8
BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing hotly denies accusations of official involve- ment in massive cyberattacks against foreign targets, insinuating such activity is the work of rogues. But at least one element cited by Internet experts points to professional cyberspies: China's hackers take the weekend off. Accusations of state-sanctioned hacking took center stage this past week following a detailed report by a U.S.-based Internet security firm Mandiant. It added to growing suspi- cions that the Chinese military is not only stealing national defense secrets and harassing dissidents but also pilfering information from foreign companies that could be worth millions or even billions of dollars. Experts say Chinese hacking attacks are character- ized not only by their brazenness, but by their persistence. "China conducts at least an order of magni- tude more than the next country," said Martin Libicki, a specialist on cyber warfare at the Rand Corporation, based in Santa Monica, California. The fact that hackers take weekends off sug- gests they are paid, and that would belie "the notion that the hack- ers are private," he said. Libicki and other cyber warfare experts have long noted a Monday-through-Friday pattern in the intensity of attacks believed to come from Chinese sources, though there has been little evi- dence released publicly directly linking the Chinese military to the attacks. Mandiant went a step further in its report Tuesday saying that it had traced hacking activities against 141 foreign entities in the U.S. Canada, Britain and elsewhere to a group of operators known as the "Comment Crew" or "APT1," for "Advanced Persistent Threat 1," which it traced back to the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398. The unit is headquartered in a non- descript 12-story building inside a military compound in a crowd- ed suburb of China's financial hub of Shanghai. CHINESE HACKERS SEEN AS INCREASINGLY PROFESSIONAL Attackers stole information about pricing, contract negotiations, manufactur- ing, product testing and corporate acquisi- tions, the company said. Hacker teams regularly began work, for the most part, at 8 a.m. Beijing time. Usually they continued for a standard work day, but sometimes the hacking per- sisted until midnight. Occasionally, the attacks stopped for two-week periods, Mandiant said, though the reason was not clear. China denies any official involve- ment, calling such accusations "ground- less" and insisting that Beijing is itself a major victim of hacking attacks, the largest number of which originate in the U.S. While not denying hack- ing attacks originated in China, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Thursday that it was flat out wrong to accuse the Chinese government or military of being behind them. Mandiant and other experts believe Unit 61398 to be a branch of the PLA General Staff's Third Department responsible for collection and analysis of electronic signals such as e-mails and phone calls. It and the Fourth Department, responsible for electronic warfare, are believed to be the PLA units mainly responsible for infiltrating and manipulating computer networks. China acknowledges pursuing these strategies as a key to delivering an initial blow to an opponent's communications and other infrastructure during wartime - but the techniques are often the same as those used to steal information for commercial use. China has consistently denied state-sponsored hacking, but experts say the office hours that the cyberspies keep point to a professional army rather than mere hobbyists or so-called "hack- tivists" inspired by patriotic passions. Mandiant noticed that pattern while monitoring attacks on the The building housing “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army is seen in the outskirts of Shanghai. For state-backed cyberspies such as the Chinese mili- tary unit implicated by a U.S. security firm in a computer crime wave, hacking foreign companies can produce high-value secrets ranging from details on oil fields to advanced manufacturing technology. This week's report by Mandiant Inc. adds to mounting suspicion that Chinese military experts are helping state industry by stealing secrets from Western companies possibly worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The Chinese military has denied involvement in the attacks. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NO LICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE Continued on page 3 Circulated Weekly In Florida Volume 002 Issue 8 Established 2012 February 25, 2013 WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST THE FREE FAILURE OF GLORY CLIMATE SATELLITE U N K N O W N VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A group of experts investigating the launch failure of a NASA cli- mate satellite has failed to come up with a reason. The Glory satellite plummeted into the Pacific in 2011 shortly after lifting off from the Vandenberg Air Force Base along the California coast. The panel's report released Wednesday found the rock- et's clamshell-shaped covering over the satellite never fully opened. But the experts said they were unable to determine why. The covering surrounds the satellite as it flies through the atmosphere. The loss of the $424 million mission was an embarrass- ment for NASA, which similarly lost another climate satellite in 2009. The rocket was a Taurus XL from Orbital Sciences Corp. NASA only released a summary of the accident report, citing U.S. security regulations and proprietary company information. NEW YORK (AP) -- It wasn't too long ago that America had a love affair with soda. Now, an old flame has the country's heart. As New York City grapples with the legality of a ban on the sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks at some businesses, one thing is clear: soda's run as the nation's beverage of choice has fizzled. In its place? A favorite for much of history: Plain old H2O. For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink in the U.S. with per capita consumption peaking in 1998 at 54 gallons a year, according industry tracker Beverage Digest. Americans drank just 42 gallons a year of water at the time. But over the years, as soda increasingly came under fire for fueling the nation's rising obesity rates, water quietly rose to knock it off the top spot. Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda a year, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over the same time, the average amount of water people drink has increased 38 percent to about 58 gallons a year. Bottled water has led that growth, with consumption nearly doubling to 21 gallons a year. Stephen Ngo, a civil defense attorney, quit drinking soda a year ago when he started running triathlons, and want- ed a healthier way to quench his thirst. Ngo, 34, has a Brita filter for tap water and also keeps his pantry stocked with cases of bottled water. "It might just be the placebo effect or marketing, but it tastes crisper," said Ngo, who lives in Miami. The trend reflects Americans' ever-changing tastes; it wasn't too far back in history that tap water was the top drink. But in the 1980s, carbonated soft drinks overtook tap as the most popular drink, with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo put- ting their marketing muscle behind their colas with celebrity endorsements from the likes of pop star Michael Jackson and comedian Bill Cosby. Americans kept drinking more of the carbonated, sugary drink for about a decade. Then, soda's magic started to fade: Everyone from doctors to health advocates to gov- AMERICA'S NEW LOVE: WATER APPLYING FOR OBAMA HEALTH CARE PLAN N O T E A S Y WASHINGTON (AP) -- Applying for benefits under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul could be as daunting as doing your taxes. The government's draft application runs 15 pages for a three-person family. An outline of the online version has 21 steps, some with additional questions. Seven months before the Oct. 1 start of enrollment sea- son for millions of uninsured Americans, the idea that getting health insurance could be as easy as shopping online at Amazon or Travelocity is starting to look like wishful thinking. At least three major federal agencies, including the IRS, will scrutinize your application. Checking your identity, income and citizenship is supposed to happen in real time, if you apply online. That's just the first part of the process, which lets you know if you qualify for financial help. The government asks to see what you're making because Obama's Affordable Care Act is means-tested, with lower-income people getting the most generous help to pay premiums. Once you're finished with the money part, actually pick- ing a health plan will require additional steps, plus a basic understanding of insurance jargon. And it's a mandate, not a suggestion. The law says virtu- ally all Americans must carry health insurance starting next year, although most will just keep the coverage they now have through their jobs, Medicare or Medicaid. Some are concerned that a lot of uninsured people will be overwhelmed and simply give up. "This lengthy draft application will take a considerable amount of time to fill out and will be difficult for many people to be able to complete," said Ron Pollack, execu- tive director of Families USA, an advocacy group sup- porting the health care law. "It does not get you to the selection of a plan." "When you combine those two processes, it is enor- mously time consuming and complex," added Pollack. He's calling for the government to simplify the form and, more important, for an army of counselors to help unin- sured people navigate the new system. It's unclear who Continued on page 8

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BEIJING (AP) -- Beijing hotlydenies accusations of official involve-ment in massive cyberattacks againstforeign targets, insinuating such activityis the work of rogues. But at least oneelement cited by Internet experts pointsto professional cyberspies: China'shackers take the weekend off.

Accusations of state-sanctionedhacking took center stage this pastweek following a detailed report by aU.S.-based Internet security firmMandiant. It added to growing suspi-cions that the Chinese military is not onlystealing national defense secrets andharassing dissidents but also pilferinginformation from foreign companies thatcould be worth millions or even billionsof dollars.

Experts sayChinese hackingattacks are character-ized not only by theirbrazenness, but by theirp e r s i s t e n c e .

"China conducts atleast an order of magni-tude more than the next country," said Martin Libicki, a specialiston cyber warfare at the Rand Corporation, based in SantaMonica, California. The fact that hackers take weekends off sug-gests they are paid, and that would belie "the notion that the hack-ers are private," he said.

Libicki and other cyber warfare experts have long noted aMonday-through-Friday pattern in the intensity of attacks believedto come from Chinese sources, though there has been little evi-dence released publicly directly linking the Chinese military to theattacks.

Mandiant went a step further in its report Tuesday saying thatit had traced hacking activities against 141 foreign entities in theU.S. Canada, Britain and elsewhere to a group of operatorsknown as the "Comment Crew" or "APT1," for "AdvancedPersistent Threat 1," which it traced back to the People'sLiberation Army Unit 61398. The unit is headquartered in a non-descript 12-story building inside a military compound in a crowd-ed suburb of China's financial hub of Shanghai.

C H I N E S E H A C K E R S S E E N A S

I N C R E A S I N G LY P R O F E S S I O N A L

Attackers stole information aboutpricing, contract negotiations, manufactur-ing, product testing and corporate acquisi-tions, the company said.

Hacker teams regularly began work,for the most part, at 8 a.m. Beijing time.Usually they continued for a standardwork day, but sometimes the hacking per-sisted until midnight. Occasionally, theattacks stopped for two-week periods,Mandiant said, though the reason was notclear.

China denies any official involve-ment, calling such accusations "ground-less" and insisting that Beijing is itself amajor victim of hacking attacks, the largestnumber of which originate in the U.S.

While not denying hack-ing attacks originated inChina, Foreign Ministryspokesman Hong Leisaid Thursday that it wasflat out wrong to accusethe Chinese governmentor military of beingbehind them.

Mandiant and other experts believe Unit 61398 to be abranch of the PLA General Staff's Third Department responsiblefor collection and analysis of electronic signals such as e-mailsand phone calls. It and the Fourth Department, responsible forelectronic warfare, are believed to be the PLA units mainlyresponsible for infiltrating and manipulating computer networks.

China acknowledges pursuing these strategies as a key todelivering an initial blow to an opponent's communications andother infrastructure during wartime - but the techniques are oftenthe same as those used to steal information for commercial use.

China has consistently denied state-sponsored hacking, butexperts say the office hours that the cyberspies keep point to aprofessional army rather than mere hobbyists or so-called "hack-tivists" inspired by patriotic passions.

Mandiant noticed that pattern while monitoring attacks on the

The building housing “Unit 61398” of the People’s Liberation Army is seen in theoutskirts of Shanghai. For state-backed cyberspies such as the Chinese mili-tary unit implicated by a U.S. security firm in a computer crime wave, hackingforeign companies can produce high-value secrets ranging from details on oilfields to advanced manufacturing technology. This week's report by MandiantInc. adds to mounting suspicion that Chinese military experts are helping stateindustry by stealing secrets from Western companies possibly worth hundredsof millions of dollars. The Chinese military has denied involvement in theattacks. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, MANDATORY CREDIT, NOLICENSING IN CHINA, HONG KONG, JAPAN, SOUTH KOREA AND FRANCE

Continued on page 3

Circulated Weekly In Florida Volume 002 Issue 8 Established 2012 February 25, 2013

WEEKLY NEWS DIGESTTH

E FREE

F A I L U R E O F

GLORY CLIMATE

S A T E L L I T E

U N K N O W NVANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A groupof experts investigating the launch failure of a NASA cli-mate satellite has failed to come up with a reason.

The Glory satellite plummeted into the Pacific in 2011shortly after lifting off from the Vandenberg Air ForceBase along the California coast.

The panel's report released Wednesday found the rock-et's clamshell-shaped covering over the satellite neverfully opened. But the experts said they were unable todetermine why. The covering surrounds the satellite as itflies through the atmosphere.

The loss of the $424 million mission was an embarrass-ment for NASA, which similarly lost another climatesatellite in 2009.

The rocket was a Taurus XL from Orbital Sciences Corp.

NASA only released a summary of the accident report,citing U.S. security regulations and proprietary companyinformation.

NEW YORK (AP) -- It wasn't too long ago that Americahad a love affair with soda. Now, an old flame has thecountry's heart.

As New York City grapples with the legality of a ban onthe sale of large cups of soda and other sugary drinks atsome businesses, one thing is clear: soda's run as thenation's beverage of choice has fizzled.

In its place? A favorite for much of history: Plain old H2O.

For more than two decades, soda was the No. 1 drink inthe U.S. with per capita consumption peaking in 1998 at54 gallons a year, according industry tracker BeverageDigest. Americans drank just 42 gallons a year of waterat the time.

But over the years, as soda increasingly came under firefor fueling the nation's rising obesity rates, water quietly

rose to knock it off the top spot.

Americans now drink an average of 44 gallons of soda ayear, a 17 percent drop from the peak in 1998. Over thesame time, the average amount of water people drinkhas increased 38 percent to about 58 gallons a year.Bottled water has led that growth, with consumptionnearly doubling to 21 gallons a year.

Stephen Ngo, a civil defense attorney, quit drinking sodaa year ago when he started running triathlons, and want-ed a healthier way to quench his thirst.

Ngo, 34, has a Brita filter for tap water and also keepshis pantry stocked with cases of bottled water.

"It might just be the placebo effect or marketing, but ittastes crisper," said Ngo, who lives in Miami.

The trend reflects Americans' ever-changing tastes; itwasn't too far back in history that tap water was the topdrink.

But in the 1980s, carbonated soft drinks overtook tap asthe most popular drink, with Coca-Cola and PepsiCo put-ting their marketing muscle behind their colas withcelebrity endorsements from the likes of pop star MichaelJackson and comedian Bill Cosby.

Americans kept drinking more of the carbonated, sugarydrink for about a decade. Then, soda's magic started tofade: Everyone from doctors to health advocates to gov-

AMERICA'S NEW LOVE: WATER

A P P L Y I N G F O R

O B A M A H E A LT H

C A R E P L A N

N O T E A S YWASHINGTON (AP) -- Applying for benefits underPresident Barack Obama's health care overhaul could beas daunting as doing your taxes.

The government's draft application runs 15 pages for athree-person family. An outline of the online version has21 steps, some with additional questions.

Seven months before the Oct. 1 start of enrollment sea-son for millions of uninsured Americans, the idea thatgetting health insurance could be as easy as shoppingonline at Amazon or Travelocity is starting to look likewishful thinking.

At least three major federal agencies, including the IRS,will scrutinize your application. Checking your identity,income and citizenship is supposed to happen in realtime, if you apply online.

That's just the first part of the process, which lets youknow if you qualify for financial help. The governmentasks to see what you're making because Obama'sAffordable Care Act is means-tested, with lower-incomepeople getting the most generous help to pay premiums.

Once you're finished with the money part, actually pick-ing a health plan will require additional steps, plus abasic understanding of insurance jargon.

And it's a mandate, not a suggestion. The law says virtu-ally all Americans must carry health insurance startingnext year, although most will just keep the coverage theynow have through their jobs, Medicare or Medicaid.

Some are concerned that a lot of uninsured people willbe overwhelmed and simply give up.

"This lengthy draft application will take a considerableamount of time to fill out and will be difficult for manypeople to be able to complete," said Ron Pollack, execu-tive director of Families USA, an advocacy group sup-porting the health care law. "It does not get you to theselection of a plan."

"When you combine those two processes, it is enor-mously time consuming and complex," added Pollack.He's calling for the government to simplify the form and,more important, for an army of counselors to help unin-sured people navigate the new system. It's unclear who

Continued on page 8

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N O B I G C O M P R O M I S E S ?B L A M E P A R T Y P O W E R

WASHINGTON

(AP) -- These days, it

sounds like an improb-

able fairy tale: politi-

cians with deeply dif-

fering visions of

America setting aside

disagreements to reach

a grand compromise on

a critical issue.

That's exactly

what happened in

1790, when the

Founding Fathers over-

looked their parochial

interests - and defied

their staunchest back-

ers - by agreeing, for

the good of the fledg-

ling union, to put

America's capital in a

neutral place along the Potomac River.

Would the same outcome happen today? Fat chance.

In this polarized and partisan era, Washington careens

from one crisis to the next even as the country faces huge

problems that threaten its standing in the world. With

power divided on Capitol Hill, bipartisan solutions are nec-

essary. And yet, while both Democrats and Republicans

talk a lot about compromise - a cross-the-aisle, solutions-

driven approach - few seem willing to give ground to fix

what ails the nation.

The latest example is the stalemate over deep budget

cuts set to take effect Friday, absent a bipartisan deal. The

cuts likely will inconvenience average Americans and may

slow the nation's fragile economic recovery. Both sides are

dug in on their ideological positions. President Barack

Obama and his Democrats want more tax increases, while

Republicans demand more spending cuts.

This is the fifth fiscal standoff since this period of

divided government began in 2011, when Republicans took

over the House while Democrats continued to control the

Senate. In the other cases, both sides reached mini-deals to

avert immediate crisis - only to ignore the larger issues.

Skyrocketing debt and persistent deficits. Rampant waste,

fraud and abuse. Budget-busting Social Security and

Medicare programs.

Why does Washington get so caught up this cycle of

panic - whether manufactured or real - only to ultimately

put a Band-Aid on the country's biggest gushers without

ever mending the underlying wounds?

Politicians have little incentive to take the risk of

working with the opposing party to reach solutions that will

fundamentally fix a problem. They operate in a system that

makes it hard to roll the dice because they're putting their

own jobs on the line. Robust Republican and Democratic

parties - and their conservative and liberal activists, whose

voices drown out the

centrist Americans

seeking remedies -

usually rebuke them

rather than reward

t h e m .

"Rebels, risk tak-

ers and creative

thinkers are marginal-

ized early and are sel-

dom promoted up the

ladder of

local/state/national

politics," says David

A. Drupa of the

Society for Risk

A n a l y s i s .

These days, he

says, politicians seem

to be allowing the

short-term benefit for themselves - winning re-election -

drive their decision-making, without getting far enough

along in their return-on-investment analysis to examine the

long-term benefit for the nation.

"They're trying to win the next battle, the next

matchup, the next race, at all our peril," Drupa says.

Both parties promise to use their bank accounts to pro-

tect lawmakers who stick with their ideological positions,

and punish those who don't. Deep-pocketed groups on the

far right and far left also go after those deemed unfaithful.

At the same time, party leaders have proven extraordi-

narily successful in drawing congressional boundaries in a

way that actually discourages House members from collab-

orating and all but ensures their re-elections if they don't.

Most districts are stocked with hard-core Republicans and

Democrats who typically will vote for lawmakers only if

they demonstrate consistent party loyalty.

So the easy thing for lawmakers to do is just that. It's

much harder to meet in the middle.

Thus, when Washington's players do end up compro-

mising on the meaty matters, it's usually in a piecemeal

way that kicks the larger problems to future generations.

Those who dare to try to solve the big problems typically

find they lack the juice, lose re-election or get so fed up

with the gridlock that they retire.

All this is precisely what George Washington worried

would happen if the country devolved into factions.

"He thought political parties would tear up the union

and it wouldn't survive," says Willard Sterne Randall, a

biographer and historian who has written several books on

the Founding Fathers.

The first president's fear of factionalism was so great

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House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, repeats his call for PresidentObama to submit a budget proposal to Congress during a news conferenceat the Capitol in Washington, the day after President Barack Obama urgedCongress on to pass targeted short-term spending cuts and higher taxes asa way to put off sweeping, automatic cuts that would slice deeply into mili-tary and domestic programs starting March 1

2 The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 ___________________________________________________________

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R E T U R N O F S E C T A R I A N T H R E A T SI N I R A Q R A I S E S A L A R MBAGHDAD (AP) -- The fliers beganturning up at Sunni households in theIraqi capital's Jihad neighborhood lastweek bearing a chilling message: Getout now or face "great agony" soon.

The leaflets were signed by theMukhtar Army, a new Shiite militantgroup with ties to Iran's RevolutionaryGuard. "The zero hour has come. Soleave along with your families. ... Youare the enemy," the messages warned.

Such overt threats all but disappearedas the darkest days of outright sectari-an fighting waned in 2008 and Iraqstepped back from the brink of civil war.Their re-emergence now - nearly adecade after the U.S.-led invasion - isa worrying sign that rising sectariantensions are again gnawing away atIraqi society.

Iraqis increasingly fear that militants onboth sides of the country's sectariandivide are gearing up for a new round of violencethat could undo the fragile gains Iraq has made inrecent years.

Members of the country's Sunni minority havebeen staging mass rallies for two months, withsome calling for the toppling of a Shiite-led gov-ernment they feel discriminates against them andis too closely allied with neighboring Iran. Sunniextremists have been stepping up large-scaleattacks on predominantly Shiite targets, and con-cerns are growing that the brutal and increasinglysectarian fighting in Syria could spill across theborder.

Many Sunnis who received the Jihad neighbor-hood messages are taking the warnings at facevalue and considering making a move.

"Residents are panicking. All of us are obsessedwith these fliers," said Waleed Nadhim, a Sunni

mobile phone shop owner who lives in the neigh-borhood. The 33-year-old father plans to leave thearea because he doesn't have faith in the police tokeep his family safe. "In a lawless country likeIraq, nobody can ignore threats like this."

Iraqi security forces have beefed up their pres-ence in and around Jihad. The middle-class com-munity, nestled along a road to the airport in south-west Baghdad, was home to Sunni civil servantsand security officials under Saddam Hussein'sregime, though many Shiites now live there too.

The Shiites, who are emboldened by a govern-ment and security forces dominated by their sect,have made their presence felt in Jihad in recentyears. A Sunni mosque bears graffiti hailing arevered Shiite saint. A billboard on a major roadshows firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadrflanked by a fighter gripping a machine gun.

Jihad was one of the earliest flashpoints inBaghdad's descent into sectarian bloodshed. InJuly 2006, the neighborhood witnessed a brazenmassacre that left as many as 41 residents deadand marked an escalation in Iraq's sectarianbloodletting. In that incident, Shiite militiamen setup checkpoints to stop morning commuters, sin-gled out Sunnis based on their names and sys-tematically executed them in front of their Shiiteneighbors.

Residents now fear the events in southwestBaghdad could be the spark for a new round of tit-for-tat killing. Two weeks ago, a Sunni and a Shiitewere each killed in separate attacks in Sadiyah,next to Jihad, said a 30-year-old Sunni govern-ment employee living in the area who gave hername only as Umm Abdullah al-Taie, or mother ofAbdullah.

"Nobody dares to go out after dark," she said."People have started to hear sectarian alarm bellsringing again."

The Mukhtar Army whose named appeared on thethreatening leaflets was formed by Wathiq al-Batat, a onetime senior official in the HezbollahBrigades. He announced the creation of the newmilitant group earlier this month.

Hezbollah in Iraq is believed to be funded andtrained by Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard andwas among the Shiite militias that targeted U.S.military bases months before their December 2011withdrawal.

Al-Batat told Iraq's al-Sharqiya channel that heformed the Mukhtar Army to confront Sunnis whomight attempt to topple the government in the

same way that Syrian rebels are tryingto overthrow Bashar Assad's Iranian-backed regime in neighboring Syria. Hesaid the group is advised by Iran'shard-line Quds Force, which overseesexternal operations of the IranianRevolutionary Guard. He declined tosay whether the group received anyfurther support from Tehran.

Little is known about Mukhtar Army'ssize or capabilities. Abdullah al-Rikabi,a spokesman for the group, boasted ithas 1 million members and describedal-Batat as loyal to Iran's supremeleader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki'sgovernment has issued an arrest war-rant against al-Batat, though he stillwalks free. In a speech Saturday, theShiite premier vowed to prosecute any-one who seeks to incite sectarian strife.

The Mukhtar Army denies being behindthe threats, which some Shiites believe are a ruseto tar their sect and inflame sectarian divisions.

"We have nothing to do with the fliers," said al-Rikabi, the group's spokesman. He accused mem-bers of Saddam's now-outlawed Baath party andal-Qaida of making the threats in an effort to ignitecivil war.

Even though they are busy hunting down thegroup's leader, Iraqi authorities have their doubtsabout the Shiite militia's involvement in the leafletstoo.

Two senior security officials said intelligenceagents have obtained an al-Qaida hit list contain-ing detailed names and residential informationabout people - both Sunnis and Shiites - living inmixed areas. They believe the group plans to tar-get residents one by one, alternating by sect, in aneffort to spread panic and suggest an atmosphereof retaliatory killings.

They spoke on condition of anonymity becausethey were not authorized to disclose informationabout security operations.

Threatening fliers from both Sunni and Shiite mili-tias aimed at members of the opposite sect alsohave begun turning up in Baqouba, a former al-Qaida stronghold north of Baghdad that has a his-tory of sectarian violence, according to Diyalaprovincial council member Sadiq al-Hussein.

For those living in areas where the threats turnedup, their source matters less than what they por-tend.

Jafaar al-Fatlawi, a Shiite government employeewho lives in the Jihad neighborhood, said he hasstarted carrying a pistol with him just to answer thedoor and takes his family to spend the night withrelatives elsewhere in the city.

"Everybody in the neighborhood expects sectarianfighting to erupt any minute," he said. "Our securi-ty forces weren't able to stop the sectarian warbefore and now they'll fail again."

H A C K E R S

man-made snow coats a ski run next to barren ground under a chairlift at Shawnee Peak skiarea in Bridgton, Maine. Scientists point to both scant recent snowfall in parts of the country andthis month's whopper of a Northeast blizzard as potential global warming signs. It may seem likea contradiction, but the explanation lies in atmospheric physics

New York Times last year blamed on another Chinese hackinggroup it labeled APT12. Hacker activity began at around 8:00 a.m.Beijing time and usually lasted through a standard workday.

The Rand Corporation's Libicki said he wasn't aware of anycomprehensive studies, but that in such cases, most activitybetween malware embedded in a compromised system and themalware's controllers takes place during business hours inBeijing's time zone.

Richard Forno, director of the University of MarylandBaltimore County's graduate cybersecurity program, and DavidClemente, a cybersecurity expert with independent analysis cen-ter Chatham House in London, said that observation has beenwidely noted among cybersecurity specialists.

"It would reflect the idea that this is becoming a more routineactivity and that they are quite methodical," Clemente said.

The PLA's Third Department is brimming with resources,according to studies commissioned by the U.S. government, with12 operation bureaus, three research institutes, and an estimated13,000 linguists, technicians and researchers on staff. It's furtherreinforced by technical teams from China's seven military regionsspread across the country, and by the military's vast academicresources, especially the PLA University of InformationEngineering and the Academy of Military Sciences.

The PLA is believed to have made cyber warfare a key pri-ority in its war-fighting capabilities more than a decade ago.Among the few public announcements of its development camein a May 25, 2011 news conference by Defense Ministryspokesman Geng Yansheng, in which he spoke of developingChina's "online" army.

"Currently, China's network protection is comparativelyweak," Geng told reporters, adding that enhancing informationtechnology and "strengthening network security protection areimportant components of military training for an army."

Continued froem page 1

The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 3

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F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C SData From the Official Website of the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. www.flhsmv.gov

4 The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 ___________________________________________________________

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______________________________________The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 5

F L O R I D A A C C I D E N T S T A T I S T I C S

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group.

Looked at individually, stroke was the only problemwhere type of diet made a big difference. Diet hadno effect on death rates overall.

The Spanish government's health research agencyinitiated and paid for the study, and foods weresupplied by olive oil and nut producers in Spainand the California Walnut Commission. Many of theauthors have extensive financial ties to food, wineand other industry groups but said the sponsorshad no role in designing the study or analyzing andreporting its results.

Rachel Johnson, a University of Vermont professorwho heads the American Heart Association's nutri-tion committee, said the study is very strongbecause of the lab tests to verify oil and nut con-sumption and because researchers tracked actualheart attacks, strokes and deaths - not justchanges in risk factors such as high cholesterol.

"At the end of the day, what we care about iswhether or not disease develops," she said. "It's animportant study."

Rena Wing, a weight-loss expert at BrownUniversity, noted that researchers provided the oiland nuts, and said "it's not clear if people could getthe same results from self-designed Mediterraneandiets" - or if Americans would stick to them morethan Europeans used to such foods.

A third independent expert also praised the studyas evidence diet can lower heart risks.

"The risk reduction is close to that achieved withstatins" - widely used cholesterol drugs, said Dr.Robert Eckel, a diet and heart disease expert atthe University of Colorado.

"But this study was not carried out or intended tocompare diet to statins or blood pressure medi-cines," he warned. "I don't think people shouldthink now they can quit taking their medicines."

If You Hve It

Give Some Back

http://www.network.directrelief.org

Healthcare Providers: If you are a healthcare provider locat-ed in the United States, contact us by

calling 1-877-30-DR-USA (1-877-303-7872).

Pour on the olive oil, preferably over fish and veg-etables: One of the longest and most scientifictests of a Mediterranean diet suggests this style ofeating can cut the chance of suffering heart-relatedproblems, especially strokes, in older people athigh risk of them.

The study lasted five years and involved about7,500 people in Spain. Those who ateMediterranean-style with lots of olive oil or nuts hada 30 percent lower risk of major cardiovascularproblems compared to others who were told to fol-low a low-fat diet. Mediterranean meant lots of fruit,fish, chicken, beans, tomato sauce, salads, andwine and little baked goods and pastries.

Mediterranean diets have long been touted asheart-healthy, but that's based on observationalstudies that can't prove the point. The newresearch is much stronger because people wereassigned diets to follow for a long time and careful-ly monitored. Doctors even did lab tests to verifythat the Mediterranean diet folks were consumingmore olive oil or nuts as recommended.

Most of these people were taking medicines forhigh cholesterol and blood pressure, andresearchers did not alter those proven treatments,said the study's leader, Dr. Ramon Estruch ofHospital Clinic in Barcelona.

But as a first step to prevent heart problems, "wethink diet is better than a drug" because it has fewif any side effects, Estruch said. "Diet works."

Results were published online Monday by the NewEngland Journal of Medicine and were to be dis-cussed at a nutrition conference in Loma Linda,Calif.

People in the study were not given rigid menus orcalorie goals because weight loss was not the aim.That could be why they found the "diets" easy tostick with - only about 7 percent dropped out withintwo years. There were twice as many dropouts inthe low-fat group than among those eatingMediterranean-style.

Researchers also provided the nuts and olive oil,so it didn't cost participants anything to use theserelatively pricey ingredients. The type of oil mayhave mattered - they used extra-virgin olive oil,which is richer than regular or light olive oil in thechemicals and nutrients that earlier studies havesuggested are beneficial.

The study involved people ages 55 to 80, just overhalf of them women. All were free of heart diseaseat the start but were at high risk for it because ofhealth problems - half had diabetes and most wereoverweight and had high cholesterol and bloodpressure.

They were assigned to one of three groups: Twofollowed a Mediterranean diet supplemented witheither extra-virgin olive oil (4 tablespoons a day) orwith walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds (a fistful aday). The third group was urged to eat a low-fatdiet heavy on bread, potatoes, pasta, rice, fruits,vegetables and fish and light on baked goods,nuts, oils and red meat.

Independent monitors stopped the study after near-ly five years when they saw fewer problems in thetwo groups on Mediterranean diets.

Doctors tracked a composite of heart attacks,strokes or heart-related deaths. There were 96 ofthese in the Mediterranean-olive oil group, 83 inthe Mediterranean-nut group and 109 in the low-fat

M E D I T E R R A N E A N - S T Y L E D I E T S

F O U N D T O C U T H E A R T R I S K S

a fishmonger prepares fish for a client in a market inBarcelona, Spain. Mediterranean diets have long beentouted as heart-healthy, but that's based on observationalstudies. Now, one of the longest and most scientific testssuggests this style of eating can cut the chance of suffer-ing heart-related problems, especially strokes, in olderpeople at high risk of them.

http://www.childrenincorporated.org/

that he decided on a second term as Alexander Hamilton

and Thomas Jefferson, whose political bases were busi-

nessmen and farmers, respectively, battled over competing

visions for the union.

Yet while they differed, they also compromised when

necessary - as they did during the "Dinner Table Bargain"

that resulted in Washington becoming the nation's capital

instead of New York, Philadelphia or elsewhere.

"They weren't at each other's throats politically. They

could get together on a major issue," Randall says. "They

wanted the union to survive, so they compromised where

they had to for the good of it. That's the kind of tone there

was. They were pragmatic idealists, and in Congress now,

they are ideologues."

So how do we get back to those more reasonable

roots?

The Democratic and Republican parties are strong,

and they probably won't face serious threats from third par-

ties in the near future. They certainly won't eliminate ger-

rymandering unless voters force it.

So maybe it's time for something radical, or at least

radically reasonable. Maybe this is the moment for a few of

the frustrated Americans in the middle - many of whom

reject the extremes, complain about stalemate and fear for

the nation's future - to take a risk.

What if they stepped forward as candidates with a

promise that they'll do only what they think will solve the

country's big problems, regardless of what it could mean

for their political careers? What if they rejected the strict

adherence to orthodoxy that party bosses demand? What if

they promised to only serve one term, choosing explicitly

to put the country's future over their own?

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W O R L D S E RV I C E

F R E Q U E N C I E S

JAMMED IN CHINA

LONDON (AP) -- The BBC says it has receivedreports that its world service English shortwaveradio frequencies are being jammed in China andcondemns what it called efforts to disrupt freeaccess to news and information.

The broadcaster said while it can't attribute thesource of the jamming definitively, "the extensiveand coordinated efforts are indicative of a well-resourced country such as China."

The jamming of broadcasts in China is being timedto cause "maximum disruption," the BBC's directorof global news, Peter Horrocks, said in a statementMonday.

In the past, BBC Persian transmissions in Iranhave been affected by jamming. Jamming frequen-cies was also a tactic used by communist nationsto block BBC broadcasts during the Cold War

6 The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013________________________________________________________

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W H Y C A N ' T WA S H I N G T O N C O M P R O M I S E ?

T H E Y ' R E T O O H U M A NBargainers tend to play "chicken" like two drivers speed-ing toward each other in hopes the other will swervefirst.

"It's often believed that you won't be able to extract thevery best concession from the other side unless you areon the brink of something that's very bad," saidMnookin, chairman of Harvard's Program on Negotiationand author of "Bargaining with the Devil."

Both the Republicans and Democrats have die-hardspushing to keep charging ahead.

"It's a hugely dangerous game to play," Mnookin warns,"because people aren't always rational in their behav-ior."

What happens if Democrats and Republicans collidehead-on this time? Some $85 billion in automatic federalbudget cuts over the next seven months, with more infollowing years.

Obama says that would weaken the military, disrupt pro-grams Americans rely on, eliminate jobs and weakenthe economy. Boehner calls it "an ugly and dangerousway" to reduce spending. These cuts were designed tobe so distasteful that politicians would agree on morerational budget-cutting to stop them.

But there's another way out. Lawmakers and Obamacould agree to block the cuts, before or after they kickin, and once again postpone making big fiscal decisionsthat might cost some of them re-election.

That's a problem with artificial deadlines: They're hardto enforce.

Economist Christopher Kingston, whose researchranges from 19th century dueling to modern game theo-ry, says what lawmakers need is a strong "commitmentdevice." He cites the story of William the Conquerorburning his ships after his invading army landed inEngland, ensuring his soldiers couldn't retreat.

A less reliable commitment device: A shopaholic cuttingup his credit cards. That works unless he gets new onesand start running up debt again.

"It's really hard to create a commitment device artificial-ly, particularly if you don't have an external power that'sgoing to enforce it," said Kingston, an associate profes-sor at Amherst College.

Congress and the president have no judge, no referee,no board of directors. Washington won't hear from thevoters again for two years, and even then the messagemay be unclear.

With human nature against them, how can politiciansescape gridlock?

A few tips from the pros:

-Shock them with kindness. "Try to do something unex-pectedly nice for the other side," advises Ain, and yoursurprised opponent may reciprocate.

-Avoid the "zero-sum" trap. Just because something isgood for one side doesn't mean it's bad for the other."There are all kinds of deals that the president and theCongress could make that would be better for the econ-omy and the nation as a whole and in that sense wouldbenefit them all," Mnookin says.

-Get a mediator. Maybe the special 2011 deficit commit-tee could have reached agreement with the help of atrusted outsider. It's worth a try, Ain says, because "thatworks in major litigation and all sorts of situations."

-Shame the bullies. If politicians denounced their fellowparty members who display contempt for the other side,Coloroso says, it would squelch the mocking tone.

America's citizens also are mostly silent bystandersright now, the author said.

"What are we going to do about it?" she asked. "Do wejust stand by and shrug our shoulders?"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Turns out politicians are people,too, only worse.

Just ask pros who make their living in the trenches ofeveryday human drama such as divorce, family feuds orschoolyard scraps. They recognize in Washington's bit-ter budget standoff a hint of human nature as they knowit, but with the crazy pumped up to absurd levels.

"We're seeing middle school behavior here," saysBarbara Coloroso, who crusades against childhood bul-lying. Psychologist Piers Steel, an expert on procrasti-nation, says Congress has the worst case of it he'sseen. Divorce attorney Sanford Ain's assessment isblunter: "It's nuts!"

A sampling of conflict-savvy professionals and scholarsinterviewed by The Associated Press finds dismay thatthe nation is in political stalemate after two years ofshowdowns and near-misses for the economy. Not thatthese they have any easy solutions, either.

Some dream of locking up President Barack Obamaand House Speaker John Boehner. R-Ohio, togetheruntil the nation's tax and spending issues are settled.

"That's my fantasy: To go into a room and tell them whatto do, right or wrong, and make them do it," said MarvinMcIntyre, a prominent financial adviser in the District ofColumbia who writes political novels on the side.

With lawmakers and the president on the brink of yetanother compromise-or-else deadline Friday, the non-politicians shared their take on the all-too-human behav-ior in Washington.

Historian Altina Waller is reminded of the Hatfields andMcCoys. Of course, she would be: Waller's an authorityon the deadly 19th century feud.

Despite the myth, the Hatfield-McCoy conflict wasn't pri-marily about clan hatred, Waller said, and she doesn'tthink today's acrimony between Republicans andDemocrats is fully explained by partisanship or ideology.

The Appalachian feud grew out of economic anxiety asfarming declined and logging and coal moved in, shesaid. These days, Democrats and Republicans worryabout the economy and the loss of American jobs andinfluence to foreign competition, and blame each other.

"Like the Hatfields and McCoys," Waller said, "they arepersonalizing a problem brought about by larger eco-nomic forces."

Coloroso, author of "The Bully, the Bullied and theBystander," sees too many politicians acting like themean girl who taunts unpopular classmates in the cafe-teria.

"Bullying is about contempt for the other person,"Coloroso said. "Do you see how that fits with some ofthe people in Congress? Utter contempt, bullying, want-ing to bring somebody down. You cannot resolve amajor issue like a budget with name-calling, with disdainfor the person you're supposed to be working with."

Ain says the political fight illustrates something he'slearned in 40 years of striving to keep family law casesamicable: "If you have extreme views and won't com-promise, you can't get anything done. It's going to go towar."

Yet a sudden switch to civility will not guarantee thattough decisions get made.

Human brains are wired to put off the unpleasant, says"The Procrastination Equation" author Steel.

We postpone starting a diet, put off going to the gym,keep meaning to write those thank-you notes. Congressmembers are masters of this.

"They're pretty much the worst, hands down, of anygroup we ever investigated," said Steel, who hasresearched procrastination for more than a decade."They're worse than college students."

What finally gets people moving? A deadline. The papermust be written to pass the class. The house is tidiedbecause company's coming. The expense report is fin-ished because the boss demands it by 5 p.m.

So it makes sense to set deadlines for solving thenation's pressing fiscal problems. Only it isn't working.

Congress and the White House have lurched from thebrink of default or government shutdown or "fiscal cliff"to the next potentially disastrous deadline, this timeautomatic budget cuts known as the "sequester."They've only achieved temporary fixes without resolvingthe big disagreements over the deficit, taxes andMedicare and Social Security spending. Obama calls it"drifting from one manufactured crisis to the next."

Why aren't the deadlines working?

Pushing the limits isn't always procrastination; some-times it's strategy.

Negotiation expert Robert Mnookin points to labor dis-putes resolved just before the strike deadline and law-suits settled on the courthouse steps on the eve of trial.

http://www.charities.org/

President Barack Obama pauses while talking about sequestra-tion in the Eisenhower Executive Office building on the WhiteHouse complex in Washington. Lawmakers and the president onthe brink of yet another compromise-or-else deadline

_____________________________________________________The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 7

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ernment officials were blaming soft drinks for makingpeople fat. Consumption started declining after hitting ahigh in the late 1990s.

At the same time, people started turning to bottled wateras an alternative. Its popularity was helped by the emer-gence of single-serve bottles that were easy to carryaround.

Until then, bottled water had mainly been sold in "bigjugs and coolers" for people who didn't trust their watersupply, said John Sicher, publisher of Beverage Digest.

The new soft drink-like packaging helped fast-track bot-tled water's growth past milk and beer. In fact, theamount of bottled water Americans drink has risen nearlyevery year for more than two decades, while the esti-mates of how much tap water people drink has fluctuatedup and down during that time. When taken together,water finally overtook soda in 2008, according toBeverage Digest. (It's difficult to track how much tapwater people drink and how much is used for otherthings like washing dishes, so experts estimate con-sumption.)

Analysts expect water to hold onto to its top spot foryears to come. But whether people will drink from the tapor a bottle is uncertain.

Based on current trajectories, Michael Bellas, the CEO ofthe industry tracker Beverage Marketing Corp., predictsthat bottled water alone could overtake soda within thenext decade. That's not counting enhanced and flavoredwaters, which are growing quickly but remain a smallpart of the bottled water industry.

Currently, people drink 21 gallons of bottled water a year.That compares with 37 gallons of other water, whichincludes tap, sparkling, flavored and enhanced waterssuch as Coca-Cola's vitaminwater.

Continued from page 1

W A T E R

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RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) -- Futurists have long proclaimed

the coming of a cashless society, where dollar bills and plastic

cards are replaced by fingerprint and retina scanners smart

enough to distinguish a living, breathing account holder from an

identity thief.

What they probably didn't see coming was that one such

technology would make its debut not in Silicon Valley or MIT

but at a small state college in remote western South Dakota, 25

miles from Mount Rushmore.

Two shops on the School of Mines and Technology campus

are performing one of the world's first experiments in

Biocryptology - a mix of biometrics (using physical traits for

identification) and cryptology (the study of encoding private

information). Students at the Rapid City school can buy a bag of

potato chips with a machine that non-intrusively detects their

hemoglobin to make sure the transaction is legitimate.

Researchers figure their technology would provide a criti-

cal safeguard against a morbid scenario sometimes found in spy

movies in which a thief removes someone else's finger to fool

the scanner.

On a recent Friday, mechanical engineering major Bernard

Keeler handed a Red Bull to a cashier in the Miner's Shack cam-

pus shop, typed his birthdate into a pay pad and swiped his fin-

ger. Within seconds, the machine had identified his print and

checked that blood was pulsing beneath it, allowing him to

make the buy. Afterward, Keeler proudly showed off the receipt

he was sent via email on his smartphone.

Fingerprint technology isn't new, nor is the general concept

of using biometrics as a way to pay for goods. But it's the extra

layer of protection - that deeper check to ensure the finger has a

pulse - that researchers say sets this technology apart from

already-existing digital fingerprint scans, which are used most-

ly for criminal background checks.

SD COLLEGE TESTS FINGERPRINT

P U R C H A S I N G T E C H N O L O G Y

A D U L T S G E T 1 1 P E R C E N T O F

C A L O R I E S F R O M F A S T F O O DATLANTA (AP) -- On an average day, U.S. adults getroughly 11 percent of their calories from fast food, a gov-ernment study shows.

That's down slightly from the 13 percent reported the lasttime the government tried to pin down how much of theAmerican diet is coming from fast food. Eating fast foodtoo frequently has been seen as a driver of America'sobesity problem.

For the research, about 11,000 adults were asked exten-sive questions about what they ate and drank over theprevious 24 hours to come up with the results.

Among the findings:

- Young adults eat more fast food than their elders; 15percent of calories for ages 20 to 39 and dropping to 6percent for those 60 and older.

- Blacks get more of their calories from fast-food, 15 per-cent compared to 11 percent for whites and Hispanics.

- Young black adults got a whopping 21 percent from thelikes of Wendy's, Taco Bell and KFC.

The figures are averages. Included in the calculationsare some people who almost never eat fast food, as wellas others who eat a lot of it.

The survey covers the years 2007 through 2010 and wasreleased Thursday by the Centers for Disease Controland Prevention. The authors couldn't explain why theproportion of calories from fast food dropped from the 13percent found in a survey for 2003 through 2006.

Al Maas, president of Nexus USA - a subsidiary of

Spanish-based Hanscan Indentity Management, which patented

the technology - acknowledged South Dakota might seem an

unlikely locale to test it, but to him, it was a perfect fit.

"I said, if it flies here in the conservative Midwest, it's

going to go anywhere," Maas said.

Maas grew up near Madison, S.D., and wanted his home

state to be the technology's guinea pig. He convinced Hanscan

owner Klaas Zwart that the 2,400-student Mines campus should

be used as the starter location.

The students all major in mechanical engineering or hard

sciences, which means they're naturally technologically

inclined, said Joseph Wright, the school's associate vice presi-

dent for research-economic development.

"South Dakota is a place where people take risks. We're

very entrepreneurial," Wright said.

After Maas and Zwart introduced the idea to students this

winter, about 50 stepped forward to take part in the pilot.

"I really wanted to be part of what's new and see if I could

help improve what they already have," said Phillip Clemen, 19,

a mechanical engineering student.

Robert Siciliano, a security expert with McAfee, Inc., min-

imized potential privacy concerns.

"We are hell bent on privacy issues here in the U.S. We get

all up in arms when someone talks about scanning us or record-

ing our information, but then we'll throw up everything about us

on Facebook and give up all of our personal information for 10

percent off at a shoe store for instant credit," he said.

Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst with the American Civil

Liberties Union, said fingerprint technology on its own raises

security issues, but he called "liveness detection" a step in the

right direction.

"Any security measure can be defeated; it's a question of

making it harder," he said.

The key to keeping biometric identification from becoming

Big Brother-like is to make it voluntary and ensure that the

information scanned is used exactly as promised, Stanley said.

Brian Wiles, a Miles mechanical engineering major, said

it's exciting to be beta testing technology that could soon be

worldwide.

"There was some hesitation, but the fact that it's the first in

the world - that's the whole point of this school," said Wiles, 22.

"We're innovators."

8 The Weekly News Digest, March 4, 2013 ___________________________________________________________

would pay for these navigators.

Drafts of the paper application and a 60-page descriptionof the online version were quietly posted online by theHealth and Human Services Department, seeking feed-back from industry and consumer groups. Those materi-als, along with a recent HHS presentation to insurers,run counter to the vision of simplicity promoted by admin-istration officials.

"We are not just signing up for a dating service here,"said Sam Karp, a vice president of the CaliforniaHealthCare Foundation, who nonetheless gives theadministration high marks for distilling it all into a work-able form. Karp was part of an independent group thatseparately designed a model application.

The government estimates its online application will takea half hour to complete, on average. If you need a break,or have to gather supporting documents, you can saveyour work and come back later. The paper application isestimated to take an average of 45 minutes.

The new coverage starts next Jan. 1. Uninsured peoplewill apply through new state-based markets, also calledexchanges.

Middle-class people will be eligible for tax credits to helppay for private insurance plans, while low-income peoplewill be steered to safety-net programs like Medicaid.

Because of opposition to the health care law in somestates, the federal government will run the new insurancemarkets in about half the states. And states that rejectthe law's Medicaid expansion will be left with large num-bers of poor people uninsured.

HHS estimates it will receive more than 4.3 million appli-cations for financial assistance in 2014, with online appli-cations accounting for about 80 percent of them.Because families can apply together, the governmentestimates 16 million people will be served.

Here are some pros and cons on how the system isshaping up:

- Pro: If you apply online, you're supposed to be able toget near-instantaneous verification of your identity,income, and citizenship or immigration status. An onlinegovernment clearinghouse called the Data Services Hubwill ping Social Security for birth records, IRS for incomedata and Homeland Security for immigration status. "Thatis a brand new thing in the world," said Karp.

- Con: If your household income has changed in the pastyear or so and you want help paying your premiums, beprepared to do some extra work. You're applying for helpbased on your expected income in 2014. But the latesttax return the IRS would have is for 2012. If you landeda better-paying job, got laid off, or your spouse wentback to work, you'll have to provide added documenta-tion.

- Pro: Even with all the complexity, the new system couldstill end up being simpler than what some people gothrough now to buy their own insurance. You won't haveto fill out a medical questionnaire, although you do haveto answer whether or not you have a disability. Even ifyou are disabled, you can still get coverage for the samepremium a healthy person of your age would pay.

- Con: If anyone in your household is offered healthinsurance on the job but does not take it, be prepared forsome particularly head-scratching questions. For exam-ple: "What's the name of the lowest cost self-only healthplan the employee listed above could enroll in at thisjob?"

HHS spokeswoman Erin Shields Britt said in a statementthe application is a work in progress, "being refinedthanks to public input."

It will "help people make apples-to-apples comparisonsof costs and coverage between health insurance plansand learn whether they can get a break in costs," sheadded.

But what if you just want to buy health insurance in yourstate's exchange, and you're not interested in getting anyhelp from the government?

You'll still have to fill out an application, but it will beshorter.

One nutrition professor cast doubts on the latest results,saying 11 percent seemed implausibly low. New YorkUniversity's Marion Nestle said it wouldn't be surprising ifsome people under-reported their hamburgers, fries andmilkshakes since eating too much fast food is increasing-ly seen as something of a no-no.

"If I were a fast-food company, I'd say `See, we havenothing to do with obesity! Americans are getting 90 per-cent of their calories somewhere else!'" she said.

The study didn't include the total number of fast-foodcalories, just the percentage. Previous governmentresearch suggests that the average U.S. adult each dayconsumes about 270 calories of fast food - the equiva-lent of a small McDonald's hamburger and a few fries.

The new CDC study found that obese people get about13 percent of daily calories from fast food, comparedwith less than 10 percent for skinny and normal-weightpeople.

There was no difference seen by household income,except for young adults. The poorest - those with anannual household income of less than $30,000 - got 17percent of their calories from fast food, while the figurewas under 14 percent for the most affluent 20- and 30-somethings with a household income of more than$50,000.

That's not surprising since there are disproportionatelyhigher numbers of fast-food restaurants in low-incomeneighborhoods, Nestle said.

Fast food is accessible and "it's cheap," she said.

OBAMA CAREContinued from page 1

http://www.worldwildlife.org