By Pritha Sarkar

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - Andy Murray wiped out 77 years of pain when he became the first British man since 1936 to win the men's title at Wimbledon with a stunning 6-4 7-5 6-4 victory over world number one Novak Djokovic on Sunday.

Just why Britain had to wait almost eight decades to witness such scenes of unbridled patriotic joy at the spiritual home of lawn tennis was summed up by a nerve-jangling final game that dragged on for 13 agonising minutes as Murray won and lost three match points, leaving 15,000 fans gasping in disbelief.

The pulses were racing even faster as Djokovic displayed his own survival instincts to earn three break points before a backhand volley error gave Murray another championship point.

This time Djokovic could not deny him and when the Serb dragged a backhand into the net after yet another lengthy exchange, 60 million Britons leapt up and a disbelieving Murray tossed his racket to the famous turf.

"I worked so hard in that last game. It's the hardest few points I've had to play in my life," Murray said after fulfilling a lifelong dream of holding aloft the Challenge Cup.

"I don't know how I came through the final three points... that last game went my head was kind of everywhere. I mean, some of the shots he came up with were unbelievable. That last game will be the toughest game I'll play in my career, ever."

Djokovic knew just what it meant for the long-suffering home nation to see Murray triumph at the All England Club.

"Congratulations to Andy you absolutely deserved it, you played incredibly," he said. "I know what it means to you guys in the whole country so well done. It is a great achievement."

Fred Perry's name had haunted Murray ever since he made his Wimbledon debut in 2005 and after three hours and nine minutes of heart-pounding action on Sunday, Perry's ghost was finally laid to rest as the 26-year-old became the first British man to hoist the gilded trophy wearing shorts.

The achievement completed a remarkable 11-month run for Murray who is now the reigning Olympic, U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion.

"I understand how much everyone wanted to see British winner at Wimbledon and I hope everyone enjoyed it," Murray told the crowd.

On the hottest day of the year in Britain, the world's two best players produced scorching sinew-stretching action from the start and the first three games alone lasted 20 minutes.

OPENING SALVO

The opening salvo of the Centre Court clash lasted 20 strokes as Murray went up 0-40 on the Serb's serve but Djokovic produced staunch defence to stave off his opponent's attacks.

The duo did trade breaks in the third and fourth games, with each Murray winner being greeted by a chorus of 15,000 roars.

Murray got another chance to break to love in the seventh game and this time he pounced as the 2011 champion surrendered his serve by slapping a backhand into the net.

The set ended on the hour mark as Djokovic whipped a service return wide to give Murray, runner-up to Roger Federer last year, the one-set cushion.

The battle between the players who were born seven days apart in 1987 intensified in the second set as they went toe-to-toe from the baseline with 25-shot rallies par for the course.

Djokovic, who survived a four hour 43 minute semi-final epic against Juan Martin Del Potro, showed his super-human ability to recover quickly as he ran down everything Murray could throw at him.

The Serb rattled Murray by going for the lines and broke for a 3-1 lead when the second seed flicked a forehand into the net.

SKIDDED FLAT

Even when Djokovic slipped and skidded flat on to his stomach while trying to chase down a Murray winner, the six-times grand slam champion appeared unfazed as he quickly got back on to his feet to extend his lead to 4-1.

But Murray, who trains in the intense Miami heat even on Christmas Day, showed off his iron-man conditioning as he stormed back to level at 4-4, a Djokovic double fault on break point down handing him the break back in the seventh game.

While the cheering crowd, which included British Prime Minister David Cameron, got behind a pumped up Murray, Djokovic simply exploded in anger in the 11th game.

Convinced that Murray had gone long mid-rally at 15-15, he screamed at umpire Mohamed Lahyani "Whyyyyyyyyyyyy? What's going on?" as he gesticulated wildly to show what he thought the linesman had failed to see.

Murray ignored the uproar to break the fuming Serb and soon had the fans roaring when he wrapped up the 69-minute second set with a 125mph thunderbolt ace.

Murray proved that he was seeing the ball like a football as broke in the opening game of the third set, successfully challenging Hawkeye to show that Djokovic's backhand on breakpoint had in fact dropped long.

After going ahead 2-0, Murray's mind seemed to go on a walkabout as Djokovic won four games in a row.

But just when thoughts of last September's U.S. Open final started flashing though the mind of everyone packed on to Centre Court, when Djokovic rallied to win the third and fourth sets, Murray made sure that there would be no repeat.

The nail-biting final twist, however, summed up just what it takes to win a grand slam in what is widely acknowledged to be greatest era of men's tennis.

Murray made sure his name would be spoken in the same breath as Djokovic, Federer and Rafa Nadal as the Serb sunk a backhand into the net at 5.24 local time, sending the Scot off on a victory run that included exchanging high-fives with fans and clambering up the stands to hug his friends and family. (Editing by Ed Osmond)

Mandela "is not only revered he is loved and profoundly admired by people all over the world and the sense of letting go must be difficult for everyone involved," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University.

In much of Africa, people are considered fortunate to live past age 60. For those who reach old age, death is still seen as sad, but friends and family typically celebrate with big parties to honor a life well-lived. Taking extraordinary measures to keep that person alive would be considered dishonorable, said Dr. Sola Olopade, the Nigerian-born clinical director for the University of Chicago's Center for Global Health.

If such measures are being used for Mandela, many could consider it "quite painful," Olopade said, "because those are not the last memories you want to have for someone with such an exemplary life."

U.S. doctors said Mandela's lung infection is most likely pneumonia, a very common cause of illness and death in the elderly.

The infection is usually caused by bacteria and causes lungs to fill with fluid or pus, making breathing difficult and often causing fever and weakness. Treatment includes antibiotics and extra oxygen, often from a mechanical ventilator.

In the United States, an elderly person critically ill with pneumonia would typically be hospitalized in an intensive care unit and put on a mechanical ventilator, or breathing machine, said Dr. J.P. Kress. He is director of the University of Chicago's medical intensive care unit's section on lung and critical care. Ventilators often require a breathing tube down the throat, and patients need to be sedated because of the discomfort.

These patients typically are hooked up to feeding tubes, intravenous fluids and all kinds of monitoring machines to check heart rate, blood pressure and other functions. For long stays, lying prone in a hospital bed, they have to be periodically moved into different positions to prevent bed sores; their arms and legs have to be exercised to fight muscle wasting.

Mandela has been hospitalized several times since December for a recurring lung infection, and he has had tuberculosis.

In a hospitalization in March and April, doctors drained fluid from around his lungs, making it easier for him to breathe. He got care at home until he returned to the hospital on June 8.

For elderly patients hospitalized repeatedly with lung problems, the chances for recovery are often grim, Kress said.

"It's possible he's sitting in a chair asking, 'When am I going to get out of the hospital?' but that's very unlikely," he said.

Patients so critically ill may have ups and downs, and small changes like needing a little less help from a ventilator may be seen as a sign of improvement even when the outlook remains poor, Kress said.

Schaffner, the Vanderbilt doctor, said, "There are always little glimmers of hope. It's not a straight line down ... when you're so gravely ill."

Ada Levine faced end-of-life decisions with her mother, Maria Robles of Chicago. And it was difficult even though her mother had made her wishes known. Robles died two weeks ago at age 75 after 12 years of heart failure and other problems that had her in and out of the hospital.

"It was not going to get better," Levine said. "You're hopeful. You believe in miracles and 'maybe.' At some point you realize there is no miracle and you have to be strong and do the right thing."

Her mother did not want life support, but following that directive is easier said than done, Levine said.

"It's brutal, very difficult, hard, to watch this person decline and think now you're responsible for making their decisions."

Schaffner went through the same experience with his mother. She died 10 years ago at age 84 after several strokes and then pneumonia.

When she was still lucid, the family discussed end-of-life care. She did not want to be kept alive on a ventilator. So when she developed pneumonia and was hospitalized, she got comfort care fluids, antibiotics and sedatives to calm her anxiety over struggling to breathe but no intensive treatments with fancy machines.

After several days, when it became clear "there was zero chance she was going to turn around," the family brought her home, with hospice care, and she died less than two weeks after falling ill, Schaffner said.

Loretta Downs, former president of the Chicago End-of-Life Care Coalition, said decisions about life support should turn around the patient's wishes.

"Very often it's not the person who's dying's choice," but the family's, she said. "Now that we can prolong dying there's this whole question of are we prolonging dying versus prolonging living? It's not comfortable to be on life support."

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AP Chief Medical Writer Marilynn Marchione contributed from Milwaukee and Andrew Meldrum contributed from Johannesburg.

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Online:

End-of-life care: http://1.usa.gov/bPeFiT

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

The cooperation evident in the Senate last month with passage of a bipartisan immigration bill could be wiped out immediately if Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., frustrated with GOP delaying tactics on judges and nominations, tries to change the Senate rules by scrapping the current three-fifths majority for a simple majority.

Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has indicated it's a decision Reid could regret if the GOP seizes Senate control in next year's elections.

"Once the Senate definitively breaks the rules to change the rules, the pressure to respond in kind will be irresistible to future majorities," McConnell said last month, looking ahead to 2014 when Democrats have to defend 21 seats to the GOP's 14.

McConnell envisioned a long list of reversals from the Democratic agenda, from repealing President Barack Obama's health care law to shipping radioactive nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain in Reid's home state of Nevada.

Recently elected Democrats have clamored for changes in Senate rules as Obama has faced Republican resistance to his nominations.

Two Cabinet-rank choices Tom Perez as labor secretary and Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency could be approved by the Senate this month after a loud debate over administration policies.

The GOP also has challenged Obama's three judicial nominees to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit as they've tried to eliminate the vacancies. The Senate scheduled a vote late Monday on a less contentious nomination Gregory Phillips to serve as U.S. circuit judge for the 10th Circuit.

Reid had served notice in April that the Democratic majority could change the Senate rules on "any given day," and he was willing to do so if necessary.

In the Republican-controlled House, courteous behavior, even within the GOP ranks, has barely been perceptible with the ignominious failure of the farm bill. Some collaboration will be necessary if the House is to move ahead on immigration legislation this month.

Conservatives from safe, gerrymandered House districts have rebuffed appeals from some national Republicans who argue that embracing immigration overhaul will boost the party's political standing with an increasingly diverse electorate, especially in the 2016 presidential election. The conservatives strongly oppose any legislation offering citizenship to immigrants living here illegally.

Reflecting the will of the rank and file, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and other Republicans have said the comprehensive Senate immigration bill that couples the promise of citizenship for those living here unlawfully with increased border security is a nonstarter in the House.

Opening the Senate session on Monday, Reid urged the House to consider the Senate bill a highly unlikely step.

"Now it's our duty to convince our colleagues in the House, yes, they should vote with us. Bipartisan immigration reform that includes a pathway to citizenship makes economic and political sense," Reid said.

House Republicans were assessing the views of their constituents during the weeklong July Fourth break and planned to discuss their next steps at a private meeting Wednesday.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee said Republicans would be hashing out "two key hot spots" in the meeting: the pathway to citizenship and health care.

"We need to be the party of solutions and not always obstructing. And, so, I think there's an effort here that we have a broken immigration system. We need to fix this immigration system," McCaul said Sunday on CBS' "Face the Nation," predicting that the full House could take up immigration as early as this month and representatives from both chambers could be working to resolve differences in the House and Senate versions late this year or early next.

The House Judiciary Committee has adopted a piecemeal approach, approving a series of bills, none with a path to citizenship that Obama and Democrats are seeking. Democrats hope the single-issue bills get them to a conference with the Senate, where the prospects for a far-reaching overhaul improve.

"I think what you're finding is that there will be a compromise, a smart compromise," Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said Sunday, also on CBS. "You have to be smart. You have to be tough. But you have to be fair. And if you can do that, you'll have a full fix."

A more pressing concern for some lawmakers was the fate of the five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm bill.

In a surprise last month, the House rejected the bill as 62 Republicans voted no after Boehner had urged support for the measure.

House conservatives wanted cuts deeper than $2 billion annually, or about 3 percent, in the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp program while Democrats were furious with a last-minute amendment that would have added additional work requirements to food stamps, now called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.

Reid has made it clear that an extension of the current farm law, passed in 2008, is unlikely as he presses the House to pass the Senate version of the bill. That leaves Boehner to figure out the next step before the current policy expires Sept. 30.

Some conservatives are pushing Boehner to split the bill in half and bring up separate bills one dealing with farm programs and one that would set policy for food stamps.

Congress also must figure out what to do about interest rates on college student loans, which doubled from 3.4 percent last Monday because of partisan wrangling in the Senate.

Lawmakers promised to restore lower rates when they return this week, both retroactively and before students start signing loan documents later this summer. For now, the rate stands at 6.8 percent, which is higher than most loans available from private lenders.

Congress faces political and economic fights over the budget, with the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 and Congress plodding through spending bills with no sign they will be done on time. The House is set to vote this week on the spending bill for the Energy Department.

In a memo last week, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., said the House would consider three energy bills and five spending bills this month.

In addition to legislation to keep the government running, Congress probably will have to vote on whether to raise the nation's borrowing authority, a politically fraught vote that roiled the markets in August 2009.

The Senate Judiciary Committee holds a confirmation hearing Tuesday on Obama's choice of James Comey to serve as FBI director. If confirmed by the Senate, Comey, a top Bush administration lawyer best known for defiantly refusing to go along with White House demands on warrantless wiretapping nearly a decade ago, would replace Robert Mueller.

The administration's recently disclosed surveillance programs are likely topics for Comey's hearing.

It's no accident he's leaving a school that regularly plays for national titles at the NCAA's highest level to one that competes at its lowest.

Thorp's done with big-time college sports, and if he had his way, other school presidents would be finished with them, too. Many leaders just don't have the training to handle a major athletics program, he argues.

It's a message that may resonate with administrators at institutions that have lately felt the sting of scandals tied to athletics.

"I feel great compassion for my colleagues that are getting caught up in this," Thorp said. "My main concern in this, and the reason I've been saying what I've been saying, is I'm worried about the people who are my friends. But I'm also worried about the institutions that are having their leadership diverted in this way."

Thorp will resign from his alma mater with its 18,000 undergraduates at the end of June to work at Washington (about 6,000 undergrads) after spending most of the past three years dealing with a withering array of NCAA and athletics-related problems. They dominated his time, despite the fact that at least when he took the job he was a novice in the business of athletics.

He's come to the conclusion that presidents should step aside and let their athletic directors handle the job.

"Either we put the ADs back in charge and hold them accountable if things don't work," Thorp said in April during a campus forum, "... or let's be honest and tell everyone when we select (presidents) to run institutions that run big-time sports that athletics is the most important part of their job."

Sports have certainly created enormous problems for several top college administrators.

Ohio State University president Gordon Gee announced he was retiring Tuesday, after The Associated Press last week published remarks he made mocking Notre Dame, Roman Catholics and the Southeastern Conference during an athletic council meeting in December. Previously, during a 2011 scandal, Gee joked he was worried then-football coach Jim Tressel, who admitted to breaking NCAA rules, would dismiss him.

Rutgers University president Robert Barchi and the school have faced fierce criticism over the hiring of incoming athletic director Julie Hermann, who was accused of being verbally and emotionally abusive by players on the Tennessee volleyball team she coached in the 1990s. That came after the school fired men's basketball coach Mike Rice for throwing balls at his players and berating them in practice. In the aftermath of Rice's ouster, former athletic director Tim Pernetti also resigned.

At the University of Miami, president Donna Shalala has spent nearly two years dealing with an NCAA investigation of allegations that booster Nevin Shapiro provided thousands of dollars in improper benefits to Hurricanes athletes. She's publicly criticized the NCAA's probe, saying the school had been "wronged" and that the programs have "suffered enough" through self-imposed sanctions.

And, at Penn State University, former president Graham Spanier faces charges of perjury and concealing child sex abuse allegations involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in a scandal that ended the long tenure of Joe Paterno and led to unprecedented sanctions from the NCAA.

Murray Sperber, a critic of commercialization in college sports, wonders why presidents don't stumble more often when it comes to overseeing a realm that is often foreign to them. Most come from the academic side and make their way through the administrative ranks that exist as separate worlds from athletics on a college campus, he said.

"If you put me in charge of the Atomic Energy Commission, I would get in trouble," said Sperber, an author and a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley's graduate school of education. "I wouldn't know what to say. It's so inevitable that I'm kind of amazed nobody just stands up and says, 'Look, these presidents don't know anything.'"

The idea of presidential control in athletics took hold with the recommendations of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics in the early 1990s.

The commission was created by the Knight Foundation in 1989, after a string of college sports scandals created a sense that athletic departments had gotten out of control and threatened schools' academic integrity. The commission noted in one report that 57 of the 106 schools then competing at the highest level of sports had been penalized by the NCAA in the 1980s, along with reports of athletes taking courses like "recreational leisure."

Putting the school president at the center of reform efforts was a key part of what the commission advocated.

"The Knight Commission's message remains that presidential responsibility for all elements of university life doesn't stop at the entry of its stadiums, arenas and playing fields." Amy Perko, the current executive director of the Knight Commission said in a statement Tuesday.

"As long as college sports are part of the academic enterprise, it's the president's job to ensure that its sports programs reflect the university values."

While Perko said presidents don't need to manage the daily operations of an athletic department, she said more must be done "to better educate governing boards and new and aspiring presidents about their roles and responsibilities for athletics oversight."

Welch Suggs Jr., a former associate director for the Knight Commission, said the problem is more about determining the role of college athletics than a question of whether the presidential-control model is flawed.

"If it's to be a big-time American spectacle, like the NFL or Major League Baseball, then no way," said Suggs, now an associate professor of journalism at the University of Georgia. "It makes absolutely no sense for academic leaders to be in charge of it. But if you want it to be a part of higher education and a function of the collegiate experience, someone has to make sure people in athletics know they're part of the educational process and not just a commercial business."

Thorp certainly understands the difficulty finding that balance.

In his first two years, he thought athletics "was the least of my worries" after the Tar Heels men's basketball, women's soccer and field hockey teams each won national championships.

Everything changed when the NCAA launched an investigation into improper benefits in the football program in the 2010. That soon expanded to academic misconduct involving a university tutor, then got worse with findings of fraud and no-show classes in an academic department with significant athlete enrollments.

At the height of the scrutiny, Thorp said the problems regularly dominated his time and diverted his focus from running the school.

And, now, after he's probably had enough experience to handle college sports and all its problems, he's eager for to step away from it.

As for the Knight Commission, Thorp said the two sides will agree to disagree.

"We don't have a commission that tells us not to trust the dean of medicine to run the hospital, but we do have a commission that tells us not to trust the ADs to run athletics," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."

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AP National Writer Nancy Armour in Chicago contributed to this report.

Concern that Milan is losing prestige to London, Paris and New York is starting to crack the composure of the city's usually reserved fashion world.

The Italian National Fashion Chamber has been moved to action, announcing a reorganization this spring and making Prada's outspoken CEO Patrizio Bertelli the chamber's No. 2 with the goal of revitalizing Milan fashion.

Bertelli's first act: a letter to restaurants to stay open late during this week's menswear fashion previews that start Saturday. That may seem a small step, but consider that the fashion world spent 120 million euros ($157 million) in Milan over four fashion weeks in 2009, according to Bain & Company figures, a slow year as the key U.S. market was mired in crisis at the time.

Milan may have built-in fashion pedigree, but it does not have the same inherent tourist appeal as the other fashion capitals, which is reflected in their luxury sales that eclipse Milan's 4.5 billion ($5.9 billion) in 2012. New York was four times that, Paris double and London more than one-third higher, according to Bain.

As for the source of the malaise, the economic crisis that has now stalled over Italy has zapped resources from the fashion houses, local government that might otherwise provide a boost and the world of fashion media and fashion buyers that feed the system.

Fashion insiders and analysts say Milan doesn't do as much as other fashion cities to integrate cultural and artistic events and promote new designers to create buzz.

"For sure, some cities have invested more in creating a very powerful setting," said Claudia D'Arpizio, a Bain partner who analyzes the luxury goods market. "I think that is what the new fashion chamber is going to do, to make Milan very visible."

More recently, designer spats, not cooperation, have been the norm. The summit called by Versace apparently never took place, pre-empted by the fashion chamber's own reorganization.

Armani has put pressure on Italian designers to regularly show their collections in Milan, and not in other fashion capitals, reportedly making their return a condition for his participation on the policy-setting fashion chamber board.

The remarks targeted Prada's second line, Miu Miu, which shows in Paris, along with Valentino's ready-to-wear and couture collections.

Armani pointed out that he has done his part, long taking the last major fashion week slot at the chamber's request to keep the fashion crowd from rushing off to Paris. "Of course, this over time has brought various problems, such as, in some cases, the absence of some of the most important writers," Armani was quoted by Corriere della Sera as saying recently.

He also debunked any logistical difficulties that other fashion houses might have showing two lines in a single week, pointing out that he does it with the Emporio Armani and Giorgio Armani collections, four times a year.

The fashion chamber's long-time president Mario Boselli expressed confidence that the issue would be resolved and Armani would join the board.

"We are confident that with the relaunch of Milan, and some brands will come home," Boselli said in an interview.

He is not promising quick fixes to what are very complex problems, and won't give hints of what's to come, but says some changes will be in place by the September preview shows.

As an early sign of progress, Boselli points out that there will be 78 designers showcased at this week's menswear shows more than in previous editions and they include runway shows by four new names: two Italians, a German and a Chinese. Armani has opened up his theater to one of them, Andrea Pompilio.

Boselli also was understanding of the Prada Group's decision to show Miu Miu in Paris, especially at a time when many fashion houses, from Versace to Dolce&Gabbana, have abandoned their second lines. In Milan, Miu Miu risks being overshadowed by Prada. "By going to Paris, it's as if there were two first lines, each with its own identity," he said.

As for Burberry's decision to decamp, Boselli accepts it as part of the business. But he takes it as a victory for Milan that British designer Vivienne Westwood did not follow, despite apparent attempts to woo her.

"The people who decide to stay in Milan, do so because they believe in Milan, period," Boselli said.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a detailed assessment and found 36 regions across the country that have the proper subterranean conditions to store between 2,400 to 3,700 metric gigatons of carbon dioxide underground a process known as . One metric gigaton is equal to a billion metric tons.

In a separate report released in early June, the U.S. Energy Information Administration, an organization that collects and analyzes statistics on , projects the United States will emit approximately 5.4 metric gigatons of fossil fuel-related carbon dioxide in 2013, which includes coal, natural gas and petroleum emissions. Based on these estimates, the USGS findings represent a vast, untapped resource that could helpand mitigate the impact they have on Earths climate, said Briana Mordick, a geologist at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a nonprofit environmental advocacy group headquartered in New York City.

"This is just one tool in a range of options that we have, but it's an important one to give us additional time to transition from fossil fuels to nonfossil fuel energy," Mordick told LiveScience. []

As part of its survey, the USGS excluded areas of the country that are considered freshwater sources, and limited their assessment to rock layers at depths at which thewould be under sufficient pressure to remain in a liquid state, which would help the carbon dioxide mix in with the briny water found underground.

The study identified the largest storage potential in the Coastal Plains region, which encompasses much of the Gulf Coast. This area could account for roughly 2,000 metric gigatons, or 65 percent, of the country's storage potential, according to the USGS report. Other areas with considerable storage capacity include the Alaska region and the Rocky Mountains.

Going beneath the surface

Geologic carbon sequestration involves capturing the exhaust gases from power plants before they are released into the , and separating the carbon dioxide from the rest of the emissions. This carbon dioxide is then cooled and compressed into a so-called supercritical state, which means it has properties between a liquid and a gas, Mordick explained.

Next, the supercritical carbon dioxide travels through a network of underground pipelines to a site where it is pumped through a well into subsurface rocks.

"The idea is that the carbon dioxide will be trapped there pretty much indefinitely," Mordick said. "Things like oil, gas and brine are trapped in the subsurface for millions of years, so basic geologic principles tell us this is possible. In some ways, it's mimicking ."

To do this, the carbon dioxide needs to be injected deep underground, between at least 3,000 and 15,000 feet (914 and 4,600 meters), said Peter Warwick, chief of the geologic carbon sequestration project at the USGS, which put out the sequestration report. In addition, certain types of rocks are more suited to hold carbon dioxide. [Video: ]

"You want a rock that has what we call porosity, which means there are small, open areas within the rock, and permeability, which is the ability for fluid to move through the rock," Warwick said.

Sandstone or limestone rock formations are particularly good storage reservoirs, but equally important are the layers of rock over the top that act as a cap, sealing in the carbon dioxide, Mordick said. Without this robust rock layer, carbon dioxide could seep out and leak to the surface, reaching the atmosphere anyway.

"There has to be a good ceiling formation above something like shale, with low porosity and low permeability," Mordick said. "Essentially, it's like a lid on top of the storage formation that prevents carbon dioxide from migrating vertically."

Leaks are one of the primary concerns surrounding geologic carbon sequestration, and researchers around the country are assessing the risks involved, which includes studying the types of conditions that could cause carbon dioxide to escape.

TORONTO (AP) -- Shares of BlackBerry maker Research In Motion plunged nearly 30 percent Friday after the company posted a loss and warned of future losses despite releasing its make-or-break new smartphones this year.

RIM also announced that it will stop developing new versions of its slow-selling tablet computer called the Playbook.

Analysts were looking for insight into how phones running RIM's new Blackberry 10 operating system are selling. It wasn't good.

RIM said it sold 6.8 million phones overall versus 7.8 million last year. That includes older models. In wasn't until well into a conference call with analysts that RIM announced that 2.7 million of the devices sold in the quarter were Blackberry 10 models.

RIM's Blackberry 10 operating system is critical to the company's comeback. New phones running the BlackBerry 10 software began selling around the world this year. The BlackBerry Z10, a touchscreen model and the Q10, which sports a keyboard, have received positive reviews, but there was a delay in getting them to market in the U.S.

The first quarter, however, included a substantial period of sales of the Z10 phone in the U.S. It didn't include sales numbers for the Q10 in the U.S. The Q10 just went on sale in the U.S. earlier this month.

Sales results and RIM's projections, however, signal that the new BlackBerry 10 phones are not selling well. The company said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter, too.

Mike Walkley, an analyst with Canaccord Genuity, said it's clear the new operating system has not turned the company around.

"With Z10, Q10, and Q5 all shipping in the August quarter and BlackBerry still guiding to a loss we believe that is strong evidence BB10 has not turned around BlackBerry in an extremely competitive smartphone market," Walkley said.

Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on a conference call with analysts that the "transition takes time" and noted things are better compared to last year when "we were told the company was finished."

Shares of Research in Motion Ltd. dropped $4.02, or 28 percent, to close at $10.46 Friday.

The BlackBerry, introduced in 1999, was once the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. But it lost its cachet not long after Apple released the first iPhone in 2007. Apple's device reset expectations for what a smartphone can do. RIM promised to catch up while developing new a software system called BlackBerry 10, which uses technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. But the company took more than two years to unveil new phones that were redesigned for the multimedia, Internet browsing and apps experience that customers now demand. During that time, RIM cut more than 5,000 jobs and saw shareholder wealth of more than $70 billion vanish.

The Canadian company said it lost $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the three months ended June 1 on revenue of $3.1 billion. It lost $518 million, or 99 cents per share, on revenue of $2.8 billion a year ago.

Analysts expected RIM to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $3.37 billion.

The number of BlackBerry users in the world also fell by four million to 72 million. RIM also said it anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter. Heins noted the highly competitive smartphone market makes it difficult to estimate revenue and levels of profitability.

Heins also announced on the call that he has halted further development of RIM's failed tablet offering, the Playbook. The Playbook has not sold well.

"Our teams have spent a great deal of time and energy looking at solutions that could move the BlackBerry 10 experience to Playbook, but unfortunately I am not satisfied with the level of performance and user experience and I made the difficult decision to stop these efforts and focus on our core hardware portfolio," Heins said.

Heins said they'll continue to support the PlayBook on the existing software platforms and configurations. Asked if RIM will continue to make the Playbook, a RIM spokeswoman said the company is evaluating its hardware strategy.

Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners, said said it's tough for RIM because it's hard to make money on handsets now.

"There are a lot of people that haven't been able to make it happen. For all the talk about Apple and Samsung, there are companies like Nokia and HTC," Gillis said.

Gillis said things look bleaker for the company and it's going to continue to be a struggle.

Jefferies & Co. analyst Peter Misek said the high end global smartphone market is saturated and brutally competitive.

"Everybody is coming to this reality. You talk to HTC, Samsung and even Apple, the high end is saturated. That's a fact," Misek said. "Anybody in the high end who wants a smartphone in the world has one, so you have to knock somebody away from another platform. That is a brutal, brutal market."

RIM has unveiled a lower-cost BlackBerry aimed at consumers in emerging markets, but hasn't said if the device will be available in North America.

Misek was expecting the company to sell 4 million BlackBerry 10 phones. He said the sale of 2.7 million new BlackBerry 10 phones was the most disappointing news Friday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest operator of Blue Cross Blue Shield health plans is teaming up with the largest U.S. Spanish-language media network to explain Obamacare to Hispanics in California, New York, Colorado and Georgia.

A partnership announced on Thursday by WellPoint Inc, Univision Communications Inc and healthcare marketer HolaDoctor Inc will include 70 town hall meetings in the four states, 30-second TV and radio ads, regular newscast segments devoted to subject and an online insurance center to guide consumers through the intricacies of coverage.

The initiative, one of many outreach efforts expected in the coming months to help explain President Barack Obama's healthcare law, will begin next month and run through March.

America's 52 million Hispanics are a main audience for the roll-out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which will offer health coverage to millions of uninsured people through new online insurance exchanges in all 50 states and expanded Medicare coverage in about half the country.

U.S. Census data show that about one in three Hispanics lacks health coverage, while many have low-to-moderate incomes that could qualify for Medicaid or federal subsidies to help pay for private insurance. In California alone, about half of the 2.6 million people with incomes low enough to qualify for subsidies are Hispanic, according to the administration.

But experts say most Hispanics are unfamiliar with the health benefits under Obamacare, which comes into full force on January 1.

"You really have to start at that square one. People need to first understand what the value of health insurance is and then what's coming under healthcare reform," said Robyn Gilson, WellPoint's staff vice president for multicultural marketing.

WellPoint is expected to become one of the biggest participants in the new insurance marketplaces, which are slated to begin enrolling consumers on October 1. The Indianapolis-based insurer currently sells health plans under the Blue Cross Blue Shield license in 14 states.

Gilson said WellPoint turned to Univision's television and radio operations as a trusted voice in the Hispanic community. New York-based Univision has two broadcast TV networks, 10 cable networks, 62 local TV stations and 69 radio stations.

California, Colorado, New York and Georgia are all WellPoint markets with large Hispanic populations.

Depending on the success of the initiative, Gilson said the outreach effort could be expanded to more areas.

(Reporting by David Morgan.; Editing by Caroline Humer and Andre Grenon)

The White House made its comments after five petitions created by Americans on its "We the People" website attracted almost 675,000 signatures.

The petitions asked the government to name the church, based in Topeka, Kansas, as a hate group, or end its tax-exempt status. The White House responded that it could not directly comment on the requests, and noted that the government does not keep a list of hate groups.

"That all said, we agree that practices such as protesting at the funerals of men and women who died in service to this country and preventing their families from mourning peacefully are reprehensible - a point that President Obama has made for years," the White House said.

The church has successfully defended its right to free speech in court.

The petitions were launched after the group threatened to picket in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 elementary school students and six adults were shot to death in December.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton; Editing by Jackie Frank and Vicki Allen)

"Having looked back at Earth from outer space, I have seen just how fragile our home planet is and I'm committed to doing everything I can to help protect it," NASA chief Charles Bolden, a former space shuttle commander, wrote in a NASA blog post Wednesday (June 26).

Obama outlined hisa day earlier in a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The president's proposal focuses on reducing the amount of carbon pollution in the country, leading the global effort to fight climate change, and preparing U.S. communities to endure the extreme weather expected to become more frequent in a warming world. []

NASA's satellite fleet may be among Earth's best witnesses to the effects of climate change. Bolden highlighted some of the 17 missions in NASA's Earth Science program that are currently monitoring the Earth's atmosphere, oceans, weather and climate from a remote perch in space to study and predict changes over time, as well as those due to .

Theseries, for example, has provided high resolution images of the planet's surface for the past 40 years and have helped establish a baseline of understanding the Earth's changes, Bolden wrote. He also mentioned the $1.5 billion Earth-observing satellite Suomi/NPP spacecraft, which launched in 2011 and is collecting data for short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate models.

"The data we collect helps us understand our planet as a dynamic, unified system," Bolden said. "It helps us predict natural and manmade disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires and recover from them. Our satellites will play a critical role in helping us assess thecarbon emissionsproblem, its history, current status, and possible future so decision makers can make informed policy decisions."

Bolden also wrote that Obama's 2014 budget request for NASA would support seven new Earth Science missions set to launch through 2020, including the Orbiting Carbon Observatory-2 (OCO-2).

He said all of NASA's work in exploration "has benefits here on Earth, by helping us understand and protect our natural resources, improve lives, and strengthen the economy. The President's climate initiative provides one more opportunity for our missions in space to bring science and technology home to the American people in a meaningful way."

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