Published on Saturday, 30th March, 2013 at 11:00 under the columns category, by Ilan Kelman. Last Updated on 30th March 2013 at 11:11.
Thomas Fuller had a point. Easter holidaymakers in southern Norway are basking in the sunshine, whilst people are losing their lives in the north.
Weather is in the news in Norway. There is a huge temperature difference from this time last year, plus avalanche warnings for the hills. Does this make the weather topsy-turvy?
The extremes do seem to be getting worse across Norway and the weather appears to be more unstable. Simultaneously, we are burning fossil fuels at an alarming rate.
There is no doubt that climate change caused by our actions is affecting the environment. We are heading into a climate regime which humanity has never before experienced.
Permafrost is expected to melt in the Arctic. Sea level is projected to rise to a level which could threaten coastal infrastructure. The Arctic Ocean will have much less sea ice than before.
These changes to the climate (long-term trends) definitely affect the weather (short-term trends). We will experience impacts from both the weather and the longer-term changes, in Norway and around the world.
Some claim that the changes will be advantageous. They want warmer winters. Yet they do not realise that temperature extremes are likely to increase in all seasons. They want an ice-free Arctic Ocean for shipping, yet do not realise that many storms might worsen.
Even if some changes are positive, there will still be immense costs to bear across Norway.
Because simultaneously with a climate regime which is new for humanity, we have a society and technology which humanity has never before experienced.
While humanity has never been immune to severe weather and climate impacts, we have created many vulnerabilities, which climate change will expose further than they are already.
More extreme snowfall will continue to close airports and ground flights. Changes in permafrost, sea-level, and erosion will damage infrastructure. Floods will continue to undermine roads and railways. Increased humidity will damage historic structures.
Is this topsy-turvy, or just trends that increase extremes which we already experience? It does not matter. The changes to the climate which we are causing end up hurting ourselves most.
Dr. Ilan Kelman?is a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research - Oslo (CICERO).
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Published on Saturday, 30th March, 2013 at 11:00 under the columns category, by Ilan Kelman. Last updated on 30th March 2013 at 11:11.
LJUBLJANA (Reuters) - Slovenia will not be the next euro member to need a financial rescue as it can afford to wait for lower borrowing costs before issuing new debt, its top economic official said on Friday.
The new center-left government was widely expected to raise money on financial markets shortly after taking office on March 20 but has not done so because Slovenia's borrowing costs have soared due to the turmoil in Cyprus.
Investors are betting that Slovenia, another tiny member of Europe's currency zone with a population of just 2 million, will also need a rescue to keep its banks and economy afloat.
Last week, Cyprus became the fifth euro member to receive financial help from Brussels to survive a regional debt crisis.
While Slovenia's banks are also in trouble the sector is smaller than in Cyprus and it does not share the exposure to toxic Greek debt and Finance Minister Uros Cufer said his country did not need help.
"We will need no bailout this year," he said. "I am calm."
Like many other euro zone members, Slovenia is in recession, with slowing exports to its neighbors and high unemployment.
It last issued a bond in October last year before the conservative government collapsed over a corruption scandal in January and was this month replaced by the new center-left cabinet of Prime Minister Alenka Bratusek.
Analysts were expecting a swift debt issue from the government but yields have jumped. The 2021 bond yield rose to 6.06 percent on Friday, from 5.45 a week ago.
The International Monetary Fund says Slovenia will need to raise at least 3 billion euros this year for the budget, debt repayment and the bank overhaul, and former Prime Minister Janez Jansa has said Slovenia must issue debt by June.
But Cufer said Slovenia, a mountainous country on the Adriatic neighbored by Austria, Italy, Croatia and Hungary, was not in a hurry.
"We do not have to go to the markets in these overheated times due to Cyprus," he said. "We can wait for the markets to calm down, for the investors to feel comfortable about our action and then we will tap the market."
BAD BANK
He said the government would launch a "bad bank" by September that would take over a part of 7 billion euros in bad loans from the three main banks, all of which are in majority or large state ownership.
The banks would then require up to 1 billion euro ($1.28 billion) in a capital injection, which Cufer said Slovenia could raise later this year via a bond, part of the total 3 billion in planned debt issuance for this year.
With successive governments citing national interests, Slovenia was the only ex-communist state that refused to sell its largest lenders ahead of EU entry last decade, creating a toxic combination of political control and poor management in banks that backfired when the economy went downhill in 2009.
The global financial crisis ended years of fast growth and indiscriminate lending that included loans worth a reported 187 million euros from one bank to the largest builder, SCT, which went bankrupt after a collapse in real estate and construction.
Many other highly leveraged local companies went bust, sticking banks with more bad loans that combined amount to about a fifth of the economy.
Cufer, 42, took part in shaping the bad bank under a plan launched by the previous conservative government on the side of the biggest lender, Nova Ljubljanska Banka (NLB), where he worked as head of financial management.
He said the bad bank had already been established and would be fully operational "surely in a few months, definitely by the start of September".
Along with the 1 billion euros to shore up their balance sheets this year, the lenders will swap bad loans in exchange for state-guaranteed bonds issued by the bad bank, he said.
NO BANK SALES SOON
Cufer said the banks were now worth 10-20 percent of their book value, which would be 25 to 50 million euros, and the government would wait until they were recapitalized and markets stabilized before sells them into private hands.
"Now is not the appropriate time to sell. Selling at these prices makes no sense... Even next year is very optimistic," he said.
Cufer tried to stress that unlike Cyprus - where banking assets were seven times larger than the economy, as opposed to about 1.3 times for Slovenia - Ljubjana could handle its problems on its own.
"Slovenia cannot be compared to Cyprus, it is certainly not a tax haven... the basic problem of the banks in Slovenia is too much debt in companies and a lack of capital," he said.
To offset the costs of bank cleanup, the government will step up the sale of state companies rather than pursue the type of austerity measures that have deepened economic downturns in Greece, Portugal and other struggling states.
He declined to name what companies could be privatized but said they would continue with the program of the previous government. He added there would be at least "one major privatization" by the end of the year.
The last government was mulling selling stakes in telecoms operator Telekom Slovenia, insurer Zavarovalnica Triglav and fuel retailer Petrol. ($1 = 0.7788 euros)
(Writing by Zoran Radosavljevic; editing by Michael Winfrey and Anna Willard)
PARIS (AP) ? The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday night after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, police said.
Nearly 1,400 people were sent away from the tourist attraction following a request from tower operators after the warning, a Paris police official said. Police then searched the monument with sniffer dogs, and set up a security perimeter.
No explosives were found and the site was to be reopened, the official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
French authorities have stepped up counterterrorism measures in recent weeks amid heightened concern about threats to France over its military campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters in Mali which began more than two months ago.
The tower is occasionally evacuated because of such warnings ? at least once last year and twice in 2011. The 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower is one of the world's top tourist attractions, with millions of visitors a year.
We weren't kidding about that influx of FCC filings: the Verizon edition of Samsung's Galaxy S 4, the SCH-i545, has passed through the US regulator's approval right on cue. The device on display ticks all the checkboxes we'd expect, including LTE on both Verizon's main 700MHz band and the carrier's recently acquired AWS frequencies. We also notice HSPA-based 3G, which suggests Big Red's GS4 won't be a paperweight when abroad. The filing just leaves AT&T and T-Mobile as the major stragglers in the US; at the current rate, though, they'll have little trouble getting clearance before they have to fulfill any futureorders.
Baengnyeong Island, which is home to 5,000 South Korean civilians and many soldiers, sits just ten miles from the North Korean border. Despite escalating tensions, most islanders seem determined to stay put while keeping an eye on their neighbors. NBC's Ian Williams reports
By Marian Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News
North Korea said on Saturday that it was entering a "state of war" with South Korea, following a call to arms by the country's young leader Kim Jong Un and days of increasingly belligerent rhetoric from the isolated state.
The North's official news agency KCNA published the joint statement issued by the government, political parties and other organizations.
"From this time on, the North-South relations will be entering a state of war and all issues raised between the North and the South will be handled accordingly," it said.?
The statement also warned that if the U.S. and South Korea carried out a pre-emptive attack, the conflict "will not be limited to a local war, but develop into an all-out war, a nuclear war."
Analysts have said the North's threats have followed a similar pattern but that the country's 30-year-old leader is unpredictable and potentially dangerous.
The White House responded on Saturday by reiterating that "North Korea has a long history of bellicose rhetoric and threats," National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden said in a statement. However, she said the U.S. "takes these threats seriously".
"We continue to take additional measures against the North Korean threat, including our plan to increase the U.S. ground-based interceptors and early warning and tracking radar, and the signing of the ROK-U.S. counter-provocation plan," she said.
David Guttenfelder / AP
As chief Asia photographer for the Associated Press, David Guttenfelder has had unprecedented access to communist North Korea. Here's a rare look at daily life in the secretive country.
On Thursday the U.S. sent two nuclear-capable bombers to South Korea, where they dropped inert munitions in a military exercise. The flight sparked an angry response from the North, which declared on Friday that it was preparing rockets aimed at American bases in South Korea and the Pacific.
"We take these threats seriously and remain in close contact with our allies in South Korea," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokesperson for the National Security Council. The response comes as leader Kim Jong Un declared a "state of war" on South Korea. NBC's Kristen Welker reports.
A South Korean defense ministry official said there were no early signs that the North was mobilizing, Reuters reported.
The two nations have technically been at war since a truce ended their 1950-53 conflict, but tensions have been increasing since the North carried out its third nuclear weapons test in February.
NBC News' Kristen Welker and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related:
Analysis: North Korea's threats predictable but Kim Jong Un is not
North Korea's Internet? For most, online access doesn't exist
PhotoBlog: Pyongyang marchers: 'Rip the puppet traitors to death!'
The Tulsa Health Department is warning 7,000 patients of a local dentist's office that they could have contracted HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C from poor sterilization practices.
Dr. Wayne Harrington, an oral surgeon with a practice in Tulsa, Okla., is being investigated by the state dental board, the state bureau of narcotics and the federal Drug Enforcement Agency because one of his patients recently tested positive for hepatitis C and HIV without known risk factors other than receiving dental treatment.
Upon hearing of the infected patient, the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry conducted a surprise inspection of Harrington's practice on March 18, allegedly finding numerous problems, including regular use of a rusty set of instruments on patients with known infections, and the practice of pouring bleach on wounds until they "turned white."
Calls to Harrington's office were directed to an operator, who told ABC News the clinic no longer took voicemails. The operator said patients were being referred to another clinic, but did not disclose the clinic's name.
Susan Rogers, executive director of Oklahoma's Board of Dentistry, called the incident a "perfect storm." On top of his many violations in sanitary practice, the dentist was a Medicaid provider, which means he had a high proportion of patients with HIV or hepatitis, she said.
Harrington and his staff told investigators that he treated a "high population of known infectious disease carrier patients," according to a complaint filed by the Oklahoma Board of Dentistry.
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He allegedly allowed unlicensed dental assistants to administer medication, according to the complaint. These assistants were left to decide which medications to administer, and how much was appropriate.
Drug cabinets were unlocked and unsupervised during the day, and Harrington did not keep an inventory log of drugs, some of which were controlled substances. One drug vial expired in 1993.
"During the inspections, Dr. Harrington referred to his staff regarding all sterilization and drug procedures in his office," the complaint read. "He advised, 'They take care of that. I don't.'"
Harrington allegedly re-used needles, contaminating drugs with potentially harmful bacteria and trace amounts of other drugs, according to the complaint. Although patient-specific drug records indicated that they were using morphine in 2012, no morphine had been ordered since 2009.
The instruments for infected patients was given an extra dip in bleach in addition to normal cleaning methods, but they had red-brown rust spots, indicating that they were "porous and cannot be properly sterilized," according to the complaint.
The Tulsa Health Department said Harrington's patients will receive letters by mail notifying them of the risk and steps to obtain free-of-charge testing.
While 7,000 patients may have been exposed, Joseph Perz, an epidemiologist with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said it's "extremely rare" to see dental transmission of HIV and hepatitis B or C. In July 2012, 8,000 Coloradans were notified that their dentist had reused needles, potentially exposing them to the blood-borne viruses. But not a single case was identified, according to the CDC.
Dental transmission is not impossible, however. Perz cited a dental fair three years ago in which hepatitis B was transmitted between patients.
In July 2012, more than 1,800 veterans who received dental care at a St. Louis VA Medical Center were warned that improper cleaning of dental tools may have exposed them to HIV and hepatitis.
The Tulsa Health Department has set up a hotline at (918) 595-4500 for people with questions.
ABC News' Dr. Richard Besser and Katie Moisse contributed to this story.
The The Rio Bonito House is set in a lush mountainous area in eastern Rio De Janeiro. It looks the the perfectly pleasant weekend getaway, but more than that, the design is notable because of the balance of both delicate and strong materials. More »
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
A UCLA study shows that heart failure medications recommended by national guidelines are highly cost effective in saving lives and may also provide savings to the health care system.
Heart failure, a chronic, progressive disease, affects millions of individuals and results in considerable morbidity, the use of extensive health care resources, and substantial costs.
Currently published online, the study will also appear in the April 2 print issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers studied the incremental health and cost benefits of three common heart failure medications that are recommended by national guidelines developed by organizations like the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association.
This is one of the first studies analyzing the incremental cost effectiveness of heart failure medications and taking into account the very latest information, including the lower costs of generic versions of the medications. Researchers found that the combination of these medical therapies demonstrated the greatest gains in quality-adjusted life years for heart failure patients.
"We found that use of one or more of these key medications in combination was associated with significant health gains while at the same time being cost-effective or providing a cost-savings," said the study's senior author Dr. Gregg Fonarow, UCLA's Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science and director of the AhmansonUCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Our findings demonstrate the importance of prescribing these national guideline-directed medical therapies to patients with heart failure."
The study focused on mild to moderate chronic heart failure patients who had weakening function in the heart's left ventricle and symptoms of heart failure, which occurs when the ventricle can no longer pump enough blood to the body's other organs. With the heart's diminishing function, fluid can build-up in the lungs so most patients also take a diuretic.
The team used an advanced statistical model to assess the specific incremental and cumulative health and cost benefit contributions of three medications compared with diuretics alone in the treatment of heart failure patients. The medications studied included angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, aldosterone antagonists, and beta blockers.
Researchers found that treatment with one or a combination of these medications was associated with lower costs and higher quality of life when compared to just receiving a diuretic alone. The greatest quality-adjusted life years gained for patients was achieved when all three guideline-directed medications were provided.
The team calculated different scenarios and found that the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of adding each medication was less than $1,500 per each quality-adjusted life year for patients. In some scenarios, the medications were actually cost-saving where heart failure patients lives were prolonged at lower costs to the health care system.
The study found that up to $14,000 could be spent over a lifetime on a heart failure disease management program to improve medication adherence and still be highly cost effective.
For the study, cost-effective interventions were defined as those providing good value with a cost of less than $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year, which is the general standard, according to Fonarow. Cost-saving interventions are those that not only extend life but also actually save money to the health care system. Such interventions are not only more effective, but are less costly.
Fonarow notes that the costs of not effectively taking these key medications would be higher due to increased hospitalizations and need for other interventions.
"Given the high healthcare value provided by these medical therapies for health failure, reducing patient costs for these medications or even providing a financial incentive to promote adherence is likely to be advantageous to patients as well as the health care system," said Fonarow. "Further resources should be allocated to ensure full adherence to guideline directed medical therapies for heart failure patients to improve outcomes, provide high-value care, and minimize health care costs."
The researchers used previous clinical trials and government statistics to help calculate mortality, hospitalization rates, and health care costs used in the model.
Fonarow notes that the study offers broad insight into the cost-effectiveness of these medications and a real-world model would provide an additional perspective.
The costs used in this study were estimates of true costs and the actual costs in different health care delivery systems may vary.
###
No outside funding was used for the study. Disclosures are included in the manuscript.
Other study authors include: Gaurav Banka from the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and Paul A. Heidenreich from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA.
-UCLA-
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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.
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
A UCLA study shows that heart failure medications recommended by national guidelines are highly cost effective in saving lives and may also provide savings to the health care system.
Heart failure, a chronic, progressive disease, affects millions of individuals and results in considerable morbidity, the use of extensive health care resources, and substantial costs.
Currently published online, the study will also appear in the April 2 print issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Researchers studied the incremental health and cost benefits of three common heart failure medications that are recommended by national guidelines developed by organizations like the American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association.
This is one of the first studies analyzing the incremental cost effectiveness of heart failure medications and taking into account the very latest information, including the lower costs of generic versions of the medications. Researchers found that the combination of these medical therapies demonstrated the greatest gains in quality-adjusted life years for heart failure patients.
"We found that use of one or more of these key medications in combination was associated with significant health gains while at the same time being cost-effective or providing a cost-savings," said the study's senior author Dr. Gregg Fonarow, UCLA's Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science and director of the AhmansonUCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Our findings demonstrate the importance of prescribing these national guideline-directed medical therapies to patients with heart failure."
The study focused on mild to moderate chronic heart failure patients who had weakening function in the heart's left ventricle and symptoms of heart failure, which occurs when the ventricle can no longer pump enough blood to the body's other organs. With the heart's diminishing function, fluid can build-up in the lungs so most patients also take a diuretic.
The team used an advanced statistical model to assess the specific incremental and cumulative health and cost benefit contributions of three medications compared with diuretics alone in the treatment of heart failure patients. The medications studied included angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors, aldosterone antagonists, and beta blockers.
Researchers found that treatment with one or a combination of these medications was associated with lower costs and higher quality of life when compared to just receiving a diuretic alone. The greatest quality-adjusted life years gained for patients was achieved when all three guideline-directed medications were provided.
The team calculated different scenarios and found that the incremental cost-effectiveness ratio of adding each medication was less than $1,500 per each quality-adjusted life year for patients. In some scenarios, the medications were actually cost-saving where heart failure patients lives were prolonged at lower costs to the health care system.
The study found that up to $14,000 could be spent over a lifetime on a heart failure disease management program to improve medication adherence and still be highly cost effective.
For the study, cost-effective interventions were defined as those providing good value with a cost of less than $50,000 per quality-adjusted life year, which is the general standard, according to Fonarow. Cost-saving interventions are those that not only extend life but also actually save money to the health care system. Such interventions are not only more effective, but are less costly.
Fonarow notes that the costs of not effectively taking these key medications would be higher due to increased hospitalizations and need for other interventions.
"Given the high healthcare value provided by these medical therapies for health failure, reducing patient costs for these medications or even providing a financial incentive to promote adherence is likely to be advantageous to patients as well as the health care system," said Fonarow. "Further resources should be allocated to ensure full adherence to guideline directed medical therapies for heart failure patients to improve outcomes, provide high-value care, and minimize health care costs."
The researchers used previous clinical trials and government statistics to help calculate mortality, hospitalization rates, and health care costs used in the model.
Fonarow notes that the study offers broad insight into the cost-effectiveness of these medications and a real-world model would provide an additional perspective.
The costs used in this study were estimates of true costs and the actual costs in different health care delivery systems may vary.
###
No outside funding was used for the study. Disclosures are included in the manuscript.
Other study authors include: Gaurav Banka from the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center and Paul A. Heidenreich from the VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA.
-UCLA-
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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.
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Stephen Svetz, investigator with the Arkansas Attorney General?s office, told students about his identity being stolen to help drive home his message of preventing identity theft. Svetz spoke to a crowd March 12 in the College of Business Auditorium. ?About seven years ago, I used my credit card to reserve a hotel room with a guy over a telephone in Branson,? he said. ?A month after the trip, I get my credit card bill and this guy put a semester?s worth of tuition on my credit card.? Svetz said the man who stole his identity was not hard to find because he used his own name to charge the card. Svetz said identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the United States and has been for the past 10 years. He discussed the legal troubles Todd Davis, LifeLock chief executive officer, has caused. Svetz said Davis claimed anyone who purchased LifeLock would never be a victim of identity theft. Svetz said LifeLock has made a lot of money, but that it doesn?t protect consumers. The Federal Trade Commission sued LifeLock after an investigation of the identity theft prevention company found false claims were used to promote protection services. LifeLock agreed to pay $11 million to the FTC and $1 million to 35 state attorneys general. Svetz said the company is back in business with a new business plan that looks beyond the legal troubles. He told the story of David Lynn Jones, songwriter for Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. Janis Rae Wallace worked for Jones and racked up $350,000 in credit card debt on his account. Jones lost his home and was a victim of identity theft for seven years. Svetz said this was the worst case of identity theft he has seen because Jones lost his driver?s license. Another story Svetz told to illustrate the dangers of identity theft involved Little Rock resident Deldrick Withers. Withers was pulled over for a broken license plate light during a family visit to Hampton, Ark. Police ran his name and found that he had five arrest warrants for hot check violations. Withers was placed in handcuffs and spent 29 days in jail because he lost his driver?s license. Svetz ended the lecture with a story about a woman he referred to as Nancy. He said Nancy was a retired military woman who became ill and hired a company employee to take care of her. One caregiver lived with Nancy full-time and stole $450,000 from Nancy. Svetz said the caregiver got Nancy?s house and kept it until dying of a drug overdose a few years ago. Svetz said if Nancy dies before the trial is settled, the caregiver?s family will get the house. Svetz shared advice on social security numbers. He said to never put a social security number on a job application, and told the audience to get a new driver?s license number after losing the previous license. He said to be wary of writing out children?s social security numbers when signing them up for sports, dance classes or other activities. Svetz said social security cards are the most dangerous pieces of paper in the country, with checks being a close second. Svetz said to be wary of email accounts because they are vulnerable to hacking. Mark McMurtrey, Management Information Systems associate professor, said he was glad to have Svetz speak to UCA students. ?Mr. Svetz always brings his real world experience concerning identity theft,? McMurtrey said. ?His anecdotes and real-life stories make the rest of us realize how harrowing identity theft must be.?
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - A Palestinian court sentenced a local journalist to a year in jail on Thursday over a picture posted on Facebook that was deemed insulting to President Mahmoud Abbas.
The ruling against Mamdouh Hamamreh, who works for the al-Quds TV channel in Bethlehem, is the second this year in which Palestinians have been given jail terms over caricatures of the president.
Journalists and media watchdogs, saying Hamamreh was only "tagged" in the photo and did not create it, criticized the ruling and curbs on media freedom by the Western-backed Palestinian Authority.
The offending image juxtaposed Abbas beside a similar-looking man who plays the part of a collaborator with French colonial forces in an old Syrian television drama.
"They resemble each other in everything," a caption read.
Many Palestinians perceive Abbas as too conciliatory to Israel and resent coordination between Israeli and Palestinian security forces overseen by Abbas.
Palestinian rights groups were critical of the ruling.
"(Hamamreh) didn't even publish the picture. When images online are criminalised, it's a very serious violation of basic rights of expression," criminalizedaid Riham Abu Aita of the Palestinian Centre for Development and Media Freedoms.
"We don't have a king, we have a president," she said.
"This issue is between the prosecutor and the court, and the president has nothing to do with its proceedings," Hassan al-Ouri, legal adviser to Abbas, told Reuters of the Hamamreh case.
A court in the northern West Bank city of Nablus in February sentenced a local man to a year in prison for creating a picture of Abbas to make him look like a football player, and entitled it "the new striker for Real Madrid".
Anas Awad, 26, denied he had intended any offence and the president promptly pardoned him.
(Additional reporting by Ali Sawafta; Editing by Michael Roddy)
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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syria's opposition took over the country's seat for the first time at an Arab summit Tuesday in a diplomatic triumph marred by severe divisions in the ranks of the Western-backed opposition alliance.
The opposition's ascension to representing the country at the summit in Qatar, a key backer of the those fighting to topple President Bashar Assad, demonstrated the extent of the regime's isolation two years into a ferocious civil war that the U.N. says has killed an estimated 70,000 people.
In Damascus, the government on Tuesday blasted the Arab League's decision, portraying it as a selling-out of Arab identity to please Israel and the United States.
"The shameful decisions it (Arab League) has taken against the Syrian people since the beginning of the crisis and until now have sustained our conviction that it has exchanged its Arab identity with a Zionist-American one," said an editorial in the Al-Thawra newspaper, a government mouthpiece.
The Qatari ruler, who chaired the summit, said the Syrian opposition deserves "this representation because of the popular legitimacy they have won at home and the broad support they won abroad and the historic role they have assumed in leading the revolution and preparing for building the new Syria."
In a further show of solidarity with anti-Assad forces, the Arab League endorsed the "right of each state" to provide the Syrian people and the Free Syrian Army with "all necessary means to ... defend themselves, including military means."
It was unclear whether the statement would open new weapons channels to fighters. But it would mark a symbolic slap of the U.S. and European allies that have resisted full-scale military aid to the rebels.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told reporters that the call for "rights" to aid rebels is not an end to diplomatic efforts to solve Syria's crisis, but seeks to provide more "balance" with Assad's superior firepower and aid he is getting from Russia and Iran.
"The right to send more weapons to support the opposition is not an end to political efforts, but this might establish balance between both parties," Elaraby said.
Fighting, meanwhile, raged on in Syria. Rebels barraged Damascus with mortar shells that killed at least three people and wounded dozens in one of the most intensive attacks on the seat of President Bashar Assad's power.
The state news agency also reported that a car bomb exploded near the predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Rukneddine, killing three people.
The opposition delegation led by Mouaz al-Khatib, the former president of the main opposition alliance ? the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition ? took the seats assigned for Syria at the invitation of Qatar's emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, while other delegates applauded.
Al-Khatib used the forum to call for a greater U.S. role in aiding the rebels and said he had appealed to Secretary of State John Kerry to consider using NATO Patriot anti-missile batteries in Turkey to help defend northern Syria against strikes by Assad's forces.
Asked about al-Khatib's request for Patriots, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the deployment of the anti-missile batteries to Turkey was a NATO decision with a clear mandate to protect Turkey.
"We've heard some of this before in private," Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "He's now publicly saying this. But again, that's what the NATO mission is."
A NATO official said "the secretary general of NATO has been very clear since the beginning that NATO has no intention of getting militarily involved with Syria. That remains the same."
"Our current deployment of Patriot systems is a defensive action to protect our ally Turkey," said the NATO official in Belgium on condition of anonymity in keeping with the alliance's regulations.
The diplomatic triumph, however, could not conceal the disarray within the top ranks of the opposition and underlined the splits that continue to plague the opposition, complicating U.S. and Western efforts to try to shape the course of the fight to oust Assad.
Besides al-Khatib, the Syrian delegation included Ghassan Hitto, recently elected prime minister of a planned interim government to administer rebel-held areas in Syria, and two prominent opposition figures, George Sabra and Suheir Atassi.
Al-Khatib announced his resignation on Sunday because of what he described as restrictions on his work and frustration with the level of international aid for the opposition. The coalition rejected the resignation and al-Khatib said he would discuss the issue later and represent the opposition at the Qatar summit "in the name of the Syrian people."
Also, Hitto's election as the head of the interim government was rejected by the opposition's military office, which said he was not a consensus figure. Some members have accused Qatar and the Muslim Brotherhood of imposing their will on the Coalition.
Atassi briefly suspended her membership in the coalition after Hitto was elected.
Addressing the gathering, al-Khatib thanked the Arab League for granting the seat to the opposition and lamented the inaction of several foreign governments, which he did not name, toward the Syrian crisis despite the suffering of civilians in his country.
"I convey to you the greetings of the orphans, widows, the wounded, the detained and the homeless," al-Khatib told the gathering in an opulent hall in Doha.
Most of the mortar strikes hit the capital's east side, falling near a school in the Baramkeh neighborhood, the Damascus Hospital, the Law Faculty of Damascus University and the state news agency's own offices.
SANA said one girl and two other civilians were killed.
A government official in Damascus told The Associated Press that four people were killed and 42 wounded. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, and the discrepancy could not immediately be resolved.
Mortar rounds also fell in a number of areas on the city's west side, including the Christian neighborhood of Bab Touma, SANA said.
The agency published photos of a hole in a wall of what appeared to be a school, medics treating blood-stained patients and firemen extinguishing burning cars.
It was not immediately known who fired the mortar shells. Such attacks in the capital have grown more common in recent weeks as rebels have clashed with government troops on the city's east and south sides. While the shelling rarely causes many casualties, it has shattered the aura of normalcy the regime has tried to cultivate in Damascus.
"They think that that through this tactic they can pressure residents to rise up against authorities," said Fayez Sayegh, a member of parliament and a member of the ruling Baath Party. "But on the contrary, this indiscriminate shelling makes people realize that this opposition is nothing but gangs of criminal terrorists."
Meanwhile, anti-regime activists said Syrian troops seized control of a neighborhood in the central city of Homs that is considered a symbol of opposition to Assad's regime.
The Syrian military's recapture of Baba Amr, in Homs, while not strategically important in the civil war, is a symbolic blow to the rebels. The poor, predominantly Sunni neighborhood emerged early in the uprising as a symbol of the rebel movement, first for its protests and later for the armed groups who held it against the regime onslaught.
The seesaw fight for the Homs neighborhood reflects the back-and-forth nature of Syria's civil war. While rebels appear to be gaining ground, their progress is slow and their fighters remain vulnerable to Assad's military superiority.
In other violence Tuesday, the Observatory said that at least 13 charred bodies, including four children and five women, were found on the outskirts of the village of Abil, southwest of Homs city. It said local activists blamed the killings on pro-government gunmen.
The Syrian government does not respond to requests for comment and did not mention the killing in official media.
___
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Brian Murphy in Doha, Ben Hubbard in Beirut, Bradley Klapper in Washington, Tom Wagner in London, and Hamza Hendawi in Cairo contributed to this report.
For a USC wrestling team that did not exist a year ago, the 2013 season has been full of milestones.
To begin the season, the Trojans were officially recognized by the National Collegiate Wrestling Association, allowing them to compete at the National Junior College Athletic Association, NCAA, National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and National Collegiate Wrestling Association levels.
Practice makes perfect ? The USC wrestling team was only able to practice twice a week as per Recreation Club Council restrictions. ? Photo courtesy of USC wrestling
?
And in its first year competing at a higher level, the team made history by sending two wrestlers to nationals, one of whom became the first NCWA All-American winner from USC.
At the beginning of the month, the Trojans sent six wrestlers to Riverside, Calif. to compete in the West Coast Conference Championships. The team fared well, placing fourth overall among teams from the WCC, which includes Sacramento State, UC Santa Barbara, Utah, Utah State and 2013 NCWA champion, Cal Baptist.
Four of the six Trojans who competed in the tournament qualified for nationals: freshman Nick Cegelski at the 149-pound weight class, sophomore Armand Farrokh at 157, freshman Dennis Ruan at 197 and freshman Kevin Kang at 285.
Though all four made history by becoming the first USC wrestlers to ever compete in the postseason, USC was only able to send Cegelski and Farrokh to the national championships in Allen, Texas, because of budget constraints.
?For Nick and I to be going alone to Texas as the first two national competitors in USC history was a daunting thought, but it felt amazing,? Farrokh said. ?I finally felt that I had some attachment to USC and that I was representing the Trojan family.?
Cegelski and Farrokh led USC to 45th place out of 90 teams at the NCWA Championships. Farrokh had an explosive start to open up the tournament, pinning his first opponent, Moises Lopez of the University of Texas-Pan American, in just one minute and 32 seconds to advance to the next round. Next, he fell in a hard-fought match to Danny Apgar of Northwest Missouri State. In the consolation round, Farrokh was defeated by Hunter Allen of Mercer.
Cegelski also had an impressive tournament, placing sixth out of 38 wrestlers in his weight class and earning NCWA All-American honors, to become the first Trojan in history to do so. In the first round, Cegelski defeated Mason Macfarlane of Eastern Washington University 5-2. Then, he was defeated 3-2 in overtime by Peter Crawford of Liberty University. Cegelski bounced back in the consolation rounds by overtaking Evan Burchette of Mercer 7-1, then Vincent Camps of Slippery Rock 4-2. Next, he bested Max Becks of Central Florida 11-9 to clinch All-American status. He went on to win a 6-5 overtime decision over Air Force Prep?s Gerald McGinty before falling to Jesse Freise of Lindenwood and Kyle Spruill of The Apprentice School.
?A year ago, I wouldn?t have believed you if you?d told me I?d be wrestling, let alone be gaining All-American status in the NCWA nationals,? Cegelski said. ?My accomplishment is a result of thousands of hours of incredibly hard work by my coaches, my teammates, the team managers and my parents. At the end of the day, I could not be prouder to represent USC to the abilities I did.?
The team?s success might surprise some people, as it seems the odds were stacked against the Trojans this season. Though some of the schools they competed against have full varsity programs that practice daily under a full-time coaching staff, the Trojans are only allowed to practice on mats two days a week because of Recreation Club Council restrictions for club teams. Additionally, the wrestlers themselves are responsible for scheduling their matches and arranging for transportation and lodging. Unlike athletes from varsity programs, USC?s wrestlers are not able to focus on wrestling all the time.
The Trojans overcame these obstacles this season and hope to continue to make progress in the upcoming seasons and eventually become a premier NCWA team.
?It?s easy to be timid and think that we could never be anything but a club, but that?s not the route we?ve taken,? USC head coach Wes Fulkerson said. ?We?re building and we want to be able to compete with the best.?
The province is delivering on its commitment to making communities safer by providing Manitoba?s young people with more sports and recreation opportunities through the Sport Opportunities Program. This announcement was made by Premier Greg Selinger.
?We know that investing in sport and recreation opportunities for kids outside of school is crucial to the well-being of our young people and the health of our neighbourhoods,? said Selinger. ?We are happy to provide these grants to support community organizations that offer a variety of youth sports programs including soccer, basketball and hockey. The grants will enhance the excellent afterschool programming that is already taking place across the province and will help to get even more young people out on fields and rinks this year.?
The Sport Opportunities Program is providing community-based sport and recreation organizations with two levels of grants:
up to $10,000 for permanent equipment such as volleyball standards, goal frames and athletic field line painters; and
up to $2,500 for equipment with a shorter life span such as volleyballs, pucks and uniforms.
?During our crime prevention consultations, held throughout the province last spring, Manitobans told us that we need give our youth healthy, positive options for the critical after-school period. The Sport Opportunities grants are an investment in sports and recreation programs that will contribute to positive development and will also help make our communities safer and healthier,? said Children and Youth Opportunities Minister Kevin Chief.
The Barbara Mitchell Family Resource Centre?s youth drop-in program received $1,980 through the Sport Opportunities Program to purchase equipment for basketball, volleyball, soccer and badminton.
?While this money might not seem like much, it will go a long way in helping organizations give kids in our community the opportunity to develop teamwork and become physically active,? said Major Wayne Bungay, divisional commander, Prairie Division, Salvation Army.
The Winnipeg Youth Soccer Association will use its $3,500 Sport Opportunities grant to buy equipment for its Mobile Mini Soccer Program, which brings soccer programs to the inner city and allows at-risk youth to participate in soccer programs.
?We are excited to use our Sport Opportunities grant to give kids that might not otherwise have the opportunity to play soccer the chance to do so at their local community centre. These funds will help us bring these kids together and build community through sport,? said Shawna Nagler-Neufeld, president, St. Charles Soccer Association.
Other approved projects include a variety of sport programs including baseball, basketball, fencing, football, hockey, soccer and wrestling. More than $500,000 in grants will be awarded.
How do people learn?? Do we learn by being told or do we learn by doing?? We learn by doing, making our own decisions and living with the consequences of our own decisions.? Sometimes our decisions are good ones and sometimes they are not so good but that is how we know what to do the next time.? We don?t want to ?set up? our child for mistakes and disappointments but we can not protect them and shelter them either.? Life is full of teachable moments.? Many of our teachable moments are mistakes and disappointments.
BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins recently confirmed with CNET that the company would launch a midtier device yet this year and an "exciting" new flagship device could launch around the holidays. "It [the new flagship] takes BlackBerry 10 to another level in terms of the user experience," he said. Great! There's a new BB10 device launching by the end of the year. How's the Z10 doing, Mr. Heins?
FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2009 file photo, Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., reacts to a question during a news conference in Beijing. Dell said Monday, March 25, 2013, that a special board committee plans to negotiate with Blackstone Group and activist investor Carl Icahn over new acquisition bids for the computer maker that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from an investor group that includes founder Michael Dell. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)
FILE - In this Thursday, March 26, 2009 file photo, Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Inc., reacts to a question during a news conference in Beijing. Dell said Monday, March 25, 2013, that a special board committee plans to negotiate with Blackstone Group and activist investor Carl Icahn over new acquisition bids for the computer maker that rival an offer of more than $24 billion from an investor group that includes founder Michael Dell. (AP Photo/Alexander F. Yuan, File)
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The two new suitors pursuing Dell have a message for Wall Street: Don't allow Michael Dell to hoard potential gains from the PC maker's expansion into more profitable technology products and services.
Competing bidders Carl Icahn and the Blackstone Group LP are wooing Dell shareholders with an offer of a little more money today coupled with the possibility of even bigger returns if the struggling personal computer maker can pull off the turnaround envisioned by its CEO and founder, Michael Dell and a group of investors led by Silver Lake Partners.
The new bidders are also making a statement by proposing to maintain Dell Inc.'s status as a publicly traded company.
The long-awaited challenge to Michael Dell and Silver Lake began to unfold Monday with the announcement that Icahn, a billionaire investor with a long history of corporate confrontation, and the Blackstone, a major buyout firm, had submitted separate alternatives in an attempt to scuttle a $24.4 billion sales agreement that has been in place since Feb. 5.
If completed, the original deal would end Dell's 25-year history as a publicly traded company, leaving it entirely owned by Michael Dell, Silver Lake and a handful of other investors. The new bidders are taking advantage of a 45-day window that had been left open for better offers.
Although the details are still sketchy, both Icahn and Blackstone are offering to buy a portion of Dell Inc.'s outstanding stock at prices higher than the $13.65 per share that Michael Dell and Silver Lake have proposed to pay. Icahn is offering $15 per share for up to 58 percent of the company's existing stock while Blackstone will ante up more than $14.25 per share in cash or stock for an unspecified number of shares.
"We intend to work diligently with all three potential acquirers to ensure the best possible outcome for Dell shareholders, whichever transaction that may be," said Alex Mandl, the chairman of a four-person board committee overseeing the sale of the Round Rock, Texas company. For now, the committee is still recommending the deal put forth by Michael Dell and Silver Lake, though they are acknowledging the new offers could end up being more lucrative.
Dell's stock gained 37 cents, or 2.6 percent, to close Monday at $14.51. The shares have been trading above $14 most of this month, signaling that most investors expected alternative bids to emerge.
Monday's developments heighten the uncertainty surrounding Dell, the world's third largest PC maker behind Hewlett-Packard Co. and Lenovo Group. Dell's cloudy future could rattle some corporate customers who may be more willing to do business with HP, Lenovo or other rivals. It also threatens to distract Dell's 111,000 workers at a critical time.
The bidding battle also could culminate in the departure of Michael Dell, who founded the company bearing his name in 1984 while still a teenager attending the University of Texas.
In a statement, Dell's special committee said Michael Dell is willing to work with other parties besides Silver Lake.
Getting Dell's cooperation will be crucial for either Icahn or Blackstone if they hope to gain control of the company, predicted analyst Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy.
"It would be naive to move forward without Michael Dell," Moorhead said. "He is the glue the keeps the place together."
Other analysts fault Michael Dell for not reacting more swiftly to a computing shift unleashed by the 2007 introduction of Apple Inc.'s iPhone and the 2010 release of Apple's iPad. Those products ushered in an era of powerful and elegantly designed mobile devices that are causing consumers and companies to spend less on PCs. The upheaval is crimping Dell's earnings and has left its stock well below its price of $24 when Michael Dell returned for his second stint as CEO in early 2007.
Michael Dell, who would contribute about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to finance his preferred deal, believes he will be in a better position to overhaul the company if he doesn't have to worry about catering to Wall Street's fixation on short-term earnings and revenue growth.
Icahn, Blackstone and other current Dell shareholders also believe the company can bounce back. They just don't want to see Dell sold at a perceived discount that would deny existing shareholders the benefits of a potential comeback.
Under Icahn's proposal, his group would spend more than $15.6 billion to buy 1.04 billion shares of Dell stock, leaving about 900 million of the existing shares still on the market. If Icahn didn't spend all the money earmarked for buying 58 percent of the outstanding stock, the remaining amount would be distributed in the form of a special dividend. Icahn said he and his affiliates currently own about $1 billion worth of Dell's stock.
Blackstone's proposal doesn't spell out how much money it would spend to buy Dell's existing stock, nor does it estimate how much stock would remain trading on the Nasdaq exchange. The New York firm said it hopes to team up with Michael Dell and also hopes to work with other major company shareholders, including Southeastern Asset Management and the T. Rowe Price Group. Both of those shareholders, who combined own nearly 13 percent of Dell's stock, oppose the offer currently backed by Michael Dell.
In a letter to Dell's special committee, Blackstone predicted its bid would be more "compelling" than the deal proposed by Michael Dell and Silver Lake.
If the deal with Michael Dell and Silver Lake falls apart, they would be owed a $180 million breakup fee.
The flexibility of the two new bids appeals to Bill Nygren, manager of the Oakmark Fund and affiliates, which owns about 25 million shares of Dell stock.
"Given the wide range of estimated values for Dell shares, if all else is nearly equal, we believe a proposal is superior if it allows investors who want to remain invested in Dell the opportunity to do so," Nygren said.
Dell shareholders who choose to retain some of the company's stock will be assuming the risk that things could get even worse if the turnaround plan flops and the sales in the slumping PC market deteriorate even more.
Although Dell has expanded into business software, technology consulting services and storage products, about 70 percent of its revenue remains tied to PCs and peripheral products, estimated Sterne Agee analyst Shaw Wu. That's one of the main reasons Dell's stock price had slipped below $10 before talk of a buyout began swirling earlier this year.
"What is going on now is quite good for Dell shareholders," Wu said. "It's a bit like a bailout."
FILE - In this July 1, 2010 file photo show is the SS United States in Philadelphia. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this July 1, 2010 file photo show is the SS United States in Philadelphia. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this July 3, 1952 file photo, the SS United States glides down the Hudson River as it begins its first voyage to Europe from New York in view of the Midtown Manhattan skyline including the Empire State building on the center right. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP photo/Jack Harris, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2011 file photo show is the SS United States in Philadelphia. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2011 file photo show is an enclosed walkway on the once-glamorous cruise the SS United States in Philadelphia. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
FILE In this July 1, 2010 file photo show is the SS United States in Philadelphia. Money and time are running out for the historic ocean liner, which carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades patiently awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront. The nonprofit conservancy working to secure a home and purpose for the 990-foot-long ship said it could be sold for scrap in the spring of 2013 unless they can raise $500,000 immediately. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) ? The SS United States is sending out what may be its final distress call.
The 990-foot-long ship could be sold for scrap within two months unless the grass-roots preservation group that's working to secure a home and purpose for it can raise $500,000 immediately, the group told The Associated Press. Talks are under way with developers and investors about the ship's long-term future, but without the emergency funding, its caretakers fear they will run out of money before a deal is inked.
The historic ocean liner carried princes and presidents across the Atlantic in the 1950s and 1960s but has spent decades awaiting a savior at its berth on the Philadelphia waterfront.
"We've made progress on the fundraising side and the redevelopment side," said Susan Gibbs, executive director of the SS United States Conservancy and granddaughter of the ship's Philadelphia-born designer, William Francis Gibbs. "Our immediate goal is to buy some time."
The group has raised $1 million through fundraisers and a website, where contributors can sponsor a piece of the ship for $1 per square foot, but has received no public funding. What is desperately and immediately needed, they said, are donors with deep pockets and high profiles.
"Are we giving up on successfully redeveloping the ship as a self-sustaining entity? Absolutely not," said Dan McSweeney, head of the redevelopment efforts. "We continue to have active discussions with potential partners, we have ideas of potential sites for the ship, but we need more time to get it off the ground ... and we're running out of runway."
It costs $80,000 a month just for mooring, basic maintenance, insurance and security, he said.
The conservancy is exploring potential partnerships with four entities in Philadelphia and New York City to refashion the vessel as a stationary entertainment complex with 500,000 square feet of space for a hotel, theater, restaurants and shopping. The sluggish economy and other factors have slowed negotiations, McSweeney said.
As talks continue, he said, the hope is to convince corporate sponsors, influential politicians and prominent business leaders ? are you listening, Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg? ? to lend their political and financial capital to the effort.
"Any way you look at it, there is no downside to this project," McSweeney said. "It's an economic and community development project that's going to create jobs."
The SS United States carried more than 1 million passengers at record-breaking trans-Atlantic speeds over the course of 400 round trips from 1952 to 1969, among them President John F. Kennedy, Prince Rainier of Monaco, Salvador Dali and Elizabeth Taylor. A joint venture between the Navy and ship designer Gibbs & Cox, the luxury liner was made with hidden military might: It could have been converted in a single day to transport 14,000 troops for 10,000 miles before refueling.
After being decommissioned it changed hands multiple times, from the Navy and on through a series of restoration-minded investors.
It was towed from Virginia to Turkey to Ukraine, finally arriving in Philadelphia as a gutted hulk in 1996. Another succession of developers and a cruise lines failed to return the ship to service as retrofitting costs proved too great.
A local philanthropist's 11th-hour gift of $5.8 million allowed the SS United States Conservancy to save the ship from the scrapper and keep it berthed and maintained for 20 months. That was last November.
"It's an all hands on deck moment," Gibbs said. "Now is the time, there's a window. Within months it will close unless everyone assists in the effort."
___
Online:
SS United States: http://www.savetheunitedstates.org
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Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
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BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins