No. 3 Okla St makes BCS case in 44-10 win over OU (AP)

STILLWATER, Okla. ? A dominating performance made Oklahoma State a conference champion for the first time in decades. Now, the Cowboys want a shot at an even bigger title.

Joseph Randle ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns, Richetti Jones returned a fumble for a score and No. 3 Oklahoma State throttled No. 13 Oklahoma 44-10 Saturday night to win the Big 12 championship and make its case to play for the BCS national title.

The Cowboys (11-1, 8-1 Big 12) snapped an eight-game losing streak in the Bedlam rivalry and won their first outright conference title since 1948 in the three-team Missouri Valley.

Oklahoma State's defense, badmouthed much of the season while giving up big yardage but leading the nation in takeaways, forced the Sooners into five turnovers ? four of them by quarterback Landry Jones.

Fans started chanting "L-S-U!" midway through the fourth quarter with the victory well in hand, then stormed the field and tore down the goal posts when it was over.

While the top-ranked Tigers won the SEC championship Saturday to lock up a spot in the BCS title game, No. 2 Alabama sat at home idle after finishing second in its division. Oklahoma State, meanwhile, proved itself the best team in its state and its conference. But it's up to the voters, who had the Cowboys fifth in the coaches' poll and Harris poll, to decide whether Oklahoma State will play for the highest stakes.

Coach Mike Gundy proclaimed earlier this week that he considered the Crimson Tide to be the second-best team in the nation "right now" ? maybe because that's what he thought his team needed to hear that to get fired up and prove him wrong.

"Last week, I said Alabama should be there," Gundy said on the field after the game. "There's no question Oklahoma State should be No. 2 right now. No question."

For most of the 107 years of the Bedlam rivalry, the Sooners had the better team and more on the line.

But each of the past two years, Oklahoma came in with a lower ranking and still found a way to derail a couple of the best teams in Oklahoma State history ? first dashing any hopes of a BCS at-large berth two years ago and then taking away the Cowboys' shot at the Big 12 championship last season.

With all that history on their side, the Sooners came out looking to intimidate.

After coming onto the field, players ran into the west end zone for a pregame prayer and then lingered after it was over ? right outside the gate where the Cowboys were getting ready to run out. Coaches, game officials and security officers made them get out of the way.

The Sooners couldn't back up the pregame bluster, though.

Brandon Weeden's 53-yard pass to Tracy Moore set up Jeremy Smith's 9-yard touchdown run, and the Cowboys defense ? which entered the game ranked 107th out of 120 teams in the nation ? never needed any more than that.

Brodrick Brown outfought Jaz Reynolds to pick off Landry Jones' pass in the end zone and prevent an Oklahoma score, and Alex Elkins stripped the ball from the quarterback on a sack to set up a TD for the Cowboys.

Jamie Blatnick picked up the fumble and returned it 59 yards to the 1-yard line, and Randle scored on the next play to make it 17-0. Randle added a 2-yard run after Sam Proctor's holding penalty on a kickoff return backed the Sooners up, and they went three-and-out ? punting it back to Oklahoma State on a shortened field.

Richetti Jones made it 34-3 after Landry Jones reached back to pass the ball and fumbled it onto the turf, with the OSU defender bobbling it and then finally controlling it for a 5-yard return.

The Sooners got their only points on Michael Hunnicutt's 48-yard field goal at the end of the first half and Blake Bell's 28-yard TD scamper with 2:25 left in the game.

Gundy thinks there's more to the Cowboys than the nation's second-highest scoring offense, and he wants a chance to prove it against LSU and its second-ranked defense.

"We'd love to have that challenge. I think our defense is better than what other people say," Gundy said.

It ended up as Oklahoma's most lopsided defeat since losing the 2005 Orange Bowl against Southern California, and the second-biggest margin of victory for the Pokes in the series ? behind only a 47-0 shutout in 1945.

Oklahoma State's case to play against LSU in New Orleans next month will be hurt by a double-overtime loss 15 days earlier at Iowa State, which finished its season 6-6. It'll bolstered by five wins against teams in the BCS Top 25, compared to two for Alabama.

And, of course, the Cowboys will have the momentum from not only winning a conference title but doing it in dominating fashion against a team that was ranked No. 1 earlier this season.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111204/ap_on_sp_co_ga_su/fbc_t25_oklahoma_oklahoma_st

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RNC head: Obama has become the "great divider" (cbsnews)

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Coke says child's death in China not linked to product (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? Coca-Cola Co defended on Friday the safety of its yogurt drinks sold in northern China, denying there was any link to the death of a child or the illness of three other people who had consumed the drinks, but said it removed the product from shelves in a precautionary move.

Chinese media reports said an 11-year-old boy died in Changchun city in Jilin after he drank a strawberry-flavored Pulpy Milky yogurt drink on November 28, and his mother was in intensive care after consuming the same drink.

Another mother and her daughter became ill after drinking another bottle of the same drink in Jilin a few days earlier, but recovered after treatment, Coke spokeswoman Joanna Price said.

"Our thoughts are with the affected families and we have reached out to them to express our concern and compassion," she said. "This case does not involve a product quality issue, and government authorities are carrying out detailed investigations at this time."

After discussions with local authorities, the company and officials mutually agreed the product should be removed from shelves from stores in Jilin province and Coke is cooperating with the local investigation, she said.

Local authorities said the beverages were tainted by pesticide, according to local media. There was no further information about how or when the pesticide could have been introduced into the drink.

"Our first priority is always to ensure food safety and the quality of our products," Price said.

"After learning about this incident, we immediately carried out comprehensive internal reviews of our production, logistics and other processes, and conducted 3rd party tests of the retention samples of the same production batches and found everything to be safe," she said.

NUMEROUS CRACKDOWNS

Food scandals are common in China, where numerous crackdowns on the country's food sector have had little effect as it continues to be beset by poisonings and toxin scandals that have shaken consumer confidence.

Foreign companies are watched closely as they are generally perceived to hold to stricter standards. When western companies are accused of transgressions, it becomes big news in China.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's biggest retailer, was hit by tough sanctions in the central city of Chongqing in October when authorities closed 13 stores for two weeks and fined the company 2.7 million yuan ($423,000) for selling ordinary pork as more expensive organic meat.

Wal-Mart apologized and stepped up training for employees and dialogue with customers.

Chinese government-run media also criticized U.S. healthcare products maker Johnson & Johnson last month for continuing to sell in some markets baby shampoo containing a preservative that is a possible carcinogen and allergy trigger.

Johnson & Johnson responded that its products meet or exceed safety regulations in every market in which they are sold, but that the company is phasing out use of the ingredients in baby products worldwide.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones and Beijing newsroom; Editing by Don Durfee and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111202/wl_nm/us_china_coca_cola

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Archaeologists find new evidence of animals being introduced to prehistoric Caribbean

ScienceDaily (Dec. 1, 2011) ? An archaeological research team from North Carolina State University, the University of Washington and University of Florida has found one of the most diverse collections of prehistoric non-native animal remains in the Caribbean, on the tiny island of Carriacou. The find contributes to our understanding of culture in the region before the arrival of Columbus, and suggests Carriacou may have been more important than previously thought.

The researchers found evidence of five species that were introduced to Carriacou from South America between 1,000 and 1,400 years ago. Only one of these species, the opossum, can still be found on the island. The other species were pig-like peccaries, armadillos, guinea pigs and small rodents called agoutis.

Researchers think the animals were used as sources of food. The scarcity of the remains, and the few sites where they were found, indicate that the animals were not for daily consumption. "We suspect that they may have been foods eaten by people of high status, or used in ritual events," says Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick, an associate professor of anthropology at NC State and co-author of a paper describing the research.

"Looking for patterning in the distribution of animal remains in relation to where ritual artifacts and houses are found will help to test this idea," said Christina Giovas, lead author and a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington.

The team, which also included Ph.D. student Michelle LeFebvre of the University of Florida, found the animal remains at two different sites on the island, and used carbon dating techniques to determine their age. The opossum and agouti were the most common, with the latter remains reflecting the longest presence, running from A.D. 600 to 1400. The guinea pig remains had the shortest possible time-frame, running from A.D. 985 to 1030.

These dates are consistent with similar findings on other Caribbean islands. However, while these species have been found on other islands, it is incredibly rare for one island to have remains from all of these species. Guinea pigs, for example, were previously unknown in this part of the Caribbean. The diversity is particularly surprising, given that Carriacou is one of the smallest settled islands in the Caribbean, though the number of remains is still not that large -- a pattern seen on other islands as well.

This combination of small geographical area and robust prehistoric animal diversity, along with evidence for artifact trade with other islands and South America, suggests that Carriacou may have had some significance in the pre-Columbian Caribbean as a nexus of interaction between island communities.

The animal remains are also significant because they were found in archaeological digs at well-documented prehistoric villages -- and the remains themselves were dated, as opposed to just the materials (such as charcoal) found near the remains.

"The fact that the dates established by radiocarbon dating are consistent with the dates of associated materials from the villages means the chronology is well established," says Fitzpatrick, who has been doing research on Carriacou since 2003. "In the future we'd like to expand one of the lesser excavated sites to get more information on how common these species may have been, which could shed light on the ecological impact and social importance of these species prehistorically."

The paper, "New records for prehistoric introduction of Neotropical mammals to the West Indies: evidence from Carriacou, Lesser Antilles," is published online in the Journal of Biogeography and was co-authored by Fitzpatrick, Giovas and LeFebvre. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, NC State, the University of Washington and the University of Florida.

NC State's Department of Sociology and Anthropology is part of the university's College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by North Carolina State University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Christina M. Giovas, Michelle J. LeFebvre, Scott M. Fitzpatrick. New records for prehistoric introduction of Neotropical mammals to the West Indies: evidence from Carriacou, Lesser Antilles. Journal of Biogeography, 2011; DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2699.2011.02630.x

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111201105407.htm

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Obama to announce new steps to combat AIDS (AP)

WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is renewing the U.S. commitment to ending AIDS Thursday, setting new goals for getting more people access to life-saving drugs and boosting spending on treatment in the U.S. by $50 million dollars.

Obama planned to announce the new initiatives at an event in Washington marking World AIDS Day. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton also were speaking at the event via satellite.

Senior Obama administration officials said the president will set a goal of getting antiretroviral drugs to 2 million more people around the world by the end of 2013. In addition, the U.S. will aim to get the drugs to 1.5 million HIV-positive pregnant women to prevent them from passing the virus to their children.

The new global goals build on the work of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which focuses on prevention, treatment and support programs in 15 countries hard-hit by the AIDS pandemic, 12 of them in Africa. Bush launched the $15 billion plan in 2003, and in 2008, Congress tripled the budget to $48 billion over five years.

Despite Obama's more ambitious goals, the relief program's budget is not expected to increase. Instead officials said the expanded targets would be funded through savings achieved by making the program more efficient and cutting the costs of treatment.

Obama is also announcing new initiatives to combat HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in the U.S. Officials said he would direct the Department of Health and Human Services to increase funding for domestic treatment by $50 million. The White House said there are 1.2 million Americans living with HIV, and 50,000 new infections each year.

The bulk of the new funding ? $35 million ? will go to state programs that help people living with HIV and AIDS get access to medicine. There are currently more than 6,500 Americans living with the virus on waiting lists for medication, according to the White House.

The rest of the domestic funds will go to HIV medical clinics across the country, with an emphasis on areas where HIV infections have increased and care and treatment are not readily available. Officials said the additional clinic funding would give 7,500 more patients access to treatment.

The $50 million is already part of the HHS budget, and officials said Obama does not need congressional approval to reallocate the funds. The officials requested anonymity in order to speak ahead of the president's official announcement.

The HIV virus has infected an estimated 60 million people worldwide since the deadly pandemic began 30 years ago. More than 33 million people are currently living with the virus.

While the failure to find an effective HIV vaccine continues to frustrate the medical community, experts say new scientific research in recent years has led to substantial progress in preventing and treating the virus.

Obama ordered his staff to reevaluate both their international and domestic approaches to HIV and AIDS this summer after being briefed on the scientific advancements.

Officials from both parties praised the new initiatives, and commended Democratic and Republican leaders for coming together for the announcement.

"Here's what we can do when we work together. We've got leaders of both political parties standing behind something that works," said Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy at the National Security Council.

Tony Fratto, a former Bush spokesman, urged both parties to avoid making the fight against AIDS a political issue.

"The only way to undermine this historic undertaking is if it becomes a partisan issue," he said. "The reasons a Barack Obama and a George W. Bush can support America's leading role in addressing this disease may be very different, but what's important is they've sought the same goal."

Other goals Obama will announce Thursday include:

? Funding 4.7 million voluntary medical male circumcisions in eastern and southern Africa over the next two years. Research shows circumcisions reduce the risk of female-to-male HIV transmission by more than 60 percent.

? Distributing more than 1 billion condoms in the developing world in the next two years.

? Urging other world leaders to join U.S. in boosting efforts to eradicate HIV/AIDS.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111201/ap_on_he_me/us_obama_aids

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AP Sources: House GOP drafting bill to extend unemployment benefits as well as payroll tax (Star Tribune)

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Brad Pitt a better actor than Ryan Gosling?

By Joal Ryan, E! Online

Columbia Pictures

Brad Pitt, left, and Jonah Hill star in "Moneyball."

George Clooney's considered a top Oscar favorite. Ryan Gosling's considered no slouch himself.

But it was Brad Pitt who claimed the first major best actor win of awards season courtesy the New York Film Critics Circle, which honored the star for the outside-the-lines baseball movie, "Moneyball," and the arty epic, "The Tree of Life."

The best actress pick, meanwhile, didn't shock. At all.

RELATED: Who already have their 2012 Oscars?

Meryl Streep won the critics' approval for "The Iron Lady," a biopic about former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

But while it seems Streep always wins, because she does, she hasn't won an Oscar since the 1982 ceremony. Tuesday's win could be the sign her relative bad run is about to end. Right now, oddsmakers give her the best overall shot at best actress.

Pitt isn't considered as heavy an Oscar favorite as Clooney and perhaps Gosling, but he's in the game, and Tuesday's win is his first significant one as a leading man.

Elsewhere, Albert Brooks made good on his budding Oscar buzz?with a best supporting actor win for "Drive," where the acclaimed comic does very unfunny things.

Jessica Chastain, the newcomer who's everywhere on the strength of six 2011 releases, was named best supporting actress for work in three of those films, including "The Tree of Life," in which she plays Pitt's wife.

"The Tree of Life" was the most-honored film, being named in three categories, but it lost best picture and best director to French filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius' throwback silent, "The Artist."

PHOTOS: Top 10 Most Schoking Oscar Moments Ever!

The New York Film Critics Circle Awards are critics' awards, so make of the results what you will. That said, the East Coast writers are often in sync with Hollywood.

The group's awards are the first major critics pronouncements of the fall. The winners of the Gotham Independent Film Awards were named last night, but, outside of The Tree of Life, which was named best film, along with the geriatric coming-out dramedy, "Beginners," none of its other favorites look to figure prominently at the Oscars.

Here's the complete list of winners from the 2011 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Film: The Artist. Actor: Brad Pitt, "Moneyball" and "The Tree of Life." Actress: Meryl Streep, "The Iron Lady." Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks, "Drive." Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, "The Tree of Life," "The Help" and "Take Shelter." Director: Michel Hazanavicius, "The Artist." Screenplay: "Moneyball." Cinematography: "The Tree of Life." Documentary: "Cave of Forgotten Dreams." Foreign-Language Film: "A Separation." First Feature: "Margin Call." Special Award: Raoul Ruiz.

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Source: http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/29/9095580-brad-pitt-a-better-actor-than-ryan-gosling

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