Venture Investment is Rising at the and of 2011

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Investors place $8.four billion into 765 offers for U.S.-based venture suppliers throughout the third quarter of 2011, a 29% enhance in investment and 8% maximize in specials from the identical period final year, in accordance with Dow Jones VentureSource. The median quantity raised to get a round of financing throughout the third quarter was $6 million, up from the $5 million median a year earlier.?"Venture investment rose inside the third quarter, placing the marketplace on pace to close to pre-recession investment ranges by the finish from the year," stated Jessica Canning, international analysis director for Dow Jones VentureSource. "While it is unclear how extended venture capitalists can carry on at this pace provided the weak fund-raising and challenging exit environments, the enhance in deal activity, notably amid early-stage start-ups, shows VCs are optimistic they're going to be capable of help the following generation of start-ups."

Medical Gadget Firms Raise Extra Than Biopharmaceuticals for To start with Time Seeing that 1998

In the third quarter, Medical Gadget firms raised a lot more venture financing than Biopharmaceutical businesses for the primary time considering that 1998. Sixty-eight Medical Gadget specials raised $857 million, a 15% rise in deal activity and 30% raise in capital invested from the identical period final year. In the Biopharmaceuticals sector, 78 offers raised $715 million, a drop in capital invested from the year-ago period when 71 offers raised $865 million.

"Although the Biopharmaceuticals sector lost its long-held location because the leader from the Healthcare marketplace, early-stage investment was powerful, displaying that investors are constructing a pipeline," based on Ms. Canning. "In Medical Devices, investments have been weighted toward the later-stage specials, which may be a outcome of issues more than the clarity from the FDA's needs weighing extra heavily on gadget investors."

Forty-two % of Biopharmaceuticals specials went to early-stage organizations and 26% of Medical Gadget specials went to early-stage organisations.
Medical IT businesses maintained the sturdy investment numbers noticed above the final year as 24 offers raised $207 million, not far from exactly the same period final year when 24 specials collected $182 million. General, the Healthcare business raised $1.9 billion for 184 offers, an 11% decline in capital invested and 9% boost in deal flow.

Venture Investment is Rising in US

Customer Information Solutions, which contains on the web search, entertainment and social media corporations, raised $1.three billion for 104 specials throughout the third quarter, even more than double the financing collected for 94 specials through the exact same period final year. Possessing collected $3.eight billion all through the primary 3 quarters of 2011, the sector is on pace to exceed the $4.two billion suppliers raised in 2010.

"VCs are actively funding new Client Internet firms and pouring considerable quantities of capital into later-stage offers, but 2nd rounds are lagging," stated Scott Austin, editor of Dow Jones VentureWire. "If investors carry on focusing on later-stage firms that would most likely have exited many years ago had marketplace ailments been greater, the hundreds of young ?nternet start-ups that raised financing within the final two many years will face intense competitors for 2nd rounds." Source

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Microsoft Revenue Up 7% To $17.37B, Earnings At $0.68 Per Share

Screen Shot 2011-10-20 at 1.09.23 PMMicrosoft just reported its first quarter 2012 earnings today with revenues of $17.37 billion, an 7% increase from the same period of the prior year. Microsoft?s operating income was $7.20 billion, its net income was $5.74 billion and its diluted earnings per share were at $0.68, a 10% increase from last year. Updating.

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Can the Sydney Opera House Fix Its Terrible Acoustics? (Time.com)

According to legend, when Danish architect Jorn Utzon entered a 1957 competition to design an opera house in Sydney, his sail-like sketches did not make the cut. Eero Saarinen, a Finnish-born architect on the judging panel, found his revolutionary designs in the scrap pile, fished them out and told the jury he'd found their winner. Today the Sydney Opera House is Australia's most famous building, a UNESCO World Heritage site and one of the world's busiest performing-arts centers, attracting some 4.5 million visitors a year. There's just one glitch: it looks much better than it sounds.

Music insiders have been grumbling about the building for years. Edo de Waart, the former chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, once threatened to boycott the building because of the bad acoustics. Matt Ockenden, an Australian bassoonist, has likened listening to a performance in the Concert Hall to watching it on a 1980s-era television. (See the 11 most endangered historic places.)

A study released this summer confirmed their doubts. A survey of musicians, critics and audience members published in August by Limelight, an Australian music magazine, rated the Sydney Opera House's Opera Theatre as having the worst acoustics out of 20 major venues. The building's Concert Hall also scored poorly, earning a dismal 18th place.

Richard Evans, the chief executive of the Sydney Opera House, wasn't surprised by the results: "We all know about the issues with the Opera House." There have been some acoustic upgrades, he said, but the space is not as "terrific" as it could be. The Opera Theatre is not sufficient in size to produce a good acoustic for opera performances. In the Concert Hall, sawtooth wall panels need to be flattened "so the sound doesn't bounce around," Evans said. The hall also needs an acoustic ceiling over the stage platform, but there are technical difficulties with suspending something so heavy from the roof ? not to mention the architectural heritage issues of changing the interior of an icon so radically. (See pictures of Australia.)

The building's acoustic quirks date back to 1967, when New South Wales' Premier Robert Askin decided that the smaller sail, which was supposed to be a theater, should house the opera, and the larger sail, which was to house the opera, should be a concert hall. (At the time, symphonies drew in more crowds than operas did.) As a result, today's Concert Hall has 1,000 seats too many, while the Opera Theatre has a famously tiny pit.

The small pit makes it difficult for musicians to hear one another. "Where I sit as a bassoon player, I can't hear the basses and I can never hear the back of the viola sections," says Ockenden, who is associate principal bassoon at the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra. Over the years, the pit has been extended back into the stage. "The more it was extended, the more problems it created," said Fergus Fricke, an honorary associate professor of architecture at the University of Sydney who has done some consulting work for the Sydney Opera House. It created more space, but there was little headroom and the sound that came out from under the stage was far from ideal. (See 10 things to do in Sydney.)

The Concert Hall, meanwhile, is too big and the sound gets lost in the 25-m-high ceiling. Acoustic upgrades in 1973 and 2009 have helped some, but the sound isn't full enough for many music lovers. "In the Concert Hall, you just want to turn the volume knob up, especially when you're sitting at the back," says Limelight editor Francis Merson.

The building can be upgraded ? for a price. In March 2009, in a meeting with the Daily Telegraph, Nathan Rees, premier of New South Wales at that time, made headlines by saying that $1 billion should be invested into restoring the building and improving the acoustics. Then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd responded by saying that the project was not a government priority. Evans is now hoping to secure assistance from the state government in time for the building's 40th birthday, in 2013.

For now, performers work around the problem. "It's not the biggest pit in the world, but we make it work," says Lyndon Terracini, artistic director of Opera Australia. Next year, when Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Die tote Stadt hits the stage, the 83-piece orchestra will play in an adjacent studio, not the cramped pit, and the music will be broadcast to the audience using state-of-the-art surround sound. "It's become almost fashionable to criticize the Sydney Opera House, but it's really not that bad," he says. "Ultimately, the problem with the Opera House is that it's one of the greatest buildings in the world. There is no way that its interior can live up to that."

Read about Chinese tourists in Australia.

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Experts skeptical of 'anti-concussion' sports equipment

Reporting from Washington?

As scientists confirm that football and other high-impact sports can leave lasting brain damage, companies are marketing "anti-concussion" equipment to coaches, parents and children that, neurologists say, probably does not work.

"I wish there was such a product on the market," Jeffrey Kutcher, chairman of the American Academy of Neurology's sports section, said at a Senate hearing Wednesday. "The simple truth is that no current helmet, mouth guard, headband or other piece of equipment can significantly prevent concussions from occurring."

The best equipment available didn't prevent Steven Threet's four concussions. Threet, a former Arizona State University quarterback, announced this year that he was quitting football, at age 21, fearing that another concussion could keep him from sipping coffee without shaking by the time he's 35. He had already noticed his short-term memory deteriorating. And even though he hasn't played for months, his migraines persist.

"There is a misunderstanding about concussion prevention and treatment" among athletes and the public, Threet testified at the hearing. "If a helmet could guarantee protection from concussions, I would still be playing football."

Several products made for young players, from Pee Wee football on up, are promoted as having new technology that can detect or reduce concussions. For instance, the $149 Impact Indicator chin strap made by Battle Sports Science has a green and red light to "help" indicate whether a player has a concussion.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation singled out the Brain-Pad LoPro mouth guard, which its manufacturer says creates "brain safety space," and Riddell's Revolution helmet, which is said to reduce the number of concussions by 31%. Riddell, which makes "the official helmet of the NFL," misrepresented research that showed only a 2.6% decrease in concussions, Kutcher said.

Riddell officials did not testify at Wednesday's hearing and could not immediately be reached for comment. But Thad Ide, the company's senior vice president of development, told the Patriot-News newspaper in central Pennsylvania last year that no matter how advanced equipment becomes, its protection will have limits.

"We can't stress enough that no helmet will prevent all concussions," Ide said. "A concussion-proof helmet isn't realistically achievable."

The most effective way to prevent brain damage or even death after head injuries, according to Threet and neurologists, is proper recovery time. Threet would typically sit out for a week or two before returning to the game, he said, but recovery can take more than a month.

Because children have relatively heavier heads and rapidly developing brains, the frequency and severity of head injuries in children is even higher, making recovery time even more important for them, according to Ann McKee, a neurologist at Boston University. She has performed postmortem research on the brains of children, NFL players and soldiers.

Although some products may reduce the severity of a concussion, Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) said he was worried that there was no standardized way to measure the credence of any sport equipment company's marketing claims. He has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate such claims.

alexa.vaughn@latimes.com

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'Doomsday' Comet Elenin Zips by Earth in Pieces (SPACE.com)

We can all breathe a sigh of relief: The so-called "doomsday comet" Elenin made its closest flyby of Earth Sunday (Oct. 16), and no cataclysms ensued.

Some skywatching soothsayers had predicted that Elenin's approach Sunday would trigger catastrophic earthquakes and tsunamis. Others had sounded even more dire alarms, suggesting that Elenin was not a comet at all but a rogue planet called Nibiru whose Earth encounter could usher in the apocalypse.

But none of that came to pass, as Elenin zipped by our planet at the safe remove of 22 million miles (35.4 million kilometers) and sped off into deep space. Or crumbs of the comet did, anyway. [Gallery: Comet Elenin in Pictures]

The comet began breaking up after getting hammered by a powerful solar storm in August, and a close pass by the sun on Sept. 10 apparently finished Elenin off, scientists say. So what cruised by Earth over the weekend was likely a stream of debris, not an intact comet.

"Now it's just a cloud of particles that will follow along in the comet's path and exit the solar system, and we won't see any of the particles for at least another 12 millenia," said astronomer Don Yeomans, of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

A small, unremarkable comet

Comet Elenin was discovered in December 2010 by Russian amateur astronomer Leonid Elenin. The comet's core likely measured 2 to 3 miles (3 to 5 km) across before it broke up, scientists say.

The apocalyptic rumor mill generated by Elenin's arrival on the skywatching scene was completely unwarranted, Yeomans said. The comet was far too small to influence Earth gravitationally, and it never posed a danger of hitting our planet.

About 2 percent of newly discovered comets disintegrate when making their closest approach to the sun, Yeomans added. So Elenin's demise was fairly unremarkable, just like the comet itself.

"It's just Mother Nature putting an end to another mediocre comet," Yeomans told SPACE.com.

Next armageddon is around the corner

Just a day after bidding farewell to Elenin's crumbs, Earth welcomed another fast-moving visitor to its neighborhood. The small asteroid 2009 TM8 zipped by our planet on Monday morning (Oct. 17), coming much closer than Elenin.

The schoolbus-size space rock passed with 212,000 miles (341,000 km) of Earth ? just inside the orbit of the moon. Like Elenin, 2009 TM8 never posed a danger of striking us, astronomers said.

Though the propecies about Elenin failed to come true, the apocalyptically minded may not want to leave their bunkers just yet.

After all, Christian-radio broadcaster Harold Camping says the world will end? on Oct. 21, which is this Friday. Using clues he prised from the Bible, Camping originally pegged the Rapture for May 21, 2011, but revised his prediction when that date came and went without apparent incident.

You can follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter: @michaeldwall. Follow SPACE.com for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Emotions high ahead of Mideast prisoner swap

This week's planned Mideast prisoner swap is unleashing deep anguish in Israel and widespread elation in the Palestinian territories, laying bare the chasm of perspective dividing the two sides.

In Israel, the public is aghast at having to release convicted perpetrators of suicide bombings, deadly shootings and grisly kidnappings, although most understand that's what it takes to win freedom for a soldier captured during a routine patrol inside Israel at age 19.

The Palestinians, with equal vehemence, see the returnees as heroes who fought an occupier at a time of violence and argue moral equivalence between their actions and those of Israel's army.

These diverging narratives have been reflected in reactions to the deal, in which Israel will free some 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Sgt. Gilad Schalit, captured by Gaza militants in a cross-border raid in June 2006.

Shalom Rahum, whose 16-year-old son Ofir was lured over the Internet to the West Bank by a woman and killed, said her release was reopening a painful episode.

"Our little consolation was our bit of justice," he said. "If there were a peace treaty, I'd say ... release all the prisoners because we are opening a new page. But we are not signing a peace treaty," he told Israel TV.

Following initial joy over the deal, Israelis have begun to ask questions about the lopsided price their government is paying. Many argue that militants who killed Israelis could return to armed activity and that releasing so many prisoners, including many implicated in deadly attacks, bolsters groups like Hamas at the expense of more moderate Palestinians.

To address Israeli security concerns, Hamas agreed to have more than 200 West Bank-based prisoners deported to either the penned-in Gaza Strip or to a third country, where it would be much harder to carry out attacks.

Of the 477 prisoners to be freed in the first of two groups, 285 were serving life in prison. The inmate with the longest sentence was serving 36 life terms.

While Israel has a long history of lopsided prisoner swaps, the Schalit deal has touched a nerve because memories of the attacks are so vivid. The list of prisoners who are being released reads like a who's who of perpetrators of some of the grisliest attacks of the second Palestinian uprising, which began in 2000 and lasted roughly five years.

They include the woman who directed a suicide bomber to a crowded Jerusalem pizzeria where he killed 16 people in 2001. The woman, Ahlam Tamimi, has said in a television interview that she has no regrets.

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Others on the list are Abdel Aziz Salha, who raised his bloody hands to a cheering crowd after killing two Israeli soldiers who accidentally drove into the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2000; Nasser Yateima, a mastermind of a hotel bombing that killed 30 people celebrating the Passover holiday in 2002; Ibrahim Younis, who planned a 2003 suicide bombing in Jerusalem that killed seven people, including an American-born doctor and his daughter who were celebrating on the eve of the young woman's wedding; and Fadi Ibrahim, the mastermind of a bus bombing in 2003 in the northern city of Haifa that killed 17 people.

Several families have filed court appeals against the prisoner swap, though that is not expected to halt the deal.

Ron Kehrman, whose daughter was among the victims in the Haifa attack, criticized the planned swap, saying it could result in more Israeli deaths. "Is the blood of the next captured soldier or citizen less red than the blood of Gilad Schalit?" he asked.

Other bereaved relatives were more accepting, acknowledging that Israel at least has a chance to bring back Schalit alive. Schalit's fate has become a national obsession, in part because military service is mandatory for Israeli Jews.

Among Palestinians, there is ongoing disagreement over whether the use of violence has been counterproductive in the quest for statehood. Recent polls indicate that support for attacks on Israelis has dropped since the uprising ended.

But even those opposed to violence on tactical grounds argue that the prisoners sacrificed for a common cause, and the Palestinians have the right to resist Israel's 44-year military occupation, even with what many elsewhere consider terrorist attacks.

Palestinians are quick to note that hundreds of Palestinian civilians have been killed in fighting with Israel as well, usually the result of "collateral damage" during military operations, such as targeted killings of militant leaders. Although Israel says it never intentionally targets civilians, Palestinians say civilian deaths are almost inevitable given the nature and locations of targets.

"It's a debate that will never end," said Kadura Fares, a Palestinian prisoners' rights advocate who himself spent 14 years in Israeli prisons for belonging to an armed group before emerging as an outspoken proponent of coexistence.

"An Israeli army officer, from our point of view, he is a terrorist if he gives orders to kill people or bomb certain areas. For Israelis, he is a hero," Fares said.

Fares said bombers or gunmen should not be held personally responsible for their actions because they were swept up in the atmosphere that prevailed at the time.

The issue of the prisoners is deeply emotional in Palestinian society, where virtually every family counts a member who has spent time in an Israeli prison. Israel says it is currently holding more than 5,000 Palestinian prisoners for crimes ranging from theft to infiltrating Israel illegally for work to carrying out deadly attacks.

In Gaza and the West Bank, Palestinians were preparing a hero's welcome for the returning prisoners.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ? largely sidelined during the swap negotiations between Israel's government and Hamas, his political rival ? was planning a reception for released prisoners Tuesday, said an aide, Saeb Erekat.

The swap has dealt a setback to Abbas, who has long favored a negotiated peace deal with Israel. The implicit message of the deal to the Palestinian audience is that Israel will more readily make concessions under pressure than in negotiations with Palestinian moderates.

A Hamas leader in Gaza, Mahmoud Zahar, told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot in an interview published Sunday that the swap deal for Schalit will encourage the Islamic group to capture more soldiers.

"The lessons we've learned by kidnapping soldiers leads us to continue the kidnappings," the Hamas leader said.

___

Associated Press writers Mohammed Daraghmeh in Ramallah, West Bank, and Ibrahim Barzak in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44920735/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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US strike kills 9 al-Qaida militants in Yemen

Anti-government protestors carry a wounded defected army soldier from the site of clashes with security forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Anti-government protestors carry a wounded defected army soldier from the site of clashes with security forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Anti-government protestors and defected soldiers carry a wounded protestor from the site of clashes with security forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

A wounded anti-government protestor is carried from the site of clashes with security forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens. (AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Smoke rises during clashes between tribesmen loyal to Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar, the head of the powerful Hashid tribe, and Yemeni security forces in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

Yemeni medics carry a wounded protestor from the site of clashes with security forces, in Sanaa, Yemen, Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011. Medical officials in Yemen say security forces have fired on protesters in the capital Sanaa, killing several and wounding dozens.(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)

(AP) ? The United States has raised the tempo in its war against al-Qaida in Yemen, killing nine of the terror group's militants in the second, high-profile airstrike in as many weeks. The dead in the late Friday night strike included the son of Anwar al-Awlaki, the prominent American-Yemeni militant killed in a Sept. 30 strike.

Yemeni officials on Saturday attributed the recent U.S. successes against al-Qaida to better intelligence from an army of Yemeni informers and cooperation with the Saudis, Washington's longtime Arab allies.

The successes come even as Yemen falls deeper into turmoil, with President Ali Abdullah Saleh clinging to power in the face of months of massive protests. Saturday saw the worst bloodshed in weeks in the capital, Sanaa: At least 18 people were killed when Saleh's troops fired on protesters and clashed with rivals. Witnesses estimated up to 300,000 people joined Saturday's demonstrations, the largest in the capital in several months.

"Everyone with interests in Yemen, including al-Qaida and the Americans, is raising the stakes at this time of uncertainty" said analyst Abdul-Bari Taher. "The Americans are wasting no time to try and eliminate the al-Qaida threat before the militants dig in deeper and cannot be easily dislodged."

Also dead in the Friday airstrike in the southeastern province of Shabwa was Egyptian-born Ibrahim al-Banna, identified by the nation's Defense Ministry as the media chief of the Yemeni branch of the al-Qaida.

Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, as the branch is known, is considered by the U.S. the most dangerous of the terror network's affiliates after it plotted two recent failed attacks on American soil. Its fighters and other Islamic militants have taken advantage of Yemen's chaos to seize control of several cities and towns in a southern province. That has raised American fears they can establish a firmer foothold in the strategically located country close to the vast oil fields of the Gulf and overlooking key shipping routes.

The U.S. airstrikes in Shabwa pointed to Washington's growing use of drones to target al-Qaida militants in Yemen. The missile attacks appear to be part of a determined effort to stamp out the threat from the group.

Yemeni officials familiar with the U.S. military drive against al-Qaida in Yemen said a shift of strategy by the Americans was finally yielding results, with human assets on the ground directly providing actionable intelligence to U.S. commanders rather than relying entirely on Yemen's security agencies the Americans had long considered inefficient or even suspected of leaking word on planned operations.

They said there were as many as 3,000 informers on the U.S. payroll around the country ? some without even knowing it.

The Saudis, on the other hand, have traditionally kept an elaborate patronage system and an information network in Yemen, their neighbor to the south. They have for decades paid monthly stipends to key tribal leaders, military commanders and politicians to secure their loyalty. They also paid ordinary Yemenis to provide them with intelligence.

"The Saudis are making their information available to the Americans," said one of the defense officials, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to share the information. "Both them and the Americans are broadening their cooperation without direct Yemeni involvement."

Tribal elders in the area where Friday's strikes took place said the dead included Abdul-Rahman al-Awlaki, the 21-year-old son of Anwar al-Awlaki, a Muslim preacher and savvy Internet operator who became a powerful al-Qaida recruiting tool in the West and who was on a U.S. capture-or-kill list. The elder al-Awlaki and another propagandist, Pakistani-American Samir Khan, were killed in the Sept. 30 strike.

The tribal elders, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity because they feared reprisals, said four other members of the al-Awlaki clan and another local militant were also killed in the same drone attack. There was no immediate confirmation of the younger al-Awlaki's death from Yemeni authorities.

Security officials said the strike was one of five carried out overnight by American drones on suspected al-Qaida positions in Shabwa and neighboring Abyan province in Yemen's largely lawless south. They said two more militants were killed and 12 wounded in other strikes in the two provinces.

The first strike late Friday targeted a house in the Azan district of Shabwa, but hit just after al-Qaida militants had a meeting in the building, security officials and tribal elders said.

They said a second strike then targeted two sport utility vehicles in which the seven were traveling, destroying the vehicles and leaving the men's bodies charred. It was not clear whether other participants in the meeting were targeted in separate strikes.

Yemen's al-Qaida offshoot has taken advantage of the political turmoil roiling the country. Saleh, who has ruled the country for more than 30 years, has been struggling to stay in power in the face of eight months of massive street protests demanding his ouster and the defection to the opposition of key aides and military commanders.

In a separate development, the security officials said suspected al-Qaida militants bombed a key underground gas pipeline that extends from the Balhaf area in Shabwa to an export terminal on the Arabian Sea. The late Friday night attack started a massive fire, with columns of flames illuminating the night sky.

The security officials said non-Yemeni employees of Total, the French company running the gas field and pipeline in Balhaf, have been evacuated to Sanaa aboard three helicopters for their safety. They had no more details.

In Sanaa, forces loyal to Saleh opened up on protesters with assault rifles and anti-aircraft guns, medical officials and witnesses said. The casualty figures ? 12 dead and up to 300 wounded ? were confirmed by Mohammed al-Qubati, director of the field hospital set up at Change square, the name given to a central Sanaa intersection that saw the birth of the eight-month-old, anti-Saleh uprising.

The medical officials requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to journalists.

In Sanaa's northern district of Hassaba, fighting between Saleh's forces on one side and anti-regime tribesmen and renegade troops on the other killed two civilians and four supporters of tribal chief Sadeq al-Ahmar, a one-time regime ally who defected to the opposition in March. At least 13 people were wounded in the fighting.

A three-story building housing an independent TV station, Al-Saeedah, in the area took a direct hit, destroying the channel's equipment and studios, according to a statement by the management. The privately owned station went off the air.

Khaled al-Ansi, a prominent leader of the protest movement, blamed the death of the protesters on opposition parties, arguing that their acceptance of a U.S.-backed settlement plan proposed by Yemen's Gulf Arab neighbors gave Saleh license to kill protesters at will. The plan provides for the Yemeni leader to step down and hand over power to his deputy in exchange for immunity.

"The political parties are participants in the killings," said al-Ansi. "The immunity from prosecution is giving Saleh a temptation to kill more of us."

Associated Press

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