As the U.S. deploys a Navy missile destroyer in case of a launch by North Korea, the country's leader Kim Jong Un has abolished an armistice with South Korea and is now saying he will re-open a nuclear bomb facility that was closed in 2007. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
By Andrea Mitchell, Jim Miklaszewski and Ian Johnston, NBC News
The U.S. Navy has deployed a second destroyer in the western Pacific to respond to any missile threats from North Korea as tensions continue to flare.
The USS Decatur was headed back to San Diego, Calif., when it was given a new mission: to join the USS McCain in a missile defense mission, Pentagon spokesman George Little said Tuesday.
A third destroyer, the USS Fitzgerald, is also available to respond, if necessary, officials said.
NBC's Jim Maceda reports on U.S. Navy movements of destroyers into the Pacific amid threats from North Korea.
The warship movement came amid new nuclear threats from North Korea and a call for peace talks from United Nations chief Ban Ki-Moon, who said the crisis ?has already gone too far.?
?Nuclear threats are not a game. Aggressive rhetoric and military posturing only result in counter-actions, and fuel fear and instability," Ban said at a news conference in Andorra, where he was on an official visit.
Ban offered to facilitate peace talks, but how the North would react was not immediately clear. Ban was South Korea's foreign affairs minister before election to his UN post.
The rogue communist state continued to make threats Tuesday, and said it would rebuild and restart nuclear facilities, including a mothballed reactor that can make one bomb's worth of plutonium a year.
Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the amount of hostility emanating from Pyongyang was alarming.
The U.S., Japan and South Korea had to be ?very firm in sending them a message that we are going to do everything necessary to defend our security and defend our troops,? Panetta?told CNBC in an interview. He said there was a danger of a "miscalculation" that escalated.
?I think we've got to be very concerned about ... the level of provocation that North Korea is engaged in. They are in the process of testing ICBMs [Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]. They've also been testing nuclear weapons,? he said.
?The kind of provocation and bellicosity they're showing now with their rhetoric raises a lot of concern,? he added. ?It just means the United States and our allies Japan and South Korea have to be very firm in sending them a message that we are going to do everything necessary to defend our security and defend our troops.?
A spokesman for the North's General Department of Atomic Energy said restarting its nuclear facilities was part of efforts to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage, but also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," the official Korean Central News Agency said, according to Reuters.
Pyongyang conducted its third nuclear test in February, prompting a new round of U.N. sanctions that have infuriated its leaders and led to a torrent of threatening rhetoric. The United States has sent nuclear-capable bombers and stealth jets to participate in annual South Korean-U.S. military drills that the allies call routine but that Pyongyang claims are invasion preparations.
Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon expresses great concern over the ongoing nuclear threats being issued by the North Korean government.
KCNA kept up the rhetoric on?its English-language site Tuesday, with an article headlined ?Intensified Anti-U.S. Action Called For.?
It quoted the ?North Side Committee for Implementing the June 15 Joint Declaration? as saying in a statement that the joint U.S. and South Korean military exercise ?clearly proves that the U.S. imperialists' scenario to launch a nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula at any cost has reached an extremely reckless phase of its implementation.?
?As already clarified by the DPRK [North Korea], gone are the days when it could have verbal exchange with them,? the statement said.
?To wage a merciless, just, retaliatory war is the only way of rooting out the source of the danger of a nuclear war on this land and build a peaceful and prosperous reunified thriving nation where all Koreans live together,? it added.
Reuters and NBC News' John Newland contributed to this report.
Related:
US Navy shifts destroyer in wake of North Korea missile threats
US official warns North Korea is no 'paper tiger'
Analyst: Threats are predictable, Kim Jong Un is not
This story was originally published on Tue Apr 2, 2013 4:39 AM EDT
TLDs are the letters after the final dot of a domain name.
The approval could pave the way for Etisalat to use 'etisalat' in Arabic letters as its domain extension.
"As one of the most innovative companies in the Middle East, it makes sense for Etisalat to progress toward getting a Top-Level Domain before virtually anyone else," said Ahmed Bin Ali, Group Senior Vice-President, Corporate Communications, Etisalat Group.
"Being a pioneer of the telecoms industry has been essential to our success and we plan to continue to be a leader in building an online brand," he added.
In the past, Top-Level Domains have been restricted to generic strings, such as 'com' and 'net', and country codes, such as 'ae' for the UAE and 'uk' for the United Kingdom. Changes to the rules have enabled businesses, governments and communities to apply for new domain names, using letters from languages including Arabic, Korean and Chinese.
"These changes are a natural step in the internet's evolution and they will promote the diversity of language and culture and give billions of people a more convenient way to access the web in their native tongues," Mr Bin Ali said.
"Giving more Arabic speakers access to our web sites will help us build relations with communities in some of our operating countries," he added.
Since earlier this month, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the global regulator of web addresses, has released the initial evaluations of around 60 applicants. Etisalat passed its first application for the Top-Level Domain 'etisalat' in Arabic letters on Friday.
The UAE telecoms operator also applied for the TLD 'etisalat' in English. The initial evaluation of this application will be released later this year.
Etisalat can expect to see more companies and government organisations all over the world follow its lead to secure dedicated Top-Level Domains as they become the mark of entities that are serious about their futures.
The evaluation process includes a rigorous due diligence review of the applicant's technology, financial resources, management and directors, and its business plans for the Top-Level Domain.
"This new programme is the result of many years of policy development and implementation work aimed at increasing diversity, competition and innovation to the Domain Name System, and applicants such as Etisalat have spent countless hours to prepare," said Fadi Chehade, ICANN's President.
"The release of the first initial evaluations is an important moment in our programme and marks a milestone in the evolution of the Internet," he added.
Ben Crawford, CEO of global registry operator CentralNic, added, "We have worked with companies trying to obtain TLDs in four continents, and Etisalat stands out with the magnitude and quality of resources they dedicated to the task. Using their own TLD integrates with Etisalat's global strategy to use online technology for the benefit of its customers."
Around 2,000 organisations have applied for Top-Level Domains. ICANN has prioritised applications and announced the results of around 30 initial evaluations each week for the past two weeks. The company will continue to release another 30 results each Friday until June when it will expand this figure to 100.
Mirrorless cameras fall into a tricky pricing valley. At $600, which is a common MSRP, they're in direct competition with starter DSLRs, which remain the best kind of camera to buy if you're seriously learning photography. But they're also feeling pressure from the low end—sure, photos taken with APS-C sensors look great when they're blown up, but for most web uses they end up being overkill. The fact remains, though, that the right mirrorless camera can produce slick images, and the Sony NEX-F3 does just that. Mario Aguilar reviewed it last June and found a lot to like: More »
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Construction spending rebounded in February as both public and private outlays increased, bolstering views of faster economic growth in the first quarter.
Construction spending advanced 1.2 percent to an annual rate of $885.1 billion, the Commerce Department said on Monday. Spending had declined 2.1 percent in January.
Economists polled by Reuters had expected construction spending to rise 1 percent in February.
The construction report added to a series of other data that have suggested economic growth accelerated in the first quarter from the fourth quarter's anemic 0.4 percent annual pace.
Despite tighter fiscal policy, data on employment, consumer spending and factory activity have been relatively strong, leaving economists scrambling to raise their forecast.
First-quarter GDP growth estimates currently range as high as a 3.5 percent annual rate.
Construction spending in February was boosted by a 1.3 percent rise in private construction projects. Spending on private residential projects increased 2.2 percent to the highest level since November 2008.
Part of the increase reflected renovations. The housing market is no longer a drag on the economy and residential construction contributed to growth last year for the first time since 2005. It is expected to do so again this year.
Spending on private nonresidential structures rose 0.4 percent after declining 5.9 percent.
Public sector construction spending increased 0.9 percent, rising for a second straight month. Outlays on federal government projects fell 1.1 percent. However, state and local spending, which is far larger than federal projects, rose 1.1 percent. It was the second straight month of gain in state and local government outlays.
(Reporting By Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Neil Stempleman)
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice University developing computational models for more successful extraction
Rice University researchers are developing a comprehensive model that will predict how brine, oil and gas drawn from ultra-deep wells react to everything encountered on the way up to the surface and to suggest strategies to maintain the flow.
Deepwater production involves hydrocarbons but also formation water (brine), chemicals, and materials that make up the complex machinery of modern oil extraction. Under high pressures and temperatures, the brine can form acidic mixtures that corrode pipes or form solid mineral deposits, called scale, that inhibit flow in a well.
Rice professors Walter Chapman, Kenneth Cox and Mason Tomson will combine their expertise in materials and computer modeling to analyze the brine and its environment on the molecular to macro scales. Their research is supported by $1.2 million awarded last fall by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, a contractor for the US Department of Energy, through Brine Chemistry Solutions LLC.
A molecular-level model based on Chapman's Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (SAFT) equation and on Tomson's expertise with the Brine Chemistry Consortium will predict the likelihood that scale and corrosion will hinder the flow in a well based on variables found at the site. That will save money, cut risk and make deepwater production safer and more environmentally sound, Chapman said.
"This is all about flow assurance," he said. "Companies want to maintain their ability to produce by knowing how to deal with potential obstacles -- scale, asphaltenes, natural gas hydrates, wax -- anything that could prevent them from being able to flow the fluids. Rice works in each of these areas, but the current project involves scale and corrosion."
The degree of difficulty increases as explorers drill further out to sea. Ultra-deepwater wells are those with water depths greater than 7,500 feet. In these fossil fuel reservoirs, extreme temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures greater than 25,000 pounds per square inch can turn benign mixtures into pipe-eating acids or clogging solids.
"There are a lot of components," said Cox, who spent 17 years as a research engineer at Shell before entering academia. "You have water, all kinds of salts and other species in a very complex mixture over many extreme combinations of temperature and pressure. But most of the data we have to base our models on, to calibrate the models against, are taken near room temperature and at atmospheric pressure.
"It's kind of like sending someone to the moon, when you only know what you've experienced on Earth," he said. "We mean to take this limited body of data and make the best possible use of it."
"Our idea is to have a single model able to describe all the phases -- for gases, water and aqueous solutions, and hydrocarbons -- from very hot, high-pressure conditions down hole all the way through the platform and even through transmission and refining," Chapman said. "We want to use one model to describe conditions along this entire path."
Samples from the deep are difficult to analyze, even when they can be obtained, he said. "Even though sample cells can maintain pressure, and a very few will maintain temperature, by the time they come up to the surface, the samples are completely different," he said. "So we have limited data from which to project a highly complex system."
That system not only includes the oil and gas, briny water, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other elements found in the chemical stew in and beneath the sea, but also the hardware used to extract oil. Every pipe, every seal, every tank and every part of every pump has to be accounted for in the equation, to see how each might react. Pressure and temperature changes along the entire path affect how or if the product flows.
"The temperature's high enough for water to dissolve sand," Cox said. "That's an interesting problem in itself, because at very high temperature it forms volatile silicic acid. The presence of this kind of thing is what we try to pin down."
"We're trying to get basic data into a fundamental model that, given the water chemistry and the conditions at any site, allows us to model what should be expected of that site," Chapman said.
He said a good model would help companies plan their approach to a potential well before committing millions of dollars to set up a platform. "They want to know what they're going to find. Their inhibition strategy (to limit corrosion), the materials they're going to use and the separation equipment will all be based on their knowledge of the fluid properties down hole."
The Rice team is working with project leader Brine Chemistry Solutions LLC, a Houston company founded by Tomson's son, Rice alumnus Ross Tomson. Chapman is the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Cox is a professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Tomson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Funding for the projects is provided through the ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources research and development program authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The program is funded from lease bonuses and royalties paid by industry to produce oil and gas on federal lands and is designed to assess and mitigate risk, enhancing the environmental sustainability of oil and gas exploration and production activities.
###
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
RPSEA is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory to administer three areas of research. RPSEA is a nonprofit consortium with more than 180 members, including 24 of the nation's premier research universities, five national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers and energy consumers. The mission of RPSEA, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development and deployment of safe and environmentally responsible technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States. Additional information can be found at http://www.rpsea.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Contact: David Ruth david@rice.edu 713-348-6327 Rice University
Rice University developing computational models for more successful extraction
Rice University researchers are developing a comprehensive model that will predict how brine, oil and gas drawn from ultra-deep wells react to everything encountered on the way up to the surface and to suggest strategies to maintain the flow.
Deepwater production involves hydrocarbons but also formation water (brine), chemicals, and materials that make up the complex machinery of modern oil extraction. Under high pressures and temperatures, the brine can form acidic mixtures that corrode pipes or form solid mineral deposits, called scale, that inhibit flow in a well.
Rice professors Walter Chapman, Kenneth Cox and Mason Tomson will combine their expertise in materials and computer modeling to analyze the brine and its environment on the molecular to macro scales. Their research is supported by $1.2 million awarded last fall by the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America, a contractor for the US Department of Energy, through Brine Chemistry Solutions LLC.
A molecular-level model based on Chapman's Statistical Associating Fluid Theory (SAFT) equation and on Tomson's expertise with the Brine Chemistry Consortium will predict the likelihood that scale and corrosion will hinder the flow in a well based on variables found at the site. That will save money, cut risk and make deepwater production safer and more environmentally sound, Chapman said.
"This is all about flow assurance," he said. "Companies want to maintain their ability to produce by knowing how to deal with potential obstacles -- scale, asphaltenes, natural gas hydrates, wax -- anything that could prevent them from being able to flow the fluids. Rice works in each of these areas, but the current project involves scale and corrosion."
The degree of difficulty increases as explorers drill further out to sea. Ultra-deepwater wells are those with water depths greater than 7,500 feet. In these fossil fuel reservoirs, extreme temperatures up to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and pressures greater than 25,000 pounds per square inch can turn benign mixtures into pipe-eating acids or clogging solids.
"There are a lot of components," said Cox, who spent 17 years as a research engineer at Shell before entering academia. "You have water, all kinds of salts and other species in a very complex mixture over many extreme combinations of temperature and pressure. But most of the data we have to base our models on, to calibrate the models against, are taken near room temperature and at atmospheric pressure.
"It's kind of like sending someone to the moon, when you only know what you've experienced on Earth," he said. "We mean to take this limited body of data and make the best possible use of it."
"Our idea is to have a single model able to describe all the phases -- for gases, water and aqueous solutions, and hydrocarbons -- from very hot, high-pressure conditions down hole all the way through the platform and even through transmission and refining," Chapman said. "We want to use one model to describe conditions along this entire path."
Samples from the deep are difficult to analyze, even when they can be obtained, he said. "Even though sample cells can maintain pressure, and a very few will maintain temperature, by the time they come up to the surface, the samples are completely different," he said. "So we have limited data from which to project a highly complex system."
That system not only includes the oil and gas, briny water, sodium chloride, calcium carbonate, barium sulfate, carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other elements found in the chemical stew in and beneath the sea, but also the hardware used to extract oil. Every pipe, every seal, every tank and every part of every pump has to be accounted for in the equation, to see how each might react. Pressure and temperature changes along the entire path affect how or if the product flows.
"The temperature's high enough for water to dissolve sand," Cox said. "That's an interesting problem in itself, because at very high temperature it forms volatile silicic acid. The presence of this kind of thing is what we try to pin down."
"We're trying to get basic data into a fundamental model that, given the water chemistry and the conditions at any site, allows us to model what should be expected of that site," Chapman said.
He said a good model would help companies plan their approach to a potential well before committing millions of dollars to set up a platform. "They want to know what they're going to find. Their inhibition strategy (to limit corrosion), the materials they're going to use and the separation equipment will all be based on their knowledge of the fluid properties down hole."
The Rice team is working with project leader Brine Chemistry Solutions LLC, a Houston company founded by Tomson's son, Rice alumnus Ross Tomson. Chapman is the William W. Akers Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Cox is a professor in the practice of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Tomson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering.
Funding for the projects is provided through the ultra-deepwater and unconventional natural gas and other petroleum resources research and development program authorized by the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The program is funded from lease bonuses and royalties paid by industry to produce oil and gas on federal lands and is designed to assess and mitigate risk, enhancing the environmental sustainability of oil and gas exploration and production activities.
###
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,708 undergraduates and 2,374 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice has been ranked No. 1 for best quality of life multiple times by the Princeton Review and No. 2 for "best value" among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/AboutRiceU.
RPSEA is under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory to administer three areas of research. RPSEA is a nonprofit consortium with more than 180 members, including 24 of the nation's premier research universities, five national laboratories, other major research institutions, large and small energy producers and energy consumers. The mission of RPSEA, headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, is to provide a stewardship role in ensuring the focused research, development and deployment of safe and environmentally responsible technology that can effectively deliver hydrocarbons from domestic resources to the citizens of the United States. Additional information can be found at http://www.rpsea.org.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
NBC's Jim Maceda reports on U.S. Navy movements of destroyers into the Pacific amid threats from North Korea.
By Jim Miklaszewski, and Courtney Kube, NBC News
The U.S. Navy is shifting a guided-missile destroyer in the Pacific to waters off the Korean peninsula in the wake of ongoing rhetoric from North Korea, U.S. defense officials said.
The USS McCain is capable of intercepting and destroying a missile, should North Korea decide to fire one off, the officials said.
Still, U.S. defense officials insist that there is nothing to indicate that North Korea is on the verge of another launch.?
The White House on Monday said the United States hasn?t seen large-scale movements from North Korean military forces in the aftermath of harsh rhetoric from the reclusive government.
As North Korean state TV shows constant images of the army bombarding South Korea, North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un is saying his missiles are at the ready and has cut off emergency communications. NBC's Richard Engel reports.
"I would note that despite the harsh rhetoric we are hearing from Pyongyang, we are not seeing changes to the North Korean military posture, such as large-scale mobilizations and positioning of forces," Carney said
The McCain in December 2012 was moved to be in position to defend against a impending North Korean rocket launch.
On Sunday, The United States sent F-22 stealth fighter jets to South Korea as part of military exercises in a move aimed at further deterring threats from North Korea against its neighbor.
It was unclear if the McCain was also part of the ongoing military drills.
It was earlier reported that the USS Fitzgerald, another guided missile destroyer, would be moved to the area, though it was only among the ships under consideration for the deployment.
Also Monday, South Korean President?Park Geun-hye appeared to give her country's military permission to strike back at any attack from the North without further word from Seoul, saying she took the North's escalating threats "very seriously," South Korean news agency Yonhap reported.
"As commander-in-chief of the armed forces, I will trust the military's judgment on abrupt and surprise provocations by North Korea," she said, according to Yonhap.
Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald / U.S. Air Force via Reuters, file
Two U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor stealth jet fighters fly near Andersen Air Force Base in Guam in this handout photo dated August 4, 2010.
The deployments and Park's remarks came as tensions approached an all-time high between Pyongyang and Washington. ?
Kim Jong Un has?ratcheted?up the rhetoric?against?both South Korea and the United States in recent months, and in February violated U.N. sanctions by ordering a nuclear weapons test.?
On Saturday, North Korea said it had entered a "state of war"?against South Korea, according to a statement reported by the North's official news agency, KCNA.?
In an interview on CNBC Monday, former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States needs to be "very concerned" by North Korea?s recent weapons test and "level of bellicosity" and do everything necessary to defend U.S. allies and interests.
Panetta said while Kim Jung Un?s actions appear aimed at his internal situation the U.S. should ?take nothing for granted? and be prepared. ?The greatest danger right now, he said, appears to be the possibility of a miscalculation.
"The reality is we don?t have as much insight as we should," Panetta said of Kim's motives.
The stealth aircraft ? two F-22 Raptors -- were deployed from Japan to the Osan Air Base in South Korea from Japan where they will remain on ?static display? as part of the military drills, Pentagon spokesman George Little said. The F-22s are not expected to actively participate in any exercises, however.
This is the fifth time F-22s have deployed to South Korea. Exercise Foal Eagle began on March 1 and will continue until the end of April.
Kim has also recently threatened to "settle accounts" with the U.S. and posed near a chart that appeared to detail bombings of American cities.
The F-22 jets' arrival follows other recent displays of air power by the U.S. in South Korea. Last week B-52 bombers and B-2 stealth bombers were sent to the country for the annual?exercise.?
In North Korea, meanwhile, KCNA reported on an Easter service at which it said "the participants renewed the firm resolution to put the warmongers [the US and South Korea] into the red hot iron-pot of hell as early as possible."
North Korea's stance, however, can be notoriously difficult to interpret.
In a later release Monday on KCNA, Pyongyang announced the adoption of a law "consolidating" its position as a nuclear power that would use its weapons only ?to repel invasion or attack from a hostile nuclear weapons state and make retaliatory strikes.?
Among the law's pledges were that North Korea would store its weapons responsibly, that it would not use them against non-nuclear nations, and that it would participate in nonproliferation talks -- though the last clause came with the condition that there was ?improvement of relations with hostile nuclear weapons states.?
NBC News? Andrew Rafferty, John Newland and Jeff Black contributed to this report.
Related:
North Korea: Nukes are our country's 'life'
US official warns North Korea is no 'paper tiger'
Analyst: Threats are predictable, Kim Jong Un is not
This story was originally published on Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:45 PM EDT
SOUTHAMPTON, England (AP) -Rickie Lambert scored for the 14th time in his first Premier League season as Southampton beat Chelsea 2-1 on Saturday to edge closer to securing its status in the top flight.
The highest scoring Englishman in the league this season struck from a free kick in the 35th minute only two minutes after Chelsea captain John Terry had cancelled out Jay Rodriguez's 23rd-minute opening goal at St. Mary's Stadium.
After also beating Liverpool last round, Southampton rose two spots to 13th, four points above the relegation zone with seven matches left.
The result endangers Chelsea's bid to finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League. The reigning European champions are only two points ahead of fifth-place Arsenal after their first league loss in five weeks.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
advertisement
More news
Late equalizer boosts LA
PST: Teenager Jose Villarreal hit a spectacular bicycle kick in stoppage time to salvage a 2-2 draw for the Galaxy in Toronto.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sJQS1P_H3mki0f38voAzoyj9fpHq6BRtxVZj-dlRh60TcUpGNI4JvT0oJVM6ROW37g42GwtEHyXK5ybzJDsjLxObUhzRMAluba4mS5Jr8=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 1-Apr-2013
Share ] 