PARIS (AFP) - Lakes of methane have been spotted on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, boosting the theory that this strange, distant world bears beguiling similarities to Earth, according to a new study. Titan has long intrigued space scientists, as it is the only moon in the Solar System to have a dense atmosphere -- and its atmosphere, like Earth's, mainly comprises nitrogen. Titan's atmosphere is also rich in methane, although the source for this vast store of hydrocarbons is unclear. Cow flatulence?
Methane, on the geological scale, has a relatively limited life. A molecule of the compound lasts several tens of millions of years before it is broken up by sunlight. Given that Titan is billions of years old, the question is how this atmospheric methane gets to be renewed. Without replenishment, it should have disappeared long ago. A popular hypothesis is that it comes from a vast ocean of hydrocarbons.
But when the US spacecraft Cassini sent down a European lander, Huygens, to Titan in 2005, the images sent back were of a rugged landscape veiled in an orange haze. There were indeed signs of methane flows and methane precipitation, but nothing at all that pointed to any sea of the stuff. So the hypothetical laskes were lost.
But a flyby by Cassini on July 22 last year has revealed, thanks to a radar scan, 75 large, smooth, dark patches between three and 70 kilometers across (two and 42 miles) across that appear to be lakes found! of liquid methane, scientists report on Thursday. They believe the lakes prove that Titan has a "methane cycle" -- a system that is like the water cycle on Earth, in which the liquid evaporates, cools and condenses and then falls as rain, replenishing the surface liquid.
As on Earth, Titan's surface methane may well be supplemented by a "table" of liquid methane that seeps through the rock, the paper suggests. Some of the methane lakes seem only partly filled, and other depressions are dry, which suggests that, given the high northerly latitudes where they were spotted, the methane cycle follows Titan's seasons.
In winter, the lakes expand, while in summer, they shrink or dry up completely -- again, another parallel with Earth's hydrological cycle. The study, which appears on Thursday in the British weekly journal Nature, is headed by Ellen Stofan of Proxemy Research in Virginia and University College London.
Titan and Earth are of course very different, especially in their potential for nurturing life. Titan is frigid, dark and, as far as is known, waterless, where as Earth is warm, light and has lots of liquid water. And a little orange haze, but no liquid methane.
But French astrophysicist Christophe Sotin says both our planet and Titan have been sculpted by processes that, fundamentally, are quite similar. The findings "add to the weight of evidence that Titan is a complex world in which the interaction between the inner and outer layers is controlled by processes similar to those that must have dominated the evolution of any Earth-like planet," Sotin said in a commentary.
"Indeed, as far as we know," Sotin added, "there is only one planetary body that displays more dynamism than Titan. Its name is Earth." Does Al Gore know about this? Global-warming methane gas so concentrated it turned that world ice-cold. Maybe he'll want to make another movie.
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/05/2007 06:15 ||
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Hmm, but what if you were to turn Jupiter into a small sun! Then life could take root on Titan! Somebody could get a science fiction novel out of that.
Posted by: Jonathan ||
01/05/2007 6:49 Comments ||
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A molecule of the compound lasts several tens of millions of years before it is broken up by sunlight.
How much solar flux does the surface of Titan get?
#5
No prob- I will check it out in the millennium!
Psalms 8:3
I often think of the heavens your hands have made, and of the moon and stars you put in place.
Posted by: Jim ||
01/05/2007 11:19 Comments ||
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AFP as a source?...
The FRENCH? This is RANTBURG FerGodssakes
Go to the DIRECT Source!
Radar-dark patches are interpreted as lakes based on their very low radar reflectivity and morphological similarities to lakes, including associated channels and location in topographic depressions.
Radar-dark surfaces are smooth and most likely liquid, rock, ice or organics. More than 75 radar-dark patches or lakes were seen, ranging from 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) to more than 70 kilometers (43 miles) across.
Some lakes appear partly dry, while others seem liquid-filled. Some of the partly filled lakes may never have filled fully, or may have partly evaporated at some point in the past. The dry lakes have margins or rims and a radar brightness similar to the rest of the surrounding terrain, making them appear devoid of liquid.
The varying states of how full the lakes are suggest that lakes in this region of Titan might be temporary on some unknown timescale.
Approximately 15 of the dark patches seem filled and show no clear evidence of erosion. These dark patches resemble terrestrial lakes confined within impact basins (for example, Clearwater Lakes in Canada) or within volcanic calderas (for example, Crater Lake, Oregon). The nest-like nature of these lakes and their limited range of sizes make it unlikely that they originated from an impact. A volcanic origin for the depressions is possible, given their appearance.
Some lakes have steep margins and very distinct edges, suggesting a topographic rim. These lakes are consistent with seepage or groundwater drainage lakes.
Other lakes have diffuse, more scalloped edges, with a gradual decrease in radar brightness towards the center of the lake. These lakes are more likely to be associated with channels, and may be either drainage lakes or groundwater drainage lakes.
Yet other lakes have curvy channel-like extensions, similar in appearance to terrestrial flooded river valleys (for example Lake Powell).
Bright patches near the lake edges could be small islands peeking through the surface. Floating "icebergs" are unlikely because most materials would not float in liquid hydrocarbons.
Looks like Minnesota... Aha! now I understand the problem with the Somali Cabbies....
Thousands of candidates in Bangladeshs upcoming national election have withdrawn their nomination papers after opposition parties announced a boycott of the polls, officials said on Thursday. Out of 4,146 candidates, 2,370 have withdrawn their nomination papers, said election commission official SM Asaduzzaman. The candidates belonged to the main opposition Awami League and other opposition parties.
Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina Wajed on Wednesday announced a boycott of the January 22 elections, saying the polls would not be fair. The Awami League leads a 14-party coalition of opposition parties. It has demanded a string of reforms which it says are necessary to ensure the elections are not tilted in favour of the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).
Two other parties also announced a boycott: the Jatiya Party of former army ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad and the Liberal Democratic Party of former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury. The immediate past prime minister, Begum Khaleda Zia, launched a full-scale election campaign on Thursday outside the capital Dhaka, unfazed by the boycott threat.
The coalition accuses the BNP of trying to rig the elections by appointing biased officials to key positions in the election commission and the interim government which has to organise the polls by the end of January. The reforms demanded include revision of the voter list, changes to judiciary and intelligence agency chiefs, and the replacement of two election commissioners.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Long overdue, and as any San Diego resident can tell you, not nearly enough...it will take a massive overhaul in pay/professionalism to change this sh*t. Makes Baghdad look familiar
The city's entire 2,300-member municipal police force has been ordered to turn in its weapons, leaving doubt Thursday about who would be patrolling this city of more than 1.5 million residents.
The surprise directive from Mexico's Defense Secretariat comes a day after President Felipe Calderon ordered Operation Tijuana, a major offensive against organized crime in the city. More than 3,000 soldiers and federal agents are being sent to the city with the aim of tackling the city's crime problems.
Federal officials were expected to conduct ballistics tests on the weapons, apparently to see if they could link any of the weapons to the many killings that have been attributed to drug cartels.
Dozens of police officers carrying a range of handguns and automatic weapons lined up Thursday at department headquarters on Eighth Street. The Mexican military, which maintains a registry of weapons, routinely checks police weapons, and officers initially thought this was a regular check.
Federal officials have repeatedly said corruption is widespread in Tijuana's department, which is charged with responsible for maintaining public order in the city.
Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon, in a television interview, said that he has ordered the police department to refrain from patrols. I can't send them to war without a weapon, the mayor said.
In the absence of the city officers, the mayor said federal forces will be doing the job of the municipal department.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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So the Cartel bosses will just have to shift the payouts from their Police Benevolent Funds column to their Army Emergency Relief column on their cost of doing business books. Big deal.
#3
TJ cops all went on strike this morning and refused to report in. So now the cartel is fully in charge of TJ without the pretense of police protection. As has always been true, cross at your own risk. Funny isn't it ? It's dangerous for any law abiding American to enter Mexico, but Mexicans enter here illegally, yet fully protected and without any fear.
The leader of a coup in Fiji, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has been sworn in as interim prime minister, one month after overthrowing the government. Cmdr Bainimarama deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase and named himself the country's president. However, Cmdr Bainimarama on Thursday returned executive authority to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo.
An interim government is to be appointed and is expected to be dominated by the military. It will remain in power until elections. Mr Bainimarama said at a short swearing-in ceremony on Friday: "In all things, I will be a true and faithful prime minister." Mr Qarase remains banished on an outlying island.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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by Dana Milbank, Washington Post Embedded within a longer article on Harry Reid is this little gem of gossip:
. . . The attention quickly shifted -- to Robert Byrd. The 89-year-old West Virginia Democrat, beginning his ninth term, wore a white sheet red-white-and-blue tie and punctuated the opening prayer with shouts of "Yes!" and "Mmmhmmm!" and "Yes, Lord!" and "Yes, in Jesus's name!" When he was sworn in, he twice cried out "Hallelujah!" and then "Amen!" Minutes later, he was installed as Senate president pro tempore, the majority party's most senior member. "Yeah, man! Yeah, man!" he shouted. "Hallelujah!" "I do, so help me God!" he shouted when the oath was administered. "Yeah, man!"
His colleagues were amused. Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) at one point pretended to tilt a bottle into his mouth, though it was unclear whether Byrd was the target of that gesture. Takes one to know one, I guess. Then there's this:
Then there was Reid. . . . in his first utterance as majority leader, he spoke the immortal words "Mr. President, I note the absence of a quorum."
When he started his speech, Reid spoke in a barely audible voice, and his colleagues' chatter drowned out his oration. "Please," the presiding officer said with a bang of the gavel, "the majority leader is speaking."
Those who listened to Reid heard a plea for senators to work harder. "Factory workers, shopkeepers in America's malls, schoolteachers, police officers, miners, welders, and businessmen and -women work at least five days a week," he said. "Shouldn't we?"
Evidently not. Just a few minutes into Reid's speech, only 20 senators remained on the floor. . . .
Posted by: Mike ||
01/05/2007 12:42 ||
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Oh, great... maybe it's senility kicking in. At least drunks can sober up. Wall to wall senior moments is something else entirely.
Thank you all so very much, all you voters of West Virginia... you must be so very pleased.
#3
Minutes later, he was installed as Senate president pro tempore, the majority party's most senior member. "Yeah, man! Yeah, man!" he shouted. "Hallelujah!"
Sounds like he thought he was at a Baptist church...
Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd said Thursday that he's still a week or two away from deciding whether he'll join the crowded Democratic presidential field. "In the next week or two, I'll make a final cut," Dodd said. "I'll make a final decision."
After 25 years in the Senate, Dodd, 62, has been preparing for a potential 2008 White House campaign that he concedes would be a longshot. The field of potential Democratic candidates is already dominated by heavyweights such as New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. Dodd had said he wanted to spend the Christmas holidays deciding whether to join the race and planned to announce his intentions early this year. "I'm not going to nail down a date for you today, but sometime in the next couple of weeks," he said. "This is a pretty serious step and you want to make sure you make the right one."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Joe M is a significantly more viable candidate than Dodd.
A former Massachusetts House speaker accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit plans to plead guilty Friday to obstruction of justice, a person familiar with the agreement said Thursday. The lawsuit had claimed that a 2001 state law that redrew legislative district boundaries discriminated against minorities in Boston while protecting incumbents, including the now-former House speaker, Thomas Finneran.
He will serve probation, pay a fine and agree not to seek political office for five years. Finneran, 56, has agreed to admit to some, but not all, of the allegations in the obstruction charge.
Finneran's trial on perjury and obstruction of justice charges had been scheduled to begin Jan. 16. Under the plea deal, Finneran won't face prison time, and federal prosecutors will drop the three perjury counts, the person familiar with the deal told The Associated Press. He will serve probation, pay a fine and agree not to seek political office for five years. Finneran, 56, has agreed to admit to some, but not all, of the allegations in the obstruction charge, which accuses him of obstructing justice by lying during the trial and in a deposition, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the deal has not yet been finalized in court.
During his eight years as speaker, Finneran was considered the state's most powerful lawmaker. Known for his authoritarian style, he was once dubbed "King Tom" for pushing through a rules change that eliminated term limits for House speakers.
Hmmm. Looks like they left a word out...
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Yes, that word is "Democrat".
Actually, Tommy copped a plea. This is the usual final step in the life cycle template for Mass House speakers. I think it's in the state constitution.
A spent Russian booster rocket re-entered the atmosphere Thursday over Colorado and Wyoming, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said. Eyewitnesses reported seeing flaming objects in the sky at the time the rocket was re-entering, NORAD spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Sean Kelly said. "It was pretty spectacular," said Riverton Police Capt. Mark Stone, who said he saw the burning object while he was retrieving his newspaper. "My first concern is that we had some sort of aircraft that was coming down. It was definitely leaving a burning debris trail behind it."
Stone said he could tell it was fairly large object, but it was too high to make out exactly what it was. Kelly said the agency was unable to confirm a report that a piece of the rocket may have hit the ground near Riverton, Wyo., at about 6 a.m. MST. No damage was reported, and any debris that may have hit the ground was not believed to be hazardous, NORAD said.
NORAD identified the rocket as an SL-4 that had been used to launch a French space telescope in December, and Kelly said U.S. spacewatchers knew the rocket was coming down. "Objects falling from space are almost an everyday occurrence," Kelly said.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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conspirator's theory:
the plane did not crash, but was hijacked and then flew below radar to some secret terr's location for future use. and looking at indonesia, how sincere are the searchers; perhaps this is all theater for the world. all pax were shot and bodies dumped in the jungle.
#4
Democrat Moonbat theory - The plane is at the same place the Pentagon plane and United 93 ended up at. It will be used by the BusHitler in a future Reichstagg event.
Posted by: Laurence of the Rats ||
01/05/2007 17:04 Comments ||
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Search? That is a lot of work. And we are still tired from watching sat TV of the hajjjjjj.
I remember how the media was champing at the bit during the 2000 Presidential election trial in Florda about how BJ could use some obscure law or something and stay in power for another 6 months or so if Uncle Al lost against the evil Chimpy McBushitler.
Now you go and tell 'em that an airliner has gone missing and it's all an evil conspiracy for some future Reichstagg event.
Before you know it there'll be rumors all over the Web saying that President Bush is planning a coup and will not relinquish control of the White House in 2008 no matter who wins after some other so-called terrorist attack is staged by the evil military/industrial/oil complex controlled by the Bush Family and the Queen of England (though it's really the Illuminati running things behind the scenes and Bush isn't really all that bright since he's just a puppet being pulled by the evil Dick Cheney behind the scenes).
Hmmmm, sounds like a plan. We need to start some rumors...
Sri Lankan jets bombed a Tamil Tiger naval base in the north of the island on Thursday in a third consecutive day of air strikes despite United Nations calls for an end to the fighting. The military said the Tiger base in the rebel-controlled Mullaittivu area had been destroyed in the bombardment, which followed a similar raid in the east on Wednesday.
It has vowed to dislodge the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) from their eastern stronghold, accusing the rebels of firing on them despite a 2002 ceasefire that international monitors say now exists only on paper. The aerial bombings have become the latest flashpoint in the fighting between military and Tiger rebels who want to carve a separate homeland for minority Tamils in the north and east.
On Tuesday, the UN urged both sides to stop fighting and to protect civilians after it said an air strike by government forces earlier in the day in northwestern Sri Lanka had killed 14 people. Six of the dead were children, the rebels said. But the military denied hitting civilian settlements in that raid in Mannar district, and accused the Tigers of spreading false information to win international sympathy.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Leading dissidents from the former Soviet Union have demanded an investigation into the BBC Russian Service, The Daily Telegraph Reports. The probe is to check the accusations that the BBC had caved in to pressure to be less critical of President Vladimir Putins regime.
The dissidents have addressed Mark Thompson, the BBC director-general, demanding an examination of what they claim is a string of examples of pro-Putin bias on the taxpayer-funded service, which has a weekly audience of two million.
The service went off air in Moscow and St Petersburg last month around the time of the murder in London of Alexander Litvinenko, a former officer in the Russian security service. Unexplained technical difficulties with the BBCs local partners were blamed, but there is still no service in Moscow.
The dissidents, led by Oleg Gordievsky, the former KGB spy turned MI6 agent, and Vladimir Bukovsky, an author who spent 12 years in Soviet prison camps, are particularly angered by the unexpected axing of a programme presented by Seva Novgorodsev that had run for 19 years.
Novgorodsev, who still broadcasts on the Russian Service, received the MBE from the Queen in 2004. His programme regularly had guests who were enemies of the Moscow regime, such as Litvinenko and the journalist Anna Politkovskaya whose murder he was investigating.
The BBC has also received a protest letter signed by 1,000 listeners around the world.
The dissidents letter states: At a time when Britain needs a strong voice in Russia more than at any point over the past decade, the taxpayer-funded BBC Russian Service radio seems to have considerably mellowed in its tone towards the Russian government.
By design or by neglect, it has become more accommodating of Russian government views, dispensing with difficult questions and denying a platform to some critics.
Is the BBC Russian Service trying to soften up its news coverage mindful of the Kremlins ever-watchful eye over the airwaves? The UK taxpayer funds the BBC World Service so that Britain can have a strong voice in the world and it should not be compromised.
A BBC spokesman said: The service remains an important and strong source of impartial and independent news and current affairs renowned for asking difficult questions on behalf of its listeners.
We reject any suggestion that we have made compromises in our questioning of any point of view in any debate.
DENVER Immigration raids that rounded up about 1,300 Swift & Co. workers at six meat plants last month could cost the company up to $30 million, officials said Thursday. Greeley-based Swift said its preliminary estimate of the one-time impact of the raids included $20 million, mostly in lost operating efficiency as new employees are retrained, plus up to $10 million to retain workers and offer hiring incentives to add back production employees.
In Greeley, Swift placed newspaper ads offering new hires a signing bonus of $1,500. In related news, about 220 former Swift employees arrested during the Dec. 12, 2006 immigration raid now face criminal charges (up from the initial 65 individuals charged with crimes).
#2
IIRC, Swift was in full compliance with Social Security hiring regs before the raids.
I find the financial incentives for Swift's new and current employees fascinating. I guess wages and benefits really are depressed when illegal workers replace American residents.
#3
An Employer is not allowed BY LAW to acertain if an employee is here unlawfully. If a prospective employee presents evidence that he is Manuel Labor with a social security card and number issued to Manuel Labor the Employer has to accept that as genuine. They can run a check to see if Social Security number 123-45-6789 has been issued to Manuel Labor but they can not do any more investigating into if Manuel Labor is really who he says he is. Under these conditions it's very difficult to prosecute these companies for knowingly hiring unlawful aliens. Personal expierience is my claim here.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
01/05/2007 19:41 Comments ||
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An Employer is not allowed BY LAW to acertain if an employee is here unlawfully.
I believe you, but seems to me that this is something that Congress and the President should be addressing. Oh right!! ... what was I thinking!!
#5
Deacon Blues is right, I was going through old nursery magazines. According to that article if you are informed that a workers SSN is not valid by the SSA you can't fire the worker for that. You are supposed to notify them of the problem and again at the end of the year. Then you rinse and repeat. IME workers notified that the SSN is not right, beat feet and are never seen again.
Besides illegals do one thing most us citizens don't they join the union. Notice during all the immigration reform talk there hasn't been a peep from big labor about it.
Posted by: bruce ||
01/05/2007 21:12 Comments ||
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More and more companies are paying for background checks, even for the unskilled labor force. It is a good way to help HR cull the undesirables; if you have a rap sheet and Mr Goodwrench doesn't, then all things being equal, you get to take a hike. Seems to me an immigration violation would show up on that. Yes it costs $, but it is far cheaper than what Swift is alleging, since you find out far earlier.
Oil prices dipped below $55 a barrel Friday, a day after plunging more than $2 a barrel as warm winter weather in the United States contributed to higher-than-expected U.S. inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/05/2007 10:03 ||
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Would like to see that reflected here- paying a buck a litre!
And we are a major supplier!
#2
We should set a tariff such that the price in the USA is $60 and put the proceeds into energy infrastructure and research. Otherwise, if the price continues to drop all the interesting market shifts and investments by both companies and the public will be snuffed out again like they were in the '70s.
#3
the public will be snuffed out again like they were in the '70s.
You mean gasoline will get cheap again if the price of oil drops? That's snuffed? The ticks are a dwindling force in energy.
When I sees see a tariff I see happy government workers doling out the revenue and keeping a slice for themselves (government has overhead too). Think Spanish-American War emergency phone tax.
#4
Yup, don't let gasoline get cheap again. When oil ran up in the '70s there were a bunch of investments in synfuels, solar, and efficient cars. All those companies got creamed. Management learned never to do that again; we've had to wait for a new generation to give it another try.
Sure, there's some overhead to a tariff. But in this case I do believe it's worthwhile. Trader keeps 20% of the difference between world market and $60 (incentive to get best price) and 80% goes to energy infrastructure and research, not into the general coffers!
Oil prices shed more than $2 Thursday to settle at their lowest level (AP) -- since June 2005, after the U.S. government reported higher-than- expected inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel amid warm winter temperatures. An unseasonably mild winter in the Northeast and Midwest has led to a buildup in inventories and, as a result, weaker prices.
Light, sweet crude for February dropped $2.73, or 4.7 percent, to settle at $55.59 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The settlement follows a 4.5 percent decline on Wednesday and represents the lowest settlement price since June 15, 2005.
U.S. crude inventories declined last week by 1.3 million barrels to 319.7 million barrels compared with the previous week, the Energy Information Administration reported Thursday. Analysts on average had expected crude stocks to rise by 930,000 barrels, according to a survey by Dow Jones Newswires. However, distillate inventories, which include diesel fuel and heating oil, increased by 2 million barrels to 135.6 million barrels as warm winter weather hurt demand. Distillate stocks were expected to increase by an average of 1.15 million barrels.
Weather has become an increasingly important factor in the price of oil in recent years. A warm winter and a mild hurricane season last year have combined with a forecast for warmer-than-normal temperatures this winter to pressure oil prices. "There is no winter at all, thus we have a lot of supplies with no home and prices have nothing to do but fall," said James Cordier, president of Liberty Trading Group in Tampa, Florida.
Demand for heating oil has been running 20 percent to 30 percent below normal for most of the past five weeks, said Man Financial commodities analyst Edward Meir, in a note to clients.
Posted by: Steve White ||
01/05/2007 00:00 ||
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Maybe if we get more global warming, the price will continue to fall?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/05/2007 6:02 Comments ||
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The price of gas is still going up in Cincinnati. I'ts up to $2.25 now, higher than it was when oil was $65 a bbl.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
PARIS (AFP) - Lakes of methane have been spotted on Saturn's largest moon, Titan, boosting the theory that this strange, distant world bears beguiling similarities to Earth, according to a new study. Titan has long intrigued space scientists, as it is the only moon in the Solar System to have a dense atmosphere -- and its atmosphere, like Earth's, mainly comprises nitrogen. Titan's atmosphere is also rich in methane, although the source for this vast store of hydrocarbons is unclear. 
Thousands of candidates in Bangladeshs upcoming national election have withdrawn their nomination papers after opposition parties announced a boycott of the polls, officials said on Thursday. Out of 4,146 candidates, 2,370 have withdrawn their nomination papers, said election commission official SM Asaduzzaman. The candidates belonged to the main opposition Awami League and other opposition parties.
The leader of a coup in Fiji, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has been sworn in as interim prime minister, one month after overthrowing the government. Cmdr Bainimarama deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase and named himself the country's president. However, Cmdr Bainimarama on Thursday returned executive authority to President Ratu Josefa Iloilo. 
A former Massachusetts House speaker accused of lying during his testimony in a voting rights lawsuit plans to plead guilty Friday to obstruction of justice, a person familiar with the agreement said Thursday. The lawsuit had claimed that a 2001 state law that redrew legislative district boundaries discriminated against minorities in Boston while protecting incumbents, including the now-former House speaker, Thomas Finneran.
Oil prices shed more than $2 Thursday to settle at their lowest level (AP) -- since June 2005, after the U.S. government reported higher-than- expected inventories of gasoline, heating oil and diesel fuel amid warm winter temperatures. An unseasonably mild winter in the Northeast and Midwest has led to a buildup in inventories and, as a result, weaker prices.
