Here comes 'Az' -- one iPad news app closes, another goes live

Screengrab of "AZ" a new iPad magazine launched by Arizona Republic, AZCentral.com and KPNX-TV.

This morning, I had a meeting with a former student who is now the U.S. correspondent for one of the biggest dailies in Europe. He is on a listening tour, helping his newspaper look for innovative ideas that will stave off some of the troubles that American newspapers have had.

Like many places overseas, there's still a strong newspaper culture in his country, but he and his bosses don't want to sit around, waiting for the business to tank. So they are looking for good ideas around the world.

While talking about the demise of "The Daily," Rupert Murdoch's pet
tablet-only project (here's Don Reisinger's CNET take), I told him that it would be easy to draw the wrong lesson.

Just because one, high-profile, expensive attempt at innovation fails doesn't mean that we should all stop trying. There will be others experiments to watch, I told him.

A few hours later, I got an alert about someone else playing in the
iPad space, but this time, it was not launching in New York City.

I received an email from Keira Nothaft, senior director/news publishing and programming, at the Arizona Republic. She works on AZCentral.com, which is a joint effort of the newspaper and the local NBC affiliate, KPNX-TV. In it, she described "AZ," which she called "a significant development in the evolution of newspaper-to-digital publishing" - an evening news magazine for the iPad. It will be published once a week through January and then move to Monday-Friday after that. It's free until February, with Android and
Kindle versions en route.

I've been playing with "AZ" (downloadable here, or search "AZ Today" in the App Store) over the past hour and have been impressed so far. Big, beautiful photographs, strong graphics and punchy stories that make use of iPad's functionality. This isn't just a tablet version of the website, but a magazine-like experience broken up into four chapters to: "Inform you about the world. Engage you with storytelling. Entertain you with the world of sports. Amuse you with the fun features you want every time."

I like to see media companies try new things. Nothaft's e-mail explains why her team is doing this:

Like most legacy media outlets, The Arizona Republic is striving to hold onto print readership while simultaneously building a profitable digital audience. We're in a good position, though, because we're the biggest newspaper in the state, the leading news TV station in the market and one of the largest news websites in the country. But we recognize we need to do more.

Until recently, almost every newspaper in America gave away their content online, but now many are moving to various versions of a paywall (one count as 20 percent using paywalls). The Republic's readers, Nothaft explains, are being asked "to pay to subscribe to content in all its forms, on many different platforms. In return, the newsroom would deliver more -- more great storytelling, more watchdog reporting, more great multimedia. The app is free until February, when it will be included with every full-access subscription, for everyone who owns an iPad."

Other points she makes in her note:

AZ is timed to be released when people are using their tablets the most, in the evening, with time to lean back and sink into an immersive read. We know that about 70 percent of tablet usage is in the home between the hours of 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. While AZ will draw on content produced by the Republic newsroom, as well as original photo, video and text, it will go far beyond a typical duplication of a newspaper website. Editors will create, curate and tailor the content for the tablet, keeping in mind the different demands and pleasures afforded by the digital reading experience.

There's a market for smart, sophisticated, interactive journalism - in metro Phoenix, 14 percent of all adults, more than half a million people, already own and use a tablet. The number's growing every day.

Nothaft shares how this experiment differs from "The Daily," including the geography:

We think it's a significant development for a newspaper to have such an aggressive and unique tablet strategy. We also think the timing is interesting, coming as another tablet experiment, The Daily, folds. We're approaching AZ as a startup, using existing resources and minimal investment. (Though, I challenge anyone to differentiate the sophistication of this multimedia magazine from anything that's produced in Midtown Manhattan.) The financial model differs from The Daily in that subscribers to AZ will gain access to our suite of digital products that includes the magazine, other tablet apps, mobile and desktop. And for print readers, the tablet magazine and all of our digital products is included with their subscription. The strategy is to increase the satisfaction of current subscribers and gain nontraditional newspaper readers. The magazine will include ads beginning with the new year.

If you don't have an iPad, you can get a sense of the publication by see this slideshow.

What do you make of this? Share your thoughts in the comments, please.

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Space Pictures This Week: Lunar Gravity, Venusian Volcano

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  Cassiopeia’s Bubble

  Image courtesy T.A. Rector, UAA/WIYN/NOAO/NSF

  A new camera called the One Degree Imager, located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona, is responsible for this enticingly crisp image of the Bubble Nebula. Released on December 4, this closeup highlights the sphere of gas blown out by the nebula's central star, which is 45 times larger than our own sun.

  Located in the constellation Cassiopeia, the Bubble Nebula is ten light-years across. Intense radiation from the massive star causes the otherworldly glow that lights up what looks like a celestial soap bubble.

  (Related: "Amazing Hubble Images.")

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











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  Midnight Light

  Photograph by Frank Olsen, My Shot

  Delicate green auroras light up the water at Buksnesfjord, Norway, in a picture taken just after midnight on December 4.

  (See pictures of auroras sparked by a massive solar flare.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Great Escape

  Image courtesy SDO/NASA

  Sheets of plasma—or superheated gas—break off from the surface of the sun in this image taken in extreme ultraviolet light. Before floating free, the plasma rose up and danced along pathways determined by magnetic fields. These unseen forces pushed and pulled the gas into contorted shapes.

  (Learn about the sun.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  New Look

  Image courtesy NASA

  What looks like a jawbreaker is actually a gravity map of the moon. Red areas indicate places with higher gravity fields while blue areas indicate lower gravity fields.

  (Learn about lunar exploration.)

  Twin probes circling the moon—part of NASA's GRAIL mission—since 2011 have been recording changes in gravity as they fly over peaks and valleys on the lunar surface. As one probe flies over an area with a greater gravity field, the washing-machine-size instrument speeds up slightly, increasing the distance between it and its sister probe. These minute changes in position have enabled scientists to construct this very detailed view of local changes in the moon's gravity.

  (How well do you know your moon myths? Take our quiz.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Grainy Picture

  Illustration courtesy L. Calçada, ESO/NAOJ/NRAO
  

  In this artist's conception of fine-grained particles around a brown dwarf—or a failed star—bits of debris are on their way to becoming a rocky planet.

  Current thinking on Earthlike, rocky planet formation says that random collisions between tiny debris occur in the disc of material surrounding newborn stars. But the recent discovery of such a disc surrounding a brown dwarf has some astronomers rethinking that hypothesis. If planets can form from the debris around these failed stars, then rocky planets may be much more common than previously thought.

  (Related: "Coldest Star Found-No Hotter Than Fresh Coffee.")

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Night Vision

  Image courtesy Jesse Allen and Robert Simmon, Suomi NPP/NASA

  The Suomi NPP satellite captured this nighttime image of the aurora australis over the Antarctic coast south of South Africa. Despite the winter darkness and a waning crescent moon, the auroras produced enough light for sensors on board the new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite to capture the boundary between the ice shelf and what some scientists call the Southern, or Antarctic, Ocean (dark line across the bright center swirl).

  Launched last year, Suomi NPP enables scientists to capture nighttime images of the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The new sensor is so sensitive, it can capture the lights from one ship at sea.

  (Learn about Antarctica.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











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  Pearl Islands

  Image courtesy Michael Taylor, Landsat/NASA

  In NASA's Landsat 5 satellite image, the Mergui Archipelago shows off the vibrant greens of its rain forests and the brilliant blues of the surrounding tropical ocean. Located along the southern border of Myanmar (Burma), next to Thailand, the area is known for valuable pearl oysters (Pinctada maxima) and a highly diverse concentration of plants and animals.

  (See photos of Myanmar.)

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











• 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Venusian Volcano

  Illustration courtesy AOES Medialab/ESO

  The Venusian atmosphere is made mostly of carbon dioxide, along with periodic spikes in sulfur. Recent research has found that volcanoes on the planet's surface, seen here in an artist's conception, are likely injecting that sulfur into the upper atmosphere. Direct confirmation is difficult, however, since Venus's thick atmosphere precludes a peek at its peaks.

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  











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  Image courtesy SSI/ISA/ESA/NASA

  Published December 6, 2012

  
  

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John McAfee Out of Hospital, Back in Cell

Software millionaire John McAfee has been returned to an immigration detention cell in Guatemala after being rushed to a Guatemala City hospital via ambulance.

McAfee, 67 -- who soon may be deported back to Belize, where authorities want to question him about the shooting death of his neighbor -- was reportedly found prostrate on the floor of his cell and unresponsive.

He was wheeled into the hospital on a gurney. Photographers followed in pursuit right into the emergency room, but as emergency workers eased McAfee's limp body from the gurney and onto a bed and began to remove his suit, he suddenly spoke up, saying, "Please, not in front of the press."

Earlier today, McAfee had complained of chest pains, raising concerns he might be having a heart attack.

However, that did not appear to be the case. Hours after his emergency, hospital officials sent McAfee back to the detention center, telling ABC News they found no reason to keep him overnight.

In a phone interview overnight, McAfee told ABC News, "I simply passed out, everything went black."

He said he hit his head on the floor when he collapsed. McAfee explained that for the past 48 hours he hasn't eaten and had very little to drink.

McAfee had been scheduled to be deported to Belize, ABC News has learned. But a judge could stay the ruling if it is determined that McAfee's life is threatened by being in Belizean custody, as McAfee has claimed in the past several weeks.

McAfee's attorneys hope to continue delaying the deportation by appealing to the Guatemala's high court on humanitarian grounds.

Raphael Martinez, a spokesman for the Belize government, said that if McAfee is deported to Belize, he would immediately be handed over to police and detained for up to 48 hours unless charges are brought against him.

"There is more that we know about the investigation, but that remains part of the police work," he said, hinting at possible charges.

He added that a handover by Guatemala would be "the neighborly thing to do."

A spokesman for the U.S. embassy in Guatemala said that "due to privacy considerations," the embassy would "have no comment on the specifics of this situation," but that, "U.S. citizens are subject to the laws of the countries in which they are traveling or residing, and must work within the host countries' legal framework."

Guatemala's National Police/AP Photo

Software Founder Breaks Silence: McAfee Speaks on Murder Allegations Watch Video

John McAfee Interview: Software Mogul Leaves Belize Watch Video

Just hours before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview Wednesday he would be seeking asylum in Guatemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.

"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."

McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.

"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."

But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.

In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.

McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.

During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.

He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.

Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.

McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.

McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.

"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."

Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.

According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.

"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"

Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.

Read More..

Chemical key to cell division revealed

In each of our cells, most of the genetic material is packaged safely within the nucleus, which is protected by a double membrane. The biochemistry behind how this membrane transforms when cells divide has finally been unravelled, offering insights that could provide new ways of fighting cancer and some rare genetic disorders.

During cell division, the membrane that surrounds the nucleus breaks down and reforms in the two daughter cells. Researchers have been split on the precise mechanisms that govern membrane reformation. One view is that proteins alone control the membrane's transformations. Another possibility is that changes in lipids – a vast group of fat-related compounds – are responsible.

Experiments had failed to show which of these two ideas was right, because it was difficult to alter lipid levels in specific compartments of cells without affecting other cellular processes.

Banafshe Larijani at Cancer Research UK's London Research Institute and her colleagues have now overcome that hurdle. They came up with a technique that transforms a type of lipid called a diacylglycerol (DAG) into another lipid, within the nuclear membrane.

Chemical cascade

The technique involves inserting two fragments of DNA into the nucleus of a cell. This causes the cell to make two proteins: the first attaches itself to the nuclear membrane, the second floats around the cell. Adding a drug – rapalogue – to the mix causes the second protein to stick to the first, which in turn causes a chemical cascade that transforms the DAG into a different kind of lipid.

Crucially, they targeted a form of DAG that does not bind to proteins, so converting it into a different lipid does not affect any processes involving proteins in the cell.

The team tested the effect of this lipid manipulation on cell division in monkey and human cancer cells. The lower the level of DAG present in the nuclear membrane, the greater the membrane malformation and chance of cell death.

This demonstrates that lipids play a role in nuclear membrane reformation that does not depend on proteins.

Larijani says it "opens the door to finding ways to kill cancerous cells" by focusing on lipids that are important to the nuclear membrane's development.

Sausage pieces

As the nucleus divides, sausage-shaped fragments of its membrane float around the cell. The fragments have curved ends, and Larijani says that changes in lipid composition generate these curves, without which the fragments cannot reassemble correctly into new membranes.

More than a dozen rare genetic conditions such as Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, which is characterised by premature ageing in children, have been linked to irregularities in cell division. A better understanding of the way the nuclear membrane forms when cells divide could be key to treating these disorders.

The research also offers a new focus for preventing the irregular cell division that underlies many cancers.

"As a result of this work we now know with confidence that DAG plays a structural role in membrane dynamics," says Vytas Bankaitis, at the Texas A&M Health Science Center in College Station, who was not involved in the study. "If we could find a molecule with suitable characteristics, this manipulation could be done [in humans], which is something that has not really been considered before."

Journal reference: PLoS ONE DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0051150

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Beijing to allow visa-free transit trips

BEIJING: China will allow transit passengers from 45 countries including the US, Canada and all members of the EU to spend up to 72 hours in Beijing without a visa from next month, city authorities said.

The move would "strongly spur the development of the tourism industry, speed up building of an international city (and) expand contacts with the rest of the world," the Beijing Tourism Administration said on its website.

The policy only applies to travellers in transit to a third country, and not for return flights to the capital, whose attractions include the vast Forbidden City.

Eligible nationalities include the United States, Canada, European Union countries, Brazil, Argentina, Australia, South Korea, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

The city will "starting on January 1, 2013, implement a policy allowing foreigners from 45 countries with visas and plane tickets to a third country to transit through Beijing for 72 hours without a visa", the tourism body said.

But travellers would "face punishment" if they left the capital and lawbreakers would be banned for life, Gao Huada, deputy director of the city's exit-entry bureau, was quoted in the China Daily as saying on Thursday.

China's financial hub Shanghai already allows some foreigners in transit to visit the city for 48 hours, its government says on its website, including those from the US, some European countries, Japan, South Korea and Singapore.

Other travellers passing through the country are required to remain in the airport.

Beijing's airport is the second busiest in the world, having handled 47 million passengers in the first seven months of this year, according to the industry body Airports Council International.

Shanghai airport ranks 20th busiest with 26 million travellers during the same period.

- AFP/ck

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Plaintiff in $2.7B judgment against Yahoo willing to take less

After winning a $2.7 billion preliminary judgment against Yahoo, a plaintiff in the Mexico City civil court case said the matter can be settled for less than the court's judgment.

The judgment handed down Friday by the 49th Civil Court of the Federal District of Mexico City involved allegations that Yahoo was in breach of contract related to a yellow-pages listing service. The lawsuit was brought by Worldwide Directories S.A. de C.V. and Ideas Interactivas, S.A. de C.V.

However, a partner in both firms tells Reuters that he and his partners would be willing to entertain a settlement offer of less than the $2.7 billion judgment.

"If we can reach a settlement with an interesting number, we would go for it," Carlos Bazan-Canabal told Reuters, adding that there were less than people involved in the case against Yahoo.

The dispute involves a business venture formed by the companies between 2002 and 2004 for an online business search. The deal was supposed to last until 2009, but Yahoo canceled the deal, causing Ideas Interactivas to go bankrupt, Bazan-Canabal said.

CNET has contacted Yahoo for comment and will update this report when we learn more. Yahoo had previously said the claims were without merit and that it planned to vigorously pursue all appeals.

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A 2020 Rover Return to Mars?

NASA is so delighted with Curiosity's Mars mission that the agency wants to do it all again in 2020, with the possibility of identifying and storing some rocks for a future sample return to Earth.

The formal announcement, made at the American Geophysical Union's annual fall meeting, represents a triumph for the NASA Mars program, which had fallen on hard times due to steep budget cuts. But NASA associate administrator for science John Grunsfeld said that the agency has the funds to build and operate a second Curiosity-style rover, largely because it has a lot of spare parts and an engineering and science team that knows how to develop a follow-on expedition.

"The new science rover builds off the tremendous success from Curiosity and will have new instruments," Grunsfeld said. Curiosity II is projected to cost $1.5 billion—compared with the $2.5 billion price tag for the rover now on Mars—and will require congressional approval.

While the 2020 rover will have the same one-ton chassis as Curiosity—and could use the same sky crane technology involved in the "seven minutes of terror"—it will have different instruments and, many hope, the capacity to cache a Mars rock for later pickup and delivery to researchers on Earth. Curiosity and the other Mars rovers, satellites, and probes have garnered substantial knowledge about the Red Planet in recent decades, but planetary scientists say no Mars-based investigations can be nearly as instructive as studying a sample in person here on Earth.

(Video: Mars Rover's "Seven Minutes of Terror.")

Return to Sender

That's why "sample return" has topped several comprehensive reviews of what NASA should focus on for the next decade regarding Mars.

"There is absolutely no doubt that this rover has the capability to collect and cache a suite of magnificent samples," said astronomer Steven Squyres, with Cornell University in New York, who led a "decadal survey" of what scientists want to see happen in the field of planetary science in the years ahead. "We have a proven system now for landing a substantial payload on Mars, and that's what we need to enable sample return."

The decision about whether the second rover will be able to collect and "cache" a sample will be up to a "science definition team" that will meet in the years ahead to weigh the pros and cons of focusing the rover's activity on that task.  

As currently imagined, bringing a rock sample back to Earth would require three missions: one to select, pick up, and store the sample; a second to pick it up and fly it into a Mars orbit; and a third to take it from Mars back to Earth.

"A sample return would rely on all the Mars missions before it," said Scott Hubbard, formerly NASA's "Mars Czar," who is now at Stanford University. "Finding the right rocks from the right areas, and then being able to get there, involves science and technology we've learned over the decades."

Renewed Interest

Clearly, Curiosity's success has changed the thinking about Mars exploration, said Hubbard. He was a vocal critic of the Obama Administration's decision earlier this year to cut back on the Mars program as part of agency belt-tightening but now is "delighted" by this renewed initiative.

(Explore an interactive time line of Mars exploration in National Geographic magazine.)

More than 50 million people watched NASA coverage of Curiosity's landing and cheered the rover's success, Hubbard said. If things had turned out differently with Curiosity, "we'd be having a very different conversation about the Mars program now."

(See "Curiosity Landing on Mars Greeted With Whoops and Tears of Jubilation.")

If Congress gives the green light, the 2020 rover would be the only $1 billion-plus "flagship" mission—NASA's largest and most expensive class of projects—in the agency's planetary division in the next decade. There are many other less ambitious projects to other planets, asteroids, moons, and comets in the works, but none are flagships. That has left some planetary scientists not involved with Mars unhappy with NASA's heavy Martian focus.

Future Plans

While the announcement of the 2020 rover mission set the Mars community abuzz, NASA also outlined a series of smaller missions that will precede it. The MAVEN spacecraft, set to launch next year, will study the Martian atmosphere in unprecedented detail; a lander planned for 2018 will study the Red Planet's crust and interior; and NASA will renew its promise to participate in a European life-detection mission in 2018. NASA had signed an agreement in 2009 to partner with the European Space Agency on that mission but had to back out earlier this year because of budget constraints.

NASA said that a request for proposals would go out soon, soliciting ideas about science instruments that might be on the rover. And as for a sample return system, at this stage all that's required is the ability to identify good samples, collect them, and then store them inside the rover.

"They can wait there on Mars for some time as we figure out how to pick them up," Squyres said. "After all, they're rocks."

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McAfee Arrested for Entering Guatemala Illegally

Eccentric software tycoon John McAfee, wanted in Belize for questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor, has been arrested in Guatemala for entering the country illegally, his Guatemala attorney told ABC News.

Before McAfee's arrest, he told ABC News in an exclusive interview he would be seeking asylum in Guatemala. McAfee was arrested by the Central American country's immigration police and not the national police, said his attorney, who was confident his client would be released within hours.

"Thank God I am in a place where there is some sanity," said McAfee, 67, before his arrest. "I chose Guatemala carefully."

McAfee said that in Guatemala, the locals aren't surprised when he says the Belizean government is out to kill him.

"Instead of going, 'You're crazy,' they go, 'Yeah, of course they are,'" he said. "It's like, finally, I understand people who understand the system here."

But McAfee added he has not ruled out moving back to the United States, where he made his fortune as the inventor of anti-virus software, and that despite losing much of his fortune he still has more money than he could ever spend.

In his interview with ABC News, a jittery, animated but candid McAfee called the media's representation of him a "nightmare that is about to explode," and said he's prepared to prove his sanity.

McAfee has been on the run from police in Belize since the Nov. 10 murder of his neighbor, fellow American expatriate Greg Faull.

During his three-week journey, said McAfee, he disguised himself as handicapped, dyed his hair seven times and hid in many different places during his three-week journey.

He dismissed accounts of erratic behavior and reports that he had been using the synthetic drug bath salts. He said he had never used the drug, and said statements that he had were part of an elaborate prank.

Johan Ordonez/AFP/Getty Images

John McAfee Interview: Software Mogul Leaves Belize Watch Video

John McAfee Interview: Software Millionaire on the Run Watch Video

John McAfee: Software Millionaire Not Officially a Suspect Watch Video

Investigators said that McAfee was not a suspect in the death of the former developer, who was found shot in the head in his house on the resort island of San Pedro, but that they wanted to question him.

McAfee told ABC News that the poisoning death of his dogs and the murder just hours later of Faull, who had complained about his dogs, was a coincidence.

McAfee has been hiding from police ever since Faull's death -- but Telesforo Guerra, McAfee's lawyer in Guatemala, said the tactic was born out of necessity, not guilt.

"You don't have to believe what the police say," Guerra told ABC News. "Even though they say he is not a suspect they were trying to capture him."

Guerra, who is a former attorney general of Guatemala, said it would take two to three weeks to secure asylum for his client.

According to McAfee, Guerra is also the uncle of McAfee's 20-year-old girlfriend, Samantha. McAfee said the government raided his beachfront home and threatened Samantha's family.

"Fifteen armed soldiers come in and personally kidnap my housekeeper, threaten Sam's father with torture and haul away half a million dollars of my s***," claimed McAfee. "If they're not after me, then why all these raids? There've been eight raids!"

Before his arrest, McAfee said he would hold a press conference on Thursday in Guatemala City to announce his asylum bid. He has offered to answer questions from Belizean law enforcement over the phone, and denied any involvement in Faull's death.

False Report of McAfee Arrest on Mexico Border

Over the weekend, a post on McAfee's blog claimed that he had been detained on the Belizean/Mexico border.

On Monday, a follow-up post said that the "John McAfee" taken into custody was actually a "double" who was carrying a North Korean passport with McAfee's name.

That post claimed that McAfee had already escaped Belize and was on the run with Samantha and two reporters from Vice Magazine.

McAfee did not reveal his location in that post, and a spokesman for Belize's National Security Ministry, Raphael Martinez, told ABC News on Monday that no one by McAfee's name was ever detained at the border and that Belizean security officials believed McAfee was still in their country.

However, a photo posted by Vice magazine on Monday with their article, "We Are With John McAfee Right Now, Suckers," apparently had been taken on an iPhone 4S and had location information embedded in it that revealed the exact coordinates where the photo was taken -- in the Rio Dulce National Park in Guatemala -- as reported by Wired.com.

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When is a baby too premature to save?

It was never easy, but trying to decide whether to save extremely premature babies just got harder.

A study called EPICure compared the fates of babies born 22 to 26 weeks into pregnancy in the UK in 1995 with similar babies born in 2006. In this 11-year period, the babies surviving their first week rose from 40 to 53 per cent. But an accompanying study comparing the fate of survivors at age 3 found that the proportion developing severe disabilities was unchanged, at just under 1 in 5.

"We've increased survival, but it's confined to the first week of life," says Kate Costeloe of Queen Mary, University of London, author of the first study. "Yet the pattern of death and health problems is strikingly similar between the two periods."

The absolute numbers of premature babies born over the 11 year period increased by 44 per cent, from 666 in 1995 to 959 in 2006. This meant that the absolute numbers of children with severe disabilities such as blindness, deafness or lameness also rose, increasing the burden on health, educational and social services.

Lifelong disability

"As the number of children that survive preterm birth continues to rise, so will the number who experience disability throughout their lives," says Neil Marlow of University College London, who led the second study.

By far the worst outcomes were for the youngest babies, with 45 per cent of those born at 22 or 23 weeks in 2006 developing disabilities compared with 20 per cent of those born at 26 weeks. In 1995 only two babies survived after being born at 22 weeks. In 2006, three did.

In 2006, a panel of UK ethicists concluded that babies born at 22 weeks should be allowed to die, as with babies born at or before 23 weeks in France and Holland.

Journal references: BMJ, Costeloe et al, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e7976; Marlow et al, DOI: 10.1136/bmj.e7961

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PSYprise for 'Gangnam Style' fans

SINGAPORE: Tired of 'Gangnam Style'? Certainly not the more than 4000 people who turned up to catch PSY at the free Marina Bay Sands "Give back to Singapore" concert over the weekend.

As for those who can't get enough of the South Korean sensation and weren't fast enough to be among the lucky few to dance with the 'Gangnam Style' star, the good news is that it will take more than just fast fingers and a good internet connection to see PSY live in Singapore again.

Capping his one-night, under one-hour show in Singapore, the sensation from South Korea who repeatedly said he loved the Lion City, announced to whoops and cheers that he'd be back once his new single and album is released in March next year.

By then, more fans will hopefully get to see and hear more of PSY than what was offered at Saturday's open-air event at Marina Bay Sand's Event Plaza.

The gates for the free concert opened two hours ahead of the 8pm show that saw the main star showing up almost half an hour later.

The restless crowd was kept entertained and psyched to PSY's YouTube hit by 26 dancers from O School, a Singapore social enterprise that helps fund the education of teens from low income homes through its dance school.

On stage, the team of young dancers, including 10-year-old Calvin Go, added their own flavour to the now famous 'Gangnam Style' dance routine that was learnt in an hour on the concert day itself, according to Kenny Low, Managing Director of O School.

But there's nothing like the real thing.

When Psy finally took centre-stage, the crowd went wild with shouts of "oppa!", a Korean term of endearment used by females to refer to an older male friend or older brother, and also a key word in the Korean hit song.

And that was as close to 'Gangnam Style' anyone got at the start of the concert as the atypical K pop sensation launched into "Champion".

The single from his third album '3 Psy' released in 2002, seemed a fitting start to the concert organised by MBS that also showcased its adopted charity, O School, that helps keep teens from dropping out of school.

PSY, a college dropout who is now a champion in his own right, later told the crowd laughingly, "I was a really bad student... I got suspended so many times" as he "officially introduced" himself.

"Academically, I was (a) bad student, but creatively, I was (a) good student" was the piece of inPSYration delivered by the 34-year-old who swept four awards at the recent 2012 MNet Asian Music Awards (MAMA) with 'Gangnam Style' after years of being sidelined.

Despite a whirlwind tour of the region before landing in Singapore just hours before his concert, the hyperactive PSY continued to surprise during his appearance.

Even with concert-goers and non-ticket on-lookers standing around the Event Plaza loudly cheering, it wasn't enough for PSY, who suddenly stopped his second song to urge the crowd on.

"Show me energy and I'll show you energy! I want every single person to jump!" he yelled midway into "Right Now", the single from his fifth album "PSYFIVE" released in 2010.

But it seemed that the crowd was saving its energy for one song and of course, the man himself knew what it was.

"This song is called… No, no no, just give me the beat," Psy declared unable to hide the grin on his face as he dived into his third and final song for the night.

That's when the crowd really began to scream, almost drowning out the now-familiar electro-bass beats pounding out of the speakers around the Event Plaza.

Not a word was missed or a move forgotten as the crowd went PSYchotic, shouting the Korean lyrics of 'Gangnam Style' while trying to horse-dance in what limited space they could afford in the sea of sardine-packed bodies.

Adults, teens and even grey-haired elders were seen moving to the infectious tune.

In a flash, the one-hour concert was over.

PSY had been on stage less than three quarters of that time, but fans didn't seem to mind.

"It was a good experience although it was very short" said Yu Ping, a 15-year-old student who got her ticket from a family friend.

"Maybe he's just very busy" said the understanding fan.

Marina Bay Sands which had said that the free concert would happen come rain or shine, was likely glad that Singapore's rainy spell held off for the night and the stars remained in alignment for PSY's one-night appearance.

"We had a slot on our calendar, he had a slot on his calendar" said Mr. George Tanasijevich, President and Chief Executive Officer of MBS of just how the most well-known and in-demand person in the world was clinched for the public event.

"I think it came together pretty quickly", Tanasijevich shared with channelnewsasia.com on the sidelines of the concert.

"Maybe it's a little less strategic than you think it is... It's more opportunistic," he added with a laugh.

It was however, definitely good strategy that allowed MBS' designated charity, O School, to raise its public profile through the event.

"The talents of O School are incredible dancers who demonstrated professionalism and excellent showmanship during the showcase" said Tanasijevich.

And what better reward for the young dancers than being the opening act for PSY? Well, probably the man himself ... with the dancers treated to an exclusive backstage Meet and Greet Session after the concert while the crowds lingered, hoping to spy PSY.

-CNA/fl

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