Faculty of 1000 introduces a novel Open Access publishing venture: F1000 Research

Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
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Contact: Eleanor Howell
press@f1000.com
44-020-763-19129
Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine

Diverging from traditional journal publishing, F1000 Research will offer immediate publication; open, post-publication peer review; open revisioning of work including ongoing updates; and will encourage raw data deposition and publication. In addition, F1000 Research will accept a broad range of article formats and will encourage content types that are now routinely rejected such as negative results, case studies, thought experiments, preliminary analyses, and incomplete datasets.

The problems with current approaches to publishing novel scientific research are well documented. It no longer makes sense to wait months or years to read, comment, or build upon another lab's work, and the standard closed, pre-publication peer review process has been extensively criticized. Furthermore, there is a growing recognition that the raw data behind novel findings need to be shared (barring any privacy concerns) to enable re-use and ensure reproducibility. F1000 Research will work with the community to address all of these issues, and the initial platform will be a forum to do this.

Commenting on the launch of F1000 Research, Vitek Tracz, Chairman and Founder of Faculty of 1000 Ltd said: "The Open Access model has addressed effectively the issue of inadequate access to research findings. It did not address the major issues around communicating the research finding: the delays in access, the inadequacies of peer review, and the complexities of data publishing. It is up to collaboration between researchers and publishers to come up with a solution, and we are determined to be a part of it."

Dr Rebecca Lawrence, who is leading the project at F1000 said: "Many questions remain as we fine-tune F1000 Research to break new ground in scholarly publishing. We therefore invite those working in the bioresearch community, institutions, funders, data centres and repositories, and data mining and informatics groups to join us in open discussion and debate about these many outstanding issues via the RSS feed or by Twitter: @F1000Research."

###

To find out more about F1000 Research, please contact Rebecca Lawrence on 44-20-7631-9154 or email rebecca.lawrence@f1000.com. For more information, visit http://f1000research.com.

To find out more about Faculty of 1000, please contact Eleanor Howell on 44-20-7631-9129 or email press@f1000.com. For more information, visit http://f1000.com.

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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.

Public release date: 31-Jan-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Eleanor Howell
press@f1000.com
44-020-763-19129
Faculty of 1000: Biology and Medicine

Diverging from traditional journal publishing, F1000 Research will offer immediate publication; open, post-publication peer review; open revisioning of work including ongoing updates; and will encourage raw data deposition and publication. In addition, F1000 Research will accept a broad range of article formats and will encourage content types that are now routinely rejected such as negative results, case studies, thought experiments, preliminary analyses, and incomplete datasets.

The problems with current approaches to publishing novel scientific research are well documented. It no longer makes sense to wait months or years to read, comment, or build upon another lab's work, and the standard closed, pre-publication peer review process has been extensively criticized. Furthermore, there is a growing recognition that the raw data behind novel findings need to be shared (barring any privacy concerns) to enable re-use and ensure reproducibility. F1000 Research will work with the community to address all of these issues, and the initial platform will be a forum to do this.

Commenting on the launch of F1000 Research, Vitek Tracz, Chairman and Founder of Faculty of 1000 Ltd said: "The Open Access model has addressed effectively the issue of inadequate access to research findings. It did not address the major issues around communicating the research finding: the delays in access, the inadequacies of peer review, and the complexities of data publishing. It is up to collaboration between researchers and publishers to come up with a solution, and we are determined to be a part of it."

Dr Rebecca Lawrence, who is leading the project at F1000 said: "Many questions remain as we fine-tune F1000 Research to break new ground in scholarly publishing. We therefore invite those working in the bioresearch community, institutions, funders, data centres and repositories, and data mining and informatics groups to join us in open discussion and debate about these many outstanding issues via the RSS feed or by Twitter: @F1000Research."

###

To find out more about F1000 Research, please contact Rebecca Lawrence on 44-20-7631-9154 or email rebecca.lawrence@f1000.com. For more information, visit http://f1000research.com.

To find out more about Faculty of 1000, please contact Eleanor Howell on 44-20-7631-9129 or email press@f1000.com. For more information, visit http://f1000.com.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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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.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-01/fo1b-fo1013012.php

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Oscar-nominated Glenn Close film opens strong (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES, Jan 29 (TheWrap.com) ? Buoyed by three Oscar nominations, "Albert Nobbs" took a solid $772,730 in its first weekend of wide release.

The Roadside Attractions movie, which earned Glenn Close a best actress nomination, Janet McTeer a best supporting actress nomination and the makeup team a best makeup nomination, opened at 245 locations. Including its Oscar-qualifying numbers in December, the R-rated movie has taken in $822,981.

That's a per-location average of $3,154.

Academy Award nominations were good for a raft of indie films this weekend: The Weinstein Company's "The Artist," nominated for 10 Oscars, including best picture, and "The Iron Lady," nominated for two, each passed $15 million at the box office.

"The Artist," now in its 10th weekend in release, took in $3.3 million at 897 locations. It has grossed $16.7 million. "The Iron Lady" took $3.2 million at 1,244 locations, for a total of $17.5 million. That movie is in its fifth weekend.

And "The Descendants," nominated for five Oscars, including best picture, best director and, for George Clooney, best actor, had its best weekend since its debut 11 weeks ago.

Fox Searchlight expanded the film by 1,441 locations, to 2,001, and saw its numbers increase by 176 percent over last weekend -- to $6.55 million. That's good enough to put it at No. 7 at the overall box office.

"This is a great result for the Academy-nominated movie that has benefited big time from the award season and has become the darling of the general moviegoing audience," Sheila DeLoach, Fox Searchlight's executive VP distribution, told TheWrap. "When you nurture these pictures on this journey and then they break through like this to the general audience, it becomes such a special movie."

It also broke -- or is about to break -- a few records.

With its new total of $58.8 million, "The Descendants" is now the top-grossing independent film released in 2011. Sony Pictures Classics' "Midnight in Paris" -- also a best picture nominee -- had been No. 1 with $56.43 million.

"Descendants" is on the way to becoming director Alexander Payne's top-grossing film. His 2002 "About Schmidt" grossed $65 million, and his 2004 "Sideways" took $71.5 million.

Finally, "The Descendants" is about to surpass "Little Miss Sunshine" as Fox Searchlight's fifth-highest-grossing film ever. The 2006 "Little Miss Sunshine" took $59.9 million.

Another Oscar nominee, Wim Wenders' "Pina," broke the million-dollar mark this week, according to Rentrak.

The 3D film, nominated for best documentary, is about dancer and choreographer Pina Bausch. It expanded from 10 locations to 35, and now has grossed just short of $1.05 million.

Other new indie films opening this weekend include IFC's "Declaration of War," which, according to Rentrak, took $14,400 at six locations, and "An Inconsistent Truth," which grossed $20,282 at one location.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/film_nm/us_boxoffice_albertnobbs

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Interstate 75 Car Crashes: Florida Pileup Kills At Least 10

Debris and wreckage lie along the highway after a multi-vehicle accident that killed at least nine people, on Interstate 75 near Gainesville, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2012-01-29-Lakers-Bucks/id-48c1b33bad464c8998da79f03016f176

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UN nuclear team heads to Iran

VIENNA?? Senior United Nations nuclear inspectors headed to Tehran on Saturday to press Iranian officials to address suspicions that the Islamic state is seeking atomic weapons.

The U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency hopes Iran, which has indicated readiness to discuss the issue for the first time since 2008, will end years of stonewalling on intelligence pointing to an intention to develop nuclear arms technology.

"We are trying ... to resolve all the outstanding issues with Iran, in particular we hope that Iran will engage with us on our concerns regarding the possible military dimensions of Iran's nuclear program," IAEA Deputy Director General Herman Nackaerts told reporters as he prepared to depart from Vienna airport.

But Western diplomats, who have often accused Iran of using such offers of dialogue as a stalling tactic while it presses ahead with its nuclear program, say they doubt Tehran will show the kind of concrete cooperation the IAEA wants.

They say Iran may offer limited concessions and transparency in an attempt to ease intensifying international pressure on the country, a major oil producer, but that this is unlikely to amount to the full cooperation that is required.

The outcome could determine whether Iran will face further international isolation, or whether there are prospects for resuming wider talks between Tehran and the major powers on the nuclear dispute that has sparked fears of war.

The United States and its allies suspect the program has military aims but Tehran says is for peaceful electricity generation.

"The chances of the IAEA's success may depend on how badly Iran wants to avoid harder sanctions," said nuclear expert Mark Hibbs of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Story: Israel senses bluffing in Iran's retaliation threats

Remarks by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's top adviser on international affairs on Saturday suggested Iran was not in the mood for concessions.

"Iran's stance towards its nuclear issue has not changed in term of fundamentals and principles," Ali Akbar Velayati said, according to the ISNA news agency.

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"One important principle is that Iran would not relinquish or withdraw from its peaceful nuclear activities."

The six-member IAEA team of senior officials and experts, headed by Nackaerts, was due to arrive in Tehran early on Sunday.

The three-day visit comes at a time of soaring tension between Iran and the West. The IAEA issued a report in November with details of suspected research and development activities in Iran relevant to nuclear weapons.

The West has seized on the report to ratchet up sanctions aimed at Iran's lifeblood oil exports. Iran hit back on Friday warning it may halt oil exports to Europe next week.

'Appearing to cooperate'
The IAEA team is expected to seek explanations to the issues raised in the report, including information that Iran appears to have worked on a nuclear weapon design, and demand access to sites, officials and documents relevant to the agency's probe.

The IAEA says Iran, which has rejected the allegations as forged and baseless, has not engaged with the agency in a substantive way on these issues since August 2008 and that it keeps receiving intelligence data adding to its concerns.

"There were a huge number of questions raised by the November report. They will be seeking to answer those questions, and it's incumbent on Iran to be supportive," U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said this week.

IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano has called on Iran to show a "constructive spirit" in the meeting and Iran has said it is willing to discuss "any issues" of interest to the U.N. agency, including the military-linked concerns.

Video: Exclusive: tensions flare near crucial oil chokepoint

Iran's Press TV state television said on its website the IAEA visit was aimed at bolstering cooperation between the two sides "by resolving ambiguities," language Tehran has also used in the past.

The English-language station cited Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, as saying the main objective was to "thwart plots by enemies who are leveling unfounded allegations" against Iran and to prove its nuclear transparency.

Hibbs said Amano would want to see a "significant step" from Iran, for example by agreeing to more intrusive IAEA inspections or by explaining issues related to the weapons suspicions.

"I'm not very optimistic," Hibbs said. "Iran's track record is of appearing to cooperate whenever they are threatened by penalties."

Meanwhile, European oil companies that are owed oil by Iran could lose out if Iran imposes a ban on crude exports to the EU next week, a measure currently before the Iranian parliament, the head of Iran's state oil company said Saturday.

"Generally, the parties to incur damage from the EU's recent decision will be European companies with pending contracts with Iran," Ahmad Qalebani, head of the National Iranian Oil Co., told the ISNA news agency.

"The European companies will have to abide by the provisions of the buyback contracts," he said. "If they act otherwise, they will be the parties to incur the relevant losses and will subject the repatriation of their capital to problems."

The EU banned imports of oil from Iran Monday and imposed a number of other economic sanctions, joining the United States in a new round of measures aimed at deflecting Tehran's nuclear development program.

Copyright 2012 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46174915/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Farmers Insurance Open 2012 Leaderboard Update: Spencer Levin ...

Conditions were ripe for scoring on Thursday as the 2012 Farmers Insurance Open got underway at Torrey Pines. And judging from the leaderboard, the North Course was the place to be as the field flip-flops over the first two days -- those that played the South Course on Thursday get the easier task, at least in theory, on Friday. Of those near the top of the leaderboard, 16 were on the North Course, with just one playing South Course to open the tournament --Marc Turnesa, who sits four shots back.

Spencer Levin and Kyle Stanley each fired 10-under 62s on Thursday to surge to the top of the leaderboard. They share the lead by a stroke, with Bill Haas, who finished with a 9-under 63, in hot pursuit. Four players, including Vijay Singh, are two shots back of the lead after one round, sharing a tie for third-place at 8-under.

Among the other notables, Phil Mickelson was eaten alive by the South Course and sits at 5-over after an opening round 77. He's two shots out of dead last, an honor captured by Tommy Gainey, who also played the South Course. Bubba Watson is tied for 37th after a first-round 69 on the North Course.

Source: http://www.sbnation.com/golf/2012/1/27/2751685/farmers-insurance-open-2012-leaderboard-update-spencer-levin-kyle-stanley-phil-mickelson

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Paterno's long goodbye ends with public memorial (Reuters)

STATE COLLEGE, Pa (Reuters) ? The son of late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno told 10,000 mourners on Thursday his father died "with a clear conscience," and former players shared why they worshipped the man in a final goodbye to the legendary "JoePa."

The memorial at the campus basketball arena concluded five days of public mourning for Paterno, 85, who died on Sunday of lung cancer two months after his towering reputation was shaken by a child sexual abuse scandal involving an assistant coach.

The hero's sendoff after Paterno's death contrasted sharply with the sudden and unceremonious end of his career in November, when the university's board of trustees fired him following revelations about defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, accused of molesting at least 10 boys over 15 years.

Paterno won a major college record 409 games and two national championships in his 46 years as head coach, creating a football powerhouse that generated $53 million in profit in 2010, according to Forbes magazine.

Son Jay Paterno shared deathbed moments the crowd, saying, "Joe Paterno left this world with a clear conscience."

Shortly before his father died, Jay Paterno said he bent over and whispered into his father's ear, "Dad you won. You did all you could do. We all love you. You can go home."

Interest in "A Memorial to Joe" built for days. The 10,000 free tickets were snapped up within seven minutes earlier this week. At least one ticket holder tried to profit by selling a ticket for $66,000 on Ebay, but the online site immediately banned the sale.

The week of mourning has drawn back to campus stars from past football teams, members of the 2011 squad, Penn State alumni who have no memory of any other football coach, undergraduates and townspeople to remember the winningest coach in major college football history.

"No one individual did more for a university than what Joe Paterno did for this school," said Todd Blackledge, a quarterback in the 1980s who played for seven years in the NFL.

"He was as fierce a competitor as anyone I have ever seen," Blackledge said. "Coach Paterno was at his best under pressure. He taught us how to compete."

Charlie Pittman, a runningback from the 1960s, praised Paterno for building a long-lasting institution that prided itself on the motto "Success with Honor."

"Though his body eventually failed, his spirit never did. Rest in peace, coach. We'll take it from here," he said to a standing ovation.

Paterno came under fire in November when it was revealed he was told by a purported witness that Sandusky molested a 10-year-old boy in the Penn State football showers in 2002. Paterno informed university officials but not police.

Sandusky, 67, faces 52 criminal counts accusing him of molesting 10 boys over 15 years, using his position as head of The Second Mile, a charity dedicated to helping troubled children, to find his victims. The court has placed Sandusky, who maintains his innocence, under house arrest.

(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Daniel Trotta)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/religion/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120127/us_nm/us_usa_paterno

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Video: Can Gingrich take the GOP down?

Surprising 30 percent rise in home births

A small, but growing trend of women in the US are choosing home births, a new government report finds. These mostly over 35, non-Hispanic white women are "consciously rejecting the system" of hospital deliveries, says the researcher.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/vp/46154554#46154554

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Galaxy S III now rumored to be a no-show at MWC

But would that that really a bad thing?

Samsung, it is now rumored, will not be showing the Galaxy S III at Mobile World Congress. That's according to unconfirmed rumors from The Verge and Germany's Best Boyz. Of course, the Galaxy S III has yet to actually be announced or anything, nor has Samsung sent invites for any press event in Barcelona. But, yeah. It's entirely possible we won't see it there. Bummer, to be sure.

But here's the thing: We -- and most everybody else out there -- have been largely been assuming we'll see Samsung Next Big Thing™ in Spain. Perfectly reasonable assumption by all, since the Galaxy S II was announced there last year. But it's still an assumption, and it's still ignoring one thing.

Anybody remember when and where the Samsung Galaxy S was launched? That's right, boys and girls. The original Galaxy S was born in March 2010 at CTIA in Las Vegas, not at Mobile World Congress a month sooner. (We got Super AMOLED screens at MWC in 2010.) The Galaxy S still was released outside the United States first, and we got ours at an event in New York City that brought the four major U.S. carriers together. (Note we've not seen an event like that since; though last year's Galaxy S II event did manage appearances by AT&T and Sprint, and a half-assing from T-Mobile.)

Anyhoo. We're still a month out from MWC. Anything can happen. (Hell, we saw a complete redesign of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in a month.) And it's not like there won't be ample opportunities for the GSIII (or whatever's next) to be announced after that. We've got CTIA in May. Google IO in June. CTIA again in October. Countless events in between. And if indeed it's true that the Galaxy S III is being pushed back to eliminate lag time between release, let's all ask ourselves this:

Are we really going to complain about an unofficial phone's unannounced announcement possibly being pushed closer to the date that it'll actually be available for purchase? It's a mad, mad world.

Sources: The Verge; Best Boyz

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9Qi-LWDs4MQ/story01.htm

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Iraq says to take legal action for Haditha victims (Reuters)

BAGHDAD (Reuters) ? Iraq plans legal action on behalf of families of victims killed by U.S. troops in a 2005 massacre after the last soldier involved was spared jail time by a guilty plea with military authorities, a government spokesman said Thursday.

The Haditha massacre that killed 24 Iraqis, alongside the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and shootings by U.S. contractors in 2007, stoked global outrage against the nearly nine-year U.S. military presence after the 2003 invasion.

The last U.S. soldier accused in leading the massacre, Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, was spared jail-time Tuesday when he was sentenced after pleading guilty to dereliction of duty. Original charges of involuntary manslaughter were dismissed.

"We will seek legal means to maintain the rights of the innocents citizens who were killed in the incident," said Ali al-Moussawi, media adviser to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

"We will follow whatever course we can follow legally," Moussawi said without giving details on actions.

The sentencing caused anger in Haditha, where a member of one of the victims' families called it an "insult to all Iraqis."

The killings were described by Iraqi witnesses and prosecutors as a massacre of unarmed civilians - including women and children -- carried out by Marines angered by the death of a member of their unit in a bombing.

"The ruling does not fit the crime," Moussawi said.

Wuterich was accused of being a ringleader when in November 19, 2005, a group of U.S. soldiers carried out a series of shootings and grenade attacks in Haditha, at the time a hotbed for insurgents fighting against American forces.

Six of the seven others originally charged had their cases dismissed by U.S. military judges. An eighth was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Wuterich apologized to the families in his sentencing and said civilians were not singled out. Defense lawyers had argued the deaths came during combat when the men believed they were under enemy fire.

The last U.S. troops left Iraq in December at the end of a security agreement. Talks to try to keep several thousand U.S. soldiers on Iraqi soil fell apart over the sensitive issue of legal immunity for troops involved in crimes.

In 2004, a scandal erupted over U.S. troops who photographed themselves humiliating and intimidating detainees in Abu Ghraib jail. In September 2007, U.S. security contractors killed at least 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad, sparking protests and international condemnation.

(Writing by Patrick Markey; Editing by Roger Atwood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iraq/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120126/wl_nm/us_iraq_massacre

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United Technologies 4Q profit up nearly 11 pct (AP)

HARTFORD, Conn. ? United Technologies Corp. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit rose nearly 11 percent, propelled by growth in its aerospace businesses. Total revenue increased 1 percent.

The manufacturer of elevators, jet engines, heating and cooling equipment for buildings and other industrial products is banking on growth in commercial aerospace as Congress and the Obama administration plan to slash military spending.

A $16.4 billion acquisition of aircraft components maker Goodrich Corp. is on track to close by the middle of 2012, while United Technologies' jet engine division Pratt & Whitney is spending $1.5 billion to buy out Rolls Royce from a joint venture that makes engines for the Airbus A320 plane.

The two deals position United Technologies for future earnings growth, CEO Louis Chenevert said Wednesday. He has said the Goodrich deal could increase company revenue by 10 percent this year, but will not add to profit until 2013.

Much of the company's existing aerospace business is humming. In the October-December quarter, jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney's operating profit rose 12 percent, while profit at aerospace parts maker Hamilton Sundstrand jumped 21 percent.

But operating profit at helicopter maker unit Sikorsky Aircraft, a key military supplier, fell 13 percent. Sikorsky announced in September it was trimming its worldwide work force of 18,000 by about 3 percent as U.S. forces exit Iraq and draw down in Afghanistan.

Asked by an analyst to comment on potential asset sales to help fund the Goodrich deal and "some chatter" about the future of Sikorsky, Chief Financial Officer Greg Hayes said United Technologies is not considering jettisoning the helicopter maker.

United Technologies is instead weighing selling divisions it doesn't consider essential, such as installation businesses in its Fire & Security segment, he said on a conference call. The company had also planned to sell about $4 billion in equity and take on $12 billion in debt to fund the Goodrich deal. United Technologies will in mid-March announce a plan to finance the acquisition that cuts the amount of equity to be issued.

United Technologies said operating profit at the Fire & Security business, which makes fire alarms and security systems, fell nearly 45 percent to $130 million during the quarter. Sterne Agee analyst Peter Arment said selling some of the division's units could improve the segment overall.

The company's other construction-related divisions performed better. Air conditioner and heating products maker Carrier's operating profit jumped 57 percent. Profit rose 8 percent at Otis, the elevator manufacturing division.

The Hartford, Conn., company said Wednesday that total net income in the October-December period was $1.33 billion, or $1.47 per share. That's up from $1.2 billion, or $1.31 per share, in the same quarter in 2010.

Revenue grew to $14.97 billion from $14.86 billion.

Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting earnings per share of $1.46 and revenue of $15.06 billion.

United Technologies' costs and expenses were almost unchanged from the prior period.

For all of 2011, net income was $4.98 billion, or $5.49 per share. That's up 14 percent from 2010. Revenue for 2011 rose 7 percent to $58.19 billion.

The company said that it still expects 2012 profit of $5.80 to $6 per share, with revenue of $59 to $60 billion. Analysts expect earnings of $5.64 per share on revenue of $62.93 billion.

The outlook reflects caution about the European economy, as well as prospects for growth in the U.S. and the global aerospace market, Arment said.

Shares fell 13 cents to close at $77.65 Wednesday.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/earnings/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120125/ap_on_bi_ge/us_earns_united_technologies

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Cops: Man hacked victim with ax, ate his brain

By msnbc.com staff and news services

A Florida man has been arrested on charges that he hacked to death a Connecticut man and ate the victim's eye and part of his brain.

Police in Lynn Haven, Fla., said Wednesday that 35-year-old Tyree Lincoln Smith was arrested Tuesday night on a Connecticut warrant for murder.

According to police in Bridgeport, Conn., Smith was covered in blood when he told a relative on Dec. 16 that he had killed a man with a hatchet and eaten pieces of his brain and his eye.

The relative contacted authorities after the?body of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez, 43, was discovered Jan. 20 at his Bridgeport, Conn., apartment. Police say Smith left Connecticut that day on a Florida-bound bus.

Lynn Haven police say federal, state and local law enforcement officers took Smith into custody at?a residence?without incident.

According to ctpost.com, an affidavit in the case says Gonzales had seen?Smith sleeping outside on a porch and invited him?to come in from the cold and share the apartment he was living in.

Once in the apartment, the affidavit states, Smith began beating Gonzalez about the head and face with the ax, ctpost.com reported.

He later told his relative the blows to Gonzalez's head were so severe he was able to remove an eye from the victim's head along with a piece of the victim's brain, which he then carried in a plastic bag to a nearby cemetery where he ate the parts at his brother's grave site, ctpost.com reported..

Odalys Vaszuez told ctpost.com that she wants justice for her stepfather's slaying.

"Here it is that my dad was trying to help this guy, telling him to come inside from the cold," she told the website. "If my father was helping him stay warm, what kind of person is it who does this, who repays him by swinging an axe at him and hitting him so hard it blows his brains out?"

Police said the woman Smith was staying with in Florida was unaware of the allegations and is cooperating with investigators, according to NBCConnecticut.com.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/25/10235705-cops-man-hacked-victim-with-ax-ate-brain

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On the Set Farewell to Chuck Part 2: Sarah vs. the Faulty Intersect (omg!)

Can Chuck and Sarah recapture that loving feeling?

"The show's a romance," Chuck co-creator Chris Fedak told reporters at a set visit in December. "I think that's what we discovered very early on in the show, that the moment we put Zach [Levi] and Yvonne [Strahovski] together, the show became about them. I think the Chuck and Sarah story is at the heart of the show."

Farewell to Chuck, Part 1: A Jeffster! swan song

In the two-hour series finale Friday (8/7c, NBC), however, Sarah (Strahovski) threatens to break that heart after disastrous events in the last episode. In an attempt to save Chuck's (Levi) life, she had downloaded the faulty Intersect, which rapidly caused her memories to deteriorate. "Before we're able to get it out of her head, the damage is done," Levi explained. "She's kidnapped by Quinn and kind of reprogrammed." Her new orders? Kill Chuck Bartowski.

"I don't think the show is about simply having the Intersect," Fedak said. "But that computer is something that has definitely haunted Chuck for years now and also haunted his father, who created it. So in some ways, it's the ghost that keeps on cropping up at the wrong times."

Chuck's pal Morgan (Joshua Gomez) was the first to download the tainted computer into his brain, albeit accidentally. Viewers were not happy to see the previously lovable character turn into an inconsiderate jerk who frosted his hair and forgot his geek past. It was a relief for both Gomez and fans alike when the Intersect was removed, but now it's clear that plot was laying the groundwork for Chuck and Sarah's current dilemma.

"It's almost a reset of sorts, where the 'Will they? Won't they?' dynamic kind of comes back into play, particularly in the second half of the finale," said Levi. "You find our heroes almost like you found them in the beginning of the show. That leads to a tremendous amount of emotion and a tremendous amount of fight and yearning...? There's a ton of homage to the pilot, to the origins of these characters and their journey together."

The Chuck and Sarah romance is the vehicle by which Chuck moved between his everyday world and espionage world. His interaction with Sarah drew him into the CIA even deeper than mere duty would have, and after their marriage, he pulled her back into everyday life. Their plans for the future -- before her memory was wiped -- included an ordinary family and home and no more spy work. In the finale, Chuck seeks help from his friends, family and unexpected allies to stop Nicholas Quinn (guest star Angus MacFadyen) from destroying what has been built over the past five years.

Strahovski offered some hope for the 'shippers. "I have to say that in the last episode, what is happening between Chuck and Sarah is going to weigh heavy on people's hearts," she said. "It's so hard. There's a definite element of sadness that we have to go through to get to the final moment. It's a nice note."

Lending a hand are Chuck's sister Ellie (Sarah Lancaster) and her husband Devon "Captain Awesome" Woodcomb (Ryan McPartlin). "It's been a satisfying end of the series as far as being able to use Ellie and Awesome and all of the characters who at this point that know about the spy life," McPartlin told TVGuide.com in a separate interview. "But Ellie and Awesome also have a job opportunity that they may not want to pass up. We have to figure out what's best for us, what's best for Chuck and what's best for everybody. There are some melancholy parts about it all. There are some big decisions to make."

From Chuck to Nikita: TV's sexiest crime fighters

Levi didn't address rumors that a main character would die, but the end of the series will require characters to part in some way. "Well, it's not forever. It's actually not even that final in the world of Chuck, if it were to continue," he said. "Obviously Chuck and Morgan are going to be best friends the rest of their lives. Chuck and Ellie are still brother and sister, and therefore Awesome is still my brother-in-law. We would all still continue to see each other in some way, shape, or form, but the world that has been created, and the world in which we all live and work has drastically changed. So we do say goodbyes, at least for the time being."

"Then you'll just be left to kind of imagine [what happens next], I'm sure, through fan fiction," added Gomez.

Be sure to return Wednesday to check out Part 3 of our farewell to Chuck in which the cast shares their favorite memories and shed a few tears.

Chuck's two-hour series finale airs Friday at 8/7c on NBC.

Will you miss Chuck? Do you think Sarah will fully recover?

?

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Palestinians take step toward elections, unity (AP)

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Palestinian political rivals Hamas and Fatah on Tuesday took a first practical step toward elections and possible unity by opening an office for voter registration in the Gaza Strip.

Presidential and parliament elections are envisioned for late spring, though a date has not been set. Elections are at the center of reconciliation efforts between the Islamic militant Hamas and Fatah, the movement of internationally backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas won parliament elections in 2006 and wrested control of Gaza from Abbas by force a year later, leaving him with only the West Bank. The Gaza office of the Central Elections Commission was closed after the 2007 takeover and reopened Tuesday.

Updating Gaza voter records is a key part of election preparations, which officials have said would require several weeks. Elections could be held within three months of the completion of preparations. Abbas would set the date by decree.

In the West Bank, Israeli forces detained a Hamas lawmaker, the fifth such arrest in five days, prompting Hamas accusations that Israel is trying to sabotage the planned elections. Hamas has said it would only participate in elections if its candidates are safe from arrest by Israel.

"Every time we move toward reconciliation and reactivating the Palestinian parliament, we see Israel targeting our lawmakers in the West Bank," said Ismail Ashkar, a Hamas lawmaker.

Hamas said that in the latest incident, lawmaker Abdel Jaber Fuqaha was taken from his home in the West Bank city of Ramallah early Tuesday.

Israel's military confirmed the arrest but declined further comment.

Israel considers Hamas a terrorist organization. The group has carried out scores of deadly attacks against Israelis but has largely held its fire in recent years.

Currently, 24 of 45 Hamas legislators from the West Bank are in Israeli detention on charges of membership in an illegal organization, Hamas said. Hamas lawmakers have been subject to arrest by Israel since the group defeated Fatah in the 2006 election. Several lawmakers have been detained repeatedly.

Asked about the recent string of arrests, Israeli officials denied claims that they are politically motivated. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters, declined further comment.

Palestinian peace negotiator Saeb Erekat, a leader in Fatah, condemned the recent arrests as a "flagrant act of aggression" that undermines prospects for peace. "With these actions, Israel exposes the farcical nature of its peace rhetoric," he said.

In recent months, Hamas and Fatah have tried to reconcile but have had trouble moving forward because of continued mistrust. Next week, Abbas is to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Cairo to try to break the impasse.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_palestinians

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NATO official previews Chicago summit (AP)

LONDON ? The U.S. Ambassador to NATO said Monday one of the key goals of an upcoming summit is to ensure the alliance is prepared for new threats ? comments that came as Iran threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz in response to an EU oil blockage.

United States, British and French ships were recently spotted on the strait where a fifth of the world's crude oil is transported, but Ambassador Ivo Daalder said Monday it was not a NATO flotilla. The EU's 27 foreign ministers imposed the oil embargo to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the its nuclear program.

Iran says its program is peaceful, but the U.S. and other nations suspect it is trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran is now under several rounds of U.N. sanctions for not being more forthcoming about its nuclear program.

Daalder said the steps were among many being taken by the international community to force Tehran back to the negotiating table. "The alternatives are much more difficult," he said.

President Barack Obama is hosting the NATO summit in his hometown of Chicago in May. NATO leaders will look at military strategy throughout 2014, funding issues and how to boost the alliance's capability ? both in intelligence gathering and through its missile defense system.

Daalder stressed Monday that a plan to place missile interceptors in Europe was designed to protect against threats from the Middle East ? not Russia. Russia has threatened to pull out of a treaty designed to reduce nuclear weapons arsenals if NATO moves forward with the plan.

"We would like to do this in cooperation with Russia, but we will do it even if we can't find a way to cooperate," he said.

He also said NATO was seeking ways to boost its intelligence and surveillance power ? weaknesses exposed during the Libya air operation.

A concern for Obama and others during the summit, however, will be if cash-strapped countries continue to stay in Afghanistan until 2014.

The Socialist candidate for France's presidency on Sunday pledged to pull French troops out of the war-wracked country if he is elected in May.

The NATO meeting follows last year's summit in Lisbon, Portugal. At that time, the U.S. and its allies agreed 2014 would be the year Afghan security would be turned over to the Afghan government, but Europe's financial woes have called some commitments into question.

All 28 NATO nations are part of the coalition force in Afghanistan, in addition to contingents from 20 other allied partner nations.

"The U.S. has been fully committed to building the Afghan forces ? this year we are spending $11.6 billion on building an Afghan force," Daalder said. "We can't sustain that kind of funding over the long-term, nor can the U.S. be the only country responsible for sustaining that."

Still, Daalder said NATO was working with Afghan authorities and the international community to find a force level that was sufficient and sustainable.

"We made the judgment collectively a long time ago that it was necessary to deal with the security situation in Afghanistan by deploying our forces there," he said. "We remain fully committed. I think that's true for every country that's part of this operation."

The Chicago NATO meeting will coincide with the annual Group of Eight summit of industrialized nations,

Last year, then-Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned NATO members they risk "a dim, if not dismal, future" if they don't begin to beef up defense operations and contribute more to military operations.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/britain/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_re_eu/eu_britain_nato

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Celeb photos from 2012 Sundance Film Festival

True Blood?s?Carrie Preston, Actresses?Andie Macdowell, and?Nia Vardolis, and Modern Family?s?Nolan Gouldall came out to the?TR Suites at Park City?s Gateway Center.

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Primary day at hand, SC voters have their say (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich collided Saturday in the South Carolina primary, the first Southern testing ground in the race for the Republican presidential nomination and historically a harbinger of the final outcome.

Rick Santorum and Texas Rep. Ron Paul rounded out the field in a campaign defined by its unpredictability.

There were 25 Republican National Convention delegates at stake, but political momentum was the real prize with the race to pick an opponent to President Barack Obama still in its early stages.

In all, more than $12 million was spent on television ads by the candidates and their allies in South Carolina, much of it on attacks designed to degrade the support of rivals.

Already, Romney and a group that supports him were on the air in next-up Florida with a significant ad campaign, more than $7 million combined to date. The state's primary is Jan. 31.

Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, swept into South Carolina 11 days ago as the favorite after being pronounced the winner of the lead-off Iowa caucuses, then cruising to victory in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary.

But in the sometimes-surreal week that followed, he was stripped of his Iowa triumph ? Santorum holds the lead if not the win ? while former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman dropped out and endorsed Romney and Texas Rep. Rick Perry quit and backed Gingrich.

Romney responded awkwardly to questions about releasing his income tax returns, and about his investments in the Cayman Islands. Gingrich, the former speaker of the House, benefited from two well-received debate performances while grappling with allegations by an ex-wife that he had once asked her for an open marriage so he could keep his mistress.

By primary eve, Romney was speculating openly about a lengthy battle for the nomination rather than the quick knockout that had seemed within his grasp only days earlier.

One piece of primary day theater failed to materialize when the two men avoided crossing paths at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville, packed with partisans holding signs that read either "Romney" or "Newt 2012."

Romney rolled in earlier than expected, and had left by the time Gingrich arrived.

Santorum got a lift hours before the polls closed when the Iowa Republican Party declared him the winner of the caucuses on Jan. 3. Romney was pronounced the victor by eight votes initially, but on Thursday, party officials said a recount showed Santorum ahead by 34. Even so, they declared the outcome a tie.

Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, pinned his South Carolina hopes on a heavy turnout in parts of the state with large concentrations of social conservatives, the voters who carried him to his surprisingly strong showing in Iowa.

Paul had a modest campaign presence here after finishing third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire. His call to withdraw U.S. troops from around the world was a tough sell in a state dotted with military installations and home to many veterans.

As the first Southern primary, South Carolina has been a proving ground for Republican presidential hopefuls in recent years.

Since Ronald Reagan in 1980, every Republican contender who won the primary has gone on to capture the party's nomination.

Romney's stumbles began even before his New Hampshire primary victory, when he told one audience that he had worried earlier in his career about the possibility of being laid off.

He gave a somewhat rambling, noncommittal response in a debate in Myrtle Beach last Monday when asked if he would release his tax returns before the primary. The following day, he told reporters that because most of his earnings come from investments, he paid about 15 percent of his income in taxes, roughly half the rate paid by millions of middle-class wage-earners. A day later, aides confirmed that some of his millions are invested in the Cayman Islands, although they said he did not use the offshore accounts as a tax haven.

Asked again at a debate in North Charleston on Thursday about releasing his taxes, his answer was anything but succinct and the audience appeared to boo.

Gingrich benefited from a shift in strategy that recalled his approach when he briefly soared to the top of the polls in Iowa. At mid-week he began airing a television commercial that dropped all references to Romney and his other rivals, and contended that he was the only Republican who could defeat Obama.

It featured several seconds from the first debate in which the audience cheered as he accused Obama of having put more Americans on food stamps than any other president.

Nor did Gingrich flinch when ex-wife Marianne said in an interview on ABC that he had been unfaithful for years before their divorce in 1999, and asked him for an open marriage.

Asked about the accusation in the opening moments of the second debate of the week, he unleashed an attack on ABC and debate host CNN and accused the "liberal news media" of trying to help Obama by attacking Republicans. His ex-wife's account, he said, was untrue.

___

Associated Press writers Shannon McCaffrey, Kasie Hunt and Beth Fouhy contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign

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Analysis: Gingrich forces GOP into grueling debate (AP)

COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich took a giant step Saturday toward becoming the Republican alternative to Mitt Romney that tea partyers and social conservatives have been seeking for months.

Gingrich's come-from-behind win in the South Carolina primary snatches away the quick and easy way for the GOP to pick its presidential nominee. Only days ago, it seemed that party activists would settle for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who stirs few passions but who has the looks, money, experience and discipline to make a solid case against President Barack Obama in November.

Now, the party cannot avoid a wrenching and perhaps lengthy nomination fight. It can cast its lot with the establishment's cool embodiment of competence, forged in corporate board rooms, or with the anger-venting champion of in-your-face conservatism and grandiose ideas.

It's soul-searching time for Republicans. It might not be pretty.

Romney still might win the nomination, of course. He carries several advantages into Florida and beyond, and party insiders still consider him the front-runner. And it's conceivable that former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum can battle back and take the anti-Romney title from Gingrich. After all, he bested Gingrich in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But Santorum's third-place finish in South Carolina will doubtlessly prompt some conservative leaders to urge him to step aside and back Gingrich, as Texas Gov. Rick Perry did Thursday.

Even if Santorum revives his campaign in Florida, the fundamental intraparty debate will be the same. Voters associate Gingrich and Santorum with social issues such as abortion, and with unyielding fealty to conservative ideals. That's in contrast to Romney's flexibility and past embraces of legalized abortion, gun control and gay rights.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul will stay in the race, but he factors only tangentially in such discussions. His fans are largely a mix of libertarians, isolationists and pacifists, many of whom will abandon the GOP nominee if it's not the Texas congressman.

Strategically, Romney maintains a big edge in money and organization. He faces a dilemma, however. Gingrich resuscitated his struggling campaign in this state with combative debate performances featuring near-contempt for Obama and the news media. Romney likely would love to choke off that supply by drastically reducing the number of debates.

Ducking Gingrich after losing to him in South Carolina would suggest panic or fear, however, and all four candidates are scheduled to debate Monday in Florida.

Gingrich is benefitting "from the inherent animosity and mistrust GOP primary voters have with mainstream media," said Republican strategist Terry Holt. "Their first instinct is to rebel, and that's what they did. The question is whether he can sustain that anger and build it into a legitimate challenge to the frontrunner."

Gingrich tried to stoke that anger with his victory speech Saturday. He referred repeatedly to "elites" in Washington and New York who don't understand or care about working-class Americans. He decried "the growing anti-religious bigotry of our elites."

Gingrich made $3.1 million in 2010, but he nonetheless is tapping middle-class resentment in ways reminiscent of Sarah Palin. "I articulate the deepest-held values in the American people," he said.

Despite their contrasting personalities, Romney and Gingrich don't differ greatly on policy. Both call for lower taxes, less regulation, ending "Obamacare" and a robust military. They promise to cut spending and increase jobs without offering many details of how they would do so in a divided nation and Congress.

Romney vs. Gingrich in some ways mirrors the Democrats' 2008 choice between Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton, which turned mostly on questions of personality, style and biography. The Republicans' choice, however, will plumb deeper veins of emotion and ideology.

Romney appeals to Republicans who want a competent, even-tempered nominee with a track record in business and finance. His backers are willing to overlook his past support of abortion rights and his seeming tone-deafness on money matters ? even if it feeds caricatures of him as a tycoon.

Until Saturday, GOP polls had shown Romney easily ahead on the question of who would be Obama's toughest challenger. South Carolina exit polls, however, showed Gingrich with an edge among those who said it was most important that their candidate be able to beat Obama.

Romney will try to regain that advantage in Florida, which votes Jan. 31. It's not clear what strategies will work. In his concession speech Saturday, Romney said Obama has attacked free enterprise and "we cannot defeat that president with a candidate who has joined that very assault on free enterprise."

He was alluding to Gingrich's past criticisms of Romney's record running Bain Capital, a private equity firm. But Gingrich and a friendly super PAC dropped their references to Bain days ago.

Romney hinted at another approach. "Our party can't be led to victory by someone who also has never run a business and never led a state," he said. Gingrich's background didn't seem to bother South Carolina's Republicans, however.

What they've done is steer the primary contest into more emotional, and possibly dangerous, waters. They rewarded a candidate who gave voice to their resentment of the news media, federal bureaucrats and what they see as undeserving welfare recipients and a socialist-leaning president.

Two South Carolina debate moments crystalized Gingrich's rise. Both involved an open disdain for journalists, whether feigned or not.

In Myrtle Beach on Monday, the Martin Luther King holiday, Gingrich acidly told Fox News' Juan Williams that he would teach poor people how to find jobs, and that Obama has put more Americans on food stamps than any other president. Gingrich repeated the food stamp lines in his speech Saturday night.

At Thursday's debate in North Charleston, Gingrich excoriated CNN's John King for raising an ex-wife's claim that Gingrich once asked for an "open marriage," to accommodate his mistress.

Conservatives inside the hall and out seemed to love the tongue-lashing. The details of Marianne Gingrich's allegations, which Gingrich denied almost as an afterthought, seemed to matter much less to voters. That's remarkable in a state whose GOP electorate is nearly two-thirds evangelicals.

Mike McKenna, a Republican strategist, said Gingrich seems to be drawing many people, including tea party activists, who are fairly new to politics. They don't know or care much about Gingrich's legacy of leading the 1994 Republican revolution in Congress, or his subsequently lucrative career as a writer and speaker that sometimes veered from conservative orthodoxies, McKenna said.

Instead, he thinks these voters are reacting emotionally to someone they hope "can take the fight to the president, to the media, to whomever. They are not particularly concerned about what kind of president he will be."

Therein, of course, is the potential peril of a Gingrich candidacy. Along with his verbal fireworks he carries baggage that might give Democrats more to exploit than do Romney's policy flip-flops and record at Bain.

Gingrich's impressive South Carolina victory will force Republicans in Florida and other states to make a hot-or-cool choice.

They can pick the data-driven Harvard MBA grad who smoothed out the Winter Olympics and now runs a by-the-numbers nationwide campaign. Or they can pick the pugnacious firebrand who didn't manage to get his name on the Virginia primary ballot but who wows an angry electorate that can't wait to lay into Obama in debates next fall.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: Charles Babington covers politics for The Associated Press.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120122/ap_on_el_pr/us_gop_campaign_analysis

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Former Penn State coach Joe Paterno's health status serious (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? The health of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who was fired last November in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving an assistant coach, has deteriorated and his status is serious, a family spokesman said on Saturday.

"Over the last few days Joe Paterno has experienced further health complications. His doctors have now characterized his status as serious," a statement said.

The Paterno family said it would have no further comment on the situation and asked that their privacy be respected "during this difficult time."

Paterno, 85, disclosed on November 18 that he had treatable lung cancer. He has been in and out of the hospital since then for treatment with radiation and chemotherapy, and after he fell at home in December and broke his pelvis.

The winningest coach in major college football history, Paterno was head coach at Penn State for 46 years. University trustees ousted him for failing to tell police what had been passed on to him about the alleged sex abuse.

Longtime Paterno assistant Jerry Sandusky faces 52 counts of sexual abuse of boys over a period of 15 years, including some incidents at the football complex on campus. Disclosure of the charges against Sandusky shocked the university and led to one of the biggest scandals in college sports history.

A Penn State graduate assistant testified to a grand jury that he told Paterno in 2002 that he witnessed Sandusky assaulting a boy in the showers at the football building. Paterno said he passed the information on to his boss, then Athletic Director Tim Curley. But no one told police, and the abuse continued for years, according to prosecutors.

Trustees of the university fired Paterno on November 9 with four games remaining in the football season. His ouster sparked demonstrations by students who felt he was treated unfairly, and anger among some alumni. The two top officers of the university trustees stepped down this week.

University President Graham Spanier was fired along with Paterno, and Curley and a former finance official in the athletic department face charges of lying to a grand jury about the alleged abuse.

Sandusky is under house arrest awaiting trial on the abuse charges. He has pleaded not guilty.

(Reporting and Writing by Greg McCune; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/us/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120122/us_nm/us_pennstate_paterno_health

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