White House remains supportive of Gonzales

White House remains supportive of Gonzales
WASHINGTON -- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hold on his job grew more uncertain Monday as the Senate debated removing his authority to unilaterally name U.S. attorneys and the White House said it merely hoped he would survive the tumult.
Asked if Gonzales had contained the political damage from the firing of eight federal prosecutors, White House spokesman Tony Snow said, "I don't know."
Snow declined to predict how long Gonzales would stay in his job but reiterated President Bush's support of him.
The Justice Department also planned to turn over to Congress late Monday a couple of thousand pages of new documents related to the firings.
Search continues for missing Boy Scout
MCGRADY, N.C. -- Warmer weather raised rescuers' hopes Monday as they searched for a third day for a 12-year-old Boy Scout who disappeared while camping with his troop in the rugged mountains of western North Carolina. Michael Auberry vanished in the heavily wooded terrain after lunch Saturday with the other Scouts and troop leaders. Searchers found his mess kit late Saturday within a mile of the camp site, but no other sign of him, authorities said.
Temperatures fell to the 20s before dawn Monday, but sunny skies and temperatures in the 50s prevailed during the day. Overnight temperatures were expected to be milder, with lows in the 40s, but there was a chance of rain today.
"The temperatures definitely play a factor. It has been very cold at night, but this young man was very well dressed. He had a fleece jacket on and another jacket," National Park Service spokeswoman Tina White said. "We've had people who have been out a week or longer and survived."
About 70 people aided by dogs and a helicopter searched the area's logging roads and trails and scoured off-road regions. Searchers planned to stick to the trails at night to avoid losing anyone else.
Park rangers worked with the boy's family to learn about Michael's wilderness skills and how he might react to the situation, White said.
Birds may be bilingual
WASHINGTON -- Nuthatches appear to have learned to understand a foreign language -- chickadee. It's not unusual for one animal to react to the alarm call of another, but nuthatches seem to go beyond that -- interpreting the type of alarm and what sort of predator poses a threat. When a chickadee sees a predator, it issues warning call -- a soft "seet" for a flying hawk, owl or falcon, or a loud "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" for a perched predator.
The "chick-a-dee" call can have 10 to 15 "dees" at the end and varies in sound to encode information on the type of predator. It also calls in other small birds to mob the predator, Christopher Templeton of the University of Washington said in a telephone interview.
"In this case the nuthatch is able to discriminate the information in this call," said Templeton, a doctoral candidate.
The findings by Templeton and Erick Green, an associate professor of biological sciences at the University of Montana, are reported in this week's online edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Templeton had been studying chickadees and noticed their varying response to different alarm calls so he recorded them and watched the responses.
Study casts doubt overduct tape as wart cure
CHICAGO -- Duct tape's success at curing warts may have been overstated, according to a new study that raises doubts about the tape's effectiveness as a cheap, painless treatment. The tape supposedly works by irritating the skin and stimulating the body's immune system to attack the virus that causes warts. It earned a place in the medicine cabinet in 2002, when a small study showed it to be effective on children and young adults.
This time, a study among older adults found duct tape helped only 21 percent of the time and was no more better than moleskin, a cotton-tape bandage used to protect the skin.
But researchers used transparent duct tape. Only later did they learn that the transparent variety does not contain rubber, unlike the better-known, gray duct tape that appeared to be effective in the 2002 study.
"Whether or not the standard type of duct tape is effective is up in the air," said co-author Dr. Rachel Wenner of the University of Minnesota, who started the new study as a medical student. "Theoretically, the rubber adhesive could somehow stimulate the immune system or irritate the skin in a different manner."
Associated Press