felike haziness: February 2013

Thursday, February 28, 2013

HP EliteBook 2170p

If you spend more time on the road than in the office and prefer to pack lightly, the HP EliteBook 2170p ($1099 list) may be your ideal travel companion. It's a Windows 8-equipped business ultraportable that packs a solid punch into a tiny yet surprisingly resilient chassis.Between its enterprise-friendly hardware, classy design, and well-rounded feature set, this little machine can play a big role in your business affairs.

Design and Features
Think of the EliteBook 2170p as the smaller counterpart of the HP Elitebook 8460p. It employs the latter's design cues but does so in a much smaller chassis.Consequently, the Elitebook 2170p's compact frame deftly blends solid construction with classy looks. Its sturdy body was designed to withstand the rigors of business travel, so you can jam it into a stuffed suitcase without worry. Moreover, it need not even be a large suitcase since theElitebook 2170p's magnesium alloy chassis measures 0.04 by 11.5 by 7.6 inches (HWD). At 2.39 pounds is imperceptibly heavier than some slate tablets but slightly lighter than the the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (2.93 pounds), though that system packs a larger 14-inch display.

An elegant silver finish on the chassis adds panache to what could have otherwise been a drab, purely business affair. Although the utilitarian black plastic finish on the underside isn't as handsome as the rest of the Elitebook 2170p's exterior, it conveniently features a socket that can readily be attached to most of HP's docking stations.

The Elitebook 2170p's 11.6-inch display has a maximum resolution of 1,366 by 768, which is sufficient for watching videos at 720p. It's a small screen?smaller than the Lenovo ThinkPad X230t's 12.5-inch screen?and that may turn off those who prefer more expansive screen real estate for, say, opening multiple windows. However, the X230 is over a pound heavier and is an inch larger in all dimensions. At any rate, text and images alike look crisp on the Elitebook 2170p's matte-finished screen. Conversely, the system's pair of front-firing speakers don't have too much oomph, so those planning on listening attentively on a conference call will need to choose between a finding quiet room or a pair of headphones.

The Elitebook 2170p's raised tiled keyboard sports black matte-finish keys. Like the rest of the system, the keyboard is wonderfully constructed, feeling appropriately sturdy but not excessively rigid. Typing is a breeze and makes for a pleasantly comfortable endeavor. In addition to being brightly backlit, its spill-resistant lets liquids ooze out through a drain built into the underside.

The touchpad sports a smooth, friction-free finish that allows your fingers to effortlessly scroll and pinch-zoom through Windows 8's tiled interface. Two sets of right- and left- click buttons abut the top and bottom edges of the trackpad, with the top pair designed to be used in conjunction with a pointstick lodged in the keyboard's center. At the same time, though, the inclusion of four buttons on an already tiny trackpad makes it even more cramped.

For such a compact system, the Elitebook 2170pfeatures decent port selection, although both of its USB 3.0 ports don't sport the blue marking that typically distinguishes USB 3.0 ports from their slower USB 2.0 counterparts. The right side also sports an fullsize Ethernet port, a VGA output, and a five-in-one card reader (SD/MMC). The left side, meanwhile, houses another USB 3.0 port, a headphone jack, and a DisplayPort input.The Elitebook 2170 p does not feature an HDMI port. This isn't necessarily a fatal flaw, though, since DisplayPort is more prevalent on business displays.

The Elitebook 2170p 7,200rpm 500GB HDD comes with a light amount of preloaded software, most of which is useful like the CyberLink Media Suite. The Elitebook 2170p is covered by a three-year warranty on parts and labor.

Performance
Armed with a 1.7GHz Intel Core i5-3317U processor and 4GB RAM, the Elitebook 2170p's performance landed in the middle of the business-class pack.While its PCMark 7 score of 2,759 points edged past the ThinkPad X230t (2,627 points) and the Asus X46CA-XH51 (2,628 points), SSD-equipped systems like the HP EliteBook Folio 9470m (4,669 points) had no trouble breezing by. Similarly, its Cinebench R11.5 score of 2.32 points trumped the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon($1,499 list) (2.25 points) and came within striking distance of the Asus S46CA-XH51 (2.36 points) while falling short of the EliteBook Folio 9470m (2.62 points) and, to a greater extent, the ThinkPad X230t (3.09 points).

Since its focus is more on productivity than on media creation, the Elitebook 2170p unsurprisingly displayed a modest capacity in this area. It completed our Handbrake video-encoding test in 1 minute 30 seconds, eight seconds shy of the Editor's Choice Dell Latitude 6430u (1:22) but nonetheless significantly quicker than the HP 9470m (2:45). The amount of time it took to complete our Photoshop CS6 test (6 minutes 19 seconds), on the other hand, was conspicuously overshadowed by both the HP 9470m (5:51) and Dell 6430u (5:08).

You don't typically purchase a business-class system with high-end gaming in mind (sadly), so it came as no surprise that the Elitebook 2170p joined the rest of the group in failing to crack the 30 frames-per-second (fps) playability barrier in our gaming benchmark test. This is a system more concerned with spreadsheets than 3D rendering, so its muted performance in our 3DMark11 test (1,091 points in Entry-level settings, 199 points in Extreme settings) was understandable, and roughly on par with the HP 9470m (1,083 and 211 points, respectively).

The Elitebook 2170p's extended 6-cell 48WHr battery protrudes from the rear of the system by half an inch. Despite its "extended" designation, however, it lasted an unremarkable 4 hours 47 minutes on our battery rundown test, falling short of both the HP 9470m (5:36) and even more so of the Dell 6430u's excellent battery life (7:40). While it won't last an entire workday, it's a removable battery, so bring an extra battery along if you plan on working for long periods of time on the road.

The HP EliteBook 2170p is a well-designed business ultraportable with a terrific keyboard and a solidly resilient chassis. Battery life is a little short for a system designed for portability, but 2170p has the computing power to serve as your primary PC plugged in. It's a reasonably priced ultraportable whose compact size and good feature set make it worthy of consideration.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the HP EliteBook 2170p with several other laptops side by side.

More laptop reviews:
??? HP EliteBook 2170p
??? Asus Zenbook Prime Touch UX31A-BHI5T
??? Toshiba Satellite C875-S7340
??? Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet 2
??? Dell XPS 10
?? more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/HnipQQKj8GI/0,2817,2415997,00.asp

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With 'SNL' gig, Kevin Hart continues to rise

This Feb. 26, 2013 photo released by NBC shows cast member Jason Sudeikis, left, and guest host Kevin Hart during rehearsals for "saturday Night Live," in New York. Hart will host the show on Saturday, March 2, with musical guest Macklemore & Ryan Lewis. (AP Photo/NBC, Dana Edelson)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Like most people who get the chance to host "Saturday Night Live," Kevin Hart is excited to have the gig.

Unlike most hosts, Hart is proving to be complicated.

For starters, the 32-year-old comedian-actor doesn't like making eye contact. When he writes his jokes, he has to do it in a "think tank" ? alone, in his home.

He also has to stand on top of an apple box when performing. Sometimes, he has to stand on two of them.

That's why collaborating with the "SNL" cast and crew feels like a new process for Hart, who is hosting the NBC show this weekend.

"I am what you would a call a genius," said Hart, as the "SNL" cast and crew burst into laughter.

"So this process here is a little different. ... A lot of people came in the room and were looking into my eyes and it threw me off a little bit," he says jokingly, but in a serious tone. "So I just closed my eyes and let them talk and kind of took it all in. And then I recited everything they said."

Hart was in good spirits and self-deprecating ? as usual ? as he shot "SNL" promos with Jason Sudeikis and Bobby Moynihan on Tuesday.

His hosting gig on "SNL" is another notch on his growing resume: He hosted last year's MTV Video Music Awards, has appeared on ABC's "Modern Family" and starred in the romantic comedy "Think Like a Man."

He's also the star of the BET parody series "Real Husbands of Hollywood" (Tuesday, 10 p.m. EST) with Robin Thicke and Nick Cannon. The Philadelphia-born Hart said he's "anxious," but not worried, about hosting "SNL."

"You can't get nervous about what you love to do. This is what I love to do, so the opportunity to do it on this stage is ridiculous," he said.

Duo Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, known for their hit "Thrift Shop," will perform Saturday night. Hart says he's a fan of group ? sort of.

"I am a fan now 'cause I found out who they were when I realized they were going to be on the show with me. So because of the Internet and the Google search, I Googled them," he said, as others laughed. "I educated myself ? almost another genius move of mine ? to think to Google somebody that I didn't know."

So is Hart enjoying the group's massive, multiplatinum anthem about buying used clothes?

"I didn't hear that. Didn't hear that one. Don't know what that one is," he said. "But I heard some other stuff. Don't really know the titles. But I know (Macklemore's) white ? from Google."

___

Online:

http://www.khartonline.com/index.html

___

Follow Mesfin Fekadu on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MusicMesfin

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-28-People-Kevin%20Hart/id-383961ec88964a35a89cf8a02cd6cbd1

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More Turkish generals detained over 1997 coup

ANKARA (Reuters) - The former commander of Turkey's land forces has been jailed pending trial in a widening investigation of the toppling of Turkey's first Islamist-led government in 1997, state media said on Thursday.

General Erdal Ceylanoglu, who is believed to have ordered tanks onto the streets outside the capital ahead of the military intervention 16 years ago, joined dozens already remanded in custody ahead of the court case.

The inquiry into the ousting of former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan is part of a wider extensive judicial investigation into the once-supreme Turkish military, whose power has been sharply curbed over the past decade.

In power since 2002, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, AKP, which itself has Islamist roots, has made curbing the military's political influence one of its main missions, and state prosecutors have pursued officers suspected of conspiring against current and former governments.

Political reforms in 2010 to remove the immunity of old coup leaders have given prosecutors room to delve deeper into Turkey's history. The sight of police seizing grey-haired former generals, unthinkable a decade ago, has become a familiar one in Turkey in recent years.

Erbakan, who died of heart failure aged 85 in 2011, pioneered Islamist politics in Turkey, a largely Muslim country with a secular state order, and paved the way for the subsequent success of Erdogan's AKP.

The investigation into the events of 1997, dubbed the "post-modern coup" for its bloodless nature in contrast to three outright coups in 1960, 1971 and 1980, has special significance for Erdogan who was a member of Erbakan's party.

Also detained overnight was retired major general Yucel Ozsir. Their detention comes only two weeks after the jailing of four other retired generals in connection with the coup.

Turkey's state media Anatolian said the two generals were remanded in custody late on Wednesday after being summoned to an Ankara court along with two other retired generals and a serving colonel who were later conditionally released from custody.

The two generals were taken to a maximum security prison in Sincan, a town outside Ankara where Ceylanoglu is charged with commanding tanks onto the streets during the upheaval in 1997.

While Erdogan has promoted the trials as part of the process of ending the generals' political power, he has more recently called for the investigations to be wrapped up more quickly and has hit out at the lengthy pre-trial detentions of hundreds of officers on conspiracy charges.

More than 300 military officers were sentenced to jail in September for plotting to overthrow Erdogan in 2003. Nearly 300 other people - including politicians, academics, journalists and retired army officers - are on trial on charges of orchestrating political violence.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/more-turkish-generals-detained-over-1997-coup-105753536.html

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Clinton: Nigerian poverty fuels religious violence

ABEOKUTA, Nigeria (AP) ? Former U.S. President Bill Clinton said Tuesday that Nigeria must do more to alleviate the extreme poverty across the nation's predominantly Muslim north in order to halt the wave of bombings, shootings and kidnappings by Islamic extremists there.

Clinton's comment comes as Islamic terror groups have claimed the kidnappings of foreigners in recent days from the region and Nigeria's weak central government appears unable to contain the spreading violence. He said that poverty remains the main driver for the attacks and needs to be addressed by strong local and federal government programs.

Extremists from a radical Islamic sect known as Boko Haram killed at least 792 people last year in Nigeria, according to an Associated Press count. Fighters who said they belong to Boko Haram claimed responsibility Monday for the kidnapping of seven French tourists in northern Cameroon. Ansaru, which analysts believe is a splinter group from Boko Haram, has claimed the kidnappings of seven foreigners ? a British citizen, a Greek, an Italian, three Lebanese and one Filipino ? all employees of a Lebanese construction company named Setraco.

"You have to somehow bring economic opportunity to the people who don't have it," Clinton said Tuesday. "You have all these political problems ? and now violence problems ? that appear to be rooted in religious differences and the all the rhetoric of the Boko Harams and others, but the truth is the poverty rate in the north is three times of what it is in Lagos," Nigeria's largest city.

Clinton said that oil-rich Nigeria, which earns billions of dollars from its oil industry and is a major supplier to the U.S., must not take a "divide the pie" approach toward attacking poverty. That appeared to be a subtle reference to the endemic corruption that envelopes government and private industry in the country.

"It's a losing strategy," the former president said. "You have to figure out a way to have a strategy that will have share prosperity."

Poverty is endemic in Nigeria, and corruption has siphoned away billions in oil earnings since the country began exporting crude more than 50 years ago. Government statistics show that in Nigeria's northwest and northeast, regions besieged by Islamic insurgents, about 75 percent of the people live in poverty.

Analysts say that poverty, despite decades of military rule by leaders from the north, coupled with a lack of formal education has driven the region's exploding youth population toward extremism. Those attacks also have strained relations between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.

Clinton spoke Tuesday in Abeokuta as part of an awards ceremony put on by ThisDay newspaper and its flamboyant publisher Nduka Obaigbena, who has invited the former president several times to Nigeria, along with other celebrities. The event, put on by a newspaper publisher sometimes accused by his staff of not paying them from months at a time, was also attended by former Nigeria military ruler and President Olusegun Obasanjo.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/clinton-nigerian-poverty-fuels-religious-violence-142531575.html

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A Day in the Life of the Republican Party?s Search for Newness (TIME)

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Budget battle guide: This time may be for real

Air Force personnel salute as Air Force One, with President Barack Obama on board, arrives at in the rain at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013. The president was returning from Newport News, Va., for an event on the automatic budget cuts. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Standing in front of a ships propeller, President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about about automatic defense budget cuts, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, at Newport News Shipbuilding in Newport News, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Following a closed-door party caucus, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by fellow GOP leaders, meet with reporters, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 26, 2013, to challenge President Obama and the Senate to avoid the automatic spending cuts set to take effect in four days. Speaking at the Republican National Committee headquarters, Boehner complained that the House, with Republicans in the majority, has twice passed bills that would replace the across-the-board cuts known as the "sequester" with more targeted reductions, while the Senate, controlled by the Democrats, has not acted. From left are, Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kansas, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., Boehner, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, accompanied by fellow members of the House GOP leadership, responds to President Barack Obama's remarks to the nation's governors earlier today about how to fend off the impending automatic budget cuts, Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? America's leaders have threatened to shut the government down, drive it over a cliff and bounce it off the ceiling. Now they're ready to smack it with a "sequester." And it sounds like they mean it this time.

If no one backs down, big cuts in federal spending begin Friday. Should Americans be worried?

A primer on the nation's latest fiscal standoff ? how we got here, who could get hurt and possible ways to end this thing:

___

What, again?

Like life in a bad Road Runner cartoon, the United States has survived the New Year's "fiscal cliff," double rounds of debt-ceiling roulette and various budget blow-ups over the past two years. Now the threat is $85 billion in indiscriminate spending cuts that would hit most federal programs and fall hardest on the military.

By law, these cuts known as the "sequester" will begin unfolding automatically at week's end unless President Barack Obama and Congress act to stop them.

Why did they agree to a law like that? In hopes of finally getting the nation's trillion-dollar-plus annual budget deficits under control.

___

Isn't deficit-cutting good?

Obama, nearly all of Congress and plenty of economists say two things:

1) The budget deficit needs to be reduced.

2) The sequester is the wrong way to do it.

"Only a fool would do it this way," says Paul Light, a budget expert at New York University. "Primordial. It's beyond belief."

It makes him think of the movie "Dr. Strangelove," with Slim Pickens riding bronco on an atomic bomb, waving his cowboy hat.

The sequester was designed to land with a mighty splat ? to create such a mess if allowed to occur that lawmakers would do the right and honorable thing and negotiate a measured, meaningful and discerning package of deficit reduction to head it off. But that didn't happen, so the sequester is about to.

And, yes, that should mean progress on the nation's debt. The sequester is one of several developments expected to restrain the nation's red ink after four straight years of deficits topping $1 trillion.

Yee-haw.

___

Are the cuts really that bad?

It's unlikely they will be as bad ? or at least as immediate ? as some overexcited members of the Obama administration have made out. But the cuts have the potential to be significant if the standoff drags on.

Early on, about 2 million long-term unemployed people could see a $30 cut in benefit checks now averaging $300 a week. Federal subsidies for school construction, clean energy and state and local public works projects could be pinched. Low-income pregnant women and new mothers may find it harder to sign up for food aid.

Much depends on how states and communities manage any shortfalls in aid from Washington.

Furloughs of federal employees are for the most part a month or more away. Then, they might have to take up to a day off per week without pay.

That's when the public could start seeing delays at airports, disruptions in meat inspection, fewer services at national parks and the like.

An impasse lasting into the fall would reach farther, probably shrinking Head Start slots, for example.

Much of the federal budget is off-limits to the automatic cuts. Among exempted programs: Social Security, Medicaid, food stamps, Pell Grants and veterans' programs.

Even so, officials warn of a hollowed-out military capability, compromised border security and spreading deterioration of public services if the sequester continues. It's "like a rolling ball," said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. "It keeps growing."

___

Maybe it's fiscal-crisis fatigue.

Americans are yawning this one off. Only 27 percent of those surveyed for a Pew Research Center/USA Today poll last week said they had heard a lot about the looming automatic spending cuts.

Less than a third think the budget cuts would deeply affect their own financial situation, according to a Washington Post poll. Sixty percent, however, believe the cuts would have a major effect on the U.S. economy.

That's what economists and business people are nervous about.

The political standoff is the factor that economists blame most for the slowing economy, according to the latest Associated Press Economic Survey. The uncertainty about future government spending is causing businesses to hold back on investment and hiring, and it's making consumers less confident about their own spending, economists warn.

___

How did it come to this?

Obama and congressional Republicans have been deadlocked over spending since the GOP won control of the House in 2010, with a big boost from tea party activists who champion lower taxes and an end to red-ink budgets.

House Republicans refused to raise the nation's borrowing limit in 2011 without major deficit cuts. To resolve the stalemate, Congress passed and Obama signed the Budget Control Act, which temporarily allowed borrowing to resume, set new spending limits and created a bipartisan "supercommittee" to recommend at least $1.2 trillion more in deficit reduction over 10 years. Republicans and Democrats on the supercommittee failed to compromise, however.

That triggered the law's doomsday scenario ? the so-called "fiscal cliff" package of across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts.

In a New Year's Eve deal, Obama and Congress agreed to raise taxes on some of the nation's wealthiest earners. And they postponed the spending cuts for two months ? until Friday.

That was supposed to buy time to cut a deal.

___

But there's still no deal.

As the days before Friday's deadline melt into hours, neither side shows sign of blinking ? or even negotiating.

Obama insists on a blend of targeted spending cuts and tax increases. Republican leaders reject any more tax increases and say the savings must come from spending cuts.

While both sides talk about reducing the deficit, Obama and other Democrats say this must be done gradually, to avoid wounding an already weak economy.

The president is taking his case to the people, blasting Republicans at campaign-style events. GOP leaders, just back from a congressional vacation themselves, are publicly grousing that Obama should be bargaining with them, not grandstanding.

___

Is there a way out?

Expect intense negotiations to begin in Washington if enough Americans begin yelping about the pain from reduced federal spending.

Obama and Congress could agree to pare down the budget cuts to a more logical package of reductions, perhaps with some tax changes, too. Such a deal could also retroactively restore spending where they want to.

The "sequester" isn't the only line in the sand, however.

On March 27, legislation that has been temporarily financing the government expires. Without agreement to extend it, the threat of a partial government shutdown looms. Later in the spring, it will be time to raise the nation's debt limit again.

So far, two years of budget crises have been settled with temporary fixes. They have barely dented the underlying disagreement over how to reform Medicare, Social Security, taxes and spending to address the nation's long-term deficit problem.

If those festering questions remain unanswered, the U.S. economy will remain a hostage to politics.

___

AP Director of Polling Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

___

Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ConnieCass

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-27-Budget%20Battle-News%20Guide/id-6a09cbe13dcd4e3c872235d7525859f0

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Week of Weird: Sony Jumps the Gun, Google Luxury-Prices Its Yugo

This really has been an entire month of the strange. We had Boeing's Dreamliner sidelined for batteries that catch fire. We had Tesla locking horns with the NYT. We had Sony announce its new game system nearly nine months before it would be available -- but not actually show it. Biggest of all, despite Chromebooks failing to sell in the $250 range, we had Google offer a refresh priced at $1,500.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/28ee5f03/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C773770Bhtml/story01.htm

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Vodafone says can invest in Europe without Verizon sale

BARCELONA (Reuters) - British mobile operator Vodafone said it did not need to sell part of its stake in its highly profitable Verizon Wireless joint venture in the United States to bolster its business in Europe.

Chief executive Vittorio Colao told reporters on Monday Vodafone had a healthy balance sheet and could invest when it needed to, adding it could step up its range of services without having to make acquisitions.

"The two things are not totally linked," Colao said, on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress when asked about the need to sell down the Verizon stake which contributed over half Vodafone's adjusted first-half operating profit. "If it is right to make some investments, we will make some investments."

Facing falling revenue in its core European markets from economic pressures and fierce competition, Vodafone has come under pressure to cut its 45 percent stake in Verizon to fund the purchase of fixed-line assets to increase its product range.

Vodafone has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on a possible 10 billion euro ($13 billion) bid for German cable operator Kabel Deutschland, a source with direct knowledge of the matter has told Reuters.

It has been linked with deals in Spain to consolidate a market which has been hit hard by the economic downturn, with consumers cutting back on making calls and sending texts.

Vodafone has also been struggling in Italy where Colao, an Italian, said he had seen consumer confidence fall even further since October because of political uncertainty as it awaits the results of an election.

Sector bankers and analysts said Vodafone needs to acquire fixed assets to fight off challenges from low-cost mobile players and telecoms and cable rivals pushing discounted, all-inclusive mobile and fixed bundles.

Buying its own fixed assets, such as local cable operators or alternative telecoms providers, would help Vodafone keep up with competitors' offers and cut fees paid for fixed access.

It could then also offer so-called quad play services which includes fixed, mobile, broadband and TV services, and which help to increase revenues and customer loyalty.

Colao said he would like to offer an array of services across Europe and he could do this either through acquiring assets or renting fixed lines from incumbent operators.

"BIPOLAR" APPROACH

Europe's largest operators have complained since the financial crisis hit that there were too many players in each national market, resulting in fierce competition and low prices, that hamper their ability to invest in faster networks.

While European regulators recently allowed the cut-throat Austrian market to move to three players from four, Colao said he was unsure whether this indicated a change of strategy.

"It is good that it was approved but the undertakings that were forced upon them, again indicates a bipolar mentality," he said, adding there was pent-up demand across the region for consolidation.

($1 = 0.7598 euro)

(Editing by Dan Lalor)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vodafone-invest-europe-without-verizon-sale-says-ceo-125804262--finance.html

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Pa. gov's filing defends antitrust suit vs. NCAA

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) ? Gov. Tom Corbett argued in a court document filed late Monday that the NCAA has been trying to use his antitrust lawsuit against it over the Penn State penalties in the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal to combat what he describes as a groundswell of public criticism.

Corbett said the judge should not grant the NCAA's request to dismiss the case, saying college sports' governing body made a factual error when it said the penalties were voted on by the university's trustees.

Corbett, who as governor is a trustee, said the NCAA's motion to dismiss the lawsuit he filed in early January "appears to have been written more to advance the NCAA's broader agenda, and to combat the recent groundswell of public criticism against the embattled organization, than to raise legal issues appropriate to a motion to dismiss."

NCAA spokeswoman Emily Potter offered no immediate comment on the latest filing.

The Republican governor's lawsuit asks the judge to throw out all the penalties, including a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban and the loss of football scholarships. He claims the consent agreement has harmed students, business owners and others.

"The NCAA wrongly claims that its arbitrary decimation of the PSU football program is no different than its enforcement of rules regulating player eligibility or uniforms ? which do enhance collegiate competition ? although PSU was not found to have violated a single NCAA rule and the NCAA's own president insisted that the consent decree was not an enforcement action," Corbett's lawyers wrote.

The NCAA has said the penalties are unrelated to regulation of economic activity so antitrust law doesn't apply.

Sandusky, a former defensive coordinator at the college football powerhouse, was convicted last summer of sexually abusing several boys, some on campus. He is serving a 30- to 60-year state prison sentence. He is appealing and maintains his innocence.

The consent agreement between the NCAA and Penn State was signed a few weeks after Sandusky was found guilty of 45 criminal counts. Penn State is not a party to Corbett's antitrust lawsuit or to the NCAA's lawsuit filed last week against Corbett and three state officials over a newly enacted state law that is designed to keep the $60 million within the state.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pa-govs-filing-defends-antitrust-suit-vs-ncaa-012939273--spt.html

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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Radioactive tuna from Fukushima? Scientists eat it up

Marine biologist Dan Madigan stood on a dock in San Diego and considered some freshly caught Pacific bluefin tuna. The fish had managed to swim 5,000 miles from their spawning grounds near Japan to California's shores, only to end up the catch of local fishermen.

It was August 2011, five months since a magnitude 9 earthquake and tsunami had struck in Japan, crippling the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Madigan couldn't stop thinking about pictures he'd seen on TV of Japanese emergency crews dumping radioactive water from the failing reactors into the Pacific Ocean.

The graduate student looked at the tuna and wondered: Could they have transported any of that radiation to California?

For most people, the thought of radioactive sushi tuna is nightmarish, but for Madigan it represented an opportunity.

If radiation from Fukushima was detectable, scientists might look for traces of the contamination in all sorts of amazing creatures that make epic journeys across the open seas, from tuna to sharks to turtles to birds. They might learn more about where the animals came from, when they made their journeys, and why.

They might learn how a single, man-made event ? the plant failure in Fukushima ? could be linked to the lives and fates of animals making homes over half the globe.

Madigan bagged some tuna steaks he had collected from the fishermen, threw them in a cooler and made a mental note to call Nicholas Fisher, a scientist he knew who would be able to tell him whether the tuna had carried radiation from the disaster.

Maybe the fish could still tell their story.

***

Madigan began thinking about the globe-spanning migrations of marine animals in 2006, during a fishing trip in the open waters off Costa Rica.

For hours, he and his friends saw nothing ? no land, no features in the water, no fish. Then, in a flash, they hooked and released a dozen sailfish, magnificent 150-pound catches known for their spectacular jumping maneuvers and brilliant colors.

"It's black water, and all of a sudden you have a huge animal," said Madigan, a Long Island, N.Y., native who camps on the weekends and catches all of the fish he eats. "Why? Why now? And why here?"

Intrigued, Madigan enrolled in a doctoral program at Stanford University's Hopkins Marine Station in Pacific Grove, Calif., where scientists used electronic tags to track the journeys of sea creatures such as white sharks, leatherback turtles and the black-footed albatross.

They had also tagged the Pacific bluefin tuna, a creature distinguished by its unusual biology (it's one of the few warm-bodied fish) and its popularity on sushi menus. At a January auction in Tokyo, a buyer paid a record $1.8 million for just one of the fish, which are carved up into toro and other choice bites.

Pacific bluefin tuna migration is mysterious. Only some of the tuna born each year leave the Western Pacific around Japan for California, swimming for two months or more to reach their destination. They stay here for a few years, and then they swim back to the waters where they were born so that they can reproduce. Some tuna are thought to cross the ocean multiple times.

Researchers don't really understand why. It may have to do with food availability, ocean temperatures or other factors.

Madigan's doctoral research tries to fill in some of the blanks by looking for nitrogen and carbon isotopes in tissue that serve as signatures of where the fish have lived and for how long. But interpreting the chemical signatures can be tricky. If Madigan could use the radioactive signal from Fukushima to confirm the results of the chemical analysis, he realized, it might bolster his work.

Or that was the theory, anyway.

Madigan, a 30-year-old whose casual demeanor can mask the intensity he brings to his research, called Fisher about the San Diego steaks.

The marine radioactivity expert, who works as a professor at Stony Brook University in New York, doubted they'd detect any radiation in the bluefins. Surely, he thought, any radiation the fish might have picked up would have dissipated over the months it took for them to cross the Pacific. What's more, it was hardly certain that the animals ever got close enough to Fukushima to encounter its plume in the first place.

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/Ru40IDK0akE/la-sci-fukushima-radiation-20130225,0,3785100.story

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Listing Fail: Two Not-So-'Sparkling' Homes | AOL Real Estate

Unless your home has Swarovski crystals studding its walls or dangling from glass chandeliers in every room, we'd strongly suggest against calling it "sparkling." Still, it's a descriptor that's used frequently, albeit erroneously, in many listings and it annoys us as much as "stunning" and "cavernous."

Take, for example, this listing in Phoenix (pictured above). We have two issues with this home, which has, as described, a "sparkling POOL!" One, just because it's filled with water does not mean it is "sparkling." Two, even if the pool were sparkling like a diamond earring, you wouldn't even notice thanks to the dirty, unfinished backyard surrounding it! (Though we will say that, relative to the home's unpleasing backyard, the pool appears somewhat luminous -- as would anything.)

Then there's this listing in Louisville, Ky. (pictured above). The listing describes a "sparkling home" with "fresh paint." While we don't doubt the home is freshly painted, unless the paint is infused with glitter or reflective properties, we don't see how this home "sparkles" in the least.

Thanks to our pals at Curbed for the tips!

Enjoy this post? Check out all our listing fail articles!

More on AOL Real Estate:
Find out how to calculate mortgage payments.
Find homes for sale in your area.
Find foreclosures in your area.
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Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.

Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/02/25/listing-fail-two-not-so-sparkling-homes/

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Monday, February 25, 2013

Nobel Prize medal for DNA work to be sold

Heritage Auctions

The 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr. Francis Crick for his work in the discovery of the structure of DNA will be offered by his family in a public auction in New York City on April 10.

By Wynne Parry
LiveScience

Sixty years after the discovery of DNA's spiraling, ladderlike structure first hinted at the mechanism by which life copies itself, one of the Nobel Prize medals honoring this achievement is up for sale.

Three men who played crucial roles in deciphering DNA's double helix in 1953 later received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The family of one of those men, Francis Crick, plans to sell his medal, the accompanying diploma and other items at auction with a portion of the proceeds set to benefit research institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"It had been tucked away for so long," said Kindra Crick, Francis Crick's 36-year-old granddaughter, of the medal. "We really were interested in finding someone who could look after it, and possibly put it on display so it could inspire the next generation of scientists." Francis Crick passed away in 2004 at the age of 88.?

The value of Nobel gold
There is little precedent for this sale. Nobel medals appear to have changed hands publicly in only a couple of instances. This particular medal, like others made before 1980, is struck in 23-carat gold, and recognizes a particularly high-profile accomplishment in biology, one fundamental to modern genetics.

The auction house handling the sale, Heritage Auctions, has valued the medal and diploma at $500,000, which is "an educated guestimate," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage Auctions' director of historical manuscripts. Estimates by Heritage's in-house coin experts went as high as $5 million, Palomino said. [See Photos of Crick's Medal & Other Auction Items]

The April auction will also include Crick's award check with his endorsement on the back, the scientist's lab coat, his gardening logs, nautical journals and books. Separately, the family hopes to sell a letter Crick wrote in 1953 to his then-12-year-old son Michael, who is Kindra's father, describing the discovery's meaning. The auction house Christies, which Kindra Crick said is handling the sale, declined to confirm plans to sell this letter.

Out of the box
The medal was not displayed much within Crick's family. Kindra remembers that the Nobel, which she has yet to see herself, was locked in a room with her grandfather's other awards and other family heirlooms after he moved to California at the age of 60. After the scientist's wife, Odile, passed away in 2007, the medal was sequestered in a safe deposit box. Crick's children, including Kindra's father, Michael, attended the award ceremony in 1962, but saw almost nothing of the medal afterward.

Kindra plans to get a look at the medal before the auction.

"My grandfather was not the type of personality to show off," she said. "His conversation tended to be on what's next as opposed to reminiscing about the past. ? I guess he always thought there was more to come."

Crick's family hopes to see the medal displayed publicly after its sale; however, Kindra Crick acknowledged that a public auction offered no guarantee a buyer would display the award. But she is optimistic, saying those individuals or institutions with enough interest in science to bid on the medal are also likely to display it publicly. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds]

Crick's family and Heritage Auctions plan to donate a portion of the proceeds from the sale of the medal and the other items to The Francis Crick Institute, a medical research institute scheduled to open in London in 2015. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the letter will go to benefit the Salk Institute in California, where Francis Crick studied consciousness?later in his career, Kindra said.

Sixty years later
On Feb. 28, 1953, according to legend, Crick and his colleague James Watson announced that they had discovered the "secret of life" in a pub frequented by other Cambridge University scientists.

This followed Watson's realization that the molecular bonds between the two types of base pairs in DNA ? adenine with thymine and cytosine with guanine ? were identical in shape, suggesting a double helix with complementary halves, Watson recounts in "The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix" (Simon & Schuster, 2012).

This discovery was the result of a combination of approaches; Watson and Crick built models, trying to determine how the molecules known to make up DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) fit together. Meanwhile, two of their colleagues, Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, created images by bouncing X-rays off DNA crystals.

One of Franklin's images, called Photograph 51, provided key evidence of a helical shape.

Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize in 1962. Franklin did not because she passed away in 1958, and the Nobel Prize is not awarded posthumously.

Form means function
In the years prior to this discovery, scientists knew of the existence of DNA (a type of molecule known as a nucleic acid), but not what it looked like or its true function. They also knew genes carried traits from generation to generation, but many scientists believed genes to be made of proteins, said Jan Witkowski, executive director of the Banbury Center at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York.

The discovery of the structure of DNA was key to understanding the molecule's function as the code for genes. Watson and Crick understood this, but when they described their discovery in a paper in the journal Nature in April 1953, they wrote coyly of the implications: "It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for genetic material." [Code of Life: Photos of DNA Structures]

However, in the letter to 12-year-old Michael, dated March 19, 1953, Crick drew a diagram spelling out the scientists' theory of how DNA replicated: the double helix and its base-pair rungs separated to create templates for new strands.

"In other words, we think we have found the basic copying mechanism by which life comes from life," Crick wrote to his son. The scientists signed the letter, which appears in "The Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix," "lots of love, Daddy."

A geneticist himself, Witkowski lists the discovery of the structure of DNA as one of the three most pivotal accomplishments in biology, along with Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and Gregor Mendel's principles of inheritance. ?

"Of course, it wasn't so much what each discovery was in itself, but what avenues it opened up and what it led on to," said Witkowski, who with Alexander Gann, edited the "Annotated and Illustrated Double Helix."

Follow LiveScience on Twitter @livescience. We're also on Facebook?and Google+.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/25/17089577-for-sale-famed-nobel-medal-for-discovery-of-dna-structure?lite

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Wembley Stadium (Wembley, London, by adam_prior15)

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Sunday, February 24, 2013

Heat blow huge lead then beat Cavs for 11th in row

Miami Heat forward LeBron James (6) drives to the basket against Cleveland Cavaliers forward Luke Walton (4) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Miami Heat forward Udonis Haslem (40) shoots against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson, right, looks for an opening past Miami Heat center Chris Bosh, left, and forward Udonis Haslem (40) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Cleveland Cavaliers center Tyler Zeller, left, and Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade battle for a loose ball during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013, in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

MIAMI (AP) ? LeBron James scored 28 points, Dwyane Wade scored 11 of his 24 in the final five minutes, and the Miami Heat extended the NBA's longest current winning streak to 11 games, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 109-105 in a back-and-forth matchup Sunday night.

Mario Chalmers scored 16 points, Shane Battier added 14 and Ray Allen had 11 for the Heat, who took a 22-point lead early in the second half, then prevailed despite being outscored by a whopping 30 points over a 17-minute stretch.

Miami was down eight with 5:16 remaining, and still won.

Dion Waiters scored 26 points, C.J. Miles added 19 and Kyrie Irving scored 17 for Cleveland. The Cavaliers are now 1-8 against the Heat since James signed with Miami in July 2010.

Cleveland erased a 22-point deficit in the third quarter to take the lead, and led by 97-89 with 5:16 remaining ? before the Heat found a way to come back.

More specifically, before Wade found a way to come back.

Wade started what turned into a 16-4 run with a fadeaway with just under 5 minutes to go, then added a three-point play on the next Miami possession to cut the Cavs' lead to 97-94.

The Heat were back in business. And after Irving missed a layup with about 1:35 left, Wade got the rebound and wound up setting up Battier for a 3-pointer that put Miami on top again ? and for good.

From there, the Heat got a little bit of luck. Bosh set up James for what should have been an easy layup with about 40 seconds left. James somehow missed, and the ball wound up back in Bosh's hands, the Heat having a new shot clock. Wade wore it down, then drove the left side of the lane for a two-handed slam with 24.4 seconds to play, and Miami on top by four.

End result of James missing the easy one: Another 16 seconds coming off the clock, and Miami extending the lead to two-possession territory anyway.

Down 68-46 early in the third quarter, the Cavaliers looked finished ? last-place team, on the road, against the reigning NBA champions who just happened to have the league's longest current winning streak.

Midway through the third, Miami's lead was still 17.

With two minutes left in the period, the cushion was 10.

By the start of the fourth, it was nonexistent. The C.J. Miles Show lasted for all of 63 seconds. And they were a scintillating 63 seconds.

It starts with 1:35 left, a 3-pointer from Miles getting the Miami lead down to seven. Then he got a rebound, came downcourt and connected on another 3-pointer. Lead down to four. Another stop by the Cavs on one end, then another 3-pointer for Miles on the other ? that one coming both with him drawing a foul from Mario Chalmers, and with Heat coach Erik Spoelstra getting hit with a technical from referee Ed Malloy for arguing.

He made the technical free throw to tie the game, the free throw for the Chalmers hit to put the Cavs ahead, and they carried that 82-81 lead into the fourth, having closed the quarter on a 36-13 run.

Miami used a 23-4 run in the first half to take what looked like a commanding 42-22 lead ? with more than 9 minutes left until the break. The Heat then managed only one field goal in the span of about five minutes, giving Cleveland the chance claw back into things, which the Cavs did.

Thompson attacked the basket for a pair of scores, Waiters scored from close range as well, and the Cavs were suddenly within 48-41.

So Miami answered with another burst. James didn't miss in the final 4:29 of the half, scoring 10 points on a 4-for-4 run from the floor and fueling what became 16-5 spurt that gave Miami a 64-46 lead going into the locker room. And for good measure, Miami got the first two baskets of the second half, pushing the lead to 22, the biggest of the night.

Over, right?

Not even remotely close.

NOTES: Miami's two wins over Cleveland this season, both at home, have come by a combined six points. ... Heat F Mike Miller (ear infection) was back with the team Sunday, though did not play. "He can't hear anything we're saying," Spoelstra quipped before the game. ... The Heat held a moment of silence pregame for Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss, the moment ending with warm applause from the crowd. Heat President Pat Riley coached for Buss, and Cavaliers coach Byron Scott once played for the Lakers.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-02-24-BKN-Cavaliers-Heat/id-fe6b275eb61145b5bb0e0d23019a80f6

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Watershed elections in Italy

ROME (AP) ? Will Italy stay the course with painful economic reform? Or fall back into the old habit of profligacy and inertia? These are the stakes as Italy votes in a watershed parliamentary election Sunday and Monday that could shape the future of one of Europe's biggest economies.

Fellow EU countries and investors are watching closely, as the decisions that Italy makes over the next several months promise to have a profound impact on whether Europe can decisively put out the flames of its financial crisis. Greece's troubles in recent years were enough to spark a series of market panics. With an economy almost 10 times the size of Greece's, Italy is simply too big a country for Europe, and the world, to see fail.

Leading the electoral pack is Pier Luigi Bersani, a former communist who has shown a pragmatic streak in supporting tough economic reforms spearheaded by incumbent Mario Monti. On Bersani's heels is Silvio Berlusconi, the billionaire media mogul seeking an unlikely political comeback after being forced from the premiership by Italy's debt crisis. Monti, while widely credited with saving Italy from financial ruin, is trailing badly as he pays the price for the suffering caused by austerity measures.

Then there's the wild card: comic-turned-politician Beppe Grillo, whose protest movement against the entrenched political class has been drawing tens of thousands to rallies in piazzas across Italy. If his self-styled political "tsunami" sweeps into Parliament with a big chunk of seats, Italy could be in store for a prolonged period of political confusion that would spook the markets.

While a man of the left, Bersani has shown himself to have a surprising amount in common with the center-right Monti ? and the two have hinted at the possibility of teaming up in a coalition. Bersani was Monti's most loyal backer in Parliament during the respected economist's tenure at the head of a technocratic government. And in ministerial posts in previous center-left governments, Bersani fought hard to free up such areas of the economy as energy, insurance and banking services.

But it's uncertain that Monti will be able muster the votes needed to give Bersani's Democratic Party a stable majority in both houses of Parliament.

"Forming a government with a stable parliamentary alliance may prove tricky after elections," said Eoin Ryan, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. "A surge in support for anti-austerity parties is raising chances of an indecisive election result and post-vote political instability."

Another factor is turnout. Usually some 80 percent of the 50 million eligible voters go to the polls but experts are predicting many will stay away in anger, hurting mainstream parties.

When Berlusconi stepped down in November 2011, newspapers were writing his political obituary. At 76, blamed for mismanaging the economy and disgraced by criminal allegations of sex with an underage prostitute, the billionaire media baron appeared finished as a political force.

But Berlusconi has proven time and again ? over 20 years at the center of Italian politics ? that he should never be counted out.

The campaign strategy that has allowed him to become a contender in these elections is a simple one: please the masses by throwing around cash.

Berlusconi has promised to give back an unpopular property tax imposed by Monti as part of austerity measures. Even his purchase of start striker Mario Balotelli for his AC Milan soccer team was widely seen as a ploy to buy votes. Berlusconi has also appealed to Italy's right-wing by praising Italy's former fascist dictator Benito Mussolini during a ceremony commemorating Holocaust victims.

The most recent polls show Bersani in the lead with 33 percent of the vote, against 28 percent for Berlusconi's coalition with the populist Northern League. Grillo's 5 Star movement was in a surprise third place, with 17 percent support, while Monti's centrist coalition was notching 13 percent. The COESIS poll of 6,212 respondents had a margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percent.

Pollster Renato Mannheimer said among his biggest clients heading into the elections were foreign banks seeking to gauge whether to hold or sell Italian bonds.

"They are worried mostly about the return of Berlusconi," Mannheimer said.

Uncertainty over the outcome of the vote has pushed the Milan stock exchange down in the days running up to the vote and bumped up borrowing costs, as investors express concern that Italy may back down from a reform course to pull the country out of recession.

Mannheimer said many undecided voters ? who comprise around one-third of the total electorate ? identify with the center-right, and that may help Berlusconi. He said that the undecided vote may also tilt heavily toward Grillo's protest movement.

The professorial Monti looked uncomfortable at first as a candidate but has recently warmed to the role. Like the others, he has not shied away from name calling, warning that Berlusconi is a "charlatan" and saying his return would be "horrific."

Bond analyst Nicholas Spiro said the election "will deliver the most important verdict on the eurozone's three-year-old austerity focused policies."

But he is betting on a period of political instability after the vote.

"An upset victory by Mr. Berlusconi may be markets' nightmare scenario," he said, "but the prospects for a stable and harmonious Bersani-Monti coalition government ? still the mostly likely outcome in our view ? are bleak."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/watershed-elections-italy-070621757--finance.html

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Saturday, February 23, 2013

Pistorius case brings South Africa gun culture to global spotlight

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

One report: More than half South Africans fear home invasion
Former detective: Crimes are difficult to solve because many don't trust police
Pistorius case brings gun violence in the country to global attention

(CNN) -- Oscar Pistorius has claimed in a court hearing that when he heard noises in his home, he mistook his girlfriend for an intruder and accidentally shot her with his 9 mm pistol.

Plausible? The courts will decide. In the meantime, the killing has highlighted South Africa's history of gun violence and high crime. And it's shown the world that many South Africans live with a palpable, almost paranoid, fear of having their homes broken into.

In the past year, more than 50% of South Africans told the country's police force that they're afraid. The number of home burglaries across the country of 50 million have more than doubled. They totaled 9,063 in a 12-month period spanning 2002/2003; seven years later, it was up 18,786. And in a similar period ending in 2012, reported break-ins dipped to 16,766, according to South Africa's crime reporting body, the Institute for Security Studies.

The international group Gunpolicy.org reports that there are about 6 million licensed firearms in South Africa.

"The paranoia about being a victim of a house robbery is understandable," said the group's small arms researcher Lauren Tracey. "Victims are relatively helpless against these attacks."

It's common to see armed guards patrolling gated, middle-class neighborhoods.

Photos: 'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius

'Blade Runner' Oscar Pistorius

HIDE CAPTION

Hiring a private security firm is not the exception but the norm. Workaday people install panic buttons, closed-circuit televisions, man trap doors, boom gates and outdoor point-to-point infrared motion-sensing beams on their houses.

Also unique to South Africa: When burglars break in, they likely aren't after a flat-screen television or jewelry, experts say. They want the homeowner's guns.

Pistorius' girlfriend dies on Valentine's Day

HIDE CAPTION

That's in part because it's very hard to acquire a gun legally in South Africa, but it remains, many say, relatively easy to get a gun illegally.

Related: Pistorius out on bail: Now what?

A history of violence

To understand South Africa's gun culture, it's crucial to go back nearly two decades. In 1994, apartheid ended. The official system of racial segregation, in place since 1948, took rights away from black Africans and gave virtually all power in every aspect of life to whites.

For generations, violence born out of apartheid spawned a kind of arms race; blacks and whites fought against each other, and everyone else armed themselves, afraid to be caught in the cross fire.

Gun violence was at a record high as the country made its first effort to become what archbishop and peace crusader Desmond Tutu envisioned -- a rainbow nation.

Other spiritual leaders around the country began campaigning to reduce violence.

"Before 1994, there was a low-key civil war in South Africa," said Claire Taylor, a spokesperson for Gun Free South Africa, a non-profit group that grew out of a movement to cut down on crime born from years of inequity during apartheid. "Both sides -- white and blacks -- were armed soldiers in a way."

The roots of gun culture in South Africa are not unlike those of the United States, she said.

"There is a history of colonization, of taking, of settling," she said. "For black people, the AK-47 was a symbol of liberation, of fighting back. There is huge meaning attached. Gun are about fighting and superiority."

Unlike the United States, the right to own a gun is not written in the country's constitution.

Related: U.S. gun debate: Where is the middle ground?

Police have confiscated and destroyed hundreds of thousands of unlicensed guns, but it's unclear how many illegal guns remain on the street.

Researcher Tracey also believes that criminal violence is rooted in South Africa's historical traumas. There was rampant proliferation of firearms in the nation before the end of apartheid, and liberation movements stockpiled them.

Many of those weapons, she said, were never recovered.

Laying down the guns

As Nelson Mandela, South Africa's first black president, took office in 1994, there was a tremendous desire to put the guns down.

"There was a national feeling that we had lived under the gun for so many years during apartheid, and we had to do something to signal that beginning anew was possible," said Claire Taylor, the non-profit's spokesperson.

Taylor was personally motivated to act. At the time, one of her closest friends was shot to death during a break-in.

In 2000, South Africa passed the Firearms Control Act. Since then, violence by handguns, Taylor said, has dropped steadily, often by double digits.

Among the law's rigors: Before it was enacted, 16 was the minimum age to own a gun; today it's 21. To apply for a gun, you have to take competency tests, akin to a driver's license test, which demonstrates that not only can you shoot straight, but that you also know the law and how to store your firearm safely.

Next, law enforcement conducts a background check that runs an applicant's criminal history and also tries to assess whether the applicant has a propensity for violence, may be mentally ill or suffers from an addiction that might cloud their judgment. An applicant must give references whom the authorities will interview, including relatives and a spouse, if that's possible, Taylor said.

Authorities go a step further, checking medical information and digging into any instances of domestic violence or employment issues.

Once licensed, gun owners must reapply and requalify for their licenses every two to 10 years.

South African law also helps ensure that only one gun per person is approved. If someone is a sport shooter or has a reason that for needing to own more than one gun, he must file a separate application and explain, Taylor said.

The law isn't a fix-all

The law isn't perfect. As one South African correspondent put it, guns are still very much a part of the culture. Signs at South African airports and casinos point to where consumers should drop off their weapons.

And gun ownership advocates say that is why people are still incredibly afraid of hearing someone creeping in their house at night.

There are about 2,000 guns stolen from legal gun owners in South Africa every month, according to Gun Free South Africa.

Between April 2005 and March 2011, more than 18,000 police firearms were reportedly stolen or lost. Guns have gone missing from police stations.

There's also a severe backlog in gun license applications, some of which date back several years. A task force has been appointed to look into the problem, Taylor said.

All of this has highlighted one fact for the country gun rights organization Gun Owners of South Africa.

Executive Wouter de Waal told CNN that it is "dead easy" to get weapons illegally.

And there's little reason for armed burglars to think they'll be caught and punished. The rate of arrest and prosecution in the country is 7%, said former detective Rudolph Zinn, who wrote a book about home invasions and now trains South African police.

He believes there's one chief reason for that: Few South Africans trust law enforcement because in recent years, the police force has become politicized, with higher ranking officers who are politically appointed.

"In 1994 there was a push to have policing more community-focused, there was more legislation to focus on that," he said.

"There was a distrust related to our heritage," he says, referring to apartheid, "and unfortunately, over the years, we've gone back to that. I saw it often when I was a detective.

There are undoubtedly more home invasions, he said, than are officially counted.

"People don't even want to report a crime," he said, "because they don't believe anything is going to come of it."

What's life like in a South African prison

How UK school massacre led to tighter gun control

Photos: Athletes charged with murder

CNN's Emily Smith contributed to this report.

Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_mostpopular/~3/VVcbavb7hQw/index.html

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