Stock futures drop as Apple revenue miss halts stocks rally

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures fell Thursday as Apple slid nearly 10 percent following a revenue miss, and analysts said equities may be due for a pullback after a six-day rally for the S&P 500.

Apple Inc missed Wall Street's revenue forecast for a third straight quarter after iPhone sales came in below expectations, fanning fears its dominance of consumer electronics is slipping. The shares dropped 8.8 percent to $468.64 in premarket trading, wiping out about $50 billion of its market value.

However, some positive economic news looked set to put a floor under stock prices. Growth in Chinese manufacturing accelerated to a two-year high this month and a buoyant Germany took the euro zone economy a step closer to recovery, business surveys showed on Thursday.

"The march to 1,500 on the S&P is looking quite strong, the question is will Apple be the spoiler?" said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

"My guess is that while Nasdaq might suffer losses today, both the Dow and the S&P may do otherwise based on economic news out of China and Europe."

The S&P 500 rose for a sixth day on Wednesday after stronger-than-expected profits from IBM and Google . But Apple could now halt that rally, which had lifted stocks to five-year highs.

S&P 500 futures fell 3.7 point and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 15 points and Nasdaq 100 futures fell 34.75 points.

Apple's disappointing results drew a round of price-target cuts from brokerages. At least seven brokerages, including Barclays Capital, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank, cut their price target on the stock by $142 on average to $617.80. Morgan Stanley removed the stock from its 'best ideas' list.

Helping the Dow industrials, diversified U.S. manufacturer 3M Co reported a 3.9 percent rise in profit on solid growth in sales of its wide array of products, which range from Post-It notes to films used in television screens. The shares rose 0.7 percent in premarket trading.

Corporate earnings have helped drive the recent stock market rally. Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday showed that of the 99 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings, 67.7 percent have exceeded expectations, above the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

Investors in U.S.-based mutual funds pumped $9.32 billion into stock funds in the week ended January 16, the second consecutive week of inflows for such funds, data from the Investment Company Institute showed Wednesday.

Netflix Inc surprised Wall Street Wednesday with a quarterly profit after the video subscription service added nearly 4 million customers in the U.S. and abroad. Shares jumped nearly 40 percent in premarket trading.

Removing another element of political uncertainty from markets, the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a Republican plan to allow the federal government to keep borrowing money through mid-May, clearing it for fast enactment after the top Senate Democrat and White House endorsed it.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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NCAA announces problems with Miami investigation

CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — The NCAA's probe of Miami's athletic compliance practices is ramping up yet again.

Only this time, the Hurricanes aren't exactly the subject of the inquiry.

In a bizarre twist, it's college sports' governing body itself that is being investigated after NCAA President Mark Emmert acknowledged on Wednesday "a very severe issue of improper conduct" by former investigators working the long, complex Miami case.

The NCAA said its investigation was based, at least in part, on information that it should not have had access to, the testimony of those who appeared under subpoena to be deposed in the bankruptcy case involving former Miami booster Nevin Shapiro, one of the most notorious Ponzi scheme architects in history.

The NCAA does not have subpoena power. Shapiro's attorney did, and used it — and apparently entered into some sort of contractual agreement with the NCAA, one that apparently either was not or should never have been approved.

"We cannot have the NCAA bringing forward an allegation ... that was collected by processes none of us could stand for," Emmert said. "We're going to move it as fast as possible, but we have to get this right."

Wednesday's revelations mean that the notice of allegations against Miami — the NCAA's findings of wrongdoing, a document that was nearly completed and was expected to be released by the end of this week — will be delayed for at least a couple more weeks, if not longer. The long-term ramifications could be more damning for the NCAA, especially if the outside investigator they have commissioned to look into the mess finds more problems.

The NCAA did not name the attorney involved, whom Emmert only referred to as "she." The NCAA said it would not confirm that it was Maria Elena Perez, a Miami graduate and Shapiro's longtime defense attorney.

Perez did not respond to telephone or email messages. A person in her office said the attorney was working in New York and would be forwarded requests for comment.

"As we have done since the beginning, we will continue to work with the NCAA and now with their outside investigator hoping for a swift resolution of the investigation and our case," Miami President Donna Shalala said.

Emmert said two depositions are involved in this allegation of improper conduct by former enforcement-office staffers. One of those two depositions was given Dec. 19, 2011, by former Miami equipment-room staffer Sean Allen — who has been linked to Shapiro and many of the allegations that he made against the university.

Among the questions Allen was asked in that deposition:

— "Did you ever witness Mr. Shapiro paying any money to any University of Miami football or basketball players?"

— "Would it be fair to say that Mr. Shapiro did, in fact, confer various financial benefits on the University of Miami Athletic Program and its players?"

— "Did you ever overhear any of the coaches or any other staff for the University of Miami providing Mr. Shapiro with inside information regarding, you know, the condition of any particular athlete for the purposes of Mr. Shapiro's gambling?"

It's unknown which of Allen's answers caught the NCAA investigators' attention.

What is known publicly now, and has been suspected by some for months, is that those investigators never should have known those questions were asked.

"How in the world can you get this far without it being recognized that this was an inappropriate way to proceed?" Emmert asked.

That's the question that the NCAA wants answered, and fast.

Emmert spoke angrily at times during a half-hour conference call to discuss the findings, in which he revealed that he briefed the NCAA's executive committee and the Division I board presidents with some information about the Miami matter. He said he developed a better understanding of what went on in the days that followed, which led to the hiring of Kenneth L. Wainstein of the firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP to conduct the external review of what happened.

Wainstein, Emmert said, will begin his probe on Thursday, with the NCAA hoping that he can finish within two weeks.

"We want to make sure that any evidence that's brought forward is appropriately collected and it has the integrity that we expect and demand," Emmert said.

It was part of a stunning day for Hurricane athletics: The 25th-ranked men's basketball team routed No. 1 Duke later Wednesday, 90-63.

Emmert said the NCAA was trying to find out why part of the investigation was based on depositions specific to the bankruptcy case against Shapiro, who will have to repay $82.7 million to his victims as part of his sentence. And the timing of this also is curious. Several people who were to be named in the NCAA's notice of allegations against Miami have been told that the document was in the final stages of preparation — and one person who spoke with the AP said at least one person who was to have faced a charge of wrongdoing was told the letter was scheduled for delivery to Miami on Tuesday.

Now it's anyone's guess when that will happen.

Emmert said the NCAA learned of the alleged misconduct, in part, through legal bills presented by Shapiro's attorney for work that was not properly approved by the organization's general counsel's office.

"One of the questions that has to be answered, unequivocally, is what was the nature of that contractual arrangement and what was all the activity that that individual was involved with," Emmert said. "There is some uncertainty about all of that and it's one of the first orders of business for the firm that we've hired to investigate."

The Hurricanes' athletic compliance practices have been probed by the NCAA for nearly two years. Allegations of wrongdoing involving Miami's football and men's basketball programs became widely known in August 2011 when Yahoo Sports published accusations brought by Shapiro, who is serving a 20-year term in federal prison for masterminding a $930 million Ponzi scheme.

Miami has self-imposed two football postseason bans in response to the investigation. The Hurricanes also would have played in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship game this past season, meaning they could have qualified for the Orange Bowl.

"In my two-and-a-half years I've certainly never seen anything like this, and don't want to see it again," Emmert said.

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Is the GOP Moving to the Center? Or Just Getting Sane?

It is no secret that President Obama plans to move the country to the left, demanding “collective action” in his inaugural address to curb global warming, to buttress the middle class, to defend Medicare and Social Security, and to extend gay rights.

The question is whether, behind the scenes, Republican leaders have recognized an opportunity to counter Obama’s liberalism with ever-so-slight jogs toward the center – if not ideologically, at least pragmatically to a position the GOP all but abandoned in recent months: political sanity.

I ask because of two important developments:

• The GOP-controlled House passed a bill Wednesday that effectively extends the debt ceiling limit until May 19. It was a major capitulation to Obama, who publicly declared he would not negotiate with the nation’s credit held hostage. Rep. Paul Ryan, the party’s vice presidential nominee in 2012, cited the “realities of divided government” when he urged his rank-and-file to effectively eat crow.


• Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, another likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, is quietly and (so far) effectively lobbying conservative lawmakers and commentators to consider immigration reforms. In the not-to-distant past, Rubio’s proposals would have been fatally labeled as stalking horses for amnesty.  

If these developments don’t represent a tentative step to the center, they are at least deep bows to reality. Polls showed that the public was braced to blame Republicans for any economic fallout over a debt ceiling fight. Election results from November underscored the GOP’s existential image problem in the fast-growing Hispanic community.

There could be something else going on here: If Obama over-estimates the amount of political capital he collected upon re-election (a common mistake for second-term presidents), he might overreach with his liberal agenda, alienate moderate and independent voters, and leave a vacuum for Republicans in the middle.

Yes, Republicans in the middle. It could happen.

In making the rounds on Capitol Hill, I’ve been struck by the recognition among GOP lawmakers that their party must adapt or perish. Some paint a broader picture, pointing out that both the Democratic and Republican parties need to be better attuned to the public will.

“The American people are not fearful of solutions to the big problems facing our country,” said Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa. “They are fearful that American leaders don’t have the capacity to act.”

Failure to respond to issues like the national debt, Dent said, could force voters to seek alternatives, even an independent presidential bid. Citing the organic creation of the tea party revolt, Dent ominously added, “The next movement to come along might not align itself with one of the two existing parties.”

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Meet today's most ambitious women

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• Report: Women in Brazil, Russia, India and China more ambitious than U.S. counterparts


• Extended families, affordable childcare makes it easier for mothers to work, says author


• Eldercare and "daughterly guilt" are a more significant barrier than in Western world


• Women report: Assertiveness not considered feminine in China and India

Editor's note: Sylvia Ann Hewlett is an economist and the founding president of the Center for Talent Innovation, a Manhattan-based think tank where she chairs the Task Force for Talent Innovation, a task force of more than 70 global companies focused on fully realizing the new stream of talent in the global marketplace.

New York (CNN) -- The rapid growth in emerging markets over the past decade has made them fertile ground for the development of new approaches to attracting and managing talent.

Among the biggest beneficiaries: Ambitious, educated women in Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). Following the trend in developed nations, BRIC women are graduating from university at rates equal to or exceeding men. As they enter the professional workforce in their home countries, these women have an unparalleled opportunity to leapfrog their Western counterparts.

Research from the think tank I set up, Center for Talent Innovation, shows that their career ambitions and commitment overwhelm those of women in the U.S.

Their career ambitions and commitment overwhelm those of women in the U.S.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett

In my book, "Winning the War for Talent in Emerging Markets: Why Women are the Solution," written with Ripa Rashid, we say some 76% of Chinese women, 80% of Brazilian women, and a whopping 86% of Indian women aspire to the top job, compared to only 52% of their U.S. counterparts. Over 80% in Brazil, Russia and India love their jobs, versus 70% in the U.S.

Yet their promising futures too often are derailed by family-rooted "pulls" and workplace-centered "pushes."

Although childcare is one of the most common career killers for women in the United States and Western Europe, it is rarely a serious problem in the emerging markets. Parents and in-laws frequently live nearby and are willing to pitch in to help care for their grandchildren. Nannies and household help are, for the most part, affordable and readily available.

Instead, BRIC women confront a series of family and social pressures that pile onto women when they marry, ratchet up after they have children, and become almost crushing as their parents and in-laws get older.

Eldercare is a ticking time bomb, especially in countries where filial piety is tightly woven into the cultural value system.

Although elders today represent a net benefit to the female career professional in BRIC markets, demographic projections a huge leap in the percentage of the population over 60.

This dramatic shift will land squarely on professional women. While many women in our sample did not have children, the vast majority -- 81% -- do have eldercare responsibilities. "Daughterly guilt," already substantial across the BRICs, actually exceeds maternal guilt in India and China.

Gender bias remains an indisputable reality of the workplace
Sylvia Ann Hewlett

In spite of the tremendous gains in women's status in the BRICs over the past two decades, gender bias remains an indisputable reality of the workplace.

In India and China, over 25% of CTI survey respondents believe women are treated unfairly in the workplace owing to their gender; in India, the number is 45%.

More than half of educated women in India and nearly half of their counterparts in China have encountered bias severe enough to make them consider scaling back their career goals -- or quitting altogether. (Russia is the exception, in part owing to a Communist legacy that integrated women into the workplace better than elsewhere in today's emerging markets.)

Even a sizable percentage of men agree that women are treated unfairly because of their gender.

The most commonly encountered types of bias involve lingering stereotypes about women's abilities and commitment to work.

These deeply rooted prejudices can impact women's careers in a range of ways, from curtailed assignments to smaller salaries to penalties for taking maternity leave.

Women also have to fight cultural stereotypes that bar them from coveted assignments. More than half of the women surveyed are interested in international assignments, with most seeing them as critical to their career advancement.

Yet because it's assumed that a woman's responsibilities are to her home, and that her husband and children will take precedence over commitment to her career, she is often passed over in favor of a man.

Employers who wish to maximize their potential need to understand (women's) complicated career dynamics.
Sylvia Ann Hewlett

But assertiveness can be difficult for women brought up in cultures that place great value on women's submissiveness and reticence, as in India and China, or consider it a trait that detracts from women's essential femininity.

Many women surveyed felt crippled by this cultural bind, a sense further reinforced by the absence of senior female role models, mentors, sponsors and access to leadership training. Time and again, the women spoke of how hungry they are for more support from their employers and how much they would benefit from programs that would help them break out of their shells.

A nuanced understanding of the cultural and social influences is essential to doing business effectively anywhere, yet the "think global, act local" mantra that is the cornerstone of many successful business strategies rarely extends to managing talented women in emerging markets.

Employers who wish to maximize their potential need to understand their complicated career dynamics.

Only by creating policies and practices that enable ambitious, educated women to flourish will companies ensure that the tomorrow's leaders get the skills and support they need today.

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Bulls rally to beat Pistons 85-82

As the United Center rocked and the Bulls celebrated Marco Belinelli's go-ahead, three-point play with 7.5 seconds left, Joakim Noah remained down in the photographer's pit along the baseline, cameras and cheerleaders all around him.

"I didn't really see the play," Noah said. "I had the cheerleaders' pom-poms in my face."

His teammates saw it, which is why they were celebrating the shot that sealed the Bulls' stirring 85-82 comeback over the Pistons, their 17th straight victory in this series. It marked the second time in just more than a month the Bulls erased a 17-point deficit against the Pistons to prevail.

And yet Noah, who had authored, really, the play of the season — one that defines the heart and hustle that has the Derrick Rose-less Bulls on pace for 50 victories now that the midway point has been reached — remained down.

"We were over there celebrating and he was still knocked over by the cheerleaders," said Nate Robinson, who kick-started the rally with nine straight points early in the fourth. "We were like, 'Oh, yeah, we have to go help him up.' But that play shows how hard Jo works. He never gives up."

Noah smiled, clearly relishing the opportunity to tweak his teammates.

"Damn, it took forever, right?" he said of the delay.

All's well that ends well, right?

But make sure to find a replay of Noah's hustle, which came off Belinelli's bricked jumper. As Noah tumbled into cameras and cheerleaders, Belinelli cut to the basket, grabbed the fruit of Noah's effort and laid it in as Rodney Stuckey fouled him.

"I scored, but the credit goes to Jo," said Belinelli, who scored his second game-winner in four games.

Coach Tom Thibodeau just shook his head.

"Quite frankly, I don't know he got to it," Thibodeau said. "It was an incredible play."

The Bulls then watched tying 3-point attempts from Tayshuan Prince and Stuckey rim out as time expired.

"I stayed with the play," Noah said. "The basketball gods were on our side. It's not really a great play because if Detroit gets it, it's a four-on-five fast break the other side. Fortunately, we got it. "

Robinson's boundless energy can delve into extracurricular emotion, but there's no denying he jump-started the comeback. Robinson keyed a 12-2 run to open the fourth with nine straight points and a dish for a fast-break dunk from Butler, who tied his career-highs with 18 points and nine rebounds.

Butler, starting again for the injured Luol Deng, played all but 91 seconds and overcame a 1-for-8 start. He also hit a huge 3-pointer — the Bulls missed their first 10 and made just 3 of 14 — for an 82-80 lead before Jason Maxiell tied the game with 29.4 seconds left off a defensive breakdown.

"Jimmy just kept working the game," Thibodeau said. "He never got down. He kept battling and battling."

Robinson finished with 11 points.

"That's Nate. He made a lot of big-time plays for us," Thibodeau said. "He's not afraid. I respect that about him.

"The group that started the fourth quarter played with energy, got some stops and got us going.

Noah played 45 minutes with 10 points and 18 rebounds.

"We just kept saying, 'We're going to rally together,'" Butler said. "That's what this team is all about."

kcjohnson@tribune.com

Twitter @kcjhoop

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North Korea to target U.S. with nuclear, rocket tests

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea said on Thursday it would carry out further rocket launches and a nuclear test that would target the United States, dramatically stepping up its threats against a country it called its "sworn enemy".

The announcement by the country's top military body came a day after the U.N. Security Council agreed to a U.S.-backed resolution to censure and sanction North Korea for a rocket launch in December that breached U.N. rules.

"We are not disguising the fact that the various satellites and long-range rockets that we will fire and the high-level nuclear test we will carry out are targeted at the United States," North Korea's National Defence Commission said, according to state news agency KCNA.

North Korea is believed by South Korea and other observers to be "technically ready" for a third nuclear test, and the decision to go ahead rests with leader Kim Jong-un who pressed ahead with the December rocket launch in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

China, the one major diplomatic ally of the isolated and impoverished North, agreed to the U.S.-backed resolution and it also supported resolutions in 2006 and 2009 after Pyongyang's two earlier nuclear tests.

Thursday's statement by North Korea represents a huge challenge to Beijing as it undergoes a leadership transition with Xi Jinping due to take office in March.

China's Foreign Ministry called for calm and restraint and a return to six-party talks, but effectively singled out North Korea, urging the "relevant party" not to take any steps that would raise tensions.

"We hope the relevant party can remain calm and act and speak in a cautious and prudent way and not take any steps which may further worsen the situation," ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters at a regular press briefing.

North Korea has rejected proposals to restart the talks aimed at reining in its nuclear capacity. The United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas are the six parties involved.

"After all these years and numerous rounds of six-party talks we can see that China's influence over North Korea is actually very limited. All China can do is try to persuade them not to carry out their threats," said Cai Jian, an expert on Korea at Fudan University in Shanghai.

Analysts said the North could test as early as February as South Korea prepares to install a new, untested president or that it could choose to stage a nuclear explosion to coincide with former ruler Kim Jong-il's Feb 16 birthday.

"North Korea will have felt betrayed by China for agreeing to the latest U.N. resolution and they might be targeting (China) as well (with this statement)," said Lee Seung-yeol, senior research fellow at Ewha Institute of Unification Studies in Seoul.

U.S. URGES NO TEST

Washington urged North Korea not to proceed with a third test just as the North's statement was published on Thursday.

"Whether North Korea tests or not is up to North Korea," Glyn Davies, the top U.S. envoy for North Korean diplomacy, said in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

"We hope they don't do it. We call on them not to do it," Davies said after a meeting with South Korean officials. "This is not a moment to increase tensions on the Korean peninsula."

The North was banned from developing missile and nuclear technology under sanctions dating from its 2006 and 2009 nuclear tests.

A South Korean military official said the concern now is that Pyongyang could undertake a third nuclear test using highly enriched uranium for the first time, opening a second path to a bomb.

North Korea's 2006 nuclear test using plutonium produced a puny yield equivalent to one kiloton of TNT - compared with 13-18 kilotons for the Hiroshima bomb - and U.S. intelligence estimates put the 2009 test's yield at roughly two kilotons

North Korea is estimated to have enough fissile material for about a dozen plutonium warheads, although estimates vary, and intelligence reports suggest that it has been enriching uranium to supplement that stock and give it a second path to the bomb.

According to estimates from the Institute for Science and International Security from late 2012, North Korea could have enough weapons grade uranium for 21-32 nuclear weapons by 2016 if it used one centrifuge at its Yongbyon nuclear plant to enrich uranium to weapons grade.

North Korea gave no time-frame for the coming test and often employs harsh rhetoric in response to U.N. and U.S. actions that it sees as hostile.

Its long-range rockets are not seen as capable of reaching the United States mainland and it is not believed to have the technology to mount a nuclear warhead on a long-range missile.

The bellicose statement on Thursday appeared to dent any remaining hopes that Kim Jong-un, believed to be 30 years old, would pursue a different path from his father Kim Jong-il, who oversaw the country's military and nuclear programs.

The older Kim died in December 2011.

"The UNSC (Security Council) resolution masterminded by the U.S. has brought its hostile policy towards the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea) to its most dangerous stage," the commission was quoted as saying.

(Additional reporting by Christine Kim in SEOUL, Ben Blanchard and Sui-Lee Wee in Beijing; Writing by David Chance; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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Stock futures flat, but techs rally in preopen trade

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stock index futures were flat on Wednesday, with investors reluctant to make big bets following a five-day rally that took major averages to levels not seen since December 2007.

Tech shares will be in focus following strong results from both IBM and Google, which rallied in premarket and continued the string of major companies outperforming following results.

Investors were also cautious as they awaited another onslaught of earnings reports, including from Dow components McDonald's Corp and United Technologies . Apple Inc reports after the market closes and investors will scour that report for signs the company can continue to grow at an accelerated pace.

Google Inc rose 5.1 percent to $738.61 in light premarket trading a day after the search giant's core Internet business outpaced expectations. Revenue was also higher than expected.

International Business Machines Corp late Tuesday forecast better-than-anticipated 2013 results and also posted fourth-quarter earnings and revenue that beat expectations. The results helped to allay concerns about the tech sector that arose when Intel Corp gave a weak outlook last week. IBM, which is a Dow component, rose 3.9 percent to $203.81 before the bell.

According to the latest Thomson Reuters data, of the 74 S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings so far, 62.2 percent have topped expectations, roughly even with the 62 percent average since 1994, but below the 65 percent average over the past four quarters.

Overall, S&P 500 fourth-quarter earnings are forecast to have risen 2.6 percent. That estimate is above the 1.9 percent forecast from the start of earnings season, but well below the 9.9 percent fourth-quarter earnings forecast from October 1, the data showed.

S&P 500 futures fell 1.8 point and were below fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures were flat points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 3.5 points.

Both the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average hit five-year closing highs on Tuesday, and recent gains have largely been fueled by a strong start to the earning season. The S&P has jumped 6.4 percent over the past four weeks.

Republican leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives aim on Wednesday to pass a bill to extend the U.S. debt limit by nearly four months, to May 19. The White House welcomed the move, saying it would remove uncertainty about the issue.

The debt limit issue has been viewed as a market overhang for the past few weeks, with many investors worried that if no deal is reached to raise the limit, it could have a negative impact on the economy.

Bank and commodity shares led the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 Index to a fresh five-year closing high on Tuesday on hopes that the global economy continues to mend.

(Editing by W Simon)

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Te'o tells Couric he briefly lied about girlfriend

NEW YORK (AP) — Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o has told Katie Couric that he briefly lied about his online girlfriend after discovering she didn't exist.

Te'o said in an interview to air Thursday on Couric's show that he didn't lie about the hoax until December, believing Lennay Kekua had died of cancer. A segment of the interview with Te'o and his parents was broadcast Wednesday on "Good Morning America."

The Heisman Trophy runner-up received a phone call in December from a woman saying she was Kekua, whom he believed had died in September.

Te'o said, "Now I get a phone call on Dec. 6, saying that she's alive and then I'm going be put on national TV two days later. And to ask me about the same question. You know, what would you do?"

Te'o maintained that he had no part in creating the hoax.

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NASA’s Alien Planet Archive Now Open to the World

Scientists with NASA’s planet-hunting Kepler spacecraft have revamped the mission’s online archive of alien worlds, opening up the database for the entire world to see.

Researchers are now posting all exoplanet sightings by the Kepler observatory into a single, comprehensive website called the “NASA Exoplanet Archive.” Instead of going through the long planet confirmation process before making data publicly available, since December of last year, scientists have started shoveling out all the data Kepler collects into a comprehensive list.

“When we make that list, right away it goes to the archive,” Kepler mission team member Steve Howell told SPACE.com during the 221st American Astronomical Society meeting in Long Beach, Calif., this month. “So the day we know about the list, the archive knows about the list. And then everybody, including us, can work on that list. But that list is dynamic so if we, or a community person, makes an observation and says, ‘Hey, I looked at this planet candidate but it’s really an eclipsing binary,’ then that entry in the archive will be changed.”

The archive has information about the size, orbital period and other metrics of any possible planet discovered and investigated by Kepler.[Gallery: A World of Kepler Planets]

“It’s all in real time,” Howell said. “The sausage-making process is exposed.”

Before the new archive was debuted, astronomers were already doing creative work with the data. One created a visually stunning video of every known Kepler planet candidate — 2,299 unconfirmed exoplanets at the time — orbiting one central point.

The Kepler team’s new “open” attitude toward data release is giving everybody, not just members of the scientific community, a chance to do some hands-on scientific research by building their own experiments, Howell said.

A group of high school students has already taken data from groups of planets observed by Kepler and mapped them against a map of known stars looking for a pattern. Howell doesn’t think they’ll see much, but he’s glad that they have the opportunity to get creative.

“The entire world can help us with this Kepler data,” Howell said. “I don’t see any downside.”

Planet Hunters, a collective of amateur astronomers, recently found 42 new alien planets using Kepler data that was publicly available prior to the launch of the new archive system.

It would be difficult for Kepler scientists to get their jobs done without the help of amateur astronomers around the globe, mission researchers said. By making the exoplanet archive more accessible, it could mean that more planets are found and confirmed in shorter amounts of time than ever before.

More people sifting through the wealth of data collected by Kepler means that scientists have a better chance of finding even more planets circling distant stars, Howell added.

Since its launch in 2009, NASA’s Kepler spacecraft has flagged more than 2,300 objects as possible alien worlds. Although only about 100 have been confirmed, scientists expect that at least 80 percent could be certifiable exoplanets.

Currently, Kepler has entered a “safe mode” after researchers spotted an issue with one of the spacecraft’s three reaction wheels that are responsible for orienting the telescope. The malfunction has stalled science observations, but researchers hope that the issue will be resolved by Sunday (Jan. 27).

To explore the new NASA Exoplanet Archive, visit: http://exoplanetarchive.ipac.caltech.edu/

You can follow SPACE.com staff writer Miriam Kramer on Twitter @mirikramer. Follow SPACE.com on Twitter @Spacedotcom. We’re also on Facebook & Google+.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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2013 could be 'climate game-changer'

An ice sculpture entitled 'Minimum Monument' by Brazilian artist Nele Azevedo outside Berlin's Concert Hall, September 2, 2009.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The "neglected" risk of climate change seems to be rising to the top of leaders' agendas


• Extreme weather events are costing the global economy billions of dollars each year


• Gas can be an important bridge to a lower carbon future but it's not the answer


• More investment in renewable energy is needed, with fewer risks

Editor's note: Andrew Steer is President and CEO of the World Resources Institute, a think tank that works with governments, businesses and civil society to find sustainable solutions to environmental and development challenges.

(CNN) -- As leaders gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, signs of economic hope are upon us. The global economy is on the mend. Worldwide, the middle class is expanding by an estimated 100 million per year. And the quality of life for millions in Asia and Africa is growing at an unprecedented pace.

Threats abound, of course. One neglected risk -- climate change -- appears to at last be rising to the top of agendas in business and political circles. When the World Economic Forum recently asked 1,000 leaders from industry, government, academia, and civil society to rank risks over the coming decade for the Global Risks 2013 report, climate change was in the top three. And in his second inaugural address, President Obama identified climate change as a major priority for his Administration.

Andrew Steer

For good reason: last year was the hottest year on record for the continental United States, and records for extreme weather events were broken around the world. We are seeing more droughts, wildfires, and rising seas. The current U.S. drought will wipe out approximately 1% of the U.S. GDP and is on course to be the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history. Damage from Hurricane Sandy will cost another 0.5% of GDP. And a recent study found that the cost of climate change is about $1.2 trillion per year globally, or 1.6% of global GDP.

Shifting to low-carbon energy sources is critical to mitigating climate change's impacts. Today's global energy mix is changing rapidly, but is it heading in the right direction?

Coal is the greatest driver of carbon dioxide emissions from energy, accounting for more than 40% of the total worldwide. Although coal demand is falling in the United States -- with 55 coal-powered plants closed in the past year -- it's growing globally. The World Resources Institute (WRI) recently identified 1,200 proposed new coal plants around the world. And last year, the United States hit a record-high level of coal exports—arguably transferring U.S. emissions abroad.

Meanwhile, shale gas is booming. Production in the United States has increased nearly tenfold since 2005, and China, India, Argentina, and many others have huge potential reserves. This development can be an economic blessing in many regions, and, because carbon emissions of shale gas are roughly half those of coal, it can help us get onto a lower carbon growth path.

However, while gas is an important bridge to a low carbon future—and can be a component of such a future—it can't get us fully to where we need to be. Greenhouse gas emissions in industrial countries need to fall by 80-90% by 2050 to prevent climate change's most disastrous impacts. And there is evidence that gas is crowding out renewables.

Renewable energy -- especially solar and wind power -- are clear winners when it comes to reducing emissions. Unfortunately, despite falling prices, the financial markets remain largely risk-averse. Many investors are less willing to finance renewable power. As a result of this mindset, along with policy uncertainty and the proliferation of low-cost gas, renewable energy investment dropped 11%, to $268 billion, last year.

What do we need to get on track?

Incentivizing renewable energy investment

Currently, more than 100 countries have renewable energy targets, more than 40 developing nations have introduced feed-in tariffs, and countries from Saudi Arabia to South Africa are making big bets on renewables as a growth market. Many countries are also exploring carbon-trading markets, including the EU, South Korea, and Australia. This year, China launched pilot trading projects in five cities and two provinces, with a goal of a national program by 2015.

Removing market barriers

Despite growing demand for renewable energy from many companies, this demand often remains unmet due to numerous regulatory, financial, and psychological barriers in the marketplace.

In an effort to address these, WRI just launched the Green Power Market Development Group in India, bringing together industry, government, and NGOs to build critical support for renewable energy markets. A dozen major companies from a variety of sectors—like Infosys, ACC, Cognizant, IBM, WIPRO, and others— have joined the initiative. This type of government-industry-utility partnership, built upon highly successful models elsewhere, can spur expanded clean energy development. It will be highlighted in Davos this week at meetings of the Green Growth Action Alliance (G2A2).

De-risking investments

For technical, policy, and financial reasons, risks are often higher for renewables than fossil-based energy. Addressing these risks is the big remaining task to bring about the needed energy transformation. Some new funding mechanisms are emerging that can help reduce risk and thus leverage large sums of financing. For example, the Green Climate Fund could, if well-designed, be an important venue to raise funds and drive additional investments from capital markets. Likewise, multi-lateral development banks' recent $175 billion commitment to sustainable transport could help leverage more funds from the private and public sectors.

Some forward-looking companies are seeking to create internal incentives for green investments. For example, companies like Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, and UPS have been taking actions to reduce internal hurdle rates and shift strategic thinking to the longer-term horizons that many green strategies need.

Davos is exactly the type of venue for finding solutions to such issues, which requires leadership and coalition-building from the private and public sectors. For example, the the G2A2, an alliance of CEOs committed to addressing climate and environmental risks, will launch the Green Investment Report with precisely the goal of "unlocking finance for green growth".

Depending on what happens at Davos—and other forums and meetings like it throughout the year—2013 could just be a game-changer.

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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Andrew Steer.

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