CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) ? The NCAA is alleging that former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro was responsible for providing about $170,000 in impermissible benefits to Hurricanes athletes, recruits, coaches and others between 2002 and 2010.
Shapiro allegedly spent more than half that amount ? at least $90,000 ? in an effort to get NFL players Vince Wilfork and Antrel Rolle to sign with a sports agency he was involved with, said the person, who spoke to The Associated Press Wednesday on condition of anonymity because neither Miami nor the NCAA has publicly released the allegations.
Also included in the allegations: That Shapiro spent at least another $56,000 on "meals, entertainment, clothing, jewelry, travel, lodging and cash" on football players, recruits and others. The NCAA alleged that Shapiro spent that on 72 then-players, three recruits and 12 "friends and family members" of those either on the team or being recruited by the school.
Virtually all of the Hurricane players listed as receiving some sort of extra benefit from Shapiro left the program several years ago.
The figures that the NCAA's enforcement staff cited in the notice of allegations add up to a significantly lower total than what Shapiro told Yahoo Sports in 2011, when he estimated his extra-benefit spending spree as going into the "millions of dollars."
If true, the NCAA only listed a sliver of that in the allegations. The figures that were sent to Miami also were described as "approximate total values."
The NCAA said Shapiro also provided extra benefits in the forms of impermissible supplemental compensation to at least three former Miami assistant coaches, along with travel benefits and other items.
Miami received its notice of allegations, ones that included a lack of institutional control for failing to properly monitor Shapiro's activities as a booster, last week. It also includes charges that three former assistant coaches broke what's known as the NCAA's Rule 10.1 ? governing ethical conduct ? by misleading the investigation. Two of those former assistants have asked that their cases be thrown out because of problems the NCAA acknowledged with the way it conducted the probe.
The NCAA's Committee on Infractions wants to hear the case in June.
The Hurricanes have already self-imposed several sanctions, including sitting out two bowl games and a conference football championship game. Miami President Donna Shalala said on two occasions last week that she believes those punishments should be enough, and on Wednesday, the Hurricanes' athletic director echoed those sentiments.
"I would say I agree with everything that was in the two statements by President Shalala," Blake James, Miami's athletic director, told The AP. "I think she was right on in her comments and was very reflective of the general feel of our institution and those involved in this case."
Shapiro is serving a 20-year prison term for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme.
Study: Same-sex cohabitors less healthy than those in heterosexual marriagesPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Fowler pubinfo@asanet.org 202-527-7885 American Sociological Association
Findings may provide fuel for gay marriage proponents
WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2013 Same-sex cohabitors report worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status who are in heterosexual marriages, according to a new study, which may provide fuel for gay marriage proponents.
"Past research has shown that married people are generally healthier than unmarried people," said Hui Liu, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University. "Although our study did not specifically test the health consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage, it's very plausible that legalization of gay marriage would reduce health disparities between same-sex cohabitors and married heterosexuals."
Titled, "Same-Sex Cohabitors and Health: The Role of Race-Ethnicity, Gender, and Socioeconomic Status," the study, which appears in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, compares the self-rated health of 1,659 same-sex cohabiting men and 1,634 same-sex cohabiting women with that of their different-sex married, different-sex cohabiting, unpartnered divorced, widowed, and never-married counterparts. The study of white, black, and Hispanic 18 to 65-year-olds used pooled, nationally representative data from the 1997 to 2009 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). NHIS respondents rated their overall health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. As part of their study, Liu and her co-authors, Corinne Reczek, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati, and Dustin Brown, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, divided the respondents into two groups: those who reported excellent, very good, or good overall health and those who reported fair or poor overall health.
"When we controlled for socioeconomic status, the odds of reporting poor or fair health were about 61 percent higher for same-sex cohabiting men than for men in heterosexual marriages and the odds of reporting poor or fair health were about 46 percent higher for same-sex cohabiting women than for women in heterosexual marriages," Liu said.
As for why same-sex cohabitors reported worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status in heterosexual marriages, Liu said there could be several reasons. "Research consistently suggests that 'out' sexual minorities experience heightened levels of stress and higher levels of discrimination, and these experiences may adversely affect the health of this population," Liu said. "It may also be that same-sex cohabitation does not provide the same psychosocial, socioeconomic, and institutional resources that come with legal marriage, factors that are theorized to be responsible for many of the health benefits of marriage."
According to the researchers, it is possible that providing same-sex cohabitors the option to marry would boost their measures of self-rated health because they would experience higher levels of acceptance and lower levels of stigma. "Legalizing same-sex marriage could also provide other advantages often associated with heterosexual marriagesuch as partner health insurance benefits and the ability to file joint tax returnsthat may directly and indirectly influence the health of individuals in same-sex unions," Liu said.
The researchers also found that same-sex cohabitors reported better health than their different-sex cohabiting and single counterparts, but these differences were fully explained by socioeconomic status. "Without their socioeconomic status advantages, same-sex cohabitors would generally report similar levels of health as their divorced, widowed, never-married, and different-sex cohabiting counterparts," Liu said.
Interestingly, the study suggests that the pattern of poorer self-rated health of same-sex cohabitors in comparison with those in heterosexual marriages does not vary by gender and race-ethnicity. In contrast, results comparing same-sex cohabitors with different-sex cohabiting and single women, but not men, revealed important racial-ethnic patterns. "After we controlled for socioeconomic status, black women in same-sex cohabiting relationships reported worse health than black women of any other non-married union status, while white women in same-sex cohabiting relationships actually reported better health than both white women in different-sex cohabiting relationships and divorced white women," said Liu, who explained that black women in same-sex cohabiting relationships may experience significant social discrimination and homophobia, and such stressors may shape their health in especially detrimental ways.
###
About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.
The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA's Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Study: Same-sex cohabitors less healthy than those in heterosexual marriagesPublic release date: 27-Feb-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Daniel Fowler pubinfo@asanet.org 202-527-7885 American Sociological Association
Findings may provide fuel for gay marriage proponents
WASHINGTON, DC, February 21, 2013 Same-sex cohabitors report worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status who are in heterosexual marriages, according to a new study, which may provide fuel for gay marriage proponents.
"Past research has shown that married people are generally healthier than unmarried people," said Hui Liu, lead author of the study and an assistant professor of sociology at Michigan State University. "Although our study did not specifically test the health consequences of legalizing same-sex marriage, it's very plausible that legalization of gay marriage would reduce health disparities between same-sex cohabitors and married heterosexuals."
Titled, "Same-Sex Cohabitors and Health: The Role of Race-Ethnicity, Gender, and Socioeconomic Status," the study, which appears in the March issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, compares the self-rated health of 1,659 same-sex cohabiting men and 1,634 same-sex cohabiting women with that of their different-sex married, different-sex cohabiting, unpartnered divorced, widowed, and never-married counterparts. The study of white, black, and Hispanic 18 to 65-year-olds used pooled, nationally representative data from the 1997 to 2009 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS). NHIS respondents rated their overall health as excellent, very good, good, fair, or poor. As part of their study, Liu and her co-authors, Corinne Reczek, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Cincinnati, and Dustin Brown, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology and the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, divided the respondents into two groups: those who reported excellent, very good, or good overall health and those who reported fair or poor overall health.
"When we controlled for socioeconomic status, the odds of reporting poor or fair health were about 61 percent higher for same-sex cohabiting men than for men in heterosexual marriages and the odds of reporting poor or fair health were about 46 percent higher for same-sex cohabiting women than for women in heterosexual marriages," Liu said.
As for why same-sex cohabitors reported worse health than people of the same socioeconomic status in heterosexual marriages, Liu said there could be several reasons. "Research consistently suggests that 'out' sexual minorities experience heightened levels of stress and higher levels of discrimination, and these experiences may adversely affect the health of this population," Liu said. "It may also be that same-sex cohabitation does not provide the same psychosocial, socioeconomic, and institutional resources that come with legal marriage, factors that are theorized to be responsible for many of the health benefits of marriage."
According to the researchers, it is possible that providing same-sex cohabitors the option to marry would boost their measures of self-rated health because they would experience higher levels of acceptance and lower levels of stigma. "Legalizing same-sex marriage could also provide other advantages often associated with heterosexual marriagesuch as partner health insurance benefits and the ability to file joint tax returnsthat may directly and indirectly influence the health of individuals in same-sex unions," Liu said.
The researchers also found that same-sex cohabitors reported better health than their different-sex cohabiting and single counterparts, but these differences were fully explained by socioeconomic status. "Without their socioeconomic status advantages, same-sex cohabitors would generally report similar levels of health as their divorced, widowed, never-married, and different-sex cohabiting counterparts," Liu said.
Interestingly, the study suggests that the pattern of poorer self-rated health of same-sex cohabitors in comparison with those in heterosexual marriages does not vary by gender and race-ethnicity. In contrast, results comparing same-sex cohabitors with different-sex cohabiting and single women, but not men, revealed important racial-ethnic patterns. "After we controlled for socioeconomic status, black women in same-sex cohabiting relationships reported worse health than black women of any other non-married union status, while white women in same-sex cohabiting relationships actually reported better health than both white women in different-sex cohabiting relationships and divorced white women," said Liu, who explained that black women in same-sex cohabiting relationships may experience significant social discrimination and homophobia, and such stressors may shape their health in especially detrimental ways.
###
About the American Sociological Association and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior
The American Sociological Association, founded in 1905, is a non-profit membership association dedicated to serving sociologists in their work, advancing sociology as a science and profession, and promoting the contributions to and use of sociology by society. The Journal of Health and Social Behavior is a quarterly, peer-reviewed journal of the ASA.
The research article described above is available by request for members of the media. For a copy of the full study, contact Daniel Fowler, ASA's Media Relations and Public Affairs Officer.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
(Reuters) - New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Tuesday approved online gambling within the state's border, a move that he hopes can help boost state revenues and revive Atlantic City casinos.
The measure, announced the same day that Christie unveiled his new budget plan for fiscal 2014, will legalize Internet gaming to New Jersey's 9 million residents and also create opportunities for European companies with expertise in running online gaming operations.
New Jersey, the 11th most populous state, will become the largest so far and the third in the United States to allow online gambling after Delaware and Nevada, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Nevada, home to international gambling Mecca Las Vegas, last week became the first U.S. state to allow interstate online poker.
"We are offering a responsible yet exciting option that will make Atlantic City more competitive, while also bringing financial benefits to New Jersey as a whole," Christie said in a statement.
The Republican governor signed the legislation after Democratic lawmakers agreed to make several changes, including a provision to review the program after 10 years to gauge its impact on problem gambling.
By legalizing internet gaming, New Jersey could see a huge jump in state casino revenue, to an estimated $436 million in fiscal 2014 from $235 million this fiscal year, which ends June 30, according to budget documents.
Earlier this month, the prospect of a quick approval of online gambling in New Jersey spurred gains among gaming companies on both side of the Atlantic amid hopes it could unlock a market worth up to $1 billion.
(Reporting by Tiziana Barghini and Hilary Russ; Editing by Eric Walsh)
BEIJING (AP) ? Two Tibetan monks in their early 20s set themselves on fire in protest against Chinese rule near dozens of pilgrims who had gathered for prayers to mark the end of the Tibetan New Year festival, a Tibet rights group said. Both died. A third monk was taken to a hospital after setting himself alight in a separate incident, another group reported. His condition and whereabouts weren't immediately known.
The self-immolations bring the total reported since 2009 to 107.
One of the monks, Tsesung Kyab, self-immolated Monday outside a temple in Luqu county in northwestern Gansu province while the other, Phagmo Dundrup, set himself ablaze Sunday at a monastery in neighboring Qinghai province, the Washington, D.C.-based International Campaign for Tibet reported.
It said large numbers of religious pilgrims had gathered at both monasteries for prayer ceremonies to commemorate the end of the Tibetan new year festival, Losar. The group said it received images of the self-immolation in Luqu in which pilgrims watched as Tsesung Kyab burned.
The third monk, Sandhag, set himself on fire in the main street in the town of Aba in an ethnically Tibetan area of Sichuan province on Monday morning, according to London-based Free Tibet.
Police extinguished the flames and took Sandhag to a hospital, the group said. A resident of the local Dhupu monastery, he has since been moved to another unknown location, it said.
Last week, two Tibetan teenagers set themselves on fire in a double self-immolation in Aba prefecture, Tibet rights advocacy groups said. Seventeen-year-old Richen and his childhood friend Sonam Dargye, 18, were among the youngest to have died in the fiery protests.
The protests have continued despite an intensified crackdown in Tibetan areas by Chinese authorities hoping to stop the self-immolations. Authorities have detained and jailed Tibetans they accuse of helping others self-immolate, an act that Beijing now considers a crime. Tibet and adjoining ethnically Tibetan regions have been sealed-off to most outsiders, making independent confirmation of the self-immolations virtually impossible.
A woman who answered the phone at the Communist Party's propaganda department in Gannan prefecture, which oversees Luqu county, said she was unaware of the reported self-immolation, while county officials could not be reached. Authorities in Qinghai's Haidong prefecture, where the second protest took place, either could not be reached or said they had no information on the case.
Relying on the many publicly available videos of the meteor that exploded over Russia's Ural Mountains earlier this month, a pair of Colombian astronomers say that they have calculated the space rock's orbit.
By Nancy Atkinson,?Universe Today / February 27, 2013
This dashcam video frame grab shows a meteor streaking across the sky of Russia?s Ural Mountains earlier this month.
Nasha gazeta/www.ng.kz/AP/File
Enlarge
Just a week after a huge fireball streaked across the skies of the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, astronomers published?a paper?that reconstructs the orbit and determines the origins of the space rock that exploded about 14-20 km (8-12.5 miles) above Earth?s surface, producing a shockwave that damaged buildings and broke windows.
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Researchers Jorge Zuluaga and Ignacio Ferrin at the University of Antioquia in Medellin, Colombia used a resource not always available in meteorite falls: the numerous dashboard and security cameras that captured the huge fireball. Using the trajectories shown in videos posted on YouTube, the researchers were able to calculate the trajectory of the meteorite as it fell to Earth and use it to reconstruct the orbit in space of the meteoroid before its violent encounter with our planet.
The results are preliminary, Zuluaga told Universe Today, and they are already working on getting more precise results. ?We are working hard to produce an updated and more precise reconstruction of the orbit using different pieces of evidence,? he said via email.
But through their calculations, Zuluaga and Ferrin determined the rock originated from the Apollo class of asteroids. ? Using triangulation, the researchers used two videos specifically: one from a camera located in the Revolutionary Square in Chelyabinsk and one video recorded in the a nearby city of Korkino, along with the location of a hole in the ice in Lake Chebarkul, 70km west of Chelyabinsk. The hole is thought to have come from the meteorite that fell on February 15.
Zuluaga and Ferrin were inspired to use the videos by Stefen Geens, who writes the?Ogle Earth blog?and who pointed out that the numerous dashcam and security videos may have gathered data about the trajectory and speed of the meteorite. He used this data and Google Earth to reconstruct the path of the rock as it entered the atmosphere and showed that it matched an image of the trajectory taken by the geostationary Meteosat-9 weather satellite.
But due to variations in time and date stamps on several of the videos ? some which differed by several minutes ? they decided to choose two videos from different locations that seemed to be the most reliable.
From triangulation, they were able to determine height, speed and position of the meteorite as it fell to Earth.
This video is a virtual exploration of the preliminary orbit computed by Zuluaga & Ferrin
This is a virtual exploration of th epreliminary orbit computed by Zuluaga & Ferrin (2013). Scientific details can be found at arxiv:1302.5377
But figuring out the meteroid?s orbit around the Sun was more difficult as well as less precise. They needed six critical parameters, all which they had to estimate from the data using Monte Carlo methods to ?calculate the most probable orbital parameters and their dispersion,? they wrote in their paper. Most of the parameters are related to the ?brightening point? ? where the meteorite becomes bright enough to cast a noticeable shadow in the videos. This helped determine the meteorite?s height, elevation and azimuth at the brightening point as well as the longitude, latitude on the Earth?s surface below and also the velocity of the rock.
?According to our estimations, the Chelyabinski meteor started to brighten up when it was between 32 and 47 km up in the atmosphere,? the team wrote. ?The velocity of the body predicted by our analysis was between 13 and 19 km/s (relative to the Earth) which encloses the preferred figure of 18 km/s assumed by other researchers.?
They then used software developed by the US Naval Observatory called NOVAS, the Naval Observatory Vector Astrometry to calculate the likely orbit. They concluded that the Chelyabinsk meteorite is from the Apollo asteroids, a well-known class of rocks that cross Earth?s orbit.
According to?The Technology Review blog, astronomers have seen over 240 Apollo asteroids that are larger than 1 km but believe there must be more than 2,000 others that size.
However, astronomers also estimate there might be about 80 million out there that are about same size as the one that fell over Chelyabinsk: about 15 meters (50 feet) in diameter, with a weight of 7,000 metric tons.
In their ongoing calculations, the research team has decided to make future calculations not using Lake Chebarkul as one of their triangulation points.
?We are acquainted with the skepticism that the holes in the icesheet of the lake have been produced artificially,? Zuluaga told Universe Today via email. ?However I have also read some reports indicating that pieces of the meteoroid have been found in the area. So, we are working hard to produce an updated and more precise reconstruction of the orbit using different pieces of evidence.?
Many have asked why this space rock was not detected before, and Zuluaga said determining why it was missed is one of the goals of their efforts.
?Regretfully knowing the family at which the asteroid belongs is not enough,? he said. ?The question can only be answered having a very precise orbit we can integrate backwards at least 50 years. Once you have an orbit, that orbit can predict the precise position of the body in the sky and then we can look for archive images and see if the asteroid was overlooked. This is our next move!?
Read the team?s paper here.
Read more about the Apollo class of asteroids?here.
Nancy Atkinson is Universe Today's Senior Editor. She also is the host of the?NASA Lunar Science Institute podcast?and works with the?Astronomy Cast?and?365 Days of Astronomy?podcasts. Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador.
Connect with Nancy on?Facebook?|?Twitter?|?Google +?|?Website
You probably don't know Nir Goldshlager, but up until recently, he sure could have known you. That's because Nir discovered a major privacy flaw in Facebook's OAuth, the system developers use to access all sorts of information every time you hit that innocent, little "allow" button. Nir gained access to virtually anyone's entire Facebook account. As the hacker explained on his site: More »
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? In a season of startling change for the Catholic Church, the latest break with tradition was as unexpected as it was a wakeup call to the 115 men who will elect the next pope.
Britain's highest-ranking Catholic leader resigned and removed himself Monday from the upcoming conclave, saying he did not want allegations that he engaged in improper conduct with priests to be a distraction during the solemn process of choosing the next leader of the church's 1.2 billion-member flock.
It was the first time a cardinal has recused himself from a conclave because of personal scandal, according to Vatican historians.
The Vatican insisted that Pope Benedict XVI accepted Cardinal Keith O'Brien's resignation purely because O'Brien was nearing the retirement age of 75 ? not because of the accusations.
But O'Brien himself issued a statement Monday saying he would skip the conclave because he wanted to avoid becoming the focus of media attention at such a delicate time.
"I do not wish media attention in Rome to be focused on me ? but rather on Pope Benedict XVI and on his successor," said O'Brien, who had been archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh. "However, I will pray with them and for them that, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they will make the correct choice for the future good of the church."
Through his spokesman, O'Brien has contested allegations made Sunday in a British newspaper that three priests and a former priest had filed complaints to the Vatican alleging that the cardinal acted inappropriately with them.
There were no details about the behavior, and the Observer newspaper did not name the priests. It said the allegations date back to the 1980s.
The cardinal's action comes in the wake of a grassroots campaign to shame another cardinal, retired Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, into refraining from participating because of his role protecting sexually abusive priests.
Mahony, however, has defiantly said he would participate in the voting for the new pope.
The difference boils down to the fact that O'Brien himself was accused of improper behavior, whereas Mahony was shown to have covered up for other priests who raped and molested children. That distinction has long shielded bishops from Vatican sanction.
Several other cardinals who will elect the next pope have been accused ? and some have admitted ? to failing to protect children from abusive priests. If all of them were to recuse themselves for negligence, the College of Cardinals would shrink by quite a few members.
Terrence McKiernan of BishopAccountability.org, an online database of records on clergy abuse cases, urged other whistleblowers to come forward if they have information about other compromised cardinal electors.
"It is a public demonstration of the role that clerics with inside information can have in bringing accountability to a church where secrecy has led to a crisis of sexual misconduct," he said. "Cardinals who are tainted by the crisis cannot choose the person who will solve it."
With O'Brien's recusal and the decision of a frail Indonesian cardinal to stay home, there are expected to be 115 cardinals under age 80 who are eligible to vote in the conclave.
Separately Monday, Benedict changed the rules of the conclave, allowing cardinals to move up the start date if all of them arrive in Rome before the usual 15-day waiting period between the end of one pontificate and the start of the conclave. It was one of his last acts as pope before stepping down Thursday.
The date of the conclave's start is important because Holy Week begins March 24, and Easter Sunday is March 31. In order to have a new pope in place for the church's most solemn liturgical period, he would need to be installed by Sunday, March 17, a tight timeframe if a conclave were to start on March 15, as previous rules would have required.
Also Monday, Benedict decided that the contents of a secret investigation into the 2012 leaks of Vatican documents won't be shared with the cardinals ahead of the conclave. Benedict met Monday with the three elderly cardinals who conducted the probe and decided that "the acts of the investigation, known only to himself, remain solely at the disposition of the new pope," a Vatican statement said.
Speculation has been rife in the Italian media that the three cardinals ? Julian Herranz, Jozef Tomko and Salvatore De Giorgi ? would be authorized to share the information with fellow cardinals before the conclave. That assumed the cardinal electors would want to know details about the state of dysfunction in the Vatican bureaucracy and on any potentially compromised colleagues before possibly voting one into office.
Benedict appointed the three men last year to investigate the origins of leaks, which revealed petty wrangling, corruption, cronyism and even allegations that senior Vatican officials conspired to out a prominent Catholic newspaper editor as gay.
The pope's butler was convicted of aggravated theft in October for having stolen the papers and given them to a journalist who then published them in a blockbuster book.
The three cardinals cannot share the full contents of their investigation, but it's unclear if they could give subtle hints about potential papal candidates to the electors. The Vatican's assertion that only the pope knew the contents of the dossier was a clear message to readers of Italian newspapers, which have run several articles purporting to know the contents of the report.
O'Brien's decision to remain home rather than participate in the conclave made his the first head to roll in the remarkable two weeks since Benedict, 85, stunned the world and announced he was becoming the first pope in 600 years to resign.
Monday's announcement marked a dramatic end to a career that got off to a rocky start when in 2003, as a condition of being made a cardinal, O'Brien was forced to issue a public pledge to defend church teaching on homosexuality, celibacy and contraception. He was pressured to make the pledge after he had called for a "full and open discussion" on such matters.
At the time, O'Brien said he had been misunderstood and wanted to clarify his position. But it's clear now he never really changed his mind. On Friday, three days before his resignation was made public, O'Brien told the BBC that celibacy should be reconsidered since it's not based on doctrine but rather church tradition and "is not of divine origin."
It appeared to be something of a parting shot, reasserting beliefs that he had kept quiet for a decade.
At home, at O'Brien's St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral in Edinburgh, his decision was met with shock and disbelief.
"There are a lot of unanswered questions here, and I am unhappy about that. People can make such serious charges while remaining anonymous," said David Murphy, an administrator from Edinburgh. "It's like he's been hounded out of office without a proper chance to defend himself."
But Peter Mitchell, a churchgoer from Fife, conceded that the church may have to brace itself for scandal. "These don't appear to be random allegations. We are talking about three serving priests who are being very specific, and I don't think they would lie in this way."
O'Brien said in a statement that he was in "indifferent health" and had offered his resignation last November ? a statement confirmed by the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
Lombardi said the pope had merely acted on the resignation now as he clears up final tasks before stepping down. Usually the pope waits until after a cardinal's 75th birthday to accept a resignation. In this case, Benedict acted a few weeks early.
___
Katz reported from London
___
Associated Press Writer Ben McConville in Edinburgh also contributed to this report.
The masses of the tech world will, more often than not, refuse to agree on anything. But there are still those few bits of magic that mysteriously and periodically bring joy to almost every single disgruntled cynic out there. Everyone, that is, except you. More »
It runs across all race, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion, nationality, geography, age and social-economic lines.
No one is above it.
No one is immune to it.
And no one deserves to be abused.
Did you know that the prevalence of dating violence among LGBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning) adolescents is similar to that of heterosexuals?
The truth is that 1 in 3 teens and young adults (straight, gay, bisexual...anyone) experience some form of dating abuse.
In many ways, domestic violence in LGBTQ relationships is the same as in opposite-gendered/ heterosexually-paired relationships and includes but not limited to: emotional abuse, sexual abuse, digital abuse, financial abuse, physical abuse, and stalking.
It is a myth that LGBTQ battering is mutual.
Resources for LGBTQ is limited, and gay/bisexual/transgender men who are in an abusive relationship have much more difficult time finding support than those in a heterosexual relationship.
Because the LGBTQ community is small in many areas, anonymity is not an option for many.
There are many obstacles that LGBTQ individuals face such as: Shame and embarrassment--an abuser may use this against his/her partner to exhibit control and power. Fear of not being believed--a victim may worry about not being taken serious if he/she reports the abuse because of common stereo-types like abuse is mutual, it just doesn't occur, or can only happen to a female in a heterosexual relationship. Fear of retaliation, harassment, rejection, or bullying. Lack of knowledge of legal protection--many victims may not be aware that they have legal options for protection -- including obtaining restraining orders.
Regardless, everyone deserves a healthy relationship and everyone needs to know that there is help and resources out there.
If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship or has questions about their relationship please contact:
The hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE http://www.thehotline.org/
OR:
Loveisrespect.org or text "loveis" to 77054
Resources: loveisrespect.org, http://www.newhopeforwomen.org/gay-lesbian-bisexual-transgendered-domestic-abuse, National domestic Hotline
This 2012 publicity photo provided by Guttman Associates shows Janet Jackson with Wissam Al Mana, in a portrait taken by photographer, Marco Glaviano. A representative for Jackson confirmed Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, that the musician and Wissam Al Mana wed last year. (AP Photo/Guttman Associates, Marco Glaviano)
This 2012 publicity photo provided by Guttman Associates shows Janet Jackson with Wissam Al Mana, in a portrait taken by photographer, Marco Glaviano. A representative for Jackson confirmed Monday, Feb. 25, 2013, that the musician and Wissam Al Mana wed last year. (AP Photo/Guttman Associates, Marco Glaviano)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Janet Jackson knows how to keep a secret: The singer has been married since last year.
A representative for Jackson confirmed Monday that the musician and Wissam Al Mana wed last year.
This is Jackson's second secret marriage. She secretly married Rene Elizondo Jr. in 1991. They separated in 1999.
The 46-year-old Jackson first tied the knot when she was 18 to singer James DeBarge, which lasted three months in 1984.
In a joint statement to Entertainment Tonight, Jackson and Al Mana said their wedding was a "quiet, private and beautiful ceremony."
The couple also said they would like privacy and "are allowed this time for celebration and joy."
Feb. 24, 2013 ? Scientists at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) have identified several genes linked to human neurological disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and spinal cord injury, in the sea lamprey, a vertebrate fish whose whole-genome sequence is reported this week in the journal Nature Genetics.
"This means that we can use the sea lamprey as a powerful model to drive forward our molecular understanding of human neurodegenerative disease and neurological disorders," says Jennifer Morgan of the MBL's Eugene Bell Center for Regenerative Biology and Tissue Engineering. The ultimate goals are to determine what goes wrong with neurons after injury and during disease, and to determine how to correct these deficits in order to restore normal nervous system functions.
Unlike humans, the lamprey has an extraordinary capacity to regenerate its nervous system. If a lamprey's spinal cord is severed, it can regenerate the damaged nerve cells and be swimming again in 10-12 weeks.
Morgan and her collaborators at MBL, Ona Bloom and Joseph Buxbaum, have been studying the lamprey's recovery from spinal cord injury since 2009. The lamprey has large, identified neurons in its brain and spinal cord, making it an excellent model to study regeneration at the single cell-level. Now, the lamprey's genomic information gives them a whole new "toolkit" for understanding its regenerative mechanisms, and for comparing aspects of its physiology, such as inflammation response, to that of humans.
The lamprey genome project was accomplished by a consortium of 59 researchers led by Weiming Li of Michigan State University and Jeramiah Smith of the University of Kentucky. The MBL scientists' contribution focused on neural aspects of the genome, including one of the project's most intriguing findings.
Lampreys, in contrast to humans, don't have myelin, an insulating sheath around neurons that allows faster conduction of nerve impulses. Yet the consortium found genes expressed in the lamprey that are normally expressed in myelin. In humans, myelin-associated molecules inhibit nerves from regenerating if damaged. "A lot of the focus of the spinal cord injury field is on neutralizing those inhibitory molecules," Morgan says.
"So there is an interesting conundrum," Morgan says. "What are these myelin-associated genes doing in an animal that doesn't have myelin, and yet is good at regeneration? It opens up a new and interesting set of questions, " she says. Addressing them could bring insight to why humans lost the capacity for neural regeneration long ago, and how this might be restored.
At present, Morgan and her collaborators are focused on analyzing which genes are expressed and when, after spinal cord injury and regeneration. The whole-genome sequence gives them an invaluable reference for their work.
Morgan, Bloom, and Buxbaum collaborate at the MBL through funding by the Charles Evans Foundation. Bloom is based at the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research/Hofstra North Shore-Long Island Jewish in New York. Buxbaum is from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Marine Biological Laboratory, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
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Journal Reference:
Jeramiah J Smith, Shigehiro Kuraku, Carson Holt, Tatjana Sauka-Spengler, Ning Jiang, Michael S Campbell, Mark D Yandell, Tereza Manousaki, Axel Meyer, Ona E Bloom, Jennifer R Morgan, Joseph D Buxbaum, Ravi Sachidanandam, Carrie Sims, Alexander S Garruss, Malcolm Cook, Robb Krumlauf, Leanne M Wiedemann, Stacia A Sower, Wayne A Decatur, Jeffrey A Hall, Chris T Amemiya, Nil R Saha, Katherine M Buckley, Jonathan P Rast, Sabyasachi Das, Masayuki Hirano, Nathanael McCurley, Peng Guo, Nicolas Rohner, Clifford J Tabin, Paul Piccinelli, Greg Elgar, Magali Ruffier, Bronwen L Aken, Stephen M J Searle, Matthieu Muffato, Miguel Pignatelli, Javier Herrero, Matthew Jones, C Titus Brown, Yu-Wen Chung-Davidson, Kaben G Nanlohy, Scot V Libants, Chu-Yin Yeh, David W McCauley, James A Langeland, Zeev Pancer, Bernd Fritzsch, Pieter J de Jong, Baoli Zhu, Lucinda L Fulton, Brenda Theising, Paul Flicek, Marianne E Bronner, Wesley C Warren, Sandra W Clifton, Richard K Wilson, Weiming Li. Sequencing of the sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) genome provides insights into vertebrate evolution. Nature Genetics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ng.2568
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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
LAS VEGAS (AP) ? Police are seeking a 26-year-old man as the prime suspect in last week's pre-dawn shooting and crash on the Las Vegas Strip that killed three people and injured several others
The black SUV used as a getaway car was found Saturday as police named Ammar Harris in connection with the shooting and six-vehicle chain-reaction carnage Thursday on the neon-lit boulevard near the Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and Flamingo resorts,
An aspiring rapper who was driving a Maserati was shot to death, while two people in a taxi died in the crash.
"His location is unknown," police Capt. Chris Jones said of Harris, who sometimes goes by the name Ammar Asim Faruq Harris. Police say he has been arrested for working as a pimp.
Police released a photo that was taken when Harris was arrested last year on pandering, kidnapping, sexual assault and coercion charges. The disposition of that case was not immediately known.
The photo shows Harris with tattoos on his right cheek and words on his neck above an image that appeared to depict an owl with blackened eyes. Jones warned that Harris should be considered armed and dangerous.
Police had been searching for the black Range Rover, with blackout windows and distinctive black rims, since it was last seen speeding from the shooting. It was located at an apartment complex just a couple of blocks east of the neon-lit boulevard, and was impounded as evidence, Jones said.
The shooting killed Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr., who was driving the dark gray Maserati that was peppered by gunfire from the SUV. Taxi driver Michael Boldon and passenger Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, of Maple Valley, Wash., died when the Maserati hit their taxi, which exploded in flames.
Boldon, 62, was a family man who moved from Michigan to Las Vegas. Sutton-Wasmund, 48, was a businesswoman and mother of three.
A passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm and four people from four other vehicles were treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The Maserati passenger was cooperating with investigators. His name hasn't been made public.
The shocking chain of events had family members and friends in Las Vegas, California, Michigan and Washington trying to grasp the blink-of-an-eye finality of it all.
"My son was a good boy," Kenneth Cherry Sr. told reporters Saturday in a news conference convened by Las Vegas lawyers Vicki Greco and Robert Beckett.
Beckett said they wanted to respond to rumors that the 27-year-old son ? who produced a rap video using the name Kenny Clutch ? was a gangster and a troublemaker. The attorneys had represented his son, and now represent his estate and the family.
"My son was a victim just like the two people in that taxi," Kenneth Cherry Sr. said. "Trouble found him. The people in the taxicab, trouble found them."
Court records show Cherry had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and police said there was no record of arrests.
The Clark County coroner determined that Kenny Cherry died of at least one gunshot to the chest. Boldon and Sutton-Wasmund died of injuries in the crash. All three deaths were ruled homicides.
Police say the shooting appeared to stem from an argument at the valet area of the upscale Aria resort-casino about a block south of the crash scene. The shooting happened after a night featuring Morocco-born rapper French Montana at Aria nightclub Haze.
Cherry's parents live in Emeryville, Calif., and the father said his son's body would be taken back to Oakland. He said his son started a music career there and was recognized by other rappers within a West Coast hip-hop strain called hyphy.
Cherry wasn't well-known in wider music circles, according to Chuck Creekmur, CEO of AllHipHop.com.
Kenny Clutch's YouTube music video, "Stay Schemin," shows scenes of hotels along the Strip as he sings about paying $120,000 for his Maserati.
"One mistake change lives all in one night," he raps in one verse.
Kenneth Cherry Sr., who said he runs a cellphone business, said he helped his son make payments on the Maserati. He said he last spoke to him on Wednesday, when they talked about the high cost of the son's cellphone use.
Cherry Sr. described his son as an entrepreneur but didn't say how he made money or if he had jobs other than his music production.
Boldon's family in Las Vegas was struggling to cope with his death, said Tehran Boldon, the taxi driver's younger brother.
Boldon's sister, Carolyn Jean Trimble, said Boldon was a father, a grandfather and a car race enthusiast who drove a Mercedes when he wasn't in a cab. He owned a clothing store in Detroit and worked at a car dealership, his sister said, and drove taxis after moving to Las Vegas about 1? years ago.
The irony that a man with a taste for beautiful cars was killed by a sports car wasn't lost on Trimble.
"He would be tickled to death: 'Damn, of all things, a Maserati hit me, took me out like that,'" she said. "I'm happy he didn't suffer."
In Washington, Sutton-Wasmund co-owned a dress shop, said Debbie Tvedt, the office manager for a Maple Valley plumbing company that Sutton-Wasmund started with her husband, James Wasmund. Sutton-Wasmund was in Las Vegas attending a trade show with her business partner.
"It's a big loss," Tvedt said in a telephone interview with AP.
The Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce website said Sutton-Wasmund was a board member from 2004 to 2011 before becoming a marketing representative.
A phone message left for James Wasmund was not immediately returned.
The famously glowing, always-open Las Vegas Strip was closed for some 15 hours after the crash. Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Eric Kemmer recalled a similarly long closure after the 1996 drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.
That shooting ? involving assailants opening fire on Shakur's luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road ? happened about a block away from Thursday's crash.
The Shakur killing has never been solved.
___
Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels in Las Vegas, Garance Burke in San Francisco, Kathy McCarthy in Seattle and AP Music Writer Mesfin Fekadu in New York contributed to this report.
Redmond (dpa) - Nach Facebook und Apple ist auch Microsoft Opfer eines Hacker-Angriffs geworden. Einige Computer seien mit Schadsoftware infiziert worden, teilte Microsoft mit. Es gebe aber keine Hinweise darauf, dass Kundendaten betroffen gewesen seien.
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Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, center, seen with National Governors Association Chairman Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, left, and Vice Chairman Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, speaks during the opening news conference of the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. The nation's governors say their states are threatened if the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, take effect March 1. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, center, seen with National Governors Association Chairman Gov. Jack Markell of Delaware, left, and Vice Chairman Gov. Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, speaks during the opening news conference of the NGA Winter Meeting in Washington, Saturday, Feb. 23, 2013. The nation's governors say their states are threatened if the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts, known as the sequester, take effect March 1. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, left, leads fellow Democratic Governors Associations members along the driveway of the West Wing of the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Shumlin, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Vermont Gov. Maggie Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, speaks outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Islands Gov. John De Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hassan, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, center, accompanied by fellow members of the Democratic Governors Associations, looks up to the overcast sky, outside the White House in Washington, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. From left are, Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, Virgin Island Gov. John de Jongh, Montana Gov. Steve Bullock, Hickenlooper, New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, accompanied by other members of the Democratic Governors Associations, speaks outside the White House in Washington, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013, following their meeting with President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Washington's protracted budget stalemate could seriously undermine the economy and stall gains made since the recession, exasperated governors said Saturday as they try to gauge the fallout from impending federal spending cuts.
At the annual National Governors Association meeting, both Democrat and Republican chief executives expressed pessimism that both sides could find a way to avoid the massive, automatic spending cuts set to begin March 1, pointing to the impasse as another crisis between the White House and Congress that spooks local businesses from hiring and hampers their ability to construct state spending plans.
Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, a former congressman, noted that the cuts ? known in Washington-speak as "the sequester" ? could lead to 19,000 workers laid off at Pearl Harbor, site of the surprise attack in 1941 that launched the United States into World War II.
"That will undermine our capacity for readiness at Pearl Harbor. If that doesn't symbolize for the nation ... what happens when we fail to meet our responsibilities congressionally, I don't know what does," he said.
The budget fight came as many states say they are on the cusp of an economic comeback from the financial upheaval in 2008 and 2009. States expect their general fund revenues this year to surpass the amounts collected before the Great Recession kicked in. An estimated $693 billion in revenues is expected for the 2013 budget year, nearly a 4 percent over the previous year.
At their weekend meetings, governors were focusing on ways to boost job development and grow their state economies, measures to restrict gun violence and implement the new health care law approved during Obama's first term.
Some Republican governors have blocked the use of Medicaid to expand health insurance coverage for millions of uninsured while others have joined Democrats in a wholesale expansion as the law allows. The Medicaid expansion aims to cover about half of the 30 million uninsured people expected to eventually gain coverage under the health care overhaul.
Yet for many governors, the budget-cut fight remains front-and-center and fuels a pervasive sense of frustration with Washington.
"My feeling is I can't help what's going on in Washington," Gov. Terry Branstad, R-Iowa, said in an interview Saturday. "I can't help the fact that there's no leadership here, and it's all politics as usual and gridlock. But I can do something about the way we do things in the state of Iowa."
Indeed, right now no issue carries the same level of urgency as the budget impasse.
Congressional leaders have indicated a willingness to let the cuts take effect and stay in place for weeks, if not much longer.
The cuts would trim $85 billion in domestic and defense spending, leading to furloughs for hundreds of thousands of workers at the Transportation Department, Defense Department and elsewhere.
Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said the cuts would harm the readiness of U.S. fighting forces.
The looming cuts were never supposed to happen. They were intended to be a draconian fallback intended to ensure a special deficit reduction committee would come up with $1 trillion or more in savings from benefit programs. It didn't.
"We should go back and remember that sequestration was originally designed by both the administration and Congress as something so odious, so repellent, that it would force both sides to a compromise. There can't be any question, this is something that nobody wants," said Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat.
Obama has stepped up efforts to tell the public about the cuts' negative impact and pressure Republicans who oppose his approach of reducing deficits through a combination of targeted savings and tax increases. House Republicans have said reduced spending needs to be the focus and have rejected the president's fresh demand to include higher taxes as part of a compromise.
Governors said they are asking the Obama administration for more flexibility to deal with some of the potential cuts.
"We know that the cuts are coming, but we also don't want to suffer disproportionately," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, a Democrat and chairman of the National Governors Association.
"We're just saying that as you identify federal cuts and savings, allow the states to be able to realize those savings, too," said Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican and the association's vice chairwoman. "Give us the flexibility to be able to make the cuts where we think it will be the less harm to our citizens."
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Follow Steve Peoples at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples and Ken Thomas at: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas
___
Online:
National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org
CHICAGO (AP) ? For 17 games, nobody has been able to beat the Chicago Blackhawks in regulation.
Now they own the best start in NHL history all to themselves.
The Blackhawks set an NHL record for the best start to a season, beating the San Jose Sharks 2-1 on Friday night to give them at least one point in their first 17 games.
Rookie Brandon Saad's short-handed goal early in the third period ? and with 3 seconds left on a San Jose power play ? snapped a 1-all tie and stood up as the game-winner. Chicago (14-0-3) won its fourth straight game to break a mark set by the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks, who earned points in their first 16 games.
The Blackhawks equaled that run Tuesday with a shootout win over Vancouver.
"It's nice to get another win and make history," the 20-year-old Saad said. "Our group's had a great year so far, so we never expect anything less.
"We're celebrating the win now. I'm sure it will sink in a little bit more tomorrow, but it's awesome to be part of history."
Blackhawks coach Joel Quenneville also reflected on the record, but not for long.
"The guys should be proud of the achievement, the accomplishment," he said." I just think we shouldn't be happy with where we're at. We just want to keep trying to get better."
Saad scored the go-ahead goal after closing in on the left wing one-on-one with San Jose defenseman Brent Burns. After a quick fake, Saad fired a shot from the circle that beat San Jose's Antti Niemi just under the glove 2:24 into the period.
"I just took him (Burns) wide and tried to get a shot off," Saad said. "Luckily, I beat (Niemi) glove side. Sometimes power-play guys drop back a little, and I took advantage of it."
Burns gave Saad too much room on the play, however, according to San Jose coach Todd McLellan.
"I thought that we let a player that wasn't very dangerous ? not because he's not talented or anything ? but a player in a situation that wasn't very dangerous skate into a primary scoring spot without even challenging him," McLellan said.
"I'm not sure if our goalie was on the angle or not," he added, "but I'm disappointed we didn't challenge him earlier."
Viktor Stalberg also scored for league-leading Chicago, which has earned a total of 31 of 34 possible points.
Blackhawks goalie Ray Emery made 26 saves to win his fourth straight start and improve to 7-0. Chicago killed all four San Jose power plays, all of which occurred in a span of under 14 minutes late in the second and early in the third periods.
"(The record) is a notch in your belt, Emery said. "It's special to do something as a group.
"The start of the year is the worst time to do it, I think," he added. "You'd rather do it at the end, but it's great."
Patrick Marleau scored for the Sharks, getting only his second goal in 11 games after getting nine in San Jose's first five games.
Both Emery and Niemi were sharp throughout most of the game. But a misplay by Niemi led to Stalberg's goal at 16:40 of the second period, and he seemed fooled on Saad's score. Niemi stopped 32 shots.
Niemi, who was the goalie when the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup in 2010, also let in a couple of soft goals in a 4-1 loss to the Blackhawks at the United Center last Friday.
Chicago and San Jose faced each other for the third time in 17 days. The Blackhawks defeated the Sharks 4-1 last Friday and 5-3 in San Jose on Feb. 5.
The Blackhawks had a full lineup for the first time since their season opener at Los Angeles.
Chicago defenseman Brent Seabrook, forward Daniel Carcillo and goalie Corey Crawford returned from injuries. Seabrook missed Tuesday's game with a lower-body injury and Carcillo sat out 15 games since suffering a knee injury in the season opener.
Crawford, who sat out three games with a upper-body injury, backed up Emery.
Chicago forward Marian Hossa was back after being hit in the back of the head by Vancouver forward Jannik Hansen on Tuesday and leaving early in the third period. Hansen was suspended for one game by the NHL.
Marleau broke the scoreless tie late in the first period. He connected with 14.2 seconds left to give San Jose a 1-0 lead.
Emery made a point-blank pad save on Joe Pavelski's tip of Joe Thornton's shot from left wing, then Marleau pounced on the rebound in the slot. Emery got his left pad on Marleau's attempt, but the puck barely slid over the goal line.
Stalberg tied it at 1 at 16:40 of the second on a play from the left corner. From a sharp angle and with traffic in front, Stalberg whipped the puck toward Niemi. It struck the inside of Niemi's left pad near the knee and deflected in.
Saad's goal 2:24 into the third made it 2-1.
Then Chicago's penalty killing and alert work by Emery helped preserve the lead.
"I thought we got better as the game went on, each and every shift, Quenneville said. "We certainly got some energy off the penalty kill tonight, none more than getting the shortie in the third."
Niemi was pulled for an extra attacker with 1:10 left, but Chicago kept the Sharks off the puck and off balance. Hossa missed an empty net in the final seconds.
NOTES: The 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks got off to a 12-0-4 start that season and went on to win the Stanley Cup. ... The Sharks played the fifth game of a season-high six-game road trip and are 1-3-1. Chicago C Dave Bolland left the game late in the second period with an upper-body injury and is out day to day. ... Despite the compressed 48-game NHL schedule, San Jose played only one game ? at St. Louis on Tuesday ? since facing the Blackhawks in Chicago a week ago. ... San Jose C Scott Gomez and D Justin Braun were healthy scratches. ... Former Blackhawks player and current broadcaster Eddie Olczyk, a Chicago-area native, was honored in a pregame ceremony for being inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
CAIRO (AP) ? A key opposition leader called Saturday for a boycott of upcoming parliamentary elections, saying he will not take part in a "sham democracy."
President Mohammed Morsi's Islamist party, the Muslim Brotherhood, shot back that the opposition was running away from the challenge and wants power without contesting elections.
The exchange reflected a new escalation in political tensions that could spill into even wider strikes and protests ahead of a four-stage vote set to begin on April 28 and last until June. Morsi announced the elections late Thursday night.
"(I) called for parliamentary election boycott in 2010 to expose sham democracy. Today I repeat my call, will not be part of an act of deception," Nobel laureate Mohammed ElBaradei, who leads the main opposition National Salvation Front, wrote on his Twitter account.
He reiterated the opposition's refrain that Morsi, who was elected in a free and fair vote, is acting like former autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak.
Almost immediately after ElBaradei's call, rifts began appearing in the opposition which has struggled to unite since it led the successful uprising two years ago that ousted Mubarak.
Some activists criticized the boycott call, saying it would alienate the masses and allow the Islamists to maintain their domination of parliament.
The Brotherhood has emerged from the uprising as Egypt's most powerful political group, winning both parliamentary and presidential elections.
The deputy head of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, Essam el-Erian, responded to ElBaradei's call on his Facebook page saying "running away from a popular test only means that some want to assume executive authority without a democratic mandate."
"We've never yet known them to face any election or serious test," he said of the opposition leaders.
In Egypt's first free elections in 2011, the Brotherhood won nearly half of seats in parliament and the more conservative Salafis won a quarter, making the two Islamist groups dominant.
Liberal and secular parties have trailed significantly in all elections since Mubarak was toppled. Their outreach across Egypt, while growing, is still dwarfed by the Islamists' well organized network of charities and programs that assist the poor.
Nearly half of Egypt's 85 million people live below the poverty line, subsisting on less than $2 per day.
Blogger and commentator Mahmoud Salem, a longtime activist who protested against Mubarak and now opposes Morsi, said he disagreed with boycott calls because it offers no real alternative to the current political impasse.
"Where's ElBaradei's party, its plan, its economic vision? Let's say a boycott is the right answer. What will they do so that they can be competitive in the next election?" Salem said.
He said that ElBaradei is also partly calling for a boycott of the vote because the opposition has been unable to win a significant number of seats.
"In reality, it will end up as a parliament composed of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafis, or members of the ex-regime," he said.
The opposition has accused Morsi and his Brotherhood backers of using election wins to monopolize power in tactics similar to the former regime. They accuse him of reneging on a promise to form an inclusive government representative of the Christian minority, women, and liberals.
Elections under Mubarak's three-decade rule were widely rigged and the chamber was dominated by members of his ruling party.
The state-run MENA news agency reported that the president is studying changing the starting of date of elections following an outcry by Coptic Christians in Egypt.
The first phase coincides with Palm Sunday and Easter for Egypt's minority Christians, who tend to travel during the holidays and have consistently voted against the Muslim Brotherhood.
ElBaradei's opposition coalition, which was only formed late last year, had warned for weeks it could boycott parliamentary elections if certain conditions were not met first.
The NSF said it wants a real national dialogue that leads to the formation of a national unity government, changes to the new constitution and stability.
On the second anniversary of the Jan. 25 uprising this year, anger spilled out onto the streets and violence again engulfed the nation.
About 70 people died in a wave of protests, clashes and riots in the past four weeks, and more than half were killed in the city of Suez Canal city of Port Said alone.
The lower house of parliament, which drafts laws in Egypt, was disbanded on June 14, 2012 after the Supreme Constitutional Court ruled that a third of the chamber's members were elected illegally. The upcoming elections are aimed at reinstating the legislature.
Former lawmaker Mostafa al-Naggar, a centrist who beat an ultraconservative, popular Salafi candidate in 2011, said calls for a boycott will be ineffective unless there is unity among the opposition. He said mixed messages will confuse voters and push people away.
He wrote on Twitter that "the decision to boycott the next elections is extremely dangerous because it will clear the arena for the ruling party and its allies to dominate the legislative and executive authorities."
Morsi's supporters say that delaying elections, protesting and boycotting after years of autocracy under Mubarak is affecting Egypt's ability to lure foreign investors and tourists again.
The political unrest has hit Egypt's foreign currency reserves, which have fallen below a critical level to less than $14 billion.
Meanwhile, many residents of the city of Port Said blame Morsi's policies for the turmoil.
A civil disobedience campaign in the city started a week ago.
More than 1,000 people, including hundreds of employees of the Suez Canal Authority, protested Saturday outside one of the vital waterway administration's gates. Shipping in the international waterway has not been affected.
The protesters are demanding retribution for those killed during unrest in the city and for officials to be on trial. On Friday, around 15,000 protested against Morsi and hung effigies of him in the main square there.
There have also been near daily protests in Cairo and in the textile producing city of Mahalla.
Since Morsi's election win as Egypt's first civilian and Islamist president last summer, his popularity has eroded.
Thousands took to the streets in December when he issued power-grabbing decrees temporarily that allowed his supporters to rush a draft constitution to a nationwide vote before a high court packed with Mubarak appointees could disband the process.
It passed with 64 percent amid low turnout and a boycott by thousands of overseeing judges.
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Amir Makar in Cairo and Mosaad el-Gohary in Port Said contributed to this story.
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Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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