India seeks life sentences for Delhi bus rapists

NEW DELHI: India's government, facing swelling protests over the gang-rape of a female student on a bus, vowed on Friday to press for life sentences for her six attackers and promised stricter policing.

Home Secretary R.K. Singh also said the government would pay the medical bills of the 23-year-old victim of the brutal Sunday night attack, who is fighting for her life after suffering serious injuries to her intestines.

"We will ask for the maximum punishment of life imprisonment and ask the court for the speedy trial of the accused," Singh said as New Delhi and other cities continued to be swept by an unprecedented wave of demonstrations by women demanding better safety.

Six drunken men were joyriding on a bus when they picked up the physiotherapy student and her 28-year-old male companion and took turns raping her. Afterwards, they threw the pair off the speeding vehicle.

Police say the woman was attacked with an iron rod after being raped.

Experts say a combination of abusive sexual behaviour, a scant fear of the law and India's creaky judicial system encourage such attacks in the bustling city of 19 million people.

Late Friday, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported that all six accused had now been apprehended after a search for the last remaining suspect.

City police commissioner Neeraj Kumar had earlier said at a joint news conference with the home secretary that five people, including the bus driver, had been detained and charged with rape and attempted murder.

Kumar pledged a series of measures to "make Delhi safe," promising squads of officers would patrol the city, crack down on vehicles with darkened windows and zero in on drunken motorists.

"All hooliganism will be swiftly punished," the home secretary added.

The number of rape cases in New Delhi has risen 17 per cent from 2011 to 661 this year. The number of rapes is triple the number reported in India's financial capital Mumbai.

Hundreds of people kept a vigil outside the hospital where the woman was being treated after several rounds of surgery. The PTI said she had been taken off a ventilator but showed early signs of infection in a "mixed response".

Kumar said police would deploy marshals on buses which are commonly used by women commuters.

"The (policing) regime that we are going to put in place will be very, very strict," the police commissioner said, adding public transport drivers will be forced to carry identity tags.

If there is any wrongdoing "we will catch those people," Home Secretary Singh added.

Singh also said the under-pressure government would take a "view" on the demands by protesters in several Indian cities for mandatory death sentences for rapists.

A parliamentary panel overseeing internal security said it would meet next week to review existing laws to deal with sex offenders.

The meeting will "deliberate on issues linked to incidents of rape", panel chief Venkaiah Naidu told reporters.

New Delhi's metro system reserves a carriage in every train for women, while several police stations in university districts have all-female staff to try and stem rising crime against women.

- AFP/jc

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Apple Newsstand ropes in longtime holdout

WSJ's updated app.

(Credit:
Apple)

Longtime holdout of Apple's Newsstand service, The Wall Street Journal changed course today, and is now offering a complete version of its paper through the paid subscription service.

The Journal has had a reader app on the App Store since early 2010, but did not allow users to subscribe using their Apple ID and linked credit card account, something that gives Apple a cut of the profit. That business model, along with a system that requires users to opt-in to sharing some of their demographic information, has been irksome for some publishers.

The new service, which went into effect yesterday and was noted by All Things D this morning, has two tiers of service. One for smartphones only that costs $12.99 a month, and a higher tier at $21.99 a month that also includes access from the
iPad and The Journal's online site.

Apple launched Newsstand as part of iOS 5 in in 2011, providing a way for users to view newspapers and magazines they've purchased or subscribed to. The app also doubles as its own storefront, where users can browse and purchase content, similar to Apple's App Store, iBooks, and
iTunes apps.

The Newsstand app.

(Credit:
CNET)

Apple does not disclose what individual app makers and content providers earn on its store. The company doles out 70 percent of each sale to content creators, taking a 30 percent cut for itself. Publishers can also let existing subscribers view digital editions of content to which they already subscribe, however they're not allowed to link to outside Web sites where subscriptions can be struck outside of the App Store.

The model has had a mixed reception by publishers, some of which have sidestepped selling through Apple and opted to offer
tablet-optimized subscription versions of their sites through the Web instead. One of those publishers was Time Inc., which reached a deal with Apple back in June to sell some 20 of its titles including Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, and People magazine through the App Store.

The Journal's change in digital strategy comes just a week after WSJ parent company News Corp. killed off The Daily, a paid news service that launched on Apple's iPad. That project was one of the first to make use of Apple's subscription service, though failed to gain traction with users.

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The Healing Power of Dogs

One boy confided in the gentle-faced golden retriever about exactly what happened in his classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School that day—which his parents said was more than he'd been able to share with them. A little girl who hadn't spoken since the shootings finally started talking to her mother again after petting one of the "comfort dogs." Groups of teenagers began to open up and discuss their fear and grief with each other as they sat on the floor together, all stroking the same animal.

The dogs are therapy dogs—professional comforters that were brought to Newtown, Connecticut, almost immediately after the horrific shootings on December 14 that left 20 young children and 6 staff members dead.

Tim Hetzner, leader of the Lutheran Church Charities (LCC) K9 Comfort Dogs team, traveled to Newtown with nine specially trained golden retrievers and their volunteer handlers from the Addison, Illinois-based group.

Using a local Lutheran church as their base, the K9 teams have spent the past few days visiting schools, churches, activity centers, and private homes in the community. They only go where they're invited and are careful to let people approach the dogs instead of vice versa, in case anyone is afraid of or allergic to the animals.

Counselors With Fur

The response to the dogs has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Hetzner.

"A lot of times, kids talk directly to the dog," he said. "They're kind of like counselors with fur. They have excellent listening skills, and they demonstrate unconditional love. They don't judge you or talk back."

The dogs are also used to reassure victims of natural disasters—most recently, Superstorm Sandy—and to brighten the days of nursing home patients. Hetzner said he got the idea after seeing how well students responded to therapy dogs in the wake of a 2008 school shooting at Northern Illinois University. Now, in addition to the core of 15 that make up LCC's K9 Comfort Dogs team, the group has deployed about 20 other dogs to be based in schools and churches that apply for them.

The human volunteers' main job is to make sure the dogs don't get burned out, which means taking a break to play ball or nap after about two hours of work. Although some handlers have a background in counseling or pastoral care, "the biggest part of their training is just learning to be quiet," Hetzner said.

"I think that's a common mistake people make in crisis situations—feeling obligated to give some sort of answer or advice, when really, those who are hurting just need to express themselves."

The Human-Canine Bond

Why does petting a dog make us feel better? It's not just because they're cute, says Brian Hare, director of Duke University's Canine Cognition Center.

The human-canine bond goes back thousands of years. Dogs descend from wolves and have been attracted to humans ever since we began living in settlements—a source of tasty garbage. That created an advantage for wolves to live near humans, and since it tended to be the less aggressive wolves that could do this more effectively, they essentially self-domesticated over time, according to Hare.

(Read more about the evolutionary history of dogs in the February 2012 National Geographic magazine cover story, "How To Build a Dog.")

Part of what makes dogs special is that they are one of the only species that does not generally exhibit xenophobia, meaning fear of strangers, says Hare.

"We've done research on this, and what we've found is that not only are most dogs totally not xenophobic, they're actually xenophilic—they love strangers!" Hare said. "That's one way in which you could say dogs are 'better' than people. We're not always that welcoming."

People also benefit from interacting with canines. Simply petting a dog can decrease levels of stress hormones, regulate breathing, and lower blood pressure. Research also has shown that petting releases oxytocin, a hormone associated with bonding and affection, in both the dog and the human.

Do Dogs Have Empathy?

In situations like the Newtown shootings, it makes a lot of sense that dogs would be an effective form of comfort, says psychologist Debbie Custance of Goldsmiths College, University of London.

"Dogs are social creatures that respond to us quite sensitively, and they seem to respond to our emotions," she said.

Custance recently led a study to see whether dogs demonstrated empathy. She asked volunteers to either pretend to cry, or just "hum in a weird way." Would the dogs notice the difference?

"The response was extraordinary," she said. Nearly all of the dogs came over to nuzzle or lick the crying person, whether it was the owner or a stranger, while they paid little attention when people were merely humming.

"We're not saying this is definitive evidence that dogs have empathy—but I can certainly understand why people would think they do, at least," Custance said.

Other animals can also be useful in what's known as "animal-assisted therapy." The national organization Pet Partners has 11,000 registered teams of volunteer handlers and animals that visit nursing homes, hospitals, schools, and victims of tragedy and disaster. Although most of the teams use dogs, some involve horses, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, birds, and even barnyard animals like pigs and chickens.

The presence of an animal can help facilitate a discussion with human counselors or simply provide wordless emotional release, said Rachel Wright, director of Pet Partners' therapy animal program. The group plans to deploy several teams of therapy dogs to Newtown in the near future, working closely with agencies that are already present in the community, she said.

To some, the idea of sending a dog to a grieving person might seem too simplistic. But Custance says that very simplicity is part of what makes the connection between humans and canines so powerful.

"When humans show us affection, it's quite a complicated thing that involves expectations and judgments," she said. "But with a dog, it's a very uncomplicated, nonchallenging interaction with no consequences. And if you've been through a hard time, it's lovely to have that."

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Boehner's Take on Fiscal Cliff Deal: 'God Only Knows'

Dec 21, 2012 11:00am

Speaker of the House John Boehner bluntly acknowledged Friday morning he did not have the votes to pass his “Plan B” and said the only real solution is a broad agreement to cut spending and reform the tax code. Then he added these words:

“How we get there, God only knows.”

That about sums up the whole “fiscal cliff” situation after a chaotic Thursday night when Republicans had to abandon “Plan B” – their proposal to raise taxes only on people making more than $1 million.

Boehner said he is not giving up on talks to pursue a bipartisan agreement with the President, who wants taxes to be raised on people making more than $250,000. But Boehner made it clear nothing is going on right now.  Instead he said it was up to Senate Democrats and the White House to make the next move.

Read more  about “Plan B” and the dramatic action in the House on Thursday.

SHOWS: Nightline This Week World News

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Today on New Scientist: 20 December 2012

Spider builds giant decoy of itself

A naturalist trekking in Peru has spotted a spider that builds a huge decoy doppelganger out of leaves and dead insects

How to reduce the toll from US gun violence

In the wake of last week's massacre at a school in Connecticut, it is time to look to the data for what works in reducing gun violence, says Peter Aldhous

Laser cookery makes your food more fun

Melted bacon and toast with QR codes burned into it are just two ideas for how laser cutters could change the way we cook and eat

Fetal healing: Curing congenital diseases in the womb

Imagine curing inherited conditions before they even arise. We have the gene and stem-cell therapies to do it now - if only we dare use them on unborn babies

Best videos of 2012: Experience a trip into a wormhole

Watch what a journey through a wormhole would look like, as we reach number 7 in our countdown of the top videos of the year

The top 10 science books of 2012

New Scientist's pick of books published this year that you should not miss

2013 Smart Guide: New maps to rein in cosmic inflation

Results from the Planck satellite will further our grasp of the driving force behind the early universe's blisteringly fast expansion

Fail-safe software could stop flash crashes

Emergency "circuit breaker" software might prevent sudden swings in financial markets caused by high-speed trading algorithms

Human hands evolved so we could punch each other

Suitability for punching may have driven our hands to evolve differently from those of other primates

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Spanish lawmakers pass 2013 crisis budget

MADRID: Spanish lawmakers passed 39 billion euros' ($52 billion) worth of unpopular spending cuts Thursday as angry demonstrators urged fresh street protests.

The government says the tough cuts in the 2013 budget are needed to fix the public finances of the eurozone's fourth-biggest economy, stricken by the collapse of a construction boom in 2008.

As the lower house Congress dominated by the conservative governing Popular Party voted through the budget, demonstrators called for a candle-lit mock-funeral march to Congress in protest.

Crowds have been staging daily rallies in fury at seeing their pay, jobs and benefits cut and taxes raised in a recession that has driven unemployment over 25 per cent and thrown many into poverty.

The "indignant" protest movement described the 2013 plan as "a budget of hunger and misery" and called on protesters to march dressed in black and carrying candles on Thursday evening.

Mass rallies near Congress over recent months have boiled over with police making charges against demonstrators and rubber bullets flying.

Conservative Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said this week that 2013 would be "a difficult year but it will be the year when our economy stabilises".

His government is forecasting the economy will shrink 0.5 per cent in 2013, far more optimistic than the OECD prediction of a 1.4-per cent slump, after a 1.5-per cent contraction this year.

Rajoy said the government aimed to return the country to growth in 2014 and start creating jobs again.

Economists and NGOs warned however that the austere budget approved in parliament on Thursday would undermine the recovery and worsen life for millions in Spain.

Aid charity Oxfam warned that the cutback could drive the number of people categorised as living in poverty in Spain to 18 million or 40 per cent of the population over the next 10 years.

"If the austerity measures and social cuts are not altered, out country could see an increase in the number of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion," it said in a statement.

Among the measures in the budget, unemployment benefit payments are to be cut by more than six per cent and the budgets of some government departments by more than 20 per cent.

Doctors, nurses, police, firemen, teachers, judges and lawyers and other workers have staged daily demonstrations against the cuts that affect just about every part of the public sector.

Spain's regional governments are being pressed to make massive savings which will further squeeze their budgets for hospitals and schools.

In Madrid, a wide range of people from surgeons to hospital cleaners have been on strike against plans to save money by privatising parts of the regional health system.

In two smaller protests on Thursday organised separately from the march to parliament, health workers rallied against the regional plan and justice workers in yellow T-shirts demonstrated against a reform that will charge citizens to bring civil cases to court.

The government has also fallen short of a key election commitment to raise pensions in line with inflation.

Under pressure from the European Union to reform its economy amid speculation that it might need to be bailed out, Spain has promised to make 150 billion euros of savings by 2014.

- AFP/fa

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Best of the best from this year in Crave

What's your favorite Crave story from the last year?

(Credit:
Image by Christopher MacManus)

It's been an eventful year here at Crave, what with the discovery of Dungeons & Dragons dice from the Ptolemaic Period; the strange tail of the robotic butt; a ship that flips over on purpose, and cow lady-parts that text farmers when it's time for a booty call.

Our retrospective gallery below gives you just a small sense of the mind-bending stories we encountered in our 2012 travels. Among the stories that grabbed your attention most (as judged by traffic and reader comments), we've got jaunts to remote geeky destinations in New Mexico, a trip aboard a giant Lego spaceship, and a look at a zombie-proof safe house.

Moving forward, the future of Crave looks brighter than ever, and the Crave team is excited to take on more challenges in the coming year and beyond. Aside from our daily features, be sure to check out our exclusive weekly enjoyments: Crave's resurrected video podcast starring Stephen Beacham; our brilliant comic Low Latency by Blake Stevenson and Jeff Bakalar; and our awesome weekly Crave product giveaways.

Happy and healthy holidays to all our readers who ride the Crave train, and as always, we welcome your feedback at crave at cnet dot com.

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Detecting Rabid Bats Before They Bite

A picture is worth a thousand words—or in the case of bats, a rabies diagnosis. A new study reveals that rabid bats have cooler faces compared to uninfected colony-mates. And researchers are hopeful that thermal scans of bat faces could improve rabies surveillance in wild colonies, preventing outbreaks that introduce infections into other animals—including humans.

Bats are a major reservoir for the rabies virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta. Previous research shows that bats can transmit their strains to other animals, potentially putting people at risk. (Popular Videos: Bats share the screen with creepy co-stars.)

Rabies, typically transmitted in saliva, targets the brain and is almost always fatal in animals and people if left untreated. No current tests detect rabies in live animals—only brain tissue analysis is accurate.

Searching for a way to detect the virus in bats before the animals died, rabies specialist James Ellison and his colleagues at the CDC turned to a captive colony of big brown bats (Eptesicus fuscus). Previous studies had found temperature increases in the noses of rabid raccoons, so the team expected to see similar results with bats.

Researchers established normal temperature ranges for E. fuscus—the bat species most commonly sent for rabies testing—then injected 24 individuals with the virus. The 21-day study monitored facial temperatures with infrared cameras, and 13 of the 21 bats that developed rabies showed temperature drops of more than 4ºC.

"I was surprised to find the bats' faces were cooler because rabies causes inflammation—and that creates heat," said Ellison. "No one has done this before with bats," he added, and so researchers aren't sure what's causing the temperature changes they've discovered in the mammals. (Related: "Bats Have Superfast Muscles—A Mammal First.")

Although thermal scans didn't catch every instance of rabies in the colony, this method may be a way to detect the virus in bats before symptoms appear. The team plans to fine-tune their measurements of facial temperatures, and then Ellison hopes to try surveillance in the field.

This study was published online November 9 in Zoonoses and Public Health.

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Winter Weather Threatens Christmas Travel

A pre-Christmas blizzard that is battering at least eight states in the middle of the nation could trip up travelers headed home for Christmas in the coming days.

Nearly 20 inches of snow have been reported in Colorado just west of Denver. Nebraska has reported 6-to-10 inches so far. Between 3 and 8 inches have accumulated in Iowa already and more is possible. Snow is falling 2 inches per hour in Wisconsin.

No planes were able to land at Iowa's Des Moines International airport. All flights were cancelled until at least 11:45 a.m.

But it's Chicago that will prove most problematic for travelers. Rain has cancelled 400 flights into and out of Chicago O'Hare today so far, according to data from FlightAware. Snow and wind that are expected tonight will further complicate travel and likely cancel more flights.

Southwest Airlines is cancelling all departures and arrivals at Midway Airport as of 4 p.m. local time. On a typical day the airline has between 200-220 flights in and out of Midway.

Southwest will also cancel all arrivals and departures from the Milwaukee Airport as of 6 p.m. local time. Southwest has 35 flights in and out of Milwaukee.

Several airlines have already issued flexible travel policies, allowing travelers with flights into, out of and through affected areas to change their plans without penalty. For example, travelers headed to O'Hare today on American Airlines can change their flight to any day Dec. 21 to Dec. 25. Delta, United and others have similar policies.

Marine Veteran Guards Tennessee Elementary School Watch Video

Airlines for America, an airline industry trade group, estimates that 42 million passengers will fly on U.S. airlines for the 21-day holiday travel period from Dec 17 to Jan 6. Daily passenger volumes are expected to range from 1.5 million to 2.3 million.

The busiest days of the Christmas travel season are expected to be Dec. 21, 22, 23 and 26; and Jan 2. Foul weather in major hub cities, particularly on these days, will most certainly cause travel headaches on the roads and in the skies.

When bad weather grounds flights at major airports, delays pile up around the nation, stranding travelers even in places where the weather is good. And because planes fly so full around the holidays, it's difficult for the airlines to find empty seats to accommodate fliers whose flights have been cancelled.

Passengers are also entitled to a refund if their flight is cancelled.

Travelers should confirm their flight is taking off as planned on their carrier's website before leaving their homes. If you are at the airport by the time you find out, use every avenue available to get re-accommodated. While you stand online to talk to a customer service agent, also call your carrier and use Twitter to get in touch with your airline. Many airlines are faster to respond on Twitter than on the phone. Delta Airlines and JetBlue are particularly active.

A few Twitter handles to know:
@JetBlue
@DeltaAssist
@AmericanAir
@United
@SouthwestAir
@FlyFrontier
@USAirways.

Travelers who find themselves stranded and in need of a hotel room should use apps such as HotelTonight, Travelocity's LastMinute.com Hotel Booking App and the Priceline app to find deals on last-minute hotel stays.

RELATED: The Best Last-Minute Hotel Booking App

The Midwest storm moves east tonight, spreading rain into the Northeast with some areas from Washington, D.C., to Boston getting up to 2 inches. Behind the storm, cold air comes in and changes rain to snow in Western Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York and West Virginia, where 3 to 14 inches (in the highest elevations) could accumulate.

ABC News' Max Golembo and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.

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Today on New Scientist: 19 December 2012

Cassini captures spectacle in Saturn's shadow

Saturn blocks out the sun to reveal its rings in all their splendour in this image from the Cassini spacecraft

Fabricated future: The sceptic's guide to 3D printing

3D printing is a revolutionary technology, but never mind the hype, says MacGregor Campbell - it will make its impact in unexpected ways

Best videos of 2012: Soap bubbles create 3D display

Watch the world's thinnest screen display vivid images, at number 8 in our countdown of this year's top videos.

Nearby Tau Ceti may host two planets suited to life

A star that is a mainstay of science fiction and resembles our sun has become a prime candidate for having habitable planets

Dogs - great people pleasers, less good as chauffeurs

Videos of dogs driving cars have become a global hit and prompted wild claims of canine intelligence. Not so fast, argues an animal cognition researcher

'Pinch-and-paste' app boosts your interior design skills

Want to see what your couch would look like in any colour or fabric? A new augmented reality app lets you virtually trick out your living room before you buy

Our deep relationship with water

A look back through history gives our modern commercial dealings with water a new perspective in Drinking Water by James Salzman

Blame bacteria if you start putting on weight

A man lost about 30 per cent of his body mass on a diet designed to inhibit Enterobacter - adding to mounting evidence that bacteria causes obesity

Micro-origami uses cells to fold itself

Watch cell forces do origami with tiny plastic sheets

2013 Smart Guide: Revolutionary human stem cell trial

Next year will see the first person receive induced pluripotent stem cells - "rewound" adult cells that can grow into any tissue in the body

App for quizzing your way to being a mastermind

Software that harnesses principles of cognitive science aims to turn you into a grade-A student

Twin attack could deliver universal flu vaccine

Combining two approaches to preventing flu might create lasting immunity against novel types

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