Sandusky Scandal: Penn State Child Abuse Charges Lead to Two Resignations

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Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General / APFormer Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, center, is escorted in handcuffs to a waiting police car

Penn State’s legendary football coach Joe Paterno is under fire after two university officials stepped down over a child abuse sex scandal, leaving fans to question how much the iconic coach really knew.

Jerry Sandusky, a retired defensive coordinator for Paterno, was charged with sexually assaulting at least eight boys. The incidents spanned over 15 years, the Associated Press reports. The recent news prompted an emergency meeting of the university’s Board of Trustees, and resulted in the resignation of Tim Curley, the school’s athletic director, and Gary Schulz, the senior vice president for business and finance.

(MORE: Miami’s Football Scandal Clouds the Progress of a School and a City)

The two high-ranking officials, who maintain their innocence, were charged with perjury and failure to report to authorities in 2002, when an assistant witnessed an incident in the team’s locker room showers with Sandusky. The witness, now identified as former quarterback and now coach Mike McQueary, reported to Paterno, who said he informed Curley but was unaware of the details of the episode.

“It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the grand jury report,” Paterno said in his statement. “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky. As coach Sandusky was retired from our coaching staff at the that time, I referred the matter to university administrators.”

Sandusky, who was once thought to be Paterno’s successor, retired in 1999 but continued using Nittany Lions facilities for his charity, The Second Mile, a mentoring program for at-risk kids. The former coach, 67, is facing a 40-count indictment, including reports of sexual advances, touching, oral and anal sex.

Curley and Schulz face arraignment Monday, while Sandusky was released on $100,000 bail Saturday. Paterno has not been implicated in the case, but will surely draw attention for not following up on the reported abuse after he was informed. Paterno was honored in October for his 409th career win, and the last undefeated team in the Big Ten were enjoying a successful 8-1 record before the sex scandal was unveiled.

Joe Amendola, Sandusky’s attorney, said his client has maintained his innocence over the three-year investigation.

“He’s shaky, as you can expect,” Amendola told WJAC-TV. “Being 67 years old, never having faced criminal charges in his life and having the distinguished career that he’s had, these are very serious allegations.”

That being said, you would think Sandusky could have selected a better name for his autobiography.

MORE: Collegiate Corruption: Sports Illustrated Investigates Ohio State’s Jim Tressel

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Illustrator Live-Sketched New York City Marathon While Running

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Niemann's live-sketch drawing titled "Mile 19.3: Bottom of Willis Ave Bridge."

It takes a skilled man to paint while running. Especially during the insanity that is the New York City marathon. But famed New York Times cartoonist Christoph Niemann managed to pull double duty as both marathoner and artist Sunday.

Fully engrossed in his mission to “live-draw” the marathon, Niemann didn’t break any race records (that honor was reserved for the three first place men’s runners), but he did manage to complete the race at 4:08 p.m. He may have been out of breath, but he was certainly not out of inspiration as he crossed the Central Park finish line.

(PHOTOS: The 2011 ING New York City Marathon)

Starting off with his trusty markers in hand – though he did lose a cap to his pink marker somewhere around mile 9 – Niemann chronicled his voyage to the starting line, his running troubles, and the inspirational runners he met during the race. His drawings were a mix of humor and humility: he portrayed himself as a quickly discharged battery around mile 3.2. Expectedly (and not unlike the rest of our daily tweeting) he created a number of sketches about his hunger pangs during the race. But he somehow found the juice to keep going and keep drawing, and in the last mile and a half, he broke out the paintbrushes to chronicle his final steps of the race.

Niemann, who’s a staple in the New York Times Magazine and whose pensively clever drawings appear on his Abstract Sunday blog on the Times’ site, took his craft to the Twittersphere. Tweeting under the handle @abstractsunday, he actually tweeted so much that he says Twitter stopped him midway through the race, and he was forced to set up an alternate account (an exasperated-sounding @abstractsunday1) to continue his live-sketch-tweeting of the marathon.

Truly, Niemann provided a better view of the action across the five boroughs than even the best news camera. This year’s best New York City marathon play-by-play happens to be in painting form.

MORE: Geoffrey Mutai Sprints to Record Finish During New York City Marathon

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US screenwriter Kanter dies at 92

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 09:18 GMT Kanter also directed episodes of The Jimmy Stewart Show Emmy-winning screenwriter Hal Kanter, who wrote films including Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii, has died at 92.

The cause of death was complications from pneumonia, his daughter Donna told the Los Angeles Times.

He wrote Bob Hope and Bing Crosby movie Road to Bali, released in 1952, and also adapted Tennessee Williams' play The Rose Tattoo for the screen.

He also wrote scripts for the Academy Awards broadcasts, for which he won two of his three Emmy awards.

Writing for the Academy Awards was his longest-running job, spanning more than 30 years.

Kanter won another Emmy for The George Gobel Show in 1955.

He also wrote and directed another Presley movie, Loving You, and wrote the screenplays for Bob Hope's Bachelor in Paradise and Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis' Money from Home.

Kanter was also behind the TV show Julia, which aired from 1968-71.

It was the first sitcom to star an African American actress as a professional rather than a domestic.

He is survived by his wife of 70 years, writer Doris Kanter, his three daughters and a granddaughter.

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Boxing heavyweight Frazier dies

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 08:24 GMT The legendary fighter will be best remembered for being the first man to beat Muhammad Ali in New York in 1971

Former world heavyweight boxing champion Joe Frazier has died after a brief battle with liver cancer, his family said.

Frazier - also known as Smokin' Joe - had been receiving hospice care in Philadelphia after being diagnosed with cancer several weeks ago.

The 67-year-old was the first man to beat Muhammad Ali in 1971, but lost his next two bouts with Ali.

He held the world title between 1970 and 1973.

Frazier won an Olympic gold medal in 1964 after going to the Games as a replacement for Buster Mathis, who had beaten him in the trials but could not attend the Games due to an injury.

Continue reading the main story Born 12 January 1944, Beaufort, South CarolinaTotal fights 37 - 32 wins (27KOs), 4 losses, 1 drawWon gold for USA at 1964 Tokyo OlympicsWon NYSAC version of world title with victory over Buster Mathis in 1968Won WBA and WBC versions of world title with victory over Jimmy Ellis in 1970Last world title fight in 1975 against Muhammad AliRetired in 1976 and made a comeback in 1981, fighting just once, before retiring for goodDies 7 November 2011 after suffering from liver cancerHe won the heavyweight title in 1970, after Ali had been stripped of the championship in 1967 for refusing to fight in the Vietnam War, by defeating Jimmy Ellis in New York.

Three years later he lost his crown to George Foreman.

But the boxer is perhaps most widely-known for three great fights with Ali, including the epic "Thrilla in Manila" in 1975.

The pair had a fraught relationship dating back to taunts Ali directed at his rival in the build-up to their famous bouts.

But in recent years, they were reported to be on better terms.

"The world has lost a great champion. I will always remember Joe with respect and admiration," said Ali, 69.

"My sympathy goes out to his family and loved ones."

Continue reading the main story

Truth is, however much Frazier might have protested, Muhammad Ali illuminated Frazier's own greatness while also managing to be the bane of his life”

End Quote Frazier retired in 1976 after again being beaten by Foreman. He then made an unsuccessful comeback in 1981, fighting only once before ending his career for good.

"Goodnight Joe Frazier. I love you dear friend," said Foreman on Twitter.

British former heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis told BBC Radio 5 live: "Without him, other boxing heroes wouldn't be great because they tested their talent against him.

"He definitely was legendary and he made a great contribution to boxing.

"I'm so sad for his family. Nobody likes to hear about great heroes passing on. It's a very sad day for boxing."

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Iran 'does not need atomic bombs'

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 11:56 GMT Mr Ahmadinejad, seen here at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in 2008, criticised the IAEA Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his country "does not need atomic bombs", amid continuing controversy over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Mr Ahmadinejad, quoted by state broadcaster IRIB, warned the US would "regret" any confrontation with Iran.

The UN's atomic watchdog is expected to say this week that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear arms capability.

Israeli President Shimon Peres said on Sunday that an attack on Iran was becoming more likely.

Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.

'Compelling evidence' Continue reading the main story

If you think by pressuring the Iranian nation, you can change the situation in the world, you are very much mistaken”

End Quote Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iranian President Mr Ahmadinejad accused the head of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, of being a puppet of the US.

"This person does not publish a report about America and its allies' nuclear arsenals," he said.

"If America wants to confront the Iranian nation, it will certainly regret the Iranian nation's response," IRIB reported.

"If you think by pressuring the Iranian nation, you can change the situation in the world, you are very much mistaken.

"They are saying that Iran is seeking the atomic bomb. But they should know... we do not need a bomb. Rather, we will act thoughtfully and with logic."

Diplomats say the IAEA report, due for release on Tuesday or Wednesday, will produce compelling evidence that Iran will find hard to dispute.

Fears calmed

On Tuesday, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak played down speculation that Israel intended to strike Iranian nuclear facilities.

"War is not a picnic. We want a picnic. We don't want a war," Mr Barak told Israel Radio.

On Sunday, President Peres told the Israel daily newspaper Hayom that "there is an impression that Iran is getting closer to nuclear weapons".

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that military action against Iran would be a "very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences".

He said diplomacy, not missile strikes, was the only way to solve the Iranian nuclear problem.

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Q&A: Staging the da Vinci show

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Do you remember the moment you had the idea for this exhibition?

We started thinking about this five years ago, when we were beginning to plan the restoration of the Virgin Of The Rocks, so an exhibition to celebrate that project seemed like the right thing to do.

I realised that although there'd been great exhibitions of Leonardo's drawings in the past - including one at the Hayward when I was a young lad - there hadn't been one that focussed specifically on his career as a painter.

Really? That seems surprising.

Well, one of the things I came to realise during the course of the research for the show is that every age invents its own Leonardo. For the late 20th Century, his science and his extraordinarily prescient inventions obviously chimed with the times.

It was also important for the National Gallery to provide a sensible corrective to Dan Brown's mystical, heretical Leonardo. It will be interesting to see whether our interpretation will trigger people's imaginations.

How did you decide which paintings you wanted to feature?

In a way, it was a limited shopping list because Leonardo painted extraordinarily little, and even less survives. And of those pictures, it was clear that some would never be lent, whatever happened - I mean, the Mona Lisa was never going to leave Paris even if we wanted it to. Nobody's going to scrape The Last Supper off the walls.

Two versions of The Virgin Of The Rocks will be seen side-by-side for the first time

The next step, presumably, is to approach the galleries. How does that work?

You do it in order. For the galleries with which you have existing relationships, you can have quite straightforward frank discussions from the outset. So we started quite early on with The Louvre and the Vatican.

We're very lucky that about a third of the loans are drawings from Windsor and the extraordinary collection of Leonardo drawings that belongs to the Queen. Their generosity in lending has made this whole exhibition possible.

Then, with some of that in place, we then turned to the Czartoryski Foundation about the Lady With The Ermine, which is one of the absolute key loans for the show. We don't expect people to say yes straight away.

So the initial loans create a head of steam that gives you an entry point with other galleries?

That's exactly right. Anyone who makes a loan wants to know what the benefits of doing so are going to be: What are you going to find out about the picture by sending it somewhere else that you wouldn't see if you kept it on your own walls?

So the Hermitage, for example, are lending The Madonna Litta in the awareness that we've gathered all the drawings, by Leonardo and by his followers, that have ever been connected with that work and this will be a moment to see them all together.

To what extent do galleries bargain to get something in return?

It depends, frankly, on what kind of relationship you have. With The Louvre, we have a very informal relationship. We vaguely keep count of how much is going in each direction, but the assumption is that both institutions have a very active exhibition programme and we want to support each other as much as we can.

With other institutions, like the Ambrosiana in Milan, they have a smaller collection and for them, sending the Portrait Of The Musician was an enormous deal which they needed to think about very carefully.

We offered to send Boticelli's mystic nativity as an exchange - but a considered one, because they have a Boticelli of exactly the same moment and they could do a small focus exhibition with the two pictures. So we tried to make these exchanges serious and sensible.

How nervous do other galleries get about transporting their paintings abroad?

All the institutions wanted to be reassured about the way in which we control the ambient climate and humidity and temperature in our exhibition space. Others, on top of that, wanted to create micro-climates for their works, which might be about sealing the picture into its frame or making a case especially for it.

What sort of condition are da Vinci's paintings in?

Curator Luke Syson gives the BBC's Arts Editor, Will Gompertz, a guided tour of Da Vinci's only known portrait of a man, Portrait of a Musician

The fact that his pictures were painted, for the most part, on walnut panels rather than poplar panels is an important factor in making them more movable than other panel paintings of the period.

It's a better wood, it's better grained and it's less likely to be eaten by woodworm, so on the whole it's in better shape.

It's not quite clear why he chose walnut, however. He writes about how that's his support of choice - but his Florentine pictures, including the Mona Lisa, are painted on poplar. It may just have come down to what was available.

Which painting are you proudest of getting?

In the end, the chance to see the two versions of The Virgin Of The Rocks together for the first time in history is a great coup - especially because it will almost certainly never happen again. I try not to think about it too much.

Is there a piece you regret being unable to obtain?

It's probably not tactful to talk about this, but I'm going to anyway. My only real sadness is that there is an incredible drawing in Turin of a young woman's head. It's usually thought to be a sketch for the angel in the Louvre's version of The Virgin Of The Rocks - but some people think it is a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani. The fact that the two Virgins Of the Rocks and Cecilia will be in London would have made its loan wonderful.

But they're doing their exhibition of Leonardo's drawings in Turin from their own collection, and that was something which was long-planned, so it just wasn't going to change.

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter Of The Court Of Milan starts at the National Gallery on 9 November and runs until February next year. Luke Syson was talking to BBC Entertainment and Arts reporter Mark Savage.

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Conrad Murray Found Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter in Michael Jackson’s Death

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Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

A Los Angeles jury found Conrad Murray, the physician accused of involuntary manslaughter in the 2009 death of Michael Jackson, guilty on Monday.

The jury, made up of five men and seven women, deliberated for about eight hours between Friday and Monday after hearing closing arguments from the prosecution and defense throughout the day on Nov. 3 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court.

Murray, 58, sat stoically while the verdict was read. His lead attorney, Ed Chernoff, who came to Los Angeles from Houston to defend him, looked sullen and frustrated. After the announcement, dismissal of the jury and queries on sentencing to the defense, Murray was remanded and denied bail. Sentencing was set for Nov. 29.

(MORE: NewsFeed’s Coverage of the Conrad Murray Trial)

The six-week trial hinged largely on scientific demonstrations and the testimonies of two well-regarded anesthesiologists, Dr. Steven Shafer and Dr. Paul White. Both are highly published and sought-after lecturers and experts on the anesthetic propofol. They were on opposite sides when it came to determining whether Murray was negligent by leaving Jackson’s bedside after he gave him an injection of the drug and by failing to immediately call 911 when he returned to discover that Jackson was not breathing.

(PHOTOS: A Post-Michael Guide to the Jackson Family)

An autopsy found that Jackson was killed by an overdose of the drug. Defense lawyers argued that Murray’s carelessness caused a lethal amount of it to seep into Jackson’s system. Murray admitted to giving propofol to Jackson but said he was trying to wean him off it because he feared the pop singer was becoming addicted. Meanwhile, Murray’s defense countered that Jackson could have taken the drug while Murray was out of the bedroom. White himself said on the stand that Jackson, desperate for sleep in preparation for his comeback This Is It tour, may have injected himself with the drug, causing his own death.

Others, including Jackson’s bodyguard, nurse and people involved with the launch of the tour, were also called to the stand. Murray told Judge Michael Pastor that he would not testify in his own defense.

Loyola Law School Los Angeles Professor Stan Goldman, who has been monitoring the trial from the beginning, said the verdict came as no surprise given the strength of the prosecution’s case.

“I think it would have been a shocker if this hadn’t happened,” he explained. “Conrad Murray’s criminal negligence was pretty obvious once the trial got going.”

He continued, “The prosecution’s case was pretty overwhelming. The best argument the defense had was one they couldn’t make: that Michael Jackson wanted this particular doctor to give him this powerful sleep medication. The only chance the defense had was to prove that Jackson caused his own death.”

With the guilty verdict, Murray could face four years behind bars and the loss of his medical license.

MORE: Jackson’s Death: How Dangerous Is Propofol?

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Deadly stampede at India festival

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 10:10 GMT There are fears the number of casualties could rise At least 16 people have been killed in a stampede in the northern Indian holy town of Haridwar, officials say.

About 50 others were injured as devotees gathered to mark the 100th anniversary of the birth of the founder of a Hindu sect.

Thousands have been attending the ceremony for Sri Ram Sharma, who founded the Gayatri Parivar sect.

Reports said the number of casualties could rise. Television footage showed injured people being taken to hospital.

"More worshippers turned up than the place could accommodate and so the stampede occurred," a senior local official, D Santhel Pandiyan, told the AFP news agency.

Many women and children are reported to be among the dead and injured.

Hemant Sahu, who works for the event organisers, told AFP: "When the big ritual was going on, too many people rushed forward to make their offerings to the holy fire and the crowd got out of control."

Reports said a number of people fell but other pilgrims continued to push.

Haridwar, 173km (107 miles) north of Delhi, is a temple-filled town where the Ganges emerges from the Himalayan mountains and is considered sacred by Hindus.

The huge numbers attending religious festivals in India make stampedes a frequent risk.

A stampede at a festival in the southern state of Kerala in January killed more than 100 people.

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The cost of petrol and oil: How it breaks down

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 00:00 GMT By Richard Anderson and Damian Kahya Business reporters, BBC News Only about a third of the cost of petrol at the pumps actually represents the cost of the raw material from which it is made - oil We all know petrol costs a lot, but how many of us actually know why, and who profits from selling the stuff?

The cost of petrol and diesel can actually be broken down fairly precisely, and it's immediately obvious who the primary beneficiary is: the government.

Well over half, in fact about 60%, of the £1.34 odd we pay for a litre of unleaded is fuel duty and VAT.

Less than 5% goes to the petrol retailer, in some cases more like 1%, which helps in part to explain why so many are struggling despite recent rises in fuel costs.

Next to tax, the single biggest component in the price of petrol is... well, the petrol itself, which accounts for about 30% of the overall cost.

This is what the retailers actually pay for the petrol that comes out of the pumps. This can then be broken down into the cost of oil - the basic material from which petrol is derived - and the cost of refining it into something that powers your car rather than clogs it up.

This refining process actually accounts for very little of the average litre of petrol, so we are left with the cost of oil, which is where things start to get a bit tricky.

Big variation

The price of a barrel of oil on the open market is well documented (currently it's about $107 for a barrel of Brent crude), but how this figure is broken down into its component parts is much harder to determine.

Cynics would say this is because vested interests within the oil industry don't want us to know. But delving just a little into the actual cost of producing oil, rather than its price, suggests this view may be a little simplistic.

One of the main reasons for the lack of transparency is simply that there is no standard barrel of oil - the cost of producing one varies massively depending on which of the many thousand oil rigs around the world it comes from.

For example, a bog standard barrel of oil from Saudi Arabia costs about $2-$3 to extract from the ground, whereas a barrel taken from tar sands in Alberta can cost more than $60.

But this in no way represents the cost to oil companies of producing the black stuff.

First they have to find it, which actually accounts for remarkably little of their overall expenditure on production, despite the fact they are having to look further and wider, given dwindling supplies from traditional sources.

For example, setting up a deep water exploration well can cost between $100m and $200m, and only has a one in four chance of success on average, according to Robert Plummer, senior analyst at global energy research group Wood Mackenzie.

Maintaining oil rigs is an expensive business

Then they have to lease the land on which they want to drill, obtain the rights to do so, appraise the reserves they are tapping into, lease the rig and put in place the pipelines and shipping contracts needed to transport the oil for refining.

And this is a lengthy process - typically about seven years from discovery to production.

Roughly, this accounts for about 20% of the cost of a barrel of oil, but it's getting ever more expensive as oil runs out and companies are forced to drill deeper in more remote places.

Then of course they have to operate the rigs, which involves maintaining the heavy equipment needed to pump the oil, monitoring and managing reserves, redrilling blocked wells and paying for supplies for crews, who need to be compensated handsomely for the risky work they undertake. This accounts for about 10% of the cost of oil.

This gets us roughly to what a barrel of oil costs to get out of the ground. These figures are based on a proxy cost of oil, which actually includes a not-insignificant weighting for gas. Also bear in mind that these percentages are based on figures for 2011, and they do vary from year to year (see chart below).

Taxing profits

But this is not the cost of oil, for there are two major components missing - tax and the profit the oil companies themselves make. These will account for almost two-thirds of the overall cost of oil in 2011, according to Wood Mackenzie's figures, although it's clear who the biggest beneficiaries are. You guessed it: governments.

Tax on oil is a complicated business - some is charged as a percentage of revenue, while export duties can be onerous - but a good chunk of government revenue comes from taxing the profits of oil companies.

Marginal tax rates on profits in the UK are 62%, more than 80% in Norway and about 90% in some countries. And when profits rise, taxes rise, not just because they are based on a percentage of profits, but also because governments can raise the actual rate of tax itself.

However, even with such high rates of tax, this year oil companies are looking at margins of about 25% of the total cost of oil, which is pretty spectacular by most industries' standards, although this figure does not include financing costs. UK gas and electricity companies, for example, work to margins of about 9%, according to the regulator Ofgem.

But again, these margins vary widely from year to year. For example, in 2009, margins were about 8%, while in 1998, oil companies made no profit at all.

In fact, companies use bumper years to insulate themselves against leaner years, Mr Plummer says.

Finally, then, we have a rough idea of the how the cost of oil breaks down.

Speculation

The margins that oil companies make depend largely on the actual price of oil on the open market.

The difference between the cost of oil and the price of it largely comes down to supply and demand, and speculation by investors. When supply is constrained, such as Libya ceasing production of its high quality oil earlier this year, the price is forced up.

Equally, when demand falls away, for example during the recession that hit most developed economies in 2008, the price falls. More importantly, it is the expectation of future supply and demand that drives the price.

Finally there is the impact of speculators, which is almost impossible to quantify, but many organisations, the motoring group AA among them, believe investors play an increasingly significant role in driving the oil price.

But whether it's speculators, investors, governments or oil companies benefiting from high costs of petrol and oil, one thing is certain - consumers invariably end up losing out.

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Amanda Knox Ex Raffaele Sollecito Gives TV Interview: ‘It’s Over’

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Raffaele Sollecito is set free on Oct. 3, 2011, after spending almost four years in an Italian prison

In his first public appearance since his murder conviction was overturned, Raffaele Sollecito, the onetime boyfriend of Amanda Knox, spoke out about the nearly four years he spent behind bars and the current state of his relationship with Knox.

On the Italian TV program Quarto Grado, the 27-year-old Sollecito acknowledged that Knox had invited him to Seattle but said he was not sure if or when he would go. He confirmed that their relationship is over, according to the Daily Mail: “I still have a great affection toward her, but nothing else.”

Sollecito’s TV interview contradicts earlier reports in the British and Italian media that the former couple were in close contact. Francesco Sollecito, Raffaele’s father, has also denied that his son frequently speaks to Knox.

Knox and Sollecito were sentenced to 26 years and 25 years in Italian prison, respectively, for the murder of Knox’s roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia in 2007. A review of the DNA evidence in their appeals trial this summer revealed numerous inconsistencies, and after the genetic evidence was largely discredited, both defendants were declared not guilty and freed in October.

(MORE: Amanda Knox Goes Free: Why Italy Isn’t Pleased About Her Trial by Media)

The couple had been dating for only a week before the murder, so it seems their relationship never got a chance to develop naturally. In the interview, Sollecito said, “We were both victims of a cruel injustice, and our relationship was overcome by this tragedy — our lives are linked by circumstances, but now they are very different.”

Sollecito also expressed a desire to help the Kercher family find out what really happened to their daughter, though it is unclear what he could do to accomplish this. He said he tried to contact them but “found the doors closed” and did not press any further.

Knox has tried to resume a normal life in Seattle, and is reportedly in a live-in relationship with classical guitarist James Terrano. She came under fire recently when she dressed as a cat burglar for Halloween, which critics deemed insensitive and tasteless. Kercher was killed in what was either a real or staged burglary attempt.

Frankly, NewsFeed can’t blame either party for wanting to put this chapter of their lives solidly in the past. The next question is, when will Knox speak out?

MORE: Why There Will Always Be Three Amanda Knoxes

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White House denies alien contact

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 11:05 GMT Astronomers are listening to the cosmos; but no evidence exists yet for alien life The US government has formally denied that it has any knowledge of contact with extraterrestrial life.

The announcement came as a response to submissions to the We The People website, which promises to address any petition that gains 5,000 signatories.

Two petitions called for disclosure of government information on ETs and an acknowledgement of any contact.

The White House responded that there was "no evidence that any life exists outside our planet".

More than 17,000 citizens joined the two petitions, and the White House has since amended the requirements for response to a minimum of 25,000 signatories.

"The US government has no evidence that any life exists outside our planet, or that an extraterrestrial presence has contacted or engaged any member of the human race," wrote space policy expert Phil Larson of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

"In addition, there is no credible information to suggest that any evidence is being hidden from the public's eye."

The post went on to outline the efforts that are underway that may add evidence to the debate, namely the space missions Kepler and the Mars Science Laboratory.

Kepler is searching for Earth-like planets around far-flung stars, and the Mars Science Laboratory will sample the Red Planet's geology looking for the building blocks of life - though it will not explicitly look for life itself.

Perhaps the most famous effort in the hunt for alien life is the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (Seti), once funded in part by US space agency Nasa, which continues to listen to and look around the cosmos for signs of intelligent civilisations elsewhere.

Mr Larson summarised the numbers game that a hunt for ETs necessarily entails.

"Many scientists and mathematicians have looked... at the question of whether life likely exists beyond Earth, and have come to the conclusion that the odds are pretty high that somewhere among the trillions and trillions of stars in the Universe there is a planet other than ours that is home to life," he wrote.

"Many have also noted, however, that the odds of us making contact with any of them - especially any intelligent ones - are extremely small, given the distances involved."

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Greeks in talks over new leader

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 12:38 GMT Greek politicians are under international pressure to resolve their differences Greece's political leaders are still locked in debate over the formation of a unity government they hope can save the country from imminent bankruptcy.

PM George Papandreou is to stand down once the government is formed but his replacement has not yet been named.

The new leadership will be tasked with ratifying a vital EU bailout package.

Greece is under huge international pressure to resolve its political crisis, in order to calm the global markets and protect the eurozone.

An agreement on an interim leader had been expected on Monday but by Tuesday morning, there was still no announcement from the negotiations between Mr Papandreou and opposition leader Antonis Samaras, of the New Democracy party.

An emergency cabinet session chaired by Mr Papandreou on Tuesday ended still without an announcement.

"Today is the last chance for the two main parties," daily newspaper Nea wrote in an editorial on Tuesday.

"They have to come up with a government strong enough to take the country out of the moving sand of political impasse that leaves us defenceless, at the mercy of the crisis. Time is up."

"A national unity government, right now," the daily newspaper Ethnos wrote on its front page, adding: "The country and the society cannot endure any more."

Greece must approve the EU bailout if it is to avoid going bankrupt by the end of the year. But the deal demands stringent austerity measures and spending cuts which have proved hugely unpopular with many Greeks.

Continue reading the main story Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens

The waiting game continues in Greece as the name of the next prime minister remains unknown.

Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank, is the front runner. He helped Greece move from drachma to euro, a process he would hope will not have to be reversed as the debt crisis worsens.

And though the political turmoil is not over, MPs have broadly welcomed the coalition deal. The new government will be faced with a deeply disillusioned population and a crisis which threatens the whole eurozone.

The concern is that Greece's long-term financial prospects remain bleak. But this country is taking things day-by-day for now. It is too hard, perhaps too dangerous, to peer too far into the future.

Mr Papandreou agreed to stand down on Sunday, after days of upheaval caused by his call - now revoked - for a referendum on accepting the bailout.

Since then, he had been trying to build a national unity government to replace his Pasok party administration. However, Mr Samaras was refusing to negotiate unless his rival resigned.

The first steps in forming the new government were finally announced after late-night talks on Sunday between the two men, hosted by President Karolos Papoulias.

A Greek government spokesman said a new administration would be sworn in and a confidence vote held within a week, if all went well.

Greece's new political roadmap envisages elections being held - possibly on 19 February - once the new government has approved an EU bailout package.

Government figures spent Monday locked in discussions on the framework of the interim authority and their roles within it.

Lucas Papademos, a former vice president of the European Central Bank (ECB), is widely seen as the frontrunner to become interim prime minister, while Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos - for a time considered to be a candidate - is expected to remain at the finance ministry.

The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says it is believed Mr Papademos expressed doubts that an interim administration could be effective until proposed elections in February.

It appears he wants to stay in power longer if chosen, he adds.

Our correspondent says there will be immense pressure on whoever takes over, while European leaders will be hoping that person will work with them in trying to contain the country's debt crisis and prevent it from spreading further across the eurozone.

Eurozone finance ministers held talks in Brussels on Monday, adding to the pressure on Greece to find an early solution to the political deadlock.

Mr Venizelos also attended the talks, telling reporters that the move towards a unity government was "proof of our commitment and of our national capacity to implement the programme and to reconstruct our country".

Views of the Greek people: "When there's an uprising, then things will change"

But eurozone finance ministers have asked for written assurances from Mr Papandreou and Mr Samaras that they are committed to passing the rescue package.

Eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker said he was "quite confident that now the situation in Greece is developing in the right direction" but that it "should have been done months ago".

The EU says no more of the funds which have been promised to Greece will be released until the new bailout deal has been approved.

Political crisis

The hard-fought bailout deal for Greece agreed by the EU last month gives the government 130bn euros (£111bn; $178bn) and imposes a 50% write-off on private holders of Greek debts, in return for deeply unpopular austerity measures.

But Mr Papandreou faced the wrath of fellow EU leaders when he announced that he would put the deal to the people of Greece in a referendum

Continue reading the main story Tuesday: Details of unity government and name of prime minister expected to be announcedWithin a week: Coalition sworn in and confidence vote held; the new coalition must win parliamentary approval for the EU bailout plan before calling early electionsMid-December: Greece would receive next tranche of bail-out money19 February: Possible date for early electionThe idea was dropped days later, but not without sparking a deeper financial crisis and triggering the political crisis which led to the confidence vote last Friday.

Mr Papandreou narrowly won that vote, but had been under continuing pressure to resign amid chaos over the debt crisis.

The possibility of Greece leaving the euro has also been raised by EU leaders, if Athens fails to resolve its political and financial problems.

There are fears that the crisis could spread to bigger eurozone countries like Italy.

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Thai PM pulls out of Apec summit

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 10:56 GMT Ms Yingluck said that farmers and workers hit by the floods would be compensated Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has pulled out of an Asia-Pacific summit at the weekend to focus on the floods crisis.

Water from inundated central areas is still advancing into parts of Bangkok, threatening two more industrial parks.

On Tuesday Ms Yingluck outlined plans to rehabilitate areas affected by the flooding, which has hit the economy.

More than 520 people have died as a result of the worst flooding in Thailand for half a century.

Schools delayed

Ms Yingluck had been due to attend the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) forum in Hawaii on 12 and 13 November, but she said she had asked her deputy to go instead.

"I think right now all Thais need to help each other," she said.

She announced the establishment of two committees to tackle the effects of the flooding - one to oversee reconstruction and development, the other to look at management of water resources.

Residents in 12 districts have been told to evacuate as the flooding has encroached

And she said her government was ready to face the challenge of building confidence particularly among foreign investors.

The prime minister also promised compensation for farmers and factory workers, and help for businesses trying to recover from the floods.

But, says the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Bangkok, there was a conspicuous absence of hard figures or a clear indication of where the money will come from.

Meanwhile the flood waters are now about 7km (4.5 miles) from the key business and shopping districts in central Bangkok.

Residents have been told to evacuate in 12 out of the city's 50 districts.

The domestic airport at Don Muang remains closed but the international airport is functioning normally.

Education officials have pushed back the start of the new school term in flood-hit areas by a week to 21 November.

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Tackling South Korea's suicide rates

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 01:09 GMT The head of a savings bank jumped from his Seoul offices in an apparent suicide last month More than 40 South Koreans a day are taking their lives and the government in Seoul has recognised it is a problem that needs tackling. But, as the BBC's Lucy Williamson finds out, the reasons for such a high suicide rate are complicated and not easy to solve.

The call-centre for Seoul's emergency services is a windowless bunker, buried alongside the forested slopes of Namsan hill.

It used to be the home of South Korea's spy agency. Now it is where the city's emergency calls come in: reports of traffic accidents, crimes, and - increasingly - suicides.

According to the government, more than 40 South Koreans a day are taking their own lives - five times as many as in their parents' day.

Unsurprisingly, the operators here say calls from people wanting to commit suicide - or witnesses to it - are increasing.

Giant screens flash details of all the calls coming in to the rows of operators. They sit surrounded by dashboards of coloured lights and communications equipment. There is a constant blur of noise.

It does not take long before the first suicide call flashes up.

"There's a person trying to jump off a building," the caller says, "and he has a knife in his hand."

One of the team, Ki-jong Gwan, says the operators have had no formal training in handling these kinds of calls, but that staff often share tips amongst themselves.

Continue reading the main story

From the beginning of childhood, the importance of money and achievement are emphasised by their parents...”

End Quote Dr Kang-ee Hong Child psychologist "I think there's a limit to what we can do," he said. "Some of the calls I remember were from people who'd already decided to take their lives and just wanted to ask that their bodies be taken care of.

"Others call up seeking advice on the best way to commit suicide. There are some situations where we've intervened and helped stop the person taking their life. But I think there needs to be a more fundamental solution."

Taboo subject

Across the city, in a small psychiatric hospital, Jong-sun Woo is starting another day in the ward she shares with five other women.

Jong-sun is 21 years old. She has tried to commit suicide many times over the past 10 years, and now chooses to live here in the hospital, where she is receiving support and counselling.

"I can't think how many times I've tried to kill myself," she told me. "It must now be over 20 times, it's been so many I've lost count."

She told me that she had kept her feelings of depression from those around her, and that when they had discovered her attempts at suicide, her family and friends blamed her for her depression.

"They said my mind was weak, and that if I could boost my spirits, I could make myself better. I felt a real sense of despair," she said. "I didn't think it was my fault but when people acted like that I began to wonder if perhaps it was. And the feeling lingered."

Jong-sun believes there is little real understanding of mental illness in South Korea, despite the spiralling suicide rate. Only here, after 10 years, has she managed to find the counselling she needed, she says, and is starting to feel better. Awareness was starting to improve, she said, but "I think it's a bit late".

Jong-sun Woo (left) is helping to raise awareness of mental health issues in street campaigns

But the real question is why this is happening at all in a country that is richer, more stable and more influential than at any time in its history?

South Korea is now the world's 12th largest economy. A place where you can surf the internet on the underground, dance the night away in a salsa club, and buy a decent cappuccino on your way to work. And yet people here seem less happy than during the years of hardship after the Korean War.

Kang-ee Hong, a child psychologist, says that over the past 40 years, South Korean parents have abandoned traditional values in favour of one single goal.

"From the beginning of childhood, the importance of money and achievement are emphasised by their parents, so they feel that unless you are successful in school grades and a good job, good prestigious college, you're not successful, and the parents behave as if 'you're not my child'," Dr Hong said.

Even young children typically work from early morning until late at night, and often at weekends too, to get into the best university they can and eventually secure a well-paying job. The pressure is intense, and the routine relentless - for years on end.

Dr Hong says that, for parents, the pressure to push their children even harder has led to them overcoming the stigma of going to a psychiatrist. But, he says, they often come for the wrong reasons.

They come to me to help their child work harder, he says, "to have better grades by being treated for ADHD (Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity-Disorder) - because the school performance is so important".

On a pier a couple of hours' drive outside Seoul, Jong-sun Woo is helping to set up games and quizzes near some fairground rides.

This is a prime spot for suicides and the local police have asked her activist group to run a street campaign to raise awareness about mental health.

The stall is attracting a sizeable crowd. Suicide is still largely a taboo subject here, but there is also a real curiosity amongst the public to find out what is causing it.

Parliament recently told the government to do more to tackle the problem - raising national awareness in a way that has not been seen until now. And money has started to flow.

But this is a deep-rooted problem that has grown rapidly throughout the country - some of the highest rates are in the rural areas - and activists say it will not be anything like as quick to fix.

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Turtles take 45 years to grow up

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 00:58 By Victoria Gill Science reporter, BBC Nature The new estimate shows how long it will take turtle conservation efforts to yield results Loggerhead turtles take almost half a century to reach maturity, say scientists.

A female turtle, the researchers report in the journal Functional Ecology, will not start to lay eggs until she is 45.

This estimate, based on examination of several decades of data on the turtles' growth, has implications for conservation efforts.

It reveals how long it takes for turtles hatched at a protected nesting site to return to that site to breed.

Continue reading the main story

Previous estimates of their age at maturity are all over the place - spanning from 10 years to 35 years”

End Quote Prof Graeme Hays Swansea University Prof Graeme Hays from the University of Swansea, one of the authors of the study, explained how reaching maturity so slowly meant that the turtle population was "less resilient" than previously thought.

"The longer an animal takes to reach maturity, the more vulnerable the population is to [man-made] causes of mortality," said Prof Hays.

This, he explained, was because there was a much higher chance of an individual animal being killed - for example, by being deliberately or accidentally caught in a fishing net - before it had been able to "replace itself" by breeding.

It is, however, extremely difficult to follow the life cycle of a sea turtle. These long-lived marine reptiles are impossible track as they drift through thousands of kilometres of ocean, spending the vast majority of their time underwater.

The team estimated the loggerheads' growth rate by collating measurements of newly hatched turtles

"You can't follow one individual throughout its life," Prof Hays explained.

"So previous estimates of their age at maturity are all over the place - spanning from 10 years to 35 years. It was impossible to get some sort of consensus."

To overcome this problem, the researcher and his colleagues embarked on a three-part data trawl.

To estimate the growth rate of newly hatched turtles, the team examined measurements of hatchlings at a nesting site in Florida and compared these with the sizes of the same turtles when they had drifted across to the Azores islands in the middle of the North Atlantic.

This journey - drifting several thousand kilometres on the currents - takes approximately 450 days. The scientists were able to see from the data they examined how much the turtles grew during that time.

The team also used many hundreds of measurements made by scientists who had captured, marked and recaptured individual loggerhead turtles. Using these figures, they were able to chart the animals' growth rate.

All of this data enabled the researchers to use the size of mature loggerhead turtle mothers - measured at several well-studied nesting sites - to estimate their ages.

Bryan Wallace, science adviser for Conservation International's Sea Turtle Flagship Program, said that knowing how long it took turtles to grow up gave "a better idea of how long conservation efforts should be maintained on nesting beaches before we can expect to literally see the results".

Dr Wallace told BBC Nature: "These estimates reinforce that animals like sea turtles take a very long time to recover from human-caused population declines.

"So conservation efforts must be appropriately targeted to address the most important threats, and they must be maintained for decades to ensure success."

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Should Joe Paterno Survive Penn State’s Child Sex Scandal?

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Penn State head coach Joe Paterno

If it’s all true — if any part of it is true, really – it’s difficult to imagine Joe Paterno surviving the unspeakable scandal unfolding at Penn State.

Name something worse to hit college sports, frequently a cesspool for hypocrites and cheaters. It’s not easy. On Saturday, the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office revealed all the disgusting allegations: Jerry Sandusky, a defensive coordinator at Penn State for 33 years who retired after the 1999 season, was charged with seven counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, four counts of unlawful contact with a minor, four counts of endangering the welfare of a child, and a host of other charges related to the sexual abuse of eight minors. If convicted, Sandusky, 67, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Two Penn State administrators – athletic director Tim Curley, and senior vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz —  face perjury charges for allegedly lying about their knowledge of Sandusky’s behavior. They were also charged with failing to report the incident to the authorities, as required by Pennsylvania law. Curley and Schultz both denied the charges. Curley put himself on administrative leave, while Schultz has stepped down. Sandusky has also denied all charges. A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Wednesday.

(MORE: Penn State Child Abuse Chargers Lead to Two Resignations)

For good reason, attention has now turned to Paterno’s role in this whole mess. According to grand jury testimony, in 2002 a graduate assistant witnessed Sandusky, who in 1977 founded a charity for at-risk youth called Second Mile, subjecting a 10-year-old boy to anal intercourse in the shower of the Penn State football facility. (Here’s the grand jury report. Fair warning: it’s an awful document.)

The assistant (identified by the Harrisburg Patriot-News as current recruiting coordinator/wide receiver’s coach Mike McQueary) reported the incident to Paterno, but Paterno testified that the assistant left out the more graphic details. “It was obvious that the witness was distraught over what he saw, but he at no time related to me the very specific actions contained in the Grand Jury report,” Paterno said in a statement. “Regardless, it was clear that the witness saw something inappropriate involving Mr. Sandusky.” Paterno knew it was sexual in nature, according to the grand jury report.

Paterno then informed his boss, Curley, about the incident.  The prosecution did not charge Paterno with any crimes, and he will reportedly testify for the prosecution at Sandusky’s trial. “I did what I was supposed to with the one charge brought to my attention,” Paterno said.

Paterno may have met his legal obligation. But if the charges against Sandusky hold up, he failed his moral obligation miserably. Penn State’s football motto is “Success With Honor.” College football coaches at large, state-run institutions are more influential than many governors. And few are as revered as Paterno, who on Oct. 29 won the 409th game of his 46-year career, a Division I record.

So Paterno, the biggest man on campus, can’t just punt this problem to a university bureaucrat and wash his hands of it. He should have followed up with Curley, and made sure he reported the allegations to the authorities, and let the criminal investigation run its course. If Curley wasn’t going to do it, Paterno should have done it himself.

MORE: The Nittany Lion King

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Did Jimmy Kimmel Go Too Far Encouraging Parents to Deceive their Kids?

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Late-night shows are, by definition, irreverent, but Jimmy Kimmel may have taken it a bit far last week when he challenged parents to record themselves telling their kids that they'd binged on all their Halloween candy.

Last Monday, I took issue on Healthland with the mean parents who scheme to deny their kids of their Halloween loot: they collaborate with neighbors to hand out only healthy snacks, they let them trick-or-treat only to force them to hand out their stash to kids who ring their doorbell later in the evening; they whisk it away and leave books and toys in its place.

But Kimmel elevated the “trick” to a whole new level, instructing parents to title their kids' reaction, “Hey, Jimmy Kimmel, I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy!” and upload the protests to YouTube.

As a third-party viewer, the footage was hilarious — the dire parental declaration predictably followed by tears and wails. My fave: the toddler at the end who chastises his mother (who reveals her good taste in candy by saying how much she enjoyed the peanut-butter cups): “You sneaky mom!” he cries out. Babble delighted in the dad who upped the reality quotient by strewing candy wrappers all over the dining room table. And TIME's Newsfeed warmed to the “adorable pair of brothers at the end who turned the tables and lectured their parents for the faux-transgression.”

I think I have a pretty good sense of humor, but I found the vigor with which parents delighted in deceiving their kids a little jarring. Cruel might be another word for it. It's kind of hard to imagine intentionally trying to make your kids cry — even for a few minutes of late-night glory. As a Huffington Post reader noted, “breaking your kids' trust for your amusement at their reaction and hurt feelings…is not cool.” Others dubbed it “emotional bullying" and “sadism masquerading as humor.”

What the parents didn't film was their rapprochement with their kids, post-lie. What must that have been like? I asked my kids if they would have forgiven me had I answered Kimmel's call. It wouldn't have come to that, they assured me. Said my 8-year-old: "We never would have believed you."

Guess the joke's on me.

Bonnie Rochman is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @brochman. You can also continue the discussion on TIME's Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.

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Sarkozy called Israeli PM 'liar'

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 11:03 GMT The comments - embarrassing for President Sarkozy - have only just emerged French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "liar" in remarks to US President Barack Obama overheard by journalists.

"I can't stand him any more, he's a liar," Mr Sarkozy said in French.

"You may be sick of him, but me, I have to deal with him every day," Mr Obama replied.

The exchange at the G20 summit was quoted by a French website, Arret sur Images, and confirmed by other media.

The remarks - during a private conversation - were overheard by a few journalists last week but were not initially reported, the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris says.

Journalists at the bilateral press conference had been handed translation boxes but had been told not to plug in their headphones until the backroom conversation had finished. But those who did heard the revealing comments.

For several days there was media silence in France about the exchange - a decision had been taken not to embarrass the French president, our correspondent says.

A correspondent for Le Monde newspaper referred to the conversation without the quotes.

But Israeli newspapers have reported it in full.

It is said Mr Obama was taking Mr Sarkozy to task for voting in favour of the Palestinian bid for full membership of the UN cultural organisation, Unesco, a bid that was approved despite American opposition.

The remarks indicate a breakdown of trust with the Israeli leader which could have wider implications for the Middle East peace process, our correspondent says.

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Prostitutes found in Mexico jail

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 01:49 GMT A surprise inspection in a prison in Mexico has revealed the presence of 19 prostitutes, 100 plasma televisions, two sacks of marijuana, and 100 cockerels for cock fighting.

The discovery in the prison in Acapulco came as police prepared to transfer the inmates to a maximum security jail.

The officers also found six female inmates living in the male section of the prison and two peacocks.

Mexican jails are notorious for overcrowding, corruption and rioting.

It is not the first time luxury items and weapons have been found in a Mexican jail.

In July, prisoners in a jail in Sonora state were found to be running a lottery to raffle off a luxury cell they'd equipped with a fridge, DVD player and air conditioning.

An inspector from the State Commission for the Defence of Human Rights, Hipolito Lugo Cortes, recently denounced conditions in five prisons in Guerrero state, among them the one in Acapulco.

He said inmates were running affairs at these penitentiaries according to their own laws and customs, with little or no control by prison authorities.

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Australia Senate backs carbon tax

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 09:58 GMT Australia is the developed world's worst polluter per head of population Australia's Senate has approved a controversial law on pollution, after years of bitter political wrangling.

The Clean Energy Act will force the country's 500 worst-polluting companies to pay a tax on their carbon emissions from 1 July next year.

The Senate vote is a victory for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who had given strong backing to the plan.

Environmentalists have broadly backed the scheme, but there have been large public protests against it.

Opposition parties have argued that the tax would cause job losses and raise the cost of living, and they have promised to repeal the legislation if they win the next election, due in 2013.

'Victory for optimists' Continue reading the main story To start on 1 July 2012500 companies affectedAgriculture, forestry and land are exemptCompensation for pollutersMarket-based trading scheme kicks in from 2015Target to cut 159m tonnes of CO2 by 2020The bill passed a vote in the lower house last month by just 74 votes to 72.

The Senate vote was also tight - 36 votes in favour, 32 against - with the government relying on the support of the Greens to get the bill passed.

Ms Gillard told a news conference it was "a win for those who would seek their fortunes and make their way by having jobs in our clean energy sector".

"Today we have made history. After all those years of debate and division, our nation has got the job done," she said.

Continue reading the main story Richard Black Environment correspondent, BBC News

The vote in theory brings to an end a long-running and, in a global sense, highly symbolic issue.

Symbolic because Australia is one of the world's highest per-capita emitters and has an economy that is more reliant than most on energy-intensive industries such as mining, including coal.

Yet of all developed countries, Australia is set to feel impacts of climate change earlier than most, and arguably is seeing them already in the recent severe droughts.

It also has immense potential for renewable electricity, particularly in the area of solar; and some are hoping the carbon tax and subsequent trading mechanism will kick-start a renewables revolution.

Whether the carbon tax is high enough to do that, though, is unclear. And investors may be restrained by the opposition's vow to repeal the law if it gains office in 2013.

Emissions trading is scheduled for introduction in 2015. The European experience is that without tight caps on emissions, the carbon price remains far too low to stimulate change on the scale scientists calculate is necessary.

The government has set the initial price per tonne of carbon at A$23 ($23.80; £14.80), much higher than other similar schemes such as in the EU where the price is between $8.70 and $12.60 a tonne.

The country's mining firms, airlines, steel makers and energy firms are among those expected to be hardest hit by the tax.

Domestic fuel bills are expected to rise as companies pass on the costs to consumers.

But the government hopes that the legislation will force innovation in renewable energy supplies, and free Australia from its reliance on fossil fuels.

The country accounts for 1.5% of the world's emissions, but it is the developed world's highest emitter per head of population thanks to its relatively small population.

The country's politicians have been debating pollution-limiting legislation for years.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd swept to power in 2007 after making the carbon tax central to his election campaign.

But his plans were bogged down in political infighting and public support evaporated.

Analysts have blamed his inability to get the law passed for his eventual ousting by Ms Gillard.

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Taking stock of America's first suburb

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 00:55 GMT By Kate Dailey BBC News Magazine Levittown's early history in the post-World War II boom (Video by the BBC's David Botti)

Almost 60 years ago, a planned community embodied the hopes and prosperity of America. Now, it represents a more realistic picture of the American experience. The BBC investigates Levittown, Pennsylvania, as part of a year-long series.

In 1960, BBC journalist Ludovic Kennedy travelled to Levittown, Pennsylvania in advance of the Nixon-Kennedy election. Reporting for Panorama, Kennedy's on-the-scene accounts provided an ideal perspective from which to measure the concerns of a fast-changing nation.

Levittown had been founded eight years earlier, when America was on the cusp of a huge burst of prosperity. GIs home from the war had started families in earnest. The baby boom had begun, and a new middle class was driving the economy.

Continue reading the main story

Throughout the 2012 presidential campaign season, the BBC will return to Levittown, Pennsylvania to explore issues facing America's middle class

For the first time, people who once rented apartments in the city could afford a modest home of their own.

"The people who moved into these places initially weren't in the professions: doctors, lawyers bankers," says Gary Cross, professor of history at the Pennsylvania State University.

"It was creating the opportunity for people to own a house instead of rent, and do so for the same amount of money," he said. In doing so, Levittown helped solidify the idea of America as the place where anyone could make it, if only they worked hard enough.

For journalists like Kennedy, Levittown was a metaphor for American prosperity and the emerging middle class. When he visited, the mix of Catholic, Jewish, and Protestant neighbours represented the melting pot ideal of the US, while also allowing easy shorthand for the suburban revolution that was spreading across the country - a strong, growing demographic that had the power to shape the election.

The BBC visited Levittown in 1960 as residents campaigned for the presidential candidates

Changing times

In 2012 Levittown will turn 60. And just as when Panorama visited, the country will hold a contentious presidential election.

Now, as then, the community is home to a diverse cross-section of middle-class voters. But whereas in 1960 unemployment rates were less than 6% and business in Levittown could not expand fast enough to meet growing demand, the outlook for current residents is grimmer.

The Shugarts were the first family to move into Levittown in 1952.

"The economy has been hard on all of us," says Levittown resident Lillian Wilson. Now a senior citizen, Ms Wilson spends her days at the thriving senior centre near her home. She was one of the first residents of Levittown, buying her home before it was even built.

When she first moved in, milk and egg men delivered to her door - a good thing, as there was nowhere else to buy groceries. The house she moved into had a strict modification policy, just like every other house in the development.

Though Levittown was often marketed as a suburban ideal, that ideal could not include white picket fences - or fences of any kind. "We couldn't even have a clothes line," says Ms Wilson.

"Levitt was very serious about all of the houses looking the same," she says, referring to William Levitt, the real-estate developer who built three separate Levittowns in the post-war boom: one in New York, one in Pennsylvania, and one, later called Willingboro, in New Jersey.

Now, the outer roads around Levittown are lined with strip malls, and in them a dozen different grocery and convenience stores, a Super WalMart, McDonalds, and hotel chains.

A promotional flyer for the Jubilee-style home - one of a handful of house models available in Levittown

The houses, once indistinguishable from one another, have developed individual flair: on one street, one house has painted pink brick face, while another has built a covered front porch.

Several residents enclosed their car port, creating either a proper garage or an additional room, while some have added second-storey additions onto the classic ranch-style houses - one of four home models available to the original buyers.

The subdivisions, with names like Junewood and Goldenridge, were once considered diverse for their mix of German, Hungarian, Irish and Polish residents, though residents started a riot when the first black family moved in.

Now Ms Wilson has black, Indian, and Puerto Rican neighbours.

Returning to Levittown

Levittown is far from a monolithic community, straddling four different townships.

Neighbourhoods fortunate enough to fall in a wealthier area flush with tax revenues have pristine sidewalks and well-manicured public spaces. In other areas, more than one home displays prominent sheriff's stickers and No Trespassing signs, indicators of foreclosure and economic distress.

Residents include Levittown's original settlers, like Ms Wilson, who came to the community a young bride and has children and grandchildren who still live close by.

It's not a greying district by any means - thanks in part to the housing collapse, Levittown is once again an abundant source of inexpensive housing, and as a result more new families are moving here to get their start.

The community has changed, and continues to change, since the BBC first visited it more than a half-century ago.

The country has changed much, as well. But one thing has not: the middle class residents make up the heart of America, and are still viewed as the "real" voice of the nation. Candidates vie to win their vote, and politicians battle over who best represents their interests.

So like Ludovic Kennedy before us, the BBC will turn to Levittown for insight into what matters most to Americans.

As Levittown prepares to turn 60 and the nation prepares to vote in the next presidential election, the BBC will focus on Levittown in depth. For the next year, we will meet its citizens, documenting their concerns and dreams, and tell the stories of residents who used to inhabit the American Dream.

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In Press Conference, Fourth Woman Accuses Herman Cain of Inappropriate Conduct

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Sharon Bialek speaks about allegations that presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her while standing with her attorney Gloria Allred (R) during a press conference at the Friar's Club in New York on November 7, 2011.

Escorted and represented by legendary discrimination attorney Gloria Allred, Sharon Bialek stepped out into the media’s bright lights to share her story of alleged inappropriate contact from Republican presidential frontrunner Herman Cain.

Bialek is the fourth woman to accuse Cain of inappropriate conduct, but the first to publicly share her story. Bialek begged Cain to “come clean” about the allegations of harassment that have cropped up in recent weeks. Bialek noted she “wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the other [accusing] women.”

(PHOTOS: Herman Cain Through the Years)

Bialek says she met Cain while working at the Educational Foundation of the National Restaurant Association, the Washington-based organization for which Cain served as president from 1996 to 1999. Bialek, whom Allred introduced as a Republican Party supporter, explained that she was unexpectedly laid off from her position with the NRA in 1997. As she had met Cain on numerous occasions, she was comfortable reaching out to Cain for job advice. And that’s when, Bialek alleges, Cain took personal contact too far.

In recalling the 1997 episode that led to the alleged inappropriate sexual conduct, Bialek appeared empowered, almost giddy. She said she first met Herman Cain during the National Restaurant Association’s annual convention in Chicago that year. She was seated next to him at dinners and a luncheon during the association’s national convention, noting that he came off as “incredibly inspirational,” and even asked him jokingly, “When are you running for president?” But the next month, Bialek was unexpectedly let go from the organization. Her boyfriend, a Chicago pediatrician who had also met Cain during at least one of the convention events, suggested reaching out to Cain for job advice. She went through all the proper channels to schedule a D.C. meeting with Cain while she was traveling in the area. After a dinner meeting with Cain, she says he offered to show her the National Restaurant Association’s offices — but that they never made it there.

“Instead of going into the offices,” Bialek said, “he suddenly reached over and put his hand on my leg, under my skirt… He also pushed my head toward his crotch.” When she asked him to stop and drive her back to her hotel, she says he did, “right away.” And that was the last contact the two had until September of this year, when Bialek ran into Cain at a Chicago Tea Party convention. She noted that he remembered who she was, but appeared “uncomfortable.” After the incident, she said she raised no red flags. Since she was unemployed at the time, she didn’t file a workplace complaint, and confided only in her boyfriend and another male friend.

She says she has no plans to file a lawsuit or any other claim, but indeed the allegations of abuse are demanding answers from Cain’s camp. They continue to deny all allegations, issuing a statement Monday afternoon reading, “All allegations of harassment against Mr. Cain are false.”

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Key ally urges Berlusconi to quit

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8 November 2011 Last updated at 13:03 GMT Pressure on Mr Berlusconi to resign is now coming from his main coalition partner Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's key coalition partner has urged him to step aside ahead of a crucial budget vote.

Northern League leader Umberto Bossi said he should be replaced by former Justice Minister Angelino Alfano.

Mr Berlusconi's majority has crumbled ahead of the vote, with several MPs defecting or saying they will rebel.

Until now he has insisted he has enough support to be able to continue to govern and has denied he will resign.

While Italy's deficit is relatively low, investors are concerned that the combination of Italy's low growth rate and 1.9tn euro (£1.63tn; $2.6tn) debt could make it the next to fall in the eurozone debt crisis.

"We asked the prime minister to stand aside," Mr Bossi told reporters on the margins of parliament.

However, when asked about the expected outcome of a normally routine vote on approving state finances, Mr Bossi told reporters: "Nothing will happen today."

After late-night talks with his own party and Northern League leaders, Mr Berlusconi is reported to have said that he would wait to see the outcome of the vote before making a decision on his future.

He spent the morning attempting to shore up his support with those MPs who had threatened to abandon him ahead of the vote, which has been delayed until 16:00 GMT.

Borrowing costs spike

Last month, the same budget measure was defeated in parliament by a single vote. Mr Berlusconi is reported to be short of the 316 votes needed to prove that he still has a majority.

But analysts say Mr Berlusconi may still win as the centre-left may abstain, allowing the essential measure to pass.

Members of the opposition have said they will be present in the chamber, but will not vote, La Repubblica reports.

"Our message to the coalition is, 'be counted'," Pier Luigi Bersani, secretary of the centre-left Democratic Party said, according to the paper.

Continue reading the main story Leader of the regionalist Northern League party which provides Silvio Berlusconi with a parliamentary majorityA former singer, aged 70, married (twice) with four sonsMinister for Institutional Reforms in the Berlusconi cabinetHad a break from frontline politics after suffering a stroke in March 2004 Were Mr Berlusconi to lose, he could either resign immediately or be ordered by President Giorgio Napolitano to call a confidence vote.

The BBC's Alan Johnston, in Rome, says it is certainly worth remembering that Mr Berlusconi is a master deal-maker and political infighter, having survived more than 50 confidence motions in the past.

But this crisis is different as it goes beyond Italian politics: it is instead linked to the international money markets, which have lost faith in Mr Berlusconi's ability to fix the Italian economy, our correspondent says.

The markets are now forcing Italy to pay interest rates that could eventually ruin it, which means the pressure on Mr Berlusconi is extraordinary, he adds.

Doubt about Italy's governance and its ability to repay its debts have sent the markets seesawing over the past two days.

On Tuesday, the cost of government borrowing spiked at a new record of 6.74% because of the crisis, just short of the 7% threshold at which Portugal and Ireland were forced to accept bailouts.

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Democrats Propose $3 Trillion Cut to Budget Deficit

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Democrats are proposing to slash huge U.S. budget deficits by up to $3 trillion, aiming high to repair the country's fiscal mess even as Republicans show early signs of resisting the proposals.

The broad package of measures calls for long-term spending cuts, including to the government-run Medicare health program for the elderly that threatens to explode the U.S. national debt. The other half of the package would come from tax increases, four congressional aides told Reuters on Wednesday.

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The Democratic plan was presented on Tuesday behind closed doors to the special congressional panel tasked with finding ways of cutting the budget deficit by at least $1.2 trillion, the sources said.

It was a rare leak from the so-called "super committee," whose secretive deliberations have sparked intense speculation about how much progress the 12 Republican and Democratic members have made since they first began meeting on September 8. They face a November 23 deadline to report to Congress.

The aides spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.

The Democratic plan proposes cutting the deficit by $2.5 trillion to $3 trillion and calls for between $200 billion and $300 billion in new stimulus spending to boost an ailing U.S. economy. It would be paid for with lower interest payments from reducing deficits.

It also seeks around $400 billion in Medicare savings, with half coming in benefit cuts and the other half in cuts to healthcare providers. Details of that proposal were scant but tackling the popular Medicare program is always politically risky for politicians in Washington.

Many Democrats oppose cuts to Medicare, while Republicans have consistently fought tooth-and-nail against any tax hikes. The congressional aides were not immediately able to say how the Democrat plan would achieve the revenue increases.

[See a slide show of 5 bright spots in the U.S. economy.]

The aides did not say why Democrats were proposing such a big deal, but Democratic congressional leaders have repeatedly called on the super committee to go beyond its mandate to fix the country's fiscal mess.

Republicans refused to comment publicly on their political opponents' plan. But one congressional aide told Reuters that Senator Jon Kyl, a super committee Republican, interrupted the Democrats' presentation on Tuesday to complain that it contained "too much revenues."

"We haven't signed off on any revenues, and we certainly aren't doing anything that high," the aide quoted Kyl as saying.

There is a deep ideological divide between the two parties over taxes, which is likely to be a key issue in the 2012 elections. A Republican member of the super committee, Representative Dave Camp, on Wednesday proposed slashing the top tax rates for individuals and corporations.

Camp, chairman of the tax-writing House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee, also called for a "territorial system" that would exempt 95 percent of offshore corporations' profits from the U.S. corporate income tax.

CLYBURN'S MISGIVINGS

With U.S. budget deficits topping $1 trillion annually, ratings agencies are watching closely to see how the super committee advances toward a credible long-term solution to restore the U.S. fiscal health.

If the committee fails to reach a deal, automatic spending cuts, evenly divided between military and domestic programs, would be triggered, starting in 2013, under a budget deal struck between Republicans and Democrats this summer.

[See a collection of political cartoons on the budget and deficit.]

The Democratic plan proposes deeper cuts to Medicare than those envisaged by the summer budget deal. The automatic spending triggers would limit cuts to Medicare to 2 percent a year. Analysts say that would amount to about $123 billion in spending cuts for the program through 2021.

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Australia calls for tougher anti-piracy action in Indian Ocean

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PERTH, Australia | Fri Oct 28, 2011 5:13am EDT

PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - Australia called on Friday for tougher action against piracy in the Indian Ocean and announced it would host an international conference next year to help tackle the growing problem.

Pirates attacked a record number of ships worldwide in the first nine months of 2011, but are making off with fewer vessels due to better policing by international naval forces.

"Piracy off the Horn of Africa has seen murders and hundreds of seafarers taken hostage," Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd told an Indian Ocean Piracy Forum on the sidelines of a Commonwealth summit in the west Australian city of Perth.

"Piracy has also increased the costs of international trade, and done enormous harm to regional countries' fishing and tourist industries. More must be done to prosecute, convict and imprison pirates," he said.

Cooperation between Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants and pirate gangs is growing as they become more desperate for funding, said the head of the U.N.'s counter-piracy unit, John Steed.

Rudd said next year's conference in Perth would seek to assist Somalia and other states tackle the drivers of piracy and compare counter-piracy cooperation in other regions, such as Southeast Asia where the number of attacks has been on the decline.

(Reporting by Michael Perry, Editing by Jonathan Thatcher)

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Italy's Berlusconi says government solid, no early election

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Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi talks to the media as he leaves a euro zone leaders summit in Brussels October 27, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Francois Lenoir

ROME | Fri Oct 28, 2011 4:05am EDT

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi repeated Friday that his center-right coalition, which has come close to falling apart over policy differences, would see out its term until 2013 and that his alliance with the Northern League party was solid.

Speaking on his own Canale 5 television station, he ruled out any broad-based government of national unity, which he said would create paralysis for Italy and said an election campaign in the middle of the crisis would be seriously damaging.

"The important thing is to maintain a cohesive majority and government to pass reforms," he said.

The comments came days after Northern League leader Umberto Bossi said there was a serious risk the government could fall over proposals to raise the pension age as part of reforms demanded by the European Union.

(Reporting by James Mackenzie)

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Texas executes man convicted of killing police officer

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By Jim Forsyth

SAN ANTONIO | Thu Oct 27, 2011 8:54pm EDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Texas on Thursday executed by lethal injection a man who shot dead his wife on the day she tried to leave him, and killed a police officer who came to the home to check out a domestic disturbance call.

Texas officials said Frank Garcia, 39, gunned down Jessica Garcia in 2001 after she tried to leave her abusive husband. He killed police officer Hector Garza, 49, when he arrived at the home to check out a disturbance.

Garcia told police he aimed for Garza's head because he knew officers wear bullet-proof vests, detectives told reporters shortly after Garcia's arrest.

The Garcias' 5-year-old daughter witnessed both murders, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Frank Garcia shot Garza first, three times, and then shot his wife six times. He also shot and wounded his wife's uncle, according to the Department.

Shots he fired outside the house damaged a nearby elementary school, according to the Texas Attorney General's office. Garcia gave a formal statement in which he admitted intentionally killing his wife and Garza, the attorney general's office said.

Evidence presented in the trial showed that Jessica Garcia had once sought help from a battered women's shelter, according to the attorney general's office.

Bexar County District Attorney Susan Reed, who prosecuted the case, attended the execution in Huntsville, Texas, according to a spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Earlier in the week, she called the murders "a huge tragedy."

"If there was ever a poster child for the death penalty, this is the case," Reed told Reuters. "Hector Garza, a fine officer; Jessica Garcia, a woman who is trying to leave an abusive situation, and this huge tragedy happens to all of them."

Several dozen San Antonio police officers traveled to Huntsville and were present outside the prison unit during the execution, said Jason Clark, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman.

The San Antonio Police Department said in a statement on behalf of Garza's family that the officer was a devoted husband and father committed to protecting his community.

"Though the execution does not bring complete closure to Hector's family, as we all miss him dearly, it comforts us to know that Frank Garcia will never destroy another family," the statement said.

Garcia prayed aloud at length in his final moments alive, Clark said.

"Thank you, Yahweh, thank you, Jesus Christ, hallelujah, amen, and thank you, warden," were his final words, Clark said.

Garcia's execution was the 12th this year in Texas, which has executed more than four times as many people as any other state since the United States reinstated the death penalty in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

As of Wednesday there had been 38 executions this year in the United States, according to the Center.

Texas last month abolished the long-held tradition of allowing condemned inmates to order what they want for their last meal. Instead, they receive what other prisoners are served.

(Writing by Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by Greg McCune and Jerry Norton)

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