI in 2011 about information that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam, two law enforcement officials said Saturday.

According to an FBI news release, a foreign government said that Tamerlan Tsarnaev appeared to be strong believer and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the U.S. for travel to the Russian region to join unspecified underground groups.

The FBI did not name the foreign government, but the two officials said it was Russia. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the matter publicly.

The FBI said that in response, it interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and relatives, and did not find any domestic or foreign terrorism activity. The bureau said it looked into such things as his telephone and online activity, his travels and his associations with others.

An uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers said he had a falling-out with Tamerlan over the man's increased commitment to Islam.

Ruslan Tsarni of Montgomery Village, Md., said Tamerlan told him in a 2009 phone conversation that he had chosen "God's business" over work or school. Tsarni said he then contacted a family friend who told him Tsarnaev had been influenced by a recent convert to Islam.

Tsarni said his relationship with his nephew basically ended after that call.

As for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, "he's been absolutely wasted by his older brother. I mean, he used him. He used him for whatever he's done," Tsarni said.

Albrecht Ammon, a downstairs-apartment neighbor of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Cambridge, said in an interview that the older brother had strong political views about the United States. Ammon quoted Tsarnaev as saying that the U.S. uses the Bible as "an excuse for invading other countries."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev studied accounting as a part-time student at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston for three semesters from 2006 to 2008, the school said. He was married with a young daughter. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

As of Saturday, more than 50 victims of the bombing remained hospitalized, three in critical condition.

___

Associated Press writers Denise Lavoie and Steve Peoples in Boston; Mike Hill in Watertown, Mass.; Colleen Long in New York; Pete Yost in Washington; Eric Tucker in Montgomery Village, Md.; and AP Sports Writer Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-21-Boston%20Marathon-Explosions/id-771b50a290724f11a6aca15ffe077ce6

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Many Boston Marathon bombing victims still in hospital

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Obama to honor bombing victims in Boston

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama depart Air Force One at Boston's Logan International Airport in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013, before attending an interfaith service for the victims of the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Also seen is Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. is at center. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama depart Air Force One at Boston's Logan International Airport in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013, before attending an interfaith service for the victims of the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Also seen is Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass. is at center. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

President Barack Obama attends the "Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service" at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013. The service is dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in Monday?s bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

President Barack Obama attends an interfaith healing service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013, for victims of Monday's Boston Marathon explosions. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attend an interfaith healing service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013, for victims of Monday's Boston Marathon explosion. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama attend an interfaith healing service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston, Thursday, April 18, 2013, for victims of Monday's Boston Marathon explosions. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama sought to soothe a nervous nation Thursday and draw attention to those killed and gravely wounded in what he called an "act of terror" at the Boston Marathon.

Americans also looked to the president to offer reassurances about the nation's safety as investigators scrambled to answer key questions about an attack with origins that are yet unknown.

The president was to speak at an interfaith service in Boston honoring the three people killed and 170 injured when a pair of bombs ripped through the crowd gathered Monday afternoon near the finish line of the famous race. Investigators had an image of a potential suspect, though much about what happened remained a mystery, keeping tensions high in Boston and elsewhere around the country.

Compounding the nation's jitters were letters sent to Washington officials that contained suspicious substances, including ones addressed to Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., that showed traces of poisonous ricin in initial tests. The letters evoked eerie parallels to the anthrax attacks that followed the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

It was against that backdrop that Obama and his wife, Michelle, arrived in Boston Thursday morning, joining a crowd at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for a "Healing Our City" service. The Obamas sat at the front of the church next to Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick as the service began.

Obama listened from his pew as Boston Mayor Thomas Menino praised the response of his city.

"Nothing will take us down, because we take care of one another," Menino said. "Even with the smell of smoke in the air and blood in the streets and tears in our eyes, we triumphed over that hateful act."

Moments later, Patrick said: "We will grieve our losses and heal. We will rise, and we will endure. We will have accountability without vengeance, vigilance without fear."

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters traveling with the president on Air Force One that Obama also planned to meet with some of those injured, as well as with the first responders who rushed toward the blast to help the scores of runners and spectators.

Earnest said Obama received a briefing from national security adviser Lisa Monaco on the status of the investigation into the Boston blast before departing the White House. Accompanying Obama aboard Air Force One were members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Mo Cowan.

"We send our support and encouragement to people who never expected that they'd need it ? the wounded civilians who are just beginning what will be, I'm sure for some of them, a long road to recovery," Obama said Wednesday in a likely preview of his remarks at the service.

The president has stepped into this role as the nation's consoler in chief many times before in his presidency, most recently in December after the massacre of 20 first-graders and six educators at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn. Before that, there were the deadly shootings in Aurora, Colo., Tucson, Ariz., and Fort Hood, Texas, as well as the natural disasters that tore apart towns and neighborhoods in Missouri and the New York-New Jersey area.

This time, Obama must confront the unique challenges of a terror attack that inevitably revived memories of 9/11. As he did in a statement from the White House on Tuesday, the president was expected to urge the public to remain vigilant, while declaring that "the American people refuse to be terrorized."

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-18-US-Obama/id-a33289de5c62487caf071ec2a2efa0c8

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Beginner Cardio Aerobic Exercise at Home | Bodybuilding ...

Videos | April 17, 2013 3:31 am

---

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Motorola design chief: stock Android phones, cross-carrier brands coming later this year

Back in February, Google CFO Patrick Pichette said its recent purchase, Motorola, didn't "wow" on the smartphone front, but it looks like the two companies have long since smoothed over any hard feelings. Speaking to PC Mag, Motorola design chief Jim Wicks revealed plans for the first post-acquisition handsets, demonstrating a philosophy that seems perfectly in line with Mountain View. According to Wicks, his company is embracing stock Android with as little bloatware as possible, and hardware itself won't likely reach Galaxy Note II proportions; he says the new design philosophy is "better is better" rather than "bigger is better."

Motorola will also change its approach to carriers, with a move toward offering devices across several service providers rather than keeping certain handsets -- such as the Droid and Razr lines on Verizon -- as exclusives for one. For AT&T and Sprint customers who were tempted by the Razr M on Verizon, for example, this strategy could go a long way in bringing them into the Motorola fold. Wicks says the first batch of new smartphones will debut in the second half of 2013 -- and, at least according to Eric Schmidt, they should be quite impressive.

Filed under: Cellphones, Software, Mobile, Google

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Source: PC Mag

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Burke leaving Michigan early for NBA draft

Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) shoots over Louisville center Gorgui Dieng (10) during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Michigan guard Trey Burke (3) shoots over Louisville center Gorgui Dieng (10) during the second half of the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday, April 8, 2013, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Michigan guard Trey Burke makes his way past fans during a ceremony, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Crisler Arena in Ann Arbor, Mich. Michigan lost to Louisville 82-76 in the NCAA Final Four tournament college basketball championship game Monday in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Detroit News, David Guralnick) DETROIT FREE PRESS OUT; HUFFINGTON POST OUT; MAGS OUT

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) ? Trey Burke is leaving Michigan early for the NBA draft.

The Associated Press national player of the year announced his decision Sunday. The move comes as no surprise. Burke considered going pro a year ago but decided to come back for his sophomore season. He led Michigan to the NCAA title game, where the Wolverines lost to Louisville.

The 6-foot point guard averaged 18.6 points and 6.7 assists per game in 2012-13, He made perhaps the most memorable shot of the NCAA tournament, a long 3-pointer in the final seconds against Kansas that sent that regional semifinal to overtime.

Michigan made the Final Four for the first time since 1993, and Burke scored 24 points in the championship game despite early foul trouble.

Associated Press

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At 2 big banks, record earnings, but lower revenue

NEW YORK (AP) ? JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, bellwethers for the banking industry, reported record earnings Friday, but those numbers masked troubling declines in revenue.

Revenue fell slightly at both banks, and the earnings gains came largely from slashing expenses and related measures. JPMorgan socked away less to cover potential lawsuits and released some of the money set aside for bad loans. Wells cut back on office space.

The results show that in an era of sluggish loan demand and increased government regulations, banks must stay lean if they want to boost earnings. The industry has come a long way since the panic of the financial crisis, but the pattern it's settled into is one of cutting expenses and maintaining revenue rather than turbocharged growth.

For both banks, analysts homed in on a slowdown in the mortgage business. For the past several quarters, the banks have enjoyed a boom in mortgage refinancings as homeowners lined up to take advantage of low interest rates. That pace now appears to be stalling, if not slowing.

At JPMorgan, mortgage applications fell about 8 percent over the quarter to $60.5 million. They were also down about 8 percent at Wells ? to $140 million. Compared with a year earlier, applications at JPMorgan were up just 1 percent. For Wells, however, applications were down 25 percent.

Standards for getting a mortgage are still tight. Some homeowners might not qualify for a refinancing, because of changes to their personal finances, and others might not be able to afford one.

When homeowners refinance their mortgage, they get a lower interest rate that helps them save money over time. But getting a refinanced loan also can cost money upfront, in fees to the bank.

Analysts questioned whether the homeowners most motivated or most qualified to refinance already have ? "the low-hanging fruit," as FBR Capital Markets analyst Paul Miller put it.

Tim Sloan, chief financial officer at Wells, estimated that 25 to 30 percent of Wells' mortgage borrowers were still eligible for a refinancing.

"It's a function of what their finances look like," Sloan said. "Maybe they've switched jobs and haven't had the opportunity."

Other people might not be aware of what's available.

The government is trying to raise that awareness. The Federal Housing Finance Agency on Thursday announced it would extend the four-year-old Home Affordable Refinance Program, and launch a national campaign to promote it. The program aims to encourage struggling borrowers to refinance loans at a lower rate. About 2.2 million people have refinanced their mortgages through the program since April 2009. Officials had hoped that at least 4 million borrowers would participate.

It's not clear what effect HARP might have: The big banks are already reaching out to their customers who would qualify for a refinance.

"Who knows how much it will really help," said Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

The mortgage business is also less profitable than it has been in recent quarters. More lenders are competing for mortgage business, meaning some banks have to offer lower interest rates to home buyers. The banks also make money by packaging their mortgages into securities and selling them to investors, and those investors are demanding higher returns.

Wells and JPMorgan are the country's two biggest mortgage lenders. Wells controls nearly 28 percent of the U.S. market and JPMorgan controls more than 10 percent, according to Inside Mortgage Finance.

At each bank:

JPMorgan Chase

Profit jumped 34 percent from a year earlier, while revenue slipped 3 percent.

The investment bank underwrote more bond offerings. The private bank, which caters to wealthy individuals, brought in more revenue. Profit and revenue slipped in retail banking, which includes the mortgage unit.

JPMorgan slashed expenses by 16 percent and cut nearly 5,300 jobs, or about 2 percent of its work force. It has said that it is trimming jobs in the unit that deals with troubled mortgages, as fewer homeowners are behind on their loans. It is also installing new technology in branches that can replace workers.

In the retail bank, JPMorgan released some of the funds it had set aside to deal with potential bad loans. It added less to its reserve for legal expenses, which also boosted results, though bank officials declined to predict a trend. There are "a lot of things coming our way," said JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, whose bank is still dealing with the fallout of a surprise $6 billion trading loss last year, "and we'll have to reserve appropriately as they come in."

The bank made $6.1 billion in the first quarter, after stripping out payments to preferred shareholders, up from $4.6 billion a year ago. On a per-share basis, that amounted to $1.59, blowing away the $1.39 expected by analysts polled by FactSet.

Revenue totaled $25.8 billion. That edged out analysts' estimates, but was down from $26.8 billion a year ago.

Wells Fargo

At Wells, profit jumped 23 percent from a year earlier, while revenue slipped 2 percent.

The wealth management unit increased both revenue and profit. In the retail bank, which includes mortgages, profit was up but revenue fell.

Wells trimmed expenses 5 percent, cutting down on office space and using new technology to be more efficient. It's also enjoying lower expenses because in January, it and other banks settled government accusations that they had wrongfully foreclosed on some homeowners. Wells had been spending about $125 million a quarter for staffing and consultants to review individual foreclosures.

Over the year, the bank added about 9,400 jobs, an increase of 4 percent. Last year, it was the only megabank to add jobs instead of cut them.

Wells earned $4.9 billion in the first quarter, after stripping out payments to preferred shareholders, up from $4 billion a year ago. On a per-share basis, earnings were 92 cents, beating the 89 cents forecast by Wall Street.

Revenue slipped to $21.3 billion from $21.6 billion.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2-big-banks-record-earnings-lower-revenue-203717215--finance.html

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Pope faces tough decisions as Vatican reforms loom; style and record suggest he'll go it alone

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis has spent much of his first month as pope charming ordinary Catholics with his ordinary yet extraordinary papal ways and making clear he is very much the boss when it comes to decisions as small as the shoes he wears to where he rests his head at night.

In the coming months, he'll face decisions of far greater import as he responds to demands from cardinals in far-flung dioceses and Vatican officials at home for an overhaul of the Holy See bureaucracy, the dysfunctional family business he inherited one month ago Saturday.

Given Francis' governing style and track record, it's likely he'll make these choices with an eye to efficiency, and very much alone.

Prelates are demanding term limits on Vatican jobs to prevent priests from becoming career bureaucrats. They want consolidated financial reports to remove the cloak of secrecy from the Vatican's murky finances. And they want regular Cabinet meetings where department heads actually talk to one another to make the Vatican a help to the church's evangelizing mission, not a hindrance.

"It just doesn't work either very quickly or very efficiently," U.S. Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said. "Take marriage cases: People shouldn't have to be asked to wait three, four, five, six years to get a response" for a request for an annulment.

Francis is meeting daily with department heads and on Friday made an impromptu visit to the secretariat of state, getting a handle on a government that was last reformed by Pope Paul VI a half-century ago and was shown by the leaks of papal documents last year to be infected by power struggles, incompetence and sheer ungovernability.

He has made one Vatican appointment so far, naming a member of his namesake Franciscan order to the important No. 2 spot at the Vatican's congregation for religious orders. His most eagerly-watched appointment has yet to come: that of the Vatican secretary of state, who runs the day-to-day administration of the Holy See. Currently, the position is held by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a 78-year-old canon lawyer whose administrative shortcomings have been blamed for many of the Vatican's current problems today.

George Weigel, a papal biographer who interviewed then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio last May for his new book "Evangelical Catholicism," said Francis understands well the problems of the Curia, or Vatican bureaucracy. He said Bergoglio "displayed a shrewd, but not cynical, grasp of just what was wrong with the church's central bureaucratic machinery, and why."

"I think we can expect the new pope to lead the church in a purification and renewal of the episcopate, the priesthood, the religious life, and the curia, because he understands that scandal, corruption, and incompetence are impediments" to the mission of spreading the faith, Weigel wrote in a recent essay.

Francis' austere style and track record governing the Jesuit order in his native Argentina and then the archdiocese of Buenos Aires has given reformers hope: Several cardinals have cited Francis' record as evidence that he has what it takes to make tough, unpopular decisions when necessary.

Bergoglio was named provincial of the Jesuits in Argentina in 1973 at the very young age of 36, and by all indications clashed with more left-leaning members of the order who were increasingly taking up the call of liberation theology, the belief that Christ's teachings justify fights against social injustices. His six-year term also spanned the initial years of the 1976-1983 military junta, which kidnapped and killed thousands of people in a "dirty war" to eliminate leftist opponents. Two of Bergoglio's own priests were kidnapped, but later freed after his intervention.

"He knows how to govern," George said. "He's done all those in very difficult circumstances."

In the 2010 book "The Jesuit," written by his authorized biographer, Bergoglio explained his decision-making process, saying he always discounts his first ideas because they're "always wrong."

"One can ask for advice but, in the end, one must decide alone," he said. Doing so means making mistakes, and Bergoglio acknowledged he had made plenty in his lifetime.

"That's why the important thing is to ask God," he said.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who has become something of the ringleader of the reform group, said he had high hopes that Francis would turn the Holy See into a model of good governance given his background and no nonsense style.

"Sometimes in the past the curia has been an example of what not to do, instead of what to do," Dolan said in an interview. "We need to look to the Holy See and the Roman Curia as a model of good governance, of honesty, of simplicity, of frugality, of transparency, of candour, of raw Gospel service, of a lack of careerism, of people who are driven by virtue."

Dolan suggested that one crucial area of reform would be imposing term limits on Vatican bureaucrats to prevent them from becoming lifers. Such a move would both reduce the "careerism" that afflicts many a Vatican bureaucrat while also encouraging bishops around the world to lend Rome their best men knowing that they would be gone for only a few years, not life.

"You need a change in philosophy, in the guiding spirit," Dolan said.

Dolan said there was also no reason why more laymen and women couldn't be brought into the Vatican bureaucracy, particularly in the Vatican's offices for families or laity. And there's no reason not to trim back a government that has "mushroomed" over the years, he said. Already, Italian news reports have said Francis is mulling a reorganization and streamlining of the Vatican secretary of state.

Archbishop Claudio Mario Celli, who heads the Vatican's social communications office, wants greater communication within the various Vatican departments, including regularly scheduled meetings of department heads.

"We need a more synergetic activity," Celli said in an interview. "If we want to have a more effective service in the church, we need to have a symphonic approach."

George, the archbishop of Chicago, is seeking greater financial transparency. He is on the board of 15 cardinals who meet regularly to go over the Vatican's budget.

"The little bit I know comes from finding out what goes on during those meetings," George said. He called for greater financial transparency within the Vatican itself, including instituting consolidated financial reporting.

"How do you run an efficient government if the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing?" George said.

George dismissed speculation in the Italian media that the Vatican bank, the Institute for Works of Religion, might be closed as part of Francis' reform, as it's long been a source of scandal.

Doing so would be financial suicide for the Vatican, since it currently provides the pope with about 50 million euros ($65 million) a year in investment income using, among other things, assets of its account holders.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said any speculation about the IOR's possible closure "is purely hypothetical and isn't based on any believable or concrete facts."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-faces-tough-decisions-vatican-reforms-loom-style-062214062.html

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