CANBERRA, Australia?? Qantas Airways was expected to resume flying Monday after an Australian court intervened in a labor dispute that led the airline to ground its entire fleet over the weekend.
By the time the labor-relations court acted, several hundred flights had been canceled and tens of thousands of passengers stranded around the world.
Some airline industry experts say Qantas' surprise grounding of its entire fleet Saturday could cause many travelers to book future trips on other airlines.
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he had no choice but to order the lockout of union workers and end months of rolling strikes that led to canceled flights, $70 million in losses and a collapse in future bookings.
Don't miss these Travel stories
Munching bugs: Tasty, popular and eco-smart
Forget ?Fear Factor? and stories of survival. Insects are gaining some tasty notoriety ? getting served at fine restaurants and fairs and museums around the country.
Book a hotel room with a boo!
4 spooky museum exhibits
Jack the cat 'not out of the woods yet'
Traveler gets 'personal' note on TSA card
Joyce told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. that he expected some flights to resume by mid-afternoon Monday. It was unclear how long it would take for the airline to resume a full schedule. The airline had estimated that it would lose $20 million a day during the lockout.
The Australian labor-relations court issued its ruling ending the standoff early Monday morning ? midday Sunday in the United States ? after holding an emergency hearing that included testimony from company, labor union and government officials.
The president of the labor-arbitration panel, Geoffrey Giudice, said the group acted to protect Australia's tourism and aviation industry.
The airline said 447 flights had been canceled in the first 24 hours of the lockout. Qantas did not immediately update that figure.
Qantas is the largest of Australia's four national domestic airlines, carrying about 70,000 passengers a day on a fleet of 108 planes that operate in 22 countries. It is the 10th largest airline in the world by passenger miles flown, according to the International Air Transport Association, an airline trade group.
Its major international destinations include Singapore, Hong Kong and London. In the United States, Qantas flies to Los Angeles, Dallas, New York and Honolulu.
Travelers reported being ordered to leave planes that were already on the tarmac when the lockout began Saturday. More than 60 planes in mid-flight flew to their destinations, then were parked.
Qantas said it paid to rebook passengers on other airlines, including compensating those who had to pay higher last-minute fares to get home.
For several weeks, workers have carried out rolling strikes and refused to work overtime to demand higher pay and protest the airline's plans to cut about 1,000 jobs. Qantas, which has about 32,500 employees, wants to reduce costs by creating new Asia-based airlines for international flying. International flights were a roughly $200 million drain on the company last year.
The company reported in August that annual profit had doubled. But it said the business climate was too turbulent ? partly because of labor turmoil ? to forecast future earnings.
Henry Harteveldt, an airline industry analyst in San Francisco, predicts the shutdown will do long-term damage to the Qantas name by hurting its reputation for reliability.
"A lot of travelers won't take a chance and will book away to Virgin Australia, Air New Zealand and other airlines," Harteveldt said. "Brand loyalty in the airline business is very low, and there is so much competition."
Before the court ruling, Virgin Australia said it was scheduling extra flights and offering 20 percent fare discounts to help stranded Qantas passengers through Thursday.
If Qantas loses customers, that could also hurt partners in its alliance of global airlines, including American Airlines. A rival alliance that includes Air New Zealand and is led by United Continental Holdings Inc. could benefit. So could a third group of airlines that includes several major Asian carriers and is led by Delta Air Lines Inc. and Air France-KLM.
Other industry veterans said the lockout was a daring move that will pay off for Qantas, which wants to expand the low-cost, low-fare model that it uses at its Jetstar Airways subsidiary.
Jetstar has extensive routes to Southeast Asia and Japan, and lower costs than Qantas. But Qantas unions fear that expansion of low-cost airlines will result in Australian jobs being sent overseas. CEO Joyce hopes to bend the unions closer to the company's vision for growth by tapping into Asian markets.
"It was a very shrewd move by their CEO to force the issue and stop the potential deterioration of the brand," said Mo Garfinkle, an airline consultant who has worked for Qantas rival Virgin Australia. "In the end, it will benefit Qantas financially."
Garfinkle said the short duration of the fleet grounding will help Qantas get back up to full speed quickly, cutting its losses.
Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this report.
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Nick Diaz has burned some in the media in the past, so when several media folks had the chance to grill him a bit they did it during today's final prefight press conference in Las Vegas.
A local television sports anchor went after Diaz particularly hard, but the highly volatile Diaz kept his cool. Watch the exchange on the full archive of the presser (25:50 mark).
Matt Mitrione takes a major step up in competition on Saturday against veteran fighter Cheick Kongo. A confident Anthony McGann, Kongo's manager, knows the former Big 10 defensive lineman is dangerous, but thinks his guy will be too much to handle for a 5-0 fighter.
TAMPA, Fla. ? The estranged father of actress Lindsay Lohan will be held in a Tampa hospital overnight for observation, hours after his second domestic violence-related arrest this week.
Michael Lohan has been admitted to Tampa General Hospital for observation, police said, following a jump from a third-floor balcony in an attempt to escape from authorities early Thursday morning.
Lohan "apparently leaped up from his balcony and grabbed ahold of the roof (about 30 feet) until he thought he was hanging over the top of the next balcony," according to a report by Tampa Police officer J. Ladd, who responded to the call. The report said Lohan let go but missed the balcony, then came "crashing down on top of wooden high chairs that were laying on the ground."
After a short chase, officers arrested Lohan.
This was the second encounter with Florida officers this week. On Tuesday, the 51-year-old Lohan was arrested on domestic violence charges involving Kate Major, his 28-year-old girlfriend who is also a former reporter for the Star tabloid.
Police say he grabbed Major and pushed her down multiple times at her Tampa apartment during a daylong argument.
A Tampa judge released Lohan on $5,000 bail Wednesday morning and told Lohan that he should not have any contact with Major at all.
"If you even dream about her and you violate my order, you will go to jail," Judge Walter Heinrich said, noting that Major had filed a restraining order against Lohan in Sarasota County.
When Lohan was released from jail Wednesday evening, he held an impromptu news conference in the jail parking lot. There, Lohan said he "didn't do anything" and the charges were Major's way of making money by selling her story to media outlets.
According to a police report, Wednesday night's incident began a few hours later. Lohan sent his friend and trainer David Dominique to Major's apartment to pick up his personal belongings, police said. A report said Lohan initially called Major to speak with Dominique, and Major told him that he wasn't supposed to call.
After Dominique left, Lohan called back seeking to work things out with Major. She later told police he sounded "very drunk," according to the report.
According to Ladd's report, he and his fellow officer were gathering information and listening to messages left by Lohan on Major's answering machine when Lohan called again from his cell.
"We had the victim put the phone on speaker when she answered. During this conversation (Lohan) kept asking things like "how can we work things out, where you moving to, you know I didn't threaten you, I didn't throw the remote at you I threw it at the floor," Ladd wrote.
The officers eventually whispered to Major to hang up and to tell Lohan not to call again, which she did.
Lohan called again, but Major did not pick up.
After the balcony fall and the foot pursuit, officers arrested Lohan and took him to the Hillsborough County Jail. Deputies suspected he may have broken his foot when he jumped off the balcony, so he was then taken to Tampa General Hospital.
Authorities said he will be returned to the jail once he's been cleared by doctors.
Lohan appeared on season 5 of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." He told police this week that he moved to Tampa to get away from the publicity surrounding his celebrity daughter Lindsay ? who has had numerous run-ins with the law herself in Los Angeles and is currently performing court-ordered community service in the L.A. County morgue for a probation violation.
She also reportedly posed for Playboy this week.
__
Associated Press writer Laura Wides-Munoz contributed to this report from Miami.
__
Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush
Dopamine release in human brain tracked at microsecond timescale reveals decision-makingPublic release date: 28-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Byron paulabyron@vtc.vt.edu 540-526-2027 Virginia Tech
Roanoke, Va. A research team led by investigators at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute has demonstrated the first rapid measurements of dopamine release in a human brain and provided preliminary evidence that the neurotransmitter can be tracked in its movement between brain cells while a subject expresses decision-making behavior.
"In an experiment where we measured dopamine release while a subject made investment decisions in a stock market trading game, we showed that dopamine tracks changes in the value of the market," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and professor of physics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.
"A startling discovery was that the dopamine signal appeared to be a very good indicator of the market value and in many instances a good predictor of future market changes," said Kenneth Kishida, a postdoctoral associate with the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the lead author on the report. Interestingly, the choice expressed by the subject did not always correspond with the prescient brain chemistry, he said.
The research was published on Aug. 4, 2011, in the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS ONE, in the article "Sub-Second Dopamine Detection in Human Striatum," by Kishida; Stefan G. Sandberg, senior fellow with the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle; Terry Lohrenz, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Youssef G. Comair, professor and chief, Division of Neurosurgery, American University of Beirut, Lebanon; Ignacio Saez, assistant professor at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute; Paul E. M. Phillips, associate professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle; and Montague, senior author.
The researchers adapted their sensors to existing technology used for functional mapping of the brain during surgical implantation of deep-brain stimulation devices. "Deep-brain stimulation is typically used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease," said Montague. "Uses for treating other neurological disorders are also being investigated, though, and may open new avenues for the technology we developed."
The researchers applied criteria that employed experimental methodology that is "safe to the patient, compatible with existing neurosurgical apparatus and the operating-room environment, and capable of sub-second detection of physiological dopamine," they state in the article. They modified existing sensor technology to improve signal conductivity, creating a microsensor that shares the electrochemical properties of existing electrodes yet can detect sub-second dopamine release. "Even more important, the new microsensors are biocompatible and can be sterilized without affecting performance, " Kishida added.
The new instrument was demonstrated in a single human subject, a consenting patient with late-stage Parkinson's disease who was undergoing elective surgery for deep-brain stimulation electrode implantation. The new microsensor was placed in the patient's brain and dopamine release was monitored as the patient engaged in a decision-making game. The current value and recent history of a stock market was graphically represented on a laptop monitor. The subject chose the proportion of a portfolio initially valued at $100 to be invested in the stock market. Decisions were submitted by pushing buttons on handheld response devices. Following the submission of each decision, the market was updated. The final portfolio determined the actual payout at the end of the experiment.
The researchers report that they were surprised to observe that "the slope of the dopamine signal over a period five seconds prior to a market price update correlated with subsequent market returns, demonstrating that it is a significant predictor of future market activity."
To test this hypothesis, the researchers constructed a trader model that made decisions based on the fluctuations in the dopamine signal leading up to the market price changes. This decision model invested 100 percent, or all in, when the dopamine slope was positive and 0 percent, or all out, when the slope was negative. The researchers report that, "Over the five markets played, this trader model earned 202 points (a gain of 175 percent), more than two times the amount earned by the subject's expressed behavior. These data demonstrate that the information encoded in the dopamine signal of this patient is potentially useful for economic decision making."
"This exciting preliminary result requires replication, but it immediately sets the imagination in motion," said Kishida. "I often wonder whether there is a feeling associated with these dopamine fluctuations and whether there is any connection with that 'gut feeling' people sometimes ignore."
Writing in the PLoS ONE article, the researchers conclude, "This methodological demonstration opens the door to future investigations utilizing sub-second chemical measurements in the human brain, which should yield important insights into the role of dopamine signaling in human decision-making."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Dopamine release in human brain tracked at microsecond timescale reveals decision-makingPublic release date: 28-Oct-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Paula Byron paulabyron@vtc.vt.edu 540-526-2027 Virginia Tech
Roanoke, Va. A research team led by investigators at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute has demonstrated the first rapid measurements of dopamine release in a human brain and provided preliminary evidence that the neurotransmitter can be tracked in its movement between brain cells while a subject expresses decision-making behavior.
"In an experiment where we measured dopamine release while a subject made investment decisions in a stock market trading game, we showed that dopamine tracks changes in the value of the market," said Read Montague, director of the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute and professor of physics in the College of Science at Virginia Tech.
"A startling discovery was that the dopamine signal appeared to be a very good indicator of the market value and in many instances a good predictor of future market changes," said Kenneth Kishida, a postdoctoral associate with the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory and the lead author on the report. Interestingly, the choice expressed by the subject did not always correspond with the prescient brain chemistry, he said.
The research was published on Aug. 4, 2011, in the Public Library of Science journal, PLoS ONE, in the article "Sub-Second Dopamine Detection in Human Striatum," by Kishida; Stefan G. Sandberg, senior fellow with the Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle; Terry Lohrenz, assistant professor in the Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Youssef G. Comair, professor and chief, Division of Neurosurgery, American University of Beirut, Lebanon; Ignacio Saez, assistant professor at Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute; Paul E. M. Phillips, associate professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Pharmacology, University of Washington, Seattle; and Montague, senior author.
The researchers adapted their sensors to existing technology used for functional mapping of the brain during surgical implantation of deep-brain stimulation devices. "Deep-brain stimulation is typically used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease," said Montague. "Uses for treating other neurological disorders are also being investigated, though, and may open new avenues for the technology we developed."
The researchers applied criteria that employed experimental methodology that is "safe to the patient, compatible with existing neurosurgical apparatus and the operating-room environment, and capable of sub-second detection of physiological dopamine," they state in the article. They modified existing sensor technology to improve signal conductivity, creating a microsensor that shares the electrochemical properties of existing electrodes yet can detect sub-second dopamine release. "Even more important, the new microsensors are biocompatible and can be sterilized without affecting performance, " Kishida added.
The new instrument was demonstrated in a single human subject, a consenting patient with late-stage Parkinson's disease who was undergoing elective surgery for deep-brain stimulation electrode implantation. The new microsensor was placed in the patient's brain and dopamine release was monitored as the patient engaged in a decision-making game. The current value and recent history of a stock market was graphically represented on a laptop monitor. The subject chose the proportion of a portfolio initially valued at $100 to be invested in the stock market. Decisions were submitted by pushing buttons on handheld response devices. Following the submission of each decision, the market was updated. The final portfolio determined the actual payout at the end of the experiment.
The researchers report that they were surprised to observe that "the slope of the dopamine signal over a period five seconds prior to a market price update correlated with subsequent market returns, demonstrating that it is a significant predictor of future market activity."
To test this hypothesis, the researchers constructed a trader model that made decisions based on the fluctuations in the dopamine signal leading up to the market price changes. This decision model invested 100 percent, or all in, when the dopamine slope was positive and 0 percent, or all out, when the slope was negative. The researchers report that, "Over the five markets played, this trader model earned 202 points (a gain of 175 percent), more than two times the amount earned by the subject's expressed behavior. These data demonstrate that the information encoded in the dopamine signal of this patient is potentially useful for economic decision making."
"This exciting preliminary result requires replication, but it immediately sets the imagination in motion," said Kishida. "I often wonder whether there is a feeling associated with these dopamine fluctuations and whether there is any connection with that 'gut feeling' people sometimes ignore."
Writing in the PLoS ONE article, the researchers conclude, "This methodological demonstration opens the door to future investigations utilizing sub-second chemical measurements in the human brain, which should yield important insights into the role of dopamine signaling in human decision-making."
###
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Most likely, you would be disgusted if confronted with a picture of a man eating a mouthful of writhing worms. Or a particularly bloody wound. Or a horribly emaciated but still living body. But just how much disgust you feel may lend important insight into your personal political proclivities.
In a new study, political scientists closely measured people's physiological reactions as they looked at a series of pleasant and unpleasant images. Participants who identified themselves as conservative -- and, in particular, those who said they were against gay marriage -- had strong physiological reactions when shown the gross pictures.
The study, the latest to examine the connection between political differences and humans' built-in physiological traits, was co-authored by University of Nebraska-Lincoln political science professors Kevin Smith and John Hibbing and was published this month in the Public Library of Science One.
"This is one more piece of evidence that we, quite literally, have gut feelings about politics," Smith said. "Our political attitudes and behaviors are reflected in our biology."
Researchers worked with 27 women and 23 men who were chosen from a larger pool of participants who also underwent thorough political questioning. The subjects were shown a series of disgusting and also relatively pleasant images while electrodes on their skin measured subtle skin conductance changes, which indicated an emotional response.
As predicted, conservatives responded to the pictures with much more intense disgust than did liberals. Attitudes in opposition to same-sex marriage were highly connected.
The results add to a growing area of research that suggests biology plays a larger role in influencing political orientation than many might think. Recent UNL work has produced findings in this area, including a 2008 study that found people who are highly responsive to threatening images were likely to support defense spending, capital punishment, patriotism and the Iraq War.
"The proper interpretation of the findings (in the current study) is not that biology causes politics or that politics causes biology," the authors write, "but that certain political orientations at some unspecified point become housed in our biology, with meaningful political consequences."
Acceptance of the role of involuntary physiological responses is not easy for many, however: "Most are proud of their political orientations, believe them to be rational responses to the world around them, and are reluctant to concede that subconscious predispositions play any role in shaping them," they write.
Still, the authors suggest that if recognition of the relevance of politics of involuntary physiology became more widespread, it could diminish frustration from the perceived illogical inflexibility of political opponents and reduce political hostility.
"After all, if political differences are traceable in part to the fact that people vary in the way they physically experience the world, certitude that any particular worldview is 'correct' may abate, lessening the hubris that fuels political conflict."
###
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: http://www.unl.edu
Thanks to University of Nebraska-Lincoln for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) ? Alfredo Astiz, Argentina's infamous "Blond Angel of Death," and 11 other death squad members from the 1970s were jailed for life on Wednesday in one of the country's biggest human rights cases.
Astiz, nicknamed for his cherubic looks, stood trial with other former officials accused of horrific crimes at the ESMA Naval Mechanics School, where about 5,000 dissidents were held and tortured during the 1976-1983 "Dirty War" dictatorship. Few of the captives survived.
Marking the end of a 22-month trial in which 79 survivors gave evidence, 12 defendants were sentenced to life while four others were punished with between 18 and 25 years in jail.
Hundreds of people gathered on the street outside the packed courtroom, some holding up photographs of the victims of the men inside. The crowd, bundled up against a chilly Buenos Aires night, applauded at the reading out of each sentence.
"We can finally be at peace, knowing that justice has been done," a woman in the crowd told local television.
Former navy captain Astiz boasted of his dictatorship-era crimes in a magazine interview in 1998, saying he was "the best-trained man in Argentina to kill journalists and politicians."
"I'm not sorry for anything," Astiz said in the interview.
He infiltrated human rights groups whose members were later kidnapped and was convicted in absentia in Europe of killing two French nuns held at the ESMA.
"Son of a bitch!" people in the crowd yelled when Astiz's sentence was pronounced by the judge inside. When the proceedings were over, the people outside started dancing to live folk music, some weeping and hugging each other.
Defendants included Jorge Acosta, known as "The Tiger," who said during the two-year trial that "human rights violations are unavoidable during a war."
He was one of the 12 sentenced to life in prison.
"DISAPPEARED" IN DIRTY WAR
Only about 200 people are known to have survived from the estimated 5,000 prisoners held in the ESMA. Many of the rest were drugged and dumped out of airplanes into the nearby River Plate in a gruesome weekly ritual.
Death squads drove up to ESMA -- the best known of hundreds of clandestine prisons used by the dictatorship -- in daylight and unloaded blindfolded prisoners from their car trunks.
While prisoners were held, some for hours, others for years, under the eaves of the ESMA officers' residence, officers went on living, eating, studying and socializing in the floors below.
Human rights groups say Argentina's military government killed up to 30,000 people during the six-year dictatorship. Most of them disappeared and their bodies were never found.
When the dictatorship fell in 1983, courts convicted former members of the military junta of human rights crimes, but they were later released under an amnesty.
Astiz tried to lead a normal life and was photographed in Buenos Aires nightclubs or at vacation spots. But he became a symbol of the abuses by the dictatorship and, on several occasions, people attacked him in public.
In 2005, Argentina's Supreme Court struck down the amnesty at the urging of then-President Nestor Kirchner, late husband of current President Cristina Fernandez.
The Kirchners met as student activists in the 1970s and several friends were kidnapped and killed during for their political activities.
Since then, courts have convicted and sentenced a series of former military officers on human rights charges.
The ESMA was opened to the public as a human rights memorial in 2007.
(Writing by Helen Popper and Hugh Bronstein; editing by Todd Eastham)
A fungus known as Geomyces destructans is indeed responsible for the dusting of white across bat noses and wings that has wiped out entire populations of the flying mammals, new research shows. By purposefully infecting healthy bats with the fungus--and confirming that seemingly healthy "control" bats from the same population did not get sick from a prior but hidden fungal infection--microbiologist David Blehert of the U.S. Geological Survey and his colleagues showed in a paper published online October 26 in Nature that G. destructans is in fact responsible for the disease known as white-nose syndrome (WNS), which has devastated bat populations across the northeastern U.S., killing an estimated one million of the animals. ( Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.) [More]
Whether you?re making a drive conversion or replacing components like belts and bearings, power transmission product choices affect your operations for years. Grainger has the rigid clamp, bushings and sheaves, along with the repair parts you need to keep you running.
stalled over the U.S. demand that the remaining troops receive immunity from Iraqi courts. ? As recently as August, Maliki's office was discussing allowing 8,000 to 20,000 U.S. troops to remain until next year, Iraqi Ambassador Samir Sumaida'iesaid in an interview with The Cable. He told us that there was widespread support in Iraq for such an extension, but the Obama administration was demanding that immunity for U.S. troops be endorsed by the Iraqi Council of Representatives, which was never really possible.
'I'm shattered, I can't believe it,' Ferguson says after his worst loss ever at United
Andrew Yates / AFP - Getty Images
Manchester City's Spanish midfielder David Silva celebrates after scoring their fifth goal.
updated 12:34 p.m. ET Oct. 23, 2011
MANCHESTER, England - Manchester City thrashed fierce rival Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford on Sunday to hand Alex Ferguson his heaviest home defeat in 25 years in charge.
"I'm shattered, I can't believe it," a shocked Ferguson said after seeing his side's 37-match unbeaten run at home come to a crashing halt.
Mario Balotelli scored twice for a rampant City and Sergio Aguero added a third. Two late goals from Edin Dzeko and another from David Silva earned City its biggest win at Old Trafford since winning 5-0 in 1955 - the last time United lost by five in the topflight.
Jonny Evans, the United central defender who was at fault for Balotelli's opening goal, was shown a straight red card in the 46th minute for a foul on the Italian forward.
Darren Fletcher had given United a glimmer of hope when he scored in the 81st to make it 3-1, but with United piling forward in search of an unlikely point, City took full advantage with three goals in the last four minutes.
"It was an incredible disappointment," Ferguson said. "You have to recover. The history of Manchester United is 'another day' and we will recover. That kind of defeat will make an impact on the players.
"There's a lot of embarrassment in that dressing room and quite rightly so."
City, which won the last of its two topflight titles in 1968, leads the 19-time champions by five points after nine games, but manager Roberto Mancini sought to play down the importance of the win.
"This is only one game," the Italian said. "I still think United are one yard above us, still. I think we can only change this after we win the title in the end. After, maybe it will be different, but now United are better than us."
For the first hour, Balotelli took center stage, not least because of the latest bizarre off-field incident in which he had been embroiled over the weekend.
In the early hours of Saturday morning, two fire engines were sent to the 21-year-old Italy international's home to douse a fire caused by a firework in his bathroom.
"If we want to talk about Mario regarding a football player, I put him in the first five players in the world," said Mancini, who said he didn't know what happened at Balotelli's house, only that "he sleep in a hotel now."
Balotelli was selected ahead of Dzeko and rewarded that decision in the 21st minute when Silva's pass allowed James Milner to pull the ball back for Balotelli to convert an exquisite first-time right-foot finish from the edge of the penalty area.
Not content with the goal, Balotelli raised his jersey to display a T-shirt bearing the slogan "Why always me" which earned him a booking from referee Mark Clattenburg.
It hardly affected him, or City, and United's fate was sealed a minute into the second half when Evans pulled back the Italian on the edge of the area and was dismissed.
It took City until the hour mark to make United pay when Silva and Milner combined once more, the latter crossing for Balotelli to convert easily at the far post.
Chances continued to fall for City and Aguero was the next player on the scoresheet after 68 minutes as Milner's pass sent defender Micah Richards to the byline and he crossed into the six-yard area for the Argentine striker to convert from close range.
Balotelli was taken off, for fear that he might collect another yellow card, and replacement Dzeko might have scored before Fletcher exchanged passes with Javier Hernandez and curled in his team's consolation goal from 20 yards after 81 minutes.
However, City would not be denied and scored three times in as many minutes over the closing stages.
In the last minute of normal time, Gareth Barry flicked on a corner and Joleon Lescott pulled the ball back across goal and into the United goal via Dzeko's knee.
A minute later, Dzeko's pass freed Silva to advance half the length of the field and beat the exposed David de Gea. Then, in the final of the three minutes of stoppage time, the same pair combined, Silva this time passing to Dzeko who had time and space to advance before completing the victory with a strong finish past De Gea.
"The sending off was the killer blow," Ferguson said. "After that we kept attacking ... When we went to 3-1, 4-1 we should have settled for that."
? 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
More newsAndrew Yates / AFP - Getty Images
Man City humiliates United 6-1
??Manchester City thrashed fierce rival Manchester United 6-1 at Old Trafford on Sunday to hand Alex Ferguson his heaviest defeat in 25 years in charge.
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 524
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 526
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 619
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 621
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 652
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 697 Lern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Lern2Play.com features a large MMORPG Forum with over 265,000 posts. Active MMORPG and MMO community and MMO Games Forums. Join now to talk about Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Star Wars Galaxies and more.enhttp://www.lern2play.com/images/lern2play/misc/rss.jpgLern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) DVDRip 1 link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109763-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2-2011-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html Glitch in the Grid (2011) DVD HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109762-glitch-in-the-grid-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Friends with Benefits (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ NO RAR 1 Linkhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109761-friends-with-benefits-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-no-rar-1-link.html Footloose (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109760-footloose-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Elevate (2011) DVD HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109759-elevate-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Drive (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109758-drive-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Dream House (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109757-dream-house-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Dolphin Tale (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109756-dolphin-tale-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109755-crazy-stupid-love-2011-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html Courageous(2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109754-courageous-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Contagion (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109753-contagion-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html http://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109752-being-elmo-a-puppeteers-journey-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Anonymous (I) (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109751-anonymous-i-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Abduction (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109750-abduction-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html A Dangerous Method (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109749-a-dangerous-method-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 524
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 526
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 619
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 621
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 652
Deprecated: Assigning the return value of new by reference is deprecated in /home/lern2pla/public_html/external.php on line 697 Lern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Lern2Play.com features a large MMORPG Forum with over 265,000 posts. Active MMORPG and MMO community and MMO Games Forums. Join now to talk about Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Star Wars Galaxies and more.enhttp://www.lern2play.com/images/lern2play/misc/rss.jpgLern2Playhttp://www.lern2play.com Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) DVDRip 1 link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109763-harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-part-2-2011-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html Glitch in the Grid (2011) DVD HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109762-glitch-in-the-grid-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Friends with Benefits (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ NO RAR 1 Linkhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109761-friends-with-benefits-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-no-rar-1-link.html Footloose (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109760-footloose-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Elevate (2011) DVD HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109759-elevate-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Drive (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109758-drive-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Dream House (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109757-dream-house-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Dolphin Tale (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109756-dolphin-tale-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011) ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109755-crazy-stupid-love-2011-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html Courageous(2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109754-courageous-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Contagion (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109753-contagion-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-1-link-no-rar.html http://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109752-being-elmo-a-puppeteers-journey-2011-dvd-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Anonymous (I) (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109751-anonymous-i-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html Abduction (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109750-abduction-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html A Dangerous Method (2011) DVD ENG DVDRip HQ 1 Link NO RARhttp://www.lern2play.com/movies-tv-and-music/109749-a-dangerous-method-2011-dvd-eng-dvdrip-hq-1-link-no-rar.html
BALI, Indonesia ? In the final days of the U.S. war in Iraq, the outlook for America's military entanglements is markedly different from the confusing, convulsive first days.
Early on Iraq looked, to many, like one in a string of big conflicts in a "war on terror."
That was the view of John Abizaid when the now-retired Army general led U.S. forces in Iraq in 2003-04. At a U.S. base in northern Iraq one day in early 2004, Abizaid told soldiers preparing to return home that he hoped they would remain in uniform and keep building combat experience.
Asked by an Associated Press reporter why he had made that pitch, Abizaid said, "I think the country is going to face more of these (ground wars) in the years ahead."
That was a widely accepted, and often dreaded, view at the time.
Now, with the last American troops set to depart by year's end, Iraq seems more likely to signal an end to such long and enormously costly undertakings in the name of preventing another terrorist attack on U.S. soil ? at least under the administration of President Barack Obama. He opposed the Iraq war and has declared that "the tides of war are receding."
With Obama also pledging to end the U.S. combat role in Afghanistan within three years, the military's focus is turning to places such as Yemen and Somalia.
There, the approach is different. Aerial drones, proxy forces and small teams of U.S. commandos are the preferred formula for containing the Islamic extremists who would plot terrorist attacks against the U.S.
Libya, too, has so far been a case for limited U.S. military intervention. The U.S. cleared the sky ahead of a NATO-led air campaign to protect civilians without putting any troops on the ground.
It took about eight months and cost the U.S. about $1.1 billion to achieve the Libyan rebels' goal of toppling Col. Moammar Gadhafi.
The potential for bigger conflicts persists in places such as Pakistan, whose growing arsenal of nuclear weapons sets it apart from other potential hot spots.
Iran is a major worry, too, in light of its suspected drive to build a nuclear bomb and its proclaimed goal of wiping out Israel. But a U.S. invasion of Iran, on a scale like Iraq, seems highly unlikely for now.
There are other troublesome security challenges facing the U.S., including in Asia where China is expanding its military and asserting its influence.
But the Obama approach ? not unique, but distinctive in comparison to that of his predecessor, George W. Bush ? is to try to prevent festering security problems from growing into full-blown crises.
The U.S. military can play a role in those cases without being called on to invade and depose a government.
Robert Gates captured this idea in a speech last winter to Army cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in which he said it would be unwise to ever fight another war like Iraq or Afghanistan.
"In my opinion, any future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should `have his head examined,' as General MacArthur so delicately put it," Gates said.
Even with the Iraq exit in sight, the U.S. military is unlikely to wash its hands of the problems it will leave behind after nearly nine years of fighting. Wars don't end that neatly, and it is yet to be seen whether U.S. troops take on new missions in Iraq in 2012 to keep the country on track.
Obama is ending the U.S. role in the Iraq war, but that does not necessarily mean the war itself is ending.
Al-Qaida in Iraq remains. Ethnic and sectarian tensions persist. Chaos could again descend upon the country, testing the resilience of Iraqis who suffered enormously under Saddam Hussein and again during the U.S. war.
Even after the U.S. declares an end to its presence in Iraq in December, about 157 U.S. service personnel are expected to remain, working out of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad under Army Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen.
Their job will be to oversee security assistance to the Iraqi government, as similar embassy contingents do in many other Persian Gulf countries and beyond.
About 760 private contractors working for the State Department will help the Iraqis field new military equipment purchased from the U.S. and give them initial training on that equipment. But that is not the depth and scale of training that many U.S. military officers believe the Iraqis need.
On his flight to Indonesia on Friday, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters that negotiations with Iraq on future training possibilities will begin later.
If such talks are held, they likely would start either when Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki visits Washington in December or after the end of the year, according to a senior U.S. defense official familiar with the discussions.
The officer spoke Sunday on condition that he not be identified because the issue of possible future U.S. training is highly sensitive.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
MADRID ? Spain easily raised euro3.9 billion ($5.4 billion) Thursday in an auction of bonds maturing over the next decade, in its first big-scale foray in the markets since the three major ratings agencies downgraded their views on the government's debt.
The average interest rate on the 2021 bonds was down to 5.4 percent from 5.9 percent the last comparable auction on July 21. It also offered bonds maturing in 2017 and 2019.
The Treasury had hoped to auction off a total of between euro3.25 billion and euro4.25 billion on Thursday, so the amount raised was near the top-end of exceptions.
The sale came two days after Moody's downgraded Spain's sovereign government debt rating to "A1" from "Aa2." Rivals Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings likewise cut Spain's rating earlier this month.
After nearly two years of recession, Spanish unemployment is at nearly 21 percent, credit is tight, the banking sector is weak and the private sector carries heavy debt. The ongoing crisis throughout Europe is further weighing on the nation's attempts to address its problems. Prospects for growth are also very weak.
On Wednesday night Moody's also downgraded the debt ratings of 10 Spanish regional governments, including one ? Castilla-La Mancha ? to junk-bond status.
The agency also cut the long term senior debt and deposit ratings of five Spanish banks, including the country's three largest ? Santander, BBVA and Caixabank.
Meanwhile, the austerity measures being taken in much of Spain led to another strike in Madrid-area secondary schools, for kids ranging in age from 12-18. It is the sixth school day disrupted since the year began, and this time primary school teachers were to join in.
Around 68 percent of secondary school teachers and 50 percent at the primary school level participated in the strike, according to the UGT union. More stoppages are expected in November.
The immediate trigger for the strike was an order forcing them to teach an extra two hours of class per week so fewer teachers can be hired this year. Education is run at the regional level in Spain and the Madrid regional government is controlled by the center-right Popular Party.
But the teachers say their underlying gripe is the feeling that education is being treated as an expense rather than an investment in the country's future and if budget cuts must be made, they should be enacted elsewhere.
NEW YORK ? Apple Inc. said Tuesday that C Spire Wireless, the country's eighth-largest phone company, will start selling the iPhone 4S in a few weeks.
That's a major coup for the small company, which provides service in Mississippi and surrounding states. So far, only the three biggest carriers sell the iPhone in the U.S. C Spire is bypassing the rest, including T-Mobile USA and U.S. Cellular, in getting the right to sell it.
Neither C Spire, which was known as Cellular South until a month ago, nor Apple explained why C Spire was getting the phone rather than the No. 4 carrier, T-Mobile.
Analyst Jan Dawson of Ovum found the announcement puzzling.
"Leapfrogging T-Mobile certainly feels like a slap in the face, and you could argue that there are others that should have come first," he said.
The iPhone 4S isn't compatible with T-Mobile USA's high-speed wireless data network, so Apple would have to change its design or make a version specific to T-Mobile. But Dawson believes that's a minor hurdle to overcome. The iPhone 4 exists in two versions for different networks already. Chicago-based U.S. Cellular Corp.'s network is compatible with one of them, but it isn't selling the phone.
Sprint Nextel Corp. began selling the iPhone last week. AT&T Inc. had it exclusively for more than three years, until Verizon Wireless started selling it in February.
Verizon, the largest carrier, has more than 100 million phones and other devices on its network, which compares to 1 million at C Spire. While it's tiny in comparison to other U.S. carriers, there are several overseas iPhone carriers that have fewer subscribers.
Hu Meena, the CEO of C Spire, testified in Washington in 2009 that small companies like his were denied access to the most attractive phones, as those were tied up with exclusive arrangements with the larger carriers.
C Spire, which is based in Ridgeland, Miss., has subscribers in Mississippi as well as the Memphis, Tenn., Mobile, Ala., and Pensacola, Fla. areas.
A new look at a very old mastodon skeleton has turned up evidence of the first known hunting weapon in North America, a tool made of bone that predates previously known hunting technology by 800 years.
The sharp bit of bone, found embedded in a mastodon rib unearthed in the 1970s, has long been controversial. Archaeologists have argued about both the date assigned to the bone ? around 14,000 years old ? and about whether the alleged weapon was really shaped by human hands. But now, researchers say it's likely that 13,800 years ago, hunters slaughtered elephant-like mastodons using bony projectile points not much bigger around than pencils, sharpened to needle-like tips.
"We're fortunate that the hunter 13,800 years ago was probably trying to get that bone projectile point in between the ribs, probably trying to get at a vital organ," said study researcher Michael Waters, an anthropologist at the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A&M University. "Maybe the mastodon flinched or his thrust was off, and he hit a rib instead and broke his bone projectile point. So it's bad for him, and good for us." [Image Gallery: Evidence of Mastodon Hunters]
Waters and his colleagues report their finding in the journal Science tomorrow (Oct. 21).
Uncovering a kill site
One thing is for sure: The ancient mastodon kill wasn't a fair fight. The creature, unearthed by a rancher digging a stock tank in the late 1970s in Washington state, was old and likely sickly when it died, with teeth "quite literally worn down to a nubbin," said Donald Grayson, an anthropologist at the University of Washington who was not involved in the new study.
The rancher turned the site over to archaeologists, who returned the favor by dubbing the find the "Manis Mastodon," the rancher's surname. The archaeologist's claim that the mastodon was hunted down by humans about 14,000 years ago was regarded with suspicion among other researchers, however, who pointed out that there was no solid proof that the bony point found embedded in the mastodon bone was made by human hands.
It was possible, Grayson said, that the bone was a part of the mastodon's own skeleton, perhaps even a dislodged bone chip from a fight with another animal. [Read: 25 Amazing Ancient Beasts]
Paleo cold case
But archaeological technology today is leaps and bounds past what it was in the 1970s. So Waters and his colleagues decided to take another look at the case of the Manis Mastodon. They extracted bone protein from the damaged rib and radiocarbon-dated it, an advanced version of the dating technique used four decades ago. Sure enough, they found that the specimen dates back 13,800 years. That's 800 years earlier than the North American Clovis, who were known to hunt mammoths and mastodons.
But Waters and his colleagues also needed evidence that the bony tip embedded in the rib was man-made. To investigate, they used a high-resolution computed tomography (CT) scan.
"We're all familiar with hospital CT scanners where they can scan your body and look inside to see organs and bones," Waters said. "This is a high-resolution industrial version that creates digital X-rays spaced every 0.06 millimeters [0.002 inches], about half the thickness of a piece of paper."
This ultra-sharp look inside the rib revealed the needle-sharp shaft of the projectile point lodged inside the mastodon's bone. The images suggested the point had been whittled down and sharpened, Waters said, the work of human hands. [See video of the weapon point and bone]
To top it off, the researchers extracted bone protein and DNA from the projectile point itself, determining that the weapon had been made from the bones of yet another mastodon.
"That was even more exciting, because what that meant is whoever these hunters were that tracked down and killed the Manis Mastodon were hunting with weapons made from a previous kill," Waters said.
Pre-Clovis hunters
Other anthropologists warned that it's difficult to conclusively understand an archaeological site given only one artifact, but said the find went a long way to putting the mastodon controversy to bed.
"It's very convincing," said James Dixon, the director of the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico, who was not involved in the current study. Other mammoth and mastodon butchering sites from the same time period have been discovered (albeit without hunting weapons), Dixon said, and the new mastodon analysis adds to the evidence that human hunter-gatherers were killing the big, woolly creatures before the Clovis culture came along.
"To me, the high-quality scan strongly suggests that this really is a bone projectile point, and that this is another pre-Clovis site," Grayson agreed. If so, he said, it's the third confirmed pre-Clovis archaeological site, including the northern Patagonia settlement of Monte Verde from about 14,800 years ago and the Paisley Caves in Oregon, where scientists uncovered 14,300-year-old human feces.
So how did these early hunters kill a creature the size of an elephant with weapons the size of pencils? It's possible that groups of hunters ganged up on a mastodon and threw their projectile points like spears until the animal looked "like a pincushion," Waters said. The Manis Mastodon was nicked in an upper rib, consistent with the use of an atlatl, or spear-thrower, a hollowed-out shaft used to get more speed and leverage behind a thrown spear, Dixon said.
Or maybe that mastodon was already on its last legs before the human hunters finished it off, Grayson suggested.
"It is fully possible that this poor guy was not standing when killed, and might actually have been lying down and in the process of dying on his own," Grayson said. "That would solve the problem of having someone tall enough, or up high enough, to stick it in the back."
You can follow LiveScience?senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter @sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on?Twitter @livescience?and on Facebook.
SOUTH BOSTON, Virginia (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama headed deeper into the 2012 race on Tuesday as he toured electoral battlegrounds of the South, underscoring how long and tough his re-election campaign is likely to be.
The second day of Obama's slow-rolling journey on a campaign-style bus, billed by the White House as part of his nationwide push to get own his jobs proposals past Congress, remained focused on courting voters in politically pivotal North Carolina and Virginia.
"The most important thing I wanted to do was to hear from people like you, because it doesn't seem like your voices are being heard in Washington right now. Times are tough for a lot of Americans," he told a crowd of 2,000 in Jamestown, North Carolina.
Obama is using the road trip not only to test out a sharper, more populist message as he seeks a second term but also to gauge whether the two traditionally conservative states he won in the 2008 election can stay in his column in 2012.
All indications are it could be a daunting task for Obama, whose poll numbers have fallen to the lows of his presidency amid public discontent over the stalled U.S. economy and high unemployment.
The bus tour is taking place more than a year before the election, a time when incumbent presidents generally are spending their campaign time raising money.
"The stronger that an incumbent is the more time they have to stay off the trail. Obama is under immense pressure to solidify his support," said Julian Zelizer, a professor at Princeton University.
Obama, whose re-election may hinge on his ability to spur hiring, is pressing Republicans back in Washington to pass his $447 billion jobs package in "bite-size pieces" after they shot it down as a whole in Congress last week.
The Senate may vote as early as this week on the first part of the package, a $35 billion measure to create or save 400,000 jobs for teachers, police officers and firefighters, funded by a 0.5 percent surtax on millionaires.
Obama's strategy is to force Republicans to accept his proposals or be painted as obstructionists in the way of economic recovery as campaigning for the November 2012 presidential and congressional elections heats up.
Republicans, who see Obama's plan as laden with wasteful spending and job-killing tax hikes on wealthier Americans, say the Democratic president is playing electoral gamesmanship.
"As the only person elected to represent every American, the president should speak for all Americans, especially in times of crisis, not divide them for short-term partisan political gain," said top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell.
The impasse has extended the deadlock that brought the United States to the brink of default in August until Democrats and Republicans agreed on the outlines of a deficit-cutting plan as part of a deal to raise the U.S. debt ceiling.
CAMPAIGN MODE
As Obama's black armored bus rolled along, there was little denying the shift into full campaign mode in what political experts see as must-win states for him next year.
Sandwiched between speeches in which he made full-throated attacks on Republicans, there were choreographed stops, like Obama buying Halloween candy at a family-owned store, and presidential moments, like when he lifted a 1-year-old from his mother's arms and pronounced him a "good-looking boy."
But North Carolina's mixed views on the president's record were also on display during a lunchtime stop at a diner in Reidsville, where Jerry Talley's green John Deere cap caught Obama's eye, who paused to chat and shake hands.
After Obama had moved on, the 63-year-old retired high school principal, who now works part-time as a landscaper, said his support for Obama was wavering.
"I was for him at first. Right now, I'm not so sure. I'm waiting to see what he does with the economy," he said.
After crossing the border into Virginia a short while later, Obama got a stark reminder of the mixed -- and even conflicting -- views on his record in another swing state.
As his motorcade slowed through the small town of South Boston, Virginia, dozens of supporters on one side of the road cheered, some shouting his 2008 campaign motto "Yes, we can!"
On the other side, a smaller but just as vocal group booed and held aloft signs that said "Hope is on the way -- No-bama 2013" and "Never again." One man turned thumbs down as Obama's entourage drove past.
North Carolina and Virginia had been solid Republican strongholds until Obama carried both states in 2008, but polls now show him in danger of losing them.
A recent Elon University poll put Obama's approval rating at 42 percent in North Carolina, where Democrats will convene their presidential convention next summer.
A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed Obama's approval ratings at 45 percent in Virginia and put Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney and Herman Cain in a statistical dead-heat with him in a theoretical matchup.
(Additional reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Eric Beech)
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Oct-2011
Share ] 
