Andrew Slavitt, group executive vice president for Optum/QSSI, right, pauses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with contractors that built the federal government's health care websites. The contractors responsible for building the troubled Healthcare.gov website say it was the government's responsibility _ not theirs _ to test it and make sure it worked. At left is Cheryl Campbell, Senior vice president of CGI Federal. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Andrew Slavitt, group executive vice president for Optum/QSSI, right, pauses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing with contractors that built the federal government's health care websites. The contractors responsible for building the troubled Healthcare.gov website say it was the government's responsibility _ not theirs _ to test it and make sure it worked. At left is Cheryl Campbell, Senior vice president of CGI Federal. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Vice President Joe Biden applauds as President Barack Obama speaks about immigration reform, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. The president said now that the partial government shutdown is over, Republicans and Democrats should be able to work together to fix what he called "a broken immigration system." (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2010 file photo, a Saudi woman smokes tobacco from a waterpipe as her friend looks at her cell phone in a coffee shop in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. It’s been a little more than two years since the last time women in Saudi Arabia campaigned for the right to drive. Since then, the monarchy has made incremental but key reforms, and activists hope that has readied the nation for greater change as they call for women to get behind the wheel in a new campaign Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. Ultraconservatives are pushing back with protests, threats and even a cleric’s warning that driving a car damages a woman’s ovaries. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar, File)
Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday:
1. WHERE THE HEALTH CARE WEBSITE WENT WRONG
Contractors say the site's problems trace back to insufficient testing and late changes government officials made.
2. SOME DEMOCRATS SEEK DELAY IN HEALTH CARE LAW
Six Senate Democrats propose delaying the March 31 deadline for applying for coverage and a seventh is co-authoring a bill to postpone the $95 penalty.
3. MERKEL SAYS SPYING ALLEGATIONS HAVE HARMED TIES WITH US
"We need trust among allies and partners," the German leader says. "Such trust now has to be built anew."
4. PORTUGUAL REOPENS THE MADELEINE MCCANN CASE
Prosecutors say new evidence has emerged more than six years after the British girl vanished.
5. WHY ACTIVISTS ARE PUSHING SAUDI WOMEN TO GET BEHIND THE WHEEL
They hope recent reforms made by the monarchy have readied the deeply conservative nation for change.
6. FDA RECOMMENDING LIMITS ON MOST-PRESCRIBED PAINKILLERS
In a big shift, the agency says hydrocodone-containing drugs should be subject to the same restrictions as other narcotics like oxycodone and morphine.
7. WHAT LAW OBAMA WANTS PASSED BY YEAR'S END
The president renews his call for Congress to approve a comprehensive immigration bill.
8. TWITTER SETS $17 TO $20 PER SHARE RANGE FOR IPO
The social networking company says it could raise as much as $1.6 billion in the offering.
9. BAND FROM ASSASSIN'S HAND DRAWS BIG BUCKS
Lee Harvey Oswald's gold wedding ring sells for $108K at auction of JFK items as 50th anniversary of president's shooting approaches.
10. A YEAR BEFORE EXPANDED REPLAY, WORLD SERIES UMPS REVERSE CALL
The overturned call steams the Cards and Red Sox — and gives fans a taste of exactly what they might be missing next year.
Contact: John Delaney jdelaney@wcs.org 718-220-3275 Wildlife Conservation Society
Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of St. Andrews warn that Uganda's African lionsa mainstay of the country's tourism industry and a symbol of Africaare on the verge of disappearing from the country's national parks.
According to the results of a recent survey, African lions in Uganda have decreased by more than 30 percent over the past 10 years in some areas of the country, mostly the result of poisoning by local cattle herders, retaliations for livestock predation, and other human-related conflicts. The downward trend in lion numbers has conservationists concerned about the species' long-term chances in the country, often described as the "Pearl of Africa" for its natural wonders.
The study appears in the latest edition of the journal Oryx. The authors include: Edward Okot Omoya, Tutilo Mudumba, Paul Mulondo, and Andrew J. Plumptre from WCS and Stephen T. Buckland of the University of St. Andrews.
"African lions are a vital component of these ecosystems," said WCS conservationist Edward Okot Omoya, the lead author of the study. "They play an important role in disease control of antelopes and buffalo by killing the sick animals."
The paper describes the results of a "lure count" analysis survey to estimate the density and population distribution of lions and spotted hyenas in Uganda's three major conservation areas, conducted by researchers between November 2008 and November 2009. The researchers used a buffalo calf distress call (broadcast via speakers mounted on a vehicle roof rack) to attract both medium and large carnivores to the "call stations" as a means of calculating a current population estimate for the study locations. Previous survey methods used to count lions have included counting roars, identifying individual cats, and mark-recapture methods, but the methods are time-consuming and expensive.
Overall, the call station surveys attracted a total of 66 lions, 176 spotted hyenas, and seven leopards. The broadcasts also attracted a host of smaller predators, including side-striped jackals, black-backed jackals, white-tailed mongooses, and large spotted genets.
Using the data of animals observed, the analysis generated an estimated lion population of 408 animals in the three main strongholds for lions in Uganda, nearly two hundred fewer lions than estimates made in 2000-2002 (a statistical decrease of more than 30 percent). In Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area, estimated lion numbers have decreased from 206 to 144 over the past decade (a 30 percent drop). In Murchison Falls Conservation Area, the team estimates a nearly 60 percent drop (from 324 to 132 lions in the past decade). Only in Kidepo Valley National Park did the researchers detect an increase in estimated lion numbers (climbing from 58 to 132).
"Lions are the species tourists most want to see in Uganda's savannas according to research by WCS. Surveys of tourists have shown that they would be 50% less likely to visit the parks in Uganda if they couldn't see lions, and if they did visit they would want to pay less for the experience. As an industry that generates more foreign currency in the country than any other business this could have significant consequences for Uganda" reported Dr. Andrew Plumptre, WCS's Director for the Albertine Rift.
The study also represents the first survey of hyena numbers from these areas, generating a population estimate of 324 hyenas (the researchers suspectbut cannot prove hyenas to be in decline as well).
"Conservation areas such as Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls, which formerly contained the highest biomass of mammals on Earth, depend on the delicate balance between predators and prey," said Dr. James Deutsch, Executive Director of WCS's Africa Program. "Their loss would permanently alter two of Africa's great ecosystems."
The crisis in lion conservation in Uganda reflects the status of the species across Africa, where lion populations have dropped by 30 percent over the past two decades as a result of illegal killing and the loss of both habitat and prey. The most recent estimate of Africa's total lion population is approximately 32,000 animals. A group study led by WCS estimated that 42 percent of major lion populations are in decline. The species is nearly extinct in West and Central Africa. The species is listed as "Vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature but there is a current proposal to list the species as "Endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of the continuing global declines.
###
The Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo exhibits African lions in its African Plains habitat, a naturalistic exhibit space that exhibits both predator and prey species separated only by moats. The Bronx Zoo's lions are part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP), a breeding cooperative administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums designed to enhance the genetic viability and diversity of animal populations in accredited zoos.
WCS is grateful to Panthera and the U.S. Agency for International Development for the training and funding support provided to make this research possible.
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King of beasts losing ground in Uganda's paradise
PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
24-Oct-2013
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Contact: John Delaney jdelaney@wcs.org 718-220-3275 Wildlife Conservation Society
Conservationists from the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of St. Andrews warn that Uganda's African lionsa mainstay of the country's tourism industry and a symbol of Africaare on the verge of disappearing from the country's national parks.
According to the results of a recent survey, African lions in Uganda have decreased by more than 30 percent over the past 10 years in some areas of the country, mostly the result of poisoning by local cattle herders, retaliations for livestock predation, and other human-related conflicts. The downward trend in lion numbers has conservationists concerned about the species' long-term chances in the country, often described as the "Pearl of Africa" for its natural wonders.
The study appears in the latest edition of the journal Oryx. The authors include: Edward Okot Omoya, Tutilo Mudumba, Paul Mulondo, and Andrew J. Plumptre from WCS and Stephen T. Buckland of the University of St. Andrews.
"African lions are a vital component of these ecosystems," said WCS conservationist Edward Okot Omoya, the lead author of the study. "They play an important role in disease control of antelopes and buffalo by killing the sick animals."
The paper describes the results of a "lure count" analysis survey to estimate the density and population distribution of lions and spotted hyenas in Uganda's three major conservation areas, conducted by researchers between November 2008 and November 2009. The researchers used a buffalo calf distress call (broadcast via speakers mounted on a vehicle roof rack) to attract both medium and large carnivores to the "call stations" as a means of calculating a current population estimate for the study locations. Previous survey methods used to count lions have included counting roars, identifying individual cats, and mark-recapture methods, but the methods are time-consuming and expensive.
Overall, the call station surveys attracted a total of 66 lions, 176 spotted hyenas, and seven leopards. The broadcasts also attracted a host of smaller predators, including side-striped jackals, black-backed jackals, white-tailed mongooses, and large spotted genets.
Using the data of animals observed, the analysis generated an estimated lion population of 408 animals in the three main strongholds for lions in Uganda, nearly two hundred fewer lions than estimates made in 2000-2002 (a statistical decrease of more than 30 percent). In Queen Elizabeth Conservation Area, estimated lion numbers have decreased from 206 to 144 over the past decade (a 30 percent drop). In Murchison Falls Conservation Area, the team estimates a nearly 60 percent drop (from 324 to 132 lions in the past decade). Only in Kidepo Valley National Park did the researchers detect an increase in estimated lion numbers (climbing from 58 to 132).
"Lions are the species tourists most want to see in Uganda's savannas according to research by WCS. Surveys of tourists have shown that they would be 50% less likely to visit the parks in Uganda if they couldn't see lions, and if they did visit they would want to pay less for the experience. As an industry that generates more foreign currency in the country than any other business this could have significant consequences for Uganda" reported Dr. Andrew Plumptre, WCS's Director for the Albertine Rift.
The study also represents the first survey of hyena numbers from these areas, generating a population estimate of 324 hyenas (the researchers suspectbut cannot prove hyenas to be in decline as well).
"Conservation areas such as Queen Elizabeth and Murchison Falls, which formerly contained the highest biomass of mammals on Earth, depend on the delicate balance between predators and prey," said Dr. James Deutsch, Executive Director of WCS's Africa Program. "Their loss would permanently alter two of Africa's great ecosystems."
The crisis in lion conservation in Uganda reflects the status of the species across Africa, where lion populations have dropped by 30 percent over the past two decades as a result of illegal killing and the loss of both habitat and prey. The most recent estimate of Africa's total lion population is approximately 32,000 animals. A group study led by WCS estimated that 42 percent of major lion populations are in decline. The species is nearly extinct in West and Central Africa. The species is listed as "Vulnerable" by the International Union for Conservation of Nature but there is a current proposal to list the species as "Endangered" under the U.S. Endangered Species Act because of the continuing global declines.
###
The Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo exhibits African lions in its African Plains habitat, a naturalistic exhibit space that exhibits both predator and prey species separated only by moats. The Bronx Zoo's lions are part of the Species Survival Plan (SSP), a breeding cooperative administered by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums designed to enhance the genetic viability and diversity of animal populations in accredited zoos.
WCS is grateful to Panthera and the U.S. Agency for International Development for the training and funding support provided to make this research possible.
[
| E-mail
Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
(Reuters) - Twitter hired NBC News digital executive Vivian Schiller as the head of news after months of speculation since the social media platform posted a job listing for the position last spring.
"Excited to join @Twitter as Head of News in January. Leaving @NBCNews at year's end. Grateful to my beloved colleagues for 2+ great years," Schiller tweeted on Thursday.
Schiller has been considered the front runner for the role meant to be a liaison between Twitter and news organizations. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Many news organizations use Twitter to reach readers who are increasingly using social media platforms to consume news.
Schiller has an extensive background as an executive in charge of digital news. At NBC News, she served as senior vice president and chief digital officer. Prior to that, she was the CEO of National Public Radio. She left NPR in 2011 after a series of controversies including an NPR fundraising executive who slammed conservatives.
Schiller was also an executive at the New York Times Co, leading day-to-day operations of the newspaper's website.
Twitter also announced on Thursday that it is seeking to raise up to $10.9 billion in its hotly anticipated initial public offering.
(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; editing by Matthew Lewis)
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah (left), and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor on Oct. 16 to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.
Evan Vucci/AP
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah (left), and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, walk to the Senate floor on Oct. 16 to vote on a bill to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government.
Evan Vucci/AP
Two Tea Party-backed, defund-Obamacare-or-we'll-shut-down-the-government Senate leaders. Two very different outcomes.
Ted Cruz, who became the public face of the shutdown strategy with his 21-hour talkfest on the Senate floor, has gone back to Texas a conquering hero. He even got an eight-minute standing ovation at a San Antonio event over the weekend, and his not-quite-acknowledged 2016 presidential bid has only gathered momentum.
But Mike Lee, who actually circulated the letter demanding that the president's health care law be left out of any new government spending bill? Well, he's decided to avoid a lot of public events back in Utah for the time being.
It turns out there are many Republicans in Utah who think the shutdown was a bad idea, in part because the resulting closure of national parks cost the state's tourism industry money. Others are uncomfortable with the sharp and uncompromising ideological edge. The ill feelings could add steam to efforts to change the nominating process there to eliminate the party convention that currently has so much sway. It was the convention in 2010 where Lee and another challenger ousted incumbent Republican Robert Bennett. Lee then went on to win the subsequent primary.
If that convention is eliminated in favor of a stand-alone primary, it would diminish the influence of a small group of the most conservative activists and empower the broader, and more mainstream, conservative GOP electorate.
There's one bit of good news in this for Lee: His re-election cycle is still three years off.
On August 6 and 9, 1945, U.S. airmen dropped the nuclear bombs Little Boy and Fat Man on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On April 26, 1986, the number four reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Ukraine exploded.
Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave led the field as nominations for the 23rd annual Gotham Independent Film Awards were announced today. The Fox Searchlight release, which offers a searing look at slavery in the American South, claimed three nominations -- best feature, best actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor and breakthrough actor for Lupita Nyong’o.
With the Independent Filmmaker Project, which presents the awards, spreading nominations among 23 films, five other features received two nominations each. That group was made up of Blue Caprice, Concussion, Fruitvale Station, Inside Llewyn Davis and Upstream Color.
Nominees in the best actor and best actress categories, introduced for the fist time this year, included such established performers like Robert Redford (All Is Lost), Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) and Scarlett Johansson (Don Jon), alongside less familiar names.
In addition to Slave, the nominees for best feature included David Lowery’s tale of love on the run Ain’t Them Bodies Saints, RichardLinklater’s relationship study Before Midnight, Joel Coen and EthanCoen’s foray into the ‘60s folk scene Inside Llewyn Davis and ShaneCarruth’s allegorical romance Upstream Color.
Linklater is also set to receive a tribute at the Gotham Awards ceremony, which will be held Dec. 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Tributes are also planned for actor Forest Whitaker and Katherine Oliver, who heads the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment.
Gotham Awards will be handed out in seven competitive categories. Nominees were selected by panels of film critics, journalists, festival programmers and film curators. Separate juries of filmmakers will determine the winners in six categories, while moviegoers will choose the winner of the audience award online. The Gotham Awards focus on independent American movies from U.S.-based or U.S.-born directors that are made “with a point of view and with an economy of means.”
A complete list of nominees follows:
Best Feature
12 Years a Slave
Steve McQueen, director; Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Bill Pohlad, Steve McQueen, Arnon Milchan, Anthony Katagas, producers. (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Ain’t Them Bodies Saints
David Lowery, director; Tony Halbrooks, James M. Johnston, Jay Van Hoy, Lars Knudsen, Amy Kaufman, Cassian Elwes, producers (IFC Films)
Before Midnight
Richard Linklater, director; Richard Linklater, Christos V. Konstantakopoulos, Sara Woodhatch, producers (Sony Pictures Classics)
Inside Llewyn Davis
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, directors; Scott Rudin, Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, producers (CBS Films)
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, introduces the new iPad Air on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage before a new product introduction on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, speaks on stage before a new product announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks on stage before a new product introduction on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering at Apple, speaks on stage before a new product announcement on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. is refreshing its iPad lineup in hopes of reclaiming lost ground in the tablet market and slashing the prices of its Mac computers to intensify the pressure on the beleaguered makers of PCs running Microsoft's Windows.
Tuesday's unveiling of Apple's latest products primes the company for a holiday shopping season onslaught aimed at a list of rivals that includes Google Inc., Samsung Electronics, Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp.
A thinner, lighter and faster-running tablet computer called the iPad Air highlighted the event in San Francisco. Apple Inc. also showed off a souped-up iPad Mini that boasts a faster microprocessor, a high-definition display screen and a higher price than its predecessor.
The iPad upgrades, coming a year after the release of the tablet's previous generation, fell largely in line with analyst expectations.
In a surprise, Apple is introducing slightly revamped MacBook Pros at prices 9 percent to 13 percent below the previous versions. What's more, Apple is giving away its latest Mac operating system — Mavericks — for free, as well as several pieces of software, including programs called iWorks and iLife that provide many of the same tools as Microsoft's Office.
"We are turning the industry on its ear," Apple CEO Tim Cook said of the company's strategy.
Technology analyst Patrick Moorhead predicted the discounted MacBook Pros will force personal computer makers to cut the prices of their machines by at least $100 for the holidays.
And Ovum analyst Jan Dawson thinks Apple's giveaway of the operating system and software programs "is now teaching people to expect both of those things to be free. While this won't disrupt Microsoft's business overnight, it will create further pressure on Microsoft to bring down prices."
If that happens, it would be another blow for Microsoft, which has seen its Windows revenue suffer in recent years as personal computer sales sink amid a shift to smartphones and tablets.
Apple triggered the upheaval with the 2007 release of the first iPhone followed up with the 2010 introduction of the iPad.
While both products have a fierce following, Apple has been losing market share to rivals who primarily make mobile devices running on Google's Android software. As Apple is now doing with its Mavericks software for Macs, Google gives away Android to device makers who can afford to undercut the prices for iPhones and iPads.
Despite the competitive pressure, Apple has steadfastly refused to cut prices on its top-of-the-line products. Instead, it has sold older versions of its Phones and iPads at slight discounts to consumers who are willing to settle for something less than state-of-the-art technology.
The Cupertino, Calif. company is hewing to that philosophy with its latest tablets. The iPad Air will start at $499, just like its predecessors, while the new iPad Mini will sell for $399 — a 21 percent increase from the price of the first Mini. The price of the original Mini, which runs at slower speeds and lacks a high-definition display screen, is falling from $329 to $299.
As it has done for more than year, Apple will continue selling the iPad 2 — a tablet that came out two-and-half years ago — for $399.
"Apple doesn't want to play in the mud with declining prices" on iPads, Moorhead said.
The strategy hasn't been a hit with investors who are unhappy with the Cupertino, Calif. company's slowing growth as it loses sales to lower-priced alternatives. Wall Street also is disillusioned with Apple's lack of another breakthrough product since the death of co-founder and chief visionary Steve Jobs two years ago.
Apple's stock dipped $1.49 to close at $519.87 Tuesday. The shares remain about 25 percent below their peak reached 13 months ago.
The iPad Air's main appeal is a more svelte design and a faster microprocessor, the same kind of chip in the iPhone 5S that Apple released a month ago. The new tablet weighs just 1 pound, compared with 1.4 pounds for the previous version. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller hailed it as a "screaming fast iPad," noting that it is eight times faster than the original model that came out in 2010.
The iPad Air will go on sale Nov. 1. The new iPad Mini will be available at a still-to-be-determined date later in November.
They are coming out at a time when Apple needs to reassert itself in a tablet market. Google, Amazon.com and Samsung have been winning over consumers with flashy tablets that sell for $200 to $400. None of the rivals boast the 475,000 apps that Apple says are made for the iPad, but that vast selection hasn't mattered to many cost-conscious consumers.
The research firm Gartner Inc. estimates that Android tablets will end 2013 with a 50 percent share of the worldwide market versus 49 percent for the iPad. Just two years ago, the iPad commanded a 65 percent market share compared to 30 percent for Android tablets.
Apple sold 14.6 million iPads during the three months ending in June, down 14 percent from the same time last year. It marked the first time Apple has posted a year-over-year decline in iPad sales.
It might have happened again in the latest quarter ending in September. Although Apple isn't scheduled to report its results for the latest quarter until next Monday, a statistic released at Tuesday's event gave a hint of how the iPad fared in the period.
Cook said Apple's total iPad sales since the device's inception surpassed 170 million units earlier this month. Given that Apple sold 155 million iPads through June, that means fewer than 15 million were sold in the quarter ending in September. Apple sold 14 million iPads in last year's quarter ending in September.
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