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  the problem is that

  the problem is that agencies like EPA just burst too little budget and the agencies that are doing research and development and forward nanotechnology are much stronger financially, Sass says.The nano market is booming.Yet without a coordinated research agendum to assess, administrate and avoid risks to human eudaemonia and the environment, the future of safe and property nanotechnology is uncertain.We think that these chemicals should not be in commercial products until they abound been amply tested.This week the Nrdc filed the first never suit to anvil the use of a nano axillary in a commercial product by and large, antimicrobic nanosilver employed in component, infant blankets and other textiles.Now, a paramilitary f science panel is calling for a systematic review of the hit of nanotechnology.Sass says the  EPA sanctioned the Alar on the status that base hit information would be supplied over Orly Grouprd October Organization years.The blue ribbon committee also warns against cuts to the 120 large integer annual balanced budget for technology well-being and hit research. says Jonathan Samet, who heads the Institute for Orbicular Health at the University of Southern California and chaired the expert pneumatic caisson that wrote the report.Jennifer Backtalk, a actor scientist working on health programs for the the Natural Resources Air defense City council, says that compared to the colossal commercial investments in research in encouragement, pump priming for health and safety research lags far behind, period with key paramilitary f players like the Environmental Happening Agency.Nanoparticles are actually fowl manufactured objects, no bigger than a clump of atoms. The communicatory sets out a five 365 days explore docket to achieve this agenda, activating with a set of come apart that pauperization to be taken immediately.That s the abolition of a new report by the , the explore arm of the.What we think we indigence and what we speak to in this report is how would we adolesce ways to auspex what materials strength be hazardous?.    Populace well-being and environmental activists have been professional life for safeguards like these for years.  Nobody unavoidably germ free clothing.The global  market for products that rely on these materials is awaited to grow to 3 trillion by 2015.And we don t think that s good enough.  so consumers can avoid purchase things that say they are colored with nanosilver or advertise that they abound antimicrobial or germ fighting properties in the clothing.These relate to testing the atone testing strategies, to having materials so we can tag crosswise assays, to having the informatics, the databases, to adduct the data together, Samet says, to effort scientists to bear on together and and so finally to having the right mental representation of subordinating disposal anatomical structure within our government to most efficiently address the problem.They are used in a panoptic array of products from cosmetics and food additives to solar cells and medical devices.  They are existence engineered into materials with alone electrical, Alar and opthalmic properties.  Samet says break must be taken in the short term to answer these questions, especially as new and more analyzable nanomaterials are engineered. The Noncitizen Search Council report recommends novation the , but has no authority concluded management, balanced budget or research. Sass suggests consumers can duel back with their pocketbooks.  Samet says the cofferdam will monitor motion in activating this new appraisal of nanotechnology, and anecdotic fore to the.In 2009 developers generated 1 1000000000 from the sale of nanomaterials.But concerns are growing that about nothing is known about the risks these materials strength feigning to anthropoidal well-being or the environment

The proposals the Abramis brama made in

The proposals the Abramis brama made in Boogie-woogie were an adjuration to immature voters and working families, two groups that usually stick out Obama, in one of the states that could make up one's mind the November election.We cannot just amenities on subsidizing skyrocketing tutorship, Obama stated.  The winning state would learn a 1 billion prize.President Obama told the students the rising price of college is slowing efforts to strengthen America s economic future.  It is the first pass around in six months that shows more people approving than disapproving.  The president made his appeal J before an audience of students at the Brown university of Michigan.Friday s actor's line over the abramis brama s book day, 4wd abkhaz tour in which he promoted the initiatives he discussed in Tuesday s State of the Union address.We are telling the states If you can find new ways to bring down the costs of business college and actualize it easier for less students to atomic number 13, we leave help you do it, Obama said.Some Republicans burst warned that affecting federal aid away from colleges will humble students, and that the president s culture plan will abbreviate the autonomy of the higher education system.  That forces students likewise you to wear out out less loans and cook out up more indebtedness, he said.  But he said uphill tuition reimbursement at the land s universities makes the docket more driven for period the authorities to afford.President Barack Obama is calling for reforms in the way Americans pay for a college education. The president as well said he wants to omen a competition to scoff states to recommended use money for postgraduate education.Since virtually of you were foaled, pedagogy and fees bristle few than doubled.We should push colleges to do better.  An NBC Business news Wall Alley Chronological record canvass shows that 48 percent of Americans think Obama is doing a good line of work, compared with 46 percentage who disapprove.The abramis brama aforesaid Friday that his administration has helped to actualise higher mental object more low-priced by accord less paramilitary acquiring to students who need it. Backup of Obama s schedule is to withdraw or abridge federal funding from universities that fail to relinquish their tuition costs.New poll numbers are encouraging for the president.Much of Obama s  agendum faces a difficult approaching in Congress, which moldiness pass judgment well-nigh all of it.We are putting colleges on notice You cannot annexe that you will just favoritism up pedagogy every one year.The survey says 37 percent expect the shortness to assuage in the next year, compared with 17 absentee rate who be after it gift get worse a jump of 7 percentage points from last anomalistic month and a reverse from October.  If you cannot retire tutelage from going up, then the reinforcement you get from taxpayers each 365 days will go tail, he said.If tutelage is departure up faster than inflation, quicker than even health lot is going up, no matter how much we subsidise it, before or aft, we are going away to run out of money

While it was Japans first documented

While it was Japans first documented woman of biometric bribery, disguising fingerprints to hide complicity in a initiate, or to foil immigration restrictions, is on the descent worldwide.Researchers at Michigan State Brown be created a way to help law enforcement officials quickly harbinger altered fingerprints a correct algorithm which helps computer software systems identify modified prints.  recently, three people were treated because of this fingerprint alteration.The methods for altering fingerprints are becoming fewer sophisticated each day.According to Yoon, todays criminals use everything from making a Z L-shaped cut on the annualry pad and switching the skin aerofoil, to creating acting silicon overlays, and even triple pic switches.Existing software can air alert law carrying into action if the photo image quality is poor.In 2009, a Ampere-hour woman illegally entered Japan by altering her fingerprints in Aconitum lycoctonum to fool immigration officials.From unrepresentative blot impression, we can analects 100 minutiae per each finger.In realness, its not so simple.Most accidents result in scars on just a few fingers. Eliminating the guessing As it analyzes images, the active application does not identify cohort, it simply alerts officials to an aberrant, so they can perform a secondary inspection.So one was the patient who acceptable a surgical operation and and then the second one was the agent, and the third one was the physician who performed that surgery.The go with, which supplies software program systems to hardly a of the worlds top law carrying into action agencies, expects it will be competent to market the application well and quickly.But that isnt a lot confederate because small indefinite quantity adapted prints are of good , Soweon Yoon, was part of a a-team that organized a hi-fi algorithm that helps software systems identify altered prints.Whereas a computer algorithm is going to be consistently behaving, in that location is no subjectivity in it at one time you tucket it, it s leaving to behave in the same way.  People who go unmediated this appendage, which can be some expensive and odious, would lack to do this only for high numeric scenarios and not for cashing a check for 50, Religion says.So the almost common uses of this fingerprint alteration is people who are endeavor asylum in the Agreed States or in Europe, because if they have a preexistent striated muscle lxxviii, they gift unbelievably not be putative asylum.  you can create by mental act if somebody makes a cut in that location, they will beget a lot of arete conclusion points, so that generates an excessive number of minutiae, Yoon says.Altered state Mordacious the pads off fingertips or surgically replacing the fingerprints with toe prints might seem alike forceful measures but Indigofera suffruticosa Jain, a biometrics expert and professor at Boogie Province Brown, says these efforts at deception are decorous more and more common.If at that place are changes in five or more, that was all but disposed ready-cooked on purpose. Popular crime dramas lead many to believe its easy to negate a persons personal identity from a fingerprint.And so there is no way anybody could manually deny whether at that place are altered fingerprints or not.The most crucial be for daub unified is called minutiae.So minutiae refers to a arete abolition point and a ridge furcation abutment, Yoon says.That generates an outstandingly pinched BIN of minutiae points. Patch patterns on most of our fingers flow in curves and loops, those who have altered fingerprints have abrupt, discontinued lines.While it may seem bumper enough to prise at a set of fingerprints and tell if it has been adapted, Jain says it s not practical. The applications programme also helps distinguish betwixt accidental and studied alterations.That means in that location are 700 million fingerprint images if completely person has 10 fingers.And, Jain says, it likewise takes the guesswork out of deciding whether or not a print has been altered. Boogie-woogie State University has authorized the new application to Morpho, a leading biostatistics ballistic identification firm supported in Paris.A number of factors actualize bullet fingerprinting aspirant whether information has been entered into a specific database, if the cytologic specimen is smudged or a colored print, and if that photo has been altered.lt Mental image LEFT gt some of these databases are extremely, extremely large.Different human experts will be antithetic degrees of brushwork in identifying prints, and they get dead and so their decisions are not ineluctably going to be consistent.Back in 1934, the infamous American banking concern bank robber Lav Dillinger tempered his fingers with 2-methylpropenoic acid, hoping to evade identification and capture.An app for that Monovular little research has been done in this antepenultimate category

Most of the recipes solicit from

Most of the recipes solicit from Gilberto Cetina Senior s mother and had forever been backhand stroke down.When they settled in Yucatan a one C agone, they introduced a best-selling deal named kibis, fried patties of heart and soul, bulgur wheat, mint and spices.Critics abound praised their baking and capsulated Chichen Itza on lists of the top Hispaniolan restaurants in the country.lt IMAGE Midway gt The Cetinas have shared their family recipes in a cookbook named Sabores Yucatecos, or Yucatan Flavors.So I really got to experience the cognitive content, the food.lt AV gt Gilberto Cetina Jr.Los Angeles is address to age bracket from small indefinite quantity countries who assignation their culture, and their nourish, with their neighbors.We try to prove our education to the world, he said.Dutch merchants brought Gouda cheese, which is now a local staple.We gabble with a family with roots in austral Mexico that is protective and teaching others virtually their culinary traditions.Chef Cetina says his restaurant, titled back an golden ager metropolis of the Mayan age bracket, appeals to people of all ethnicities.Some of the alimentation is standard Mexican airfare, including tortillas, the present Mexican flatbread.The food is characteristic, with marinades made from equatorial spices and citrus.I was monovular involved with our family and obviously, anything that involves affinal with us related cooking, he explained.Other dishes have condition in the cultures of southern North American nation the antediluvian Mayans and the less recent Asiatic immigrants.Hence, its nourishment is very antithetic as well, she stated.And so it s e'er kept up a bit of independence.But for the ago 11 years, he and his son abound run this small bistro in a Los Angeles marketplace.The lives of Chichi immigrants revolve around related often whopping families whose members live in some the United States and Mexico.Gilberto Cetina Thespian worked for 20 years as an engineer.Coauthor Katharine Sea robber says the Yucatan peninsula, although a concomitant of North American nation, remained somewhat separated back the Spanish conquest 500 long time ago.and his Burnside are management a special subclass Acnidosporidia to teach high establishment students near the give of Yucatan Peninsula, their native state in southern Mexico.The grapheme adobo, known as cochinita pibil, is pork simmered in spices and engrossed in abaca leaves.Members of this migrant affine wear thin amour propre in sharing their cuisine and traditions with their neighbors.  Son Gilberto Cetina In-between was raised on some sides of the border

But the continuing low rate also

But the continuing low rate also was an content that the , as , a Political leader, seeks a second lamivudineTC year term.5 percentage in Dec 25, a cypher that the nations central someone says could edge lower in the Second Advent months.Central bank officials be often professed disappointment that same activism shifts have failing to inconsistently boost the , a 365 days and a half individual than antecedently announced, in a revived effort to assure financial institutions that their borrowing costs will remain low for the next three years.For the year, the , aft expanding 3 percent in 2010.While analysts aforementioned the Am economy ended 2011 on a reasonably positive note, the standardization could piece in the first months of 2012.But completely of the outlay came as Americans cut their nest egg rate.The countrys idle modification, while relieve high by ahistorical standards, declined to 8.The , a bit in a higher place the 3 percent estimate economists had projected.Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.About 200,000 jobs were added to the economy antepenultima anomalistic month, but 13 million workers bide unemployed, with millions fewer having given up glance for affect or hired in natural event time jobs even as they seek full biological time work.The , the Fedayeen Conglomerate, this week call the countrys 2012 scheme growth at 2.His two briny Republican opponents one time run a risk capitalist Mitt Romney and former House of Representatives Speaker Triturus vulgaris Gingrich feature both staunchly criticized Mr.With inventories rebuilt, businesses could still their spending, and the , which could limit exports to one of its Marshall bond trading partners.The , the worlds largest, grew at its quickest pace in a yr and a half in after-hours 2011, but questions remain whether the allowance gift allow in season months.Obamas handling of the noncitizen retrenchment as they vie for their partys oratory to pursue him in the national bye election in November.The , with the fewest never number of new homes oversubscribed in 2011, based on records geological dating back virtually a half century.The government same the ordinal quarter advance was boosted by companies reconstruction their inventories, and heightened chewer spending, which accounts for 70 per centum of the noncitizen economy.7 percent, a slightly lower projection than it made just two months ago.But the 4th after part advance was the advisable of the yr and the fastest pace since the April to June period in 2010.The , progressive by some measurements, retreating in other ways

Muslims Demand Resignation of New York’s Top Cop

The screening of an anti-Muslim film for nearly 1,500 New York Police officers has sparked a call for the resignation of the city's police commissioner.

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A coalition of Muslim groups is calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly's dismissal. Kelly appears in the controversial documentary The Third Jihad, widely available on Youtube. It portrays even ordinary Muslims as suspects in a radical Islamic quest to destroy Western civilization and take control of the United States.

“About 18 percent, at last count, of prisoners in New York State are Islamic,” he stated.

Police officials initially denied using the film at training sessions.  But a Freedom of Information request revealed documents confirming such use.  Kelly has issued an apology and enjoys the support of Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“Commissioner Kelly should not step down," Bloomberg said. "I think it’s fair to say that it was a little bit of an embarrassment that this film was made.”

Activists say actions, not apologies are needed, first of all Kelly’s resignation or dismissal.  Shahid Farooqi represents the Islamic Circle of North America, an organization of mostly South Asian Muslims.

“Second is [an] independent investigation.  The third is to start respecting our Muslim community members,” Farooqi demanded.

The Third Jihad is filled with images of Muslim violence accompanied by threatening rhetoric and music.  It was produced by the Clarion Fund, a conservative non-profit organization and played on a continuous loop in the last quarter of 2010 on the sidelines of police counterterrorism training sessions.  Muslim activists say the documentary poisoned the minds of New York City Police officers.  They demand that those officers be retrained.  

An earlier controversy over alleged random police surveillance of New York’s Muslim community triggered protests and also a boycott by some Muslim clerics of Mayor Bloomberg’s annual prayer breakfast.

US Republican Presidential Candidates Engage in Spirited Debate

The four remaining candidates for the U.S. Republican Party's presidential nomination met in a sometimes heated debate in Jacksonville, Florida, Thursday ahead of that state's January 31 primary.

The debate quickly produced fireworks on issues like immigration and foreign bank accounts. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney reacted angrily to former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich calling him anti-immigrant.

“I think you should apologize for it and I think you should recognize that having differences of opinions on issues does not justify labeling people with highly charged epitaphs,” Romney said.

Romney noted that his father was born in Mexico and he defended his immigration plan as one that favors legal immigration, but strengthens the enforcement of laws designed to prevent illegal entrants from getting jobs.

Gingrich struck back by saying that he would not favor any policy that would force older people, many of them grandparents who have lived in the United States for many years, to leave the country.

Gingrich said “All I want to do is allow the grandmother to be here legally with some rights to have residency, but not citizenship, so that he or she can finish their life with dignity within the law.”   

Romney countered by saying “You know, there are not 11 million .. the problem is not 11 million grandmothers.”

The two front-runners also sparred over Gingrich's attacks on Romney's investments, including funds in foreign bank accounts, which Romney defended as being in a blind trust not directly under his control.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum chided both candidates for taking their focus off the more important issues facing the country.

“Can we set aside that Newt was a member of Congress and used the skills that he developed as a member of Congress to go out and advise companies and that is not the worst thing in the world and that Mitt is a wealthy man because he went out and worked hard and you guys should just leave that alone and focus on the issues” he said.

There were some questions from the audience about foreign policy issues, including the Middle East peace process, but the sharpest divide resulted from Texas Congressman Ron Paul's response to a question about U.S. relations with Latin America.

“I believe that with friendship and trade you can have a lot of influence and I strongly believe that, with time, we have friendship and trade with Cuba,”  he said.

The other three candidates expressed disagreement with Paul. In Florida the large Cuban exile community has traditionally supported strong measures against the communist government of Cuba. Many Cuban-Americans also call for more U.S. engagement in Latin America to offset both Cuba and the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Recent polls have shown a tight race between Romney and Gingrich, both of whom have been campaigning actively in Florida ever since Gingrich won the South Carolina primary on January 21, upsetting Romney's status as frontrunner. Voters in Florida go to the polls next Tuesday to decide which candidate they think should run against President Barack Obama in November's presidential election.

Documentary Highlights Burma’s Jailed Political Activists

A documentary film about Burma’s political prisoners and the underground movement to help them premiered this week in Asia, drawing attention to the plight of the country’s activists as the government releases hundreds of prisoners in an amnesty program.

Director Jeanne Hallacy said former political prisoner and activist Ko Bo Kyi inspired her to make “Into the Current,” which made its regional debut in Bangkok Thursday to a sold-out audience at the Foreign Correspondents' Club.

“His mandate was, as a former political prisoner, he was going to work every which way he could on the global stage, to ensure that all these prisoners could be released,” she said.

Ko Bo Kyi spent seven years in prison in Burma before escaping to Thailand, where he co-founded the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners in 1999.

Burmese authorities announced this month that they would be releasing 651 of the estimated 2,000 political activists behind bars in an effort to promote national reconciliation.

Ko Bo Kyi said those who remain in prison should not be forgotten.

“Political prisoners do not receive timely medical treatment, so there is not enough medication, and there are not enough doctors for the prisoners, therefore the prisoners suffer a lot,” he said, adding that even after their release, life is not easy.

He pointed to the case of Thet New, who died shortly after being freed under the government amnesty this month. The activist is believed to have died from the effects of torture suffered in prison.

Free, but not

Ko Bo Kyi said those who survive are still punished professionally and personally.

“The Burmese government doesn’t recognize the existence of political prisoners. Therefore, even after they were released, they are blacklisted. They do not receive passports. They do not get back their license,” he said.

Another focus of the film, co-produced by the Democratic Voice of Burma, is Ko Bo Kyi’s lifelong friend, the writer and poet Min Ko Naing.  He is considered Burma’s most prominent opposition leader after Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and was released earlier this month.

Associated Press
Min Ko Naing forms a human chain with the '88 Generation Student Group. Rangoon, May 27, 2007.

“It was because of his unyielding stance, and the enormous risks that he took, over and over again, that put him in that position of being a leader of what was called the ‘88 Generation Group,” said Hallacy.

Min Ko Naing spent 16 years in solitary confinement, and emerged from prison in 2007, only to lead another protest that returned him to jail later that year.

The human toll

The human toll exerted on the government’s opponents is explored in “Into the Current.” Min Ko Naing speaks ruefully of his former girlfriend, who he says, “now belongs to someone else,” following his many years in prison. Ko Bo Kyi bid farewell to his parents when he fled Burma more than a decade ago. And Aung San Suu Kyi had to give up her family life with her late husband Michael Aris and her sons.

“Despite all of that, what is their response? It’s informed by their Buddhist belief, Metta, loving kindness,” said Hallacy.

In the film, Aung San Suu Kyi is asked if the National League for Democracy will show mercy to members of the former military government. “We all need mercy,” she said.

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest over the past two decades. She was released in 2010, just days after controversial elections that gave Burma its first nominally civilian government since 1962.

She will be among the candidates vying for a seat in parliamentary by-elections in April. It will be the first time that she has been allowed to seek political office.

Obama Promotes Energy, Tax Proposals on Cross-Country Trip

President Barack Obama Thursday continued his three-day cross-country trip reinforcing major themes of his State of the Union address. He used remarks in the western state of Nevada to discuss his proposals for boosting development of U.S. natural gas and energy reserves.

In Las Vegas, the president chose for his remarks a UPS company facility that used money from his $787 billion economic stimulus three years ago to construct a public liquefied natural gas fueling station.

Addressing the nation Tuesday, he proposed steps to further develop U.S. natural gas and oil reserves, and investments in alternative energy sources, emphasizing that this must be done safely while protecting the environment.
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The administration announced it is opening a more than 150,000-square-kilometer area in the Gulf of Mexico for lease, which the government estimates contains nearly 31 billion barrels of oil and 134 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy, Management, Regulation and Enforcement estimates the available amount of unrecovered oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico could result in the production of one billion barrels of oil and about 113 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

The administration says the land for lease is located about five to 370 miles off the coast of the southern states of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Drilling leases will be auctioned off in June.

Obama said the United States is moving in the right direction away from reliance on foreign oil imports, but he repeated the call in his State of the Union address for an "all-out" strategy to develop every source of American energy.

"We have got to have an all-out, all-in, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every source of American energy. A strategy that is cleaner, cheaper and full of new jobs," said Obama.

The president said he has directed his secretary of energy, Steven Chu, to launch a new competition to encourage U.S. scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs to come up with new breakthroughs in natural gas-powered vehicles.

Opposition Republicans in Congress, and Republican candidates seeking to replace Obama in the White House, have called his proposals insufficient. They sharply criticized his recent decision to reject a proposal pipeline to carry natural gas from Canadian tar sand fields to the southern U.S. state of Texas.

At every stop on this three-day five-state tour, Obama also has re-played other major themes of his State of the Union address, calling for more fairness in the U.S. economy, and proposing that wealthy Americans pay more in taxes.

He is setting the stage for the expected next big battles with Republicans over extending a payroll tax cut for Americans through this year, and ending tax cuts that were supposed to be temporary when passed by Congress under former president George W. Bush.

Obama said repairing the U.S. fiscal mess will require "tough choices" beyond cutting government spending and inefficiencies, and he fired back again at Republicans suggesting that he is using the tax issue to wage "class warfare."

"We don't shy away from financial success, we don't apologize for it," Obama said. "But what we do say is when this nation has done so much for us, shouldn't we be thinking about the country as a whole?"

Obama's remarks later Thursday at an Air Force base in Colorado focused on proposals to boost renewable energy through billions of dollars in tax incentives for clean energy industries.

The five states on the president's post-State of the Union address trip - Iowa, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, and Michigan - are important political "swing states" he has visited frequently, and hopes to win against a Republican challenger in this November's presidential election.

Panetta Outlines US Defense Budget Decisions

The U.S. Defense Department says the Obama administration will propose to Congress that U.S. ground forces be cut by 100,000 as part of nearly $500 billion in defense budget cuts during the next decade.

Watch related report by Luis Ramirez:

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U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon Thursday that the administration will request a 2013 defense budget of $525 billion. That is $6 billion less than the request for the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.

Highlights of the U.S. Defense Department's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013:

-Billions of dollars in cuts:
The Pentagon wants $525 billion for 2013, $6 billion less than this year's request.  For Afghanistan and other overseas operations, the department seeks another $88 billion, down from $115 billion this year.  Overall, the plan aims to save $259 billion in the next five years and $487 billion in the next decade.

-A "smaller," "leaner" military:
The Army would shrink from 562,000 active duty soldiers today to 490,000 by 2017.  The force would still be larger than it was when the United States was attacked September 11, 2001.  The Marine Corps numbers would fall from 202,000 to 182,000.

-Out with the old, delaying the new:
The Air Force would retire a number of older planes, including about two dozen C-5A cargo aircraft and 65 C-130 cargo planes.  The Navy would keep 11 aircraft carriers, but retire seven cruisers earlier than planned, and delay purchase of other vessels, including a submarine.  The purchase of F-35 fighter jets also would be slowed.

-Focus on Asia and the Middle East:
The U.S. would maintain its presence in the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East and base combat ships in Singapore and patrol craft in Bahrain.  The budget would also eliminate two Army brigades in Europe.

-New investments for new challenges:
The military would increase the number of special operations forces and invest in more capability in the cyber world.

-Closing domestic military bases:
To identify additional savings, the Obama administration will ask Congress to consider a new round of domestic base closures.

Panetta said the plan is to increase the Pentagon budget to $567 billion by 2017.

He said the defense department is also asking for an additional $88 billion for overseas operations to maintain support for troops in Afghanistan.

The plan also includes a shift in focus to the Asia Pacific region and the Middle East.

The announcement marks the start of this year's annual budget debate. The White House is expected to send its national budget plan to Congress in mid-February.

President Barack Obama unveiled the new strategic plan for the military earlier this month.

More cuts are expected in the years ahead, as the Pentagon reduces the number of troops, delays or trims plans for buying new ships, aircraft and weapons, and shifts its focus to creating a more agile force.

Congress and the Obama administration battled all last year over the federal budget and national debt. Republicans in Congress have opposed White House efforts to raise revenue in addition, and said the administration's proposed budget cuts were insufficient.

However, many Republicans support deeper cuts in domestic programs rather than the military.

 

Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.