IMF Says Euro Zone Remains Vulnerable

Former governor Mark Sanford took a step closer to returning to elected office Tuesday, advancing to a Republican

runoff in South Carolina's 1

The House has passed legislation aimed at preventing the Federal Aviation Administration from having too warm of a relationship with the airline industry.
As she waited for her flight from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to Medford, Ore.,
last month, Linda Morrison noticed something unusual in the waiting area.Gennady
Zyuganov, the Communist Party chief, led some 1,000 followers to the grave of the Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, praising him as a symbol of the nation’s â€�"great victories.” Behind 29 points each from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City won at home against Houston after losing a 15-point fourth-quarter lead.    
When Nani was shown the red card during United's loss to Real Madrid in the Champions League, the referee did what he was supposed to do: judge action, not intention. Ireland's economy slid into recession late last year and continued to contract sharply in early 2013, new and revised figures showed on Thursday, just months before it is due to exit its EU/IMF bailout programme.     Federal regulators on Tuesday blessed Comcast's $30 billion acquisition of NBC Universal, imposing a slew of conditions on everything from competition with rivals to the price of Internet service for poor families out of concern that the firm's vast sweep could harm consumers. Gerald R. Fink, professor of biology and a founding

member of the Whitehead Institute, has been chosen to serve as president-elect of

the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He will begin his three-year term as an officer and member of the Executive Committee of the AAAS Board of Directors on Feb.
19 at the close of the 179th Annual Meeting in Boston.Fink,
who served as director of the Whitehead Institute from 1990 to 2001, is a pioneering researcher in the field of yeast molecular biology.
His discovery of transformation in yeast permitted the genetic engineering of this organism, which paved the way for advances in basic science and the development of novel pharmaceuticals.
He has also been active in science policy, including his work as chair of the 2003 National Academy of Sciences committee that offered critical national guidance on how to meet the threat of bioterrorism without jeopardizing scientific progress.He received his PhD in genetics from Yale University. A past president of the Genetics Society of America, he is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Medicine and the American Philosophical Society, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.At the close of the 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston, MIT Insitute Professor Phillip A.
Sharp will begin his term as AAAS president.
Sharp is a 1983 Nobel Prize winner and professor at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. Scenes from this year’s festival in Austin, Tex.
Q: DEAR TIM: What can you tell me about installing vinyl siding? I like its no-maintenance aspect, and it looks easy to install. What instructions can you share? What tools will I need to get professional results on my one-story house? -- Patty S.,


Scranton, Pa.
JERUSALEM — The letters to Israeli government officials began piling up last year. Leaders of Jewish settlements in the northern West Bank, citing complaints by residents of harassment by Arabs on their daily commute, lobbied to restrict travel by Palestinian laborers using Israeli bus lines to get to and from their jobs in Israel. Read full article >> Four-times winners Bayern Munich will face resurgent Juventus in the pick of the Champions League quarter-finals while favourites Barcelona were paired with Paris St Germain, who declared themselves outsiders despite their huge financial backing.
The bride works for an art gallery; the groom, an accounting firm.    
forex-growth-bot The accidental killing of a cousin of President Hamid Karzai by a U.S. Special Forces team became on Thursday the latest

in a string of high-profile civilian casualties that have further soured the relationship between the president and his American benefactors. Ms.
Moore-Richard was a member of the American Indian Movement during its militant actions of the 1970s and, under the name Mary Crow Dog, later wrote a well-received memoir, �"Lakota Woman.”
Washington has called for the release of Kenneth Bae, who was sentenced to 15 years for committing

what North Korea called â€�"hostile acts.”     WASHINGTON -- Republicans in charge of the House are facing two unappealing options on the budget.
Ecuador's hints that it might grant asylum to Edward Snowden, as it did with WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, have been widely perceived (including by me) as more about Ecuador's confrontational foreign policy than its sympathy for Snowden. Read full article >>     When a robot is moving one of its limbs through free space, its behavior is well-described by a few simple equations.
But as soon as it strikes something solid — when a walking robot’s foot hits the ground, or a grasping robot’s hand touches an object — those equations break down.
Roboticists typically use ad hoc control strategies to negotiate collisions and then revert to their rigorous mathematical models when the robot begins to move again.Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory are hoping to change that, with a new mathematical framework that unifies the analysis of both collisions and movement through free

space.
The work could lead to more efficient controllers for a wide range of robotic tasks, but it could also help guarantee the stability of control algorithms developed through trial and error — or of untried, but promising, new algorithms. In a pair of recent papers, the researchers demonstrate both applications.
At last year’s International Workshop on the Algorithmic Foundations of Robotics, they showed how their technique can improve trajectory planning in complex robots like the experimental Fast Runner, an ostrich-like bipedal robot being built at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition. And in a paper that has been short-listed for the best-paper award at this year’s Hybrid Systems: Computation and Control conference in April, they use their framework to establish stability conditions for some simple mechanical systems undergoing

collisions.According
to associate professor of computer science and engineering Russ Tedrake, whose group did the new research, Fast Runner offers a good illustration of the problems posed by collision.
Ordinarily, Tedrake says, a roboticist trying to develop a controller for a bipedal robot would assume that the robot’s foot makes contact with the ground in some prescribed way: say, the heel strikes first; then the forefoot strikes; then the heel lifts.
�"That doesn’t work for Fast Runner, because there’s a compliant foot that could hit at any number of points, there’s joint limits in the leg, there’s all kinds of complexity,” Tedrake says. �"If you look at all the possible contact configurations the robot could be in, there’s 4 million of them. And you can’t possibly analyze them all independently.”The mysterious tableEven that combinatorial explosion, however, doesn’t do

justice to the complexity of the problem. �"Not only do you have this immense number of potential contacts and trajectories, but you also have things like non-uniqueness of solutions,” says Michael Posa, a graduate student in Tedrake’s group and lead author on both new papers. �"Given the laws that we would normally write down that describe the evolution of the system, there may be multiple trajectories that are going to satisfy that because of the oddities of fat burning furnace illustrate this idea, Tedrake uses the analogy of a four-legged table resting on the ground.
�"If

you give the table a push, we don’t have

any models that will predict what that table’s going to do,” Tedrake says. In Newtonian physics, Tedrake explains, the table would be modeled as an aggregate mass. But that model leaves open an infinite number of possibilities for the distribution of mass across the table’s legs. Since the effects of friction depend on the specifics of the distribution, the classical model underdetermines the behavior of the table when shoved.In
order to prove the

stability of a control system for a robot that’s colliding with the world, then, it’s necessary to evaluate not only every possible configuration of the point of the contact, but also every possible solution of the resulting equations. That’s precisely what Posa and Tedrake — together with Mark Tobenkin, another grad student in Tedrake’s group, and Cecilia Cantu, an undergraduate major in mechanical engineering — have found a way to do.Expression
compressionThe key to their approach is to describe opposed possibilities for the state

of a robotic system using simple algebraic expressions. For instance, as the foot of a bipedal robot approaches the ground, either the force exerted by the ground — call it F — or the

distance to the ground — call it d — is equal to zero. So the equation Fd = 0 holds whether the robot’s foot is moving through free space or touching the ground.
Just a few such equations give the researchers enough mathematical purchase on the problem of collision that they can draw boundaries around the whole

space of solutions.The result is not a precise description of how a robot will behave in any given instance, but it is enough to offer guarantees of stability. Again, Tedrake explains by invoking the table analogy.
�"Given all the things I know about the frictional forces on the legs, I can’t tell you where the table’s going to go,” Tedrake says.
�"But I can tell you that it won’t hit the wall.”�"The hardest thing about robots, especially if you want to get them to do something very dynamic, is when these contact

points with the world change,” says Aaron Ames, an assistant

professor of mechanical engineering at Texas A&M University and head of the A&M Bipedal Experimental Robotics Lab. �"If you’re trying to assess some stability notion with all those things changing, it’s this huge complexity explosion that most people just haven’t wanted to deal with. It’s too much to wrap your head around, so very few people have been brave enough to attack it.”
Ames acknowledges that, so far, the MIT researchers have applied their analytic techniques only to simple systems.
But �"the way their stuff is framed is in a general context that would be applicable to more complex systems,” Ames says.
�"The pieces

are there. At least the starting point is there. And it’s a very good one.”
On Sept. 9, a 30-inch natural gas pipeline exploded in the suburban community of San Bruno, Calif.,
creating a 2,000-degree fireball that killed eight people, destroyed 37 homes and left more than 60 people injured.


A gaping crater replaced homes at the center of the blast.
• Bahrain-based Gulf Finance House ready to make quick profit• Negotiations with potential buyers have already begunThe Bahrain-based owners of Leeds United have given formal notice that they have begun negotiations to sell the club, which they bought from the previous owner, Ken Bates, only on 21 December. In their financial statements for the year to 31 December 2012, Gulf Finance House (GFH) micro niche finder they bought Leeds for "a bargain purchase" and are now holding the club for sale, which they envisage completing within six months to a year.GFH
also revealed for the first time the price they paid for Leeds, "net cash" of $33m (£22m), and they assess the club to be worth immediately $10m (£7m) more than that. Bates owned 73% of the club via his offshore company, Outro, so of that £22m purchase price disclosed by GFH, he would have been paid £16m.
He has never revealed how much he paid to buy Leeds, so it is not known whether Bates, a tax exile living in Monaco, made a personal tax-free profit on the sale.In their financial statements, GFH say without further explanation that Bates was under some duress to sell the club."The bargain purchase was due to pressure on the sellers [principally Bates] to exit their holdings due to change [sic] in their business plans," they say.GFH
make it clear they are seeking almost immediately to sell Leeds. The club's assets, which the accounts assess to be worth $88m (£58m), are noted as "held-for-sale" with "maturity" predicted within six months to one year."The group has an active plan to sell its stake in LUFC Holdings [the company which now owns Leeds]," the financial statements say.
"Subsequent to the year end, [GFH] has commenced negotiations relating to the sale of its stake in LUFC Holdings."In
February Salem Patel, GFH's chief investment officer, told the Guardian the fund is looking for "strategic investors" who would buy a minority stake, preferably 30%, to reduce GFH's exposure to the price of buying and funding Leeds. Patel said GFH might consider selling a majority stake, but only to an investor with enough money to fund Leeds to success.Patel said GFH had paid substantial sums already into Leeds because the club had "a cashflow shortfall" due to season ticket income from this and next season having been mortgaged under Bates's ownership to finance building work in the Elland Road east stand.The GFH financial statements, signed on 23 February, make it clear GFH is actively seeking to sell its stake and has already begun negotiations to do so. Neither Patel nor David Haigh, deputy chief executive of GFH Capital, the subsidiary fund that actually bought Leeds, have said with whom they are negotiating, or on what terms.The accounts show that GFH, which has had financial difficulties during the property and financial market slumps, recorded in 2011-12 a modest profit of $10m (£7m). The GFH chairman, Esam Yousif Janahi, hailing a "positive turnaround," said the firm had restructured millions of pounds of debt, and he cited the Leeds acquisition as a high point.
"LUFC promises to be a high yielding investment opportunity, which GFH is successfully placing with its investors," Janahi stated.Leeds, managed by Neil Warnock, are 10th in the Championship, having lost at home to west Yorkshire rivals Huddersfield Town on Saturday.Leeds UnitedBusinessFinancesDavid Connguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds Presenter cites television as major factor behind growth in popularity of school subjectsHe conquered the pop charts with 1990s band D:Ream, explained the intricacies of gravity to a confused nation and even appeared in a magazine list of the sexiest men alive.
Now Professor Brian Cox, one of the BBC's star turns, has laid claim to a new achievement: inspiring a generation of children to take up biology, chemistry and physics in school.In an interview in the Observer Magazine, Cox – who has been a ubiquitous presence on google sniper download in recent years – says he believes there

can be little doubt that science on television has been a factor in an upward trend in the number of children taking up the subjects at GCSE and A-level.Cox,
a sometime keyboard player for the band behind the New Labour election anthem Things Can Only Get Better, said

he believed that the series of science programmes, including his Wonders

of the Solar System, aired during the BBC's year of science in 2010, had had a major

impact.In
2012, there was a 36.1%
increase in the number of students doing GCSE

science exams, compared with the previous year. Biology and chemistry were two of the three A-level subjects, including ICT, where attainment rates at A*/A rose in 2012. Cox, 45, who is currently filming a new show about man's growing understanding of the universe, said: "It's kind of obvious when you think about it.
A public service broadcaster in my view is part of the education system, as it does change behaviour."I
think the year of science did that. There has been an upswing in the number of students applying to university to do scientific subjects. It's difficult to say why, as there are many factors. It's important to say that.
But one of the factors is the popularity of science on television.
I don't think anyone disputes that.

You can dispute the percentages, but someone should do a thesis on it at some point."The presenter and academic, a graduate of Manchester University who is regarded by many as the BBC's successor to Sir David Attenborough, said the success of the programmes in 2010

had also made it easier than ever to pitch science to channel controllers.Wonders of the Solar System pulled in 5 million viewers when it was first aired, figures more often associated with soap operas.
"I think in general the BBC had the year of science in 2010 to coincide with 350 years of the Royal Society, and that was a tremendous success across a lot of the programmes," he said."My
first big show, Wonders of the Solar System, was in there and Bang Goes

the Theory, and Iain Stewart's and Michael Mosley's programmes."After that, I think it's been a lot easier and I also think the BBC has realised that it has a responsibility in this area because it's been a goal of the government to make science more popular, to get more science students through GCSE and A-level and on to university. It's been seen as a national imperative. I think the BBC has realised it can do that, and the government has too."After one of the BBC's most traumatic years, Cox is quick to applaud its work. He said the corporation had woken up to its responsibility to promote science and had done well

in giving

academics the chance to present – a skill Cox believes is underestimated.Cox said: "I'm not saying it's difficult, it's something a lot of people

could do, but you have to be given the chance to learn, to practise and to grow. One of the main things for me was to forget there's a camera there and just allow yourself to be as enthusiastic as you would be in a lecture or a public talk."Brian CoxTelevisionBBCParticle physicsPeople in sciencePhysicsAstronomyScienceDaniel Boffeyguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     Bayern Munich fans predict a rosy future with Pep Guardiola at the

helm as the Spanish manager conducts his

first training session     Penn State dominated the Big Ten wrestling

Author's Note

Syria released a German journalist who went missing more

then two months ago, saying he had entered the country illegally but would be turned over to the Russian ambassador and sent home.
Twelve-year-old Ye Wocheng became the youngest golfer to qualify for a European Tour event when the Chinese schoolboy survived a late wobble to grab a place at the Volvo China Open on Wednesday.A man in India has been arrested after his newborn grandson was sold over Facebook for the equivalent of $15,000     THE QUESTION Does the chance of having a successful pregnancy after a miscarriage depend on when you try again? Three plays in London: William Boyd's "Longing" doesn't make sense, and two other shows provide grim worldviews. One way to get your children to put down the remote is to have them design their own rooms. THE QUESTION Might taking fish oil supplements slow

the mental decline of people with Alzheimer's disease? Finnair began a new check-in service this month that allows passengers to share their Facebook profiles with others on board. It’s a boon for fliers looking to socialize, not for those hoping to take a nap. Q.
Do builders get a tax break before they sell their houses? Tackling a bathroom floor is not for those literally weak in the knees.
Be ready to learn

from mistakes (lots of them).     President Obama,

who was in Senegal on Thursday, has seen his aspirations for changing Africa strained by turmoil across the region — and by his notable absences.    
Work by Indian and international female photographers deals with free speech and emancipation. “From Up on Poppy Hill” was written by Hayao Miyazaki, the renowned Japanese animator, and directed by his son Goro. GENEVA - U.S. and Europeans leaders took new steps Monday to tighten the noose on Libya's forex-growth-bot with the U.S.
Treasury announcing the freeze of $30 billion in Libyan assets. • Serbia left-back wants place in City starting line-up• Carlos

Tevez given Del Piero's No10 shirt at JuventusAleksandar Kolarov has dropped a heavy hint that he would be happy to follow Carlos Tevez in taking a pay cut and swapping Manchester City for

Juventus.As the Argentina striker completed his transfer to Turin for around £10m before add-ons, the Serbia left-back revealed his frustration at frequently finding himself deputising for Gaël Clichy at the Etihad Stadium."I
am happy at City but I want to play regularly, as I said to Roberto Mancini," said Kolarov, who does not appear to have been swayed by Manuel Pellegrini replacing Mancini as manager. "I'm in contact with my agent and soon we will understand what will happen.
Money is not everything in life and I have no problem in revising my salary. Simply I want a place in the starting line-up."Juventus want to take the 27-year-old on loan but City are reluctant to sanction a deal on terms which would leave them without a transfer fee but still needing to recruit cover for Clichy.Tevez used the occasion of his presentation as a Juventus player on Thursday to cool fears that his relationship with the Italian club's sometimes volatile coach, Antonio Conte, could prove as tempestuous

as that with Mancini. Asked how he would respond to Conte, Tevez replied: "With one word – respect."Tevez
has been given the No10 shirt by the Serie A champions. Worn variously by Michel Platini, Liam Brady and Roberto Baggio during their Juventus careers, it has been "rested" since Alessandro Del Piero left Turin last summer."I'm absolutely aware of the great effort Juventus Football Club has made to bring me here," said Tevez, who said he had asked fat burning furnace City.
"I feel the responsibility of wearing this number and I am aware of the great responsibility of representing Juventus and playing for the club, so this number is certainly a great challenge."The 29-year-old has signed a three-year contract, concluding four seasons at City which were preceded by stints with West Ham and Manchester United. "I spoke to Manuel Pellegrini as soon as he arrived at City," said Tevez. "I told

him I considered my time at the club to be over. He said that was fine by him and there weren't any problems in allowing me to leave. I would like to thank City and all their fans for the four years we spent together."The
Argentinian is, however, expected back in England over the coming months to complete a 250-hour community service order imposed in April for driving offences.Pellegrini must now consider not only how to replace Tevez but an alternative to Isco, the Spain Under-21 playmaker who joined Real Madrid for around £23m on a five-year contract from the City manager's old club, Málaga,on Thursday.The
21-year-old had been the subject of something of a tug-of-war between Real and City but the installation of Carlo Ancelotti as José Mourinho's successor in Madrid expedited the transfer to Real.Manchester
CityJuventusCarlos TevezTransfer windowLouise Taylorguardian.co.uk
© 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
All rights reserved.
| Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     The Lede is following updates on Edward J. Snowden in Moscow, where the first image

of him emerged from a meeting with rights groups.     Microsoft may be revealing the second generation of its Surface tablets during its developers' conference next month, according to a printed report.     Egyptian authorities jailed an anti-Islamist activist late Tuesday on charges that included insulting micro niche finder Morsi, state news media said.     A view of the day in sports, from the slopes of Switzerland to basketball courts across the United States.
Board likely to recommend a firm offer from Schneider Electric – but Siemens, ABB and Emerson could also be interestedInvensys, one of

Britain's biggest hi-tech engineering groups which nearly went bust 10 years ago, is the subject of £3.3bn takeover talks with a French rival

which has triggered speculation of a wider bidding war.Shares
in the London-based group, which specialises in making control and safety systems for nuclear power stations and other energy plants, raced ahead 15% on the back of the equity and cash offer from Schneider Electric.The
City believes that news of a potential deal unveiled by Invensys could flush out counter-offers from the likes of Siemens of Germany, ABB of Switzerland or Emerson Electric in the US.In a statement to the stock exchange the Invensys board said it had "indicated to Schneider that it is likely to recommend a firm offer" at the current provisional price of 319p per share in cash and 186p per share in new equity.Invensys, the product of a merger between two other major local engineering groups in BTR and Siebe in

1999, sold off its lucrative rail business for £1.7bn
to Siemens last year.Emerson was also in talks, which eventually came to nothing, during 2012 with Invensys about the possible purchase of its Foxboro brand.Analysts
at Morgan Stanley said in an investment note that the mooted offer price from Schneider was "fair and reasonable" while

arguing that the strategic logic of a tie-up "made sense" for both sides.Their counterparts at Goldman Sachs felt the same saying: "We believe the Invensys portfolio would be a good strategic fit with Schneider's automation portfolio: Schneider is one of the few large google sniper download with limited exposure to process automation."Société
Général said the fact that Invensys publicised the talks with Schneider with the latter's prior consent indicated it was trying to flush out new bidders and tipped Emerson as a likely candidate while Nomura believed "Schneider would seem to have fewer anti-trust issues than other parties".Keen interest in Invensys is a major turnaround from 10 years ago when the company had run up £3bn worth of debts over a period when it had gone on a buying spree only to find its previously highly rated shares being hit badly by a bursting of the dotcom technology bubble.Under new management the business gradually recovered although its share price was damaged again in 2011 and early

last year after it ran into problems supplying control and safety systems for eight Chinese nuclear reactors.Under stock exchange rules, Schneider must make a firm offer or drop its interest by 8 August.
The company, whose products help utilities distribute electricity and which makes automation systems for cars, said last summer it planned to make acquisitions as part of a wider plan to increase sales and move into new markets.InvensysMergers
and acquisitionsEngineeringTerry Macalisterguardian.co.uk © 2013 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds     Mike Lynch, the founder of Autonomy, is again raising questions about how Hewlett came to take an $8 billion write down on the purchase of Autonomy. Will it be used correctly? Chris Smith was struck deeply by the death of his Kris Kross partner Chris Kelly earlier this week a[...] Officials said they were happy with the Army Corps of Engineers’ performance in removing the rubble from Hurricane Sandy, but private contractors might have been less

Reviews

[Joshua Carl Cruz]

kind of just trails off there at the end doesnt it?