NEWARK, New Jersey (Reuters) - Hip hop artist Joseph "Fat Joe" Cartagena was sentenced on Monday to four months in federal prison and fined $15,000 for failure to file tax returns on more than $3.3 million in income.

The 42-year-old rapper faced the possibility of up to two years in prison after pleading guilty in December to two counts of failing to file with the Internal Revenue Service.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy Waldor gave the Bronx-born rapper credit for paying $718,000 in back taxes prior to his sentencing and for his charitable work.

The court received more than 60 letters on his behalf, including one from Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, who cited Cartagena's efforts to donate computers to local schools.

Cartagena apologized to his family and friends, saying he let them down. He said his 6-year-old daughter was being taunted in school by classmates who said her father was going to jail.

"There was a lot going on in the years that I didn't file my taxes, but it was my responsibility," he said. His hits include the 2004 song "Lean Back."

His attorneys had asked for probation in light of the three-month prison sentence handed down to hip hop artist Lauryn Hill in May on similar tax charges.

Cartagena was originally charged with failure to file returns from 2007 to 2010 but under a plea agreement the charges were reduced to not filing returns for two years.

His income came from three companies, including Somerville, N.J.-based Terror Squad Production Inc and Miramar Music Touring, which he owned.

(Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and by Bob Burgdorfer)

The sale is part of Chesapeake's plans to sell up to $7 billion in assets to raise cash.

The company's asset sales signed or closed year-to-date stand at about $3.6 billion, Chesapeake Chief Executive Doug Lawler said in a statement on Wednesday.

Chesapeake has long-term debt of $13.4 billion and faces a $3.5 billion funding gap this year.

The 55,000 acres of Eagle Ford assets in Texas produced about 6,100 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boe) in May.

Net daily output from properties to be sold in the Haynesville shale - which spans Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana - was 114 million cubic feet of natural gas equivalent in May.

(Reporting By Garima Goel in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

A motion filed on behalf of four prisoners argues that the military's practice of using a nasogastric tube to involuntarily feed striking prisoners with a liquid nutrient mix is inhumane and violates medical ethics. They also say it will prevent them from observing the traditional fast during the upcoming Muslim holy period of Ramadan, depriving them of the right to practice their religion as guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.

"Being strapped to a chair and having a tube forcibly inserted through one's nostrils and into one's stomach is dishonorable and degrading," according to the motion for a preliminary injunction. "It falls within the ambit of torture."

The prisoners say in affidavits accompanying the motion that they are aware of the risk they face if the military stops force-feeding them and they continue to protest.

"I have not decided to do this lightly," Algerian prisoner Ahmed Belbacha said. "Each day of the strike is an ordeal."

The motion was filed late Sunday with the U.S. district court in Washington by attorneys Jon B. Eisenberg, based in Oakland, California, and Cori Crider, who is with the British human rights group Reprieve. The Department of Justice has not responded but has signaled it will oppose the motion.

Military officials describe the procedure, which includes restraining the prisoners in a chair that resembles a piece of exercise equipment, as a humane response to the hunger strike since it is aimed at preventing prisoners from starving to death. "Until we are told to do differently the practice will not change," said Army Col. Greg Julian, a spokesman for Miami-based Southern Command, which oversees the detention center on the U.S. base in Cuba.

In February 2006, Yemeni prisoner Muhammed Bawazir filed a challenge to force-feeding, also describing the practice as a form of torture. At the time, the Justice Department argued the procedures were humane and that the prisoner had exaggerated the level of his discomfort. A judge eventually ruled against the prisoner.

Crider said their arguments this time place less emphasis on the specifics of the procedure and more on whether it should be done at all over the men's objections. "These guys just want what any of us want. The choice to decide," she said.

The prisoners are also challenging the use of a drug known as Reglan, which is used to treat nausea and prevent vomiting. Their motion for a preliminary injunction alleges that prolonged use of the medication has the potential to cause a neurological disorder. A prison spokesman, Navy Capt. Robert Durand, said two detainees received a single dose each in the past three months and that there were no adverse side effects.

Lawyers for the prisoners say the hunger strike began in February as a protest over conditions and their indefinite confinement. The military says it started in March and that, as of Monday, there were 106 prisoners listed as hunger strikers, with as many as 44 being force-fed twice a day to prevent dangerous weight loss. There are 166 prisoners at Guantanamo.

The military has been under increasing pressure to change its response to the hunger strike. U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel in June that the "the current approach raises very important ethical questions." Earlier, the president of the American Medical Association also wrote Hagel to say that force-feeding hunger strikers violates core ethical values of the medical profession.

Bakelants made his move with a few hundred meters remaining and the RadioShack rider did enough to withstand a late charge from Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan.

German sprinter Marcel Kittel started the day in the lead after winning Saturday's crash-marred first stage, but the rolling hills took their toll and he finished way behind.

The 156-kilometre (97-mile) trek started from Bastia and after four moderate climbs finished in Ajaccio, where French emperor and military mastermind Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769.

The day's last climb up Cote du Salario was much shorter than the other ones but far steeper.

LONDON (Reuters) - Formula One's governing body responded to a spate of British Grand Prix blowouts by deciding on Monday to change the rules and allow race drivers to test tires with their current cars at Silverstone this month.

"Our priority is to ensure safety for all in Formula One and we believe the incidents at Silverstone represent a genuine safety concern for the drivers," International Automobile Federation (FIA) president Jean Todt said in a statement.

"We have thus taken the decision to alter the Young Driver Test to allow teams to use drivers they deem fit to carry out tire development work in a bid to solve the problems we saw at the British Grand Prix.

"I believe it is fitting to carry out this work at the circuit upon which the issues were manifested."

Teams that field experienced drivers on the July 17-19 test, which had been scheduled previously for drivers without race experience only, can do so provided they are clearly testing tires for Pirelli.

Mercedes, who won Sunday's race at Silverstone with Germany's Nico Rosberg after team mate Lewis Hamilton took pole position, will not take part however.

The team had been told to miss the young driver test by an FIA tribunal as punishment for breaking the rules after taking part in a "secret" test with Pirelli in Spain in May with their 2013 car and drivers.

Track testing with current cars is banned during the season under existing regulations.

The FIA said Mercedes, despite the nature of the test being changed, had agreed not to participate.

WORLD COUNCIL

Teams were informed of the plan on Monday and the FIA said it would seek the immediate approval of its World Motor Sport Council to change the sporting regulations.

The FIA added it would also seek to change the technical regulations to allow Pirelli to modify the tires during the season without requiring unanimous agreement.

Ferrari, Force India and Lotus have previously resisted Pirelli's attempts to change the specification of the tires because they have got their cars working well with them and feared losing their competitive edge.

However, all three teams made it clear after Sunday's race plunged the sport into crisis that they would not stand in the way of any changes needed to ensure driver safety.

Five drivers suffered explosive tire failures in Sunday's race, with even world champions like Lewis Hamilton - who had the first big failure while leading on lap eight - saying after that they had feared for their safety.

"It was the first time in my career I've ever felt it was dangerous," said the 2008 champion after exploding tires sent strips of metal-reinforced rubber flailing into the air, narrowly missing the heads of drivers behind.

"After my incident I was definitely nervous for the rest of the race that the tires might go again," the Briton said on Sunday.

"Safety is the biggest issue. It's just unacceptable really. It's only when someone gets hurt that someone will do something about it."

(Editing by Tony Goodson)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An IRS official effectively waived her right not to testify about the tax agency's targeting of conservative groups, a Republican-led congressional committee concluded on Friday in a vote that cleared the way for Congress to hold her in contempt.

Lois Lerner, former head of the Internal Revenue Service's tax-exempt division, angered Republicans last month when she invoked her constitutional right not to answer their questions at a hearing.

The committee is investigating the IRS's admission that it subjected applications for tax exempt status from groups with "Tea Party" or "Patriot" in their names to special scrutiny.

By reading a statement telling lawmakers that she did "nothing wrong" before invoking her Fifth Amendment protections, some Republicans said that Lerner waived her rights.

The Oversight and Government Reform Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives approved on a party-line vote a Republican resolution on Friday saying that Lerner did waive her Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

"That is the not the way the Fifth Amendment works. You don't get to tell your side of the story," and then avoid cross examination, said Republican Trey Gowdy. "She sat there and could have said nothing."

The vote could clear the way for Republicans to haul Lerner back before the committee, where she would likely again invoke her Fifth Amendment rights. That would likely lead to a vote to hold her in contempt of Congress, Republican aides said.

A contempt of Congress vote could lead to her being prosecuted in a court and subject her to a maximum $1,000 fine and potential 12-month prison sentence. Lerner is now on administrative leave and has been replaced in her post.

The Republican-controlled Oversight Committee is leading a congressional probe of IRS agents in Cincinnati from early 2010 to early 2012 singling out applications for tax-exempt status from conservative groups for extra scrutiny.

The controversy led President Barack Obama's ouster last month of the IRS's chief and an FBI probe.

IRS officials in Washington, including some who reported to Lerner, were aware of the practices carried out in Cincinnati almost from the start, according to interviews with IRS officials that have become public.

Some Republicans have tried to link the affair to the Democratic president, but no evidence yet supports that claim.

Democrats on the panel said they want to hear from Lerner, but that she is within her rights to not testify. They said the vote reflects the partisan path Republicans have taken with the investigation.

"This back and forth political bickering is an embarrassment ... This resolution is completely improper and is nothing more than an opportunity to grandstand," said Democrat Steven Horsford.

Lerner's attorney, William Taylor, said this week that protesting innocence and invoking the right not to answer questions is not a waiver of constitutional rights.

(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and Doina Chiacu)

In examining the plans NASA devises for human missions beyond low Earth orbit, in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) experiments or demonstrations are sometimes included but never incorporated into the imperative of the mission sequence, or what engineers call "the critical path." ISRU simply means that you make stuff you need in space from resources available in space.

At current levels of development, such stuff would largely consist of high-mass, low-information materials, such as propellant and shielding. By reducing the amount of mass launched from the Earth through the use of ISRU techniques, the United States would save many billions of dollars of its limited. So why isn't the public hearing more about this?

Certainly nothing in the chemistry or physics of ISRU indicates that it is impossible or unduly futuristic most processes date back to antiquity (such as melting ice into water) or, at latest, to 18th- and 19th-century industrial chemistry (e.g., carbothermal reduction). But no one has actually attempted ISRU with extraterrestrial materials and real hardware in space. In other words, aerospace engineers haven't done it; to them, the concept is more from the realm of science fiction. ("Set the replicators on beef stew tonight, Mr. Sulu!"). They reactively imagine potential disasters resulting from the effort, rather than appreciate its possible benefits.

Engineers tend to be cautious when undertaking new designs that incorporate untried techniques, and in the case of human spaceflight, they should be. However, when caution keeps you locked in a comfort zone, initiative and programs will atrophy and cripple the U.S.' space progress.

Carrying the load

Several years ago, Bob Zubrin, my friend and sometime public debate opponent, had a key insight. When you bring everything you need with you from Earth in order to get to Mars, the mass you send to orbit can be prohibitive (consequences from themultiply the gross departure weight by a large amount); it costs thousands of dollars per pound for delivery to low-Earth orbit (LEO). If you don't bring the fuel for the return trip home, your departure mass is much lower. For the trip home, Zubrin'sutilizes rocket propellant made on the Martian surface. In one fell swoop, he reduced by more than 50 percent the amount of mass needed in LEO to go to Mars a significant finding.

The currentutilizes eight launches of a superheavy-lift vehicle (150 tons, or 136 metric tons, to LEO) to construct the 500-ton (454 metric tons) Mars craft in Earth orbit. (Another analysis projects 10 to 12 launches.) More than 80 percent of this mass is propellant. If the heavy-lift vehicles end up costing a couple of billion dollars each, the cost of a human Mars mission is not only unaffordable, but so much so that it will never be undertaken.

And don't think the hallowedwill save you, either: Those vehicles are too small (their payload is much smaller than 150 tons) and will need to use storable propellant because thewill boil away into space between their individual launches. Storable propellants have much less energythan LOX-H2 and, thus, besides the complexity of logistical assembly from a greater number of flights, the total required mass in LEO multiplies frighteningly.

Engineers are reluctant to mandate ISRU as part of the Mars architecture because it's never been done (risky) and it's never been done because it's too risky the classic catch-22. How can space missions move beyond this impasse? Reduce the size of the risk roadblock by demonstrating ISRU on the moon.

Engineers can design an ISRU strategy for moon missions that not only retires risk for future ISRU use on Mars, but can also provision the Mars trip from lunar materials, further reducing the amount of mass launched from Earth. But why use the moon to document the value of ISRU, rather than a near-Earth asteroid? Simply put, the moon has the right materials and properties for performing this risk-reduction activity.

The moon's critical resources

The results of the , in which a Centaur upper stage was crashed into a dark area near the moon's south pole, demonstrated that not only ison the moon, but there are other volatiles there as well, including methane, ammonia, carbon dioxide and some simple organic compounds. On the basis of their observed abundance, all of these substances are probably derived from comets that, over geological time, have hit the moon and are preserved in the permanently shadowed, cold areas near the poles. Asteroids typically do not contain those exotic, volatile substances; if water is present in asteroids, it is chemically bound in mineral structures and requires considerable energy and processing to be extracted and used.

Lunar ISRU can harvest not only water (and thus, oxygen) but also methane from the moon's polar deposits. Methane is the propellant Zubrin's Mars Direct architecture uses for Earth return. (However, because the martian crust is water-rich, LOX-LH2 could also be used on Mars, making the lunar polar deposits doubly relevant.) From the Earth-moon , either landing on or taking off from the poles of the moon requires about a 1.6 miles per second (2.6 kilometers per second) change in velocity, whereas transfer from the surface of Mars to Mars orbit for rendezvous and return to Earth requires a change in velocity of 2 mps (3.2 km/sec). Thus, the transfer energies for the two missions are comparable. This means that we can test the methane ISRU systems not only in principle but the actual Mars equipment, in practice, three days away on the moon and in cislunar space (the area between the Earth and the moon). Moreover, if crews get into trouble during a mission, better for it to happen on the moon, where rescue might be possible.

In effect, these lunar properties mean that a complete, end-to-end systems test of all the pieces of a Mars Direct-style architecture could be performed in cislunar space, overcoming the most critical obstacle: the "risk" of requiring ISRU in the critical path.

In my opinion, ISRU is the most important and game-changing technology for future spaceflight. I will go so far as to say that a human Mars mission is inconceivable without incorporating ISRU in some form, most likely as a source of propellant but also for other potential uses (e.g., shielding, oxygen and water). And, such ISRU will not occur until it is proven in space, most easily and usefully on the moon.

A Mars mission conducted in the Apollo mode (everything launched from Earth) is not fiscally or politically possible. A national security imperative duringallowed the United States to bludgeon technical problems to death with money. We no longer live in that world. Space programs must be affordable, which means that we cannot opt for the easiest or most familiar way to do something we must be clever, frugal and use what is available.

Moving forward

During a , the two witnesses Steve Squyres of Cornell University and Tom Young of Lockheed Martin Corporation bothfor human Mars missions. They are both wrong. The critical path to Mars goes through the Moon, although not in the way most engineers have been looking at it. They've viewed a lunar mission as a fancy dress rehearsal for the Mars mission, with people landing on the moon to conduct a complex and carefully choreographed , to practice how they plan to explore Mars and then leave the moon as soon as possible. In their view, the main object of the lunar mission is to get it over with.

For a manned mission to Mars to be successful, a sustained lunar return is much more valuable than a touch-and-go, flyby or hover-over mission. Only on the moon can we learn for the first time how to extract and use off-planet resources. We permanently retire ISRU risk and open up space by using lunar resources. We practice the entire Mars surface mission sequence with Mars hardware flying in space from landing, to refueling and ascent. To go to Mars without ISRU requires too much mass in LEO, and will necessitate multiple launches of expensive, disposable vehicles. As a result, a manned Mars mission would be unaffordable and, thus, unlikely to ever happen. Such expense cannot be justified under virtually any conceivable political circumstance, save for those associated with some national emergency certainly an eventuality not to be hoped for.

And yes, for those following the breadcrumbs, by using the ISRU process, we'll develop a system that can routinely access all of cislunar space, including the lunar surface.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on.

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The case stems from the designers' actions in 2004, when they sold their brand to a holding company in Luxembourg, Gado. That was so they could allegedly sneak out of taxes on 1 billion euros worth of royalties. Their persecution, Lisa Jucca of , is a result of how "cash-strapped Italy has recently stepped up action on tax evasion." But don't cry for D&G, who are denying the charges. (After the duo lost an appeal and were find earlier this year, Gabbana launched one of his frequent Twitter rants to dispute accusations, .) But due to the "complexity and length of the appeals process," Reuters reports, they will likely not serve any of their one-year-and-eight-month sentence, although that really would be something. 

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In other news,  reports that Dolce and Gabbana are going to transform British men into "Latin lovers" with their recently opened store in London.

Swisher ripped a long solo homer to cap a four-run ninth inning against Addison Reed Friday night, lifting the Cleveland Indians to a 9-8 victory over the Chicago White Sox for a sweep of the longest doubleheader by time for two nine-inning games.

"It's a major league record, right?" Swisher asked. "Definitely a long day."

After pounding Chicago 19-10 in the opener in a game that lasted 4 hours, 2 minutes, the Indians came through in the end to take a nightcap that ran 3:51.

The 7:53 total made it the longest doubleheader with two nine-inning games on record, but the marathon came to an end after Swisher delivered a crushing blow.

Throw in 63 minutes between games a 38-minute break, and, get this, a 25-minute rain delay and that's one marathon at the ballpark.

Reed (3-1) entered with an 8-5 lead in the ninth but quickly ran into trouble, blowing his fourth save in 25 chances.

"They did everything they could to get the ball in my hands," Reed said. "I wanted nothing more than to close that game out and get the win tonight."

He started the inning by giving up three straight singles to Ryan Raburn, pinch-hitter Asdrubal Cabrera and Michael Bourn to make it a two-run game. He then threw a wild pitch to pinch-hitter Jason Giambi, allowing Cabrera to score.

Jason Kipnis then tied it with a sacrifice fly to center field, driving in Bourn, and Swisher drilled a 3-2 pitch well into the seats in right to put Cleveland ahead.

"When you've got a closer throwing that hard, man, all you got to do is just try and find the barrel, man, and he'll provide a lot of the power," Swisher said.

The late rally made a winner of Matt Langwell (1-0), who got his first career win even though he allowed two runs in the eighth.

Vinnie Pestano walked Wells with one out in the ninth but struck out three for his sixth save in eight chances, finishing a game that ended just after 1 a.m.

Alejandro De Aza had three hits and scored four runs in the second game for Chicago. Jeff Keppinger had a pair of three-hit games for Chicago, with a homer in the opener.

Adam Dunn drove in two runs in Game 2 after going deep in the opener, and the White Sox looked like they were going to come away with the split before Reed gave it away.

"Ball was over the plate and up in the zone and they made me pay for it," Reed said.

Jose Quintana lasted six innings, allowing five runs and five hits for Chicago. Cleveland's Carlos Carrasco allowed six runs and 10 hits in 5 2-3 and saw his ERA rise from 7.78 to 8.17.

But in the end, it was the Indians handing the White Sox another brutal loss.

In the opener, Jason Kipnis reached base six times and scored four runs, while Ryan Raburn homered and drove in four.

The Indians matched a season high for runs. They also set a season best with eight doubles while falling one hit shy of their most hits, 21.

Yet despite all that, Cleveland had to dig itself out of a five-run hole after the first inning and hang on after a nine-run lead dwindled to four.

Raburn gave the Indians some breathing room with a two-run drive off Ramon Troncoso in the seventh, making it 16-10. He also had a two-run single to break a 5-all tie in the fourth and spark a six-run rally.

Kipnis, who grew up in suburban Northbrook, Ill., extended his hitting streak to 10 and reached safely in his 30th straight game. He had three doubles, drove in two runs, and the only out he made was when Alejandro De Aza ran down his line drive to left in the ninth.

Then, in Game 2, the Indians somehow pulled one out in the end.

"To kick and scratch and fight," Giambi said. "We just kept going and going and going."

NOTES: Cleveland won a game with its starter lasting 2-3 of an inning or less for the first time since Paul Byrd got just two outs in a 15-13 victory over Kansas City on Aug. 23, 2006. ... Indians RHP Dillon Howard was suspended for 50 games without pay under baseball's minor league drug program following a positive test for an amphetamine. ... White Sox slugger Paul Konerko remains sidelined because of pain in the lower right side of his back. Konerko had six painkilling injections on Friday after undergoing an MRI the previous day but was not available for the doubleheader against Cleveland. He's feeling "a little better" and hopes to be ready to play by the end of the weekend. He plans to take swings Saturday and figures he'll know then whether he needs to go on the disabled list.... RHP Ubaldo Jimenez (6-4, 4.58 ERA) starts Saturday for the Indians, with RHP Dylan Axelrod (3-4, 4.57) going for the White Sox.

LONDON (Reuters) - A British writer whose debut novel about mothers at the school gate sparked a seven-way bidding war between publishers has attributed the overnight success of her book to striking a chord with women used to negotiating the politics of female groups.

The hype around "The Hive" led to Gill Hornby being described as publisher Little Brown's "most important new author of 2013" and NBC Universals' arthouse Focus Features snapped up the film rights even before the book's release on May 23.

Hornby said she was slightly bemused by all the attention for her book which hit the top 10 bestselling fiction list in the UK in its first week, drawing comparisons to the huge success of EL James's "Fifty Shades of Grey" series last year.

After all it is Hornby's first novel although she is far from new to publishing. She is married to Robert Harris, best-selling author of thrillers like "Enigma" and "Archangel" and her brother Nick Hornby wrote "High Fidelity" and "Fever Pitch".

Hornby, who has four children aged 12 to 22, said the book took her two years to write but was in her head for years.

"I've always been very conscious about the groups girls and women make but I was too busy living the life to write about it," Hornby told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"This book is based at a school but really it is about women and their relationships .. about ordinary, domestic life."

"The Hive" is based at a fictional school, St Ambrose Primary, in a smart English rural town, which has a new headmaster and a group of mothers committed to raising funds for his plan to build a new school library.

The fund-raising is led by the undisputed queen bee Beatrice while Heather desperately tries to be more popular and other mothers steer clear or unintentionally fuel the rivalries, one-upmanship and smugness that comes with mother-led school group.

As the cliques swerve the lunch ladder and car boot sale, the school year becomes the backdrop of various life-changing events from broken relationships, depression, to cancer scares.

Hornby, a columnist with the Daily Telegraph until 2010, said the characters were based on the six roles outlined in Rosalind Wiseman's 2002 book "Queen Bees and Wannabes" that dealt with girls' friendships and conflicts.

The six are the Queen Bee, the sidekick, wannabe, floater, target, and torn bystander.

"The book is not autobiographical and not revenge against anybody. I've always been an amused observer," said Hornby,

Hornby is working on her second book about another group of women in the same town who are 15 years older with departed children and downplays "The Hive" being hailed as starting a new genre for women who are the main buyers of fiction.

Publishers have been trying to second guess the next big trend among women readers after the phenomenal success last year of "Fifty Shades of Grey" which appealed to a wide group of older women no longer interested in the shelf loads of chicklit.

"After mummy porn, mumlit?" asked the Guardian newspaper.

"I do worry about people comparing it to "50 Shades" because there is no sex at all in my book," said Hornby.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)