The ACN Morning Report -- Thursday, April 4, 2013

North Korea Moves Missiles Towards U.S. -- Carnival Cruise Lines, The US Military, and Senator Jay Rockefeller -- Disney Shutters Lucas Arts -- Anonymous Threatens North Korea -- The IRS Could Do Your Taxes -- Triumph In Trouble -- Obama To Give 5% For Sequester -- U.S. Sends Missile Defenses To Guam -- Fort Knox Temporarily Locked Down

NORTH KOREA SEEN MOVING MID-RANGE MISSILE TO EAST COAST

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea has moved what appears to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said on Thursday, quoting multiple government sources privy to intelligence from U.S. and South Korean authorities.

It was not clear if the missile was mounted with a warhead or whether the North was planning to fire it or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

CARNIVAL RESPONDS TO SENATOR: NO WAY WE'RE PAYING FOR TRIUMPH

Carnival Corp. indicated in a couple of letters to Senator Jay Rockefeller that it has no intent to reimburse the U.S. Coast Guard and Navy for assistance in the recent Carnival Triumphaccident, the 2010 Carnival Splendor incidents, or any future problem where they require help from the U.S. government to aid a distressed vessel.

The senator from West Virginia penned a letter March 14 to Carnival CEO Micky Arison alleging that the U.S. Coast Guard responded to 90 “serious events” involving Carnival ships over five years, and that the Coast Guard and Navy had shelled out $4.2 million to cover the Carnival Triumph and Carnival Splendorincidents. The senator asked whether Carnival, since it pays “little or nothing in federal taxes,” will reimburse the Coast Guard and Navy.

DISNEY SHUTS DOWN LUCAS ARTS, CANCELS STAR WARS 1313 AND STAR WARS: FIRST ASSAULT 

Staff were informed of the shutdown this morning, according to a reliable Kotaku source. Some 150 people were laid off, and both of the studio's current projects—Star Wars: First Assault and Star Wars 1313—were cancelled. Disney will still use the LucasArts name to license games, but the studio is no more.

Publicly, Disney is saying their current games could be licensed out to a different publisher or developer, but according to our source, that's unlikely. Our source says Lucas has pursued the option for "one or both games," but nothing happened. "With the teams now basically being dispersed I think both games are effectively dead forever," our source said.

ANONYMOUS  THREATENS CYBERWAR ON NORTH KOREA, STEALS 15,000 PASSWORDS

Notorious hacking group Anonymous has targeted pedophiles, corrupt governmentsand financial institutions, however its latest target may be its most audacious yet. The group says that it has begun a new initiative called “Operation Free Korea” and is demanding controversial leader Kim Jong-un resign and install free democracy in the Asian country. Other demands include having North Korea abandon its nuclear ambitions and for the government to give universal and uncensored Internet access to its citizens. Anonymous hackers claim to have access to the country’s local intranets, mail servers and Web servers and are threatening to wage war if their demands are not met.

“We got all over 15k membership records of Uriminzokkiri.com and many more,” the group wrote. “First we gonna wipe your data, then we gonna wipe your badass dictatorship ‘government.’”

FILING TAXES: IT SHOULDN'T BE SO HARD

IN 2010 a panel created by the White House estimated that American taxpayers spend 7.6 billion hours and some $140 billion a year keeping the IRS off their backs. According to theWashington Post over 80% of taxpayers use software or pay someone to file their taxes. The national taxpayer advocate, a sort-of in-house IRS watchdog, once said, "If tax compliance were an industry, it would be one of the largest in the United States." But of course, it is an industry.

It is an industry made up of accountants and companies like H&R Block and Intuit, which makes the TurboTax software used by many Americans. And it is an industry that,according to ProPublica, has worked hard to keep the IRS from preparing your tax returns for you for free. Intuit, for example, has spent millions lobbying the federal government, opposing bills that would allow the IRS to send you pre-filled-in returns (the agency already has most of your relevant information) and supporting bills that would ban the practice.

CARNIVAL TRIUMPH BREAKS FROM DOCK

(CNN) -- The Coast Guard is searching for a man knocked into the Mobile River after high winds hit the area Wednesday, blowing the man's security guard hut into the water and causing the Carnival Triumph cruise ship to break loose from its repair dock.

The call to the Coast Guard came in at 1:45 p.m. CT as near hurricane-force winds smacked the Gulf Coast city of Mobile, Alabama.

OBAMA WILL RETURN 5% OF SALARY FOR BUDGET

President Obama plans to return 5 percent of his salary to the Treasury in solidarity with federal workers who are going to be furloughed as part of the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester, an administration official said Wednesday.

The voluntary move would be retroactive to March 1, the official said, and apply through the rest of the fiscal year, which ends in September. The White House came up with the 5 percent figure to approximate the level of spending cuts to nondefense federal agencies that took effect that day.

U.S. TO SEND MISSILE DEFENSES TO GUAM OVER NORTH KOREA THREATS

(Reuters) - The United States said it would soon send a missile defense system to Guam to defend it fromNorth Korea, as the U.S. military adjusts to what Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called a "real and clear danger" from Pyongyang.

Hours later, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea had moved what appeared to be a mid-range Musudan missile to its east coast. It was not clear if the North planned to fire the rocket or was just putting it on display as a show of force, one South Korean government source was quoted as saying.

ARMY EMPLOYEE SHOT, KILLED AT FORT KNOX IN KY

Army officials are investigating a fatal shooting that caused a temporary lockdown at Fort Knox on Wednesday evening.

A male victim was shot in a parking lot on the base about 5:40 p.m. The victim was transported to the Ireland Army Community Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Army Denies Purple Hearts

The United States Army is worried that if the victims of the Fort Hood shooting receive Purple Hearts that Major Nadal Hassan won't get a fair trial.

The Army, in a position paper said that awarding the medal to those wounded and posthumously to those killed in the November 2009 attack would set the stage for a formal declaration that Major Hassan is a terrorist because the medal is presented to military members who are wounded or killed in any action against an enemy of the United States. 

Read more at "Alert Net": http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/army-formally-declines-purple-hearts-for-ft-hood-shooting-victims/

The ACN Morning Report Thursday March 28, 2013

James Holmes To Plead Guilty -- Ashley Judd's Senate Outlook -- Microsoft Looks Past Windows 8 -- Casualties In Joint Nato-Afghan Operation -- Pakistani Girl Seals Book Deal -- Newtown Investigation Details Coming -- Loughner Details Released -- SCOTUS's Reluctance On Gay Marriage -- N. Korea Cuts Communications With South -- Obama Charm Offensive

JAMES HOLMES OFFERS TO PLEAD NOT GUILTY IN COLORADO MASSACRE

Pool Photo

CENTENNIAL, Colo. — James E. Holmes, accused of unleashing the Aurora movie theater massacre in July, has offered to plead guilty to killing 12 people and injuring 70 if prosecutors do not seek the death penalty.

In an unusual court filing, defense lawyers revealed Wednesday that they had made the standing offer weeks ago for Holmes to serve life in prison without possibility of parole for the July 20 mass shooting.

So far the prosecution has declined the offer, the document said.

Dist. Atty. George Brauchler of Colorado's 18th Judicial District is to announce Monday whether he will seek the death penalty. Capital punishment is rare in Colorado, with only three people on death row.

ASHLEY JUDD DECLINES KENTUCKY SENATE BID

Getty Images

ABC News’ Michael Falcone and Shushannah Walshe report:

After months of flirtation, actress Ashley Judd announced on Wednesday that she will not pursue a Senate bid against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

She made the announcement in a series of tweets late Wednesday afternoon:

“After serious and thorough contemplation, I realize that my responsibilities & energy at this time need to be focused on my family. Regretfully, I am currently unable to consider a campaign for the Senate. I have spoken to so many Kentuckians over these last few months who expressed their desire for a fighter for the people & new leader. While that won’t be me at this time, I will continue to work  as hard as I can to ensure the needs of Kentucky families are met by returning this Senate seat to whom it rightfully belongs: the people & their needs, dreams, and great potential. Thanks for even considering me as that person & know how much I love our Commonwealth. Thank you!”

A source familiar with Judd’s decision-making process said the news that Kentucky Secretary of State Allison Lundergan Grimes has also been considering a Senate run “gave her the space to really make a decision and decide what was best for her.”

MICROSOFT PREPARES WINDOWS BLUE

Microsoft has finally broken its silence about Blue, a code name that not only refers to a Windows 8 operating system update, but also encompasses a large swath of the software giant's product and services portfolio.

Apart from some fleeting job ads or casual mentions like the ones in a TechFest 2013 presentation featuring an upcoming version of the Fresh Paint app, Microsoft has largely remained mum on the topic of Blue. Lately, however, the company has been opening up a little.

After recounting some recent company milestones and accomplishments in a blog post, Microsoft's vice president of corporate communications, Frank X. Shaw, made one of the first official mentions of Blue. Just don't expect the code name to survive the journey to a commercial launch, he warned.

CIVILIANS KILLED IN JOINT NATO-AFGHAN EXERCISE

PAKISTANI GIRL SHOT BY TALIBAN SEALS BOOK DEAL

AP PHOTO

Malala Yousufzai will not go quietly.

The 15-year-old Pakistani activist was shot in the head at point-blank range by the Taliban for advocating girls' education. After a miraculous recovery, she returned to school in Britain last week, and today it was announced she will publish her life story in the memoir, I Am Malala.

The Guardian reported the deal was inked for around $3 million, though a spokesman for the publisher, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, would not confirm reports about the value of the deal.

SEARCH WARRANTS TO BE RELEASED FOR NEWTOWN INVESTIGATION

AP

NEW HAVEN, Conn. –  Search warrants used in the investigation of the Newtown school shooting are being released along with a statement from prosecutors about their work to unravel the motives of the 20-year-old gunman.

The warrants, which were to be released on Thursday, are related to searches of gunman Adam Lanza's home and car. They have been sealed under an order that expired Wednesday, and prosecutors have made few details available, despite pressure to do so.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has expressed concern about leaked information appearing in the news, and state lawmakers have requested a more complete accounting of the case as they address gun control and other issues raised by the shooting.

REPORTS DETAIL JARED LOUGHNER'S BEHAVIOR BEFORE SHOOTING

Pima County Sheriff's Department

TUCSON — In hindsight, the red flags seem to be everywhere.

By the time Jared Lee Loughner shot and killed six people, wounding 13 — including then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords — his parents had already taken away his shotgun, tested him for drugs and forbade him from using the family vehicle after dusk. Months earlier, officials at his community college had refused to allow him to return to campus until he passed a mental evaluation. Hours before he went on a shooting rampage, a Wal-Mart clerk had declined to sell him ammunition.

These details emerged Wednesday when authorities released nearly 3,000 pages of investigative reports, painting a picture of a man who had become unhinged and the people who had tried to intervene, worried he was a danger to himself and others.

JUSTICES SHOW RELUCTANCE ON BROAD GAY MARRIAGE RULING

WASHINGTON—Two days of arguments on same-sex marriage revealed a Supreme Court uneasy about making sweeping moves on gay rights and holding doubts about whether the cases belonged before the justices at all.

The arguments also brought to life more familiar fissures between the court's liberal and conservative wings. On Wednesday, liberal justices suggested that a 1996 federal law denying benefits to lawfully married same-sex couples was motivated by animus against gays, while Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, challenged assertions that gays and lesbians need judicial protection from repressive majorities.

NORTH KOREA SAYS IT IS CUTTING TIES WITH SOUTH KOREA

CNN

The Obama administration on Wednesday slammed North Korea's pugnacious rants toward South Korea and the West and a U.S. intelligence official called the strident remarks worrisome.

"The ratcheting up of rhetoric is of concern to us," the official said.

The question is whether this is "just rhetoric," he said. Or, "are things happening behind the scenes indicating the blustering has something to it."

Another U.S. official said there is a lot of uncertainty about North Korea's intentions.

"North Korea is not a paper tiger so it wouldn't be smart to dismiss its provocative behavior as pure bluster," that official said.

OBAMA, SENATE REPUBLICANS PLAN SECOND DINNER

Getty Images

Senate Republicans and President Obama plan a second dinner next month to talk about such legislative items as the budget, immigration and gun control, officials said.

An aide to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said Obama called Isakson this month and asked him to line up another dozen or so GOP senators who were not able to attend a similar dinner on March 6.

The purpose of the get-together now scheduled for April 10 is "to build on the first dinner," said Joan Kirchner, Isakson's deputy chief of staff.

North Korea Launches Short-Range Missiles

SEOUL – North Korea has tested short-range missiles in the Sea of Japan (known as the East Sea in Korea), in an apparent attempt to counter-act joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises, South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.

“North Korea test-launched a short-range missile in the East Sea [Sea of Japan] this afternoon, amid the ongoing security crisis on the Korean peninsula following Pyongyang’s third nuclear test last month,” Yonhap news said.

The source, Yonhap said, was a military source within the South Korean government. The North Korean military launched two KN-02 short-range missiles into international waters, the report said.

KN-02 missiles are mobile missiles. Based on the Soviet-era OTR-21 Tochka, they are launched from the back of SCUD-like trucks (see above headline image) and, of all North Korean missiles, they have the shortest range, as the above BBC infographic shows.

The short-range missile is a domestic variant of the Syrian ‘Scarab A’ missile, and has a range of 120-140km. It is usually used to take out large building targets and, when miniaturized, can carry a small, tactical, nuclear load.

This is not a ’rocket’ test or ICBM launch, and this is not the first time North Korea has tested this particular short-range missile. Pyongyang has reportedly been ‘test-launching’ the same missile from its East Sea [Sea of Japan] coast since 2004, and other launches were detected in 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Like the rest of the North Korean missile program, the KN-02 is based on old Soviet technology (in this case the reverse engineered 9K79 Tochka provided to North Korea by Syria in 1996).  However, what separates the the KN-02 from the rest of the North’s missile arsenal is that it uses solid-fuel, is more accurate than the notoriously inaccurate SCUD derivatives, and is road mobile.

The KN-02 allegedly also flies a cruise missile profile, making it difficult for PATRIOT missile batteries located in South Korea to intercept. If fired from close enough to the DMZ, it could target U.S. military installations in the ROK.

The question today, however, is timing. With tensions at boiling point, today’s launches will get a lot more attention than normal. John Swenson-Wright senior lecturer in East Asian International Relations at the University of Cambridge told NK NEWS  earlier today “the danger of uncontrolled escalation in this situation seems real and therefore something to be managed very very carefully.”

“The real problem is one of miscalculation and misjudgement by either side – with the North believing it can risk a provocation comparable to the 2010 Yeonpyeong shelling, and the South determined to respond decisively.”

The ACN Morning Report Friday March 15, 2013

Good Morning! Today is Friday March 15th, 2013. Here are today's top and most interesting headlines from ACN: 

HIV Cure Progress -- VW Shares The Wealth -- The Growing Consensus On Banks -- Nuclear Power: The Future Lies In The Past -- Bill Gates: 'Capitalism Means..." -- "47%" Bartender Speaks Out -- Cable News' Coverage Of Cuts To Poor? -- Higgs Boson Discovered -- Scientists Grow New Teeth -- Samsung's Runaway Train -- A Subway To Carry Nukes? -- Chavez's Role In New Pope -- "Spring Is Coming" Obama, Netanyahu And The Red Line -- The Carnival Dream?

MORE HIVE IS CURED: FIRST A BABY, NOW 14 ADULTS

(Image: Bruce Forster/Getty)

Two weeks after the revelation that a baby has been "cured" of HIV, reports suggest that a similar treatment can cure some adults too. Early treatment seems crucial, but does not guarantee success.

Asier Sáez-Cirión of the Pasteur Institute's unit for regulation of retroviral infections in Paris analysed 70 people with HIV who had been treated with antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) between 35 days and 10 weeks after infection – much sooner than people are normally treated.

VW SHARES MORE THAN $1.1 BILLION IN PROFITS WITH WORKERS

Reuters

Volkswagen is coughing up a massive NZ$1.1 billion in bonuses to workers after a record year.

The company sold 9.3 million vehicles, up nearly 12 per cent, in boosting revenues by more than 20 per cent to NZ$305 billion during 2012.

That pushed its pre-tax profit to an asonishing NZ$40 billion. Net profits came in at NZ$10.1 billion.

VW's success, however, doesn't just go to shareholders with the company's German workforce sharing some of the record profits.

VW says it will pay German workers a bonus of around €7200 or a little over NZ$11,000 at the current exchange rates. The bonus is being given to around 100,000 employees in Germany.

''The Volkswagen team has done an excellent job in 2012, and this team effort pays off for everyone.''

BIG BANKS HAVE A BIG PROBLEM

The largest banks in the United States face a serious political problem. There has been an outbreak of clear thinking among officials and politicians who increasingly agree that too-big-to-fail is not a good arrangement for the financial sector.

Six banks face the prospect of meaningful constraints on their size: JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. They are fighting back with lobbying dollars in the usual fashion – but in the last electoral cycle they went heavily for Mitt Romney (not elected) and against Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown for the Senate (both elected), so this element of their strategy is hardly prospering

THE FUTURE OF NUCLEAR POWER RUNS ON THE WASTE OF OUR NUCLEAR PAST

Image Credit: Justin Randall

America alone produces about 2,000 metric tons of nuclear waste annually and our best solution for disposing of it: bury it deep in the Earth. However, a pair of MIT scientists believe they've found not only a better way of eliminating nuclear waste but recycling the deadly detritus into enough clean electricity to power the entire world until 2083. Win, meet win.

BILL GATES: CAPITALISM MEANS MORE BALDNESS RESEARCH GETS MORE FUNDING THAN MALARIA

Capitalism means that there is much more research into male baldness than there is into diseases such as malaria, which mostly affect poor people, said Bill Gates, speaking at the Royal Academy of Engineering's Global Grand Challenges Summit.

"Our priorities are tilted by marketplace imperatives," he said. "The malaria vaccine in humanist terms is the biggest need. But it gets virtually no funding. But if you are working on male baldness or other things you get an order of magnitude more research funding because of the voice in the marketplace than something like malaria."

WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL BARTENDER GOES PUBLIC

"You shouldn't have to be able to afford $50,000 to hear what a candidate actually thinks." -Scott Prouty, the bartender who secretly taped Mitt Romney's "47%" remarks, on why he felt obligated to come forward.

The most influential bartender in history came forward Wednesday night to reveal himself as Scott Prouty, the source behind Mitt Romney’s infamous “47%” video. His answer to why he felt obligated to publish the video was one of the best of the interview.

CABLE NEWS COVERS CUTS TO WHITE HOUSE TOURS, IGNORES CUTS TO PROGRAMS FOR THE POOR

Thanks to Congressional gridlock, automatic budget cuts took effect 14 days ago, threatening 700,000 jobs and gutting fundsfor vital programs in housing assistance, early childhood education, disaster relief, and national security. Secret Service staffing was also impacted, prompting the cancellation of White House tours last week. Republicans immediately attacked the decision as a political move designed to turn the public against the sequester and 14 Republican senators signed a letter demanding information.

The media has also latched on to preserve the White House tours, while largely ignoring other much more devastating sequester cuts. As Ari Melber of The Nation pointed out on Wednesday, there are 12,000 news stories concerning White House tours and less than 1,000 about the sequester’s impact on housing assistance programs, which disproportionately affect low-income Americans.

EVIDENCE THAT PARTICLE DISCOVERED AT CERN IS HIGGS BOSON

Geneva, 14 March 2013. At the Moriond Conference today, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) presented preliminary new results that further elucidate the particle discovered last year. Having analysed two and a half times more data than was available for the discovery announcement in July, they find that the new particle is looking more and more like a Higgs boson, the particle linked to the mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles. It remains an open question, however, whether this is the Higgs boson of the Standard Model of particle physics, or possibly the lightest of several bosons predicted in some theories that go beyond the Standard Model. Finding the answer to this question will take time.

Whether or not it is a Higgs boson is demonstrated by how it interacts with other particles, and its quantum properties. For example, a Higgs boson is postulated to have no spin, and in the Standard Model its parity – a measure of how its mirror image behaves – should be positive. CMS and ATLAS have compared a number of options for the spin-parity of this particle, and these all prefer no spin and positive parity. This, coupled with the measured interactions of the new particle with other particles, strongly indicates that it is a Higgs boson.

TESTING OUT NEW TEETH

Cells taken from adult human gums can be combined with cells from the molars of fetal mice to form teeth with viable roots, according to research published this week in the Journal of Dental Research. The method remains a long way from clinical use, but the findings represent a step toward the goal of growing bioengineered replacements for lost teeth.

Teeth develop when embryonic epithelial cells in the mouth combine with mesenchymal cells derived from the neural crest. Previous studies have shown that these cells can be combined in the lab to formal normal teeth, but the challenge was to find non-embryonic source of the cells that could be used in the clinic.

SAMSUNG HAS AN UNSTOPPABLE HIT IN S4

No, it's not too early to declare the Galaxy S4 a roaring success.

So what if the latest flagship smartphone from Samsung Electronics won't be out for another month (at least)? Or that Samsung hasn't yet released any pricing information? Or that all of its key features had already been leaked in advance? Or that it's not even that different from theGalaxy S3?

The fact is, Samsung will sell boatloads of this phone, and the foundation for its success was laid down awhile ago.

As I explained earlier, Samsung has been relentless when it came to marketing the Galaxy S franchise and building out its brand, which broke out with the Galaxy S2 and truly hit mainstream awareness with the Galaxy S3.

THAT'S NO TRAIN! AIRFORCE EYES SUBWAY FOR NUCLEAR MISSILES

The Air Force wants to upgrade its aging nuclear missiles and the hundreds of underground silos that hold them. One idea it’s exploring: the construction of a sprawling network of underground subway tunnels to shuttle the missiles around like a mobile doomsday train. As one does.

As first reported by Inside Defense, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center will award several study contracts next month worth up to $3 million each to research the idea. A broad agency announcementfrom the Air Force describes the hair-raising concept, intended to keep the weapons secure through 2075, as a system of tunnels where nuclear missiles are shuttled around on rails or some undefined “trackless” system.

The advantage of the world’s deadliest subway: During an atomic holocaust, mobile missiles are harder for an adversary to target than a static silo. Missiles could be positioned at launch holes placed at “regular intervals” along the length of the tunnels.

DID VENEZUELA'S CHAVEZ NUDGE CHRIST IN PICK OF SOUTH AMERICAN POPE

(Reuters) - Late Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's influence may have stretched into the afterlife and had a hand in Christ's decision to opt for a Latin American Pope, acting President Nicolas Maduro said on Wednesday.

"We know that our commander ascended to the heights and is face-to-face with Christ," Maduro said at a Caracas book fair. "Something influenced the choice of a South American pope, someone new arrived at Christ's side and said to him: 'Well, it seems to us South America's time has come.'"

Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected in a surprise choice to be the new leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Wednesday, the first non-European pope in nearly 1,300 years.

OBAMA WON'T TRIP OVER NETANYAHU'S IRAN "RED LINE"

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama visits Israel next week at the onset of spring - the "red line" previously drawn by his host, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to trigger an attack on Iran's nuclear sites.

But an Israeli-Iranian war, Washington's nightmare as it tries to scale back defense commitments abroad and avoid a draining Gulf oil crisis, does not appear trip-wire imminent.

Officials and analysts say Iran has warded off the Israeli threat by calibrating its mid-level uranium enrichment so that it does not accrue enough fuel for a potential first bomb - the threshold Netanyahu warned about in a United Nations speech in September.

CARNIVAL CRUISE HAS PROBLEMS....AGAIN

(CNN) -- Another Carnival cruise ship is having problems. This time the Carnival Legend is having technical difficulties that are affecting its sailing speed, the travel company said Thursday.

The Legend is on the last leg of a seven-day Caribbean cruise that departed Tampa on Sunday, March 10, according to a statement from the cruise company.

The news comes after the Carnival Dream became a nightmare for some passengers Wednesday when power went off, some toilets stopped working and no one was allowed to get off the vessel -- despite the fact that the ship was docked at Philipsburg, St. Maarten, in the eastern Caribbean.

Air Force tells stealth pilots it has no cure for 'Raptor cough'

Air Force pilots employed to fly the US military’s F-22 warplanes are experiencing breathing problems and coughing fits caused by plane’s oxygen system – and officials say they have no solution for this problem.

Despite at least one fatal crash that may have resulted from a pilot’s crippling health condition, the government has refused to acknowledge the danger of keeping these planes in service without making any fixes to its oxygen system.

During a Sept. 2012 congressional hearing concerning health effects of flying F-22 Raptor stealth fighters, members of the Air Force described suffering from physiological conditions that have been considered “a normal part of flying the Raptor, such as the difficulty in breathing and the Raptor cough.”

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) found that these health problems were directly related to flying the F-22s, since pilots first experienced the symptoms while flying the plane.

The hypoxia-like symptoms, which are triggered if the air contains more than 60 percent oxygen, include breathing problems, choking, coughing, confusion, memory loss and blackouts. These symptoms, all of which were at some point exhibited by pilots in the F-22 cockpits, can lead to a condition known as ‘acceleration atelectasis’, which is the collapse of alveoli in the lungs.

But despite the health and safety risks facing F-22 pilots, the Air Force refuses to address the problem.

During the congressional hearing, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD), referenced a press report in which Air Force medical experts linked the Raptor cough to flaws in the plane’s design, but that “the Air Force decided in 2005 not to make a fix to the F-22 oxygen system.”

And since 2008, pilots have reported choking, confusion, memory loss and blackouts, which may have contributed to at least one fatal crash, Wired reports. Additionally, ground crews have reported growing sick while in the proximity of F-22s with running engines.

Maj. Gen Charles Lyon, who headed the investigation, told Wired that “the Air Force will continue to explore further potential causes through long term breathing air analysis and human systems integration efforts”, but that it will no longer investigate claims of coughing fits from F-22 ground crews.

Air Force officials claim that ground crew members could not have possibly gotten sick from the F-22s and that “factors other than the life support system or the aircraft caused the ground incidents,” Lyon said.

But even though NASA has linked the F-22s to the hypnoxia-like symptoms and the Air Force has already acknowledged the problem, Lyon had no solution to the condition and pilots now consider this a regular part of flying the jets.

“Apparently, from the Air Force’s point of view, coughing is the cost of sitting in the world’s most high-tech fighter cockpit,” writes Wired’s David Axe.

The Morning Report -- Thursday, February 21, 2013

U.S. Military Milestone In Afghanistan -- Pentagon Braces For Sequester -- Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Jobs Dwindle -- Supreme Court To Take Up Donation Limits -- Mars Curiosity Rover Breakthrough -- Senator Fathers Son With Senator -- Skeleton Found On Mars? -- Stanford Raises $1 Billion

30 DAYS WITHOUT A U.S. MILITARY DEATH IN AFGHANISTAN 

Getty Images

A milestone was reached in Afghanistan Wednesday that has not happened in six years:  30 days without a U.S. military fatality.

It is the longest gap between U.S. military fatalities in Afghanistan since February and March of 2007, when there was a similar 30 day gap.

The winter months in Afghanistan always see a relative reduction  in American military casualties as the cold weather and the elements restricts combat engagements.

But this winter season has seen one of the lowest casualty rates in years.

PENTAGON INFORMS CONGRESS OF 800 THOUSAND CIVILIAN WORKER FURLOUGHS

The Pentagon notified Congress on Wednesday it will be furloughing its civilian workforce of 800,000 employees if sequestration goes into effect March 1

defense officials have warned lawmakers that sequestration will devastate the military and lead to a hollow force, but the civilian furloughs will be one of the first major impacts felt by the across-the-board cuts.

The Pentagon furloughs will affect civilians across the country. Pentagon officials have said that civilians could face up to 22 days of furloughs, one per week, through the end of the fiscal year in September. The employees would receive 30 days' notice before being furloughed.

KEYSTONE'S 'THOUSANDS' Of JOBS FALL TO 20

Bloomberg

TransCanada Corp. (TRP)’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, heralded by supporters as a major job creator, will add few permanent positions once the $7 billion project is built.

The number of people needed to operate and maintain the 1,661-mile (2,673-kilometer) pipeline may be as few as 20, according to the U.S. State Department, or as many as a few hundred, according to TransCanada.

“I don’t see a big jobs impact,” Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, said in an interview. “It gets the oil into refineries that already exist. It’s like replacing a bridge on the highway.”

JUSTICES TO HEAR APPEAL OF INDIVIDUAL DONATION LIMITS

Roll Call

WASHINGTON— The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to consider taking another step toward dismantling campaign finance laws, potentially freeing wealthy donors to give as much as they want in any election cycle and raising the possibility that it could overturn limits that apply to individual candidates as well.

In its landmark Citizens United decision, the court ruled in 2010 that corporations, unions and individuals could spend unlimited sums on campaign ads so long as they are independent of the candidates and political parties. That triggered the creation of so-called "super PACs," which can raise and spend huge sums on politics, so long as they are ostensibly independent of a candidate or party.

NASA CONFIRMS FIRST DRILLED MARS ROCK SAMPLE

NASA

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has relayed new images that confirm it has successfully obtained the first sample ever collected from the interior of a rock on another planet. No rover has ever drilled into a rock beyond Earth and collected a sample from its interior.

Transfer of the powdered-rock sample into an open scoop was visible for the first time in images received Wednesday at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

"Seeing the powder from the drill in the scoop allows us to verify for the first time the drill collected a sample as it bore into the rock," said JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer for Curiosity. "Many of us have been working toward this day for years. Getting final confirmation of successful drilling is incredibly gratifying. For the sampling team, this is the equivalent of the landing team going crazy after the successful touchdown."

SENATOR FATHERS CHILD WITH DAUGHTER OF ANOTHER SENATOR

Getty Images

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Former Sen. Pete Domenici of New Mexico fathered a son outside of his marriage more than 30 years ago with the then-24-year-old daughter of a Senate colleague, the retired Republican has acknowledged.

The revelation stunned many who know the state's longest-serving senator as a family man who advocated honesty.

Domenici and Michelle Laxalt sent statements to the Albuquerque Journal identifying their son as Nevada attorney Adam Paul Laxalt. They said they decided to go public with their decades-old secret because they believed someone was about to reveal the information in an attempt to smear Domenici.

FOSSILIZED SKELETON FOUND ON MARS?

A video making the rounds on the web has alien hunters and Mars watchers excited with what looks remarkably like a fossilized skeleton of a lizard-like creature photographed by the Mars Curiosity rover. What is it?

Paranormal bulletin boards are on fire with still images, enhanced and enlarged, which do bear a striking resemblance to fossils of ancient creatures found on Earth.

The video, uploaded to YouTube on Feb. 19, is a vignette made from a single photo taken by Curiosity earlier in the month. The photo seems to show the outline of animal vertebrae snaking into what looks like a tail and exposed above the rocky Martian soil.

STATE UNIVERSITY RAISES RECORD BREAKING $1BN

Stanford University has become the first US college to raise more than $1bn (£650m) in a year.

The California institution ranked first in the 2012 Council for Aid to Education's survey, for the eighth straight year.

The report found that 3,500 US universities raised a total of $31bn, 2.3% more than the previous year.

The top 10 schools, including Harvard and Yale, accounted for 17% of the total fundraising efforts.

But the total was just short of the all-time record in 2008.