Football: Zenit secure Europa spot

MILAN, Italy: A 35th minute strike from Danny secured a 1-0 away win over seven-time champions AC Milan and a Europa League spot for Russia side Zenit St Petersburg here on Tuesday.

With qualification secured two weeks ago, Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri could afford to rest a number of regulars including top scorer Stephan El Shaarawy, midfielder Riccardo Montolivo and defender Philippe Mexes.

However, Allegri's plan almost backfired, with fans leaving the stadium early as the dominant hosts tried but failed to find a leveller to Danny's superb first-half strike.

Zenit had been condemned to perform as well as Anderlecht did away to Malaga to hold on to third place in Group C and a Europa League last 32 spot.

And despite seeing his side defend for long periods as Milan laid siege to the visitors' area Zenit held on for a win which Spalletti did not seem too overwhelmed with.

"I'm happy with the qualification (for Europa) and how we played tonight, it's good we are still in Europe," said Spalletti, who grew up 70 km away from Allegri in Tuscany.

"Winning is important but maybe a draw would have been a fairer result as we ended up defending a lot."

He added: "We have to come back stronger and qualify for the knockout phase the next time because this club, this team deserves it."

Spalletti sent out his strongest possible side, with Hulk spearheading the attack flanked by Danny and Sergei Semak and Bruno Alves marshalling the defence in front of the experienced Vyacheslav Malafeev.

And on one of their few forays into the Milan area Danny pounced to send a superb curling shot past the outstretched Christian Abbiati to secure victory.

"I'm sorry about the defeat, but only in the sense the team put in a good, solid performance. The guys didn't deserve it," said Allegri.

"Otherwise it was a positive performance, we forced Zenit to defend for most of the match and they scored in what was practically their only chance of the opening half."

Milan should have had several goals, especially in the second half when the Russians seemed happy to sit on their lead.

The Rossoneri's hopes for an early opener, however, were snuffed out by the referee who waved away what appeared to be a valid penalty claim after Alves felled Giampaolo Pazzini from behind in the fourth minute.

When Zenit broke the deadlock, Milan's makeshift defence was caught on the hoof, Danny picking up a backpass from his own through ball to beat Abbiati with a well placed shot at the keeper's far post.

Milan responded immediately but attempts by Bojan and Flamini, the latter with a rasping drive which forced a good block from Malafeev, came to nothing.

Milan came close to levelling minutes after the restart when Urby Emanuelson got his foot to Kevin Prince Boateng's cross from the right after a superb counter-attack orchestrated by defender Francesco Acerbi, only for Malafeev to block superbly.

Pazzini then flashed a header wide from Emanuelson's cross, and when Bojan was allowed space to run down on goal he sent his 20-metre drive wayward.

Allegri replaced left-back Djamel Mesbah with Robinho just after the hour mark, and his through ball allowed Bojan to run through with the goal at his mercy on 74 minutes only for the Spaniard to be dispossessed as he wound up to shoot.

With 10 minutes remaining, El Shaarawy replaced Flamini, although it was Robinho who came closest to beating Malafeev when he curled a sublime shot just wide of Malafeev's far post.

El Shaarawy followed up moments later with a shot on the turn which edged just wide of the upright.

Zenit had enjoyed little time in Milan's area in the second half but almost embarrassed the hosts with a three-on-two scenario which only the alert Abbiati thwarted with a superb block from substitute Maksim Kanunnikov's shot in the closing minutes.

- AFP/fa

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SC to decide on Sangma’s petition today

NEW DELHI: The SC on Wednesday will pronounce its decision whether or not Purno Sangma's petition challenging election of Pranab Mukherjee as president disclosed such material requiring a trial for determination of their veracity.

A five-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Altamas Kabir and Justices P Sathasivam, S S Nijjar, J Chelameswar and Ranjan Gogoi will pronounce the order on Sangma's plea for a trial on his petition seeking quashing of Mukherjee's election. Sangma's counsel Ram Jethmalani had argued that there were documents to show that Mukherjee was disqualified to contest the presidential poll as he had not quit offices of profit — leader of Congress party in LS and chairman of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata — before filing nomination.

AG G E Vahanvati and Mukherjee's counsel, senior advocate Harish Salve, had said these posts were not offices of profit even though the former FM had quit these posts well ahead of filing nomination. tnn

Attorney general G E Vahanvati and Mukherjee's counsel, senior advocate Harish Salve, had said these posts were not offices of profit even though the former finance minister had quit these posts well ahead of filing nomination. Both had requested the court to dismiss Sangma's petition at the preliminary scrutiny stage.

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Oldest Giant Panda Relative Found in Spain

The oldest relative of the giant panda has been discovered in Spain—suggesting that the animals' ancestors originated in Europe, a new study says.

Dubbed Kretzoiarctos beatrix, the 11-million-year-old species was previously named Agriarctos beatrix based on a few fossil teeth found at a paleontological site near Zaragoza, Spain (map). Agriarctos is an extinct genus of European bear and a possible panda ancestor that lived eight to nine million years ago. (Read about the previous research.)

Earlier this year, scientists found a piece of A. beatrix's jaw, allowing them to compare it with that of another ancient Agriarctos bear from Hungary. In doing so, the team determined that A. beatrix is actually its own genus, which they called Kretzoiarctos.

The newly named K. beatrix pushes back the origin of giant pandas by a few million years, making it the oldest recorded giant panda relative, said study leader Juan Abella, a paleobiologist at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain.

"Therefore, the origin of this group is not located in China, where the [giant panda] species lives, but in the warm and humid regions of [southwestern] Europe," Abella said in May.

(See: "Ancient Bear DNA Mapped—A First for Extinct Species.")

New Bear Was Panda-Like?

K. beatrix likely shared some similarities with today's giant panda.

For one, says Abella, the newfound jaw fragment shows the animal was likely an omnivore that fed on tough plants, like modern-day pandas. Also like them, and like most existing species of small bears, K. beatrix was probably a great climber. According to Abella, it would have had to scramble up trees to escape big predators of the day—such as extinct, doglike carnivores called bear-dogs—in the forests of what's now Spain.

But at 130 pounds (60 kilograms), K. beatrix was smaller than modern pandas and even more petite than the modern-day sun bear or spectacled bear.

(See "Biggest Bear Ever Found-'It Blew My Mind,' Expert Says.")

An Epic Trek?

It's still unclear how panda ancestors made the epic trek from Europe to China.

Previous research suggests bears generally can migrate easily if the climate is mild enough, Abella said. Eleven million years ago, southwestern Europe was warm and humid-good conditions for starting out, he said.

The bears likely migrated mostly on land. One potential barrier—an ancient European sea called Parathetys—was already shrinking during the Middle Miocene, when K. beatrix lived, said Abella.

As for whether K. beatrix made it to China, "We don't really know, but no fossil remains of this species have been found outside Spain."

Whatever its history, the new research shows that K. beatrix was not your average bear.

The oldest panda relative study was published November 14 in the journal PLoS ONE.

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Obama Sees 'Potential' for Averting the Fiscal Cliff

President Obama says he sees "potential" for averting the "fiscal cliff" in 28 days, but that no deal will get done unless Republicans consent to raise income-tax rates on the top 2 percent of U.S. earners.

"We're going to have to see the rates on the top 2 percent go up and we're not going to be able to get a deal without it," Obama told Bloomberg TV in his first televised interview since the Nov. 6 election.

Obama suggested that Republican opposition to any increase in tax rates has stifled progress in negotiations and at least partly explains why he has not met more regularly with House Speaker John Boehner.

"Speaker Boehner and I speak frequently," he said. "I don't think the issue right now has to do with sitting in a room.

"Unfortunately, the speaker's proposal right now is still out of balance," he added, referring to the GOP plan unveiled Monday that would extend all income tax rates at current levels while imposing changes to Medicare and Social Security.

The GOP proposal would achieve $2.2 trillion in deficit reduction in the next decade, including $800 billion in higher taxes through elimination of loopholes and deductions, slower annual cost-of-living increases for Social Security benefits and a higher eligibility age for Medicare.

Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images

Washington, D.C., Gridlocked as Fiscal Cliff Approaches Watch Video

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'Fiscal Cliff' Negotiations: Ball Is in the GOP's Court Watch Video

The plan contrasts sharply with the White House proposal, which calls for $1.6 trillion in new tax revenue -- largely from higher rates on upper-income earners -- modest unspecified savings from Medicare and a new burst of economic stimulus spending.

Both sides have dismissed out of hand the opposing proposal, raising the prospect of continued gridlock as the economy hurdles toward the "cliff."

Income tax rates for the top 2 percent of Americans remain the immediate sticking point. Obama insists that rates must rise at the end of the year as part of any deal; Republicans oppose increasing rates on the wealthy.

Unless Obama and Republicans reach a compromise, a sweeping set of automatic, across-the-board tax hikes and deep spending cuts will take effect, potentially throwing the U.S. economy back into recession.

The "cliff" scenario results from a failure by Congress and the administration at previous intervals to take steps to reduce federal deficits and debt.

In the Bloomberg interview, Obama said he could be flexible on tax rates and entitlement overhaul, but only in broader discussions next year about revamping the tax code and social safety-net programs.

"Let's let [rates on higher-income earners] go up and then let's set up a process with a time certain at the end of 2013, or the fall of 2013, where we work on tax reform, we look at what loopholes and deductions both Democrats and Republicans are willing to close and it's possible that we may be able to lower rates by broadening the base at that point," he said.

The president also said he's "willing to look at anything" that might strengthen entitlements and extend their financial solvency, but did not specify further.

Republicans continued to rebuff the president's proposal Tuesday, claiming the $1.6 trillion package of tax increases could not pass either house of Congress, including the Democrat-controlled Senate.

"Only one person in the country can deliver the members of his party to support a deal that he makes, and that is the president," said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

He praised House Republicans for "trying to move the process forward" with their proposal, but stopped short of endorsing it. Some conservative advocacy groups have been assailing GOP leaders this week for consenting to any tax revenue increases in a deal with Obama.

"With our latest offer we have demonstrated there is a middle ground solution that can cut spending and bring in revenue without hurting American small businesses," Boehner said in a statement today.

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Presidential campaigns rehash what worked and what did not in race for the White House

Top officials of President Obama’s reelection campaign have pulled back the curtain a bit on why, as public opinion polls were bouncing around during the 2012 race, they remained so certain that their strategy was working.

The reason: Massive amounts of their own polling — not just nationally and in individual states, but in nightly surveys of 9,000 likely voters across 10 battleground states.

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Typhoon smashes into Philippines

MANILA: Typhoon Bopha smashed into the southern Philippines early Tuesday as more than 40,000 people crammed into shelters to escape the onslaught of the strongest cyclone to hit the country this year.

The state weather service said Bopha made landfall on Mindanao island's east coast at dawn, raking across the island of 10 million people, packing gusts of up to 210 kilometres (130 miles) an hour and bringing heavy rain.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or serious damage but Mindanao was in lockdown with residents of coastal and flood-prone areas moving into shelters as floods hit some areas.

Aviation and shipping were suspended, with 80 flights grounded and thousands of ferry passengers stranded at ports as the coastguard ordered vessels to stay in port, the civil defence office said.

More than 41,000 people had moved into nearly 1,000 government shelters across the island by early Tuesday, it said in its latest bulletin.

The commercial centre of Cagayan de Oro, one of Mindanao's largest cities, was hit by flooding as rivers overflowed following heavy rain.

School holidays were declared in Mindanao and large areas of the central Philippines.

President Benigno Aquino led calls for evacuations on Monday, saying: "(Bopha's) destructive potential is no laughing matter. It is expected to be the strongest typhoon to hit our country in 2012."

The Philippines is battered by about 20 typhoons a year, some of them destructive. Bopha is the sixteenth so far this year.

In August, nearly 100 people were killed and more than a million were displaced by heavy flooding caused by a series of storms.

Nineteen typhoons struck the country last year, of which 10 were destructive, leading to more than 1,500 deaths and affecting nearly 10 percent of the total population, according to the government.

- AFP/fa

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Maya gives Congress hope of rescue in RS on FDI vote

NEW DELHI: BSP chief Mayawati on Monday left the Congress hungering for more by strongly indicating that she might not support the Opposition's resolution opposing the decision to let in global supermarket chains. Her hint encouraged the Congress to lobby her to upgrade her support to side with the government during the crucial headcount in the Rajya Sabha.

Sources said the government has clearly told Mayawati that her abstention in a situation where government is found to be short of numbers would equal voting against the government. "In case you don't wish to support the Opposition-sponsored resolution, then you might as well vote against us. What difference will it make whether we lose by eight or 20 votes?" UPA sources quoted a senior UPA functionary telling the BSP chief.

Sources also disclosed that parleys were on with Mayawati to persuade the BSP supremo to turn her indirect assistance into open support for the government in the Rajya Sabha where, unlike in the lower House, mere abstentions by BSP and SP won't be enough for the government to dodge the embarrassment of a defeat.

'BSP won't back BJP in House'

BSP chief Mayawati did not spell out her intent to come to the government's assistance in whichever way on the retail FDI vote in the House, but dropped enough hints to indicate that her party may not vote with the opposition in Parliament despite her professed opposition to the FDI decision. She did articulate reservations about allowing the global retail giants.

But Mayawati appreciated that implementation of the decision has been left for the states: an argument that is also the government's principal defence against the Opposition's campaign. She said that BSP would decide its stance on voting after listening to government's response on safeguards against the dangers that local retailers and farmers could face after the arrival of big global retail chains. Mayawati said the government should order time-bound assessment of effects of FDI in Congress-ruled states that have agreed to implement the policy.

More importantly, she said that BSP, while working out its stance, will have to reckon with whether it should side with "communal parties" (read: BJP-led NDA). "BSP cannot stand with BJP and company and send a message that it was working to strengthen the communal forces," she amplified in what could be melody for Congress's ears.

However, she was resisting government's pitch that BSP vote with the government by citing "political reasons": a reference to the embarrassment in supporting a decision that she vigorously opposed till recently. The absence of BSP and SP will reduce Rajya Sabha's effective strength to 220 on the day of reckoning, leaving the Opposition with a wafer-thin edge.

The anti-FDI column has 110 votes, pushing the government in a situation where absence of even one of its members, for instance, Sachin Tendulkar, who is unlikely to make it because of the Kolkata test with England, can lead to a politically embarrassing defeat.

BSP with 15 members can tilt the scales decisively for the government by aligning itself with UPA on the day of the vote later this week. To nudge her to cast her neutrality, Congress is likely to build up on its argument that a vote against the government would amount to voting with the "communal BJP".

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Mars Rover Detects Simple Organic Compounds

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has detected several simple carbon-based organic compounds on Mars, but it remains unclear whether they were formed via Earthly contamination or whether they contain only elements indigenous to the planet.

Speaking at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, Curiosity mission leaders also said that the compound perchlorate—identified previously in polar Mars—appeared to also be present in Gale Crater, the site of Curiosity's exploration.

The possible discovery of organics—or carbon-based compounds bonded to hydrogen, also called hydrocarbons—could have major implications for the mission's search for more complex organic material.

It would not necessarily mean that life exists now or ever existed on Mars, but it makes the possibility of Martian life—especially long ago when the planet was wetter and warmer—somewhat greater, since available carbon is considered to be so important to all known biology.

(See "Mars Curiosity Rover Finds Proof of Flowing Water—A First.")

The announcements came after several weeks of frenzied speculation about a "major discovery" by Curiosity on Mars. But project scientist John Grotzinger said that it remains too early to know whether Martian organics have been definitely discovered or if they're byproducts of contamination brought from Earth.

"When this data first came in, and then was confirmed in a second sample, we did have a hooting and hollering moment," he said.

"The enthusiasm we had was perhaps misunderstood. We're doing science at the pace of science, but news travels at a different speed."

Organics Detected Before on Mars

The organic compounds discovered—different combinations of carbon, hydrogen, and chlorine—are the same or similar to chlorinated organics detected in the mid-1970s by the Viking landers.

(Related: "Life on Mars Found by NASA's Viking Mission?")

At the time, the substances were written off as contamination brought from Earth, but now scientists know more about how the compounds could be formed on Mars. The big question remains whether the carbon found in the compounds is of Martian or Earthly origin.

Paul Mahaffy, the principal investigator of the instrument that may have found the simple organics—the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)—said that while the findings were not "definitive," they were significant and would require a great deal of further study.

Mahaffy also said the discovery came as a surprise, since the soil sample involved was hardly a prime target in the organics search. In fact, the soil was scooped primarily to clean out the rover's mobile laboratory and soil-delivery systems.

Called Rocknest, the site is a collection of rocks with rippled sand around them—an environment not considered particularly promising for discovery. The Curiosity team has always thought it had a much better chance of finding the organics in clays and sulfate minerals known to be present at the base of Mount Sharp, located in the Gale Crater, where the rover will head early next year.

(See the Mars rover Curiosity's first color pictures.)

The rover has been at Rocknest for a month and has scooped sand and soil five times. It was the first site where virtually all the instruments on Curiosity were used, Grotzinger said, and all of them proved to be working well.

They also worked well in unison—with one instrument giving the surprising signal that the minerals in the soil were not all crystalline, which led to the intensive examination of the non-crystalline portion to see if it contained any organics.

Rover Team "Very Confident"

The simple organics detected by SAM were in the chloromethane family, which contains compounds that are sometimes used to clean electronic equipment. Because it was plausible that Viking could have brought the compounds to Mars as contamination, that conclusion was broadly accepted.

But in 2010, Chris McKay of NASA's Ames Research Center and Rafael Navarro-Gonzalez of the National Autonomous University of Mexico published an influential paper describing how dichloromethane can be a byproduct of the heating of other organic material in the presence of the compound perchlorate.

They conducted the experiment because NASA's Phoenix mission had discovered large amounts of perchlorate in the northern polar soil of Mars, and it seems plausible that it would exist elsewhere on the planet.

"In terms of the SAM results, there are two important conclusions," said McKay, a scientist on the SAM team.

"The first is confirming the perchlorate story—that it's most likely there and seems to react at high temperatures with organic material to form the dichloromethane and other simple organics."

"The second is that we'll have to either find organics without perchlorates nearby, or find a way to get around that perchlorate wall that keeps us from identifying organics," he said.

Another SAM researcher, Danny Glavin of Goddard, said his team is "very confident" about the reported detection of the hydrocarbons, and that they were produced in the rover's ovens. He said it is clear that the chlorine in the compounds is from Mars, but less clear about the carbon.

"We will figure out what's going on here," he said. "We have the instruments and we have the people. And whatever the final conclusions, we will have learned important things about Mars that we can use in the months ahead."

Author of the National Geographic e-book Mars Landing 2012, Marc Kaufman has been a journalist for more than 35 years, including the past 12 as a science and space writer, foreign correspondent, and editor for the Washington Post. He is also author of First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth, published in 2011, and has spoken extensively to crowds across the United States and abroad about astrobiology. He lives outside Washington, D.C., with his wife, Lynn Litterine.

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Suspect Allegedly Told Cops He Traveled to Kill

A man charged in the death of a teenage barista in Alaska told police that he traveled the country with the sole purpose to kill strangers because he "liked to do it," prosecutors said today.

Vermont and federal prosecutors detailed the meticulous and cold-blooded murder of Bill and Lorraine Currier in Essex, Vt., last year and said the information came from Israel Keyes before he killed himself in an Alaska jail cell Sunday. Keyes provided details that only the perpetrator would know, police said.

Keyes, 34, the owner of an Anchorage construction company, was in jail charged with the February murder of Samantha Koenig, 18. While in jail he had been confessing to at least seven other killings in Washington, New York and Vermont.

Now that he is dead, investigators are wondering how many more killings Keyes might be responsible for and why he committed the crimes.

"He provided some motivation, but I don't think it's really [possible] to pigeonhole why he did this," Tristram Coffin, U.S. Attorney in Vermont, said at a news conference today. "He described to investigators that this was a volitional act of his. He wasn't compelled by some uncontrollable force, but it was something that he could control and he liked to do it. Why someone likes to act like that, nobody knows."

Missing Alaska Barista Had Past Restraining Order Watch Video

Authorities described the murders of the Curriers in great detail, offering insight into how the twisted killer traveled to murder, his criteria for choosing random victims and his careful planning of of the murders.

"When [Keyes] left Alaska, he left with the specific purpose of kidnapping and murdering someone," Chittenden County State Attorney T. J. Donovan said at the press conference. "He was specifically looking for a house that had an attached garage, no car in the driveway, no children, no dog."

The Curriers, unfortunately, fit all of Keyes' criteria. He spent three days in Vermont before striking. He even took out a three-day fishing license and fished before the slayings.

In June 2011, Keyes went to their house and cut a phone line from outside and made sure they did not have a security system that would alert police. He donned a head lamp and broke into their house with a gun and silencer that he had brought with him.

Keyes found the couple in bed and tied them up with zip ties. He took Lorraine Currier's purse and wallet as well as Bill Currier's gun. He left the man's wallet.

He put the couple in their own car and drove them to an abandoned farmhouse that he had previously scoped out. Keyes tied Bill Currier to a stool in the basement and went back to the car for Lorraine Currier.

"Keyes saw that Lorraine had broken free from the zip ties and observed that she was running towards Main Street," Donovan said. "He tackled her to regain control of her."

Keyes took Lorraine Currier to the second floor of the farmhouse and tied her up. He rushed to the basement when he heard commotion and found that Bill Currier's stool had broken and he was partially free.

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Sequestration — a threat less than a month away

Decisions have consequences, and in the current debate over how to avert the “fiscal cliff,” the consequence of failing to reach an agreement is “sequestration.”

The dictionary definition of sequestration is “to isolate or hide away (someone or something).” In Washington parlance, sequestration refers to the dramatic cuts in federal spending that are set to kick in automatically at the beginning of January. These reductions would total $1.2 trillion over the next decade, starting with about $50 billion in Pentagon spending and another $50 billion in non-defense spending.

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