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NEW YORK – Fans who missed Lil Wayne during his yearlong stint behind bars will get a chance to show their love for the multiplatinum rapper in person: He's kicking off a 25-city tour in March with an all-star supporting cast.

Nicki Minaj (mih-NAHJ'), Rick Ross, Travis Barker and Mixmaster Mike will accompany Lil Wayne on his "I Am Music II" tour, which will start in Buffalo, N.Y., on March 18 and hit cities such as Atlanta, Miami, Washington and his hometown of New Orleans.

Although Lil Wayne released the album "I Am Not a Human Being" while in a New York jail for a weapons charge last year, he's gearing up for a big return to the scene in 2011. He's got a hit "6 Foot 7 Foot" and is due to release "Tha Carter IV" this spring.

LONDON – The invites for the royal event of the year aren't even in the mail, but some among the European blue-blood set say they have already been given a quiet tap on the shoulder.

Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia and the Romanian royals say they're among the hundreds of privileged guests expected at the wedding of Britain's Prince William and his fiance Kate Middleton in London on April 29.

Formal invitations to the widely anticipated event aren't expected to go out until February. But the Romanian royal family will be among those attending, its office told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia said in a statement posted to his website that he and his wife, Crown Princess Katherine, had also been invited.

"Their Royal Highnesses are delighted to attend the marriage and are very happy for the young couple," the statement said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether any other European royalty had already received an informal save-the-date for the wedding at historic Westminster Abbey. A British royal spokeswoman declined to comment on the guest list, which is still being finalized.

Neither Alexander nor ex-King Michael, who heads the Romanian royal family, are current heads of state.

Alexander's family fled the Balkans when the Nazis invaded in World War II, while Michael was forced to abdicate in 1947 as the communists tightened their grip on Romania.

But their announcements underscores the strong relationships still maintained among European royals, many of whom have been linked by decades of intermarriage.

They also highlight the links between Britain — whose monarchist tradition still runs strong — and ex-ruling families from countries whose relationship with their royals have been a bit more tangled.

Michael, for example, is a great-great-grandson of Queen Victoria, a third cousin of Britain's current monarch Elizabeth II, and a first cousin of Elizabeth's husband Philip, with whom he spent childhood summer vacations on the Black Sea coast.

Michael was also a guest at Queen Elizabeth's wedding to Philip in November 1947.

Alexander, whose family eventually settled in Britain during World War II, was born at a suite at London's exclusive Claridge's Hotel. He studied at British schools, joined the British army, and even married his current wife in London, in 1985. His best man was former King Constantine of Greece — a distant relation of Philip's.

Elizabeth II, who attended Alexander's baptism at Westminster Abbey in 1945, is the Serbian prince's godmother.

A piece of banking malware that researchers have been keeping an eye on is adding more sophisticated capabilities to stay hidden on victims' PCs, according to the vendor Seculert.

Carberp, which targets computers running Microsoft's Windows OS, was discovered last October by several security companies and noted for its ability to steal a range of data as well as disguise itself as legitimate Windows files and remove antivirus software. It has been billed as a rival to Zeus, another well-known piece of malware.

Carberp communicates with a command-and-controller (C&C) server using encrypted HTTP Web traffic. Previous versions of Carberp encrypted that traffic using RC4 encryption but always used the same encryption key.

Using the same key meant it was easier for intrusion protection systems to analyze traffic and pick out possible communication between the infected Carberp computers and the C&C servers, said Aviv Raff, CTO and co-founder of Seculert. Seculert runs a cloud-based service that alerts its customers to new malware, exploits and other cyberthreats.

A new version of Carberp is mixing it up, using a randomly different key when it makes an HTTP request, said Raff. When it uses the same key, there are some static patterns that can be detected. Even Zeus, which is begrudgingly respected for its high-quality engineering, uses the same key that is embedded in the malware.

"Most network based security solutions are using traffic signatures to detect bots trying to connect to the C&C," Raff said. "This new feature is used to evade this type of detection and make it hard and almost impossible to create such signatures."

Seculert has posted a writeup about Carberp.

Carberp has also expanded the scope of the victims it seeks to infect. The latest version is targeted users in Russian-speaking markets, Raff said. Previous versions targeted banks in the Netherlands and the U.S., he said.

MINNEAPOLIS – Jesse "The Body" Ventura objects to having the U.S. government get a close look at his body while going through airport security.

In a lawsuit filed this week against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Transportation Security Administration, the former Minnesota governor claims that airport full-body scans and pat-downs violate his Constitutional right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The department had no immediate comment on Tuesday regarding the lawsuit filed on Monday.

Ventura, a former professional wrestler who currently hosts the television program "Conspiracy Theory," had hip replacement surgery in 2008 and received a titanium implant. The implant sets off airport metal detectors.

Before November, 2010, Ventura had to go through a non-invasive hand-wand inspection when he set off the alarm. But since new security measures took effect last November, Ventura says he has been subject to pat-down body searches or whole body imaging, which uses backscatter x-ray or millimeter wave technology to look through clothing for weapons or explosive material.

Ventura, who has to fly two or three times a week for his television show, said in his lawsuit that the full-body scans are "intrusive" and "degrading," as well as a possible health risk, while the pat-downs include "touching, gripping and rubbing of the genital and other sensitive areas."

Ventura noted that he has to go through the scans despite the fact that he is a frequent flyer, a former governor, a U.S. Navy veteran, and has an easily verifiable medical condition. Ventura could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday.

MOSCOW – Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vowed revenge on Tuesday for a suicide bombing that killed at least 35 people at Russia's busiest airport and underscored the Kremlin's failure to stem a rising tide of attacks.

Talking tough a day after the bombing, Russia's leaders ordered security services to root out the culprits behind the attack, which bore hallmarks of militants fighting for an Islamist state along Russia's southern flank.

"This was an abominable crime in both its senselessness and its cruelty," Putin told a meeting of ministers in Moscow.

"I do not doubt that this crime will be solved and that retribution is inevitable."

President Dmitry Medvedev criticized law enforcement agencies and airport managers over the attack at the international arrivals hall at Domodedovo, a major international gateway to Russia, which killed at least eight foreigners.

"Everything must be done to find, expose and bring the bandits who committed this crime to court -- and the nests of these bandits, however deep they have dug in, must be liquidated," he told Federal Security Service (FSB) leaders, who are in charge of coordinating Russia's fight against terrorism.

The bombing came just days before Medvedev is due to pitch Russia to investors and corporate leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Medvedev has delayed his departure for Davos, where he had planned to deliver the keynote speech opening the forum. Russia's Health Minister Tatyana Golikova said 49 people remained in serious or very serious condition in hospital.

At Moscow's Vishnevsky Surgery Institute, surgeon Sergei Sapelkin told Reuters three victims were in critical condition with severe burns or internal organs damaged by shrapnel from a bomb authorities said was packed with scrap metal.

The U.N. Security Council held a minute of silence on Tuesday in honor of the victims.

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke to Medvedev on the phone, expressing condolences and "his strong condemnation of this outrageous attack on innocent civilians," the White House said. Obama also pledged to work with Russia to combat terrorism.

GROWING ISLAMIST INSURGENCY

No one has claimed responsibility for the bombing yet, but Russia has been grappling with a growing Islamist insurgency in mainly Muslim republics in the North Caucasus.

Rebels from the region have threatened attacks against cities and economic targets in the run-up to a parliamentary election this December and a 2012 presidential poll in which Putin is expected to return to the Kremlin or back his protege Medvedev for a second term.

Russian financial markets, used to bombings and hostage dramas over the past 12 years, showed little reaction. The benchmark ruble-denominated MICEX share index closed down 0.26 percent. The ruble was nearly unchanged from Monday.

"Terrorism remains the main threat to the security of our state, the main threat to Russia, to all our citizens," Medvedev said. He said terrorist attacks increased last year, calling it "the most serious signal" for law enforcement.

"It is clear that there is a systemic failure to provide security for people" at Domodedovo, said Medvedev.

He told the FSB to ensure proper security at upcoming international events including the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, on the edge of the North Caucasus.

Medvedev also ordered the Interior Ministry to recommend transport security officials for dismissal and said authorities found culpable would be held responsible.

Both Putin and Medvedev donned white coats and stood at victims' bedsides in separate visits shown on state television.

Putin, the dominant partner in Russia's 'tandem' leadership, built his tough reputation by launching a war in late 1999 to crush a rebel government in Chechnya, a North Caucasus province.

That campaign achieved its immediate aim but insurgency has spread to neighboring Ingushetia and Dagestan and spawned persistent attacks beyond the North Caucasus, despite Kremlin vows to crush insurgents and nurture the region with subsidies.

Government critics warned that tough rhetoric will do little to stop attacks by militants in an insurgency they say is aggravated by heavy-handed law enforcement.

FOREIGN VICTIMS

The choice of Domodedovo international arrivals area suggested the attackers wanted to make an impact beyond Russia.

An investigator cited by news agency Itar-Tass said the bomber appeared to have been a heavily built man aged 30 to 40. Other reports pointed to a female bomber or two attackers.

An Emergencies Ministry list of the dead included eight foreigners: two Britons, a German and citizens of Bulgaria, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine. Colleagues said the Ukrainian was Anna Yablonskaya, 29, a playwright who was traveling to Moscow to receive an award.

Britains Foreign Office said one Briton was confirmed dead.

The spread of violence from the North Caucasus, where it is fed by corruption, poverty, clan rivalries and religious radicalism, fans Russian nationalist militancy in the heartland.

Tensions between ethnic Russians and the 20 million Muslims who make up one-seventh of Russia's population flared dramatically last month when Russian nationalists attacked passersby of non-Slavic appearance, many of them from the North Caucasus, in central Moscow -- just steps from the Kremlin.

On Tuesday police officers boosted their presence around railway stations and airports, carrying out spot checks of people who looked as though they could be from the Caucasus.

LONDON – Two of Britain's leading soccer commentators were reprimanded by their TV network and taken off the air Monday after making sexist remarks about two female game officials and a team executive.

Andy Gray and Richard Keys were disciplined Monday for derogatory comments about Sian Massey's suitability as a lineswoman for a Premier League game the commentators were working Saturday for Sky Sports.

Gray and Keys have been respected voices in soccer for the past 20 years. They also criticized the ability of former Premier League official Wendy Toms and a column written by West Ham executive Karren Brady in the Sun newspaper that day.

The men have privately apologized to their employer. Sky said the two have been warned and "reminded of their responsibilities." They will not work the show Monday night when Bolton hosts Chelsea in the Premier League.

"They (the comments) are inexcusable from anyone at Sky, regardless of their role or seniority," said Barney Francis, managing director of Sky Sports.

Keys later telephoned Massey to apologize, according to the group that represents game officials.

On Saturday, Gray and Keys were at Molineux Stadium for the Wolverhampton-Liverpool game. They thought their microphones were off when they questioned whether Massey knew the offside rule. Keys, who has worked for Sky since 1990, said he could "guarantee" Massey was going to make a big mistake.

Keys added that the game had "gone mad" by allowing a woman to run the line. Gray, a former Scotland striker who is Sky's leading commentator, made an abusive reference to Toms, saying she had been "hopeless".

Toms was the first female to officiate in the Premier League, as a lineswoman. She is no longer an active referee.

Keys then criticized Brady, who in her column had written about sexual discrimination in the soccer media.

"See charming Karren Brady this morning complaining about sexism? Yeah. Do me a favor, love," Keys said.

Brady said Monday in the Guardian it was "absolutely abhorrent that gender is the only consideration when talking about female officials."

The comments were leaked to a British newspaper, leaving Gray and Keys open to a widespread criticism.

Piara Powar, executive director of Football Against Racism in Europe, a group working with European soccer's governing body to end discrimination in soccer, said the remarks were "medieval in tone" and demonstrated the "appalling and damaging sexist attitudes" that still existed in the sport.

Sports Minister Hugh Robertson added: "It is very disappointing to hear these comments at a time when we are trying to get more women participating and officiating in sport, particularly football."

The English Football Association gave its "wholehearted and continuing support" to female referees while England defender Rio Ferdinand was one of the many Twitter users to register his displeasure with Gray and Keys.

"What's wrong with a woman being an official in a football game? I'm cool with it," Ferdinand posted.

In fact, the 25-year-old Massey got perhaps the biggest call of the game correct. She judged Raul Meireles to be marginally onside when he ran onto a pass and sent the ball for Fernando Torres, who opened the scoring in the 36th minute in Liverpool's 3-0 victory.

Massey is one of 853 females officiating in English soccer, from grass-roots level up to the Premier League, the Football Association said. Amy Fearn last year became the first woman to referee a second-tier League Championship match.

The FA said all its female officials were "fantastic ambassadors" for soccer, adding the organization "will continue to offer every encouragement to all officials within the football family to progress to the highest levels possible."

Gray and Keys are not the first commentators caught making inappropriate remarks while thinking they were not on the air. In 2004, former Manchester United manager Ron Atkinson made a racial insult about Chelsea defender Marcel Desailly. Atkinson was forced to resign, calling his comments "obviously unacceptable."

CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Gunmen spraying automatic weapons fire killed seven people at a park that had been built as an anti-violence measure in the besieged Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, authorities said Monday.

The assailants arrived during a soccer game the park in the Francisco I. Madero neighborhood and opened fire Sunday afternoon, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state prosecutors' office.

Two of the people killed had been playing soccer.

The body of one young man in his blue-and-red soccer uniform lay beneath a huge sign reading "Live Better" — the federal government's motto — and "Todo Somos Juarez," or "We're All Juarez" — the name of a program to reduce violence and improve life for Ciudad Juarez.

Four people, including a 12-year-old girl, were hospitalized in critical condition, and one later died of his wounds.

Investigators found 180 bullet casings from the sort of assault weapons typically used by drug gangs, Gonzalez said, though they had not yet identified the perpetrators or a motive.

The park was inaugurated four months ago as part of the "Todos Somos Juarez" program.

Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico's most violent city, with more than 3,000 killed last year as the Sinaloa and Juarez drug cartels for control of lucrative trafficking routes into the United States.

Running battles between soldiers and gunmen, meanwhile, left eight drug gang suspects dead outside the northern city of Monterrey, said Jorge Domene, spokesman for the Nuevo Leon state public safety department.

Gang members used stolen cars to blockade 11 junctions of a road, a common tactic used by Mexican cartels to prevent security forces from sending reinforcements.

Domene said the gunfight erupted in the town of Garcia, west of Monterrey. The gunmen fled and fought running battles with soldiers chasing them down a highway. The eight bodies were found in four towns along the road, Domene said.

More than 34,600 people have been killed nationwide since President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown against drug traffickers in December 2006.

Meanwhile, a series of banners appeared Monday in the western states of Michoacan and Guerrero claiming La Familia drug cartel has decided to disband.

"La Familia Michoacana is completely dissolved since it has been unfairly blamed," the banners read. "La Familia Michoacana has exterminated rapists and kidnappers and it's time for Mr. Felipe Calderon to investigate his Cabinet, most essentially (Public Safety Secretary) Genaro Garcia Luna."

The gang has sometimes used banners draped from pedestrian bridges to deny responsibility for crimes or to send messages to authorities, but state officials said they could not immediately verify the authenticity of the new banners.

The federal government said in December that the once-fearsome cartel had been "completely dismembered," breaking down into small groups that commit robberies to pay their members.

The cartel has dominated crime in the western state of Michoacan for several years, making money by trafficking methamphetamine and extorting protection money from businesses. It has also become known for its bloody ambushes of federal police.

La Familia has been thrown into disarray, however by the recent arrest and deaths of top members, including cartel leader Nazario Moreno, nicknamed "The Craziest One," who was killed in a shootout with police on Dec. 9.

PHOENIX – Bret Michaels is undergoing a procedure in Phoenix to close a hole in his heart.

Doctors discovered the hole in the rocker's heart in April while treating him for a brain hemorrhage.

A surgical team at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center was performing the procedure Monday. The hospital said the rocker would undergo a cardiac catheterization during which doctors planned to insert a catheter into a vein in the groin and guide wires and a closure device into the heart with cameras assisting doctors as they operate to close the hole.

The closure device remains in Michaels' heart permanently to stop abnormal blood flow between the two chambers of the heart.

Doctors say without the procedure, Michaels risks developing blood clots and an additional stroke.

NEW YORK – The Firefox and Google Chrome browsers are getting tools to help users block advertisers from collecting information about them.

Alex Fowler, a technology and privacy officer for Firefox maker Mozilla, said the "Do Not Track" tool will be the first in a series of steps designed to guard privacy. He didn't say when the tool will be available.

Google Chrome users can now download a browser plug-in that blocks advertisers — but only from ad networks that already let people decline personalized, targeted ads. According to Google Inc., these include the top 15 advertising networks, as rated by the research group comScore, a group that includes AOL Inc., Yahoo Inc. and Google itself.

The next version of Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer browser, which is still being developed, will include a similar feature, though people will have to create or find their own lists of sites they want to block.

Google and Mozilla, however, are developing tracking-protection tools that will work automatically — once people decide to turn on that privacy feature, that is.

Microsoft, Google and Mozilla's promises of stronger privacy comes on the heels of government complaints that online advertisers are able to collect too much data about people in their quest to target ads.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission recommended the creation of a "Do Not Track" tool that would invite consumers to restrict advertisers from collecting information about them, including the websites they visit, the links they click, their Internet searches and their online purchases.

Meanwhile, the Commerce Department last month called for guidelines that would require online advertisers to warn consumers what information about them they are collecting and how they plan to use it. Consumers, the department said, should be able to "opt out," or decline, some or all of that data collection. And if companies do collect information, they would be required to store it securely.

Google product managers Sean Harvey and Rajas Moonka said the new Chrome tool will allow for more permanent ad blocking. Before, opt-out settings were typically stored through small files known as cookies; when users clear cookies, however, the opt-out settings get erased, too. Another benefit is that the new tool allows users to opt out of all participating ad networks at once, rather than one at a time.

Google eventually hopes to develop a similar plug-in for other browsers as well, Harvey and Moonka added.
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AniDB: Gosick
Official Website: Gosick (Japanese)
Genre: Mystery, Shounen


Description:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A woman whose natural voice could have been silenced forever because of vocal cord damage is able to talk again after undergoing a rare voice box transplant.

Brenda Charett Jensen, 52, reunited Thursday with the team of surgeons who performed the delicate operation last October, only the second surgery of its kind performed in the United States.

"It's just been amazing — simply, simply amazing. And I'm still in shock," Jensen said in a raspy voice at a news conference with her doctors. "I never know what's going to come tomorrow, but I know it's going to be better than where I've been."

Jensen damaged her vocal cords more than a decade ago after she repeatedly pulled out her breathing tube while under sedation in the hospital.

Because the injury left her breathing passage completely closed, the Modesto woman had also been unable to smell — a sensation that she is enjoying again.

Before the transplant, Jensen "talked" with the help of a hand-held device that produces an electronic voice.

The robotic-sounding device, which Jensen's granddaughter dubbed the "talkie-talkie," led to people hanging up on her or treating her like she was not there, so Jensen said the risk of the surgery was worth it.

After years of putting up with humiliation and teasing, "I was game to go. I wanted to talk again," said Jensen, a slim woman who walks with a cane.

The operation lasted 18 hours over two days. Doctors replaced her voice box, windpipe and thyroid gland with that of a donor who died in an accident. The transplant, which came after nearly two years of planning, was led by the University of California-Davis Medical Center and included experts from England and Sweden.

Chief surgeon Dr. Gregory Farwell said the neck is "an unbelievably complex structure" with tiny nerves that had to be connected using sutures smaller than a human hair. Surgeons spent 10 hours working under a high-power microscope as they sewed the nerves back together, he said.

Two weeks after the transplant, Jensen voiced her first words to her doctors in a hoarse tone: "Good morning," followed by "I wanna go home" and "You guys are amazing."

Jensen has since been able to speak more easily. Doctors said Jensen's voice was her own and not that of the donor.

The special qualities of a person's voice are determined by the shape of the throat, mouth, nose and sinuses. Following the transplant, Jensen told doctors that friends who had not heard her speak in years were able to recognize hints of her "old" voice.

Jensen has worked a variety of jobs, including driving trucks and working in a restaurant and as an executive secretary before going on disability several years ago. She is not currently working, but she hopes to get a job again with her voice restored.

Soon after the surgery, Jensen said, she stepped out her door and smelled turkey wafting from her neighbor's home. She still can't eat or drink because she needs a tracheotomy tube to help her breathe, but she is working hard to strengthen her neck muscles so the tube can be removed.

In the meantime, she receives nourishment through a feeding tube.

"The bakery — God, that kills me!" she joked, describing visits to the grocery store to buy household items. "But it's just been a really, really unbelievable experience: smelling freshly cut grass, the air, breathing."

Jensen had a checkup Thursday and was able to swallow a glass of water for the first time since the transplant.

Dr. Peter Belafsky, principal investigator of the UC Davis laryngeal transplant project, said the operation offers hope to others who have suffered the loss of their voice.

"I've had three messages and two texts just this morning from patients saying, 'Am I going to be a candidate for this?'"

Not all patients who lose their voice are eligible for voice box transplants. It's still considered experimental, and recipients have to constantly take anti-rejection drugs that can shorten life expectancy.

Jensen was a good fit because she was already taking the drugs after a kidney-pancreas transplant in 2006, doctors said.

Unlike lifesaving heart or liver transplants, people can live many years without a voice box, although a transplant would improve their quality of life. But the surgery is still rare, in large part because it's not covered by private or government insurance, said Dr. Gerald Berke of the UCLA Head and Neck Clinic, who had no role in Jensen's care.

The university paid for much of Jensen's hospital-related expenses, which were not immediately disclosed. Doctors and staff donated their time.

In 1998, doctors at the Cleveland Clinic performed the world's first successful larynx transplant, restoring the voice of Timothy Heidler after a motorcycle accident. He spoke normally for the first eight years after the transplant, but later experienced some swelling in his vocal cord that made his voice sound a bit breathy and froggy. Despite that, doctors said his quality of life improved.

"He's been able to live a far more normal life. He can interact, and it gives him confidence," said his surgeon, Dr. Marshall Strome, who now directs the Center for Head and Neck Oncology at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital in New York.