The U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration said that although delinquency rates are low, the tax agency should beef up the penalties against IRS workers who misuse individually billed travel cards.

"As its mission includes requiring taxpayers to pay taxes owed on time and voluntarily, the IRS should take further steps to address employees who do not voluntarily pay their travel card bills on time," said J. Russell George, the inspector general. "Identified misuse should be met with appropriate disciplinary action."

Under federal law, misuse of government-issued credit cards to pay for travel includes using the card for personal expenses, purchase from an unauthorized merchant, and failure to pay the bill on time, among other infractions.

It said the IRS identified about 1,000 cardholders who "misused" their travel cards in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, but they didn't detail the misuse. In all, the IRS travel card program had about 52,000 individual billed accounts with $121 million in charges for fiscal year 2011, the report said.

The agency has about 90,000 employees.

The inspector general's audit this month detailing a "be on the lookout" list for conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status has fueled a furor in Washington, with congressional hearings and an FBI probe. The fracas led President Barack Obama to force the acting IRS commissioner to resign, with another IRS official retiring early and a third put on administrative leave.

The travel card report said that when the IRS disciplines employees for card misuse, they generally impose less severe penalties than their internal guidelines suggest.

It said the delinquency rate was low at less than 1 percent but current processes "do not include any steps designed to detect inappropriate or personal use while employees are on official travel."

The report said "hundreds of cardholders" with evidence of significant financial problems, were not referred to re-evaluation for national security clearance or background checks.

The IRS said in its response it was already implementing the recommendations to correct the problems.

(Reporting by Kim Dixon; Editing by Howard Goller and Doina Chiacu)

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/

Speaking at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem on Monday, she took aim at cases of ultra-Orthodox Jews targeting women.

"It's distressing to read about women in Israel being forced to sit in the back of the bus," she said, "or when we hear about 'Women of the Wall' having metal chairs thrown at them when they attempt to peacefully and legally pray."

She was referring to isolated incidents in which ultra-Orthodox men tried to force women to sit separately at the rear of buses that go through their neighborhoods, as well as more serious clashes in which ultra-Orthodox Jews tried to prevent women donning prayer shawls and carrying Torah scrolls from praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the holiest site where Jews can worship.

According to traditional Orthodox Jewish practice, only men wear prayer shawls and handle Torah scrolls, though that is slowly changing in some places. Ultra-Orthodox Jews, who cut themselves off from the rest of society but wield disproportionate power in government and religious affairs, fear that allowing women to make such inroads will erode their authority.

Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni has introduced legislation making forced separation of men and women in public places like buses illegal. On the issue of women praying at the Western Wall, a court has upheld the right of women to wear prayer shawls, and a proposal has also been made to set aside a section of the Western Wall for mixed-gender prayers.

Streisand visited the university in one of the first stops of her trip to Israel since 1984, receiving an honorary Ph.D. In her acceptance speech, she reaffirmed her support of Israel and the school.

Streisand spoke at length of her admiration for Israel and the Hebrew University, which opened a building named after her father in 1984 after she donated money for its construction. She stressed the need for gender equality, praising the university for graduating a record number of female Ph.D. students this year, the first time that women made up a majority of the degree recipients.

University officials called the Jewish singer and actor "a close friend of Israel" and said that her honorary Ph.D. was "an opportunity to recognize her support, her friendship, her generosity."

Streisand's tour has attracted widespread attention from the public and the media. Her arrival at Israel's Ben-Gurion Airport on Sunday, with her dog in tow, received prominent media coverage. Streisand, 71, will attend the 90th birthday party of Israeli President Shimon Peres later in the week before appearing at her first ever concerts in Israel on Thursday and Saturday.

The Warner Bros. superhero film earned $113 million in its opening weekend at the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. The retelling of Superman's backstory earned an additional $12 million from Thursday screenings, bringing its domestic total to $125 million. Original box-office expectations for "Man of Steel" ranged from $75 million to $130 million.

"They finally got the Superman formula right," said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com. "Superhero movies really are the bread and butter of the summer box office. The fact that 'Iron Man 3' has the biggest opening of the year so far and 'Man of Steel' has the second biggest opening of the year just proves that."

"Man of Steel," which stars Henry Cavill as Superman and Amy Adams as Lois Lane, also nabbed the record for June's biggest opening away from "Toy Story 3," the Disney-Pixar film which banked $110.3 million when it opened in 2010. "Superman Returns," the previous Superman film starring Brandon Routh in the titular role, launched with $52.5 million in 2006.

The new take on Superman's origin also performed solidly overseas, earning $71.6 million from 24 territories, including the Philippines, India, Malaysia and the United Kingdom, where "Man of Steel" earned $17.1 million. The film, which also stars Russell Crowe and Michael Shannon, is set to open next weekend in 27 more territories, such as Russia and China.

Sony's "This Is the End" debuted in second place in North America behind "Man of Steel" with $20.5 million in its opening weekend. The comedy starring Seth Rogen, James Franco and Jonah Hill as versions of themselves trapped in a mansion during the apocalypse opened Wednesday, earning a domestic total of $32.8 million. The film cost just $32 million to produce.

"We knew we were going to have competition, but we felt our movie stood on its own and had its own voice," said Rory Bruer, Sony's president of worldwide distribution. "I believe we've absolutely proven that. To have this amount of money in the bank with its cost of production, good reviews and word of mouth really puts our feet on solid ground."

In its third weekend at the box office, the Lionsgate illusionist heist film "Now You See Me" fleeced $10.3 million in third place, bringing its total domestic haul to $80 million. Universal's "Fast & Furious 6" arrived in fourth place with $9.4 million, while the studio's invasion horror film "The Purge" starring Ethan Hawke scared up $8.2 million in the fifth spot.

The super openings of "Man of Steel" and "This Is the End" helped to lift the box office 50 percent over last year when "Madagascar 3" and "Prometheus" held on to the top spots. "Man of Steel" will face off against stiff competition next week when Paramount's zombie thriller "World War Z" and the Disney-Pixar's prequel "Monsters University" both debut.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. "Man of Steel," $113 million ($71.6 million international).

2. "This Is the End," $20.5 million.

3. "Now You See Me," $10.3 million ($15.6 million international).

4. "Fast & Furious 6," $9.4 million ($20 million international).

5. "The Purge," $8.2 million ($2.4 million international).

6. "The Internship," $7 million ($5.1 million international).

7. "Epic," $6 million ($8.1 million international).

8. "Star Trek: Into Darkness," $5.6 million ($17 million international).

9. "After Earth," $3.7 million ($24 million international).

10. "Iron Man 3," $2.9 million ($1 million international).

___

Estimated weekend ticket sales at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada) for films distributed overseas by Hollywood studios, according to Rentrak:

1. "Man of Steel," $71.6 million.

2. "After Earth," $24 million.

3. "Fast & Furious 6," $20 million.

4."The Hangover Part III," $17.5 million.

5. "Star Trek Into Darkness," $17 million.

6. "Now You See Me," $15.6 million.

7. "The Great Gatsby," $9.9 million.

8. "Epic," $8.1 million.

9. "Secretly Greatly," $8 million.

10. "The Internship," $5.1 million.

___

Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by News Corp.; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Nowhere is that question more pressing than in this city near the Pakistani border, which is the capital of Nangarhar province. In the province, which has a predominantly Pashtun population, the ethnic group that makes up the Taliban, insurgents regularly ambush government forces, blow up the offices of humanitarian organizations, and control parts of a countryside that has seen a spike in opium poppy cultivation.

Nangarhar is considered so dangerous that foreign military forces still handle security in more than half of its 22 districts.

That will change, after Afghan President Hamid Karzai declares in an announcement expected soon that Afghan forces are taking over security around the country and U.S. and other foreign forces will move entirely into a supporting, backseat role. At that point, the remaining districts in Nangarhar, along with other hotspots still in the hands of the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force, will become the Afghan troops' full responsibility.

Residents of Jalalabad, a bustling trading hub and agricultural center on the junction of two rivers, worry about whether the Afghan forces can keep them safe from an insurgency that they say is equipped and trained in neighboring Pakistan. They also fear that the Afghan forces still don't have enough heavy weapons or firepower.

"Our main concern is that for more than 10 years the international community managed to do nothing and that they are now trying to make us strong. It's too little too late," said Lal Mohammad Durrani, a member of the Nangarhar provincial council. "We need more weapons."

NATO training since 2009 has dramatically ramped up the Afghan National Security Forces, bringing it up from 40,000 men and women six years ago to about 352, 000 today. Once the transition is announced, coalition troops will move entirely into a supporting role training and mentoring, and in emergency situations providing the Afghans backup in combat, mainly in the form of airstrikes and medevac.

That is to pave the way for international forces currently numbering about 100,000 troops, including 66,000 Americans to leave. By the end of the year, the NATO force will be halved. At the end of 2014, all combat troops will have left and will replaced, if approved by the Afghan government, by a much smaller force that will only train and advise. President Barack Obama has not yet said how many soldiers he will leave in Afghanistan along with NATO forces, but it is thought that it would be about 9,000 U.S. troops and about 6,000 from its allies.

In a series of wide-ranging interviews with Afghan and western military officials, experts and analysts, opinions are mixed as to the state of readiness of the Afghan forces although nearly all agree they are far better now than they were when the NATO training mission began.

British Lt. Gen. Nick Carter, the deputy commander of coalition forces, said the transition to take the lead in security "represents a significant achievement for the Afghan security forces." But, he added, "That said we will require and need to deliver for the Afghans some fairly significant support for a while to come."

Already, Afghans now carry out 90 percent of military operations around the country. They are in the lead in security in 312 districts nationwide, where 80 percent of Afghanistan's population of nearly 30 million lives and only 91 districts remain for them to take over including 12 in Nangarhar.

The transition comes at a time when violence is at levels matching the worst in 12 years, fueling some Afghans' concerns the forces aren't ready.

"We thought this summer would not be easy for the Afghan security forces, but it was not expected to be like this. We have roadside bombs, we have suicide attacks, organized attacks," said Jawed Kohistani, an Afghan political and military analyst. "It is a mistake to transition this quickly."

Jalalabad's relatively peaceful tree-lined streets are crowded with checkpoints, manned by often edgy Afghan army and police worried about car bombs. Insurgents use the province's mountain passes and valleys to sneak in from neighboring Pakistan, where they retain safe havens in that country's lawless Pashtun-dominated tribal belt. Jalalabad is also just a 3-hour drive through craggy passes and gorges to Kabul, which has seen a spate of spectacular suicide attacks in recent weeks.

Al Hajj Malak Nazir the local head of the Afghan High Peace Council, a body created in an attempt to reach out to the Taliban said that even though he considers Afghan forces to be under-equipped, he believes they will eventually prevail over the insurgency.

"The Taliban can't take all of Afghanistan. After transition they could take a district, but they won't be able to keep it," he said. That. He added, is why he has been trying to convince the Taliban to enter negotiations.

"This is a very good opportunity for the Taliban to say they will stop fighting. But they won't," he said. "The Americans are now saying they are leaving, but the Taliban never say they are leaving."

Few believe the Taliban will keep promises they have made in the past to stop fighting when foreign military forces are gone. They have not stopped in any province where Afghan forces have taken the lead.

They have also rebuffed numerous attempts to start peace talks in the past year and have instead intensified a campaign that mostly targets urban centers and government installations.

There is overall agreement, however, they don't have much support outside their traditional areas and can't win militarily against the Afghan forces.

"I think, if the Taliban tried to come back, it would have to come back in a very different way. It would have to come back and participate politically," Lt. Gen. Carter said. "It is my sense that civil society, which is the future of this country, absolutely would not put up with sorts of standards that were here 15 years ago. And, therefore, my sense is that ultimately it is the politics that will determine this, and not the violence that determines this."

On battlefields around the country, Afghan forces plan and carry out operations on their own, with little help from coalition forces. They are often effective, but still need work on logistics and effectively using the weapons they have.

Casualty figures are indicative of the fight. More than 330 Afghan army soldiers have died so far this year, according to a tally by the Associated Press.

Last year, more than 1,200 Afghan soldiers died, compared to more than 550 in 2011, according to data compiled by the Washington-based Brookings Institution. By comparison, coalition casualties have declined as they take forces off the battlefield 81 so far this year, 394 in 2012 and 543 in 2011.

About 1,481 militants were reported to have been killed by coalition and Afghan forces so far this year, compared with close to 3,000 militants for all of last year. The NATO command does not issue reports on the number of insurgents its troops have killed, and Afghan military figures, from which the AP compiles its data, cannot be independently verified.

"There is no doubt about the ability of the Afghan national army and police. The nation should trust them, and they do," said the Afghan Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sher Mohammad Karimi.

The veteran commander rattled off a series of recent victories over insurgents, including kicking them out of parts of eastern Nuristan that they had controlled for about two years.

"There wasn't a single bit of support from the international community. Only the Afghan national army and national police were able to do that and they did it," he said.

But he grudgingly agreed Afghan troops still need help. That includes the use of coalition air power including medical evacuations help with locating roadside bombs and further developing the armed forces. They also need to bring down an attrition rate of 3 to 4 percent a month, which means NATO now has to help train 50,000 new recruits a year.

The U.S. has said that Afghanistan will get the weapons it requires to fight an insurgency, including a large fleet of MI-17 transport helicopters, cargo planes and ground support airplanes. The heaviest weapon the Afghan army will have is a howitzer.

"The force is designed according to the threat, and the threat here is an insurgency. The design of the ANSF is appropriate to counter that threat," said German Gen. Hans-Lothar Domrose, the commander of the NATO force that oversees ISAF.

The Afghans, on the other hand, want battle tanks and modern fighter jets which they are unlikely to get given their cost and the training required to use them.

The war has already proven very costly

Special Inspector General for Afghan Reconstruction John Sopko last April estimated that the ANSF has so far cost the American taxpayer $54 billion. The overall cost of the war is more difficult to estimate, but for America alone the Center for Strategic and International Studies put the price at about $650 billion through the end of 2013.

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Follow Patrick Quinn on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/PatrickAQuinn

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Living in an area with few general surgeons may make people with appendicitis more likely to turn into ruptured appendix cases by the time they get to surgery, according to new research.

"The study shows that access to surgical care, especially general surgical care, is important and low access can have real impacts that affect peoples' health," coauthor Thomas Ricketts of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill told Reuters Health by email.

The Affordable Care Act includes a provision for incentive payments to increase the supply of doctors in areas with shortages, but those bonuses only apply in places with too few primary care doctors.

General surgeon and primary care shortage areas don't always line up, Ricketts said, and even when they do, general surgeons can't move to areas that don't already have primary care physicians to serve the community and refer patients back to them.

Almost 30,000 patients with appendicitis - a quarter of whom suffered a burst appendix - were discharged from hospitals in North Carolina between 2007 and 2009, according to data from hospitals and surgery centers in the state analyzed by the researchers.

There are 95,000 burst appendices per year in the U.S. according to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. A 2008 study found that an appendectomy can cost between $10,000 and $18,000 more when the appendix has burst.

With surgery before a rupture, typically about 20 hours or less after abdominal pain begins, patients usually recover quickly. If the appendix has burst (roughly 40 hours after symptoms begin), that could mean repeat operations and longer recovery time, according to the Merck Manual.

To see whether a surgeon shortage was linked to more burst appendices in an area, the researchers compared the number of cases of appendicitis, and specifically burst appendices, with the number of general surgeons in "surgical service areas" of the state that roughly align with zip codes.

Having less than 3 general surgeons per 100,000 people increased the likelihood of having a ruptured appendix by five percent, compared to areas with at least 5 surgeons, Ricketts and his colleague report in the Annals of Surgery.

However, areas with the most severe shortage had a 25 percent rate of rupture, compared to 24 percent in areas with no shortage. According to Dr. Edward Livingston, who has written about using ruptured appendices as a measure of care but was not involved in the new study, that is much too small a difference to draw any conclusions.

Logic dictates that ruptures would be more common in rural areas, since patients have to travel farther to get to care, but that's the opposite of what the study found if the results are reliable, said Livingston, the deputy editor for clinical content at the Journal of the American Medical Association in Chicago.

There were fewer surgeons relative to the population in urban areas, but the study didn't account for the residents, physician's assistants and nurse practitioners who add to the surgical work force in large urban medical centers, Livingston said.

The results of the same study with more patients from more diverse regions might not show any difference between groups at all, Livingston told Reuters Health in an email.

It would make more sense to measure the delay between when symptoms begin and when the patient reaches surgery in several different areas, and see if areas with longer delays correspond to areas with fewer surgeons, in order to infer that fewer surgeons lead to delays which lead to ruptures, Livingston said.

"They would have to measure the delay to prove their point," Livingston said.

"This highlights a problem in studies like this one, where conclusions are made based on assumptions about what happens without really knowing what is happening at a patient level," he said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/ZL7CcO Annals of Surgery May 31, 2013

Depending on where they board, passengers on NJ Transits No. 113 express bus can normally expect a roughly 45-minute commute to New York City, covering about 23 miles. On Thursday, the bus arrived at its New York destination nearly two hours late.

This misadventure was summed up nicely by a delightfully cryptic text from passenger Aileen Iosso to her boss, according to NJ.com: "I dont know where I am and I dont know when Ill be in."

So, what the heck happened? It appears the driver, whose name was not released, simply got lost. When passengers tried to assist the driver, she became upset, according to NJ.com.

From the site:

During the convoluted trip, Iosso said, the bus was on Route 3, went by the Secaucus Junction train station on the Turnpike "three or four times," passed the Secaucus outlets and pulled over before the entrance to the George Washington Bridge.

"People were trying to help her, but she wouldnt listen," Iosso said of the driver.

She said the bus crossed the bridge and the driver was directed down the West Side Highway in Manhattan, but stopped to ask where she could find the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Later, according to NJ.com, when a passenger asked to be let off the bus, the driver allegedly asked, "Are you threatening me?"

Nancy Snider, spokeswoman for NJ Transit, apologized for the snafu. "We apologize to our customers for their experience and we plan on reaching out to them," she said. "Appropriate action will be taken pending the outcome of the investigation."

The event in Saratoga Springs, 28 miles north of Albany, will feature Nelson and other Farm Aid board members John Mellencamp, Neil Young and Dave Matthews, as well as other artists to be announced soon. Tickets go on sale to Farm Aid members June 18 and to the general public June 28, the Farm Aid organization announced on Friday.

The concert will be Sept. 21 at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

At a stop in Albany on Thursday, Nelson said the Northeast is fertile ground for new farmers and sustainable agriculture. Farm Aid's mission is to keep family farmers on the land and support the movement toward healthy, locally grown food, he said.

"There's a whole lot of small family farmers in upstate New York," Nelson told reporters on his tour bus in Albany before heading south for an appearance at a country music festival at Hunter Mountain in the Catskills. "I think this is a great place to try to reach some family farmers."

Nelson said Farm Aid exists because government agricultural policies often favor large corporate-owned farms rather than small farmers. "Small family farmers really need help; the big corporate farmers are doing OK," he said.

Nelson said he wants to encourage more young farmers to get back on the land and encourage people to feed their families wholesome food from farms closer to their homes. "More and more people are asking about where their breakfast comes from, why it comes from 1,500 miles away when there's a farm next door," Nelson said. "A lot of people are thinking about what we're feeding our kids. Young people are trying to stay healthy, wondering who's watching out for our food supply."

In New York, there's a heated debate in farm country over shale gas development, which currently is under a moratorium while state officials complete an environmental and health review. Some farmers see gas leases as a solution to their financial struggles, while others oppose gas drilling for fear of accidents causing water and air pollution.

"I'm against it," Nelson said. "It's bad for the land, bad for the farmers, bad for the soil. It's just all-around a bad idea."

"If farmers could make a good enough living farming, they wouldn't feel pressured to lease their land for drilling," said Cara Fraver, an organic farmer from Easton in Washington County who spoke to reporters on Nelson's bus.

"We need to guarantee farmers a living wage for what they do," Nelson said.

Farm Aid, which has been held almost every year since 1985, provides concert-goers with a Homegrown Village that features local farmers and foods as well as educational activities related to the Good Food Movement, which promotes humane, organic, sustainable agriculture.

The organization has raised more than $43 million since 1985 to support programs that help small family farms, expand the Good Food Movement and promote locally grown food. Farm Aid has made grants of more than $2.5 million in the Northeast during the past 28 years, according to the organization.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc is eliminating various types of advertisements on its website in an effort to simplify a system that it acknowledged was confusing marketers.

The world's No. 1 social network, which is seeking to revive revenue growth, will still display ads inside users' newsfeeds and on the right-hand side of its web pages. But it will sharply reduce the options marketers can choose for those so-called ad units.

"What we realized is that even though every ad product is really good on its own, the whole is less than the sum of its parts. It should really be simpler," Fidji Simo, a Facebook product manager for ads, said at an event at the company's Menlo Park, California headquarters on Thursday.

The changes will be rolled out over the coming weeks and months. Facebook said the streamlined system would not affect pricing on its ads, but would not comment when asked how the changes could affect overall revenue.

Advertising accounts for 85 percent of Facebook's revenue, and it is trying to reinvigorate revenue growth following a sharp slowdown early last year.

With consumers increasingly accessing Facebook on mobile devices such as smartphones, Facebook has scrambled to roll out new types of ad formats suited to small mobile screens. Facebook has also begun letting advertisers show ads based on users' Web browsing history and has introduced tools that allow marketers to better measure ad effectiveness.

The company is widely expected to introduce video ads this year, but it made no mention of them at the event on Thursday.

Facebook shares have fallen about 15 percent so far this year, compared with the Dow Jones industrial average's 14 percent rise.

As part of the changes, marketers will no longer be asked to choose from a list of 27 different ad units. Instead, marketers will pick from six or seven objectives, such as driving foot traffic to a real-world store or generating "likes" for a company's page.

"Offers" ads for product discount coupons, for example, will no longer be a separate category for online merchants. Instead, a general ad unit will include the link for a coupon.

Merchants with brick and mortar stores will still have a separate "offers" ad unit.

Facebook executives noted that marketers will still be able to select ads that run only on mobile devices or on personal computers.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang, Bernard Orr)

The 35-year-old Froch, who lost to Kessler in Denmark three years ago, put on a typically gutsy performance to win with a scorecard that read 115-113, 116-112 and 118-110 in favour of the Nottingham fighter to the delight of the 20,000 crowd.

Froch's record is now 31-2, with his only other defeat coming at the hands of American Andre Ward in Atlantic City in 2011, compared to Kessler's 46-3 after an action-packed fight that saw the Dane hanging on near the end of the final round.

"It feels really, really good, only thing that feels bad is I have had to beat a real gentleman and a nice man, Mikkel Kessler," Froch told Sky Sports. "It's 1-1 now, who knows do you fancy a third one? Best of three maybe?

"I deserved to win, but he won't lie down for any man and massive respect to him," added Froch before turning his thoughts to a possible rematch with unbeaten WBA title holder Ward who was watching at ringside.

"The winner of this fight should be moving on to avenge their other loss and now I move on to the second best boxer in the world," said Froch. "Let's get Andre Ward over to the UK and fight him here."

The 34-year-old Kessler, whose only other defeats were against unbeaten Welshman Joe Calzaghe in 2007 and Ward in 2009, said: "I gave it my all but didn't have the energy and couldn't cope with Carl. It is nice to fight such a warrior."(Writing by Ken Ferris; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)