The road to the community's dump is washed out, so officials have come up with a plan to fly the bad meat to the disposal site by helicopter.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports (http://bit.ly/14bAGtg) emergency responders in Galena are preparing a plan to collect meat that has been rotting in people's refrigerators and freezers since last week. That's when an ice jam backed Yukon River water into the community of nearly 500 people about 270 miles west of Fairbanks.

Many residents were evacuated from the town, and emergency responders have asked them to delay their return while they deal with flooded fuel tanks, gas fumes and other issues.

___

Information from: Fairbanks (Alaska) Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com

But when given the opportunity to respond to Issa's attack at Monday's press briefing, Carney dismissed it.

"I hadnt heard that. Thats amazing," Carney joked when asked about the fiery comments, eliciting laughs from reporters gathered in the Brady Press Briefing Room. Carney then deflected questions about Issa's accusation, saying, "Im not going to get into a back and forth with Chairman Issa," and he repeated that same turn of phrase throughout questioning about Issa from four different reporters.

Issa, on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday, said that the IRS targeting effort was "a problem that was coordinated, in all likelihood, right out of Washington headquarters" and that Carney is the administration's "paid liar" and is covering it up.

Republican senators including John McCain of Arizona, former Obama senior adviser David Plouffe and former Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs criticized Issa's choice of words.

Carney also declined to say whether he spoke with Obama about Issa's attack and stated that the comments he believes Issa and other critics take issue with are quotes Carney repeated from the inspector general's report, which found no evidence of influence or pressure from higher-ups on the IRS officials who targeted conservatives.

Treasury Inspector General J. Russell George and the IRSs new acting Commissioner Danny Werfel on Monday head to the fourth Capitol Hill hearing on the IRS scandal. Monday's hearing is being held by a House Appropriations subcommittee.

For the study, researchers looked at weather patterns in 2007, whencovering the Arctic Ocean hit one of its lowest summer extents since satellite tracking began in the late 1970s.

In fall and winter, when sea ice would normally insulate the ocean from frigid Arctic air temperatures, the small ice pack meant lots of heat could escape from the ocean into the atmosphere, the study found. The heating changed , said lead study author Elizabeth Cassano, a climate scientist at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) in Boulder, Colo. The results were published May 21 in the International Journal of Climatology.

"What we saw, particularly in the fall and winter, was a decrease in [atmospheric] pressure over the areas of open water," Cassano told LiveScience. Areas of high and low pressure drive weather, with low pressure producing stormier weather and high pressure leading to clear, calm days, Cassano said. The group's computer model generally agreed with weather records from the latter half of 2007, according to the study.

While thehad a significant effect into the winter, there was little change in weather patterns in early 2007, before the ice pack shrank, the study found. However, Cassano points out that the climate model doesn't include a major high-pressure system that was in the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and played a role in the big ice melt. Its absence could affect the modeling results.

The researchers now plan to examine how the feedback between sea ice and the atmosphere alters weather in the United State and other regions, Cassano said. "There's an open question of how these changes that we see in the Arctic influence the weather that we see here in the mid-latitudes," she said.

Emailor follow her . Follow us , & . Original article on .

Yanira Maldonado, 42, walked out of the prison on the outskirts of Nogales, Mexico and into her husband's arms late Thursday. She and her family members could be seen crossing through the Nogales port of entry into Arizona in a small sedan shortly after midnight, The Arizona Republic reported.

Maldonado spoke briefly after her release, thanking U.S. State Department officials, her husband, her lawyers and prison workers who made her stay comfortable.

"Many thanks to everyone, especially my God who let me go free, my family, my children, who with their help, I was able to survive this test," she said.

Maldonado also said at a news conference later that she still loves Mexico, and the experience will not stop her from returning in the future to visit family there.

"It's not Mexico's fault. It's a few people who did this to me and probably other people, who knows?" Maldonado said in comments aired on KSAZ-TV. "I'm still going to go back."

The family's lawyer in Nogales, Jose Francisco Benitez Paz, said a judge determined Thursday that Maldonado was no longer a suspect, and all allegations against her were dropped.

Maldonado's release came hours after court officials reviewed security footage that showed the couple boarding a commercial bus traveling from Mexico to Phoenix with only blankets, bottles of water and her purse in hand.

U.S. politicians portrayed her as a victim of a corrupt judicial system and demanded her release, with Arizona congressmen saying they were working closely with Mexican authorities.

Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who previously said he has had "multiple conversations with the deputy Mexican ambassador," on Friday welcomed Maldonado's release.

"Though I'm sure this last week has been a nightmare for her, I'm thankful that Mrs. Maldonado's clear innocence was proved and that she is now home safe with her family," he said in a statement released by his office.

The judge had until late Friday to decide whether to free Maldonado or send her to another prison in Mexico while state officials continued to build their case. Prosecutors could appeal the ruling.

Maldonado was arrested by the Mexican military last week after they found nearly 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) of pot under her seat during a security checkpoint.

Benitez noted it was a fairly sophisticated smuggling effort that included packets of drugs attached to the seat bottoms with metal hooks a task that would have been impossible for a passenger. He said witness testimony and the surveillance video showed Maldonado was innocent.

"There is justice in this country," he said.

Maldonado husband, Gary Maldonado, said he originally was arrested after the pot was found under his wife's bus seat. But after Yanira Maldonado begged the soldiers to allow her to come along to serve as a translator, the military officials decided to release him and arrest her instead. Gary Maldonado alleges authorities initially demanded $5,000 for his wife's release, but the bribe fell through.

"Here, we are guilty until you are proven innocent," he said after the court hearing.

The Maldonados were traveling home to the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear after attending her aunt's funeral in the city of Los Mochis when they were arrested.

The bus passed through at least two checkpoints on the way to the border without incident. In the town of Querobabi in the border state of Sonora, all the passengers were ordered off the bus and a soldier searched the interior as they waited. The soldier exited and told his superiors that packets of drugs had been found under seat 39, Yanira Maldonado's, and another seat, number 42. Her husband was in seat 40.

Gary Maldonado said a man sitting behind them on the bus fled during the inspection. He said the man might have been the true owner of the drugs.

About 40 people were on the bus before the inspection, but Gary Maldonado said he was the only passenger who appeared American.

Mexican officials provided local media with photos that they said were of the packages Maldonado was accused of smuggling. Each was about 5 inches high and 20 inches wide, roughly the width of a bus seat. The marijuana was packed into plastic bags and wrapped in tan packing tape.

The couple had previously traveled on commercial buses through Mexico because they felt it was safer than driving a personal vehicle.

Yanira Maldonado is a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Mexico, her family said. She and her husband have seven children from previous marriages. The couple celebrated their first wedding anniversary while she was jailed.

Drug traffickers have increasingly been using passenger buses to move U.S.-bound drugs through Mexico. Federal agents and soldiers have set up checkpoints along Mexico's main highways and have routinely seized cocaine, marijuana, heroin and more from buses.

Mexico's justice system is carried out largely in secret, with proceedings done almost entirely in writing.

Four years ago, Mexico decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin, but it still has stiff penalties for drug trafficking.

Mexican law doesn't specify a minimum or maximum sentence in drug crimes and leaves it up to the judge to decide how long the sentence should be, said Jose Luis Manjarrez, a spokesman for federal prosecutors in Mexico.

On Wednesday, an army lieutenant, a private and another sergeant were supposed to appear in court but they did not show up. The army did not explain why, the couple's lawyer said.

A search of court records in Arizona turned up no drug-related charges against Yanira or Gary Maldonado.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein in Mexico City and Luis Castillo in Nogales contributed to this report.

Though Tatum is currently filming Jupiter Ascending in London (where his wife will give birth to their firstborn child any day), the 33-year-old star jokes that he'd like to find a project that requires less exercise.

"I feel like I have to do a chess movie that requires very little movement at some point, just so I can eat pizza and play chess on the beach all day," Tatum says. "And then eat more pizza and cheeseburgers and drink beer. That'd be amazing. I'd give anything for that. I gotta figure that movie out!"

Though Tatum doesn't divulge any baby details, he does reveal his secret to a happy marriage. "You have to want it," he explains. "Jenna's and my thing is checking in with each other all the time, like 'On a scale from 1 to 10, how much do you love me right now?' And you gotta be honest, and you've got to want an honest answer."

The 10 Years actress isn't the only one who's honest with Tatum. The Magic Mike actor tellshis childhood pals go to great lengths to ensure he doesn't get too big for his britches. "My friends keep me grounded. It's embarrassing to tell you how much my friends make fun of me," he laughs. "Seriously, when you have a doll made of your face, it's ridiculous how creative your friends can get -- pictures, videos, little animated cartoons they've made. And they're way, way not PG-13. So I get chopped down to size all the time."

This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com:

HONG KONG (Reuters) - The new H7N9 bird flu virus can be transmitted between mammals not only via direct contact but also in airborne droplets, and may be capable of spreading from person to person, Chinese and American researchers have found.

A study published in the journal Science and presented at a briefing in Hong Kong on Friday found that three ferrets - an animal often used for research on flu - that were in the same cage as ferrets infected with H7N9 had contracted the disease.

One of three ferrets kept in separate cages nearby also became infected, through airborne exposure.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously said it has no evidence of "sustained human to human transmission" of the virus, which has killed 36 people in China.

"The findings suggest that the possibility of this virus evolving further to form the basis of a future pandemic threat cannot be excluded," said the research team, led by bird flu expert and microbiologist Yi Guan.

The virus can also infect pigs, but could not be transmitted from pig to pig or from pigs to other animals, the study showed, although the team urged authorities to maintain surveillance to check whether the virus was mutating.

The WHO said the findings were useful but warned that people "have to be very careful about what's going onthe ground".

"Studies like that are really helpful for increasing general knowledge and it's really helpful to know that, under lab conditions, this thing could transfer from person to person," WHO chief spokesman Gregory Hartl told Reuters.

"We've already seen maybe a few limited instances of human to human transmission within close family range, within close contacts, so this is another piece of the puzzle," he said.

The findings come just days after the WHO said the H7N9 virus appeared to have been brought under control in China thanks to restrictions at bird markets.

H7N9 has relatively mild clinical signs in ferrets, according to the study. All the animals infected with the virus in the experiments presented symptoms for no more than seven days and all recovered from the disease.

The researchers said that all cases where humans had died or become extremely ill had involved additional factors.

The team also found that some infected animals did not develop fever or other clinical signs, suggesting that asymptomatic infections among humans may also be possible.

"The potential public health implication of this ... is that a person infected by H7N9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could nevertheless spread the virus to others," the researchers wrote in their study.

United Nations experts said this week the bird flu outbreak in China had caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the economy.

The H7N9 virus is known to have infected 131 people in mainland China and one in Taiwan since February, but no new cases have been detected since early May.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London, Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing and Tom Miles in Geneva; Editing by Ron Popeski and Sonya Hepinstall)

"He was known (to police) but we cannot speak of radical Islamism," Interior Minister Manuel Valls told iTele television.

"I remain very cautious," he added.

The 22-year-old suspect, known to police for crimes such as theft and possession of firearms, was arrested in a Paris suburb early on Wednesday after being identified through fingerprints, a police source told Reuters.

French police have said the knife attack on May 25 may have been inspired by the murder of a serviceman in London three days earlier by two men shouting Islamist slogans.

The 23-year-old French soldier was attacked from behind with a knife or box-cutter while patrolling the La Defense business neighborhood west of Paris. The soldier was released from the hospital on Monday.

(Reporting By Alexandria Sage; Editing by John Stonestreet and Mark John)

The game was seen by an estimated 23.4 million people, the Nielsen company said. That was a bigger audience than the last two men's championship games, and just slightly less than the 23.9 million who watched Duke beat Butler in 2010.

Only two scripted series finished in Nielsen's top 10 programs last week, Nielsen said. They were CBS' Tuesday night mainstays, "NCIS" and its spinoff, "NCIS: Los Angeles,"

For the week, CBS led with an average of 10.8 million viewers (6.9 rating, 11 share). Fox had 6.1 million (3.7, 6), ABC had 5.9 million (3.9, 6), NBC had 5.1 million (3.3, 5), ION Television had 1.2 million (0.8, 1) and the CW had 940,000 (0.6, 1).

Among the Spanish-language networks, Univision led with an average of 3.7 million viewers (2.0, 3), Telemundo had 1.4 million (0.7, 1), UniMas had 520,000 (0.3, 0), Estrella had 180,000 (0.1, 0) and Azteca had 80,000 (0.0, 0).

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8.3 million viewers (5.6, 11). ABC's "World News" was second with 7.5 million (5.1, 11) and the "CBS Evening News" had 6.2 million viewers (4.2, 8).

A ratings point represents 1,147,000 households, or 1 percent of the nation's estimated 114.7 million TV homes. The share is the percentage of in-use televisions tuned to a given show.

For the week of April 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: NCAA Men's Basketball Championship: Louisville vs Michigan, CBS, 23.43 million; "NCIS," CBS, 17.22 million; "NCIS: Los Angeles," CBS, 14.1 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 14.03 million; "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 13.31 million; "American Idol" (Thursday), Fox, 13.19 million;"Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 13.15 million; "60 Minutes," CBS, 12.62 million. "American Idol" (Wednesday), Fox, 12.23 million; "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 12.13 million.

___

ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox and My Network TV are units of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. UniMas is a division of Univision. Azteca America is a wholly owned subsidiary of TV Azteca S.A. de C.V.

___

Online:

http://www.nielsen.com

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will host the glittering annual finale of the women's tennis season from 2014 until 2018, the WTA said on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian city-state beat Tianjin in China and Mexico's Monterrey for the right to stage the WTA Championships after Turkey's Istanbul ends its three-year stint in October.

"Your sensational city, the amazing city of Singapore, has won the right to host the WTA Championships for the next five years from 2014," WTA chairman and chief executive Stacey Allaster told reporters.

Allaster called the agreement a record breaker and "the largest and most significant WTA partnership in our history", with prize money increased to a record $6.5 million.

The season-ender is the most prestigious women's tennis event outside the four grand slam tournaments - the Australian, French and U.S. Opens plus Wimbledon.

The top eight singles and doubles pairs over the season qualify for the event which was won last year by American world number one Serena Williams. Russian pair Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova took the doubles title.

The event was first staged in 1972 in the United States but has moved around the world since 2001 with Munich, Madrid and Doha joining New York and Los Angeles in staging it.

The hosting rights are a major coup for Singapore, which has not held a top level tennis event since the 1999 Heineken Cup on the men's ATP Tour. Lower ranked challenger events and exhibition tournaments have struggled to attract crowds.

The event will take place at the Sports Hub complex, which is due to be finished by the first quarter of 2014 at a cost of S$1.3 billion ($1.05 billion).

The impressive complex will feature a 55,000-seater stadium with retractable roof, a 13,000 indoor stadium, aquatics center and water sports center.

The indoor stadium will host the show court with the other facilities to be used in a entertainment filled "10 day fan fest."

The venue could be key for sports and entertainment businesses to tap into the lucrative southeast Asian market with Singapore's low crime rate and overall ease of doing business a rarity amongst nearby nations.

World Sports Group, the commercial partner of the Sports Hub, have talked previously about attracting a rugby 7s event and Indian Premier League Twenty20 matches. WSG Chief Executive Andrew Georgiou said the WTA Championships was just the start.

"It is also another feather in the cap for Singapore, which continues to prove itself as Asia's premier events destination. We are really excited about working towards the first event of 2014," the Australian told reporters.

"We are pretty proud, one of the first of many to be announced over the next couple of months to be hosted at the Singapore sports hub."

(Additional reporting by Ossian Shine; Editing by Peter Rutherford)