AP source: Bell, Marlins agree to $27 million deal (AP)

MIAMI ? All-Star closer Heath Bell has agreed to a $27 million, three-year contract with the Miami Marlins, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press

The person spoke Friday on condition of anonymity because the deal had not yet been announced. The agreement,.which is subject to a physical, is the first free-agent deal for the Marlins since they began courtships last month with several top players. The deal was first reported by ESPN.

Bell had more than 40 saves each of the past three seasons for the San Diego Padres. This year he had 43 in 48 chances with a 2.44 ERA.

The Marlins are uncertain of the availability of their closer this year, Leo Nunez. He's on the restricted list after he admitted to playing under an assumed name.

Nunez, whose real name is Juan Oviedo, had 36 saves in 42 chances this year with a 4.06 ERA.

The Marlins' move into a new ballpark next year has improved their financial outlook, allowing them to become more active in free agency. They've courted slugger Albert Pujols, shortstop Jose Reyes and left-handers Mark Buehrle and C.J. Wilson, and they're interested in Cuban defector Yoenis Cespedes.

Pujols remains a long shot, but the Marlins have high hopes of signing at least a couple of the others as they prepare to move into a new ballpark.

The burly Bell was an All-Star for the third consecutive season this year, and made his appearance in the game memorable by sliding onto the infield grass before he took the ball to pitch. He'll be reunited in Miami with former Padres relievers Ryan Webb and Edward Mujica, who joined the Marlins a year ago.

___

AP Sports Writer Ronald Blum in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_sp_ba_ne/bbn_marlins_bell

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Suicide bomber kills 1 near Afghan-NATO outpost (AP)

KABUL, Afghanistan ? A suicide bomber blew up a truck full of explosives outside a joint Afghan-NATO combat outpost in eastern Afghanistan on Friday morning, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding five other people, officials said.

The bomber tried to enter Combat Outpost McClain in Mohammad Agha district of Logar province, said Gen. Ghulam Saki Rooghlawanay, the provincial police chief.

When the bomber was not allowed onto the base, he drove his vehicle toward a group of buildings including government offices, a clinic and a youth center, and detonated it, Rooghlawanay said.

"It was a very powerful explosion," he said. "It was a semitrailer with explosives."

The police chief said an Afghan businessman was killed. Three Afghan soldiers and two Afghan intelligence employees were wounded by shrapnel.

NATO confirmed that an explosion occurred near the entrance to the base, but that the truck never penetrated security protecting the installation. No NATO service members were injured or killed in the attack.

The province's governor Atiqullah Ludin inspected the site of the explosion, which was littered with parts of the truck and debris from the damaged building.

"There were no students in the youth center," he said. "We were very lucky. It is Friday," which is part of the Afghan weekend.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_re_as/as_afghanistan

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China's demand for oil will equal US demand by 2040, study predicts

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? Despite aggressive demand-management policies announced in recent years, China's oil use could easily reach levels comparable to today's U.S. levels by 2040, according to a new energy study by the Baker Institute.

The study's authors said this finding has timely significance because China's growing energy use could continue to pose a major challenge for global climate deliberations in South Africa this week.

The study, "The Rise of China and Its Energy Implications," finds that China's recent efforts at centralizing energy policy do not appear to be significantly more successful than the makeshift patchwork of energy initiatives devised by the United States. In fact, the study said, the U.S. system of open and competitive private sector investment is stimulating more innovation in the American energy sector than in the Chinese energy industry, especially in the area of unconventional oil and gas.

That, ironically, is attracting Chinese state investment to U.S. shores and prompting Beijing to consider further opening of its oil and gas exploration activities to partnerships with U.S. firms, the study said.

China, like the United States, has substantial potential shale gas resources but faces technical, regulatory and market infrastructure challenges that are likely to delay rapid development. Were China to mobilize investments in shale gas more quickly, the study said, it could greatly reduce the country's expected large import needs for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Australia and the Middle East and contribute to a future glut in global natural gas markets.

Despite sporadic government policies to discourage private car ownership, the growth in the number of vehicles on the road in China has more than quadrupled in recent years to more than 50 million. The Baker Institute report projects that this number could increase to more than 200 million vehicles by 2020 and 770 million by 2040 under a scenario where China's real gross domestic product growth averages 6 percent between now and 2030. Even under a scenario where the number of electric cars rises to 5 million a year by 2030, which is in line with ambitious targets announced by China's National Development and Reform Commission, China's oil use from the transportation sector will grow significantly, the Baker Institute study said.

"Given the scale of vehicle stock growth in China, it is going to be extremely difficult to move the needle of the country's rising transport fuel outlook," said Kenneth Medlock, a study author and the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics at the Baker Institute.

The study noted that China's "going abroad" strategy has also encountered recent difficulties in light of geopolitical events and rising global political risks in oil-producing regions.

"China is learning that owning equity oil in risky regions may not be as effective an energy security strategy as it had previously imagined," said Amy Myers Jaffe, an author of the study and the Wallace S. Wilson Fellow for Energy Studies at the Baker Institute. "China is now finding itself mired in more energy-related foreign diplomacy than it bargained for.

"But this could be good news for the United States," Jaffe said. "It may mean China will be more inclined to act in concert with other members of the international community in conflict-prone regions."

The study noted that China has tried to offset some of this risk by increasing investments in the United States and Canada, which gives the U.S. more leverage in seeking China's collaboration in international diplomatic matters.

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Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201132521.htm

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Nation's food banks taxed by lingering joblessness

Philabundance

Philabundance's Community Food Center, which serves 450 cupboards and pantries throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has seen a 26 percent spike in need this year and now serves food for about 65,000 people weekly.

By Eve Tahmincioglu

Bill Clark, executive director of food bank Philabundance, doesn?t put much credence in the unemployment rate?s monthly fluctuations because every day he sees how the long-term jobless are struggling to meet basic needs.?

The food bank, which serves 450 cupboards and pantries throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, has seen a 26 percent spike in need this year and now serves food for about 65,000 people weekly.?

?We?re seeing a lot more families, many who are running out of money and benefits because of long-term unemployment,? he explained. ?Since 2007, the changing face of hunger has been influenced a lot by unemployment.??

On Friday, the Labor Department will release employment data for November. In October, employers added 80,000 jobs, offering a glimmer of hope for the beleaguered employment market.?

Still, the labor market remains a big problem for the economic recovery;?14 million Americans are out of work.?

The millions of long-term jobless, a nagging trait of this anemic recovery, have been taxing the nation?s food banks that have seen a spike in usage and a decline in donations.?

?The emptying of food banks is another indicator of the depth of the recession and its long term impacts,? said Jerry McElroy, economics professor with Saint Mary?s College in Notre Dame, Ind., who has been watching the food bank crisis and blames a big part of it on long-term unemployment. ?I was astounded looking at the food bank situation. It?s a national phenomenon across almost every state in the union.??

As of October, there were nearly 6 million long-term unemployed, those jobless for 27 weeks or more, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,?and McElroy pointed to the growing number of individuals who are now food insecure as a by product of that.?

After declining in 2005 and remaining relatively stabile for several years, food insecurity among Americans rose in 2008 to 14.6 percent of households and has stayed at that level ever since, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The rise in long-term unemployment beginning in 2008 has closely mirrored the increase of participation in the SNAP program, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, previously known as food stamps,?according to Congress'?Joint Economic Committee.?

?These people have used all their resources, exhausted their savings, and their family and friends are worn out because many of them are beginning to feel pinched,? McElroy said, referring to?the long-term jobless.?

Indeed, food banks across the country are seeing large increases in the numbers of people looking for help. Last year food pantry usage nationally jumped 46 percent to 37 million people, according to hunger relief charity Feeding America. And the crowds haven?t let up.?

The Connecticut Food Bank, which serves 300,000 people annually and serves six of the state?s eight counties, saw usage jump 30 percent in 2008 and the increases never abated. ?It?s this constancy that is so disturbing, and we?re not seeing an end in sight,? said Nancy Carrington, CEO and president of the food bank.?

And the food bank clientele is also changing, she said, from people who?ve been teetering on poverty in low-wage jobs, to professionals who were solidly middle class. ?We have experienced many individuals for the first time --?people who never thought they?d need help," she said.

Carrington recalled one particular family from a suburban town in greater New Haven who came looking for assistance at a food pantry this past summer. The husband had a good-paying job in the financial sector but lost his job after companywide cutbacks.?

?His wife worked for the state but with two daughters in college and a son in high school it didn?t take long before they spent down their savings,? she said. ?So he found himself in position he never dreamt he?d be in and went to a pantry in a neighboring town because he was embarrassed of the situation and was afraid someone would know him if he went close to home.??

Families like this, she added, are often not eligible for food stamps or other assistance because they may have a home or other assets. ?Of the people who are food insecure in Connecticut, over half don?t qualify for federal assistance,? she said.

So many are turning to food pantries and cupboards, and that?s causing a strain on many food banks at a time when donations, especially from manufacturers and wholesalers, are on the decline and food prices are rising.?

?The food industry has become much more efficient in recent years, so they don?t have the excesses they used to or they?re selling it to secondary markets, like a dollar store,? she said. ?Many items used to be donated to use, such as a discontinued line of flavored soup, or items with not so many days left on it to sell to consumers.??

Individual donations have held steady, she added, but canned food?drives typically only make up 1 to 2 percent of the food they distribute.?

Increasingly, Philabundance has to rely more heavily on purchasing food and not just on donations from companies, said Clark. ?We?ve really begun in earnest in last two or three years of really having purchased food be a strategic part of our total food acquisition plan,? he noted.?

Clark said the food bank was going to do whatever it could to meet escalating demand, including opening up a cupboard for the first time instead of just being a distributor of food. ?A lot of areas most in need don?t have preexisting distribution points,? he said, and that?s why they opened the Community Food Center in North Philadelphia. ?Food banks across the country are trying to deal with this new reality,? he added.?

Mariann Sharp of Wallingford, Conn,, is facing her own new reality when it comes to pantry aid.?

Sharp, 57, lost her job as a computer assembler nearly two years ago and has been unable to find a job. She gets $388 a month in unemployment and recently lost her apartment and had to move in with a friend. Earlier this year, she made her first trip to a pantry and said the experience ?killed me. In my entire life I never had to ask for anything.??

In addition to being a client at Master?s Manna, a pantry in Wallingford, she?s also begun volunteering for the organization about 30 hours a week until she finds work. ?At my age a lot of places don?t even want to talk to me, especially with me being out of work for so long,? she said about perspective employers. ?But I?d be the best employee going.??

Food pantries have sprung up on campuses from California to New Hampshire, as rising college costs, shrinking financial aid and a tight job market make students' budgets even tighter than normal. NBC's John Yang reports.

?

Source: http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/30/9123979-nations-food-banks-taxed-by-lingering-joblessness

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Syria hit with Turkey sanctions as army losses mount (Reuters)

BEIRUT/ANKARA (Reuters) ? Syria's biggest trade partner Turkey suspended all financial credit dealings with it on Wednesday and froze its government's assets, joining the Arab League in isolating President Bashar al-Assad over his military crackdown on opponents.

The government of regional transport hub Dubai said airlines based in the United Arab Emirates would stop flying to Syria, part of a decisive break with Assad's government among countries in the Middle East after eight months of violence.

Syria held military funerals for 14 members of the army and security forces, marking the rising cost of its battle to smother a revolution inspired by uprisings across the Arab world that toppled the leaders of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya this year.

Announcing Ankara's new measures, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference Turkey would block delivery of all weapons and military supplies to Syria. Relations with Syria's central bank were suspended and a cooperation agreement was halted until there was a new government in place.

"Until a legitimate government which is at peace with its people is in charge in Syria, the mechanism of the High Level of Strategic Cooperation has been suspended," Davutoglu said, adding Assad's government had come "to the end of the road."

Muslim Turkey, which last year had $2.5 billion in bilateral trade with Syria, was once one of Assad's closest allies, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan lost patience with him. Turkey now hosts Syrian army defectors and an umbrella opposition group.

Ankara has said any sanctions would not hurt the Syrian people and has ruled out cutting off electricity and water supplies. It has also said civil aviation by Turkish Airlines to Damascus will continue.

Dubai said UAE carriers would stop flying to Syria next week. The UAE's Dubai-based Emirates and Abu Dhabi-based Etihad are two of the region's biggest airlines.

Turkey, a NATO member, has a 900 km long border with Syria. It said on Tuesday it did not want military intervention in Syria but was ready for any scenario, including setting up a buffer zone to contain any mass influx of refugees.

FLOWERS AND WREATHS

Syria, which does not allow access to most foreign journalists, says it is fighting an insurgency by armed groups supported from abroad, who have attacked its troops trying to defend the peace.

Fourteen members of the security forces were laid to rest "with flowers and wreaths," official news agency SANA said. It named the dead but did not say when they were killed.

"The martyrs were targeted by armed terrorist groups while they were in the line of duty in Homs and the Damascus countryside," it said on Tuesday.

European and Arab diplomats say the top United Nations human rights forum will paint a far different picture of events in Syria at a special session on Friday, which is likely to condemn the Syrian government for crimes against humanity.

A U.N. report this week said Syrian forces have committed murder, torture and rape against pro-democracy protesters. The U.N. says more than 3,500 people have been killed since March.

Friday's human rights committee session is partly designed to put pressure on China and Russia, which have blocked measures by the U.N. Security Council to condemn Syria, to take a stronger stand, say diplomats.

OPPOSING VIEWS

Moscow has so far shown little sign of abandoning Assad.

"For the most part, armed groups are provoking the authorities," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Outside powers should "stop issuing ultimatums."

The United States and the European Union demand an end to Syrian state "brutality" and want Assad to relinquish power.

What began 8 months ago as a one-sided crushing of unarmed street protests is now sliding towards civil war.

Rebels on Tuesday ambushed an army vehicle in a northern town, killing three soldiers, said a statement from the Syrian Human Rights Observatory, an activist group.

"The security forces vehicle was targeted ... by a group of suspected army defectors," it said.

Government forces later killed a civilian and wounded three others in raids in the same town, it said. In a district of Homs, an 8-year-old girl was shot dead at a checkpoint.

Two civilians died of their wounds in the area of Rinkous outside Damascus on Tuesday and a 33-year-old man was killed by sniper fire as he tried to escape arrest, the Observatory said.

Terrified families were too scared to bury their dead.

Turkey said it feared there could be an exodus of Syrians if the violence got worse, and that border states might have to create a buffer zone to cope with masses of refugees fleeing to Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon.

France has raised the idea of a secured humanitarian corridor to relieve civilians, a step which would appear to imply some use of armed forces for security and logistics.

(Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111130/ts_nm/us_syria

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US lawmaker blocking Obama's pick for Russia envoy

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2010, file photo, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., talks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kirk is blocking President Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Russia over concerns that the U.S. might provide Moscow with sensitive missile defense information. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 16, 2010, file photo, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., talks to the media on Capitol Hill in Washington. Kirk is blocking President Barack Obama's nominee for ambassador to Russia over concerns that the U.S. might provide Moscow with sensitive missile defense information. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A Republican senator is blocking President Barack Obama's nominee to become ambassador to Russia over suspicions the U.S. might provide Moscow with sensitive missile defense information.

The administration says it has no plans to provide such data. But it says the assurances sought by Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., are so broad, they would prevent any substantial cooperation on missile defense.

The dispute with Kirk further complicates the Obama administration's efforts to get U.S.-Russian relations back on track at a time of increased tensions over missile defense.

It also has political overtones ahead of next year's elections. The White House considers improved relations with Russia, including the signing of a major arms reduction treaty, to be one of the big foreign policy successes of Obama's presidency. Republicans have accused Obama of granting too many concessions to Russia and getting little in return.

Kirk is holding up the nomination of Michael McFaul, a senior adviser to Obama on Russia. In an interview with The Associated Press, Kirk said he wants written assurances that the United States will not provide Russia with any currently classified information on the missile defense system.

Kirk said he is particularly concerned that the administration could offer Russia data on the speed of interceptors planned for Europe in order to ease Russian fears that the system could knock out Russian ballistic missiles.

He said he also is concerned about Russia's "record of espionage and cooperation and dialogue with Iran." He said precise data on the interceptor speeds could help Iran evade the U.S. defenses. The U.S. insists its missile interceptors are aimed at countering a threat from Iran.

The administration says that while it is not considering such an offer, it does not want to limit its options by ruling out any exchange of sensitive information they say would be essential for any substantial missile defense cooperation.

"In the future, some classified information exchange may benefit the United States," White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a statement.

U.S. missile defense plans in Europe have been one of the touchiest subjects in U.S.-Russian relations going back to the administration of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

One of Obama's earliest moves to ease tensions was the administration's 2009 announcement that it would revamp Bush's plan to emphasize shorter-range interceptors. Russia initially welcomed that move, but has more recently suggested that the new interceptors could threaten its missiles as the U.S. interceptors are upgraded.

U.S. talks with Russia over missile defense cooperation have nearly broken down. Russia recently threatened to target missiles at the U.S. missile defense systems in Europe and just commissioned a radar in Kaliningrad, near the Polish border, capable of monitoring missile launches from Europe and the North Atlantic.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-02-US-Russia-Missile%20Defense/id-8327f9b5744d408cb02a102cac10608f

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