NASA's biggest Mars rover poised for blastoff (AP)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. ? NASA is all set to launch the world's biggest extraterrestrial explorer.

A six-wheeled, one-armed Mars rover is due to blast off Saturday morning from Cape Canaveral. The unmanned Atlas V rocket will put the spacecraft on an 8 1/2-month trek to the red planet.

The rover, nicknamed Curiosity, is the size of a car. It's a mobile laboratory holding 10 science instruments that will sample Martian soil and rocks, and analyze them right there on the surface. There's a drill as well as a stone-zapping laser machine.

Curiosity will spend two years looking for evidence that Mars may once have been ? or still is ? suitable for microbial life.

The mission costs $2.5 billion.

Forecasters expect decent launching weather.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/science/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111126/ap_on_sc/us_sci_mars_rover

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Auto Insurance Guide- Get Your Auto Insurance Policy | Free Article ...

Auto insurance provides complete protection against losses happened as a result of vehicle accidents. Normally it includes car insurance and motor insurance. The customers purchase this insurance policy just to reduce the risk incurred due to accidents of cars, trucks and other vehicles. People can also secure their vehicles against theft, fire damage or accident damage.

Auto insurance policy may cover insured party, insured vehicle as well as third party that are involved in the accident. Sometimes policy is valid for certain circumstances. Different policies are available for the customers and they can purchase anyone as per their requirements. Coverage levels can vary for each auto insurance policy.

Insurance is one of the essential things to secure you, your family as well as your vehicle. You?ve to just pay a certain amount of premium for a fixed period of time and then the insurer agrees to pay you for any kind of damages or loss of your vehicle. Cost of an insurance policy totally depends on the coverage because your policy covers more only if you pay more.

Auto insurance is expensive because it is the best way to secure you and your automobile. Main types of auto insurance are as follows: Fully Comprehensive auto insurance policy Third party (fire & theft) Third party insurance Specialized car insurance

People mostly purchase fully comprehensive auto insurance policy as it covers all types of cases like theft, accident and other damage. It is an expensive policy but whenever you go to buy this one you should try to get 100% security for your vehicle. Third party insurance is cheapest than others and it offers coverage only if you?re at fault and hit other party. It is the best option in case you owned an old vehicle.

Specialized car insurance is for the 25 years old vehicles. These vehicles require special services so these are categorized as classic. An individual can choose the best as per his/her requirements. But whenever you go to purchase these policies you?ve to be sure about the source from where you?re going to buy the insurance policy. You should first make you budget means how much you can afford to pay for auto insurance policy premium.

After deciding your budget, make a decision on amount of coverage that you want for each accident. You should tell your requirements to different insurance companies and agents. You should discuss your problems with the companies. Then choose the best among them means select that company which is ready to give more coverage. You can also search on Internet for the best service providers.

If you need additional knowledge with reference to cheap insurance quotes, stop by the author?s website instantly.

Source: http://fatbikezreview.com/auto-insurance-guide-get-your-auto-insurance-policy/

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Under Perry, Texas gets plenty of federal money (Politico)

The first rule of asking for extra federal dollars in Texas is to never make it seem like you are asking for extra federal dollars.

For Gov. Rick Perry, this is a tricky line to walk. Because as much as the Republican presidential candidate bashes the federal government in his campaign speeches, Texas gets a lot of money from the feds ? and a lot of it is going to the health care system he insists Texas can handle on its own.

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Perry has repeatedly decried the spending culture of Washington, railing against both President Barack Obama?s health care law and the federal stimulus. But as it happens, Texas has taken a lot of money from both.

More than $380 million in early grants and other aid from the federal health law have already gone to businesses and agencies in the Lone Star State, according to figures from the Department of Health and Human Services, and Texas ended up with $17 billion from the stimulus.

Now, the state is waiting for final approval of a new waiver from federal Medicaid rules that could allow the state to draw down an additional $12 billion in funds from the federal government.

And that?s before the main parts of the Affordable Care Act even kick in,?bringing billions of dollars to Texas in extra Medicaid funds and subsidies to help people buy private coverage through a new health insurance exchange.

If the law survives its upcoming review by the Supreme Court, its expansion of Medicaid alone could cost the federal government anywhere from $53 billion to $67 billion in aid to Texas by 2019, according to estimates from the nonpartisan Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

That?s more than any other state would get under that part of the law. The only other state that comes close is California, which would get between $45 billion and $55 billion in federal Medicaid funds.

?The only word that can describe this is hypocrisy,? said Democratic state Rep. Garnet Coleman. ?These days federal dollars might as well be counterfeit, they are so dirty ? but Texas would not survive without them.?

To Perry, there?s nothing wrong with taking federal money. In his view, Texas taxpayers send plenty of money to Washington ? so they have a right to get some of it back.

Publicly, though, he?s more open to the money from the Texas Medicaid waiver proposal than he is to funds from the health reform law.

?Texas taxpayers send a substantial amount of money to Washington, D.C., and this waiver will ensure that Texas receives its fair share,? said Perry spokesman Josh Havens.

What makes the waiver proposal better than the health reform law, though, is that ?no Texas law or policy needed to be changed to receive those funds,? Havens said. ?Obamacare is a misguided, unconstitutional and unsustainable government takeover of our health care. The waiver Gov. Perry is seeking is a state-based solution.?

That?s a more nuanced view than Perry has taken on the campaign trail, where he often insists that if the feds really want to help Texas on health care, they should get out of its way completely.

?I?ll promise you, we understand that if we can get the federal government out of our business in the states when it comes to health care, we?ll come up with ways to deliver more health care to more people cheaper than what the federal government is mandating today with their strings-attached, here?s-how-you-do-it, one-size-fits-all effort out of Washington, D.C.,? Perry said at a September debate sponsored by POLITICO and MSNBC. ?That?s got to stop.?

The biggest injection of federal health reform money could come in 2014, when the Medicaid expansion would take place. It?s not free to the state ? Texas would have to pay $2.6 billion to $4.5 billion, depending how aggressive the state is in reaching out to find everyone who?s eligible. But the feds will pay 100 percent of the state?s costs for the newly eligible people for the first three years, scaling back to 90 percent by 2020.

?The biggest beneficiary of the Affordable Care Act is the state of Texas. We will have the single biggest reduction of uninsured people, and the Medicaid is paid for in the first three years,? Coleman said.

Despite a $23.7 billion Medicaid budget, the state lacks the general revenue to bring in more money from the feds (think very low taxes). So a deal between hospitals and the state, called upper payment limits, has allowed for Texas to bring in more federal Medicaid dollars than it otherwise would, with providers putting up the money to help the state win additional federal matching funds.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/external/politico_rss/rss_politico_mostpop/http___www_politico_com_news_stories1111_69072_html/43709993/SIG=11m49d0ed/*http%3A//www.politico.com/news/stories/1111/69072.html

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Price Check by Amazon: Make Sure You're Really Getting a Good Deal [Android Apps]

Tomorrow's Black Friday. In the future, Thanksgiving will be known as Black Friday Eve. Families will condition their bodies to consume large amounts of poultry and starches to keep them fueled up for door-busting madness. While we await this dystopian future you can check out our Black Friday super chart and download Price Check by Amazon app for your Android phone. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Ke8Q521DSlg/price-check-by-amazon-make-sure-youre-really-getting-a-good-deal

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3 kids, 2 dads, groom-to-be die in plane crash

By msnbc.com staff and The Associated Press

The six victims of a plane crash in Arizona were identified by authorities late Thursday. The victims?included the pilot and his three young children who were to spend the Thanksgiving weekend with him.

Their small, twin-engined airplane slammed into a sheer cliff on Wednesday evening in the rugged, mile-high Superstition Mountains east of Phoenix and exploded.

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu confirmed that the dead included pilot Shawn Perry, 39, his daughter Morgan Perry, 9, and his two sons Logan Perry, 8, and Luke Perry, 6, who all lived with their mother in the community of Gold Canyon in Pinal County. Their father lived in Safford in southeastern Arizona and owned a small aviation business there.

He had flown to the Phoenix suburb of Mesa with another pilot who co-owned the company and a company mechanic to pick up the children?for Thanksgiving. The plane was headed back to Safford when it crashed.

---

The other pilot was identified as Russell Hardy, 31, of Thatcher, Ariz., who Babeu said had a three-year-old son.

The mechanic was Joseph Hardwick, 22, of Safford, who Babeu said was engaged and due to be married on Dec. 16.

A small aircraft carrying six people, including three children, slammed into the rugged peaks of the Superstition Mountain in Arizona. All aboard are believed to be dead. NBC's Jeff Rossen has more details.

Babeu said he personally notified the mother of the three children late Wednesday. The woman, who is divorced from the children's father, is also a pilot.

"This is their entire family ? it's terrible," Babeu said. "Our hearts go out to the mom and the (families) of all the crash victims. We have has so many people that are working this day, and we just want to support them and embrace them and try to bring closure to this tragedy."

There was no indication the plane was in distress or that the pilot had radioed controllers about any problem, the sheriff said.

It was very dark at the time, and the plane missed clearing the peak by only several hundred feet. The aircraft slammed into an area of rugged peaks and outcroppings in the Superstition Mountains, 40 miles east of downtown Phoenix, at about 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.

The plane was a Rockwell AC-690A and was registered to Ponderosa Aviation Inc. in Safford, which Babeu said was co-owned by Perry.

Kenitzer said the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board would be investigating the cause of the crash.

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/25/9011245-4-members-of-1-family-groom-to-be-new-dad-killed-in-arizona-plane-crash

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Olympus ex-CEO Woodford faces tense showdown (Reuters)

TOKYO (Reuters) ? Japan's disgraced Olympus Corp is set for a tense boardroom showdown on Friday when its former chief executive confronts the men who sacked him a month ago with his own call for their resignations over a huge accounting scandal.

Michael Woodford, still an Olympus director despite being fired as CEO and blowing the whistle over the scandal, plans to attend the firm's scheduled board meeting in Tokyo, his first return to the boardroom since it unanimously dumped him on October 14.

Backed by some big shareholders, he says he is willing to reclaim the top job and clean up the once-proud maker of cameras and endoscopes.

"I want to take the opportunity to look the directors in the eye and tell them what I think is best for the company," Woodford told reporters on the eve of the meeting, having flown back to Japan from a month of self-exile in his native Britain.

Woodford, who says he was sacked for questioning a string of unusual payments to obscure firms, had fled Japan immediately after his dismissal, citing fears for his safety amid speculation the scandal could somehow involve organized crime.

But this week he returned to the eye of the storm, flying back to meet police, prosecutors and regulators investigating the scandal, which has wiped out more than half of Olympus's market value and raised the prospect that it could be delisted from the Tokyo stock market and forced to sell core businesses.

Olympus initially denied any wrongdoing after sacking Woodford, a rare foreign CEO in Japan, but later admitted it had hidden investment losses from investors for two decades and used some of $1.3 billion in M&A payments to aid the cover-up.

Late on Thursday, three directors blamed for the concealment quit their directorships, including former President and Chairman Tsuyoshi Kikukawa, which promised to ease at least some of the worst boardroom tension Woodford could face on Friday.

But the CEO-turned-whistleblower still wants the rest of the board to go, including the new president, Shuichi Takayama, who has said that the current management team is ready to quit only once "the path to Olympus's revival became clear."

Some major foreign shareholders have called for Woodford to be immediately reinstated as CEO, but the 51-year-old himself says he does not believe that will happen at Friday's meeting.

"I just hope they understand the game is up and do the decent thing, stop damaging the company. Don't look for self-interest, look for the 45,000 people (who work for Olympus)," Woodford told reporters on Thursday.

"Have some shame, have some dignity, that's what I want to tell them."

Olympus has until December 14 to straighten out its accounts and report its half-year results to the stock market. If it misses that deadline, it will be automatically delisted.

(Writing by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/bs_nm/us_olympus

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China gameplan in question as Obama pivots to Asia (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? China's leaders, upstaged by President Barack Obama's "pivot" to Asia, may hope they end up resembling famed basketball player Yao Ming, who while not as nimble as his rivals, smothered them with his size and doggedness.

During a trip to Asia last week, Obama said the United States was "here to stay", reached a deal to put a de facto military base in northern Australia and chided China for refusing to discuss its South China Sea disputes at regional forums.

Before the East Asia Summit in Bali, China wagered it could keep the South China Sea off the agenda, but Premier Wen Jiabao bowed to pressure from Asian governments and begrudgingly addressed the maritime territorial disputes.

China's public reaction to all this has been mild. But in private, Chinese observers say their government had the initiative in Asian diplomacy snatched from its fingers.

"They have been giving us trouble over and over again," said one source with ties to China's top leaders, referring to the United States.

"But we will not overreact. We do not want to become entangled in any debate over how to deal with China during the (2012 U.S. presidential) elections," said the source, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of elite dealings.

STABILITY ABOVE ALL

Considering the range of forces that argue for a mild response -- from the U.S. elections to China's own leadership transition next year -- the lack of a backlash from Beijing should come as little surprise.

"China will take time to assess what all this means. But for (President) Hu Jintao it's bringing unprecedented pressure on foreign policy," said Zhu Feng, a professor of international relations at Peking University who specialises in China-U.S. relations.

In foreign policy, China plays differently. Any policy rethink is likely to take weeks or months, if not longer, to emerge, said Zhu.

Beijing is still licking its wounds from last year, when loud maritime disputes with Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines and other neighbours fanned suspicions about China's intentions.

For China's leaders, those arguments had an unintended consequence, one they hope to reverse: "It pushed those countries over to the United States' side," said the source close to China's leaders.

A convergence of other factors also suggests China won't respond forcefully to Obama's overtures in Asia.

China prizes stable ties with the United States, especially as it faces a Communist Party leadership succession in late 2012, when external crises would be a damaging distraction. Nor does Beijing want to become a focus of campaigning during next year's U.S. presidential race, even if its currency and trade strength has already become a lightening rod for some.

Chinese Vice Premier Xi Jinping, who is most likely to succeed Hu as top leader, is due to visit the United States early next year, burnishing his leadership credentials and adding further reason to keep ties on track.

Also, China's top-down decision making would demand an abrupt shift from President Hu himself to recast policy -- a damaging admission that he had set a wrong course. That will mean any adjustments to policy take time.

"I expect they will seek to counter what they see as U.S. moves to divide China from its neighbors by appealing to those countries' interests in preserving good ties with China, not by seeking to persuade them to weaken their ties with the U.S., which would be counterproductive," said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on Chinese foreign policy at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C.

ACTIONS AIMED AT CHINA?

Still, some in China suspect the United States is seizing an opportune moment to advance its own interests at China's expense.

"We don't want to put aside all considerations of face, but the U.S. mentality and attitude are different," said a second source close to China's leaders, arguing Washington is taking advantage of Beijing's reluctance to sour ties.

Despite the Beijing leadership's buttoned-down public reaction to Obama's diplomatic push, there are constituencies in China likely to demand a harder response to U.S. overtures across the region and pressure over sea disputes.

Last year, pundit-scholars of the People's Liberation Army demanded a hawkish response to U.S. pressure, and some scholars and commentators continue to espouse that line, warning that Beijing is entering treacherous geopolitical waters.

But in second half of last year, President Hu made clear that he could ill-afford another round of regional tensions that could sour ties with Washington ahead of 2012, a legacy-building year for him that coincides with the U.S. presidential race.

Hu also admonished the military for letting officers speak loudly on sensitive disputes, such as the South China Sea and tensions between the two Koreas, said a scholar familiar with official discussions who spoke on condition of anonymity.

China is not giving ground on the key disputes with its neighbours, including sea territory quarrels with Japan and with Southeast Asian nations, but nor is it bristling for confrontation, said analysts.

"We understand that the United States wants to show it has returned to the Asia-Pacific as a priority, and so wants to strengthen ties with allies and so on, but U.S. conduct seems to have gone a bit far," said Yuan Peng, director of American studies at the China Institutes for Contemporary International Relations, a state-run think-tank in Beijing.

"These actions could be seen as aimed at China, especially when so often they are accompanied by commentary to that effect, and then we'd have concerns."

Many governments in the region -- and indeed quite a few analysts inside China -- think that it will be extraordinarily difficult for Beijing to expand its power and interests without generating conflict, willfully or not.

"At the moment, we lose, but in ten years, the U.S. will lose," said Shen Dingli, a professor at the Center of American Studies at Fudan University in Shanghai.

"We can be more patient than a U.S. administration."

(Additional reporting by Benjamin Kang Lim; Editing by Don Durfee, Brian Rhoads and Dean Yates)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/india/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111124/india_nm/india607110

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House GOP leader Cantor says deficit deal likely (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Sidestepping controversy, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., declined to take sides Monday on a proposal for higher tax revenues backed by fellow Republicans on Congress' supercommittee, yet expressed confidence the panel would agree on a deficit-reduction plan of at least $1.2 trillion by a Nov. 23 deadline.

A proposal for $300 billion in higher taxes has stirred grumbling within the ranks of congressional Republicans, for whom opposition to such measures has been political bedrock for more than two decades.

Two of the party's presidential hopefuls said Monday they wouldn't support any committee deficit-reduction plan that includes higher taxes.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, campaigning in Iowa, said he would "do everything in my power to defeat" any such proposal.

A spokesman for Rick Perry said the Texas governor "wants to look at details but if those details include a tax increase he's not going to be for it. He does not favor higher taxes," added David Miner.

Additionally, officials said that Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., who outlined the plan last week in a closed-door meeting of four Republicans and three Democrats, has encountered criticism from fellow conservatives despite strong credentials as an opponent of higher taxes. "There's been a little bit, but it's been pretty muted," his spokeswoman, Nachama Soloveichik, said of the response.

Cantor's spokeswoman turned aside several emailed requests for the majority leader's views on the proposal. She said he hadn't seen the plan, and she referred to his comments at a news conference earlier in the day when he told reporters, "I'm not going to be opining as to any reports, hypotheticals or anything connected with their work."

Despite that pledge, Cantor was bullish in predicting agreement before the deadline and adding that a fallback requirement to cut $1.2 trillion from domestic and defense programs wouldn't be triggered.

The committee has been at work for two months, hoping to succeed at a task that has defied the best efforts of high-ranking political leaders past and present.

Despite intense talks late last week, there has been little indication of progress as age-old political divisions have re-emerged.

The principal stumbling blocks revolve around taxes on the one hand, and the large federal programs of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security on the other.

Democrats are unwilling to agree to cuts in benefit programs unless Republicans will accept higher taxes, particularly on the highest-income individuals and families.

Republicans counter that out-of-control spending largely accounts for the government's enormous budget deficits, and they say raising taxes will only complicate efforts to help the economy recover from the worst recession in more than seven decades.

At the same time, each side is grappling with the possible political consequences of the committee's work, with an eye on the 2012 campaign for control of the White House and Congress.

Liberal Democrats are highly reluctant to agree to curbs on programs the party has long been identified with, and last week members on the supercommittee jettisoned an earlier proposal to slow the rise in cost-of-living benefits for Social Security recipients.

The same goes for conservatives, many of whom fear the possible political cost of changing their positions in order to pursue a less-than-certain bipartisan compromise on deficit reduction.

Many GOP office holders have signed a pledge circulated by Americans for Tax Reform not to vote for higher taxes. The organization is led by Grover Norquist, a conservative activist, although in comments to reporters Cantor suggested that influence by an outsider isn't the dominant concern.

"It's not about Grover Norquist. It's about commitments that people made to the electorate they represent, the people that sent them here. That's what it's about," he said.

Republicans on the committee hailed Toomey's proposal last week as a breakthrough and a concession that could open the way to a deal.

But Democrats were dismissive, saying it amounted to a tax cut in disguise for the wealthy ? the very taxpayers that they and Obama say should pay more. According to numerous officials, Toomey's proposal envisioned an additional $250 billion in revenue emerging from a sweeping revision of the tax code that would bring the top rate down from 35 percent to 28 percent while reducing or eliminating many commonly used itemized deductions.

In an interview on Sunday, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, co-chairman of the supercommittee said that while Republicans believe that higher tax revenues will hurt the economy, "within the context of the bipartisan negotiation with Democrats, clearly they are a reality."

He said that whatever "damage would be done by $250 billion of new taxes we think would be offset by a system that would help create jobs. And as we're dealing with the debt crisis, we don't want to make the jobs crisis even worse. So that's what has been put on the table."

Jordan, R-Ohio, posted his dissent hours later in USA Today, although he refrained from criticizing any Republican directly.

"Balance doesn't mean `half-right, half-wrong,' he wrote, referring to Obama's calls for a deficit-cutting plan that includes higher taxes and spending cuts. "It means you don't fall over." Jordan is chairman of the Republican Study Committee, an organization of conservative GOP members of the House.

___

Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Iowa contributed to this story.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111115/ap_on_go_co/us_debt_supercommittee

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Liberia opposition leader seeks new poll post-loss (AP)

MONROVIA, Liberia ? Liberia's top opposition presidential challenger is seeking a fresh election after losing a runoff in the West African nation.

Winston Tubman said late Saturday he wants a new poll within a month after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won 90.2 percent of the vote on Nov. 8. He refused to accept the outcome shortly after results were released Thursday. Tubman says the poll was part of "a very flawed process."

Tubman had called on his supporters to boycott the runoff, and many polling stations closed early due to dismal turnout.

He also says a clash between his supporters and police on the eve of the vote was an attempt to assassinate him. At least two people were killed after security forces opened fire with live bullets.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111113/ap_on_re_af/af_liberia_election

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Mario Monti must move mountains to solve Italy debt crisis

Italy's designated premier, Mario Monti, must move quickly on economic reforms to calm financial markets. He and the Italian people have perhaps only days to signal their willingness to fundamentally change. At stake: their country, the euro, and the global economy.

Italy has a nearly 3,000-year history of violent and costly attempts at cohesion. Now, its people must take unity to a totally new level, coming together over painful reforms that will make or break the world?s eighth-largest economy ? and the euro currency that holds much of Europe together.

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The Nov. 12 resignation of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi gives the country the opportunity to defy its history. The designated premier, Mario Monti, is a respected, Yale-educated economist, whose support for substantial reforms is an encouraging sign after 17 years of chaotic rule under Mr. Berlusconi.
But a daunting number of things will need to go right ? and quickly ? for Professor Monti to save the country.

First, a new Italian government must instill confidence within bond markets that it can actually meet its debt payments. Italy needs over $400 billion in external financing next year alone to cover its projected spending. By comparison, Greece?s much smaller economy has a projected budget shortfall of about $20 billion.

Rome has to get this financing either from the bond market, or from bailouts by other governments and the International Monetary Fund. Yesterday marked the first test of the market?s willingness to lend to post-Berlusconi Italy. The government was able to sell over $4 billion in bonds, but at a significantly higher cost in interest rates than previous bond sales.

Market confidence could be strengthened if the new caretaker government in Rome quickly implements a package of budget cuts and reforms that the Italian Senate passed on Nov. 12. This mix of spending cutbacks, changes to labor laws, and efforts to streamline government regulation is a recipe of ?orthodox? reforms that many Latin American and Asian economies implemented in the 1980s and 1990s. What the approach lacks in originality it makes up for in proven success.

Second, and most important, Italy has to fundamentally alter its political culture. Every level of government in Italy ? basically, the rhythm of Italian life itself ? is highly organized and deeply entrenched.

If financial markets sense hesitation, they will stop lending the government money, and the country will be forced into a disastrous default. The markets will perhaps give Italy?s people and politicians only a few days to mount a convincing case that they are willing and able to take on Italy?s political machinery and economic malaise.

Italy actually had sufficient time to pay off its debt ? before the European debt crisis in other countries forced the issue. While Italy?s total debt level is high at 120 percent of gross domestic product, its annual fiscal deficit is about the same as Germany?s. And its economy comprises a healthy mix of industry and services, with a robust export sector.

But failed attempts by Europe to articulate a convincing plan to manage eurozone debts pushed Italy to the brink by forcing up costs of borrowing. To that extent, not all of this crisis is Italy?s fault.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/1k-m-_b1V1M/Mario-Monti-must-move-mountains-to-solve-Italy-debt-crisis

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GOP rivals debate foreign policy in South Carolina

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks to the board of The Federation of Young Republicans Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks to the board of The Federation of Young Republicans Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain signs a car tag, bearing 9-9-9, a reference to his tax reform plan, after speaking to the board of The Federation of Young Republicans Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich greets a supporter at a kick-off party for the opening of the Newt2012 office in Manchester, N.H., Friday, Nov. 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) ? Republican candidates prepared to challenge President Barack Obama on foreign policy, an issue they have given scant attention in recent weeks, as they gathered Saturday night for their second debate in four days.

Consumed by events on the home front, two contenders are fighting to mend damaged campaigns. Texas Gov. Rick Perry blundered in a debate Wednesday, when he couldn't remember one of the Cabinet departments he has proposed to abolish. Rival Herman Cain is battling sexual harassment allegations.

Their troubles leave Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, in a stronger position. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has also seen his fortunes improve, reflected in a CBS News poll released Friday that had him tied with Romney just behind Cain.

Also onstage: Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Rep. Ron Paul, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman. The volatile GOP field has seen contenders surge ahead in national polls only to fall behind.

Obama, too, was focusing on foreign policy. He left Friday on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour and declared Saturday in Honolulu, "There is no region in the world that we consider more vital."

Cain, in an effort to steer the conversation away from the harassment allegations, played up his faith before the debate Saturday. He told a young Republicans meeting in Atlanta that God convinced him that he should run for president.

"I'm a man of faith ? I had to do a lot of praying for this one, more praying than I've ever done before in my life," Cain said. "And when I finally realized that it was God saying that this is what I needed to do, I was like Moses. 'You've got the wrong man, Lord. Are you sure?'"

Gingrich opened his campaign's South Carolina headquarters. The latest to benefit from party conservatives' quest for an alternative to Romney, Gingrich is rebuilding his campaign after his top aides quit in the spring and now has nine paid staffers in South Carolina.

Perry, an early leader in national polls, had been struggling to prove to supporters he could still win the nomination. Then he froze onstage Wednesday, when he drew a blank on the third federal agency he would kill as president.

"The third agency of government I would do away with ? the Education, the Commerce. And let's see. I can't. The third one, I can't," Perry said. "Oops."

He has spent the time since doing damage control with media interviews and a cameo on David Letterman's show, where he delivered a Top 10 list of excuses for his mistake. ("One was the nerves, two was the headache and three was, and three, uh, uh. Oops.")

When they have confronted foreign policy, Republicans have criticized Obama over his handling of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his support for NATO's intervention in Libya and his treatment of China's currency, among other issues.

.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-12-Republicans-Debate/id-6c4fd4f36c1342708ea1f6bf3f0cd34d

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Exclusive: Lenovo to release a 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with Tegra 3 by year's end

You wouldn't think a giant like Lenovo would stop at just three (or four) Android tablets now, would you? In fact, a little birdie has informed us that said Chinese company will release a new 10.1-inch tablet by the end of the year, and unsurprisingly, Ice Cream Sandwich along with NVIDIA's Tegra 3 are on the menu. Other features include 2GB 1,600MHz DDR3 RAM, a standard USB host socket (covered by a not-so-elegant pop-out flap), a back-facing camera of unknown resolution, a "Special Fusion-Skin Body" and, most interestingly, a fingerprint scanner that apparently doubles as an optical joystick on the seemingly flat backside -- only time will tell whether this layout makes sense. Our source hasn't spilled any info on the dimensions and weight, but judging by the photos in our gallery, this 1.6GHz quad-core slate should be significantly thinner than the IdeaPad K1 or LePad sitting underneath. As always, you'll hear from us as soon as we find out more.

[Thanks, Anonymous]

Gallery: Exclusive: Lenovo to release a 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with Tegra 3 by year's end

Exclusive: Lenovo to release a 10.1-inch Ice Cream Sandwich tablet with Tegra 3 by year's end originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 07:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ralph Lauren's Handbag Auction for breast cancer

Ralph Lauren?s Handbag Auction for breast cancerRalph Lauren?s Handbag Auction for breast cancer

International Breast cancer month (October) has just passed and like the previous years, many organizations, brands and philanthropist have contributed their share to the society for this noble cause. One such rich and generous person is Ralph Lauren who recently organized second exclusive auction to benefit Friends of Cancer Patients? (FOCP) Pink Caravan Initiative in his store in Dubai Mall.

A vocal crowd, home-state senators and serious policy discussion mark Republican debate (Star Tribune)

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Motorola Droid RAZR hits Verizon stores, iFixit labs

It's become a rite of passage for any major smartphone -- a few hours under the knife (read: dozuki saw!), for the good 'ol iFixit teardown. Today's victim is the Motorola Droid RAZR, which happened to hit Verizon stores around the time it arrived at the iFixit labs -- so, yes, you can go pick one up today and do this yourself at home, at your own risk and $299 expense, of course. The teardown revealed that most of the key components are on one side of the motherboard, where you'll find the Toshiba THGBM4G7D2GBAIE 16GB EMMC flash memory module, Samsung K3PE7E700M-XGC1 4GB LPDDR2 RAM, Qualcomm MDM6600 dual-mode baseband/RF transceiver, Motorola T6VP0XBG-0001 LTE processor and other goodies like the combo Bluetooth/WiFi/GPS receiver. Wondering what else Motorola was able to pack neatly below that 4.3-inch qHD Super AMOLED display? Hit up the source link for the full iFixit teardown.

Motorola Droid RAZR hits Verizon stores, iFixit labs originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Video: Hard Times for Hard Drives?

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Cain calls former Speaker Pelosi 'Princess Nancy' (AP)

ROCHESTER, Mich. ? Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain is calling the House minority leader "Princess Nancy."

Cain on Wednesday night said Nancy Pelosi blocked any effort when she was speaker of the House to repeal Democrats' health care overhaul, legislation she helped marshal through. Republicans have since captured control of the House during 2010s midterm elections.

Cain is facing allegations of unwanted sexual advances and his mocking of the first female House speaker comes as he is trying to steady his presidential bid.

On Twitter, the former pizza executive repeated the "Princess Nancy" label as the debate continued.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/uscongress/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_el_pr/us_cain__princess_nancy

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Penn State shaken after firing of Paterno

Assistant coach Larry Johnson, left, and others leave former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's home Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Assistant coach Larry Johnson, left, and others leave former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's home Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Assistant coach Galen Hall, center, and others leave former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno's home Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011, in State College, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Joe Paterno and his wife Susan stand on their porch to thank well-wishers gathered outside in State College, Pa., Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2011. The Penn State board of trustees fired Paterno as football coach earlier Wednesday. The board also fired university president Graham Spanier. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Penn State interim head football coach Tom Bradley arrives for a news conference with interim athletic director Mark Sherburne, rear, in State College, Pa., Thursday, Nov. 10, 2011. Bradley says he is replacing Joe Paterno with "very mixed emotions." Bradley was appointed interim head coach after Penn State's board of trustees fired Paterno on Wednesday night in the wake of a child sex-abuse scandal involving former assistant Jerry Sandusky. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

In the Oct, 8, 2011 file photo, Penn State defensive coordinator Tom Bradley yells from the sidelines during an NCAA college football game against Iowa in State College, Pa.. As announced by The Pennsylvania State University Board of Trustees Wednesday night, Bradley will assume head coaching duties for the Penn State football team for the remainder of the 2011 season, replacing long-time head coach Joe Paterno. (AP Photo/Gene Puskar, File)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? After nearly a half-century on the job, Joe Paterno says he is still getting used to the idea of not being Penn State's football coach. So is the rest of the shaken campus, after one of the most tumultuous days in its history.

In less than 24 hours Wednesday, the winningest coach in major college football announced his retirement at the end of the season ? then was abruptly fired by the board of trustees.

Also ousted was Penn State President Graham Spanier ? one of the longest-serving college presidents in the nation ? as the university's board of trustees tried to limit the damage to the school's reputation from a child sex abuse scandal involving one of Paterno's former assistant coaches.

Paterno's firing sent angry students into the streets, where they shouted support for the 84-year-old coach and tipped over a news van.

In less than a week since former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with sexually assaulting eight boys over a 15-year period, the scandal has claimed Penn State's storied coach, its president, its athletic director and a vice president.

"Right now, I'm not the football coach. And I've got to get used to that. After 61 years, I've got to get used to it," Paterno said outside his house late Wednesday night. "Let me think it through."

Paterno had wanted to finish out his 46th season ? Saturday's game against Nebraska is the last at home ? but the board of trustees was clearly fed up with the scandal's fallout.

"In our view, we thought change now was necessary," board vice chairman John Surma said at a packed news conference where he announced the unanimous decision to oust Paterno and Spanier.

Defensive coordinator Tom Bradley will serve as interim coach, and the university scheduled a news conference with him for later Thursday. Provost Rodney Erickson will be the interim school president.

"I take this job with very mixed emotions due to the situation," Bradley said at a news conference Thursday morning. "I have been asked by the board of trustees to handle this. I told them I would do it last night. I will proceed in a matter that Penn State expects."

He also said: "I have no reservations about taking this job."

Bradley said he called Paterno after the firings last night but declined to divulge what was said.

"I think that's personal in nature," he said.

However, when asked, he was clear about his admiration of and devotion to the man he is replacing for the time being.

"Coach Paterno has meant more to me than anybody except my father. I don't want to get emotional talking about that," Bradley said. "Coach Paterno will go down in history as one of the greatest men, who maybe most of you know as a great football coach. I've had the privilege and the honor to work for him, spend time with him. He's had such dynamic impact on so many, so many, I'll say it again, so many people and players' lives."

He added: "It's with great respect that I speak of him and I'm proud to say that I worked for him."

As word of the firings spread, thousands of students flocked to the administration building, shouting, "We want Joe back!" and "One more game!" They then headed downtown to Beaver Avenue, where about 100 police wearing helmets and carrying pepper spray were on standby. Witnesses said some rocks and bottles were thrown, a lamppost was toppled and a news van was knocked over, its windows kicked out.

State College police said early Thursday they were still gathering information on any possible arrests.

Paterno had come under increasing criticism ? including from within the community known as Happy Valley ? for not doing more to stop the alleged abuse by Sandusky. Some of the assaults took place at the Penn State football complex, including a 2002 incident witnessed by then-graduate assistant and current assistant coach Mike McQueary.

McQueary went to Paterno and reported seeing Sandusky assaulting a young boy in the Penn State showers. Paterno notified the athletic director, Tim Curley, and a vice president, Gary Schultz, who in turn notified Spanier.

Curley and Schultz have been charged with failing to report the incident to authorities. Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly has not ruled out charges against Spanier.

Paterno is not a target of the criminal investigation, but the state police commissioner called his failure to contact police himself a lapse in "moral responsibility."

Paterno said in his statement earlier Wednesday that he was "absolutely devastated" by the abuse case.

"This is a tragedy," Paterno said. "It is one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more."

The Penn State trustees had already said they would appoint a committee to investigate the "circumstances" that resulted in the indictment of Sandusky, and of Curley and Schultz. The committee will be appointed Friday at the board's regular meeting, which Gov. Tom Corbett said he plans to attend, and will examine "what failures occurred and who is responsible and what measures are necessary to ensure" similar mistakes aren't made in the future.

In Washington, the U.S. Department of Education said it has launched an investigation into whether Penn State failed to report incidents of sexual abuse on campus, as required by federal law.

Surma said it was "in the best interest of the university to have a change in leadership to deal with the difficult issues that we are facing."

"The past several days have been absolutely terrible for the entire Penn State community. But the outrage that we feel is nothing compared to the physical and psychological suffering that allegedly took place," he added.

Sandusky, who announced his retirement from Penn State in June 1999, maintained his innocence through his lawyer. Curley has taken a temporary leave and Schultz has decided to step down. They also say they are innocent.

Sandusky founded The Second Mile charity in 1977, working with at-risk youths. It now raises and spends several million dollars each year for its programs. Paterno is listed on The Second Mile's website as a member of its honorary board of directors, a group that includes business executives, golfing great Arnold Palmer and several NFL Hall of Famers and coaches, including retired Pittsburgh Steelers stars Jack Ham and Franco Harris.

The ouster of the man affectionately known as "JoePa" brings to an end one of the most storied coaching careers ? not just in college football but in all of sports. Paterno has 409 victories ? a record for major college football ? won two national titles and guided five teams to unbeaten, untied seasons. He reached 300 wins faster than any other coach.

Penn State is 8-1 this year, with its only loss to powerhouse Alabama. The Nittany Lions are No. 12 in The Associated Press poll.

After 19th-ranked Nebraska, Penn State plays at Ohio State and at No. 16 Wisconsin, both Big Ten rivals. It has a chance to play in the Big Ten championship game Dec. 3 in Indianapolis, with a Rose Bowl bid on the line.

Paterno has raised millions of dollars for Penn State in his career, and elevated the stature of what was once a sleepy land-grant school. Asked why he was fired over the phone, Surma said, "We were unable to find a way to do that in person without causing further distraction."

At Paterno's house, his wife, Sue, was teary-eyed as she blew kisses to the 100 or so students who gathered on the lawn in a show of support.

"You're all so sweet. And I guess we have to go beat Nebraska without being there," she said. "We love you all. Go Penn State."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-10-FBC-Penn-State-Abuse/id-e5e0f1efb1fd40758dca96f8dd52e1fc

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Survivors pulled from quake rubble in Turkey

ANKARA, Turkey?? Rescue workers have pulled out 23 survivors from the rubble of three buildings, collapsed by an earthquake in eastern Turkey, the country's disaster management authority said Thursday. At least seven were killed and dozens of others trapped.

Deputy Prime Minister Besir Atalay said Wednesday's quake toppled 25 buildings in the city of Van but only three of them were occupied since the others have been evacuated after suffering damages in last month's powerful temblor. The magnitude-5.7 quake was a grim replay of the previous magnitude-7.2 earthquake that hit Oct. 23, killing more than 600 people.

Rescue workers speeded up their search for survivors by daylight on Thursday, trying to open tunnels into the debris, CNN-Turk television reported. The workers used the glare of high-powered lights to work throughout the night despite several aftershocks.

Collapsed hotels
Atalay said Thursday that the rescue work was concentrating at the site of two collapsed hotels and one apartment building. The disaster management authority said 23 survivors were pulled out along with the bodies of seven people.

One of the collapsed buildings was the Bayram Hotel, Van's best-known hotel. It was at least 40 years old, and had been renovated last year.

Some of the guests were journalists who were covering the aftermath of the previous temblor, which left thousands homeless and led a number of countries to send tents, blankets and other supplies to assist Turkey in the aid effort.

Turkey's Dogan news agency said two of its reporters were missing.

Some foreign rescue workers who scrambled to help the survivors of the previous quake were also staying at the same hotel.

Japan's Association for Aid and Relief said one of its staff members, Miyuki Konnai, who rushed to Turkey to help the victims of the previous quake, was pulled out alive from the rubble of the Bayram Hotel but another staffer, Atsushi Miyazaki, was missing.

"We spoke with her briefly, she is in a hospital at the moment," Ikuko Natori told The Associated Press by telephone from Tokyo, Japan, in reference to the 32-year-old Konnai. "She had a slight injury but it is not life threatening."

Natori, however, said they were not able to reach Miyazaki, 41, yet.

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"We tried calling him on his mobile, it rings but he is not answering," said Natori.

'Dust everywhere'
Ozgur Gunes, a cameraman for Turkey's Cihan news agency, told Haber Turk television that some trapped journalists had sent text messages to colleagues asking to be rescued.

He had left the hotel before the quake, but rushed back to collect his camera after it struck, only to find that the building toppled.

"There was dust everywhere and the hotel was flattened," he said. He told Sky Turk television that the building had some small cracks before the quake, but that he and other guests were told that there was no structural damage.

The exact number of people at the Bayram Hotel was not known but dozens are believed to be trapped, authorities said. CNN-Turk television said a number of people were also said to be waiting at an office of an inter-city bus firm under the hotel when the quake hit.

Hotel owner Aslan Bayram told NTV television that the hotel had 27 guests, about half of whom were inside when the quake hit. But he said he did not know how many customers may have been in a shop selling desserts at the entrance of the building.

Mustafa Bilici, a ruling party lawmaker, said one person died after throwing himself out of a building in panic.

Atalay said among the toppled buildings were a school and a number of mudbrick homes.

The government dispatched hundreds of rescue teams from across the country aboard military and civilian planes, NTV television said. Schools in the region are closed until Dec. 5.

The Turkish Red Crescent immediately dispatched 15,000 tents as well as some 300 rescue workers, the state-run TRT television said. There was no damage in the town of Edremit, the quake's epicenter.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake measured 5.7 and that its epicenter was 16 kilometers (9 miles) south of Van. It struck at 9:23 p.m. (1923 GMT, 2:23 p.m. EST).

About 1,400 aftershocks have rocked the region since the massive earthquake on Oct. 23, which killed more than 600 and left thousands homeless. Many residents had been living in tents, despite the cold, too afraid to return to their homes. At least 2,000 buildings were destroyed in the stronger temblor and authorities declared another 3,700 buildings unfit for living.

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

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45228125/ns/world_news-europe/

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Thais celebrate water festival despite floods (AP)

BANGKOK ? Sahattaya Vitayakaseat placed a tiny crown-shaped boat made from curled banana leaves and marigold flowers into the murky brown water and let it drift toward a park bench submerged by Bangkok's surging Chao Phraya river.

She then closed her eyes and prayed, silently begging forgiveness from Thailand's goddess of water ? who some believe is responsible for a three-month wave of cataclysmic flooding that has killed more than 500 people.

"I hadn't planned to come out tonight because there's been so much loss and so much grief," Sahattaya, 45, said Thursday as the Southeast Asian kingdom celebrated Loy Krathong, a full-moon festival held every year when the rainy season comes to an end. "But this is a chance to let our misery float away."

Thais believe the candlelit boats launched during the Loy Krathong holiday can carry misfortune away with them, allowing life to begin anew. But this year the tradition, begun hundreds of years ago to pay tribute to water itself, has taken on a profound new irony.

Floodwaters born from months of intense monsoon rains have swept the country, engulfing whole cities in one of the worst natural disasters in modern Thai history. In the last few weeks, areas of outer Bangkok have also been submerged, forcing residents to flee neighborhoods where the best way to get around now is on boats made from anything that can float ? plastic foam, empty water bottles, bamboo poles.

The threat is not yet over, and the Tourism Authority of Thailand responded by canceling all official Loy Krathong celebrations in the capital this year.

The Chao Phraya river ? normally filled with tens of thousands of floating lanterns during the holiday ? was dark and mostly empty Thursday night.

The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority had urged people not to float krathongs on the river or in any flooded zones. Officials are worried they cold trigger fires in abandoned homes or clog drains and canals critical to helping ease the massive pools of runoff bearing down on the metropolis of 9 million people.

Still, hoards of smiling Thais came out to celebrate, packing parks across Bangkok where festive vendors sold boiling noodles, balloons and krathongs made of ice cream cones. One hint that things were different this time: donation boxes set up to help flood victims.

At the riverside Santi Chai Prakan Park, teenagers set off firecrackers. A dozen candlelit paper lanterns floated into the night sky above a floodlit fort.

Revelers set loose hundreds of krathongs on the water, in a spot where the overflowing river had submerged a set of park steps. The krathongs were kept from the river, contained in a barricaded zone beside it.

"She's cruel," Vilasini Rienpracha said with a lighthearted laugh, referring to the Thai water deity called Phra Mae Khongkha. "She wanted to come into our streets and to see what the city is like. But we've had enough, it's time for her to go."

Loy Krathong has its roots in an era when most Thais lived in stilt houses made of wood, dependent on rivers and rain-fed agricultural land for their sustenance and survival.

That life is being erased by modern development, which critics say has exacerbated the current crisis. Over the last few decades, canals that once allowed annual floodwaters to pass through the capital unimpeded have been paved over to make room for roads, highways, shopping malls and housing estates.

Sahattaya said Thais have treated the nation's rivers poorly, polluting them with garbage, and exacerbated annual floods with deforestation and poor urban planning.

"If we as humans don't change our behavior, more catastrophes will come," she said. "It's time to start doing something positive instead of destroying the environment. We've been greedy. We've treated Mother Nature poorly. And now she's come back to hurt us."

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/weather/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111110/ap_on_re_as/as_thailand_floods_loy_krathong

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The Pollinator Crisis: What's Best for Bees?

An American bumblebee collects pollen from the non-native dandelion. Image: E. Reschke/Getty

Bees thrum among bright red blossoms on a spring day on Mount Diablo, near San Francisco Bay. Alexandra Harmon-Threatt, a young ecologist just finishing her doctorate at the University of California, Berkeley, lovingly identifies an array of native pollinators. She points out three species of bumblebee, each with a unique pattern of black and yellow stripes. There are bee-flies, members of the fly family covered in soft brown fur, which look and act like bees. Among the native insects are plenty of honeybees (Apis mellifera), the species raised by beekeepers worldwide and introduced to the Americas by English settlers in the seventeenth century. All these insects are drawn to a clump of red vetch (Vicia villosa), an invasive weed. Just down the road is a patch of native lupins, laden with purple blossoms. But the lupins bloom in silence: no bees attend them.

For the past three years, Harmon-Threatt has been studying the ways in which the native yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii) uses the plants growing in the area. By capturing bees as they visit plants and then sampling the pollen they carry, she has confirmed in unpublished work that they get much of their food from introduced plants. And by analysing the amino-acid content of pollen, Harmon-Threatt has shown that bee foraging behaviour can be driven by a craving for nutrients rather than an evolved attachment to a specific plant. Although many conservationists assume that introduced plants are always destructive, her work shows that it's not necessarily so from a bee's point of view. What matters to most bee species is the abundance and quality of pollen ? and if an introduced plant, such as the red vetch, offers more protein-rich food than the natives around it, the bees will collect its pollen.

Harmon-Threatt is one of a growing group of scientists studying the evolving relationships between native bees and introduced plants. Their work is critical in a world where human actions have dramatically shifted the distributions of plants and are forcing a pollinator crisis. Most flowering plants need animal pollinators in order to reproduce, and bees serve that role for many important crops ? including fruits, pulses, some vegetables and alfalfa ? many of which were themselves introduced to the United States. Yet stocks of the domesticated honeybee have been declining in the United States and Europe: the number of managed hives in the United States, for example, has dropped from nearly 6 million in the 1940s to 2.3 million in 2008 (see 'Sting in the tale'). Habitat loss, pesticide poisoning, viruses and parasitic mites, any or all of which may be behind the mysterious syndrome called colony collapse disorder, have taken their toll on the domesticated bees, leaving farmers increasingly dependent on native bees. But they, too, are suffering from the effects of pesticides, disease and changes in land use.

What bees need most, the new pollination studies have shown, is a diverse community of flowering plants that bloom throughout the spring and summer. Abundance and diversity matter more than whether species are native or exotic. These findings could inform conservation strategies used by farmers and other land managers. Park managers tend to target invasive weeds such as red vetch with herbicides because they can outcompete native plants. But for bees, "just taking all the vetch out might not be the best idea", says Harmon-Threatt. "It might take ten to fifteen different species of native plants to support this array of pollinators."

Stories of exquisitely specialized pollination systems ? such as those of yuccas, which are pollinated only by coevolved moth species ? can give the impression that pollination is an exclusive, highly choreographed dance. "Until the past five or ten years, people thought that exclusive pollination relationships were more common," says Rachael Winfree, a pollination biologist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

By studying entire networks of pollinators and plants, however, biologists have learned that most native bees are far less picky than was imagined. Winfree and her colleagues have investigated the ways in which bees use flowers growing in agricultural, urban and natural areas ? ranging from woodland to farm fields and suburban gardens ? in central California and southern New Jersey. The study, led by Neal Williams at the University of California, Davis, and published earlier this year, found that bees collect pollen from both alien and native plants in proportion to a plant's abundance in the landscape. In highly disturbed habitats, bees make greater use of alien plants ? not because the bees prefer them, but simply because introduced plants are more common where people have transformed the landscape. That makes sense to Winfree. "I don't see why bees would know or care whether a plant was native or exotic," she says.

But not all altered landscapes are equal for bees: modern agriculture has taken a severe toll on wild bee numbers. Vast monocultures ? such as the almond orchards of central California and the soybean fields of Argentina ? bloom for only three or four weeks each season, offering no food for bees the rest of the time. "The expansion of these crops destroys habitat for bees," says Marcelo Aizen, a pollination biologist at the National University of Comahue in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina.

Claire Kremen, a conservation biologist at the University of California, Berkeley (and Harmon-Threatt's mentor), has shown that the diversity of pollinators drops with increasing distance from wild habitat, as does the number of visits by wild bees to flowering crops. This cuts crop yields. A study by Aizen and his colleagues, published in April this year, documented a drop in the yield per acre of pollinator-dependent crops since 1961, even as total global production has increased. Falling yields have prompted farmers to put more land under cultivation, further eroding bee habitat. Modern agriculture seems locked in a vicious circle of pollinator destruction.

Yet Kremen and her colleagues showed in 2004 that crop pollination by native bees increases dramatically when natural habitat exists within 1?2.5 kilometres of farm fields. Farms where just 30% of the surrounding landscape is covered in wild vegetation are completely pollinated by native bees, and flourish without help from domesticated honeybees.

As most crops in California's Central Valley are far from patches of wild habitat, Kremen and Williams have been experimenting by growing hedgerows of diverse flowering plants in orchards and fields. They now have a list of native California plants, such as redbud (Cercis occidentalis) and wild asters, which can be combined to create ideal hedgerows, providing pollen-rich blooms from early spring to late autumn. The results are not yet published, but Kremen says it is already clear that the hedges boost the diversity of native bees, and they are being adopted by farmers. The burning question now, says Kremen, is "how much hedgerows can contribute to long-term population persistence of individual bee species".

Weeds will do
Winfree finds that bees don't even need pristine hedges ? weeds will do. She studies bee communities in parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania where native bees pollinate about 90% of the crops. In one study, she and her team watched 6,187 bee visits to watermelon and tomato crops on 23 farms. Both computer modelling and observation suggest that these crops are fully pollinated by wild bees. That's possible, Winfree explains, because the wet climate encourages the growth of weedy plants that spring up at the field edges, and bees use these scraps of habitat to nest and forage. There's another crucial difference from California: in Winfree's study area most farmers plant a variety of crops rather than monocultures.

In a study of New Jersey pine?oak forest, Winfree was surprised to find that bee populations are more abundant and diverse near sites of human disturbance ? where backyard gardens or farm fields add to the range of blossoms available. But the picture is likely to vary from one area to the next. In a recent review of the literature, Winfree and her colleagues concluded that land-use changes such as urbanization and deforestation can affect native pollinators differently, depending on whether they increase or reduce the numbers and diversity of flowering plants.

There's yet another complication: although some exotic plants can feed native pollinators, such plants can also fuel the growth of alien bee populations. Aizen and his colleagues have analysed webs of plants and pollinators in the southern Andes and on islands in the North Atlantic and the Indian Ocean8. They found that, in some cases, exotic plants and pollinators team up to dominate resources, to the detriment of native bees and native plants. "You cannot generalize and say it is good or bad to have alien plants," says Aizen. Problems arise when the alien plants become so widespread in an ecosystem that they lower the diversity of species. "It takes a diverse assemblage of plants to support a diverse assemblage of bees. That is the lesson," he says.

There are still many lessons to learn. Winfree notes the relatively primitive state of pollination ecology: most research on bee diversity has simply counted the number of species, without tracking their fates over time. Her current work examines which bee species are most vulnerable to human disturbance, and explores in more detail whether both rare native bees and efficient pollination services can be restored by increasing the diversity of flowering plants.

Still, a new awareness of the vital role of native bees is spreading. Bruce Rominger, who farms onions in Yolo County, California, has interlaced his crops with hedgerows of native plants, including buckwheat and willow. Now, strolling through his fields on a spring day, he recognizes a variety of insects visiting the blossoms ? from plump bumblebees to slender, iridescent solitary bees. Hedgerows are becoming common among Yolo County farms. "The more native pollinators we have," says Rominger, "the better off we'll be."

This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine Nature. The article was first published on November 9, 2011.

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