LUTZ, Fla. ? Newt Gingrich on Sunday called GOP president rival Mitt Romney a "pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase liberal."
Gingrich made the comments outside a megachurch in Lutz, Fla., two days before the pivotal presidential primary.
Gingrich is trailing Romney in Florida and has been labeling the former governor a Massachusetts moderate. Now Gingrich is moving his 2012 rival even further left.
He also criticized Romney's campaign tactics during two television interviews Sunday morning, decrying his opponent's "basic policy of carpet-bombing his opponent."
One of the ads being run by Romney suggests that Gingrich is exaggerating his ties to Ronald Reagan. Gingrich chafed at that, noting that the former president's son Michael was joining him on the campaign trail Monday "to prove to everybody that I am the heir to the Reagan movement, not some liberal from Massachusetts."
Former GOP presidential hopeful Herman Cain, a tea party favorite, will also appear with Gingrich on Monday.
At a large rally Sunday at The Villages, a sprawling retirement community in central Florida, Gingrich accused Democratic President Barack Obama of coddling foreign leaders like Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"I believe we need to be stronger than our potential enemies," Gingrich told the crowd. "The president lives in a fantasy world where there are no enemies, there are just misguided people with whom he has not yet had coffee."
He said Chavez "deliberately, cynically and insultingly gave him an anti-American book and Obama didn't have a clue that he'd been insulted."
He said the Obama administration should be focused on Ahmadinejad's "pledge to wipe out Israel and drive America out of the Middle East."
"But if I were a left-wing Harvard law graduate surrounded by really clever left-wing academics I would know that this was really a sign that (Ahmadinejad) probably had a bad childhood," Gingrich said.
He described Obama's approach to Ahmadinejad as, "If only we could unblock him we could be closer to him and we could be friends together."
Gingrich, who served in the House for two decades, also made a populist pitch as a Washington outsider. He said the GOP's "old establishment" is trying to block his path to nomination.
"It's time that someone stood up for hard-working, taxpaying Americans and said, `Enough,'" Gingrich said. "And if that makes the old order uncomfortable, my answer is, `Good.'"
The Security Council began closed-door negotiations Friday on a new Arab-European draft resolution aimed at resolving the crisis in Syria, but Russia's envoy said he could not back the current language as it stands.
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Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters afterward that the text introduced by new Arab Security Council member Morocco has "red lines" for Moscow, but he's willing to "engage" with the resolution's sponsors.
Churkin said those lines include any indication of sanctions, including an arms embargo. "We need to concentrate on establishing political dialogue," he said.
British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant later insisted that the text based on the Arab League's recent recommendations for Syria contains no mention of an arms embargo or any other sanctions, and that it received broad support from other council members. "A lot of straw men are being put up," he said.
"We want, as do the Arabs, an unanimous resolution," Lyall Grant said. "Frankly, the time has come where we should be supporting the Arab League efforts."
Video: Syrians say: ?We need intervention!? (on this page)
The U.N. says at least 5,400 people have been killed in a monthslong Syrian government crackdown on civilian protests.
At least 384 children have been killed and virtually the same number have been jailed, the United Nations Children's Fund said. UNICEF spokeswoman Marixie Mercado told Reuters the figures were based on reports by human rights organizations which it judged to be credible.
European diplomats have been meeting this week with diplomats from Arab countries, including Morocco and Qatar, on a resolution that would strongly back an Arab League bid to end the crisis.
French Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters he expected that a "very determined negotiation process" on the text would start at the ambassador level on Wednesday, one day after the Arab League secretary-general and Qatar's prime minister brief the council on the situation in Syria.
"There is now a chance that the Security Council will finally take a clear stand on Syria. That is long overdue," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Friday at the General Affairs Council in Brussels. The comments were provided by the German mission to journalists at the U.N.
"We hope now that council members will seize this new window of opportunity and find common ground," German Ambassador Peter Wittig said before the council met behind closed doors.
Story: Outside Syria's capital, suburbs look like war zone
But, as Churkin indicated, eventual approval is far from guaranteed.
Permanent council members Russia and China used their veto powers last fall to block an earlier European resolution on Syria. On Friday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov was quoted by the ITAR-Tass news agency as saying Moscow will oppose the new draft U.N. resolution on Syria because it fails to take Kremlin's concerns into account.
South African Ambassador Baso Sangqu said it was important that supporters of the resolution assure other countries, including his, that the draft was not a plan for regime change.
Russia and some other countries believe NATO misused last year's Security Council's resolutions on Libya as a pretext for regime change in that nation.
Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari expressed his country's opposition to the new draft resolution saying that "Syria will not be Libya."
Interactive: Young and restless: Demographics fuel Mideast protests (on this page)
Russia has been a strong ally of Syria since Soviet times, when the country was led by the president's father Hafez Assad, and has long supplied Syria with aircraft, missiles, tanks and other modern weapons.
The new Arab-European draft resolution on Syria, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses support of the Arab League's Jan. 22 decision "to facilitate a political transition leading to a democratic, plural political system."
The draft does not explicitly mention sanctions, but calls for the adoption of unspecified "further measures, in consultation with the League of Arab States," if Syria does not comply within 15 days.
The draft also condemns the "continued widespread and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities" and demands that the Syrian government immediately stop all human rights violations.
The Arab League earlier this month sent observers to Syria, but the mission was widely criticized for failing to stop the violence. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the Security Council to intervene because the Syrian government has not halted its crackdown.
The head of Arab League observers in Syria said in a statement that violence in the country has spiked over the past few days. Sudanese Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al-Dabi said the cities of Homs, Hama and Idlib have all witnessed a "very high escalation" in violence since Tuesday.
Meanwhile, militiamen loyal to Assad killed at least 10 people on Friday in Syria's main commercial and industrial hub of Aleppo after pro-democracy demonstrations erupted in the city and broke months of quiet, activists said.
The killings, the deadliest in the city during the 10-month uprising against 41 years of Assad family rule, occurred in the tribal Marjeh neighborhood after security forces fired at a rally demanding Assad's removal, they said.
Some activists said the 10 killed were all demonstrators while others said most were killed in clashes that followed the shooting on the protest.
There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, which restricts media access in the country.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
FILE - In this May, 26, 2010 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the social network site's new privacy settings in Palo Alto, Calif. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
FILE - In this May, 26, 2010 file photo, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about the social network site's new privacy settings in Palo Alto, Calif. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, Jan. 27, 2012 that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? When Facebook makes its long-expected debut as a public company this spring, the social-networking company will likely vault into the ranks of the largest public companies in the world, alongside McDonald's, Amazon.com and Bank of America.
The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Facebook is preparing to file initial paperwork for an offering that could raise as much as $10 billion and value the company at $75 billion to $100 billion. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission could come as early as Wednesday, with an initial public offering of stock in three or four months.
The targeted amount would slot it among the world's 25 largest IPOs, although as recently as November 2010, General Motors raised $15.8 billion when it shed majority control by the U.S. government.
The IPOs of 14 companies would rank higher than Facebook's, according to investment adviser Renaissance Capital. Among them were Visa Inc.'s $17.9 billion IPO in March 2008, the largest for a U.S. company, and world-topper Agricultural Bank of China Ltd., which raised $19.3 billion in July 2010, not including extra shares issued to meet demand.
Facebook spokesman Larry Wu said the company will not comment on IPO-related speculation. The Journal had cited unnamed people familiar with the matter.
The Journal also said that Facebook was close to picking Morgan Stanley as the lead underwriter, which would be a setback for rival Goldman Sachs. Both declined comment to The Associated Press.
The buzz surrounding an outsized haul for Facebook's founders, employees and early investors remains a hopeful sign for capital markets following a deep recession. At the reported price, Facebook's IPO would be the biggest for a U.S. Internet company ever ? topping the debut of one of its main rivals, Google Inc.
"We are expecting 2012 to be a year of recovery for the IPO market led by the Facebook IPO," said Kathy Smith, Renaissance Capital's principal.
The event will follow a string of tepid debuts by technology startups including social game maker Zynga and discount advertiser Groupon. The stocks of both companies are just pennies above their offering prices in December and November respectively. Zynga's stock fell 5 percent below the IPO price on its first day of trading.
Facebook's will be the most anticipated tech IPO since Google went public in August 2004. Not including shares sold by early investors, the Internet search giant raised $1.2 billion and grabbed a market value of $23 billion, the biggest so far for a U.S. Internet company. The IPO raised $1.9 billion, including shares sold by early investors and extra stock issued to meet the heavy demand. It's not known whether Facebook's $10 billion target includes shares owned by early investors.
Facebook's reported valuation of $75 billion to $100 billion compares with about $100 billion for McDonald's Corp., $90 billion for Citigroup Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. and $75 billion for Bank of America Corp. It would exceed the market cap of $55 billion for Hewlett-Packard Co., one of the world's largest technology companies by revenue.
Both Facebook and Google earn most of their money from advertising and are now competing to gain as much information as possible about their users to help advertisers target niche audiences.
According to eMarketer, Facebook is expected to grow its share of the U.S. display ad market to about 20 percent this year from 16 percent in 2011, above second-ranked Yahoo's expected share of about 13 percent. For overall online ad revenue, Facebook is seen grabbing just 8 percent of the market this year, compared with 45 percent for Google.
EMarketer estimates that Facebook's ad revenue will grow 52 percent to $5.78 billion this year and will reach $7 billion in 2013.
Despite presumably topping Google's public launch, Facebook spent more time growing behind the veil of private ownership than its rival.
Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg and his college roommates in 2004 and is debuting on stock markets in its eighth year. Google's IPO came six years after being founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. When Google turned eight in August 2006, its market cap was roughly $116 billion. Today, the company is worth nearly $190 billion ? down from a peak of about $235 billion in November 2007.
Investors may be asked to bet heavily on the belief that Facebook will continue to revolutionize the way people communicate around the globe. Even with Facebook's heady growth rate, Google had ad revenue last year of more than five times what Facebook is expected to get in 2013. Yet it is Google that is mimicking Facebook in building a rival social network called Plus.
"There's the general feeling that Facebook might be the future of the way the Internet works," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.
Zuckerberg, 27, is already worth $17.5 billion, based on the latest estimates from Forbes magazine. Most of that wealth is drawn from the value of Facebook shares that have traded among a small universe of well-heeled investors that buy stakes in companies before they go public.
As the company gauges public demand for its stock, the number of shares offered and the price asked could change significantly. Groupon had to refile its securities paperwork repeatedly as regulators questioned some of its accounting methods. Even Google took in less than it hoped as people shunned an unorthodox auction-based offering.
John Fitzgibbon Jr., publisher of IPOScoop.com, said it's too early to get excited.
"Until they actually put the ink on the paper and push it across the desk of the SEC, it's all speculation," he said.
The possible filing next week isn't all that surprising.
Federal rules require companies with at least $10 million in assets and more than 500 shareholders to disclose its quarterly financial results and other details. The reporting requirement kicks in 120 days after the fiscal year in which a company exceeds the shareholder threshold for the first time.
Facebook's fiscal year ends Dec. 31, so it has until late April 2012 to comply with this requirement, having hit the 500-shareholder threshold last year. Because it typically takes three or four months after filing paperwork to issue the IPO, a Wednesday filing would allow it to meet the deadline. If it happens in May, it could become a lucrative birthday gift for Zuckerberg, who will turn 28 that month.
AMMAN (Reuters) ? Militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed 14 members of a Sunni family in the city of Homs on Thursday in one of the grizzliest sectarian attacks in the ten-month uprising raging in the Alawite-dominated country, activists and residents said.
Eight children, aged eight months to nine years old were among 14 Bahader family members shot or hacked to death in a building in the mixed Karm al-Zeitoun neighborhood of Homs, 140-km (88 miles) north of Damascus, they said.
The militiamen, known as 'shabbiha', entered the district after loyalist forces fired heavy mortar rounds on the area, killing another 16 people, residents and activists in the city told Reuters by phone.
YouTube video footage taken by activists, which could not be independently verified, showed the bodies of five children with wounds to the head and neck in a house. The bodies of three women and one man were also shown.
There was no comment from the Syrian authorities, who severely restrict independent media access to the country.
"Alawites who had remained in Karm al-Zeitoun mysteriously left four days ago, and the rumor was that they did so on orders by the authorities. Today we know why," said a doctor in the district who did not want to be named.
"We also have seventy people wounded. Field hospitals themselves are coming under mortar fire," he said.
Hamza, an activist in Homs said that the attack was "pure revenge" for shabbiha members being killed by army defectors loosely grouped under the Free Syrian Army.
He said Sunni families were fleeing Karm al-Zeitoun to other parts of the city, and several Sunni neighborhoods, such as Bab Sbaa, also came under fire.
Tit-for-tat sectarian killings began in Homs four months ago, following armored military assaults on Sunni areas of the city by forces led by members of Assad's minority Alawite sect.
Mass killings have included Alawites in micro-buses on the way to their villages near Homs and Sunnis stopped at a roadblock while heading to work at a factory. Women from the two sects have been abducted and killed also, activists said.
The killings have raised the prospect of the pro-democracy protest movement against Assad turning into a civil war, as his opponents take up arms and fight back against loyalist forces cracking down on demonstrators.
The Alawite community, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has dominated the political system and the security apparatus in Syria, a mostly Sunni country of 20 million people, for the last five decades.
Unlike most Syrian cities, Homs has a large proportion of Alawites who moved to the city to take up jobs in the public sector and the security apparatus as Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, shored up his power base by promoting members of his own community.
But thousands of Alawites, residents say, have left Homs for their home villages in the Alawite Mountains northwest of Homs following a spike in sectarian killings and kidnappings in the city of one million. Thousands of Sunni families have also left for other parts of Syria, and for Lebanon and Jordan.
The Revolution Council of Homs Province said in a statement that the attack on Karm al-Zeitoun "is a new tactic based on annihilating civilians to break the will the people."
WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? The United States said on Friday that Japan has improved market access for a broad range of U.S. goods and services, as Washington continues to consider Tokyo's application to join a proposed free trade pact in the Asia Pacific.
"I welcome the progress we have made," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. "Addressing issues of concern and working closely together to advance new areas of cooperation will further deepen our relationship with Japan - a strong ally and our fourth largest export market."
Japan over the past year has agreed to address U.S. concerns in areas that include intellectual property protection, automobiles, information and communication technology services and products, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, agricultural products, and distribution services, Kirk said.
Specifically, USTR said Japan has:
- Eased the way for imported cars that incorporate new, advanced technologies and features not covered by existing regulation.
- Introduced new legal protections that boost the ability of intellectual property right holders to defend their products and services from unauthorized use.
- Shortened the decision-making process for approval of advanced pharmaceuticals and medical devices by several months.
- Improved the business environment for imported cosmetics.
- Committed to introducing a new auction system for commercial spectrum within the next three years that will increase opportunities for telecommunications companies.
- Revised rules to increase the speed, transparency, and predictability of anti-monopoly merger reviews, bringing Japan's process into closer alignment with global best practices.
In November, Japan formally asked to join negotiations with the United States and eight other countries on the Trans-Pacific Partnership pact, a proposed regional free trade agreement.
The current TPP partners -- which also include Australia, New Zealand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Chile, Peru and Brunei -- are expected to decide early this year on Japan's request and two other applications from Canada and Mexico.
(Reporting By Doug Palmer; Editing by Sandra Maler)
Recent study by Mars, Incorporated and partners underscores importance of metabolism in understanding health benefits of cocoa flavanolsPublic release date: 25-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Willett Elizabeth.willett@mss.effem.com 301-768-9100 Mars, Incorporated
New analytical methods improve understanding of flavanol absorption and metabolism and provide basis for meaningful in vitro studies to assess exactly how these compounds work in the body
MCLEAN, VA. (Jan. 25, 2012) --- A comprehensive investigation of flavanol absorption and metabolism has provided a critical step forward in our understanding of how cocoa flavanols work in the body to exert their circulatory and cardiovascular benefits. Through the development of improved analytical methods, this recent work provides detailed insights into the extensive metabolism of flavanols, which calls into question the reliability of in vitro studies using un-metabolized materials. This collaborative research was conducted by an international team of scientists from Mars, Incorporated, the University of California, Davis (US) and the University of Reading (UK).
Increasing scientific evidence indicates that (?)-epicatechin, the main flavanol in cocoa, can have a positive impact on the circulatory and cardiovascular systems. Absorption and metabolism, however, play a key role in determining the exact effect food constituents and nutrients such as (?)-epicatechin have in the body. Following absorption, nutrients are metabolized transforming them into new compounds that are different from those originally present in food. As metabolic transformation has a significant impact on how nutrients support healthy functions, investigating this process is critical to furthering our understanding of exactly how cocoa flavanols are linked to health benefits.
While the metabolism of flavanols has been established in previous studies, the development and validation of improved analytical methods in this research enabled a far more detailed assessment than previously possible. As a result, this study was able to clearly and reliably demonstrate the extensive metabolism of (?)-epicatechin following consumption of a flavanol-containing cocoa drink. As in vitro studies using un-metabolized cocoa flavanols do not take this metabolism into account, they are not able to accurately reflect what is happening in the body. For example, early findings looking at flavanols in a test tube suggested that they exerted their benefits through an antioxidant mechanism. However, this latest research adds to a growing body of evidence challenging this notion and indicating that when examined in the body flavanols' cardiovascular benefits are in fact independent of any antioxidant properties.
Commenting on the impact of this work for future research in the field, Dr. Hagen Schroeter study author and director of fundamental health and nutrition research at Mars, Incorporated stated: "By significantly advancing our understanding of the absorption and metabolism of cocoa flavanols, this research helps to address existing disagreement in this area and sets a new standard in flavanol analytics that will improve the scientific tools available. Furthermore, this work again calls into question the validity of in vitro research that does not take into account the extensive metabolism of compounds like (?)-epicatechin."
"The study provides a critical step towards a more complete understanding of flavanols and their benefits and, ultimately, towards the translation of this knowledge into innovative flavanol-rich food products and concrete health recommendations," added Dr. Schroeter.
The research has been published in the international journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine and is available for free online here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891584911012548. It forms part of a wider body of collaborative research in this field and builds upon the findings of a previous paper examining flavanol absorption that was published in 2011.
###
About Mars, Incorporated:
In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Washington kitchen and established Mars' roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of building a business based on the philosophy of a "mutuality of benefits" for all stakeholders this vision serves as the foundation of the Mars, Incorporated we are today. Based in McLean, Virginia, Mars has net sales of more than $30 billion and six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 65,000 Associates worldwide are putting our Mars Principles in action every day to make a difference for people and the planet through our performance.
Science and Mars, Incorporated:
Mars, Incorporated believes investment in science and technology is crucial to our success and key to addressing a wide range of social, economic, ecological and environmental challenges. We demonstrate this commitment through uncommon collaborations between academic, government, non-government and industry sectors. We are proud of our holistic approach to science and sustainability and have partnered with leading institutions on research projects such as mapping the cacao genome, understanding the role of genetics and nutrition in animal and human health, developing new approaches to complex food safety issues, and understanding the role of agroforestry in promoting biodiversity.
Flavanols are a group of natural compounds that are particularly abundant in cocoa. A significant body of published research has shown that consumption of cocoa flavanols can improve the performance of the circulatory system and may help support cardiovascular health. In collaboration with some of the world's leading scientific institutes, Mars, Incorporated has been pursuing extensive research to advance understanding of cocoa flavanols for over 20 years.
Mars, Incorporated's ongoing commitment to research in the field of cocoa flavanols is represented by the publication of over 130 scientific papers and approximately 50 patents. Using this knowledge, Mars scientists have developed a proprietary, patented Cocoapro process that helps to retain the flavanols found naturally inside the cocoa bean, which are usually destroyed during normal processing.
For more information, please visit mars.com
[ | 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.
Recent study by Mars, Incorporated and partners underscores importance of metabolism in understanding health benefits of cocoa flavanolsPublic release date: 25-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Elizabeth Willett Elizabeth.willett@mss.effem.com 301-768-9100 Mars, Incorporated
New analytical methods improve understanding of flavanol absorption and metabolism and provide basis for meaningful in vitro studies to assess exactly how these compounds work in the body
MCLEAN, VA. (Jan. 25, 2012) --- A comprehensive investigation of flavanol absorption and metabolism has provided a critical step forward in our understanding of how cocoa flavanols work in the body to exert their circulatory and cardiovascular benefits. Through the development of improved analytical methods, this recent work provides detailed insights into the extensive metabolism of flavanols, which calls into question the reliability of in vitro studies using un-metabolized materials. This collaborative research was conducted by an international team of scientists from Mars, Incorporated, the University of California, Davis (US) and the University of Reading (UK).
Increasing scientific evidence indicates that (?)-epicatechin, the main flavanol in cocoa, can have a positive impact on the circulatory and cardiovascular systems. Absorption and metabolism, however, play a key role in determining the exact effect food constituents and nutrients such as (?)-epicatechin have in the body. Following absorption, nutrients are metabolized transforming them into new compounds that are different from those originally present in food. As metabolic transformation has a significant impact on how nutrients support healthy functions, investigating this process is critical to furthering our understanding of exactly how cocoa flavanols are linked to health benefits.
While the metabolism of flavanols has been established in previous studies, the development and validation of improved analytical methods in this research enabled a far more detailed assessment than previously possible. As a result, this study was able to clearly and reliably demonstrate the extensive metabolism of (?)-epicatechin following consumption of a flavanol-containing cocoa drink. As in vitro studies using un-metabolized cocoa flavanols do not take this metabolism into account, they are not able to accurately reflect what is happening in the body. For example, early findings looking at flavanols in a test tube suggested that they exerted their benefits through an antioxidant mechanism. However, this latest research adds to a growing body of evidence challenging this notion and indicating that when examined in the body flavanols' cardiovascular benefits are in fact independent of any antioxidant properties.
Commenting on the impact of this work for future research in the field, Dr. Hagen Schroeter study author and director of fundamental health and nutrition research at Mars, Incorporated stated: "By significantly advancing our understanding of the absorption and metabolism of cocoa flavanols, this research helps to address existing disagreement in this area and sets a new standard in flavanol analytics that will improve the scientific tools available. Furthermore, this work again calls into question the validity of in vitro research that does not take into account the extensive metabolism of compounds like (?)-epicatechin."
"The study provides a critical step towards a more complete understanding of flavanols and their benefits and, ultimately, towards the translation of this knowledge into innovative flavanol-rich food products and concrete health recommendations," added Dr. Schroeter.
The research has been published in the international journal Free Radical Biology and Medicine and is available for free online here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0891584911012548. It forms part of a wider body of collaborative research in this field and builds upon the findings of a previous paper examining flavanol absorption that was published in 2011.
###
About Mars, Incorporated:
In 1911, Frank C. Mars made the first Mars candies in his Tacoma, Washington kitchen and established Mars' roots as a confectionery company. In the 1920s, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. joined his father in business and together they launched the MILKY WAY bar. In 1932, Forrest, Sr. moved to the United Kingdom with a dream of building a business based on the philosophy of a "mutuality of benefits" for all stakeholders this vision serves as the foundation of the Mars, Incorporated we are today. Based in McLean, Virginia, Mars has net sales of more than $30 billion and six business segments including Petcare, Chocolate, Wrigley, Food, Drinks and Symbioscience. More than 65,000 Associates worldwide are putting our Mars Principles in action every day to make a difference for people and the planet through our performance.
Science and Mars, Incorporated:
Mars, Incorporated believes investment in science and technology is crucial to our success and key to addressing a wide range of social, economic, ecological and environmental challenges. We demonstrate this commitment through uncommon collaborations between academic, government, non-government and industry sectors. We are proud of our holistic approach to science and sustainability and have partnered with leading institutions on research projects such as mapping the cacao genome, understanding the role of genetics and nutrition in animal and human health, developing new approaches to complex food safety issues, and understanding the role of agroforestry in promoting biodiversity.
Flavanols are a group of natural compounds that are particularly abundant in cocoa. A significant body of published research has shown that consumption of cocoa flavanols can improve the performance of the circulatory system and may help support cardiovascular health. In collaboration with some of the world's leading scientific institutes, Mars, Incorporated has been pursuing extensive research to advance understanding of cocoa flavanols for over 20 years.
Mars, Incorporated's ongoing commitment to research in the field of cocoa flavanols is represented by the publication of over 130 scientific papers and approximately 50 patents. Using this knowledge, Mars scientists have developed a proprietary, patented Cocoapro process that helps to retain the flavanols found naturally inside the cocoa bean, which are usually destroyed during normal processing.
For more information, please visit mars.com
[ | 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.
TAMPA, Fla. ? Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Tuesday he doesn't want to continue debating his Republican rivals if the audience isn't allowed to participate. His campaign said later that he would participate in upcoming debates, regardless of the audience rules.
Gingrich, whose rise in the polls and come-from-behind victory in the South Carolina followed well-received debate performances, complained that people were admonished by NBC News anchor and debate moderator Brian Williams not to applaud during Monday night's debate in Tampa. The candidates were to debate Thursday night in Jacksonville, Fla.
"That's wrong," the former House speaker told Fox News. "The media doesn't control free speech. People ought to be allowed to applaud if they want to. It was almost silly."
Disagreeing with his rival, Mitt Romney told reporters that the rules for general-election debates are much stricter and that Gingrich would have to be willing to follow the rules of the Presidential Debate Commission.
"He better learn to debate in all settings," Romney said.
Romney's advisers believe that audience participation drove Gingrich's breakout moments in two debates in South Carolina. They were pleased with the audience reaction during Monday night's debate, calling it more serious than the raucous crowds at the second South Carolina debate.
Gingrich was an audience favorite at the two debates in South Carolina, particularly when he admonished debate moderator John King of CNN for bringing up the subject of ex-wife Marianne Gingrich and her allegation that Gingrich had sought an "open marriage" as he was having an affair with the woman now his wife, Callista. Audience members applauded and cheered Gingrich's criticism of King as well as some of his policy statements.
Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who was the GOP's nominee in 2008, said Tuesday that he thinks debates have had an inordinate influence, and at times a negative one, on the primary campaign. McCain is supporting Romney's bid for the nomination.
"It's very harmful to Republicans because of instead of presenting their views, their policies and their proposals ? it's all gotcha, it's all gotcha," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. "And disapproval ratings go up. And people spend an hour or two insulting each other. So I think it's very damaging."
___
Associated Press writer Donna Cassata in Washington contributed to this report.
KYOTO, Japan ? They no longer speak the same language, but two brothers separated nearly 60 years each think the other hasn't changed a bit.
Japanese-American Minoru Ohye celebrate his 86th birthday Monday with his only brother after traveling to Japan for a reunion with him.
The brothers were born in Sacramento, California, but were separated as children after their father died in a fishing accident. They were sent to live with relatives in Japan and ended up in different homes.
The reunited brothers hugged in a hotel room and exchanged gifts of California chocolate and Japanese sake. The American brother wore his trademark baseball cap and jeans. The Japanese bother wore a suit and tie.
But the same bright eyes and square jaws were a dead giveaway that they were brothers. They both loved golf and had back pains. They thought the other hadn't changed a bit.
"If we miss this chance, we may never meet. You never know," said Ohye, energetic except for a sore knee. "Either he may die, or I may die."
Separated across the Pacific, their only prior meeting had been a brief one in the mid-1950s when Ohye stopped by Japan while serving in the U.S. Army in the demilitarized zone on the Korean peninsula.
His brother, Hiroshi Kamimura, 84, was adopted by a Japanese family, grew up in the ancient capital of Kyoto and became a tax accountant. He married and had three sons.
Ohye joined the youth group of the Japanese Imperial Army at 13 and went to Russia, where he was sent to a Siberian coal mine when Japan surrendered. He returned to be with his mother in Yuba City, California, in 1951, and worked as a bookbinder and a gardener.
He became homeless when he failed to collect payment for a restaurant he ran and later sold in the late 1950s.
About 10 years ago, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, a welfare service organization for U.S. veterans, found him a spot in the Eskaton Wilson Manor home for the elderly.
It was Eskaton's program to grant a wish called "Thrill of a Lifetime" that got Ohye back to Japan.
While others wished for rafting trips and football game tickets, the only thing Ohye wanted was to see his brother again. Eskaton administrator Debbie Reynolds put together a fundraiser for Ohye's trip.
Kamimura acknowledged it had been difficult to communicate with his brother through telephone calls because he didn't understand English. They would exchange a lot of "hellos" and then their conversations ended, he said.
"I am happy. He is the only brother I have," Kamimura said after watching Ohye blow out the candles on a birthday cake at a restaurant. "This may be our last time together."
Brian Berry, a graduate student at the University of Tokyo who was approached by Reynolds to help with the reunion and got Ohye from the Tokyo airport to Kyoto, was relieved the brothers were together at last.
"Even over time, with all that has been gone through, still the only thing you are thinking about is your family," he said. "Right when you're near the end of your life, you are still thinking about your family."
___
Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at http://twitter.com/yurikageyama
Babies are born with 'intuitive physics' knowledge, says MU researcherPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steven Adams AdamsST@missouri.edu 573-882-8353 University of Missouri-Columbia
Numerous infant studies indicate environmental knowledge is present soon after birth
COLUMBIA, Mo. While it may appear that infants are helpless creatures that only blink, eat, cry and sleep, one University of Missouri researcher says that studies indicate infant brains come equipped with knowledge of "intuitive physics."
"In the MU Developmental Cognition Lab, we study infant knowledge of the world by measuring a child's gaze when presented with different scenarios," said Kristy vanMarle, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. "We believe that infants are born with expectations about the objects around them, even though that knowledge is a skill that's never been taught. As the child develops, this knowledge is refined and eventually leads to the abilities we use as adults."
In a review of related scientific literature from the past 30 years, vanMarle and Susan Hespos of Northwestern University found that the evidence for intuitive physics occurs in infants as young as two months the earliest age at which testing can occur. At that age, infants show an understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that hidden objects do not cease to exist. Scientific testing also has shown that by five months, infants have an expectation that non-cohesive substances like sand or water are not solid. In a previous publication, vanMarle found that children as young as 10 months consistently choose larger amounts when presented with two different amounts of food substance.
"We believe that infants are born with the ability to form expectations and they use these expectations basically to predict the future," vanMarle said. "Intuitive physics include skills that adults use all the time. For example, when a glass of milk falls off the table, a person might try to catch the cup, but they are not likely to try to catch the milk that spills out. The person doesn't have to consciously think about what to do because the brain processes the information and the person simply reacts. The majority of an adult's everyday interactions with the world are automatic, and we believe infants have the same ability to form expectations, predicting the behavior of objects and substances with which they interact."
While the intuitive physics knowledge is believed to be present at birth, vanMarle believes parents can assist skill development through normal interaction, such as playing and talking with the child and encouraging him/her to interact with objects.
"Despite the intuitive physics knowledge, a parent probably cannot do much to 'get their child ahead' at the infant stage, including exposing him or her to videos marketed to improve math or language skills," vanMarle said. "Natural interaction with the child, such as talking to him/her, playing peek-a-boo, and allowing him/her to handle safe objects, is the best method for child development. Natural interaction with the parent and objects in the world gives the child all the input that evolution has prepared the child to seek, accept and use to develop intuitive physics."
The study, "Physics for infants: characterizing the origins of knowledge about objects, substances and number," is published in the January issue of WIREs Cognitive Science.
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Babies are born with 'intuitive physics' knowledge, says MU researcherPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Steven Adams AdamsST@missouri.edu 573-882-8353 University of Missouri-Columbia
Numerous infant studies indicate environmental knowledge is present soon after birth
COLUMBIA, Mo. While it may appear that infants are helpless creatures that only blink, eat, cry and sleep, one University of Missouri researcher says that studies indicate infant brains come equipped with knowledge of "intuitive physics."
"In the MU Developmental Cognition Lab, we study infant knowledge of the world by measuring a child's gaze when presented with different scenarios," said Kristy vanMarle, an assistant professor in the Department of Psychological Sciences in the College of Arts and Science. "We believe that infants are born with expectations about the objects around them, even though that knowledge is a skill that's never been taught. As the child develops, this knowledge is refined and eventually leads to the abilities we use as adults."
In a review of related scientific literature from the past 30 years, vanMarle and Susan Hespos of Northwestern University found that the evidence for intuitive physics occurs in infants as young as two months the earliest age at which testing can occur. At that age, infants show an understanding that unsupported objects will fall and that hidden objects do not cease to exist. Scientific testing also has shown that by five months, infants have an expectation that non-cohesive substances like sand or water are not solid. In a previous publication, vanMarle found that children as young as 10 months consistently choose larger amounts when presented with two different amounts of food substance.
"We believe that infants are born with the ability to form expectations and they use these expectations basically to predict the future," vanMarle said. "Intuitive physics include skills that adults use all the time. For example, when a glass of milk falls off the table, a person might try to catch the cup, but they are not likely to try to catch the milk that spills out. The person doesn't have to consciously think about what to do because the brain processes the information and the person simply reacts. The majority of an adult's everyday interactions with the world are automatic, and we believe infants have the same ability to form expectations, predicting the behavior of objects and substances with which they interact."
While the intuitive physics knowledge is believed to be present at birth, vanMarle believes parents can assist skill development through normal interaction, such as playing and talking with the child and encouraging him/her to interact with objects.
"Despite the intuitive physics knowledge, a parent probably cannot do much to 'get their child ahead' at the infant stage, including exposing him or her to videos marketed to improve math or language skills," vanMarle said. "Natural interaction with the child, such as talking to him/her, playing peek-a-boo, and allowing him/her to handle safe objects, is the best method for child development. Natural interaction with the parent and objects in the world gives the child all the input that evolution has prepared the child to seek, accept and use to develop intuitive physics."
The study, "Physics for infants: characterizing the origins of knowledge about objects, substances and number," is published in the January issue of WIREs Cognitive Science.
###
[ | 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.
New research at Harvard explains how bacterial biofilms expand to form slimy mats on teeth, pipes, surgical instruments, and crops.
Through experiment and mathematical analysis, researchers have shown that the extracellular matrix (ECM), a mesh of proteins and sugars that can form outside bacterial cells, creates osmotic pressure that forces biofilms to swell and spread.
The ECM mechanism is so powerful that it can increase the radius of some biofilms five-fold within 24 hours.
The results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Biofilms, large colonies of bacteria that adhere to surfaces, can be harmful in a wide range of settings, resulting in tooth decay, hospital infections, agricultural damage, and corrosion. Finding ways to control or eliminate biofilms is a priority for many industries.
In order for a biofilm to grow, a group of bacterial cells must first adhere to a surface and then proliferate and spread. When a vast number of cells are present, this can translate into the creation of a filmy surface spanning several meters.
"Our work challenges the common picture of biofilms as sedentary communities by showing how cells in a biofilm cooperate to colonize surfaces," says lead author Agnese Seminara, a research associate at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).
Several types of biofilms have been characterized based on composition and antibiotic resistance, but until now it has not been clear what roles the whip-like flagella and the ECM play in the outward movement of cells.
While the presence of a flagellum has traditionally been associated with greater movement capability, the new research has found that a flagellum actually confers little advantage in the formation of biofilms. In the Harvard study, mutant bacteria lacking flagella were able to spread at almost the same rate as the wild-type (natural) ones. Mutants that could not secrete the ECM, however, showed stunted growth.
The team of physicists, mathematicians, chemists, and biologists examined the formation of biofilms in Bacillus subtilis, a type of rod-shaped bacteria often found in soil. Their focus on this particular species was led by Roberto Kolter, Professor of Microbiology and Immunobiology at Harvard Medical School, an expert on biofilms and the genomics of B. subtilis.
"This project establishes a link between the phenotype, the physically observable traits of biofilm growth, and the genetic underpinning that allows spreading to happen in B. subtilis," notes co-principal investigator Michael Brenner, the Glover Professor of Applied Mathematics and Applied Physics at SEAS.
The researchers had speculated about a possible connection between the biofilm's quest for nutrition and the process of spreading. Because biofilms absorb nutrients through their exposed surface area, they can only swell vertically to a certain point before the surface-area-to-volume ratio makes it impossible to adequately nourish every cell. At this point, the biofilm must begin to spread outward so that the surface area increases along with the number of cells.
The ECM, a complex mesh of proteins, sugars, and other components outside of the individual cells, holds the key to one aspect of this movement: it apparently increases osmotic pressure within the biofilm.
In response to the increased pressure, the biofilm immediately absorbs water from its surroundings, causing the entire mass to swell upward. The final change in the shape of the biofilm is due to a combination of this swelling and the horizontal spreading that follows.
Seminara and Brenner created a mathematical model that mirrored many of the team's physical observations. The model supported the experimental observations; by considering the relationship between swelling and spreading, they were able to find the "critical" time at which horizontal outward motion begins.
"This work is led by theoretical predictions which were tested by experiment and proved to be correct," reflects co-principal investigator David Weitz, Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and Applied Physics at SEAS and Co-Director of the BASF Advanced Research Initiative at Harvard. "The results also demonstrate how simple physical principles can provide considerable insight into the behavior of biofilms."
The motion of biofilms represents only a small part of a complex subject. Further research will investigate how biofilms adapt and possibly manipulate their environment. The ultimate goal is to alter biofilms' behavior to minimize their harmful effects.
"The natural question at this point is: do cells actively control biofilm expansion and can they direct it toward desired targets?" says Seminara. "This is a first step toward understanding the striking evolutionary success of these ubiquitous organisms, and it may open the way to unconventional methods of biofilm control."
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Harvard University: http://www.harvard.edu
Thanks to Harvard University for this article.
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(Reuters) ? The massive online protest last Wednesday, in which Wikipedia and thousands of other websites closed down or otherwise protested and helped to kill controversial online piracy legislation, was widely heralded as an unprecedented case of a grassroots uprising overcoming backroom lobbying.
Yet a close look at how the debate unfolded suggests that traditional means of influencing policy in Washington had its place too. The technology industry has ramped up its political activities dramatically in recent years, and in fact, has spent more than the entertainment industry -- $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2011, compared with $906.4 million spent by entertainment companies.
The latest chapter in what has become an epic, decades-long battle between the two industries over copyrighted digital content began innocuously enough. Hollywood movie studios, frustrated by online theft that they claim already costs them billions of dollars a year and will only get worse, in 2010 started pushing for a law that would make it possible to block access and cut off payments to foreign websites offering pirated material.
In 2010, longtime industry friend Sen. Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont, introduced a bill, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act, that passed the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously but never went further.
In May last year, Leahy tried again, introducing his Protect IP (Intellectual Property) Act. In October, Rep. Lamar Smith, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, introduced a similar bill. The last major piece of copyright law, the Pro-IP Act of 2008, moved through Congress with little controversy, so the industry felt hopeful.
Through the end of September, Hollywood had outspent the tech industry 2-to-1 in donations to key supporters of measures it was backing. More than $950,000 from the TV, music and movie industries has gone to original sponsors of the House and Senate bills in the 2012 election cycle, compared with about $400,000 from computer and Internet companies, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Tech companies preferred backers of a narrower alternative bill. The computer and Internet industries gave more than $291,000 to supporters of that measure vs. about $185,000 from the content makers.
"They're both very powerful. They're all big players. They give a lot of money to politicians. This has to be a tough choice for many members of Congress," said Larry Sabato, a campaign finance expert who teaches at the University of Virginia.
PAY ATTENTION
The bills had attracted no public attention, but in early September, Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, Foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman wrote to senators to oppose the bill. Later that month, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce marshaled a group of 350 companies to write in supporting it.
The introduction of the House bill in late October prompted more scrutiny. Critics including the Consumer Electronics Association fretted over issues such as whether U.S. websites could be shut down under the bill, and security risks to Internet infrastructure that they said may arise.
By mid November, technology executives were paying close attention. Many watched online as Google copyright counsel Katherine Oyama testified before a House Judiciary Committee hearing November 16. Another, Ben Huh, chief executive of the online media network Cheezburger Inc, would eventually help organize the Web blackout.
Members of Congress "basically beat up Google," said Huh, who tuned in from the office. "We were watching it going, 'This is incredibly unfair.'"
Later that day, he talked over the testimony with Erik Martin, general manager of the social news site Reddit.com. The two would later help lead the online blackout efforts, along with others such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Meanwhile, the White House was taking meetings from both sides. The first week of December, Motion Picture Association of America chief and former Senator Chris Dodd moved the MPAA's board meeting from its traditional site of Los Angeles to Washington, in part so executives could lobby on the issues.
Dodd, along with movie executives including Warner Bros Chairman and CEO Barry Meyer and Fox Filmed Entertainment co-Chairmen Jim Gianopulos and Tom Rothman, met with White House officials including chief of staff Bill Daley and Vice President Joe Biden, according to a person familiar with the situation. They hammered home why the law was needed to go after foreign sites.
TAKING TURNS
The following week, it was the tech companies' turn. Executives including LinkedIn's Hoffman, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, and venture capitalists Brad Burnham and Paul Maeder met with the same officials to press their case.
Major tech companies then took out advertisements in newspapers including the Washington Post and The New York Times, saying the bills would allow U.S. government censorship of the Internet. The ads ran December 14 in the form of an open letter to Washington, signed by heavyweights such as Google co-founder Sergey Brin and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.
The ads ran as the House Judiciary Committee was turning back the bill. The proceedings streamed live over the Internet, allowing the public to watch many members struggling to fully understand terms such as IP address and DNS server.
North Carolina Rep. Mel Watt, for example, professed that he was "not a nerd and didn't understand a lot of the technological stuff." That opened them up to mockery in the blogosphere, with commentators questioning their ability to craft law around the Internet. "Dear Congress, It's No Longer OK To Not Know How the Internet Works," Motherboard blogger Joshua Kopstein wrote in a widely circulated post.
The weekend after the committee adjourned its hearing, opponents started an online petition to veto SOPA at the White House's "We the People" website. Within days, the petition had acquired 38,500 signatures, far exceeding the 25,000 required for review by the administration. An separate petition started in late October had already gathered more than 52,000 signatures.
A few days before Christmas, the House Judiciary Committee released the names of the many companies that supported SOPA. But that succeeded only in galvanizing further opposition: influential Silicon Valley investor Paul Graham took the unusual step of saying that any company that supported SOPA would be barred from Demo Day, an industry showcase.
People posting to the social-news site Reddit then suggested a boycott of one of the bill's supporters, the domain-name registrar GoDaddy, asking people to transfer their domains to another registrar. Many sites, among them Huh's Cheezburger, said they would switch. Just before New Year's Day, GoDaddy dropped its support for the bill amid widespread publicity.
Meanwhile, the White House was crafting its response to the online petitions. Three top aides to President Barack Obama, who won election in 2008 supported by online organizing and who has long been friendly to Internet industry concerns, weighed in on the issue in mid-January just as Hollywood was preparing to celebrate the Golden Globe Awards. The officials posted a response to the online petition and voiced concerns about the bills, while calling for improved antipiracy legislation.
That sparked a flood of media coverage and helped expand the Internet blackout to more sites. One popular protest, the brainchild of Instagram engineer Greg Hochmuth and YouTube Product Management Director Hunter Wall, allowed people to add black "Stop SOPA" banners to their Twitter and Facebook profile photos. On Wednesday, some 30 people a minute were adding the banners to their photos, Hochmuth told Reuters.
A FORMIDABLE COMBO
The combination of White House concerns, the impending online protest and the intense pressure on legislators from high-profile Internet industry leaders abruptly changed the dynamic on Capitol Hill. On Wednesday, as the blackout unfolded, support for the bills quickly crumbled.
Some Hollywood executives acknowledge their own flat-footedness in trying to marshal public opinion as opposition mounted. While technology companies brandished the power of the Internet, Hollywood relied on old-media weapons such as television commercials and a billboard in New York's Times Square. It proved to be too little, too late.
One entertainment-company lawyer complained that opposing arguments were often inaccurate but spread like wildfire anyway on the Internet, leaving supporters scrambling to correct the information without the benefit of a strong online network.
"We do some of that (online) stuff, but it has to go through a committee of 14 people," he said. "The other side doesn't have conference calls. They just put stuff out there."
Both friends and foes of SOPA and PIPA do not think they have seen the end of this battle.
"Bills are a lot like zombies," said Cheezburger's Huh. "You never know if they're dead or going to come back."
When it comes around again, lobbyists on both sides will have learned some valuable lessons.
(Reporting by Sarah McBride in San Francisco and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles, with additional reporting by Jasmin Melvin and Diane Bartz in Washington; Editing by Jonathan Weber and Maureen Bavdek)
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. ? Joe Paterno's death from lung cancer Sunday just two months after his firing left many Penn State students, alumni and community members numb with grief and a sense that the legendary coach deserved better from the university after such a distinguished career.
"His legacy is without question as far as I'm concerned," said 65-year-old Ed Hill of Altoona, a football season ticket-holder for 35 years. "The Board of Trustees threw him to the wolves. I think Joe was a scapegoat nationally. ... I'm heartbroken."
On Sunday night, thousands of people, nearly all of them students, gathered outside Penn State's administration building in a solemn candlelight vigil. Former players were among those who spoke, including Oakland Raiders offensive lineman Stefen Wisniewski.
"When I think back on Joe Paterno's legacy, the events of the last two months won't even cross my mind," Wisniewski said.
The 45-minute vigil concluded with students singing the alma mater, and many were walking from the center of campus to pay additional tribute to Paterno at his statue outside of Beaver Stadium, which served as the site of another vigil the night before as news spread of his failing health.
In death, Paterno received the praise that under normal circumstances might have been reserved for the retirement dinner he never received.
Gov. Tom Corbett said he had secured his place in Pennsylvania history and noted that "as both man and coach," Paterno had "confronted adversities, both past and present, with grace and forbearance."
Similar tributes were issued by politicians, university officials, former players and alumni. Some expressed hope that Paterno would be remembered more for his accomplishments than for his downfall. And some wondered whether his heartbreaking firing somehow hastened his death.
Paterno, who died at 85, was fired Nov. 9 by the Penn State trustees after he was criticized for not going to the police in 2002 when he was told that former assistant Jerry Sandusky had been seen molesting a boy in the showers at the football complex.
Paterno reported the allegations to university higher-ups, but it would be nearly a decade before Sandusky was arrested, and Paterno said he regretted having not done more. Pennsylvania's state police commissioner said the football coach may have met his legal duty but not his moral one.
On Sunday, Sandusky expressed sympathy to Paterno's family in a statement released by his lawyer as he awaits trial on charges of sexually abusing 10 boys over a 15-year period.
Sandusky said that no one did more for the university's academic reputation than Paterno, and that his former boss "had the courage to practice what he preached" about toughness, hard work and clean competition.
At an Iowa-Penn State wrestling match Sunday afternoon, a crowd of some 6,500 people gave a 30-second standing ovation as an image of Paterno appeared on two video boards. The screen flashed the words "Joseph Vincent Paterno 1926-2012" and a picture of a smiling Paterno in a blue tie and blue sweater vest.
At the university's Berkey Creamery, Ginger Colon, of Fairfax, Va., was picking up two half-gallons of Peachy Paterno ice cream when she heard the news. Colon, whose daughter attends Penn State, said it was sad that the scandal would be part of Paterno's legacy.
"But from a personal note, it makes you re-think when things are reported to you by employees: Have I taken enough steps?" Colon said.
Andrea Mastro, an immunology professor who lives in the same neighborhood where Paterno lived and raised a family ? with his address and number, famously, listed in the phone book ? said the rapid spread of the cancer and the shadow of the Sandusky investigation made "the whole situation very sad."
"I can't help but thinking that his death is somehow related" to the stress of the scandal, she said after Mass on Sunday at Our Lady of Victory Catholic Church, where Paterno sometimes attended services. "I think everybody is going to be extremely sad, and they're going to be sad in particular because he didn't get his say."
Mickey Shuler, who played for Penn State under Paterno in the mid-'70s, said the coach had been a father figure and expressed his disappointment about how he was fired.
"It's just sad, because I think he died from other things than lung cancer," Shuler said. "I don't think that the Penn State that he helped us to become and all the principles and values and things that he taught were carried out in the handling of his situation."
The trustees and school President Rodney Erickson issued a statement saying the university plans to honor Paterno but is still working on what form that will take, and when it will happen.
In recent weeks, the board has come under withering criticism for how it handled Paterno's dismissal, and there is a movement by alumni to change the board's composition.
At a women's basketball game Sunday, Penn State players wore a black strap on their shoulders in memory of Paterno.
"It's been the first time I've ever seen a man guilty and have to be proven innocent," said Jamie Bloom, a 1992 graduate from Williamsport. "I think they caved to the media pressure to do something."
Ed Peetz, 87, a Class of '49 alumnus whose daughter-in-law Karen Peetz was just elected president of the trustees, said the board had to dismiss Paterno.
"But then, and now, is a very sad day," Peetz said. "What does Paterno mean to me? He means Penn State. But I think he was too powerful."
Steve Wrath, a 1984 graduate, became emotional as he spoke outside the football stadium, in front of Paterno's statue, which was adorned with lit candles, flowers, T-shirts and blue-and-white pom-poms.
"The Sandusky situation is obviously horrible for the victims, and I don't want to little that situation, but Joe Paterno's legacy will overcome all of that," Wrath said.
___
AP writer Genaro Armas and freelancer Emily Kaplan in State College, and AP college football writer Ralph Russo in New York, contributed to this story.
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ? Unemployment in Illinois dropped to 9.8 percent in December. It was the second month in a row with a decrease
The Illinois Department of Employment Security said Friday that the unemployment rate fell despite the overall number of jobs in the state dropping by 4,100 in December. Statewide unemployment had fallen slightly in November to 10 percent after six straight months of increases.
Federal officials said earlier this week that national unemployment fell to a three-year low of 8.5 percent in December.
For all of 2001, Illinois unemployment rate averaged 9.4 percent. That was down almost a full percentage point from 2010.
Manufacturing employers added 2,200 jobs in December. That was more than any other type of employer. The biggest jobs losses were in construction, where firms cut 4,300 jobs.
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Public release date: 25-Jan-2012
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