Romney son Tagg rules out US Senate run

WASHINGTON: Defeated US Republican White House candidate Mitt Romney's son Tagg ruled out running for Senate on Monday after speculation that he might jump in to seek a newly open Massachusetts seat.

"I have been humbled by the outreach I received this weekend encouraging me to become a candidate for the US Senate," said Tagg Romney, in a statement issued after reports that he was preparing a run.

"I love my home state and admit it would be an honour to represent the citizens of our great Commonwealth. However, I am currently committed to my business and to spending as much time as I can with my wife and children."

"The timing is not right for me," he said, a comment that left open the possibility of a future run.

Tagg Romney is Mitt Romney's oldest son and runs a private equity firm.

He had not said he was running in the special June election to fill the seat vacated by newly-confirmed Secretary of State John Kerry, but The Boston Herald had earlier said it "has learned" he was considering a run.

The 42-year-old, a fixture on his father's failed 2012 campaign to oust President Barack Obama, would have been a plausible choice to mount a run this year in Massachusetts, where the elder Romney had been a popular governor.

Republicans are scrambling to find a viable challenger after former senator Scott Brown, who lost his high-profile re-election bid in November to consumer protection advocate Elizabeth Warren, announced he would not run.

William Weld, another popular Republican governor in Massachusetts, has also reportedly opted out of the race, leaving Democrats the strong favourites.

The Herald reported at the weekend that Republican heavyweights were pushing for either Tagg or his mother Ann Romney, who had a star turn on the Republican convention stage during her husband's campaign, to run for the seat.

But a family friend and advisor was quoted as saying that Ann Romney, who has never run for public office, was unlikely to take the plunge.

Democrats are rallying around Congressman Ed Markey, although he could face a primary challenge from fellow Congressman Stephen Lynch.

- AFP/jc

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Maneka Gandhi bats for Narendra Modi as PM

RANCHI: BJP member of Parliament Maneka Gandhi on Monday batted for Narendra Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate in the 2014 general elections and said the Gujarat chief minister "would make a good PM".

"Modiji is capable and will make a good PM," said Gandhi, joining the rising clamour for Modi as BJP's prime ministerial candidate. She further said Modi's popularity is widespread.

Party president Rajnath Singh, senior leaders Yashwant Singh and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi among others, have already voiced their support for Modi.

Gandhi said there are at least three capable candidates in the party and that the name should be decided unanimously.

Gandhi, who is also an animal activist, was in town to participate in a meeting organized by the Jharkhand Pradeshik Gaushala Sangh — a body that works for saving cows.

Asked about her view on Rahul Gandhi as leader, she said, "You should yourself evaluate. All know what happened in areas where he (Rahul Gandhi) had campaigned hard for the assembly elections." The Gandhi scion's campaigns during the Uttar Pradesh and the Bihar assembly elections in 2012 did not fare well for the Congress.

She said the governments should take the issue of cow slaughter seriously. The laws should be implemented fast and strictly. The situation is grimmer in rural areas, she added.

The trade of using medicines to extract milk from cows is flourishing in several states like Bihar. "Medicines are being used to milch cows as it increases the amount of milk. Consumption of milk extracted through such a method is injurious to health," she said.

"It (such milk) leads to breast cancer in women and prostrate cancer in men. It is high time that governments (of various states) ban use of such medicines," she added.

Gandhi also slammed the practice of slaughtering cows for religious purposes. "In Uttarakhand, the practice has stopped. In the last two years there has not been a single incident of cow slaughter. Other states should follow the example."

Cow slaughter for any purpose is banned in Jharkhand. Prevention of the Cow Slaughter Act, 2011, has provisions for imprisonment of the accused for 10 years with Rs 10,000 fine.

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What Caused the Super Bowl Blackout?

All that is known so far about the Mercedes-Benz Superdome power outage that temporarily halted last night's Super Bowl game is that a crucial piece of sensing equipment operated exactly as designed: It turned the electricity off.

But officials at the Superdome and its energy company, Entergy, said further investigation is needed to get at the root cause of the electricity abnormality that plunged half of the recently renovated stadium into darkness and forced a 34-minute delay of one of the world's most watched sporting events. (See related quiz: "What You Don't Know About Electricity.")

So while sports analysts dissect how the Baltimore Ravens held off the rallying San Francisco 49ers in the second half to secure their 34-31 victory, this year's postgame analysis will include scrutiny by teams of electrical engineers and stadium systems experts.

Despite much online speculation on the subject, it's unlikely that the scale of Beyoncé's dazzling, hologram-assisted halftime show was to blame for the outage, says James L. Kirtley Jr., professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

It's possible, he said, that the cause was a simple overload, like what happens in a kitchen when a coffee pot and microwave are run at the same time. "The stadium system is, of course, a lot bigger, but fundamentally [it is] very similar" to a household circuit panel, Kirtley explained.

However, based on public statements from Entergy and the Superdome, Kirtley suspects that "some other piece of equipment failed and put a short circuit across the power circuit, causing a circuit breaker to open and disconnect power to some part of the stadium circuits."

After the stadium went dark, Entergy, which supplies electricity to 2.8 million utility customers throughout the Gulf Coast, quickly announced via its Twitter feed that its service to the stadium had not been interrupted. The problem, Entergy tweeted, was on "the customer's side." A later joint statement from Entergy and Superdome managers said the problems began when a piece of equipment designed to monitor electrical load "sensed an abnormality in the system."

"Once the issue was detected, the sensing equipment operated as designed and opened a breaker, causing power to be partially cut to the Superdome in order to isolate the issue," the statement said. "The fault-sensing equipment activated where the Superdome equipment intersects with Entergy's feed into the facility."

It is standard—in fact, usually required by law—for electrical systems to include circuit breakers that automatically shut off power to prevent wires from overheating and causing a fire. Circuit breakers can trip when there is too much load on a circuit, but a power outage also can be caused by a short circuit or other type of fault.

It's not known how much electricity the Superdome was drawing when the power outage occurred; Entergy said in response to a query that it was confidential "customer" information.

It is known that energy use from the Super Bowl was estimated in advance to be 4,600 megawatts, but that included the power for the NFL hotels and Morial Convention Center during the week of the game. Entergy had agreed in advance to donate carbon credits, or investments in carbon-capture projects, to offset the carbon emissions caused by that energy use—3.8 million pounds of carbon dioxide emissions—as part of a wide-ranging "greening" effort around the game. (See related photos: "Super Bowl Caps Banner Season in NFL Green Drive.") That's as much carbon as 359 U.S. passenger cars typically emit in a year.

Superdome officials had hoped the Super Bowl would showcase to the world the $336 million in renovations that have been made to the stadium since it sustained massive water and wind damage in 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina. Some $156 million of the cost of the renovation was paid by the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. That renovation included work on the stadium's electrical and lighting system, as the Superdome now has a 26,000-LED lighting fixture on 96 concave aluminum panels that ring the building's exterior, a system supported by more than five miles of copper wiring. This system, which draws no more power than a small home, won the 2012 "Excellence in Design" award in the Architainment category from Live Design Magazine, an architecture, design, and event production publication.

LED lights, in addition to being efficient, would be capable of coming on instantly after such an outage. But they are not bright enough to illuminate a field, so they provide only accent lighting. Most stadiums rely on high-intensity gas discharge fixtures for the main lighting of the venue. Such lights take some time to power up to full brightness—a half hour is common.

After emergency generators restored power to the playing field, fans still had to cope with reduced power, with escalators and credit-card machines shut down, and walkways lighted by small banks of light. Broadcasters and NFL officials also had to scramble.

This story is part of a special series that explores energy issues. For more, visit The Great Energy Challenge.

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Boy Safe, Kidnapper Dead as Ala. Standoff Ends

A week-long Alabama standoff in which a retired trucker held a 5-year-old boy hostage in an underground bunker has ended with the kidnapper dead and the child safe, according to law enforcement.

"FBI Agents safely recovered the child who's been held hostage for nearly a week," FBI Special Agent Steve Richardson said at a news conference.

The agent said negotiations with the suspect Richard Lee Dykes "deteriorated" in the past 24 hours.

"Mr. Dykes was observed holding a gun. At this point the FBI agents fearing the child was in imminent danger, entered the bunker and rescued the child," Richardson said.

The boy identified only as Ethan "appears physically unharmed" and is being treated at a hospital, authorities said.

WDHN (inset); Julie Bennett/al.com via AP

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Dykes, 65, is dead, but officials have not yet provided details on how he died.

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Dykes allegedly shot and killed a school bus driver last week and threatened to kill all the children on the bus before taking the boy, one of the students on the bus said.

"He said he was going to kill us, going to kill us all," Tarrica Singletary, 14, told ABC News.

Dykes had been holed up in his underground bunker near Midland City, Ala., with the abducted boy for a week as police tried to negotiate with him through a PVC pipe. Police had used the talks to send the child comfort items, including a red Hot Wheels car, coloring books, cheese crackers, potato chips and medicine.

Dykes was a decorated Vietnam vet who grew up in the area. He lived in Florida until two years ago, the AP reported, and has an adult daughter, but the two lost touch years ago, neighbor Michael Creel said. When he returned to Alabama, neighbors say he once beat a dog with a lead pipe and had threatened to shoot children who set foot on his property.

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Issa presses for USAID documents

Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has threatened to subpoena the nation’s foreign aid agency if it doesn’t hand over documents and information relating to alleged wrongdoing by top agency officials.

Issa, who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, told administrator Rajiv Shah of the U.S. Agency for International Aid that the documents had to be produced by Monday evening.

The oversight committee is examining an inspector general’s investigation into possible contract-rigging by the agency’s general counsel and allegations that USAID’s second-ranking executive interfered with the probe.

The contract was for an adviser to USAID’s government-to-government direct assistance program, which is part of an initiative to improve the outcomes for foreign aid and wean developing nations off support.

An internal memo from the inspector general’s office indicates investigators were trying to determine whether USAID general counsel Lisa Gomer worked with former agency chief financial officer David Ostermeyer to create a six-figure contract that would go to Ostermeyer after he retired from the agency.

The document alleges deputy administrator Donald Steinberg chastised investigators, telling them their efforts to gather information were “inappropriate” and that the issue should have been taken to senior USAID officials before going to the Justice Department.

USAID said none of its top officials interfered with the inspector general’s efforts.

“The investigation was conducted unimpeded, and we cooperated with the investigation,” spokesman Kamyl Bazbaz said last week.

Issa has requested documents and communications relating to the contract and subsequent inquiries by the inspector general and the House oversight committee.

Issa’s letter, sent Tuesday and co-signed by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) — chairman of the oversight committee’s national security subcommittee — noted that corruption is prevalent in many developing nations that receive U.S. aid.

“It is therefore troubling that senior USAID officials . . . have themselves been implicated in allegations of contracting fraud and interference with an independent inspector general, whose job is to protect the taxpayer interest from this type of activity,” the letter said.

Corruption in prioritized countries and disaster areas is one of three “persistent problems” for USAID, according to the latest inspector general’s report, from 2011, on management challenges for the agency.

Two-thirds of all nations scored in the lower half of the rating scale on the corruption perceptions index of watchdog group Transparency International-USA.

“Corruption amounts to a dirty tax, and the poor and most vulnerable are its primary victims,” the group said on its index Web site.

Bazbaz said USAID terminated the solicitation Gomer had allegedly made for Ostermeyer when the agency learned of it. Gomer has resigned, he said, and will leave the agency on Feb. 9. Ostermeyer retired on Jan. 3 and declined last week to comment on the investigation.

USAID said the State Department is reviewing the documents and communications Issa requested to determine whether any information is diplomatically sensitive.

“We will produce the responsive information to the committee after an interagency review of the documents is complete,” said Bazbaz, who noted that House oversight committee staff members have personally reviewed some requested documents.

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Scotland Yard stole dead children's identities: report

LONDON: London's Metropolitan Police stole the identities of some 80 dead children and issued false documents in their names for use by undercover officers, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported on Sunday.

The force authorised the practice over three decades for officers attempting to infiltrate protest groups, without informing the children's parents, the broadsheet said.

Its investigation described officers creating aliases based on the dead children's details and being issued with documents such as passports and driving licences in their names.

Some officers reportedly spent up to a decade pretending to be these people.

Scotland Yard said it did not currently authorise the practice and had launched an investigation into "past arrangements".

"We appreciate the concerns that have been raised," the force said.

"We can confirm that the practice referred to in the complaint is not something that would currently be authorised."

Keith Vaz, chairman of the British parliament's home affairs committee, described the practice as "gruesome".

"It will only cause enormous distress to families who will discover what has happened concerning the identities of their dead children," he told the Guardian. "This is absolutely shocking."

One unnamed officer, who adopted the fake identity of Pete Black while operating undercover in anti-racist groups, told the newspaper he felt he was stomping on the grave" of the four-year-old boy whose identity he used.

Another argued that the practice could be justified on the grounds that it was for the "greater good".

Both officers worked for a Scotland Yard unit called the Special Demonstration Squad, which was disbanded in 2008.

The Guardian said it had seen a document indicating that around 80 officers used dead children's identities between 1968 and 1994.

- AFP/jc

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Gujarat’s good show in urban projects puts UPA in a spot

NEW DELHI: Gujarat's high rating in urban infrastructure development projects under the Centre's flagship JNNURM scheme seems to have become a new headache for the government at a time when UPA-2 would like to highlight its achievements before the next national polls.

So far, a majority of models suggested by the Union urban development (UD) ministry to state governments are from Gujarat, whether it's self-financing of a road project or intelligent traffic system for safe public transport.

While another 'best model' in public transport system has become a reality in BJP-ruled Karnataka, only one Congress-ruled state has followed suit — Rajasthan with 'Alwar Vahini'.

In recent months, the UD ministry has issued four circulars on successful transport models which it recommended to state governments to adopt/emulate. The latest one was the Centre pushing the Surat model of developing an outer ring road without any government investment. Under this model, the project would generate about Rs 11,960 crore over five years against an investment of Rs 5,796 crore.

Earlier, the ministry had asked the states to follow the G-Auto model of Ahmedabad where a cluster of auto rickshaws is managed through a common control room. The advisory for states had come after the Nirbhaya gang rape incident. "There is no doubt that Gujarat has the best performance when it comes to urban infrastructure development and this cannot be ignored by anyone. So, there is nothing wrong if the Centre has asked others to learn and set such examples," said a ministry official.

However, for the Congress-led UPA, this is a sour pill to swallow and allow Narendra Modi's government to take the credit of successfully demonstrating best models of urban development.

In fact, now with the Cabinet allowing the UD ministry to sanction new projects and capacity building of cities and municipal bodies till March 2014 totaling an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, the ministry is likely to take a decision on the criteria of sanctioning projects — success rate or population.

On January 31, the ministry issued an office memorandum stating that projects to be sanctioned are under the sub-mission of JNNURM relating to Urban Infrastructure and Governance (UIG) and Urban Infrastructure Development for Small and Medium Towns (UIDSSMT).

This should bring some relief to the UPA. The latest data on completion of UIG and UIDSSMT till December end publicized by the ministry shows that Arunachal Pradesh had 75% completion in both the categories, which is the highest. AIADMK-ruled Tamil Nadu ranked second with 68% completion and Andhra Pradesh came third with 57%. Gujarat ranked fourth in this category with 54% of projects getting completed.

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Pictures We Love: Best of January

Photograph by Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck near Port au Prince, Haiti, in January 2010 so devastated the country that recovery efforts are still ongoing.

Professional dancer Georges Exantus, one of the many casualties of that day, was trapped in his flattened apartment for three days, according to news reports. After friends dug him out, doctors amputated his right leg below the knee. With the help of a prosthetic leg, Exantus is able to dance again. (Read about his comeback.)

Why We Love It

"This is an intimate photo, taken in the subject's most personal space as he lies asleep and vulnerable, perhaps unaware of the photographer. The dancer's prosthetic leg lies in the foreground as an unavoidable reminder of the hardships he faced in the 2010 earthquake. This image makes me want to hear more of Georges' story."—Ben Fitch, associate photo editor

"This image uses aesthetics and the beauty of suggestion to tell a story. We are not given all the details in the image, but it is enough to make us question and wonder."—Janna Dotschkal, associate photo editor

Published February 1, 2013

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Super Bowl XLVII Brings a First, a Last and a Triumph for NOLA

There's more than just a trophy on the line for Superbowl XLVII -- as two sibling head coaches are pitted against each other for the first time, while one of the NFL's greatest players turns in his final performance, and then there's the question on everyone's minds:

Will Beyonce lip sync during the half-time show?

20 Bizarre Items Inspired by the 2013 Superbow

More than 150,000 fans have flocked to New Orleans for the big game today between the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, while it's estimated at least 100 million more will watch from home.

The game will be played in the rebranded Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the same venue that nearly eight years ago housed refugees from Hurricane Katrina in squalid conditions, becoming a symbol of the storm's fury and the human suffering that followed in its aftermath.

Today, 75,000 ticketholders will pack the stadium, marking a moment of triumph for the city.

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Sibling Rivalry

No matter the outcome of the game, one thing is already for certain: Coach Harbaugh is getting a Super Bowl ring.

For the first time in professional football history, a pair of brothers are leading opposing teams at the Super Bowl.

John Harbaugh, 50, head coach of the Baltimore Ravens, will face off against younger brother Jim Harbaugh, 49, skipper of the San Francisco 49ers.

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The two, with just 15 months difference in their ages, grew up in Ann Arbor, Mich., and both began their coaching careers working for their father Jack, a college coach at Western Kentucky and later at Western Michigan. The brothers are close and consider the matchup, dubbed by sportswriters as the "HarBowl" a bittersweet moment for the family, knowing one will lose.

"It's probably a little tougher emotionally," John Harbaugh said at a press conference last week. "It's a little tougher just from the sense of I don't think you think about it when you're coaching against somebody else; it's more about the scheme and the strategy. There's a little bit of a relationship element that's more strong than maybe coaching against someone else.

"I'll have a better answer for you after the game," he said. "I've never been through this before. This is all new."

PHOTOS: Greatest Sibling Rivalries

Ray Lewis' Final Game

The game is expected to be the last for Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, 37.

The former Superbowl MVP and a two-time defensive player of the year, has made headlines on and off the field during his 17-season career.

In 2000, a fight broke out after an Atlanta Super Bowl party, leaving two men dead. Lewis faced double murder charges, however in a plea agreement, the charges were dropped. Lewis pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and was sentenced to probation. The case against his two co-defendants fell apart and the murders remain unsolved.

Most recently, Lewis was reported to have used deer antler spray and pills, a substance banned by the NFL, to help heal a torn triceps. Lewis has denied taking any illegal substances.

Hype Surrounding Beyonce, Commercials

For non-football fans, today has been dubbed the Beyonce Bowl.

The megastar lip-synced on President Obama's second inauguration, she said in a press conference on Thursday, because she didn't feel fully prepared.

Will she sing live during the half-time show tonight?

Either way, fans don't seem to mind.

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In immigration debate, same-sex marriage comes to the fore

In his final legislative act as a senator, Secretary of State John F. Kerry sought to resolve an international dilemma. He filed Senate Bill 48, seeking “permanent resident status for Genesio Januario Oliveira,” a gay Brazilian national facing deportation because he does not qualify for a spousal visa.

Now, President Obama is aiming to grant same-sex couples like Oliveira and his American husband, Tim Coco, the same immigration rights as their heterosexual counterparts. The proposal could allow up to 40,000 foreign nationals in same-sex relationships to apply for legal residency and, potentially, U.S. citizenship.

But the measure has inspired fierce pushback from congressional Republicans and some religious groups, who say it could sink hopes for a comprehensive agreement aimed at providing a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.

The standoff may force Obama to choose between two key interest groups — Hispanics and the gay community — that helped power his reelection last fall. The president must weigh how forcefully to push the bill, known as the Uniting American Families Act, while not endangering a long-sought deal to resolve the status of undocumented immigrants, most of whom are Latino.

The same-sex measure was not included in the immigration proposals issued last week by a bipartisan Senate working group, whose overall framework Obama largely embraced. Several key Christian groups that have supported the White House’s immigration push have objected to the measure on the grounds that it would erode traditional marriage.

The issue has prompted an intense lobbying effort on both sides, including a letter to the White House from a coalition of influential church organizations and a series of urgent conference calls between advocates, administration officials and lawmakers.

For Obama, the political sensitivity was evident in the public rollout of his immigration plans last Tuesday. Although the same-sex provision was included in documents distributed by the White House, the president did not mention it in his immigration speech in Las Vegas.

“The president in his plan said that you should treat same-sex families the same way we treat heterosexual families,” White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Friday on “Political Capital With Al Hunt.” “It’s wrong to discriminate. It’s a natural extension of the president’s view about same-sex marriage, the view about providing equal rights, no matter who you love.”

But congressional Republicans immediately condemned the idea and warned that the measure imperils broader immigration reform. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), one of the senators on the eight-member bipartisan working group on immigration, said at a Politico breakfast last week that injecting social issues into the debate over immigration legislation “is the best way to derail it.”

“Which is more important, LGBT or border security?” McCain said, using an abbreviation for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. “I’ll tell you what my priorities are.”

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