Clinton Says Budget Cuts Undermine Security

An energized Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stood her ground today, telling the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that she has overseen plans to secure diplomatic outposts around the world while cuts in State Department funding undermine those efforts.

Citing a report by the department's Accountability Review Board on the security failures that led to the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, during an attack last year, Clinton said the board is pushing for an increase in funding to facilities of more than $2 billion per year.

"Consistent shortfalls have required the department to prioritize available funding out of security accounts," Clinton told the Senate this morning, while again taking responsibility for the Benghazi attack. "And I will be the first to say that the prioritization process was at times imperfect, but as the ARB said, the funds provided were inadequate. So we need to work together to overcome that."

Clinton, showing little effect from her recent illnesses, choked up earlier in discussing the Benghazi attack.

"I stood next to President Obama as the Marines carried those flag-draped caskets off the plane at Andrews," Clinton said this morning, her voice growing hoarse with emotion. "I put my arms around the mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters."

The outgoing secretary of state was the only witness to giving long-awaited testimony before the Foreign Relations Committee this morning, and will appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at 2 p.m.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo

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The secretary, who postponed her testimony in December, started today by giving context to the terrorist attack.

"Any clear-eyed examination of this matter must begin with this sobering fact," Clinton began. "Since 1988, there have been 19 Accountability Review Boards investigating attacks on American diplomats and their facilities."

But the secretary did not deny her role in the failures, saying that as secretary of state, she has "no higher priority and no greater responsibility" than protecting American diplomats abroad like those killed in Benghazi.

"As I have said many times, I take responsibility, and nobody is more committed to getting this right," Clinton said. "I am determined to leave the State Department and our country safer, stronger and more secure."

Among the steps Clinton has taken, she said, is to "elevate the discussion and the decision-making to make sure there's not any" suggestions that get missed, as there were in this case.

Clinton testified that the United States needs to be able to "chew gum and walk at the same time," working to shore up its fiscal situation while also strengthening security, and she refuted the idea that across-the-board cuts slated to take place in March, commonly referred to as sequestration, were the way to do that.

"Now sequestration will be very damaging to the State Department and USAID if it does come to pass, because it throws the baby out with the bath," Clinton said, referring to the United States Agency for International Development, which administers civilian foreign aid.

While the State Department does need to make cuts in certain areas, "there are also a lot of very essential programs … that we can't afford to cut more of," she added.

More than four months have passed since the attack killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans in Libya. These meetings, during which Clinton discussed the report on State Department security failures by the Accountability Review Board, were postponed because of her recent illness.

Clinton told the Senate that the State Department is on track to have 85 percent of action items based on the recommendations in the Accountability Review Board report accomplished by March, with some already implemented.

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Today on New Scientist: 22 January 2013

Did Mars hide life in its watery pockets?

Clays and carbonates found in a Martian crater might be deposits from groundwater that could have nourished life long after the planet's surface dried up

8th-century tree rings hint at close-range space blast

High levels of carbon-14 in two Japanese cedars may be one of the first signs of a nearby gamma-ray burst

3D sonar uncovers skeleton of Civil War battleship

One hundred and fifty years after it went down in battle, the bones of the paddle-wheel steamship USS Hatteras have been scanned on the seabed

Barack Obama promises US action on climate

A bold strategy to combat global warming and the aim to lead the world in clean technology are at the centre of the US president's plans

Threatwatch: The greatest risks to world stability

Some 3000 top corporate and political bosses are meeting at the World Economic Forum in Davos to hear about the threats we all face

Robot-assisted 3D printer aids march of the machines

An all-in-one robotic fabricator can mill, drill and assemble the pieces created by a 3D printer

Sacrificing Einstein: Relativity's keystone has to go

Our hopes of finding a theory of everything depend on upsetting a balance that Einstein cherished, says Stuart Clark

Global mercury treaty will take decades to work

140 countries have agreed a deal to cut mercury pollution, but it will be a long slow process getting the toxic metal out of the environment

Could botox change your life for the better?

In The Face of Emotion, Eric Finzi explores how one of the world's most popular cosmetic procedures could alleviate depression

A theory of everything won't provide all the answers

We shouldn't be obsessed with finding a theory of everything, says Lisa Randall, one of the world's most prominent theoretical physicists

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SGX's Q2 net profit rises 17% to S$76m

SINGAPORE : Rising interest in derivatives trading helped lift earnings for the Singapore Exchange (SGX) last quarter.

Asia's second-largest bourse operator reported a 17 per cent on-year rise in second-quarter net profit to S$76 million.

It also attracted a large number of new bond listings in the same quarter.

Derivatives trading has been the star performer in SGX.

Over the October to December quarter, derivatives daily average volume on SGX hit a record of 358,532 contracts, up 30 per cent on-year.

This was supported by rising trading interests in China A50 futures and Japan Nikkei 225 options.

Not to be undone, the securities market performed well too.

Its daily average volume rose 8 per cent for the quarter to hit a trading value of S$1.2 billion.

This translates to a revenue of S$58 million for the securities business segment.

SGX said the better performance was due to improvements in investor sentiment following stability over the Europe debt situation and improved US economy.

Magnus Bocker, chief executive officer of Singapore Exchange, said: "We should remember the enormous amount of liquidity in the market. Not so much in the equity market, but actually more in the fixed income and currency markets, and with chasing yields and lot of very successful and growing companies, I think we can all expect this sentiment to continue. I think we can expect more flows into securities."

Some analysts are bullish on SGX's prospects going forward.

The said the improved investment climate globally may benefit the exchange operator.

Ken Ang, investment analyst at Phillip Securities Research, said: "SGX is very well placed to benefit from this increasing attractiveness of the equity market and therefore resulting in increase in trading value."

SGX attracted eight new listings in its second quarter - raising S$798.9 million.

While the number seems small, it came amid declines in the global initial public offering (IPO) market.

In 2012, global IPO volumes fell 27 per cent, with the lowest level of funds raised since 2009.

Kenneth Ng, head of Singapore research at CIMB Research, said: "I think while that (derivative) is great and that diversified the revenue of SGX, SGX still has a rather pertinent problem of trying to increase the security turnover velocity and value by retail initiatives, attracting listings and so forth."

Apart from seeking more IPOs, SGX also attracted some 90 new bond listings, raising S$39.7 billion for the quarter.

- CNA/ms

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Giottos: Honey, I shrunk the tripod

Good news for shutterbug travelers with limited luggage space: Popular tripod maker Giottos has just released a new range of "YTL" tripods that utilize a new Y-shaped center column design that's 30 percent smaller than the cylindrical columns found in typical tripods. This allows the tripod legs to be tucked into the center column closer, making the tripod more compact and allowing it to be easily stowed.

While the center column sees a reduction in size, the company claims the new design does not compromise the tripod's stability and strength. The new tripod range can support cameras from 11 pounds to 22 pounds.

The "YTL" range will come in three- or four-section variants and feature a two- or three-way center column. Prices will range from $160 to $350 depending on whether you choose the aluminum or the lighter carbon fiber version. Giottos tripods are available from select online stores in the U.K.

(Source: Crave Asia via DPreview)

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Newly Discovered Nebula Looks Like a Manatee

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's ... a manatee? The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) believes that a gas cloud in the constellation Aquila bears an uncanny resemblance to the endangered aquatic mammal.

Heidi Winter, executive assistant to NRAO's director, first noticed the similarity. And Tania Burchell, an NRAO media producer who used to work in manatee conservation, quickly saw it as "a wonderful opportunity to bridge two worlds—biology and astronomy."

The cloud, or nebula, which is named W50, has more in common with manatees than just its shape. It is the remnant of a star explosion from 20,000 years ago. Particle beams that shoot from the explosion's center, where a star and a black hole orbit each other, form a spiral pattern resembling scars.

Manatees also bear scars. "Around 80 percent of manatees in Florida have visible scarring," said Michael Lusk, manager of Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge. Because manatees prefer shallow water, collisions with boat propellers are frequent.

The resemblance continues. Like the "sea cow," which can blend into murky water, the nebula is hard to spot. It's approximately 18,000 light-years away, so only one bright arc can be seen by the human eye. Astronomers first saw the ghostly nebula with a telescope that collects a kind of light that radiates at longer wavelengths called radio waves.

W50's new nickname, the Manatee Nebula, and its first photos were unveiled January 19 at the Florida Manatee Festival. "People have an underlying love for the natural world—sky or sea," said Burchell. "We're human beings on this planet, looking up or looking down."

The event marks the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act, which aims to protect critical habitats. Florida's manatee population has risen from around 700 in the 1970s to 5,000 today, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering reclassifying the species from endangered to threatened.

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Teen Planned Walmart Attack After Killing Family

The New Mexico teenager who used an assault rifle to kill his mother, father and younger siblings told police he hoped to shoot up a Walmart after the family rampage and cause "mass destruction."

Police said they are also considering charging the shooter's 12-year-old girlfriend.

According to new information released by police today, Nehemiah Griego, the 15-year-old son of an Albuquerque pastor, had plans to kill his family, his girlfriend's family, and local Walmart shoppers for weeks before he acted on the impulse on Sunday.

The shooting spree began shortly around 1 a.m. on Sunday, when Griego snuck into his parents' bedroom while his mother, Sara Griego, was asleep. There he raided the closet where the family kept their guns, and immediately used a .22 rifle to kill her, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Department.

Griego then shot three of his younger siblings in the home, including a 9-year-old, 5-year-old, and 2-year-old, and waited for his father to come from his overnight shift working at a nearby rescue mission. When his father, Greg Griego, walked into the home around 5 a.m., unaware of what had taken place, Griego shot him multiple times with the AR-15 rifle, Sheriff Dan Houston said today.

Greg Griego was a former church pastor at Calvary Church in Albuquerque, and worked as a chaplain at a local jail where he counseled convicts. The family was very involved in the church, according to its website.

Susan Montoya Bryan/AP Photo

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Griego then packed up the guns, including two shotguns, as well as ammunition for the rifles, and planned to drive to a Walmart to shoot additional people.

Houston said today that Griego called his 12-year-old girlfriend Sunday and ended up spending the entire day with her rather than going to the Walmart. Around 8 p.m. on Sunday, the pair drove to Calvary Church and someone on the church's staff then called 911, Houston said.

"At this time, Nehemiah had been contemplating this for some time. The information that Nehemiah had contemplated going to the local Walmart and participating in a shooting in there is accurate," Houston said. "There is no information at all that he went to church to cause anyone bodily harm there. The suspect also contemplated killing his girlfriend's parents."

The girlfriend's name was not released, but police are investigating whether to press any charges against her, Houston said.

Sheriff's deputies were dispatched to the Griego home around 9:15 p.m. on Sunday and arrived 10 minutes later, where they found the four bodies.

Griego quickly confessed to the crime, telling investigators he was "frustrated" with his mother. Deputies said he was "unemotional" and "very stern" during the confession.

"The motive was purely that he was frustrated with his mother. He could not articulate to our investigators any farther," Houston said. "In the time our investigators spent with him, it was a very casual (statement), he was just frustrated with how things were, and would not even articulate any further details of that frustration."

"It's horrific," Houston added.

Griego reportedly gushed to police about his love for violent video games during the interrogation, Houston said. He told police he loved to play Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto.

The suspect was involved heavily in games, violent games, it's what he was into," Houston said. "He was quite excited as he discussed this with our investigators."

Houston said that Griego had occasionally lost touch with his family and then reconnected with them multiple times in his life. He told investigators that his father had taught him how to shoot the weapons and the pair had practiced shooting them together.

Griego has five older siblings who were not living at the home at the time of the shooting and were unharmed.

He is facing murder and child abuse charges and will be tried as an adult, according to police.

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Today at New Scientist: 21 January 2013

Twitter reveals how Higgs gossip reached fever pitch

Anyone who fondly remembers the heady days of excitement preceding the Higgs boson announcement last year can now relive the experience

Vibrating navigator shows cyclists the way

A buzzing GPS-fuelled belt that tells cyclists when to turn might help them keep their eyes on the road and save lives

Call off the pregnancy police - women want the truth

Pregnant women can do without being made to feel guilty and burdened by wrong or contradictory advice. Just give them the facts, says Linda Geddes

Supernova-powered bow shock creates cosmic spectacle

The infrared vision of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows how a massive speeding star is electrifying its surroundings

First video of squid sex reveals deep-sea Kama Sutra

Watch a pair of squid caught in the act for the first time in an unexpected sexual position

Let's be clear on health risks from radiation

Should Californians have had iodine after Fukushima? In Radiation Robert Peter Gale and Eric Lax clear up the confusion over radiation and health

Wind power delivers too much to ignore

Although aesthetic concerns need to be heard, qualms about wind's reliability are wide of the mark, argues an energy policy researcher

Quadruple DNA helix discovered in human cells

The classic double helix has been joined by a four-stranded version that may play a role in cancer

Turn up the bass to scare birds away from planes

Subwoofers that blast out sounds too low to be heard by humans can keep birds out of busy air space, and prevent them colliding with planes

Earth may be crashing through dark matter walls

If the universe is a patchwork quilt of exotic force fields, we should be able to detect dark matter whenever we cross between patches

Blinded by sun? Let your steering wheel guide you

A steering wheel that buzzes when drivers are dazzled by bright lights and drift from their lane could help curb accidents

NASA planet-hunter is injured and resting

The Kepler space telescope has put its search for alien Earths on hold while it recovers from a stressed reaction wheel

High-tech Dreamliner's wings clipped by battery trouble

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner is replete with cutting-edge technology. But problems with its complex systems now have the planes grounded around the world

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India, Australia to start nuclear energy talks

NEW DELHI: India and Australia plan to begin civil nuclear cooperation talks in March after Canberra agreed last year to open negotiations to export uranium fuel to the energy-hungry South Asian nation.

The two countries will hold the first round of talks in the Indian capital, Indian foreign minister Salman Khurshid said in a statement.

"We shall be commencing negotiations on a Civil Nuclear Energy Cooperation Agreement in March," Khurshid said after discussions with his Australian counterpart, Bob Carr, in the Indian capital.

Australia had earlier refused to sell uranium to India as it has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty but reversed its stand last October as it sought to improve ties with one of Asia's third biggest economy.

"India is a key part of Australia's future," Carr said.

The two countries have said the formal negotiations could last up to two years.

New Delhi -- backed by the United States -- won a special exemption in 2008 from the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), which governs global nuclear trade, to allow it to buy reactors and fuel from overseas.

India, which has tense relations with its nuclear-armed neighbour Pakistan, had been subject to a global embargo since the 1970s when it first conducted a nuclear weapons test.

New Delhi has sought to forge close ties with a host of countries with deposits of uranium, including Mongolia, Tajikistan and Canada.

India is heavily dependent on coal and produces less than three percent of its energy from its existing atomic plants. The government hopes to raise the figure to 25 percent by 2050.

Although Australia does not use nuclear power itself, it is the world's third-ranking uranium producer and holds an estimated 23 percent of the world's reserves.

-AFP/ac

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Bad parking job? Text the driver through the license plate

Be a good samaritan and warn a car owner.

(Credit:
Screenshot by Amanda Kooser/CNET)

Trying to find parking in San Francisco sometimes feels likes a car-based version of "Survivor." It's not pretty. Cars block driveways, drivers forget to curb their wheels, lights get left on, and meters run out. These are all reasons why you might want to contact a vehicle's owner. If everyone in San Francisco signed up for CurbTXT, then it would be easy to get in touch.

Drivers can sign up for CurbTXT by registering their license plates and phone numbers. A sticker on the
car gives people an anonymous way to contact the driver through text messaging by referencing the plate number. The service forwards the message to the owner.

CurbTXT is a sweet idea. It could turn San Francisco into a wonderland of parking good deeds, helping people avoid fines and giving them the opportunity to move their vehicles before they get towed.

CurbTXT faces an uphill battle as far as adoption. It also opens up the possibility of prank texts like "OMG your car is full of monkeys!!!" To combat that, users can report inappropriate messages and abusers will be blocked.

According to the Evernote blog, dozens of texts have been sent through the service since it launched last fall. That's not much, but CurbTXT founders have chatted with people from the San Francisco board of supervisors about getting city support for the project. Until then, the service is getting users through flyers and word-of-mouth.

(Via Opportunity Notes)

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Attack at Algeria Gas Plant Heralds New Risks for Energy Development

The siege by Islamic militants at a remote Sahara desert natural gas plant in Algeria this week signaled heightened dangers in the region for international oil companies, at a time when they have been expanding operations in Africa as one of the world's last energy frontiers. (See related story: "Pictures: Four New Offshore Drilling Frontiers.")

As BP, Norway's Statoil, Italy's Eni, and other companies evacuated personnel from Algeria, it was not immediately clear how widely the peril would spread in the wake of the hostage-taking at the sprawling In Amenas gas complex near the Libyan border.

Map by National Geographic

Algeria, the fourth-largest crude oil producer on the continent and a major exporter of natural gas and refined fuels, may not have been viewed as the most hospitable climate for foreign energy companies, but that was due to unfavorable financial terms, bureaucracy, and corruption. The energy facilities themselves appeared to be safe, with multiple layers of security provided both by the companies and by government forces, several experts said. (See related photos: "Oil States: Are They Stable? Why It Matters.")

"It is particularly striking not only because it hasn't happened before, but because it happened in Algeria, one of the stronger states in the region," says Hanan Amin-Salem, a senior manager at the industry consulting firm PFC Energy, who specializes in country risk. She noted that in the long civil war that gripped the country throughout the 1990s, there had never been an attack on Algeria's energy complex. But now, hazard has spread from weak surrounding states, as the assault on In Amenas was carried out in an apparent retaliation for a move by French forces against the Islamists who had taken over Timbuktu and other towns in neighboring Mali. (See related story: "Timbuktu Falls.")

"What you're really seeing is an intensification of the fundamental problem of weak states, and empowerment of heavily armed groups that are really well motivated and want to pursue a set of aims," said Amin-Salem. In PFC Energy's view, she says, risk has increased in Mauritania, Chad, and Niger—indeed, throughout Sahel, the belt that bisects North Africa, separating the Sahara in the north from the tropical forests further south.

On Thursday, the London-based corporate consulting firm Exclusive Analysis, which was recently acquired by the global consultancy IHS, sent an alert to clients warning that oil and gas facilities near the Libyan and Mauritanian borders and in Mauritania's Hodh Ech Chargui province were at "high risk" of attack by jihadis.

"A Hot Place to Drill"

The attack at In Amenas comes at a time of unprecedented growth for the oil industry in Africa. (See related gallery: "Pictures: The Year's Most Overlooked Energy Stories.") Forecasters expect that oil output throughout Africa will double by 2025, says Amy Myers Jaffe, executive director of the energy and sustainability program at the University of California, Davis, who has counted 20 rounds of bidding for new exploration at sites in Africa's six largest oil-producing states.

Oil and natural gas are a large part of the Algerian economy, accounting for 60 percent of government budget revenues, more than a third of GDP and more than 97 percent of its export earnings. But the nation's resources are seen as largely undeveloped, and Algeria has tried to attract new investment. Over the past year, the government has sought to reform the law to boost foreign companies' interests in their investments, although those efforts have foundered.

Technology has been one of the factors driving the opening up of Africa to deeper energy exploration. Offshore and deepwater drilling success in the Gulf of Mexico and Brazil led to prospecting now under way offshore in Ghana, Mozambique, and elsewhere. (See related story: "New Oil—And a Huge Challenge—for Ghana.") Jaffe says the Houston-based company Anadarko Petroleum has sought to transfer its success in "subsalt seismic" exploration technology, surveying reserves hidden beneath the hard salt layer at the bottom of the sea, to the equally challenging seismic exploration beneath the sands of the Sahara in Algeria, where it now has three oil and gas operations.

Africa also is seen as one of the few remaining oil-rich regions of the world where foreign oil companies can obtain production-sharing agreements with governments, contracts that allow them a share of the revenue from the barrels they produce, instead of more limited service contracts for work performed.

"You now have the technology to tap the resources more effectively, and the fiscal terms are going to be more attractive than elsewhere—you put these things together and it's been a hot place to drill," says Jaffe, who doesn't see the energy industry's interest in Africa waning, despite the increased terrorism risk. "What I think will happen in some of these countries is that the companies are going to reveal new securities systems and procedures they have to keep workers safe," she says. "I don't think they will abandon these countries."

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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