KANO, Nigeria ? Police say suspected members of a radical sect have attacked two more police stations, leaving two people dead in a north Nigerian city where 185 people were killed just over a week ago.
Kano State police chief Ibrahim Idris said two civilians died in crossfire between suspected Boko Haram gunmen and police officers Sunday evening in Kano.
Idris said parts of the police station collapsed under the impact of bombs hurled by the attackers.
He said a new attack Monday morning targeted another police station where a policeman was killed last week.
He said the latest strikes occurred just outside curfew hours imposed after coordinated Jan. 20 attacks claimed by Boko Haram left at least 185 dead.
Those were the group's bloodiest attacks against Nigeria's weak central government.
Quotes from the 18th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards.
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"There's no need to be delicate. I grew up in the Bible Belt. I realized that even though I had never really experienced bigotry, to be silent is to be passive." ? Best supporting actress winner Octavia Spencer speaking to reporters after accepting her award for "The Help."
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"This nomination belongs to four of us. Please, please know that I'm dealing them right in with this. I'm not going to let them keep this, but I'll let them see it." ? Betty White, saying during her acceptance speech that her three "Hot in Cleveland" co-stars should share in her best actress in a comedy series award.
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"I am still playing `Words With Friends,' but on Virgin Atlantic." ? Alec Baldwin, making light backstage of his being kicked off an American Airlines flight for refusing to shut off his cellphone while he was playing the game before takeoff.
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"I'm still scared to speak out. I want us to come back very badly next year for another season. When you do speak out, it does cost you." Baldwin, speaking to reporters after winning the best comedy actor award for his role on "30 Rock."
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"I was a very bad student. I didn't listen in class. I was always dreaming. My teachers called me "Jean of the Moon" and I realize now that I never stopped dreaming. Thank you very much. Thank you for this dream." ? Best actor winner Jean Dujardin, accepting his award for his role in "The Artist."
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"Not only did this cast do it, but several of the other movies did the same thing. I am hoping that the industry begins to recognize us as the artists that we are rather than the females that we are." ? "The Help" actress Cicely Tyson on her hope that Hollywood executives realize female-driven films can be successful.
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"A few more people checked my name in the box for whatever reason. This time I kind of fooled them." ? Best actress winner Viola Davis speaking to reporters after her win for "The Help."
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"I just can't tell you what fun I've had being a member of the world's second oldest profession." ? Christopher Plummer, accepting his award for best supporting actor for his role in "Beginners."
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"Actors are gregarious and wacky, are they not, and I love them dearly. But when they honor you, it's like being lit by the Holy Grail. Thank you, thank you, thank you." Plummer.
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"If more women ate, they'd be a lot happier. I'm real grumpy when I don't eat." ? Spencer, speaking with reporters after winning best supporting actress for her role in "The Help."
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"Thank you to the unions for making sure we're properly fed, have all (our) shots, cleaned and are put in our pens each night by sundown." ? Nolan Gould, accepting the best comedy television ensemble award with his "Modern Family" co-stars, many of whom are child actors.
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Associated Press Writers Anthony McCartney and Beth Harris contributed to this report.
This weekend, audiences turned out for Liam Neeson's latest thriller The Grey which topped a busy frame that saw three new action entries attack a North American box office that already had plenty of action offerings. Marking the first number one debut for rookie distributor Open Road, the R-rated Alaskan survival pic bowed to an estimated $20M from 3,185 theaters for a solid $6,279 average. Following Taken and Unknown, Neeson has emerged as a more cerebral action hero and has now anchored three number one hits over the past three years which is more than most other Hollywood stars like Robert Downey Jr., Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith, Matt Damon, or Denzel Washington.
Reviews were favorable for The Grey but audiences were not too thrilled with the outcome as the wolf attack flick earned a disappointing B- grade from CinemaScore. Social media chatter on Twitter included plenty of disappointment from people who thought that Neeson would have a bigger presence in the film given his prominence in the advertising campaign. But after the shocking $24.7M debut of Taken over Super Bowl weekend in 2009 and the brawny $21.9M debut of Unknown over last year's Presidents Day holiday frame, it made sense that Neeson was far and away the top commercial selling point for the $25M production which boasted no other major stars. Coming up on his 60th birthday, the busy Irish actor could possibly star in a whopping five number one hits this year thanks to the February 10 re-release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, the March 30 bow of Wrath of the Titans, the May 18 launch of Battleship, and the July 20 release of The Dark Knight Rises.
Despite all the action competition, last week's box office champ Underworld: Awakening held up incredibly well dropping 51% to an estimated $12.5M for the lowest sophomore decline in the history of the four-film franchise. The first three pics each fell by 55-65% after their debuts and generally fourth chapters in a sci-fi or horror series draw such a big part of the built-in audience upfront that they crumble in the second frame. Sony has taken in $45.1M after ten days with its Kate Beckinsale vehicle and can expect a final take in the $65-70M range helped in part by 3D surcharges.
Katherine Heigl landed in third place with a respectable debut for her latest film One for the Money which bowed to an estimated $11.8M from 2,737 sites for a decent $4,293 average. Lionsgate refrained from screening the PG-13 action-comedy for critics but reviews that eventually came out were brutal making it the front-runner for next year's Razzie Awards at this early stage in the race. Heigl's films routinely open in double digit millions despite horrible reviews and lame plots although this one lacked a notable male lead. Money, which finds the actress playing a bail bondswoman hunting down an old flame, skewed heavily towards women with studio research showing that the audience was 79% female and 74% over 25. With a lackluster B- CinemaScore, the road ahead looks grim.
The fighter pilot actioner Red Tails dropped 45% from its impressive debut and took fourth place with an estimated $10.4M. Fox's release of the George Lucas production has collected $33.8M in ten days and a final tally of $55-60M seems likely which is more than most expected.
Scoring the worst opening of the frame's three new releases, but the best audience feedback, was Summit's Man on a Ledge with an estimated $8.3M. The PG-13 film averaged a weak $2,752 per theater from 2,998 locations and just couldn't compete with the wide range of other action offerings in the marketplace. Reviews were dull and lead actor Sam Worthington has never anchored an action hit outside of pre-existing brands like Clash of the Titans or James Cameron. But Ledge did have broad appeal with men and women represented equally and 56% of the crowd being under 25. The CinemaScore grade was a decent B+ and the Friday-to-Saturday increase was 44% - both tops among the freshmen.
A pair of Oscar nominees for Best Picture followed, each exploiting the nominations in a different way. The Tom Hanks-Sandra Bullock drama Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close dipped only 29% to an estimated $7.1M in its second weekend of wide release to raise the cume to $21.1M. Warner Bros. has used a Million Dollar Baby-style strategy with this 9/11 pic by opening in just a small number of theaters in late December in order to qualify and then waiting until nomination time to go nationwide letting others duke it out during awards season in hopes that it will be a fresh new option for voters and mainstream audiences alike. The plan worked for Baby which triumphed over the presumed front-runner The Aviator that year. But it may not be repeat this time as Loud only scored one other Academy Award nomination and was left out of the Director race. Still, the Oscar heat could help the film's legs at the box office over the next few weeks as mature audiences catch up on Academy-endorsed films.
George Clooney's The Descendants expanded on Friday more than tripling its run on the heels of earning five Oscar nods and jumped back into the top ten at number seven with an estimated $6.6M. Now getting a second life in its 11th week of release, the Fox Searchlight film boosted its theater count by 257% from 560 locations to 2,001 and watched its weekend gross jump 176% although its average fell by 23%. The Alexander Payne-directed pic has banked $58.8M to date and could rake in a lot more thanks to the Oscar heat and the fact that it has some star power and mainstream appeal.
Former number one Contraband followed with an estimated $6.5M, down 46%, giving Universal $56.4M to date for the Mark Wahlberg actioner. Disney's 3D makeover of Beauty and the Beast dropped 39% to an estimated $5.3M for $41.1M so far. The animated film's lifetime gross including the 1991 original release plus the 2002 special edition is now $212.5M. Rounding out the top ten was Steven Soderbergh's action thriller Haywire which fell a sharp 53% in its second weekend to an estimated $4M putting the Relativity title at $15.3M in ten days.
Oscar nominees all hustled this past week to turn nominations into extra box office. Distributors worked hard to cash in as Academy endorsements and media hype can translate into broader moviegoer interest, especially for smaller films that need more convincing. But with this game comes added expenditures as more prints are needed and additional advertising is purchased so the net "Oscar bump" is nearly impossible to calculate.
The undisputed front-runner The Artist expanded from 662 to 897 theaters and saw its weekend take rise 40% to an estimated $3.3M giving The Weinstein Co. a total of $16.7M with plenty more to come. Its average of $3,696 was not too impressive but it did inch up 3% from last weekend. A near-impossible sell in the U.S. market, The Artist is now fully in the spotlight and positioned to pull in audiences that would not have purchased tickets before. There will still be resistance to the silent 1930s-set French-produced film from the broader mainstream crowd so the cume will only rise so high. But with numerous wins including the top film prizes from both the PGA and DGA, the Golden Globe for Best Picture - Comedy or Musical, Critics Choice awards for Picture and Director, plus ten Academy Award nominations, The Artist is clearly the film to beat and can extend its box office fortunes past Feb 26 if it pulls off a big victory.
Martin Scorsese's Hugo, which led all films with 11 Oscar nods, enjoyed a similar expansion from 650 to 965 sites and grossed an estimated $2.3M. Its boost of 143% was much greater as the 3D film is more accessible and includes characters speaking to each other. Paramount's total is $58.7M. The incredibly expensive production did not fare too well during its initial run but now has a chance add to its cume by reaching those who missed it the first time around. Fellow Best Picture contender War Horse did not benefit much as the Spielberg pic fell 37% to an estimated $2M raising the sum to $75.6M. The war drama lost nearly 700 screens but also saw its average drop too.
Following its qualifying run, Glenn Close's Albert Nobbs opened in limited release after nabbing three Oscar nominations and grossed an estimated $773,000 from 245 theaters for a sluggish $3,155 average. The overall cume is $823,000 for Roadside Attractions and reviews have been mixed for the film but solid for Close's performance as a woman playing a man.
Elsewhere below the top ten, Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol achieved a pair of notable milestones this weekend. The domestic haul broke the $200M mark with $202.6M thus far while the international run continued to shine raising the overseas tally to $369M. The action hit is now the top-grossing installment of the popular franchise with a global gross of $571.6M and counting thanks in part to a solid debut in China where it raked in $12.7M in only two days more than quintupling the opening of the last Mission: Impossible picture there. The $600M barrier will be crushed soon.
The top ten films grossed an estimated $92.5M which was up 6% from last year when The Rite opened in the top spot with $14.8M; but down 11% from 2010 when Avatar stayed at number one yet again in its seventh frame with $31.3M.
FILE - In this June 6, 2011 file photo, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum holds his daughter Isabella before announcing he is entering the Republican presidential race, on the steps of the Somerset County Courthouse in Somerset, Pa. Santorum canceled his morning campaign events, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter, Bella. Isabella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE - In this June 6, 2011 file photo, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum holds his daughter Isabella before announcing he is entering the Republican presidential race, on the steps of the Somerset County Courthouse in Somerset, Pa. Santorum canceled his morning campaign events, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, and planned to spend time with his hospitalized daughter, Bella. Isabella Santorum has Trisomy 18, a genetic condition caused by the presence of all or part of an extra 18th chromosome. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Sharon Irwin, holds a sign during a prayer for Bella, daughter of Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum during a campaign rally in a hanger at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, where Santorum was scheduled to appear. Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with 3-year-old Isabella, who is hospitalized. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Elizabeth Santorum, eldest daughter of Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, campaigns for her father in a hanger at Sarasota Bradenton International Airport in Sarasota, Fla., Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. Santorum is staying home in Philadelphia to be with his 3-year-old hospitalized daughter Isabella. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Sunday his daughter Bella remains in the hospital with pneumonia but is recovering after a rough 36 hours.
Santorum spoke with Florida supporters by telephone from 3-year-old Bella's hospital room and said doctors hope she can go home in the next few days.
The former Pennsylvania senator also said, "We're going to get out on the campaign trail later tomorrow ... heading out to the Midwest, and start campaigning in the next states as we move this campaign forward."
Santorum aides did not immediately provide details, but his advisers are looking at upcoming contests in Missouri and Minnesota, as well as Arizona and Colorado.
"I feel very, very good about where we are and where the campaign is going," the candidate said.
But during the call with Florida voters, Santorum opened his remarks with his daughter, who has a genetic condition known as Trisomy 18. The condition typically proves fatal and Santorum often says his daughter wasn't expected to live past 12 months.
"She without a doubt has turned the corner," he said.
Santorum called his daughter's recovery a "miraculous turnaround" after an unexpected detour from the campaign just days before Tuesday's Florida primary.
Santorum got to his home in Virginia around midnight Friday for a quick break to do his taxes, but found his daughter "was not doing well."
"I was up with her a lot of the night," he said. "By the end of the day, it was really, really clear she was struggling."
Saturday evening, Santorum aides announced Bella had been admitted to the hospital and they canceled his morning interview with NBC's "Meet the Press" and church services in Miami. His aides later canceled his trip to Florida and instead sent his 20-year-old daughter to campaign for him.
Santorum described the situation as a "very, very tough night last night" but said by late Sunday Bella was "alert and back to her own beautiful, happy girl."
"It's been a very hectic 36 hours," Santorum said. "Life in the Santorum family has dramatically improved since the late afternoon."
In his book, Reinventing Discovery: The New Era of Networked Science, Physicist Michael Nielsen discusses why scientists jealously guard their data and are slow to adopt online tools for collaboration. Nielsen talks about why attempts to create science wikipedias have failed.
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DAVOS, Switzerland ? European financial chiefs are trying to soothe global CEOs and political leaders, insisting they have a handle on the eurozone's troubles.
Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says he's "quite optimistic" about a Greek debt restructuring deal, despite recent strains in the complex talks. He says he doesn't expect Greece to default.
He stressed that recent developments in markets have been "positive" for Italy and Spain.
France's Finance Minister Francois Baroin welcomed actions by the European Central Bank that he says have helped "reduce tensions in the European banking system."
Both spoke Friday at the World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort of Davos, where many business and political VIPs fear that Europe's debt crisis will drag the global economy into a new recession.
AIRING: On broadcast and cable stations in Florida.
KEY IMAGES: The ad begins with footage of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who ran against Romney in the 2008 GOP presidential contest, talking into the camera. "If a man's dishonest to get a job, he'll be dishonest on the job," Huckabee says.
Downbeat music starts playing. A narrator intones darkly as a blurry image of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney slowly comes into focus. "What kind of man would mislead, distort, and deceive just to win an election?" the male voice asks. "This man would. Mitt Romney."
As a series of photos of Romney from recent debates flash across the screen, a bright red "false" stamp flashes across a different picture of Romney, who appears pained.
"Romney said he has always voted Republican when he had the opportunity," the narrator says. "But in the 1992 Massachusetts primary, Romney had the chance to vote for George H.W. Bush or Pat Buchanan but he voted for a liberal Democrat instead."
The narrator continues: "Romney said his investments in Fannie and Freddie were in a blind trust. But as reported in the National Journal, Romney earned tens of thousands of dollars from investments NOT in a blind trust. Romney denied seeing a false ad his campaign used to attack Newt Gingrich. But Romney's own campaign paid for the ad ... Romney's own voice is on the ad approving the content.
"If we can't trust Romney in a debate, how can we trust him on anything?"
As the final line is read, a picture of Romney with his head bowed appears with text next to it that is superimposed over a shot of the White House. It reads, ".... and that's why he would lose to Barack Obama."
The ad signs off with "Paid for by Newt 2012."
ANALYSIS: From disappointing losses in Iowa and New Hampshire to a soaring victory in South Carolina, the level of vitriol in Gingrich's attacks on Romney has waxed and waned. After scaling back his barbs in two debates, Gingrich has seen his numbers slip. Opinion polls show a close race in Florida, with a slight advantage for Romney. This ad dramatically escalates Gingrich's attacks on Romney.
It is by far Gingrich's sharpest, most personal attack on the former Massachusetts governor to date. "What Kind of Man?" also seems to signal that Gingrich will fight bitterly for the GOP nomination.
The ad curiously begins with Huckabee, currently a TV personality and popular conservative Republican figure. Gingrich may be hoping to remind viewers that, at least four years ago, Romney's fellow presidential aspirants could barely contain their anger at him. Huckabee hasn't endorsed in this year's contest.
The former Arkansas governor quickly disputed the use of his image in the ad. In an interview on Fox News Channel's "Your World," Huckabee said he was not referring to Romney specifically in the footage and did not approve of Gingrich's use of the footage in the ad. Huckabee said he would "love for him" to pull the ad because he hasn't endorsed anyone in the primary.
As a narrator takes over, the ad makes a series of claims that Romney could justifiably dispute.
It alleges that Romney voted for Democrats when he could have voted for Republicans. While this is technically true of the 1992 Massachusetts primary, Romney has said repeatedly that he was a registered independent so he could have more influence in a state where Democrats typically dominate. Romney has maintained that he has always voted for Republicans in general elections, and voted in the Democratic primary so he could vote for a weaker candidate and improve the GOP's chances.
As Gingrich's ad asserts, National Journal did report that Romney's investments in mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not in a blind trust. And Romney's personal financial disclosure forms show he owned between $250,001 and $500,000 in the Federated Government Obligation Fund, which contained mutual-fund notes of politically sensitive Fannie and Freddie. An addendum to Romney' disclosure forms says certain assets, including the federated fund, were outside the scope of his blind trust. The investment was not on Romney's 2007 financial form, making it a relatively new one coming just as the housing and financial crises were hitting Americans full force.
Romney and his campaign have, nonetheless, denied that he had any knowledge of his large investment in the fund.
The final factual claim, that Romney says he had no knowledge of an ad from his campaign against Gingrich, is true. Also true is that Romney's voice can be heard at the end of the ad, approving its message. But there is no way to determine whether Romney saw the ad before his campaign put it on the air.
Beyond the ad's specific claims, Gingrich has chosen to take an unusually personal tone that effectively calls his opponent untrustworthy and a liar. That's a sign both of Gingrich's frustration and the high stakes. Both Gingrich and Romney believe a Florida victory could catapult them to the Republican nomination.
The ad is also a variation on a theme Gingrich has tried to push about Romney. Gingrich's campaign wants voters to see Romney as a flip-flopper and someone who will say anything to get elected. But this ad is stripped of even a patina of civility.
As Romney has done before him, Gingrich also raises the specter of a second term for President Barack Obama as the consequence of voting for his opponent. Both candidates seem to be talking past each other on the issue of electability. In Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney was viewed by voters as more electable. In South Carolina, where Gingrich jolted the race with a victory, he was viewed as the candidate with the best chance of beating Obama.
One thing both campaigns seem to agree on is Obama's effectiveness as a bogeyman in GOP primaries.
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Follow Henry C. Jackson on Twitter: (at)hjacksonap
ANN ARBOR, Mich. ? President Barack Obama called Friday for an overhaul of the higher education financial aid system, warning that colleges and universities that fail to control spiraling tuition costs could lose federal funds.
The election year proposal was also a political appeal to young people and working families, two important voting blocs for Obama. But the initiative faces long odds in Congress, which must approve nearly all aspects of the president's plan.
Speaking to students at the University of Michigan, Obama said he was "putting colleges on notice" that the era of unabated tuition hikes is over.
"You can't assume that you'll just jack up tuition every single year. If you can't stop tuition from going up, then the funding you get from taxpayers each year will go down," Obama said on the final stop of a three-day post-State of the Union trip to promote components of his economic agenda.
Obama told the largely supportive student audience that the nation's economic future depended on making sure every American can afford a world-class education.
"In the coming decade, 60 percent of new jobs will require more than a high school diploma," he said. "Higher education is not a luxury. It's an economic imperative that every family in America should be able to afford."
The president first announced the outlines of the financial aid proposal during Tuesday's State of the Union address. His plan targets what is known as "campus based" aid given to colleges to distribute in areas such as Perkins loans or in work study programs. Of the $142 billion in federal grants and loans distributed in the last school year, about $3 billion went to these programs. His plan calls for increasing that type of aid to $10 billion annually.
He also wants to create a "Race to the Top" competition in higher education similar to the one his administration used on K-12 to encourage states to better use higher education dollars in exchange for $1 billion in prize dollars. A second competition called "First in the World" would encourage innovation to boost productivity on campuses.
Obama is also pushing for the creation of new tools to allow students to determine which colleges and universities have the best value.
Some in the higher education community are nervous that the Obama administration could be setting a new precedent in the federal government's role in controlling the rising costs of college. Following the speech, Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, issued a statement saying there's concern that the proposal would "move decision-making in higher education from college campuses to Washington, D.C."
Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., a former education secretary, said the autonomy of U.S. higher education is what makes it the best in the world, and he's questioned whether Obama can enforce any plan that shifts federal aid away from colleges and universities without hurting students.
"It's hard to do without hurting students, and it's not appropriate to do," Alexander said. "The federal government has no business doing this."
But Obama education secretary, Arne Duncan, said Friday that institutions of higher learning should get federal dollars based in part on their performance.
"Historically, we've funded universities whether or not they've done a good job of graduating people, whether or not they've done a good job of keeping down tuition," Duncan said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said there is bipartisan concern in Congress about the rising costs of college, and he's hopeful the president's plan will open up a dialogue about the problem. Some Republicans in the past, including Rep. Buck McKeon, R-Calif., have offered proposals similar to the president's.
The administration has already taken a series of steps to expand the availability of grants and loans and to make loans easier to pay back. During the State of the Union, Obama spelled out other proposals to make college more affordable, such as extending a tuition tax break and asking Congress to keep loan interest rates from doubling in July.
His administration has also targeted career college programs ? primarily at for-profit institutions ? with high loan default rates among graduates over multiple years by taking away their ability to participate in such programs.
But until now, the administration has done little to turn its attention to the rising cost of tuition at traditional colleges and universities.
The average in-state tuition and fees at four-year public colleges last fall rose 8.3 percent and, with room and board, now exceed $17,000 a year, according to the College Board. Rising tuition costs have been blamed on a variety of factors, including a decline in state dollars, an over-reliance on federal student loan dollars and competition for the best facilities and professors.
Researchers' method to rank molecules may aid in search for new drugs.
Web edition : Thursday, January 26th, 2012
A new method for rating the attractiveness of a compound could help chemists discern potential new drugs from duds. Researchers have come up with a way to quantify a compound?s drug potential that moves beyond simply ?hot or not,? instead providing a measure that allows compounds to be ranked as well.
The approach ?takes things a step further, looking at multiple factors instead of yes/no,? says chemical informaticist David Wild, of the Indiana University Bloomington, ?who was not involved with the research.
The new technique uses eight molecular properties ? such as the number of rotatable bonds a molecule has ? that influence things like a compound?s toxic effects or its likelihood of being absorbed in the body. With some clever math, those probabilities are turned into a number between zero and one. When researchers tested their method against existing techniques for screening compounds, it outperformed the standard approaches at distinguishing known drugs from other molecules, the team reports in the February issue of Nature Chemistry. ?
And because the new method, called QED, or quantitative estimate of drug-likeness, provides a numerical rating, it allows chemists to prioritize molecules for drug development, says study leader Andrew Hopkins, an expert in drug discovery and molecular design at the University of Dundee in Scotland.
Existing screening techniques are often used to make pass/fail judgments on compounds? drug potential. Lipinski?s famous Rule of Five, for example, which uses measures such as a molecular mass not greater than 500 daltons to evaluate whether a compound might be absorbed and used by the body, has become a way to filter whole libraries of compounds even though it was just meant as a guideline, Hopkins says. This means potential drugs might be routinely screened out before they?re even given a chance.
Some chemists actually aim to break the rules, with the hope of finding a drug no one has bothered to look at, a sound approach given that 16 percent of today?s oral medicines ?including some well-known drugs ? violate at least one of Lipinski?s rules.
?Our metric suggests you can break some rules,? says Hopkins. ?As with people, you can tolerate some bad behavior in someone?s personality if they are very good in their other qualities.?
In addition to assessing 771 oral drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the researchers used QED to evaluate molecular properties of drug targets, the binding sites in the body that drugs latch onto. Since QED evaluates compounds on a continuum, it can reveal whether some targets? chemical traits make them harder to get to than others, potentially highlighting the need for an innovative attack method.
QED also compared favorably with the gestalt assessment of chemists. Hopkins and his colleagues compared their technique?s evaluation of molecules with the opinions of 79 chemists who were asked whether they would pursue a potential compound. The QED values for both attractive and unattractive compounds were in line with the chemists? ratings, suggesting the method nicely eyeballs a compound?s potential drug-worthiness.
?Chemists do have a concept of good, bad and ugly compounds,? says Hopkins.
The number of potential compounds and targets is far too large, however, for chemists to consider one-by-one. Perhaps QED can lend a hand, Wild says. ?Chemists never like being told what to do by a computer, but at least the computer can help them test ideas.?
WASHINGTON ? Timothy Geithner said Wednesday that he doesn't expect to serve a second term as Treasury secretary. He said he doesn't think President Barack Obama would ask him to remain if Obama won re-election.
"He's not going to ask me to stay on, I'm pretty confident," Geithner said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "I'm also confident he's going to have the privilege of having another Treasury secretary."
Geithner is the only remaining top official on Obama's original economics team. He had considered leaving in August after the congressional battle over raising the debt was resolved. Obama asked him to reconsider and remain in the Cabinet, and Geithner did.
Geithner helped lead the administration's response to the 2008 financial crisis. He has been a frequent target of criticism during his three years at Treasury. Some have accused him of siding too closely with Wall Street in the government bailout of the financial system. Republicans have said he did little to help the economy recover from the financial crisis and recession.
But he also received praise for his leadership in getting a sweeping financial overhaul through Congress and in the efforts he made to stabilize the financial system.
In the interview, Geithner offered no hints of what he might do after leaving the administration.
"I'm very fortunate," he said. "I work with tremendously talented people, and this is one of the most important times in modern history to be in the world of economic policy and finance. And I work for a great president, who I believe in."
It's typical for Cabinet secretaries to leave after one presidential term.
TORONTO (Reuters) ? Shares of Research In Motion rose 8.6 percent on Wednesday, rebounding after two days of declines on disappointment over the choice of an company insider as the BlackBerry maker's new chief executive.
The jump followed a 8 percent swoon on Monday and a 3.5 percent drop on Tuesday. Over the weekend, RIM replaced co-chief executives Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie with Thorsten Heins, a four-year veteran of the struggling company.
RIM's rise also came a day after Apple posted blockbuster quarterly results highlighting the strong global market for smartphones.
A report in a technology blog that said RIM's next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphones were on track for a September launch may have also given a lift to the stock, said Todd Coupland from CIBC Capital Markets.
"The market might have been reacting to some blog reports that the first BB 10 products may be coming sooner than expected," he said.
Even so, Coupland was skeptical about the posting in the Boy Genius Report, which did not specify a source.
In December, RIM delayed the phones using the same software in its PlayBook tablet until the latter part of 2012.
The blog earlier this month said RIM was in talks to sell itself to Samsung, triggering a 10 percent spike in the shares.
Samsung later denied any interest in acquiring RIM, and a source close to the BlackBerry maker said the two companies had never been in buyout talks.
RIM's Nasdaq-listed shares closed at $16.30 and its Toronto stock was at C$16.40. The stock has fallen 75 percent in the past year.
MIT neuroscientists explore how longstanding conflict influences empathy for othersPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline McCall cmccall5@mit.edu Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT postdoc Emile Bruneau has long been drawn to conflict not as a participant, but an observer. In 1994, while doing volunteer work in South Africa, he witnessed firsthand the turmoil surrounding the fall of apartheid; during a 2001 trip to visit friends in Sri Lanka, he found himself in the midst of the violent conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.
Those chance experiences got Bruneau, who taught high school science for several years, interested in the psychology of human conflict. While teaching, he also volunteered as counselor for a conflict-resolution camp in Ireland that brought Catholic and Protestant children together. At MIT, Bruneau is now working with associate professor of cognitive neuroscience Rebecca Saxe to figure out why empathy the ability to feel compassion for another person's suffering often fails between members of opposing conflict groups.
"What are the psychological barriers that are put up between us in these contexts of intergroup conflict, and then, critically, what can we do to get past them?" Bruneau asks.
Bruneau and Saxe are also trying to locate patterns of brain activity that correlate with empathy, in hopes of eventually using such measures to determine how well people respond to reconciliation programs aimed at boosting empathy between groups in conflict.
"We're interested in how people think about their enemies, and whether there are brain measures that are reliable readouts of that," says Saxe, who is an associate member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. "This is a huge vision, of which we are at the very beginning."
Before researchers can use tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate whether conflict-resolution programs are having any effect, they need to identify brain regions that respond to other people's emotional suffering. In a study published Dec. 1 in Neuropsychologia, Saxe and Bruneau scanned people's brains as they read stories in which the protagonist experienced either physical or emotional pain. The brain regions that responded uniquely to emotional suffering overlapped with areas known to be involved in the ability to perceive what another person is thinking or feeling.
Failures of empathy
Hoping to see a correlation between empathy levels and amount of activity in those brain regions, the researchers then recruited Israelis and Arabs for a study in which subjects read stories about the suffering of members of their own groups or that of conflict-group members. The study participants also read stories about a distant, neutral group South Americans.
As expected, Israelis and Arabs reported feeling much more compassion in response to the suffering of their own group members than that of members of the conflict group. However, the brain scans revealed something surprising: Brain activity in the areas that respond to emotional pain was identical when reading about suffering by one's own group or the conflict group. Also, those activity levels were lower when Arabs or Israelis read about the suffering of South Americans, even though Arabs and Israelis expressed more compassion for South Americans' suffering than for that of the conflict group.
Those findings, published Jan. 23 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, suggest that those brain regions are sensitive to the importance of the opposing group, not whether or not you like them.
However, because the study did not reveal any correlation between the expression of empathy and the amount of brain activity, more study is needed before MRI can be used as a reliable measure of empathy levels, Saxe says.
"We thought there might be brain regions where the amount of activity was just a simple function of the amount of empathy that you experience," Saxe says. "Since that's not what we found, we don't know what the amount of activity in these brain regions really means yet. This is basically a first baby step, and one of the things it tells us is that we don't know enough about these brain regions to use them in the ways that we want to."
Bruneau is now testing whether these brain regions send messages to different parts of the brain depending on whether the person is feeling empathy or not. He hypothesizes that when someone reads about the suffering of an in-group member, the brain regions identified in this study send information to areas that process unpleasant emotions, while stories about suffering of a conflict-group member activate an area called the ventral striatum, which has been implicated in schadenfreude taking pleasure in the suffering of others.
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MIT neuroscientists explore how longstanding conflict influences empathy for othersPublic release date: 24-Jan-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Caroline McCall cmccall5@mit.edu Massachusetts Institute of Technology
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT postdoc Emile Bruneau has long been drawn to conflict not as a participant, but an observer. In 1994, while doing volunteer work in South Africa, he witnessed firsthand the turmoil surrounding the fall of apartheid; during a 2001 trip to visit friends in Sri Lanka, he found himself in the midst of the violent conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the Sri Lankan military.
Those chance experiences got Bruneau, who taught high school science for several years, interested in the psychology of human conflict. While teaching, he also volunteered as counselor for a conflict-resolution camp in Ireland that brought Catholic and Protestant children together. At MIT, Bruneau is now working with associate professor of cognitive neuroscience Rebecca Saxe to figure out why empathy the ability to feel compassion for another person's suffering often fails between members of opposing conflict groups.
"What are the psychological barriers that are put up between us in these contexts of intergroup conflict, and then, critically, what can we do to get past them?" Bruneau asks.
Bruneau and Saxe are also trying to locate patterns of brain activity that correlate with empathy, in hopes of eventually using such measures to determine how well people respond to reconciliation programs aimed at boosting empathy between groups in conflict.
"We're interested in how people think about their enemies, and whether there are brain measures that are reliable readouts of that," says Saxe, who is an associate member of MIT's McGovern Institute for Brain Research. "This is a huge vision, of which we are at the very beginning."
Before researchers can use tools such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to evaluate whether conflict-resolution programs are having any effect, they need to identify brain regions that respond to other people's emotional suffering. In a study published Dec. 1 in Neuropsychologia, Saxe and Bruneau scanned people's brains as they read stories in which the protagonist experienced either physical or emotional pain. The brain regions that responded uniquely to emotional suffering overlapped with areas known to be involved in the ability to perceive what another person is thinking or feeling.
Failures of empathy
Hoping to see a correlation between empathy levels and amount of activity in those brain regions, the researchers then recruited Israelis and Arabs for a study in which subjects read stories about the suffering of members of their own groups or that of conflict-group members. The study participants also read stories about a distant, neutral group South Americans.
As expected, Israelis and Arabs reported feeling much more compassion in response to the suffering of their own group members than that of members of the conflict group. However, the brain scans revealed something surprising: Brain activity in the areas that respond to emotional pain was identical when reading about suffering by one's own group or the conflict group. Also, those activity levels were lower when Arabs or Israelis read about the suffering of South Americans, even though Arabs and Israelis expressed more compassion for South Americans' suffering than for that of the conflict group.
Those findings, published Jan. 23 in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, suggest that those brain regions are sensitive to the importance of the opposing group, not whether or not you like them.
However, because the study did not reveal any correlation between the expression of empathy and the amount of brain activity, more study is needed before MRI can be used as a reliable measure of empathy levels, Saxe says.
"We thought there might be brain regions where the amount of activity was just a simple function of the amount of empathy that you experience," Saxe says. "Since that's not what we found, we don't know what the amount of activity in these brain regions really means yet. This is basically a first baby step, and one of the things it tells us is that we don't know enough about these brain regions to use them in the ways that we want to."
Bruneau is now testing whether these brain regions send messages to different parts of the brain depending on whether the person is feeling empathy or not. He hypothesizes that when someone reads about the suffering of an in-group member, the brain regions identified in this study send information to areas that process unpleasant emotions, while stories about suffering of a conflict-group member activate an area called the ventral striatum, which has been implicated in schadenfreude taking pleasure in the suffering of others.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NY Times | Forced Placed Insurance ONE of the Richest and Most Secretive Sources of Profit
Posted by 4closureFraud on January 22, 2012 ? 9 Comments?
?There is a lot to love about force-placed insurance ? if you sell it. The policies typically cost at least three times as much as ordinary property insurance. Some borrowers have been charged much more ? up to 10 times the prevailing rate?
~
Hazard Insurance With Its Own Perils
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON
?Force-placed insurance appears to be the dirty little secret of the mortgage industry,? Mr. Lawsky said in an interview last week. ?It is a silent killer harming both consumer and investors while enriching the banks and their affiliates.?
Representatives of PNC and JPMorgan Chase declined to comment. Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for Citigroup, said the bank was working with Mr. Lawsky?s office. ?CitiMortgage does not sell homeowner?s insurance to consumers,? he said. ?If a homeowner does not provide an insurance policy, CitiMortgage secures a policy to protect the interest of the investor. Whenever the homeowner submits proof they have obtained insurance on their own, the lender-placed insurance is canceled.?
A spokesman for Morgan Stanley said its mortgage company ?does not have an affiliated agent, broker or insurance company to procure force-placed insurance.?
Force-placed insurance has exploded during the foreclosure crisis. Once a backwater that generated $1 billion a year, it is now a $6 billion-a-year business. Much of its growth has come on the backs of homeowners.
KHARTOUM, Sudan ? South Sudan is suing Sudan for "looting" its oil and will no longer export crude through its northern neighbor's territory, a Sudanese daily reported Sunday, citing officials, in the latest spat between the two governments over the coveted resource in the newly independent southern nation.
South Sudan Information Minister Marial Benjamin said the lawsuit was filed in "specialized international tribunals against Sudan and some companies" that bought the crude, the Al-Sahafa daily said. Benjamin did not provide additional details on the venue or when the lawsuit was filed.
The case is the latest development in a long-simmering fight between the two governments over the oil they share. Most of it lies within the borders of South Sudan, which achieved independence last July.
On Jan. 17, South Sudan Minister of Petroleum and Mining Stephen Dhieu Dau said Sudan is diverting about 120,000 barrels of oil pumped from the south daily, a move the northern government said stemmed from the unpaid transit fees for the oil carried in pipelines from the south to export terminals in its territory. The two sides have been unable to resolve the dispute.
South Sudan's Cabinet Affairs minister, Deng Alor, said that his country has halted pumping crude through Sudan and would begin building a pipeline across east Africa that would allow it to export its oil through Kenya. The project would take about a year, he told Al-Sahafa.
"Our economy will not be affected by this step," he said, adding that South Sudan had enough in cash reserves to sustain it for five years. Even if the economy was affected, it would be preferable to the "looting" taking place by Sudan, he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
The Khartoum government downplayed the potential impact of the move by the south. Sudanese State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Amin Hassan Omar said that the oil currently held in pipelines would cover a considerable portion of the debts owed by the south.
The suspension of oil production is a "tactical move that will not last long," he told Al-Sahafa.
FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 file photo, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks to reporters during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. regrets that Yemen's president has not complied with agreements to leave the country and allow elections for a successor. Her comments came as Yemen's foreign minister suggested next month's presidential vote could be delayed because of security concerns _ something that would violate the the U.S.-backed agreement that President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed recently. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hamoud, File)
FILE - In this Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011 file photo, Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh speaks to reporters during a press conference at the Presidential Palace in Sanaa, Yemen. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says the U.S. regrets that Yemen's president has not complied with agreements to leave the country and allow elections for a successor. Her comments came as Yemen's foreign minister suggested next month's presidential vote could be delayed because of security concerns _ something that would violate the the U.S.-backed agreement that President Ali Abdullah Saleh signed recently. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hamoud, File)
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
Protestors react after receiving the news of the departure of Yemen's President Ali Abdullah Saleh from Sanaa to Oman in Sanaa, Yemen, Jan. 22, 2012. A spokesman for Yemen's embattled president says Ali Abdullah Saleh has left the country for the Persian Gulf country of Oman. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Obama administration will allow Yemen's outgoing president to come to the U.S. temporarily for medical treatment, a move aimed at easing the political transition in Yemen, a key counterterrorism partner.
A senior administration official said Ali Abdullah Saleh would travel to New York this week, and probably stay in the U.S. until no later than the end of February. U.S. officials believe Saleh's exit from Yemen could lower the risk of disruptions in the lead-up to presidential elections planned there on Feb. 21.
A presidential spokesman in Yemen said Saleh had left the capital of Sanaa earlier Sunday on a jet headed for the Persian Gulf sultanate of Oman. An official close to Saleh, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the trip, said the president would undergo medical exams in Oman before heading to the U.S.
The U.S. official did not say whether Saleh planned to return to Yemen, Oman or elsewhere after finishing his treatment in the U.S. The official was not authorized to discuss details about Saleh and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Yemeni embassy in Washington said Saleh planned to return home in February to attend a swearing-in ceremony for the country's newly elected president.
The mercurial Saleh, who ruled Yemen for more than three decades, agreed to transfer power to his vice president late last year in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He had faced months of protests calling for his ouster, to which the Yemeni government responded with a bloody crackdown, leaving hundreds of protesters dead and sparking wider violence in the capital with rival militia.
Even after agreeing to leave power, Saleh continued to wield his influence behind the scenes, and U.S. officials believed getting him out of Yemen was necessary in order to ensure the February elections took place. The U.S. also worried about instability in a nation grappling with growing extremism, including the dangerous al-Qaida branch known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.
Still, Saleh's request last month for a U.S. visa put the Obama administration in the awkward position of either having to bar a friendly president from U.S. soil or risking appearing to harbor an autocrat with blood on his hands.
As U.S. officials weighed Saleh's request, they sought assurances that he would not seek political asylum or any type of permanent relocation in the U.S.
"We wanted to make sure that there was an understanding that it would be for medical purposes and that's what it is for," John Brennan, President Barack Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, said Sunday.
Saleh was badly burned and wounded during a June rocket attack on his compound in Yemen. He sought medical treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia for three months. American officials had hoped he would remain there, but the Yemeni leader returned and violence worsened anew.
Protesters and human rights groups have criticized Saleh's immunity clause and insisted he stand trial for his alleged role in protester deaths.
Brennan said there was a divide in Yemen over Saleh's future, with some Yemenis supporting Saleh's decision to seek medical treatment in the U.S. In the short-term, he said, it was imperative to ensure that the February elections take place.
"We thought it was important, given where Yemen is right now as far as moving forward with its political transition, to do what we can to support the government and the elections that are scheduled for the 21st of February, and that seems to be on track," he said.
Yemeni Vice President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi is expected to be rubber-stamped as the country's new leader in the elections, in which he is expected to be the only candidate.
Brennan spoke with Hadi on Sunday, and told him the U.S. was encouraged by his leadership during a difficult period of transition. With fresh demonstrations likely in the weeks leading up to the elections, Brennan urged Hadi to ensure that Yemeni security forces exercise restraint.
The Obama administration's approval of Saleh's visa brought back memories from three decades ago, when President Jimmy Carter allowed the exiled shah of Iran into the U.S. for medical treatment. The decision contributed to rapidly worsening relations between Washington and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's revolution in Tehran, with Iranian students occupying the U.S. Embassy in Iran a month later.
Fifty-two American hostages were held for 444 days in response to Carter's refusal to send the shah back to Iran for trial.
___
Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj and Ben Hubbard in Sanaa, Yemen, contributed to this report.
KHARTOUM (Reuters) ? Sudan will continue to allow only limited access to United Nations agencies and aid groups in two war-stricken border states, the foreign ministry said on Sunday, despite calls from the United States to allow more access to avert famine.
Fighting broke out between government forces and rebels in South Kordofan in June last year, shortly before South Sudan declared independence under a 2005 peace deal that ended decades of civil war. The conflict spread to Blue Nile in September.
Both states border South Sudan and are home to tens of thousands of fighters who battled Khartoum as part of the southern army during the civil war. Sudan accuses Juba of continuing to back the insurgents, which South Sudan denies.
"Regarding relief, delivery and distribution will be through the humanitarian aid commission and the Sudanese Red Crescent society," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
U.N. agencies and aid groups have only been able to keep small teams of local staff on the ground since the conflict erupted. The government, citing security risks, has stopped aid workers from visiting areas where there has been fighting.
The Foreign Ministry said office managers will only be allowed in state capitals and must obtain permission.
The United States has pressed Khartoum to allow more humanitarian access to South Kordofan and Blue Nile, saying food security could deteriorate sharply by March if aid flows do not increase.
Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations dismissed the concerns on Tuesday, saying the situation in the two states was "normal.
The violence has already forced about 417,000 people to flee their homes, more than 80,000 of them to South Sudan, the United Nations estimates. Locals have faced air raids and sporadic ground fighting, according to rights groups and refugees.
(Reporting by Alexander Dziadosz; Editing by Sophie Hares)
According to Radar, Camille Grammer might not be back on "RHOBH."
By Anna Chan
Fans of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" have watched Camille Grammer go through some trying times on the hit?Bravo reality show. And now, Radar Online is reporting that the reality personality may not return next season.
"Producers are asking Lisa Vanderpump, Adrienne Maloof and Kyle Richards if any of their wealthy female friends would be interested in appearing on the show," a network insider reportedly told the website. "It's an open secret that Camille most likely won't be back for a third season."
A source close to the show told us that casting decisions have not yet?been made.
Bravo had no comment on Camille's rumored exit on Friday.
Would you miss Camille if she left? Who do you think should leave the show? Take our poll, and share your thoughts on our Facebook page.
If one person had to leave 'RHOBH,' who should it be?
LONDON ? The body of a British hostage kidnapped in Iraq in 2007 has been turned over to the U.K. Embassy in Baghdad, officials said Friday.
Alan McMenemy was one of five men kidnapped by Shiite militants in a daytime attack outside Baghdad's Finance Ministry. McMenemy was part of a security detail guarding computer expert Peter Moore, who was released alive in 2010.
The bodies of the other bodyguards ? Jason Swindlehurst, Jason Creswell and Alec MacLachlan ? were returned in 2009.
British Prime Minister David Cameron said in a statement Friday that his thoughts were with McMenemy's family and friends.
"They have waited so long for his return and I hope that this will allow them to find some peace after an ordeal that no family should ever have to suffer," Cameron said.
The statement did not provide any detail as to how or under what circumstances McMenemy's body was returned. He was long believed to be dead, and a second statement released on behalf of McMenemy's widow Roseleen said that his body's return "will allow us to properly grieve for him ... we will draw some comfort from the fact that we have him home at last."
With all the mudslinging staining the GOP primary race, Samsung seems to have taken a page out of the politicians? playbooks. The company’s new ad for the Galaxy S II — the second installment in a campaign that’s slated to culminate during the Super Bowl — lobs a direct snark attack at the iPhone’s fanboy [...]
YOKOSUKA, Japan ? It's getting a bit more crowded under the sea in Asia, where Andrew Peterson commands one of the world's mightiest weapons: a $2 billion nuclear submarine with unrivaled stealth and missiles that can devastate targets hundreds of miles (kilometers) away.
Super high-tech submarines like Cmdr. Peterson's USS Oklahoma City have long been the envy of navies all over the globe ? and a key component of U.S. military strategy.
"We really have no peer," Peterson told The Associated Press during a recent port call in Japan.
But America's submarine dominance in the Pacific is facing its biggest challenge since the Cold War. Nearly every Asian country with a coastline is fortifying its submarine fleet amid territorial disputes stirred up by an increasingly assertive China and the promise of bountiful natural resources.
Submarines are difficult to find and hard to destroy. Even fairly crude submarine forces can attack surface ships or other targets with a great deal of stealth, making them perfect for countries with limited resources. The threat of such an attack is a powerful deterrent in Asia, where coastal defenses are vital.
"This is shaping up as an intense arms race," said Lyle Goldstein, an associate professor at the China Maritime Studies Institute of the U.S. Naval War College. "This arms race is not simply China versus the rest ? though that explains much of it ? because there are other rivalries here as well."
China is pouring money into enlarging and modernizing its fleet, and India is planning to get a nuclear-powered attack submarine ? the INS Chakra ? on a 10-year lease from Russia as early as this month.
Australia is debating its most-expensive defense project ever ? a submarine upgrade that could cost more than 36 billion dollars.
Japan is adding another eight to its 16-boat fleet. South Korea is selling them to Indonesia. Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, Taiwan and even Bangladesh either now have or are planning to acquire subs.
North Korea, which has a large fleet of mini-subs, allegedly put them to deadly use in 2010 ? killing 46 South Korean sailors in the worst clash since their war ended in 1953.
The trend has a momentum of its own ? once one country gets submarines, its neighbors are under pressure to follow suit, lest they give up a strategic advantage. But the rush to build up submarine forces also underscores a growing awareness of the region's potential riches.
Roughly half of the goods transported between continents by ship go through the South China Sea, accounting for $1.2 trillion in U.S. trade annually. The area has vast, largely untapped natural resources ? including oil reserves of seven billion barrels and an estimated 900 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
"The geostrategic significance of the South China Sea is difficult to overstate," said a report this month by the Center for a New American Security, a private think tank based in Washington DC. "To the extent that the world economy has a geographical center, it is in the South China Sea."
With the decline of Russia, the U.S. remains the top nation with a significant capability to operate submarines in the open seas ? a crucial advantage if Washington wants to maintain its role in keeping key sea lanes and chokepoints like the Malacca Strait, which connects the Indian Ocean to the western Pacific, free for commercial trade.
The U.S. Navy's blue water superiority is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Peterson, the Oklahoma City skipper, said the Navy's workhorse Los Angeles-class subs remain a cut above the rest. "The beauty is that they are still the state of the art."
But, closer to shore, China is challenging the status quo.
"China has put a major emphasis on submarines, with the result that the PLA Navy submarine force is now, along with the Chinese missile forces, one of the sharpest arrows in China's quiver of military capabilities," Goldstein said.
China now has more than 60 subs in its navy, including nine that are nuclear-powered, according to the Pentagon's annual overview last year.
Its mainstay boats are diesel-powered Song-class vessels, but it also is developing more advanced nuclear-powered attack and ballistic submarines, including the Jin class that would carry missiles with a range of 4,600 miles (7,400 kilometers). Nuclear-powered subs can operate longer submerged than their diesel counterparts.
China has a long way to go to match the U.S. Navy ? the advanced Jin subs, for example, would have to be well into the Japan Sea for the continental United States to be within their range ? and Goldstein said that Beijing's threat has been overblown.
To keep its edge, however, the United States now has more submarines in the Pacific than in the Atlantic. With the military missions in Iraq and Afghanistan wrapping up, the Obama administration has also announced a "pivot to the Pacific" strategy that will likely further boost U.S. naval resources in the region.
Even so, China is just one player in an increasingly complicated game.
"Everybody's buying subs, but not for the same reasons," said Owen Cote, associate director of MIT's Security Studies Program.
The Pacific is dotted by scores of disputed islands, and who controls what part of the seas is a potentially explosive question. Japan has rival claims with China, South Korea and Russia. A half dozen countries claim rights to the remote Spratly Islands.
"Vietnam and the other states abutting the South China Sea want to have the option to contest a Chinese decision to resolve the various boundary issues that divide them by force," Cote said. "The Chinese have an interest in using submarines in preventing U.S. surface ships from intervening on behalf of one of these neighbors in such a conflict."
As regional navies get stronger, so does the potential for armed clashes.
"It poses the prospect of changing the balance of power across the Asia-Pacific ? in fact it already has," said Hugh White, Australian National University's professor of strategic and defense studies. "This is a very maritime part of the world. Anyone with a submarine has a clear capability of disrupting commercial shipping."
White said the development of submarine forces by multiple Asian nations is already inhibiting the ability of China and the United States to project their naval power, and posing new issues for smaller navies caught in the middle.
"There are questions about whether the U.S. will continue to assume its security role," he said. "This is a big debate in Australia right now. Do we aim to be able to act independently of the U.S.? To what extent do we want to be able to operate against a major player like China, or more locally against Indonesia?"
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