GENEVA (AP) -- Global warming accelerated since the 1970s and broke more countries' temperature records than ever before in the first decade of the new millennium, U.N. climate experts said Wednesday.

A new analysis from the World Meteorological Organization says average land and ocean surface temperatures from 2001 to 2010 rose above the previous decade, and were almost a half-degree Celsius above the 1961-1990 global average.

The decade ending in 2010 was an unprecedented era of climate extremes, the agency said, evidenced by heat waves in Europe and Russia, droughts in the Amazon Basin, Australia and East Africa, and huge storms like Tropical Cyclone Nargis and Hurricane Katrina.

Data from 139 nations show that droughts like those in Australia, East Africa and the Amazon Basin affected the most people worldwide. But it was the hugely destructive and deadly floods such as those in Pakistan, Australia, Africa, India and Eastern Europe that were the most frequent extreme weather events.

Experts say a decade is about the minimum length of time to study when it comes to spotting climate change.

From 1971 to 2010, global temperatures rose by an average rate of 0.17 degrees Celsius per decade. But going back to 1880, the average increase was .062 percent degrees Celsius per decade.

The pace also picked up in recent decades. Average temperatures were 0.21 degrees Celsius warmer this past decade than from 1991 to 2000, which were in turn 0.14 degrees Celsius warmer than from 1981 to 1990.

Natural cycles between atmosphere and oceans make some years cooler than others, but during the past decade there was no major event associated with El Nino, the phenomenon characterized by unusually warm temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Much of the decade was affected by the cooling La Nina, which comes from unusually cool temperatures there, or neutral conditions.

Given those circumstances, WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud says the data doesn't support the notion among some in the scientific community of a slowdown, or lull, in the pace of planetary warming in recent years.

"The last decade was the warmest, by a significant margin," he said. "If anything we should not talk about the plateau, we should talk about the acceleration."

Jarraud says the data show warming accelerated between 1971 and 2010, with the past two decades increasing at rates never seen before amid rising concentrations of industrial gases that trap heat in the atmosphere like a greenhouse.

By the end of 2010, the report shows, atmospheric concentrations of some of the chief warming gases from fossil fuel burning and other human actions were far higher than at the start of the industrial era in 1750. Carbon dioxide concentrations measured in the air around the world rose 39 percent since then; methane rose 158 percent; and nitrous oxide was up 20 percent.

In the photo, a dozen long-beaked commoncruise in front of the gray whale, pushed along by the bigger animal's bow wave. The image was taken from about 600 feet (182 meters) above the water near Catalina Island and published last week by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

This whale is just one of about 20,000 eastern North Pacific gray whales that migrate each year from feeding grounds in the Arctic to breeding and calving grounds off the coast of Mexico.

Scientists keep track of this subspecies in aerial surveys as part of NOAA's Cetacean Health and Life History Program. Photos from the air can reveal whether the animals are pregnant, well-nourished or accompanied by new calves during their annual journeys.

Indirectly, the images can serve as a barometer for the health of the Arctic ecosystem, since the whales' bodies during migration mirror the conditions in their feeding grounds.

"Gray whales integrate the impacts of climate change into their physical condition, then they swim right by our coast. So we can actually do Arctic research right here from San Diego," Wayne Perryman, a biologist with the whale-tracking program, said in a feature on .

As the Arctic warms, the food supply of the baleen whales is shifting north, meaning the big-bodied marine mammals may have to travel longer to chase their prey. Perryman and his colleagues are examining the relationship between the length of the migration and the rate of successful pregnancies, according to NOAA.

Eastern gray whales were once on the brink of extinction but their population has rebounded in the past several decades. However, their current numbers are likely still a fraction of the pre-whaling population, according to .

Follow Megan Gannon onandFollow OurAmazingPlanet ,and.Original article on .

Letang, who led all NHL defensemen in scoring last season with 38 points (five goals, 33 assists) becomes the latest core member of the Penguins to sign a long-term deal joining captain Sidney Crosby (12-years $104 million) and Evgeni Malkin (eight-years $76 million).

Taken in the third round of the 2005 draft, Letang has spent his entire career in Pittsburgh where he has developed into one of the league's top offensive defensemen.

A two-time All-Star, Letang helped the Penguins to a Stanley Cup in 2009 and this season was a finalist for the Norris Trophy that goes to the NHL's top blueliner.

In seven seasons Letang has 44 goals and 209 points and has added 13 goals and 34 assists in 80 career playoff games.

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto)

Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame became members of the ACC at 12:01 ET Monday, giving the conference 15 members.

To celebrate the league's northern expansion, Commissioner John Swofford, North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher and Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer are among the ACC dignitaries scheduled to be in New York City on Monday afternoon. After holding a news conference at the NASDAQ stock exchange in Times Square, Swofford and company will take part in the closing bell ceremony.

July 1 is moving day for schools switching conferences all over the country, including those relocating to the newly named American Athletic Conference.

The beginning of the American means the end of the Big East football after 31 years and the beginning of the new Big East. The new basketball-centric conference comprised mostly of the Catholic schools that didn't have FBS football programs in the old Big East opens for business Monday as well.

All this is a culmination of sorts of shuffling that began the weekend of Sept. 17, 2010. Amid speculation about the Big 12 falling apart, news broke that the ACC had invited Pittsburgh and Syracuse to leave the Big East. The move sent the Big East into a spiral that ultimately tore it apart.

Meanwhile, the ACC has emerged stronger than ever its members having agreed earlier this year to hand over media rights to the league through the 2026-27 school year and looking to gain footing in the largest media market in the country.

The ACC will send a team to the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium for six years, starting in 2014. Part of the deal will be ACC signage at Yankee Stadium year-round. Swofford has openly talked about the possibility of playing the ACC men's basketball tournament in the New York area, maybe Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Syracuse has been branding itself as New York's college team for several years, and Notre Dame has a huge following in the Big Apple, despite being located about 700 miles away in South Bend, Ind. The Fighting Irish, which agreed to leave the Big East last fall, are joining the ACC for all sports except football and hockey.

"We want to make sure that we're progressive and creative and doing things that take advantage of the opportunities that come with that," Swofford said last week after the Pinstripe Bowl announcement in the Bronx. "In a lot of ways, it's about meshing the history and tradition of the league and its past, with a progressive approach to what the league can be in the future based on our footprint."

The league that Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame leave behind bears only some resemblance to the one they had been part of for decades.

The Big East officially becomes the American Athletic Conference on Monday, too, with Central Florida, Memphis, SMU and Houston joining.

The American's Twitter feed posted a link to its new website Sunday night with a message to visitors that ended with, "We are Proudly American. And we can't wait to get started."

Though it will get started with two lame duck members. Rutgers will leave for the Big Ten in 2014 and Louisville will be the latest departure to the ACC after this season, too. Louisville replaces Maryland, which will head to the Big Ten along with Rutgers.

As for the new Big East, it will look a lot like the old pre-football Big East: Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, DePaul, Marquette, Butler, Creighton and Xavier.

LONDON (Reuters) - American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan pulled off a feat on Saturday that has proved beyond tennis greats Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic as they won their fourth grand slam in a row to complete a "Golden Bryan Slam".

By downing Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo 3-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 to win the Wimbledon men's doubles title, the 35-year-old identical twins became the first pair to hold all four grand slam titles at the same time since 1952.

In recent years, Federer, Nadal and Djokovic all won three in a row in men's singles but fell at the final hurdle.

But in their advancing years, the Bryans are getting better and better and they show no signs of slowing down after picking up grand slam trophy number 15.

"It's hard to even dream that we'd have the slam, all four at one time," said Mike, who also struck gold with his brother at last year's London Olympics.

"It all started back after we won the gold. It just felt like a huge pressure was released. Went on to win the (U.S.) Open and had a great summer.

"This year we've been on an amazing year. Never had a streak like this. Especially at 35, I feel like we're hitting our peak.

"I didn't think anything could feel as sweet as the gold medal, but this one just feels like there's a cap, a lid, or a ribbon around our career.

"It's pretty cool. It's something we never dreamed of, to try to win four in a row."

Despite achieving the rare feat they now know the pressure will be on them to complete a 'calendar slam' when they turn up at Flushing Meadows in August.

"Now we got to try to suit back up for the calendar slam. I don't even want to think about that," grinned Mike.

His left-handed brother Bob added: "The reason why we've been playing so well is because we have everything.

"Everything now feels like a bonus. It just feels like we're adding nuts and whipped cream and cherries to our great career.

"If we retire today, we feel like we've done it all."

Just how well the instincts of the right and left-handed duo work was all too apparent when they fought back strongly despite losing the first five games of the match to the Croatian/Brazilian pairing.

The top seeds got the measure of their 12th-seeded opponents through the telepathic understanding which has brought them 91 career doubles titles.

They made the decisive break in the ninth game of the fourth set and Bob Bryan served out for victory which he sealed with an ace, prompting a trademark chest-pump by the brothers.

Ken McGregor and Frank Sedgman are the only men's doubles team to have held all four titles at once, winning seven successive majors from the 1951 Australian Open to 1952 Wimbledon.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

Hernandez, seen as one of the NFL's rising stars, was charged on Wednesday with the execution-style murder of a friend in Massachusetts.

"Puma has ended the relationship with athlete Aaron Hernandez in light of the current situation," the company said in a one-line statement.

Puma, the world's third-largest sporting goods company, had announced a two-year deal with Hernandez in April.

NFL team the New England Patriots dismissed the 23-year-old player after he was charged.

Endorsement contracts normally contain a clause allowing a company to tear up the agreement if an athlete brings a brand into disrepute.

(Writing by Keith Weir; Editing by David Goodman)

I am now 24 and she won't leave me alone. She sends Facebook messages that alternate between begging me to let her get to know me, and condemning me for being vindictive and not having forgiveness in my heart. Abby, this woman exposed me to drugs and all manner of seedy people and situations. I was molested and beaten by some of the men she picked up to pay the bills.

Am I a horrible person for ignoring her? I'm close to losing my temper and letting her know exactly how angry I am, but I know it would do no good. I just want to move on with my life and advance in my profession without having to worry about this. What do you think? -- STALKED IN NEW YORK

DEAR STALKED: Silence sends a strong message. I think that when the harassment started, you should have immediately blocked this woman on Facebook. It's not too late to do that now. If she continues to annoy you, consider getting a restraining order.

Because you are on a path to success, allow nothing to divert you.

DEAR ABBY: On March 14 you printed a question from "Jim in New Jersey" who asked if brand-new clothing should be washed before wearing. Having worked in a shirt factory for years, let me tell you how many hands handle the shirt before it goes into that neat little bag.

1. Someone spreads the fabric and lays the pattern.

2. The cutter cuts it.

3. Someone else ties the different parts together.

4. Another person takes the parts to the sewing people.

5. One sewer attaches the pocket to the front.

6. Another sews the yoke to the back.

7. Another sews that back to the front.

8. Another sews in the sleeves.

9. Another sews the side seams.

10. Still another hems the bottom.

11. Another adds the collar.

12. Another sews on the cuffs (if long-sleeved).

13. Someone else sews on the buttons.

14. Another reinforces the buttonholes.

15. An inspector examines the garment for loose threads.

16. An auditor gives it a final check.

17. And finally, someone folds the shirt and puts it into that nice, clean-looking bag.

Don't even ask how many times it may have fallen on the floor -- or if we washed our hands. Abby, I never wear anything until I wash it! -- JOANN IN MISSISSIPPI

DEAR JOANN: And neither will I. Thank you!

DEAR ABBY: I'm 59 years old and still take my baseball mitt with me when I go to games in hopes of catching a ball. At what age should a guy stop doing it? (We usually sit in the lower level near the front.) -- MINNESOTA TWINS FAN

DEAR TWINS FAN: Stop taking it when you have grown so aged and feeble that when the ball comes your way, you can no longer fend off the younger fans who are also diving for it. And not one moment sooner.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more sociable person, order "How to Be Popular." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

The Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph, according to official numbers released Monday. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound.

His top speed initially was estimated at 10 mph slower at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.

Either way, he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and hopped from a capsule hoisted by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

Baumgartner was supersonic for a half-minute "quite remarkable," according to Brian Utley, the record-keeping official who was present for the Oct. 14 feat.

The 43-year-old's heart rate remained below 185 beats a minute, and his breathing was fairly steady.

The leap was from an altitude of 127,852 feet. That's 248 feet lower than original estimates, but still stratospheric.

"He jumped from a little bit lower, but he actually went a little bit faster, which was pretty exciting," said Art Thompson, technical project director for the Red Bull-sponsored project.

"It's fun for us to see reaching Mach speeds and proving out a lot of the safety systems," Thompson said in a phone interview from his aerospace company in Lancaster, Calif.

Thompson said everything pretty much unfolded as anticipated, with no big surprises in the final report. The updated records were provided by Utley, official observer for the National Aeronautic Association's contest and records board. Utley was in Roswell, N.M., for Baumgartner's grand finale following two test jumps.

Based on all the data collected from sensors on Baumgartner's suit, Utley determined that Baumgartner was 34 seconds into his jump when he reached Mach 1. The speed for breaking the sound barrier depends on the temperature at a given altitude; for Baumgartner, that came together just shy of 110,000 feet.

He reached peak speed by the time he was at 91,300 feet, 50 seconds into the jump, and was back to subsonic by 75,300 feet, give or take, 64 seconds into his free fall.

His entire free fall lasted four minutes, 20 seconds. He used a parachute to cover the final 5,000 feet, landing on his feet in the desert outside Roswell.

Not everything went well.

Baumgartner went into a dreaded flat spin while still supersonic. He spun for 13 seconds at approximately 60 revolutions per minute, making 14 to 16 spins before using his body to regain control, Thompson said. The skydiver was well within safety limits the entire time, he noted. Baumgartner's brain remained under 2G, or two times the force of gravity, during the spin.

If the flat spin had lasted longer and been more severe exceeding six continuous seconds at 3.5 G Baumgartner's drogue, or stabilizing, parachute would have deployed automatically. Doctors worried about him blacking out and suffering a stroke or, in the case of a suit tear, his blood boiling at such an extreme altitude. The outside temperature registered as low as minus 96 Fahrenheit.

In the foreword of the 71-page report, Baumgartner said he never imagined how many people would share in his dream to make a supersonic free fall from so high.

Some 52 million people watched YouTube's live stream of the exploit.

The scientific and engineering experts who helped bring him back alive "broke boundaries in their own fields just as surely as I broke the sound barrier," Baumgartner wrote.

Baumgartner shattered the previous record set by Joe Kittinger, an Air Force officer, in 1960. Kittinger did not quite reach supersonic speed during his jump from 19.5 miles up.

Kittinger noted in the Red Bull Stratos report (Stratos for stratosphere) that future work is needed to test a stabilizing parachute for use at extreme altitudes.

The private project was aimed, from the start, at helping future space crews whether NASA or commercial survive high-altitude accidents.

If a highly trained jumper like Baumgartner with 2,500 jumps couldn't prevent a flat spin, "an astronaut, pilot or space tourist could not overcome this spinning probability," Kittinger wrote.

Thompson agreed, noting that given the right safety gear and the right conditions, there's "a remote possibility" a space crew could survive even under such harsh circumstances as were faced by the space shuttle Columbia astronauts.

All seven astronauts perished as Columbia returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003. One of the crew, Laurel Clark, was married to the former NASA flight surgeon who led Baumgartner's medical team, Dr. Jonathan Clark.

"You never know what the possibilities are ... that's the direction we need to look at," Thompson said.

___

Online:

http://www.redbullstratos.com/

Benchmark crude for August delivery rose $1.98, or 2 percent, to finish at $103.22 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the highest closing price since May 2, 2012.

Following the ouster of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday, his supporters began a series of protests and attacks Friday. The military opened fire as hundreds of protesters marched on a headquarters of the Republican Guard

Egypt is not an oil-producer, but its control of the Suez Canal, one of the world's busiest shipping lanes, gives it a crucial role in maintaining global energy supplies.

For now supplies are moving freely through the canal.

U.S. employers added a robust 195,000 jobs in June and many more in April and May than previously thought. The job growth suggests a stronger economy and makes it more likely the Federal Reserve will slow its bond purchases before year's end.

Those bond purchases have supported the economy by helping keep long-term interest rates low. That in turn has given a boost to investments such as stocks and oil.

At the pump, the national average for a gallon of gas stayed at $3.48 for the third straight day. That's down 14 cents from a month ago and 14 cents higher than a year ago.

Brent crude, which is used to set prices for crude oils used by many U.S. refineries, rose $2.18, or 2.1 percent, to end at $107.72 per barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on the Nymex:

Wholesale gasoline rose 6 cents to finish at $2.90 per gallon.

Natural gas fell 7 cents to end at $3.62 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Heating oil added 4 cents to finish at $2.99 a gallon.

__

Pablo Gorondi in Budapest contributed to this report.

A White House commission tasked with making voting improvements after lengthy wait times were reported in the 2012 election is hitting the road.

The president's Commission on Election Administration, which met for the first time on Friday, announced it will hold upcoming hearings in four states: Florida, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Ohio.

Co-chair Bob Bauer, President Barack Obama's former counsel, said they will hold "a public meetings process around the country that enables us to hear from election officials, from experts and from citizens in affected communities about the voting experience and their perspective on the issues they should be covering." Bauer and co-chair Ben Ginsberg, former counsel for Mitt Romney, invited election experts and members of the public to participate.

"Please help us to ferret out the information we need," Bauer said.

Hearing specifics are still slim. Known so far: They are scheduled for June 28 at the University of Miami, Aug. 8 in Denver, Sept. 4 in Philadelphia and Sept. 20 somewhere in Ohio.

The commissionwas first publicly announced by Obama in his State of the Union address, during which he expressed concern about long wait times at the polls in 2012. The commission is tasked with presenting recommendations in six months to the president to improve voting, specifically focusing on members of the military, overseas voters, voters with disabilities and voters with limited English proficiency. It will also look at the training of polling workers, the operation of polling places and voting machines, and ballot design per the president's executive order, which included a long list of other potential areas of study.

Columbia Law School professor Nathan Persily, who is on the committee and presented research on Friday, emphasized during his presentation the necessity of the public hearings.

"It will be one of the main ways we interact with the public," Persily said, adding that voters will "plug holes where we don't have research."

After the hearing, Bauer told Yahoo News that he believes the commission will serve to change the historically typical ebb and flow of election interest.

"There's always this problem we have in this country that elections take place and then they kind of fade away," he said. "What I think the president's hoping to accomplish here is to have a very focused discussion that's well-informed and enabled to be national in scope, and to have recommendations presented to him that will really be helpful to election administrators around the country."

Costs for the commission will be handled by the the U.S. General Services Administration. No money was requested in the presidents proposal or in GSAs budget request. Steve Croley, deputy White House counsel, told Yahoo News in late April .

Ginsbergwhose inclusion along with Bauer's is designed to send a clear bipartisan messagesaid on Friday he was "flattered" to be asked to be part of the commission and expressed hope they could make a difference in voting in America.

"I hope we can make a difference in correcting these things that Republicans and Democrats agree really are issues," Bauer said.

The co-chairs on Friday readily conceded they have a large challenge before them related both to the scope of their task as well as logistically given the short time frame and a commission staffed by volunteers. But they expressed hope the CEA wouldn't join the list of past commissions criticized for their ineffectiveness.

"It's a challenge, but everyone's interested in the issue so we're all willing to work hard for the discrete time period we have," Ginsberg said.