(Reuters) - New cable network Al Jazeera America introduced itself to viewers on Tuesday with reports on political strife in Egypt and the impact of climate change on U.S. cities, shortly after a major pay TV distributor declined to carry the channel.

The decision by AT&T's U-verse pay-TV service stemmed from a contract dispute over terms to carry the new network, AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel said. Al Jazeera responded by suing AT&T for breach of contract in Delaware Chancery Court.

Globally, Al Jazeera is seen in more than 260 million homes in 130 countries. But the new U.S. channel funded by the emir of Qatar has so far had difficulty getting distributors, in part because Al Jazeera was perceived by some as being anti-American during the Iraq war.

Before AT&T's announcement, Al Jazeera America said it would be available in more than 40 million homes, about 40 percent of U.S. pay TV households and roughly half the reach of Time Warner Inc's CNN. U-verse was launched in 2006 and had 5 million video customers at the end of June in markets such as Texas and California.

"We could not reach an agreement with the owner that we believed provided value for our customers and our business," AT&T spokesman Siegel said.

Al Jazeera America said in a statement AT&T had "unilaterally" deleted the network and "presented us with circumstances that were untenable - an affiliate that has willfully and knowingly breached its contractual obligations."

The network said it had "no choice" but to file a lawsuit over the matter.

Defining the new channel's mission clearly will be crucial for Al Jazeera to gain a foothold in the United States, according to advertisers, executives and industry experts.

In its first hour at midafternoon, Al Jazeera pledged to cover "issues that matter to America and the world beyond." Anchors said they would provide in-depth coverage of stories ignored by other media outlets, with bureaus in cities they considered underserved such as Nashville and Detroit.

Al Jazeera America hired ABC news veteran Kate O'Brian to be its president and hired on-air talent like CNN veterans Ali Velshi and Soledad O'Brien.

Its news coverage kicked off with reports on Egypt, a Georgia elementary school shooting and wildfires in the western United States, topics covered by cable news competitors on Tuesday. Al Jazeera America also reported on a hunger strike by inmates protesting conditions in California prisons and Kodak's plan to rebound from bankruptcy.

It turned to sports with an interview of retired slugger Gary Sheffield about baseball's steroids scandal. A show called "Inside Story" explored the impact of climate change on U.S. cities and working conditions in Bangladeshi factories.

Audience ratings data were not yet available.

COVERAGE DESCRIBED AS BALANCED

Media critic Howard Kurtz, speaking on rival Fox News Channel, said Al Jazeera America's early coverage was "not much different, at least so far, than what you might see on Fox News, CNN or MSNBC." One top story on Egypt was "right down the middle" in terms of balance, he said.

The network is airing six minutes of commercials per hour, below the 15 to 16 minute average on other cable news outlets. Executives indicated they are willing to lose money in the near term.

Advertisers on Tuesday included Procter & Gamble Co's Gillette for its Fusion razors and phone service provider Vonage.

U-verse is the second TV provider after Time Warner Cable to drop the network since it acquired Current TV in January and replaced it with Al Jazeera America. Comcast, DirecTV, Dish and Verizon are carrying the network.

Merrill Brown, a former media executive who helped launch cable news network MSNBC, said Al Jazeera America may need to pay distributors if it wants to reach more viewers, particularly since it is not owned by a media conglomerate that can package it with other channels to gain leverage in negotiations.

"It's hard to believe they are going to get this thing nationally distributed without paying for carriage," Brown said.

(Reporting by Liana B. Baker, Lisa Richiwne, Sinead Carew, Susan Zeidler and Nichola Groom; Editing by Andrew Hay, Will Dunham, Cynthia Osterman and Matt Driskill)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - While making the pitch on his newfor a second time, President Obama was interrupted by pro-Bradley Manning hecklers at Henninger High School in Syracuse, N.Y., Thursday evening.

Two women holding a giant "Free " sign yelled at the president in the middle of his speech. It was unclear what the women were saying, but they were escorted out of the gymnasium to applause from the crowd.

When the women started shouting, the president said, "I hear you," and tried to calm down the crowd. After the two women left, Obama called the hecklers "polite" before continuing with his college affordability speech.

"Can I just say that, as hecklers go, that young lady was very polite. She was! And she brought up an issue of importance, and that's part of what America is all about," Obama said. "But what America is also all about is making sure that middle-class families succeed."

After stops Thursday in Buffalo and Syracuse, the president will continue his bus tour on Friday with a town hall at Binghamton University and a speech at Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pa., hometown of Vice President Joe Biden, who will join the president after spending the week in Houston with his son, Beau Biden, who underwent a medical procedure on Tuesday.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Is Clint Eastwood ready to return to the battlefield nearly a decade after his war movies "Letters From Iwo Jima" and "Flags of Our Fathers" earned six Oscar nominations combined?

It seems that way, as the award-winning filmmaker is in early talks to direct Bradley Cooper in WB's "American Sniper," an individual familiar with the project has told TheWrap.

Steven Spielberg was previously set to direct "Sniper" before he (and co-financier DreamWorks) abruptly pulled out of the project earlier this month after the parties didn't see eye-to-eye on the budget.

Eastwood is just about to start filming "Jersey Boys" for WB, so he'll have to hurry in order to make "Sniper" during a very small window in Cooper's jam-packed schedule. Eastwood famously works quickly, and "Jersey Boys" isn't the sort of VFX-heavy movie that will require a long post-production schedule.

"American Sniper" stars Cooper as Chris Kyle, a Navy SEAL who has the most confirmed sniper kills in U.S. military history.

Jason Hall wrote the script, which Warner Bros. hopes to put into production early next year. Cooper is producing through his 22nd and Indiana banner along with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan.

Twitch first reported Eastwood's interest in the project.

What I would like to remind everyone is that we are just people on the other end of the line. I have been cursed at and called names you can't print in your column. I have had the phone slammed in my ear. A little courtesy would go a long way.

If you don't want to participate in the survey, that's fine. We understand that. But have the guts to say, "Not interested" or "No, thank you," and show a little respect. We're simply trying to do a job, earn a living and pay our bills like everybody else. -- HAPPY TO BE EMPLOYED

DEAR HAPPY TO BE EMPLOYED: I am not excusing poor manners, and I do sympathize with your position. But when companies make these incessant calls, they are entering people's homes without being invited, and it can make some of them very angry, particularly if they have been interrupted while eating, working, napping or caregiving.

The people you call might be less hostile if they hadn't been called repeatedly and asked to participate in these surveys after they had refused four, five or six times and had asked not to be called again. They might be more polite if they hadn't registered on a "Do Not Call" list that was ignored.

DEAR ABBY: I am recently retired. I enjoy it, and my daily routine is filled with activities that keep me busy.

My problem is relatives who retired a few years ago who are bored out of their minds. They show up at my home unannounced at all hours of the day and disrupt my routine. They assume I have nothing to do like them. I am not interested in baby-sitting these people so their wives won't have to put up with them. What should I do? -- RETIRED IN BOSTON

DEAR RETIRED: Tell your relatives -- nicely -- that you have a definite routine and things scheduled that you must attend to. If you feel they would be receptive, suggest that they drop by a senior center and ask about what activities it offers or look for volunteer opportunities in the community. Then suggest that instead of dropping by, they call first to see if you are available.

DEAR ABBY: My best friend's mother has dementia. It is usually worse in the evenings, but she can function during the day -- somewhat. My friend and her husband both work, leaving the mother alone at home during the day with the door locked from the outside so she can't wander off.

I have told my friend many times how dangerous this is, but she continues to do it. It makes me sick worrying about her mother, but I don't know what to do about it. -- FRIEND IN FLORIDA

DEAR FRIEND: Your friend and her husband may have the best of intentions, but locking a demented person inside the house is not the answer to their problem. If a fire were to start, she might not be "with it" enough to know how to put it out or summon help. She could also fall and injure herself.

A better solution would be to find a day-care program where the mother would have company, be entertained and safely looked after. Please suggest it to them. However, if they are not receptive, Adult Protective Services should be notified because the woman's life could depend on it.

TO MY MUSLIM READERS: It's time for the breaking of the Ramadan fast. Happy Eid al-Fitr, everyone. May God make yours a blessed feast.

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

Good advice for everyone -- teens to seniors -- is in "The Anger in All of Us and How to Deal With It." To order, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Anger Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

The 24-year-old Briton, who followed up his 2011 U.S Open triumph with a victory at last year's U.S. PGA Championship, will return to play the tournament held at the Royal Sydney Golf Club from Nov. 28-Dec. 1 after a seven-year absence.

It will mark the first time he has taken part in the event since 2006, when he finished in a tie for 59th competing as an amateur.

The event, co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the PGA Tour of Australasia, will also witness a home appearance for Australia's world number four Scott, who became the first golfer from his country to triumph at Augusta National earlier this year.

"It's been a few years since I last competed in an Australian Open," McIlroy, who also played in the Australian Masters in 2007 in Melbourne and finished tied for 15th, said in a statement from the organisers.

"I am very much looking forward to returning to Royal Sydney."

Former world number one McIlroy, who has endured a patchy season, showed glimpses of a return to form at last week's U.S. PGA Championship at Oak Hill, where he finished in a tie for eighth after flirting with a missed cut in his second round. (Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; Editing by John O'Brien)

As a kid, my dad told me that every business was a dirt business. This wisdom came from my father's experience as a small business owner of a sprinkler and landscaping company.

This wisdom also provided great motivation to work hard in school and pursue an academic career. Who wants to go into a dirt business? Now, it turns out my dad was right he could have been talking about the latest piece in understanding what Earth'ssystem may look like for generations to come.

Soils store carbon lots of carbon far more than all of the plants on Earth and the entire atmosphere combined. So the impact of that huge soil-carbon pool matters a lot to projections of what our climate may look like in the future.

While my decision to go to graduate school could be boiled down to another attempt to avoid going into the dirt business, I ended up spending months in amazing forests in Costa Rica bringing red tropical dirt back to the University of Colorado, Boulder, as part of my graduate work in the laboratory of ecology and evolutionary biology professor Alan Townsend. Great gig. Still a dirt business.

A cleaner option presented itself when I ended up in a postdoctoral position at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (). There is not much dirt in the atmosphere, and little need to travel to distant lands. I traded the dirt on my hands for a keyboard, a monitor and a wholly new challenge: trying to model the world.

NCAR builds and maintains anthat is used to ask a variety of scientific and societally relevant questions among them, how to make projections about what the world's climate may look like a century from now.

Predicting the future is a daunting task, and one that requires we attempt to represent a host of processes that make our virtual planet uniquely Earth-like. From wind and waves to clouds and trees, there is a lot of physics, chemistry and biology that goes into computer simulations of our world past, present and future.

As a result, the Earth-system model incorporates many processes in general terms, with an implicit representation of the complexity inherent in any natural system. This general representation of complex processes allows us to do a pretty good job making a computer model of a planet that looks like Earth, as scientists currently know it.

The challenge, however, is that we scientists are trying to project Earth as we don't know it. Over the past decade, several studies have highlighted that the one of greatest areas of uncertainty in our computer models comes from the response ofsystems to projected environmental change. In particular, there's a growing chorus calling for models that explicitly represent microbial activity.

And so, I discovered that even climate modeling would throw me back into the dirt business.

As I learned from childhood through graduate studies, soils are amazingly complex, diverse systems they are a fascinating business. A spoonful of soil from your garden has as many microbes living in it as there are people on Earth. Due to that complexity, many soil processes are simulated implicitly, not explicitly, in Earth-system models.

[ ]

This means models need to explicitly consider the billions of bacteria and fungi living in a spoonful of soil, because these are the organisms chewing on soil carbon. These are the organisms one generally cannot see, but that can either help store carbon in soils or send it into the atmosphere, where it contributes to climate change. And scientists need to start thinking about the activity of those microbes around the globe.

This is no small task. It presents a huge challenge to soil-science and Earth-system modeling communities to think about what soils do from microbial to global scales. In a paper recently published in the journal , my colleagues and I present a framework for how scientists can begin bridging those scales. We showed that explicit representation of microbial activity is possible at global scales. And we highlighted how doing so radically changes predictions about soil carbon responses to.

So what comes next? The research community tests the model some more, and compares it with observational data from the real world; we learn what the new model can't do very well, and try to improve it; and we try to bring modeling tools into alignment with our theoretical and observationally based understanding of soil systems.

And, I finally admit that my dad was right.

This article is based on , which appeared on the of University of Colorado researcher Alan Townsend. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on

Shares of the e-commerce bellwether declined nearly 6 percent, to $54.25, in after-hours trading Wednesday.

EBay Inc. said it earned $640 million, or 49 cents per share, in the April-June period. That's down from $692 million, or 53 cents per share, in the same months a year earlier.

Adjusted to exclude one-time items, per-share earnings rose to 63 cents from 56 cents and matched Wall Street's expectations.

Revenue grew 14 percent, to $3.88 billion from $3.4 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet were expecting $3.89 billion.

The midpoint of San Jose, Calif.-based eBay's earnings outlook for the year is below analysts' average estimate.

MARIKANA, South Africa (Reuters) - Opponents of President Jacob Zuma turned the anniversary of South Africa's bloodiest post-apartheid mine violence into an attack on his failure to tackle poverty and inequality on Friday after his government shunned a memorial event for slain miners.

In a decision highlighting the ruling African National Congress (ANC)'s loss of support among many mineworkers, Zuma's government backed out of the ceremony commemorating 34 striking platinum workers killed by police at Lonmin's Marikana mine.

Last year's so-called "Marikana massacre" was the deadliest incident of its kind since the 1994 end of white-minority rule. It shocked South Africans and the world and drew attention to growing workers' dissatisfaction with Zuma and the ANC's rule.

Instead of attending the Marikana memorial event, Zuma flew to a regional summit in neighboring Malawi.

While seats reserved for cabinet ministers at the memorial remained empty, leading critics of Zuma who plan to challenge him and the ANC in elections next year pilloried his government's handling of labor unrest and popular protests against widespread poverty and unemployment.

Addressing thousands of miners gathered at the rocky outcrop where their colleagues died last year in hail of police gunfire, former ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema told the president and his party: "You've got blood on your hands!"

Malema, who was expelled from the ANC for ill-discipline and has launched a new political movement advocating nationalization of the mines, accused Zuma and his government of failing to take responsibility for the miners' deaths. A government inquiry into the mines violence has made little progress.

"We will never want to be friends of the murderous government," Malema, wearing his trademark red beret, told the crowd, which had greeted him with songs.

Another government critic at the memorial, leading anti-apartheid activist Mamphela Ramphele who has also formed a new party to contest the 2014 elections, blamed the Marikana violence on persisting inequalities in South Africa.

Prayers were offered and a moment of silence was observed for the Marikana victims. They were among 60 deaths during a wave of illegal strikes and labor violence in the country's mines that started last year and spilled over into this year.

Lonmin CEO Ben Magara told families of the victims he was sorry for what had happened. The mines violence helped trigger credit downgrades for Africa's biggest economy.

Zuma's government had planned a unifying day of prayer and reflection, but hours before the planned commemoration went ahead at the mine northeast of Johannesburg, a government spokeswoman said no one from the government would be there.

Zuma's ruling ANC said it would not participate because the event was being organized by a group including the hardline Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU).

"People are taking advantage of a tragedy for their own political benefit," ANC spokesman Ishmael Mnisi told Reuters.

SAFETY FEARS

The labor union ally of Zuma's ANC, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has been displaced by the more hardline AMCU as the dominant union among miners in the area, said it was also staying away, for safety reasons.

"The possibility of losing further lives is great," NUM spokesman Lesiba Seshoka said.

The two unions have been involved in a deadly war for members among South Africa's mineworkers, accusing each other of being behind killings of members over the past few months.

The more radical AMCU accuses the ANC government and its NUM union allies of siding with mining bosses over the interests of workers fighting for better pay and conditions.

At Marikana, thousands, many of them wearing green AMCU T-shirts, gathered on and around the rocky outcrop dubbed by media the "Hill of Horror" where the strikers were killed last year.

Paulos Mpahlela, 60, was angry. "The government should be here. They should have taken the trouble to come," he said.

The ANC, Nelson Mandela's liberation movement which has dominated South Africa since the end of apartheid, is still expected to win the elections easily next year, but increasingly draws accusations it is now the party of the rich and powerful.

"What it shows is that the ANC, the NUM and the government have lost their legitimacy in that region which has become enemy territory," political analyst Nic Borain told Reuters.

AMCU denies aggressive recruitment tactics are behind the unrest in the mines, which has added tension to the latest round of wage bargaining underway between mining companies and unions.

Rights group Amnesty International urged the government to ensure the Marikana inquiry was fully completed.

"There seems to be a critical lack of political will to ensure that the police and those responsible for the police fully account for their actions," Amnesty's Deputy Programme Director for Africa Noel Kututwa said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Jon Herskovitz, Pascal Fletcher, Peroshni Govender and Sherilee Lakmidas in Johannesburg; writing by Pascal Fletcher; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a George W. Bush-era law requiring non-profit organizations to adopt an anti-prostitution policy in order to obtain federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs abroad.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion that the 2003 law violated the First Amendment free speech rights of non-governmental organizations that work on HIV/AIDS prevention.

The court vote was 6-2 with Justice Elena Kagan recused, most likely due to her previous role as solicitor general in the Obama administration, when she may have been involved in the litigation.

The law barred funding for organizations that operate programs overseas but do not have a blanket policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.

The organizations challenging the provision did not want to take a stand on prostitution. They said the law interfered with their work providing advice and counseling to prostitutes about the risks of HIV infection.

The non-profit world was divided, with 46 groups, many of which focus on women's rights, supporting the law.

The Alliance for Open Society International and Pathfinder International - non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that receive funding for overseas HIV/AIDS prevention - sued in 2005, citing the guarantee of free speech in the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

The groups obtained an injunction in 2006 that has prevented the policy from being enforced. Now it never will be.

Thursday's ruling upheld the appeals court's injunction.

"Condemnation and alienation are not public health strategies," said Marine Buissonniere, director of the Open Society Public Health Program, one of the groups that challenged the policy. "The pledge ignores years of evidence that sex workers are critical partners in the fight against AIDS," she added.

FIRST AMENDMENT AT ISSUE

In his opinion, Roberts noted that under Supreme Court precedent, the government can set conditions on funding that relate to the specific way the money is spent but cannot "seek to leverage funding to regulate speech" that falls outside the limits of the program.

"The case is not about the government's ability to enlist the assistance of those with whom it already agrees," Roberts said. "It is about compelling a grant recipient to adopt a particular belief as a condition of funding."

In this instance, the condition constituted "the affirmation of a belief that by its nature cannot be confined within the scope of the government program," meaning it violates the First Amendment, he wrote.

Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

Scalia wrote in his dissenting opinion that the policy requirement was "nothing more than a means of selecting suitable agents to perform the government's chosen strategy."

Under the First Amendment, the government is not required to be "viewpoint neutral," he added. "Moreover, the government may enlist the assistance of those who believe in its ideas to carry them to fruition," Scalia said.

Representatives from the U.S. Agency for International Development, which overseas foreign aid, were not immediately available for comment.

The case prompted an unusual coalition of groups, some conservative and some liberal, to back the NGOs.

Eugene Volokh, a First Amendment expert at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said if the court had endorsed the government's position, it could have led to all kinds of conditions being imposed on government funding and even other forms of government benefits, such as tax exemptions.

"The court wasn't willing to allow the government that kind of power," he said. Volokh filed a brief in the case in support of the challengers.

The American Civil Liberties Union took a similar position.

The government's ability to impose conditions on groups that receive funding does not allow it "to dictate what they believe or what they say with private funds," said attorney Steven Shapiro.

The case is Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-19.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Eric Beech)

Mohamed Badie, 70, was detained at an apartment in Nasr City in northeast Cairo, the state news agency reported.

"That was after information came to the security apparatus locating his place of hiding," it said.

The Facebook page of the Interior Ministry was showing a picture of Badie, with dark rings under his eyes, sitting in a car between two men in black body armor, with a caption confirming his arrest.

"Carrying out the decisions of the public prosecutor to arrest and bring forward the general guide of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohamed Badie, and through collected information and observation of movements it was possible for the criminal search apparatus under the direction of Cairo's security (services) to arrest him ,the caption said.

"The necessary legal measures are being taken," it added.

Badie is the Brotherhood's General Guide.

He was charged in July with inciting violence along with other Brotherhood officials. Together with his two deputies, he is due to stand trial on August 25.

Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim told Al Masry Al Youm, a newspaper, that Badie had been arrested in the early hours of Tuesday.

(Reporting by Tom Perry; Editing by Sandra Maler)