Crews seek upper hand on raging Colorado wildfires

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Syria fighter pilot defects in new blow to Assad

A Syrian pilot was granted political asylum after landing his MiG fighter jet in neighbouring Jordan on Thursday, in the first such defection of a revolt a watchdog says has killed more than 15,000 people.

The blow to President Bashar al-Assad's regime from inside one of the most privileged arms of the security forces came as human rights monitors reported 119 people dead in one of the bloodiest days of the 15-month uprising.

"The council of ministers has decided to grant the pilot, Colonel Hassan Merei al-Hamade, political asylum," Jordanian Information Minister Samih Maaytah told AFP after a government official said the Russian MiG-21 had made an emergency landing at a base in Mafraq near the border.

Syrian state television said the plane was near the border when contact was lost at 0734 GMT, and Jordan said it crossed the frontier minutes later.

The opposition Syrian National Council said: "The plane took off at high speed and flew at low altitude from a military base between Daraa and Sweida in the south of the country... to avoid detection by radar."

"The pilot is from Deir Ezzor (in eastern Syria) and his family is known for its opposition" to Assad's regime, spokesman George Sabra added.

The Syrian defence ministry denounced Hamade.

"The pilot is considered a deserter and a traitor to his country, and to his military honour, and he will be sanctioned under military rules," said a ministry statement carried by state television.

"Relevant contacts have been made with the authorities in Jordan in order to recover the jet on which the traitor pilot made his getaway."

Washington welcomed the defection.

"This is how these things start," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"It is obviously a significant moment when a guy takes a $25 million plane and flies it to another country."

Nuland spoke after National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor called the defection "just one of countless instances where Syrians, including members of the security forces, have rejected the horrific actions of the Assad regime, and certainly it will not be the last."

Tens of thousands of soldiers have defected since the revolt against Assad's rule erupted in March last year, with thousands joining the rebel Free Syrian Army, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The air force had previously been seen as a loyal arm of the regime, however. Assad's father Hafez headed the service before seizing power in 1970, and air force intelligence remains one of the most feared branches of the security services.

Diplomats, meanwhile, stepped up efforts to stem the bloodshed, with Arab states demanding that Russia stop arming Syria and the United States and Britain reportedly working on a transition plan.

"Any assistance to violence must be ceased because when you supply military equipment, you help kill people. This must stop," Arab League deputy chief Ahmed Ben Hilli told the Interfax news agency.

He also called for the mandate of UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan to be revamped, and for Iran's inclusion in talks on ending the conflict.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon discussed Syria with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday on the sidelines of a conference in Rio de Janeiro, a spokesman said.

The diplomatic flurry came as British newspaper The Guardian reported that Washington and London were working on an initiative for regime change based on Annan's UN-backed plan that calls for a "Syrian-led political transition."

Reports said Britain and the United States have discussed offering Assad immunity from prosecution if he steps down as part of a political transition, but Britain's Foreign Office said "no new offer" was on the table.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose government retains close ties with Damascus, said any peace plan that calls for Assad to leave power and go into exile would not work because he would not quit.

"I do not think Assad will be sitting down at the negotiating table," said Lavrov, pointing to the results of a widely criticised May 7 parliamentary election which he said showed a majority still backed the Syrian leader.

In the latest bloodshed, 119 people were killed on Thursday, among them 66 civilians and 43 government troops, the Syrian Observatory said.

"This has been one of the bloodiest days in Syria since the anti-regime revolt broke out in March last year," Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

At least 13 civilians were killed in the central city of Homs and another two unidentified people died in nearby Qusayr, the Observatory told AFP.

The bombardment aborted two attempts by the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Red Crescent to evacuate trapped civilians, but the agencies vowed to try again on Friday.

"Unfortunately, a second attempt, which we carried out in coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross, has failed," the Red Crescent's Khaled Erksoussi said.

Hundreds of people are believed to be trapped in the historic heart of Syria's third-largest city, unable to flee or find shelter because of the fighting, the Geneva-based agency said.

According to a new toll on Thursday, the Observatory said at least 10,480 civilians, 3,715 soldiers and 830 army defectors have been killed since March 2011.

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Why Microsoft has to build its own tablet

11 hrs.

Wilson Rothman

Microsoft has to do it. That's what I keep telling myself. In order to convert people from the cloud-powered "ecosystems" of Apple or Google, in order to carry Windows desktop users into the post-desktop age, Microsoft needed to introduce a product proudly emblazoned with the Windows logo, something over which it has complete design control: The perfect Windows 8 tablet.

At first look (and feel), the Microsoft Surface tablet is a solid product aimed?in the right direction. Sure, it's a tablet that, from five feet away, looks like all the rest. But it's got a premium magnesium alloy build, a screen that reduces glare and improves interaction by reducing the layers between the LCD itself and the viewer's eye, and clever features like a flush built-in kickstand.

Microsoft even one-upped Apple in a way?by adding a multi-touch keyboard to its own magnetically connected case, the Touch Cover.?Microsoft's tablet?pitch has long been, "Yes, you can touch it but sometimes you need a mouse, keyboard or stylus." At least in the keyboard category, Microsoft is now?approaching the challenge with innovative thinking and a touch of class.

But for all the innovation and design smarts of the new tablet, there's no guarantee it will be a hit.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal, but that doesn't give us privileged knowledge of its products and services, nor does it influence our opinion of them.)

There are still a lot of unanswered questions:

• What are the exact?processor and display specifications, not to mention the price, of the ARM tablet?
  
• What kind of battery life will it deliver?
  
• Will it run on a 3G/4G cellular network?
  
• What kind of compatibility will there be with Xbox and PC games?
  
• And, most importantly, how will the salesperson at Best Buy answer the question: "Why should I buy this, instead of the Asus, or the Samsung, or the Dell?"
  

There are few hardware companies that aren't in an utter state of flux (reflux?) over the changing landscape. While Apple designs and markets?both the hardware and the software itself, other companies share the work.?Microsoft would release an?operating system and hardware makers would build products that used it. Google has had reasonable success?using the same approach with Android. But?the shared approach won't last much longer.

That's because there's now?this thing called the "ecosystem." Giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft are locking down customers by providing streaming music, video rental,?cloud storage, email, calendars and all kinds of other services that are exclusive to their products. The more the?ecosystem grows, the more control the giant needs over all of the products. ?

Microsoft tried a middle approach with Windows Phone. It let hardware partners build the devices, but it applied strict specifications. The result was not a success. In fact, it led to confusion: Some phones had beautiful (but small) OLED screens; others had huge (but ugly) LCDs.?One phone streamed music and video to your home theater; another had a kickstand for watching movies on airplanes.

And when Nokia came along with its Windows Phone?flagship, there was no clarifying moment, like when Verizon introduced the Motorola Droid and all of a sudden, Android made sense.?No, the Nokia Windows Phone was just another phone ? one that didn't run Android or iOS.

But even if?the whole hardware-software partnership thing no longer works, how sure can we be that?Microsoft is?prepared to pull an Apple, and go it alone?

After all,?Microsoft's hardware history is hardly a trail of gold. The company has built mice since time immemorial, but they're usually not as lauded as Logitech's. The Xbox is a hot selling console, and rightfully so, but any gamer over the age of 10 can recall the "Red Ring of Death" era, where the percentage of dud systems was remarkably high. Maybe the least besmirched of all Microsoft hardware was the Zune HD, a very nice product that sold ... not very nicely.

And Microsoft has backed out of a few hardware enterprises that turned out to be bad for business: There were the wireless routers, there was Web TV, there was the Kin.

I am not trying to pour salt on wounds that have only recently healed. I want to emphasize a key question: Why did Microsoft embark on this new hardware venture when it has so often failed in the past?

Because it has to.

Unfortunately, once you've swallowed that, there's another?draught you have to gulp down: Windows 8.

I don't share in the ire that some of my colleagues have against Windows 8. However easy or difficult it is to use, its overarching problem is that it is not "Windows" as we've known it through the years.

Windows 7 is Windows. Windows 8 has the same name, but a whole new set of programs, behaviors and metaphors. Calling it, I don't know, "Tiles," instead of "Windows" might have helped, but it would have been an admission of the challenge ahead. Rather than being an upgrade of the tried and true OS, it's a brand new finger-friendly tablet OS, one that will have to get in line for paying customers?behind iOS and Android.

Still, the analysts say that within a few years Microsoft will gain serious headway in the global smartphone market, and that much of this success is due to the fact that it will sell Windows 8 with the same briskness that it has of late sold Windows 7. If you buy the PC or the tablet, you'll learn to love the interface, and you'll buy the phone ? or vice versa.

So how will Microsoft get people to buy the new Windows 8?PCs and tablets? By waiting for Dell or Samsung or Asus or HP to get out there and shove them in people's faces? No.?

It will do it?by handling the whole operation internally, and controlling the message. Microsoft must somehow?reassure?current Windows users (over 1 billion worldwide) that Windows?8 is not a leap of faith but a step forward. And the company must reach out to new audiences with the promise of an ecosystem that's?potentially more compelling than Apple's or Google's, one that ties together home theater, laptops, phones and tablets, and offers a ton of cloud services and apps.?

Microsoft will put its hardware-partner?relationships at risk, but it can afford to, and really it must, if it intends to reaffirm its position of leadership in the tech world.

Wilson Rothman is the Technology & Science section?editor at msnbc.com. Catch up with him on Twitter at @wjrothman, and join our conversation on Facebook.

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Obama: Euro crisis could affect my re-election

President Barack Obama takes his place with other leaders for the Family Photo during the G20 Summit, Monday, June 18, 2012, in Los Cabos, Mexico. From left, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama takes his place with other leaders for the Family Photo during the G20 Summit, Monday, June 18, 2012, in Los Cabos, Mexico. From left, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, U.S. President Barack Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama arrives at the G-20 summit in Los Cabos, Monday June 18, 2012. The leaders of the world's largest economies have agreed to step up their efforts to boost growth and job creation, which they call the top priority in fighting the effects of the European economic crisis, according to a draft of the statement to be released Tuesday at the end of the Group of 20 annual meeting. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Adrian Wyld)

President Barack Obama takes his place with other leaders for the Family Photo during the G20 Summit, Monday, June 18, 2012, in Los Cabos, Mexico. From left, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jose Graziano da Silva, Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, U.S. President Barack Obama, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Chinese President Hu Jintao. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

President Barack Obama, center, takes his place with other leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, left, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, for the Family Photo during the G20 Summit, Monday, June 18, 2012, in Los Cabos, Mexico. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, greets Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the G-20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, June 18, 2012. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin huddle on the sidelines of the G-20 meeting in Mexico, in what officials say will be a candid, get-down-to-business meeting about their mutual interests and disagreements. It's their first meeting since Putin returned to Russia's top job. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

LOS CABOS, Mexico (AP) ? President Barack Obama is acknowledging that Europe's economic situation could have a spillover effect on his own re-election prospects.

Wrapping up the Group of 20 economic summit of world leaders, Obama expressed confidence in Europe's ability to right its own financial ship. He said he was hopeful that voters would validate his own efforts come November if he stayed focused on strengthening both the U.S. and world economies and creating more jobs at home.

"I've consistently believed that if we take the right policy steps, if we're doing the right thing, then the politics will follow, and my mind hasn't changed on that," the president said a news conference in this Mexican resort Tuesday at the close of what is expected to be his last foreign trip before the November election. He returned to Washington early Wednesday.

Obama said he was encouraged that European leaders understood the depth of the problem and were working in unison to address it.

"Even if they cannot achieve all of it in one fell swoop, I think if people have a sense of where they are going, that can provide confidence and break the fever," Obama said.

Locked in a difficult re-election campaign, Obama acknowledged he couldn't control the pace of action in Europe despite the repercussions the continent's debt crisis could have on the U.S. economy and his own re-election prospects. The U.S. economy is undergoing a slow recovery amid a slump in hiring and indications that the housing market is healing. Those mixed signals have muddled Obama's prospects for a second term as GOP challenger Mitt Romney mounts a campaign singularly focused on the state of the U.S. economy.

Obama also was frank in laying out the disagreement among the United States, Russia and China over whether Syrian President Bashar Assad can remain as leader of Russia's main Mideast ally. He blamed wholesale slaughter of civilians squarely on Assad's government and said while the U.S. and Russia, in particular, both fear all-out civil war in Syria, they remain divided about exactly what to do next.

Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Hu Jintao on the sidelines of meetings at the posh seaside resort. China and Russia have close ties to Syria and have vetoed two U.N. resolutions that mentioned the threat of sanctions against Assad's regime.

The bloodshed in Syria and the economic crisis in Europe dominated the discussions at the gathering of the world's leading and developing nations.

Obama told reporters that in two days of intensive meetings, Europe's leaders showed a "heightened sense of urgency."

The president maintained that Europe had the capacity to solve the crisis on its own, indicating the U.S., still battling its own economic woes, would not be offering any financial pledges to help its international partners.

Still, Obama recognized the challenge European nations faced because each country has to separately approve any action to stabilize the fiscal union.

Mindful of his audience of voters in the U.S., Obama said, "The best thing the United States can do is to create jobs and growth in the short term even as we continue to put our fiscal house in order over the long term."

Obama urged Congress to focus on steps it could take to boost job creation and economic growth, pitching legislation he proposed months ago that has little chance of garnering Republican support in an election year.

All sides at the G-20 summit seemed intent on sending confident signals to jittery markets and unhappy electorates.

Underscoring the stakes, Obama broke from the main summit Tuesday for a brief meeting with leaders from Britain, Germany, Italy, France, Spain and the European Union.

Despite the words of unity, European leaders showed signs that they have heard enough about their troubles, particularly from Americans. Memories linger of the 2008 financial crash that was born in the United States and destroyed jobs and wealth.

"The eurozone has a serious problem, but it is certainly not the only imbalance in the world economy," Italian Prime Minster Mario Monti said. He said the United States' own financial problems were mentioned in G-20 talks "by almost everybody, including President Obama."

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso took an aggressive tone with reporters Monday, also pointing some blame at North America and saying, "Frankly, we are not coming here to receive lessons in terms of democracy."

Associated Press

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Rio +20 Summit kicks off amid global pessimism

Expectations are low at the UN conference that seeks to preserve Earth's ecosystems amid a growing population.

By Kenneth R. Weiss,?Los Angeles Times / June 19, 2012

Brazilian army soldiers patrol the entrance of the Brazil Pavilion for the Rio+20 United Nations sustainable development summit in Rio de Janeiro June 19, 2012. More than 50,000 policymakers, environmentalists and business leaders from around the world are meeting in Rio de Janeiro this week for the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, marking the 20-year anniversary of the landmark Earth Summit that paved the way for the Kyoto agreement on greenhouse gases.

Nacho Doce/REUTERS

Enlarge

The United Nation?s biggest conference in history began in earnest in Brazil on Monday, with representatives from around the world looking to craft a plan to help lift billions of people out of poverty without exhausting the planet.

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More than 115 presidents, prime ministers and other officials this week are planning to attend the U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, which has drawn at least 50,000 people from 190 countries. Yet expectations remain low because of the world?s many economic woes.

?The European Debt crisis, U.S. joblessness and even the Chinese economic slowdown has sapped some people?s enthusiasm,? said Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation.

President Barack Obama has no plans to attend the conference. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will lead the U.S. delegation, along with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Todd Stern, a special envoy for climate change.

Negotiators worked into the night Monday trying to finalize a master plan for social progress and managing natural resources. They hope to finish before Wednesday, when many international leaders plan to arrive to review proposals to slow down environmental degradation while providing enough food, clean water and clean energy for a worldwide population of 7 billion that?s expected to reach 9.3 billion by midcentury.

?This is a once-in-a generation opportunity,? said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has been pushing to move beyond political promises and begin accomplishing goals.

Yet criticism has mounted in recent weeks over the details, with detractors raising concerns that the plan is being watered down and could result in weakened commitments from world leaders.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, who was at the conference Monday, joined others who have complained that the plan appears to be backsliding on commitments for deep cuts in carbon-dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gasses needed to avoid tipping into a danger zone of climate-related floods and droughts.

Jacob Scherr of the New York-based Natural Resources Defense Council, attended the first Earth Summit in Rio in 1992 and the followup meeting a decade later in Johannesburg, South Africa. He?s back in Rio watching a messy process that demonstrates how difficult he said it is ?to get 190 countries to negotiate and agree to a plan that will result in real action.?

The first Earth Summit 20 years ago was filled with promise, as nations supported international agreements to protect biological diversity and establish a framework to curb climate change. About 180 nations signed off on a long list of goals and agreements, including a plan for the 21st century called Agenda 21, which instituted long-term planning for sustainable development and an agreement to halt the advance of deserts claiming farms and grazing land.

Since then, little progress has been made.

Deserts continue to expand. The loss of plant and animals species has accelerated, with scientific tallies showing one fifth or more of all species of mammals, birds and amphibians now at risk of extinction. And greenhouse gasses have continued to build up in the atmosphere, despite ongoing deliberations under the climate convention, which included the Kyoto Protocol, and series of unsuccessful efforts to negotiate a new climate treaty.

The U.N. Environmental Program examined more than 500 internationally agreed goals and objectives adopted at the Earth Summit and other such meetings. It found this month significant progress in just four: eliminating chlorofluorocarbons that punched a hole in the Earth?s protective ozone layer; the removal of lead from gasoline that caused human health problems; improved access to clean water; and boosting research to reduce ocean pollution.

Nikhil Seth, the U.N. director of sustainable development, said the U.N. Environmental Program report illustrates the need for this week?s conference, known as Rio +20, to refocus the world?s attention on important, long-term issues.

?We?re depleting everything,? Seth said, ?the land we depend on to grow food, the air we need to breath, the oceans we need for fish.?

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Lyme Disease Outfoxes Deer

60-Second Science | More Science

In some locations, the incidence of Lyme disease tracks less with the abundance of deer than it does with the disappearance of foxes. Karen Hopkin reports.

June 18, 2012

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Deer ticks and Lyme disease go hand-in-hand in some places. But you can?t always put the blame on Bambi. Because new research shows that the incidence of Lyme disease tracks less with the abundance of deer than it does with the disappearance of foxes. The study is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [Taal Levi et al, Deer, predators, and the emergence of Lyme disease]

To see where foxes come in, you have to look at the tick life cycle.

When deer ticks are young, they feed on small mammals like the white-footed mouse. It?s from infected rodents that the ticks pick up the bacteria that cause Lyme disease.

Foxes, of course, prey on mice and other small mammals. So fewer foxes means more mice, and potentially more disease.

To come up with that connection, researchers modeled the relative contributions of various animal populations in areas where Lyme disease is rife. And they found that, in New York State, for one, the incidence of Lyme could be directly predicted by the dearth of foxes.

The foxes were pushed out by coyotes, which have been on the rise since New York lost its wolves. Which were driven away by humans. Who now get bit by ticks.

?Karen Hopkin

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]??????

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The Note's Must-Reads for Monday, June 18, 2012

[ [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 2]], 'http://yhoo.it/KeQd0p', '[Slideshow: See photos taken on the way down]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['Connery is an experienced stuntman', 7]], ' http://yhoo.it/KpUoHO', '[Slideshow: Death-defying daredevils]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['know that we have confidence in', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/LqYjAX ', '[Related: The Secret Service guide to Cartagena]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['We picked up this other dog and', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JUSxvi', '[Related: 8 common dog fears, how to calm them]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 5]], 'http://bit.ly/JnoJYN', '[Related: Did WH share raid details with filmmakers?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['accused of running a fake hepatitis B', 3]], 'http://bit.ly/KoKiqJ', '[Factbox: AQAP, al-Qaeda in Yemen]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have my contacts on or glasses', 3]], 'http://abcn.ws/KTE5AZ', '[Related: Should the murder charge be dropped?]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 5]], 'http://yhoo.it/JD7nlD', '[Related: Bristol Palin reality show debuts June 19]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['have made this nation great as Sarah Palin', 1]], 'http://bit.ly/JRPFRO', '[Related: McCain adviser who vetted Palin weighs in on VP race]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['A JetBlue flight from New York to Las Vegas', 3]], 'http://yhoo.it/GV9zpj', '[Related: View photos of the JetBlue plane in Amarillo]', ' ', '630', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 15]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/white-house-stays-out-of-teen-s-killing-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120411/martinzimmermen.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['Titanic', 7]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/titanic-anniversary/', ' ', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/b/4e/b4e5ad9f00b5dfeeec2226d53e173569.jpeg', '550', ' ', ' ', ], [ [['He was in shock and still strapped to his seat', 6]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/navy-jet-crashes-in-virginia-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/cv/ip/ap/default/120406/jet_ap.jpg', '630', ' ', 'AP', ], [ [['xxxxxxxxxxxx', 11]], 'http://news.yahoo.com/photos/russian-grannies-win-bid-to-sing-at-eurovision-1331223625-slideshow/', 'Click image to see more photos', 'http://l.yimg.com/a/p/us/news/editorial/1/56/156d92f2760dcd3e75bcd649a8b85fcf.jpeg', '500', ' ', 'AP', ] ]

[ [ [['did not go as far his colleague', 8]], '29438204', '0' ], [ [[' the 28-year-old neighborhood watchman who shot and killed', 4]], '28924649', '0' ], [ [['because I know God protects me', 14], ['Brian Snow was at a nearby credit union', 5]], '28811216', '0' ], [ [['The state news agency RIA-Novosti quoted Rosaviatsiya', 6]], '28805461', '0' ], [ [['measure all but certain to fail in the face of bipartisan', 4]], '28771014', '0' ], [ [['matter what you do in this case', 5]], '28759848', '0' ], [ [['presume laws are constitutional', 7]], '28747556', '0' ], [ [['has destroyed 15 to 25 houses', 7]], '28744868', '0' ], [ [['short answer is yes', 7]], '28746030', '0' ], [ [['opportunity to tell the real story', 7]], '28731764', '0' ], [ [['entirely respectable way to put off the searing constitutional controversy', 7]], '28723797', '0' ], [ [['point of my campaign is that big ideas matter', 9]], '28712293', '0' ], [ [['As the standoff dragged into a second day', 7]], '28687424', '0' ], [ [['French police stepped up the search', 17]], '28667224', '0' ], [ [['Seeking to elevate his candidacy back to a general', 8]], '28660934', '0' ], [ [['The tragic story of Trayvon Martin', 4]], '28647343', '0' ], [ [['Karzai will get a chance soon to express', 8]], '28630306', '0' ], [ [['powerful storms stretching', 8]], '28493546', '0' ], [ [['basic norm that death is private', 6]], '28413590', '0' ], [ [['songwriter also saw a surge in sales for her debut album', 6]], '28413590', '1', 'Watch music videos from Whitney Houston ', 'on Yahoo! Music', 'http://music.yahoo.com' ], [ [['keyword', 99999999999999999999999]], 'videoID', '1', 'overwrite-pre-description', 'overwrite-link-string', 'overwrite-link-url' ] ]

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