WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress sifts through a growing number of requests for targeted relief from automatic spending cuts in coming weeks, advocates seeking funding shifts likely will need to tell a compelling story with potential life-or-death consequences.

Requests without such a strong selling point may find it impossible to gain enough bipartisan support as lawmakers vow not to repeat a swift and controversial action last week to save airline travelers from flight delays caused by automatic "sequestration" spending cuts.

Congress was worried about a toxic public backlash when it moved quickly to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to use some airport improvement funds to pay salaries of air traffic controllers, ending furloughs that had delayed thousands of flights across the country.

When members of Congress return from a recess on Monday, there will be no shortage of other requests to shift funds from other budget accounts awaiting them.

The National Park Service faces closures and cutbacks that will cost jobs in communities that depend on the parks as the summer travel season begins. Some 70,000 children may be shut out of the Head Start preschool program for low-income families while funding for Meals on Wheels, cancer research and some treatments for Medicare patients will be cut.

The Pentagon is expected to ask for more authority to move up to $7.5 billion within its budget to cover costs for training and military operations in Afghanistan. With troops still in harm's way, that request likely will face few objections.

More needs will pile up As the across-the-board spending cuts - $85 billion through September 30 - take hold. But most will fall on deaf ears as lawmakers insist that a comprehensive budget deal is needed to resolve sequester cuts, not individual fixes.

"With the possible exception of life-threatening issues, there will be plenty of pleas from people who represent worthy causes that get ignored," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research, an investment consulting firm.

"It's extremely unlikely that House Republicans will be willing to grant exceptions for national parks, Meals on Wheels or teachers," he said.

The sequester cuts that took effect March 1 were conceived in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. Policymakers failed to reach such an agreement and now must deal with the fallout from the cuts, which total will total $1.2 trillion over 10 years unless replaced.

Last month's flight delays created a mix of pressure from the airline industry and constituents facing a universally loathed problem that both parties could rally around.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, is not inclined to pursue additional one-off measures to deal with sequester, a Democratic leadership aide said. Reid would prefer to press forward with his proposal to simply delay the cuts through September 30 in order to buy more time for a broader budget deal.

"I just don't see another one-off bill that's going to rise to the same level as flight delays," a senior House Republican aide said.

Many House Republicans also are concerned about giving the Obama administration more authority to move money between budget accounts at federal agencies, which circumvents Congress' constitutional powers to direct spending.

In the case of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Republican aide said there is concern that such budget shifts could inadvertently give the agency power to help fund implementation of Obama's healthcare reform law, which many Republicans deeply despise and want to repeal.

SAY NO TO CANCER PATIENTS?

But funding cutbacks for some Medicare cancer treatments and cancer research studies also could be difficult for many lawmakers to resist.

The most concerted effort in this area is a Republican House bill that would exempt Medicare reimbursements on expensive cancer drugs administered at doctors' offices and clinics - one of the few portions of the healthcare program for the elderly that is subject to the sequester. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would have to shift cuts in these reimbursement rates elsewhere under the measure.

The bill's author, Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a Tea Party favorite, argues that because of the sequester, oncology clinics have been sending patients to hospitals to get their drugs.

But hospital treatment costs, which are not subject to sequester, are far higher - an average increase of $6,500 per patient per year, according to one study. Ellmers argues that this circumvents the whole point of sequester spending cuts.

"We don't want to see treatments delayed, and some patients on fixed incomes might skip treatment altogether if they are forced to go across town to a hospital," said Ellmers, who spent two decades as a surgical nurse before winning a seat in Congress in 2010.

The measure has substantial bipartisan support, with 51 cosponsors including 11 Democrats. Separately, 124 House members from both parties signed a letter to the CMS director asking that "any available flexibility be used to direct the cuts away from patients."

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to comment on the bill's prospects for passage, referring questions about it to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

THREAT TO CANCER TRIALS

Cancer research doctors also say further sequester funding cutbacks could ultimately cost lives.

Dr. Scott Lippman, director of the University of California-San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said the sequester will mean fewer clinical trials for promising therapies, and some patients ultimately will be turned away from these trials. Research on new treatments also could be slowed.

"This going to harm patients," Lippman said. "This is going to prevent patients from getting treatments that could save their lives."

At a time when advancements in cancer research are moving very quickly with new gene-based discoveries, he said now is "not the time to be slamming on the brakes."

While no trials have been canceled yet due to sequester alone, research centers are working hard to try to cut everything else that they can, said Dr. Edward Partridge, director of the University of Alabama-Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center. But the choices will be difficult.

"We will do everything we can to maintain our current clinical trial volume," he said. "Even if it's at the expense of new discovery. I hope (sequester) doesn't last too long so that we have to withdraw the possibility of clinical trials for patients. That would be a disaster."

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Fred Barbash and Bill Trott)

LONDON (Reuters) - The new strain of bird flu that has killed 17 people in China has been circulating widely "under the radar" and has acquired significant genetic diversity that makes it more of a threat, scientists said on Friday.

Dutch and Chinese researchers who analyzed genetic data from seven samples of the new H7N9 strain say it has already acquired similar levels of genetic diversity as much larger outbreaks of other H7 strains of flu seen previously in birds.

"The diversity we see in these first few samples from China is as great as the diversity we have seen with a large outbreak in the Netherlands several years ago and one in Italy," said Marion Koopmans, head of virology at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who worked on the study as part of a nine-member team.

"This means it (the H7N9 strain in China) has been spreading quite a bit and it's important to understand where exactly that is going on."

Its genetic diversity shows the virus has an ability to mutate repeatedly and is likely to continue doing so, raising the risk that it may become transmissible among humans.

Koopmans, whose research was published in the online journal Eurosurveillance, said the circulation would probably have taken place in either birds or mammals, but said exactly which animals were involved was not yet clear.

"Simply the fact that this virus is spreading under the radar - because that is what this data confirms - is of concern," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The H7N9 virus is so far known to have infected 87 people in China, killing 17 of them. Health officials raised further questions on Friday about the source of the new strain after data indicated that more than half of patients had had no contact with poultry.

MUTATIONS

A scientific study published last week showed the H7N9 strain was a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia. One of those three strains is thought to have come from a brambling, a type of small wild bird.

For their study, Koopmans and her team compared some data from the first two weeks of the China H7N9 outbreak with data from a large H7N7 flu outbreak in birds and people the Netherlands in 2003 and an H7N1 epidemic in birds in Italy in 1999 and 2000.

The Dutch outbreak resulted in infection of poultry on 255 farms and led to the culling of about 30 million chickens. Some 89 people were also diagnosed as having the H7N7 virus and one person, a vet, died as a result of the infection.

The comparison suggested that "widespread circulation (of the H7N9 strain in China) must have occurred, resulting in major genetic diversification", the researchers wrote in their study.

They added: "Such diversification is of concern, given that several markers associated with increased risk for public health are already present."

Flu experts in China and at the World Health Organization say there is no evidence so far that H7N9 is passing easily between people.

But scientists who analyzed the genetic sequence data from three early samples from China say the virus has already acquired some mutations that might make it more likely to be able to do so in the future, raising the risk of a human pandemic.

"Although human infections with H7 influenza viruses have occurred repeatedly over the last decades without evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, the absence of sustained human-to-human transmission of H7N9 viruses does not come with any guarantee," Koopmans' team wrote in their study.

(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Alison Williams)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former Goldman Sachs Group Inc computer programmer failed to win the dismissal of charges by Manhattan's district attorney of stealing secret trading code, despite having earlier had his federal conviction over the same activity thrown out.

In a decision made public on Tuesday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Ronald Zweibel said the former programmer, Sergey Aleynikov, did not show that the charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr amounted to double jeopardy, or were part of a "vindictive prosecution" justifying dismissal.

Zweibel also rejected the argument that Aleynikov has been "punished enough," having already spent 11 months in prison during the federal proceedings and lost his home and savings, and that ending the case served the interest of justice.

"We are in the process of reviewing the opinion, and are confident that Mr. Aleynikov will again be vindicated," Aleynikov's lawyer Kevin Marino said in a phone interview about the decision, which is dated April 5.

A spokeswoman for Vance had no immediate comment. Goldman spokesman Michael DuVally declined to comment.

Vance and U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara in Manhattan, who had earlier prosecuted Aleynikov, have made cracking down on computer crime and corporate espionage a top priority.

Federal prosecutors had accused Aleynikov of stealing trading code from Goldman in 2009 as he prepared to join a high-frequency trading startup firm in Chicago.

A federal jury found Aleynikov guilty in December 2010, but a federal appeals court in New York overturned that verdict in February 2012, saying that federal corporate espionage laws did not cover Aleynikov's alleged illegal activity.

But last August, Vance charged Aleynikov with two felonies under New York state law, unlawful use of secret scientific material and unlawful duplication of computer related material.

Aleynikov could face up to four years in prison if convicted. He remains free on bail.

Zweibel said Aleynikov was not deprived of his right under the 5th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution not to be tried twice for the same offense.

He said this was because the federal and state charges were different, and because the federal case was dismissed because the indictment, rather than the evidence, was inadequate.

The judge also said there was no reason to presume that Vance had an improper motive in bringing his case.

"Even assuming, as defendant does, that the timing of this indictment, coupled with the defendant's successful appeal of his federal court conviction, raises an inference that the prosecution may have been motivated for vindictive reasons, these factors along do not create a presumption of vindictiveness," Zweibel wrote.

The case is People v. Aleynikov, New York State Supreme Court, New York County, No. 04447/2012.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Additional reporting by Joseph Ax; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

(Reuters) - Shoppers Drug Mart Corp, Canada's biggest pharmacy chain, said tightened pricing controls for generic drugs will push its 2013 pharmacy same-store sales outlook to the lower end of its previous guidance.

The company had previously forecast pharmacy same-store sales growth of between 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent for 2013.

Canada's provinces and territories agreed in January to tighten caps on prices of six widely prescribed generic drugs to cut costs for private and government health programs.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall then told Reuters that more could be done to cut the cost of generics, among the highest in the world.

The new rules mandate drugstores charge no more than 18 percent of the price of the brand-name equivalent, lower than the previous 25 percent to 40 percent cap. The rules kicked off on April 1.

On a post-earnings conference call, Chief Executive Domenic Pilla said "there will be several impacts" of this new rule in the second quarter.

Price controls have crimped growth at Shoppers and rivals such as Jean Coutu Group Inc in recent years.

Average prescription value fell 4.8 percent in the first quarter ended March 23.

However, total sales in the quarter rose 4 percent to C$2.49 billion mostly on higher over-the-counter medications, food and cosmetics. The cough and cold season in the first half of the quarter also helped drive OTC sales.

Total same-store sales, or sales at stores open for at least a year, rose 2.5 percent. Same-store sales increased 3.3 percent at the front of the store and 1.6 percent at pharmacies.

Shoppers' net profit at C$119 million ($117 million), or 59 Canadian cents per share, was in line with analysts' estimates, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

"In the context of the current environment and the low confidence around the earnings visibility, an in-line quarter was actually a beat for Shoppers," said analyst Kenric Tyghe of Raymond James.

The company has also been expanding stores and opening new ones to boost sales.

Shoppers, which also operates the Murale luxury spas, opened seven stores and acquired four in the quarter, taking total number of stores to 1,368.

"The team is actively engaged through all parts of the country, with a focus on Ontario and Western Canada, with regards to acquisition opportunities, " Chief Financial Officer Bradley Lukow said on the call.

The company has allotted about 70 percent of its 2013 capital expenditure of about C$275 million to expanding its store network.

Shares of the company closed up 15 Canadian cents at C$44.85 on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange. It hit a two-year high of C$45.44 earlier in the day.

($1 = 1.0198 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting by Krithika Krishnamurthy in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Anthony Kurian)

The review will be done by "experts who are entirely independent of the Pac-12 Conference," the league said. The investigation is expected to be completed by June.

Ed Rush resigned as the conference's coordinator of officials Thursday. He told The Associated Press he was just trying to "lighten the mood" in a tense locker room when he "jokingly" made offers of $5,000 or a trip to Mexico for any referee who disciplined Arizona coach Sean Miller during the league tournament.

The Pac-12's officiating program has endured a swarm of public criticism since the incident became public and questions about whether Rush was joking persist. Some reports also have accused Rush of creating a culture of bullying.

"Nothing is more important to the Pac-12, or to me personally, than maintaining confidence in our integrity," Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said in a statement. "Given the conflicting media reports, it is important that we do whatever we can to understand all the facts, not only to resolve the questions about officiating during the tournament but also to learn lessons that will help us make changes and improvements to our overall program."

Oregon State President Edward J. Ray, also the Pac-12 CEO Group chairman, agreed with Scott's decision.

"I agree that an independent review is important to maintain the confidence of our members, and of the public, in the integrity of our competition," Ray said. "While the review will focus primarily on the tournament, we expect that it will inform a broader examination of our men's basketball officiating and help us provide the best possible program."

On March 15, officials whistled Miller for a technical foul in the semifinals against UCLA for arguing a late double-dribble call against Wildcats guard Mark Lyons. Arizona lost 66-64.

Miller went on a memorable postgame rant about the technical foul, waving his arms while repeating "he touched the ball" five times in a row. He was later handed a $25,000 fine from the Pac-12 for what the conference said was confronting an official on the floor and acting inappropriately toward a staff member in the hallway.

Scott said last week that Arizona officials alerted him to Rush's remarks the night of March 17, a day after Oregon won the league tournament. He said he launched an internal investigation into the matter the next day and he concluded that it was not a "fireable offense," just a bad joke that stained the Pac-12's official program.

Rush said his remarks were part of an overall "point of emphasis" to crack down on coach misconduct on the sideline after Arizona's 79-69 win over Colorado in the Pac-12 quarterfinal March 14. In the course of that meeting, Rush said he called out officials who worked the game Michael Greenstein, Tony Padilla and Brett Nansel for not disciplining either Miller or Buffaloes coach Tad Boyle for their behavior.

Officials who were working the California-Utah game next Verne Harris, Deron White and Dave Hall also were in the locker room getting ready.

"I said, 'The game cried out for a bench warning. It would have been very simple to take care of that. It cried out for bench warnings,'" Rush said in a phone interview with the AP last week. "Another crew was waiting in there, getting ready for the next game. I would say there was a level of tension in the locker room, just because the disappointment that they worked this game, but they didn't take care of something that was a point of emphasis.

"So in an effort just to lighten the mood, I said to them, 'Hey, guys. What's it going to take? Do you think we could give you a trip to Cancun or maybe $5,000? Or who wants what?' And now they're all laughing, which is basically what I wanted to do. So I said, 'I know you guys, you probably want $5,000, you want the money, you won't take the trip to Cancun. So I'm going around, 'What would you take?' At that point, I said, 'By the way, you know my wife's not going to go for this. I'm going to have to pull this off the table.' They all laughed, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah. OK, bud.' That was it, and I walked out."

The 70-year-old Rush, a longtime NBA referee and the league's former director of officiating, had been a consultant to the Pac-12 since 2007 before becoming conference coordinator of officials last May. He said he offered his resignation to Scott by phone Thursday afternoon once it became clear it was going to be difficult to rebuild the trust of the coaches, players and public.

Rush said he plans to continue helping the NBA Development League find and train officials.

___

Antonio Gonzalez can be reached at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

The event comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from smartphones and tablet computers. More Android integration could help Facebook Inc. attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

Facebook's event was being held at its headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif.

Here's a running account of Facebook's event, presented in reverse chronological order. All times are PDT. Presenters include CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Adam Mosseri, director of products; Joey Flynn, product designer. Also appearing were HTC's CEO and AT&T's head of wireless. A question-and-answer session followed the main presentation, which lasted about 45 minutes.

___

11:30 a.m.

Here's a list of phones that will be able to run Home at first: HTC's One X and One X Plus and Samsung's Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. The upcoming HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S IV will also be able to run Home. HTC's First will have it already installed.

Facebook says it hopes to extend that to other phones later.

Gartner analyst Brian Blau says he's impressed with Facebook's commitment to update Home once a month with additional features. He says Home "could be a game changer if you are a heavy Facebook user."

___

11:15 a.m.

More details are emerging on the new HTC phone. Called First, it will run on Android 4.1, also known as Jelly Bean. It will come with the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app Instagram already installed. Cost is $100 with a two-year service agreement. The new device will have a screen that measures 4.3 inches diagonally.

The April 12 sale date happens to be when the iPhone 5 becomes available through T-Mobile.

___

11:05 a.m.

Home will be limited to phones running the Ice Cream Sandwich and Jelly Bean versions of Android. That's version 4.0 and later. That covers phones made or updated over the past year or so.

Initially, the app will be limited to specific Android models about a half-dozen of them, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. It will also work on the upcoming Galaxy S IV. In addition, HTC Corp.'s upcoming First phone will come with Home.

It's not immediately clear what happens if you have Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean but not one of the models listed.

___

11 a.m.

Mosseri says ads will eventually come to this new service. It will be interspersed among the items displayed on the home screen, the way Facebook now injects ads into the main news feed showing friends' photos, links and other posts. But in this case, the ads will take up the entire display.

___

10:55 a.m.

The new Home service won't be available on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple's iOS and Mac operating systems include features that integrate Facebook's services, but Zuckerberg says doing something like Home would require a closer partnership.

By contrast, Google makes its Android operating system available on an open-source basis, free for anyone to modify, so it's easier to make changes. That said, Facebook makes it clear it's not making a new version of Android, a practice known as forking. Home is being built on top of Android.

___

10:50 a.m.

Minutes after the event ends, Facebook's stock is up 74 cents, or 2.8 percent, at $26.99.

___

10:45 a.m.

Zuckerberg closes the event by expressing his vision of the future, one where people have smartphones and tablet computers rather than desktops and laptops. He says there will be people who have never seen what we call computers these days.

He says Home feeds into that vision.

___

10:40 a.m.

While people will be able to install Home themselves, some phone makers will build Home into the phones. HTC Corp. is releasing a phone called First. It will come in four colors red, light blue, white and black. It will run on AT&T Inc.'s 4G LTE cellular network and go on sale April 12 for $100, with advance orders to begin Thursday. A two-year service agreement is required.

___

10:35 a.m.

To get Home, simply go to Google's online Play store when it's available. Those with Facebook apps on the phone already will get a prompt to download it. The software will be updated with new features monthly.

It will be available April 12 on certain phones initially.

Facebook isn't making Home for tablet devices for several months, though.

Zuckerberg tells the audience, "We are really proud of Home and we are excited to get (it) into your hands. We think this is the best version of Facebook there is."

___

10:30 a.m.

Flynn unveils a feature called chat heads. The idea is to let you communicate with your friends from that home screen, without needing to open an app. You can chat with multiple people at once that way.

___

10:25 a.m.

Mosseri describes one of the main features of the new service. It's called cover feed.

He notes that when people look at their phones now, they typically see a clock and perhaps the snippet of an email. That will change if you have the Home service activated. As soon as you turn on your phone, you'll see photos. You can swipe from one to the next from the home screen.

___

10:20 a.m.

The new service is called Home. Pictures from your Facebook news feed would take up the entire display screen. Zuckerberg says you'll be seeing the world through people rather than apps.

He gives an example of standing in line at a store and looking down at the phone to see photos of friends and family. It'll be possible to flip through the items. If there's something you like, just double tap on it to "like" it. You can also add comments from the home screen.

With this, Facebook doesn't believe you'll need to go to the Facebook app any more.

___

10:15 a.m.

Zuckerberg says Facebook isn't building a Facebook phone, saying a Facebook-centered device might sell 10 million to 20 million units at best. Rather, it's building on the existing Android system to bring this experience to a wider group of Android users.

___

10:10 a.m.

Zuckerberg talks about a new way to approach Facebook on phones.

He asks, "Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about?" Better, he says, is to have that experience come right to the home screen, so you're always knowing what is going on around you.

He makes a comparison to the company's news feed feature, which brought friends' posts to a centralized place and reduced the need for people to check their friends' profile pages one by one.

___

10:05 a.m.

Zuckerberg walks on stage and addresses the rumors head on: "Today, we're finally going to talk about that Facebook phone."

He then adds that more specifically, Facebook will talk about turning the Android phone into a simple, social device.

Grindhouse motion pictures include: Mahogany Sunrise, The Legend of Seven Toe Maggie, The Hole 2, The Boat Between Two Rivers, and most recently Bad Romance; starring Filipina actress Mercedes Cabral, voted 2008 Cannes International Film Festival Most Beautiful Actress, and a supporting cast of local and International co-stars.

Silver Visibility is a boutique media agency, specializing in digital marketing and public relations across a wide range of disciplines, industries and channels. "Silver Visibility serves its clients through four main divisions: product development, interactive services, performance marketing and public relations, with celebrity, political and sports marketing divisions to be added in the near future," notes Silver Visibility CMO Trent Silver.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to tap into the Southeast Asia showbiz industry. Some really great motion pictures come out of the Philippines, and I'm pleased to be part of the entertainment production, marketing and distribution of the films," says Trent Silver, CMO of Silver Visibility.

Digital marketing and public relations expert Trent Silver is the CMO of SilverVisibility.com, a boutique media agency. Trent Silver is available for interviews, media appearances and speaking opportunities about any aspect of digital marketing and public relations.

Trent SilverSilver Visibility813-494-0205

Troopers worked with the FBI and Interpol for several months to track down 35-year-old Timothy Noah Kaufman, state police Capt. Timothy Munro said Friday. They arrested him without incident Wednesday in Clifton Park, a bedroom community north of Albany.

Kaufman had been in New York more than six months, Munro said. Public records show he also lived in Knoxville, Tenn., and in Colorado.

In a posting on its website, the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation says Kaufman and two other men shot 54-year-old David Balmer and his 26-year-old girlfriend, Elma de Guia, in September 2011 as they slept in the home of Balmer's business partner, Richard Agnew, in Angeles City.

Agnew discovered their bodies the next day.

Philippines media report the area is in the heart of the country's sex tourism business and that Agnew owns several clubs. He told the Sunday World, an Irish newspaper, he thought the gunmen were targeting him and killed Balmer and de Guia by mistake.

"Those bullets were meant for me. That night I had luck on my side but David did not," Agnew told the newspaper.

The NBI bulletin says the two were shot multiple times.

Reached by phone early Saturday morning local time, the duty agent at the NBI said nobody was available to talk about the case until Monday morning.

Kaufman; Joseph Stephan Tramontano, an American; and Jesus F. Santos Jr., a Filipino, are each charged with two counts of murder. It could not immediately be learned if either of the other men was in custody.

The NBI bulletin included pictures of several IDs reportedly belonging to Kaufman, one of which indicated he was an ex-U.S. Marine.

Maj. Shawn Haney, public affairs officer for the Marine's Manpower & Reserve Affairs in Quantico, Va., confirmed Kaufman served in the Marines from Dec. 11, 2000, to Nov. 28, 2005, and was an intelligence specialist, leaving the corps as a corporal. He served in Iraq from Sept. 1, 2004, to March 5, 2005, and earned the Marine Corps Achievement Medal and Good Conduct Medal, among other citations.

Kaufman was turned over to U.S. Marshals and faces a May 9 extradition hearing.

That latter objection is based on the Obama administration's intention to fight Chinese crime using a variety of different mechanisms. Importantly, it wants to determine how to fight -- it does not want Congress to tell them how and when cyber information must be shared between private companies, the FBI, the CIA or the National Security Agency.   Still, the White House has not explicitly said that President Obama won't allow some version of CIPSA to reach his desk. It has said that personal privacy is not well-protected by CIPSA, but traditionally, the executive branch has used this excuse as a fig-leaf to cover their opposition for other reasons.

So what can the U.S. do to reduce the cyber threat from China?  

1. It can build an electronic wall around the country, forcing all Internet traffic to be subject to deep packet inspection; and then, to compare those packets against known signatures from China; segregate them; eradicate the malware from them, and then let them through. As I've written before, this is something the National Security Agency believes it CAN do but something that virtually every stakeholder except those inside the government believe would be an awfully hard sell to the American people. 

2. It can require, or encourage, major technology companies that serve as Internet gateways for most Americans to boost their own cyber defenses, and then share, with immunity, suspected cyber threats with the government in real-time, allowing the NSA to swoop in and solve the problem. This is, incidentally, the CISPA approach. 

3. It can secretly share with the big Internet companies the cyber techniques and tactics used by Chinese corporations and the military, giving U.S. companies a chance to develop cyber counter-measures. It can work into lure hackers from China into systems, and then manipulate those hackers into divulging attack patterns, which can be reverse-engineered to fortify defenses. Publicly, it can enforce its own laws against hacking and for the world to follow. 

4. It can fight back, engaging in tit-for-tat  brinksmanship, hoping to convince the Chinese to back off by demonstrating the capacity of U.S. computer network operations.  Though there is a body of secret law authorizing offensive cyber exploitation against China, the Obama administration doesn't want to engage in "war," as commonly understood. Less kinetic means and military deception/information operations campaigns.

5. It can provide significant incentives for individuals and corporations to protect themselves, allowing free market mechanisms to determine the structure and rules of economy-wide computer network defense. For this approach to be effective, there has to be a broad understanding of what the threat is, what can and can't be done about it, and informal "rules" to shame/encourage those who don't and do participate. It can also work with companies that do major business with China to influence Chinese policies; it can propose a global treaty that would set clear guidelines and an enforcement mechanism. It can, can, can, but there are so many ifs, ands and buts to deal with it that they -- we-- probably won't, not for a while anyway.

Some combination of all of these approaches is going to be the de facto law of the land, even though the community of smart people who debate cyber security still haven't agreed on a set of basic propositions, like whether it is possible to determine precisely where an attack emanated and what its motive actually was and who can be blamed for it.

But the U.S. is not powerless. And that's the point.

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Thesite averages over 300,000 unique site visits and 1.3 million page views each month generated from key content features including weekly free song downloads and New Song Cafe instructional videos featuring many of today's most compelling and influential worship leaders and songwriters. Over 525,000 registered members are coming to the site, averaging almost 5 minutes per visit, to find the songs and resources they need to lead their services each week. The weekly newsletter update is sent to over 128,000 opt in subscribers featuring the latest songs, downloads and other content added to the site, as well as any new resources available for purchase.

Top Worship artists like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Hillsong, Brenton Brown and Matt Maher were introduced to worship leaders and individual worshippers by EMICMG Publishing through WorshipTogether.com. New artists, writers and songs are continually being recruited, equipped and launched through the worship community by this powerful resource.

WorshipTogether.com is part of Capitol CMG Publishing. CMG Publishing is home to EMI CMG Publishing and Brentwood Benson Music Publishing, unified under the direction of President Eddie DeGarmo.In addition to having such songwriters as TobyMac, Kirk Franklin, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crows and Jars of Clay, the company also encompasses such prominent Christian music catalogs as Motown Gospel, sixsteps, Thankyou Music, Hillsong, Maranatha! Music, Emack Music, Reunion Music and the Sparrow catalogs, repository to numerous legendary gospel and Christian evergreens.

The site is also part of the FrontGate Worship Network reaching worship leaders, pastors and church musicians.FrontGate’s network also includes the musician community ChristianGuitar.org; Christian Musician Summits, the largest worship leader conferences in country; leading digital and print magazines Worship Musician and Christian Musician, Creator Magazine and more.

Established in 2001, FrontGate () is the leading culture-engaged media group & marketing service reaching the faith and family values audience which represents $4.6 billion worth of Christian products purchased by consumers annually according to USA Today, and the only media group founded for the purpose of marketing others’ projects rather than publishing content.This foundational focus on marketing has made FrontGate a leader for innovation in delivering the faith-based audience.

The firm just received the 2013 Crystal Trophy as the “Best Faith-based Website” in the Internet Advertising Competition, and was also honored with two 2012 WebAwards receiving the Standard of Excellence in Marketing and in Faith-Based.

Serving as “Your Gateway To The Christian Audience,” FrontGate’s ad network provides reach to more than 10 million people and six million email subscribers. The network includes the leading faith-based audience sites in their categories including ChristianCinema.com, NewReleaseTuesday.com, iTickets.com, ProjectInspired.com, Rapzilla.com, WashingtonTimes.com, WorshipTogether.com, and more, as well as key magazines and events. A complete roster can be found on the Media Kits channel at FrontGateMedia.com. In addition, the firm provides strategy and execution for Public Relations, Social Media, Media Buying, Global Pay Per Click campaigns and Merch Development. The company plays a key role in the success of movie studios, non-profit organizations, publishers and authors, record labels and artists, and more seeking faith-based and faith-friendly audiences.

Lori Lenz-HeiselmanFrontGate Media714-553-5181