Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Palestinian killed in Gaza by targeted Israeli airstrike

GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian and wounded another in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medics said, in the first targeted attack against militants since a ceasefire ended an eight-day war in November.

An Israeli government spokesman said the military had hit a "jihadi who was an expert in manufacturing rockets".

He added that the man had "played a role" in a rocket attack from Egypt's Sinai peninsula against Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on April 17, which had caused no damage or injuries.

Locals in Gaza named the dead man as Haitham Al-Mes-hal, 29, saying he was hit while riding a motorcycle in the north of the enclave. He was believed to be a member of Hamas's national security force, but relatives said he also belonged to a militant Jihadist Salafi organization.

Islamist militants in Gaza have fired intermittently at Israel in the past weeks despite an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire reached after the November conflict.

Hamas, an Islamist group close to the Muslim Brotherhood now ruling neighboring Egypt, has cracked down on hardline Salafist rivals it sees as jeopardizing its control of the Gaza Strip.

It was not immediately clear if Tuesday's strike would unleash a renewed round of violence. The attack came just two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned of a strong response to sporadic rocket fire into Israel.

In an unrelated incident on Tuesday in the nearby occupied West Bank, a Palestinian killed a settler in the first such incident since 2011.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller; editng by Crispian Balmer)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/palestinian-killed-gaza-israeli-airstrike-075754370.html

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Obama offers praise, complaints for Republicans

President Barack Obama answers questions during his new conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. The president said the US doesn't know how or when chemical weapons were used in Syria or who used them. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

President Barack Obama answers questions during his new conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, April 30, 2013. The president said the US doesn't know how or when chemical weapons were used in Syria or who used them. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(AP) ? President Barack Obama needled a GOP senator Tuesday, then praised Republicans working to solve the immigration riddle. He pledged to re-engage with Congress to close the U.S. detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, then decried the intractability of Congress. He cast Republicans as potential allies, then criticized their obstruction.

When it comes to his relations with Congress, President Barack Obama is a man of two minds.

"It comes as no surprise, not even to the American people but even members of Congress themselves, that right now things are pretty dysfunctional up on Capitol Hill," Obama said during a news conference marking the 100th day of his second term. "Despite that, I'm actually confident that there are a range of things that we're going to be able to get done."

The limits of Obama's success with Congress have dogged his presidency since Republicans won control of the House in 2010. A fiscal "grand bargain" containing tax increases and long-term spending reductions has eluded him. The automatic budget cuts that he once vowed "will not happen," kicked in March 1. His push to win an expansion of background checks for buyers of firearms succumbed in the Senate.

During his 47-minute appearance in the White House briefing room, Obama answers illustrated the complicated and sometimes contradictory approach he has taken in his dealings with lawmakers.

At one point, he complimented Republican senators with whom he has met, saying they appear to have a "genuine desire" to get beyond the gridlock of Washington. Yet moments before, he offered a scornful response to an assertion by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., that national security protections have deteriorated since he became president.

"Graham is not right on this issue," Obama said, "although I'm sure he generated some headlines."

He was dismissive when a questioner asked: "Do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?"

"If you put it that way," he told ABC's Jonathan Karl, "maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly."

Paraphrasing Mark Twain, he added: "Rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point."

He pointed to efforts to overhaul immigration law, applauding the work of a bipartisan group of senators who have proposed a bill that in addition to calling for a secure border would create a path toward citizenship for 11 million immigrants illegally in the country. He said he has had "some good conversations" with Republican senators on the consequences of the current budget cuts, known as "sequestration" in budget terms, and insisted that the solution requires Democrats and Republicans to compromise.

Obama's response was reminiscent, though less defensive, of one given by President Bill Clinton in 1995 when he was forced to declare that "the president is still relevant." It was arguably one of the lowest points in Clinton's presidency up to that moment. All that changed the following day when domestic terrorists blew up the Oklahoma City federal building, and Clinton re-established himself as a national leader.

Obama, who has had to play a similar role in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings and a deadly fertilizer plant explosion in Texas, defended the limits of his influence, casting himself in the role of persuader, not enforcer.

"I cannot force Republicans to embrace those common-sense solutions," he said. "I can urge them to. I can put pressure on them. I can rally the American people around those common-sense solutions. But ultimately, they, themselves, are going to have to say, we want to do the right thing."

He complained that the challenge facing implementation of his health care reform law is, "You've got half of Congress who is determined to try to block implementation and not adequately funding implementation." He also said there are Republican governors "who know that it's bad politics for them to try to implement this effectively."

Obama has been engaged in a new charm offensive lately, reaching out to Republicans, particularly in the Senate. He has invited about two dozen of them for dinner and has spoken to the Senate and House Republican caucuses. But he and his aides bristle at the idea that he does not use the power of the presidency well enough to win his way with Congress.

At a black-tie dinner Saturday, Obama took note of a column by New York Times writer Maureen Dowd, who criticized the White House for not deploying "pit-bull legislative aides" to secure votes as a fictional president played by Michael Douglas had done in the movie "The American President."

"Michael, what's your secret, man?" Obama joked. "Could it be that you were an actor in an Aaron Sorkin liberal fantasy?"

If Obama's relations with Republicans are complex, they are also fraught with the liberal wing of his own party.

Even as he reiterated his call for a large fiscal compromise to replace the sequester, a coalition of liberal groups launched a campaign Tuesday to simply kill the budget cuts.

The public is not interested in a grand bargain," said Roger Hickey, co-director of the liberal Campaign for America's Future. "If the president would become a champion of jobs instead of a champion of a deal with Republicans, it would be much more popular and would force the Republicans into a position where they would have to answer him."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-04-30-US-Obama-Congress/id-95ad9fad68354f03b8bd4a6f2c451548

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Egypt pulls out of talks to protest Middle East nuclear arms

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt said on Monday it was withdrawing from a second week of Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) talks in Geneva in protest at what it called the failure to implement a 1995 resolution for a Middle East free of nuclear weapons.

That was an implicit reference to Israel which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear arms and is not a signatory to the NPT. Arab states and Iran say Israel's presumed nuclear arsenal poses a threat to Middle East peace and security.

Cairo said it was pulling out of the talks "to send a strong message of???? ????non-acceptance of the continued lack of seriousness in dealing with the establishment of a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East".

"We cannot continue waiting forever for the implementation of this resolution," Egypt's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state news agency MENA. Cairo called on member states and international bodies "to bear responsibility for implementing legitimate international resolutions."

U.S. and Israeli officials have said a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East could not be a reality until there was broad Arab-Israeli peace and Iran curbed its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful energy and research purposes.

The two-week meeting in Geneva is to review progress in implementing the 1970 NPT, a treaty designed to prevent the spread of nuclear arms in the world.

In a speech on the first day of the NPT conference on April 22, former Egyptian Ambassador to Geneva Hisham Badr said "Egypt and many Arab countries have joined the NPT with the understanding that this would lead to a Middle East completely free of nuclear weapons.

"However, more than 30 years later, one country in the Middle East, namely Israel, remains outside the NPT," he said.

(Reporting by Shaimaa Fayed in Cairo and Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-pulls-talks-protest-middle-east-nuclear-arms-194455222.html

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Obama and O'Brien Cast Their Versions of D.C. White House Correspondents' Dinner

Both President Barack Obama and Conan O'Brien decided to cast Hollywood versions of D.C. at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year. Obama's version was directed by Steven Spielberg, O'Brien's starred "Tan Mom" as John Boehner.

With the celebrities having walked the White House Correspondents' Dinner red carpet and the crowd in the Washington Hilton having eaten and schmoozed, it came time for the key parts of the evening: remarks from President Obama and Conan O'Brien. Of particular interest was how the president was going to address the recent bombings in Boston, and, along those same lines, what tone O'Brien will take.

Obama came out swinging with jokes at the ready. One of his opening lines joked about his age: ?I?m not the strapping young Muslim socialist I used to be.? He made light of the frenzy over Michelle Obama's bangs, by explaining his strategy for a second term burst of energy showing a series of pictures with his new hairstyle:

He riffed on topics ranging from his Jay-Z's trip to Cuba ("I?ve got 99 problems and now Jay-Z is one of them") to BuzzFeed ("I remember when Buzzfeed was just something I did at college around 2 a.m.") He even took aim at the much maligned NBC when he talked about how he made only two shots at the Easter Egg Roll: "The executives at NBC asked ?what?s your secret?" But his highlight was a video with Steven Spielberg, about Spielberg's new project: "Obama." Spielberg cast Daniel Day-Lewis as Obama, but in the video shown Obama played Daniel Day-Lewis playing Obama. Tracy Morgan played Joe Biden. Here's that clip:

?

But Obama closed on a more serious note. "These have been some very hard days for too many of our citizens," he said. He also complimented the work of journalists during these days, specifically calling out the Boston Globe and NBC's Pete Williams.

Following Obama Conan O'Brien got his fair share of groans?both in the room and on Twitter?when he took aim at a variety of topics ranging from the Hilton, to dying print media, to Kim Jong-Un. He joked that Arianna Huffington made him watch a 30 second ad before he could say hello to her, and that Matt Drudge wasn't there because he had a "he had a prior commitment to teach a web design class in 1997." There were CNN jokes a plenty, including one about how they ?they replaced the popular Larry King with one of the scheming footman from Downton Abbey.? (That's Piers Morgan, of course.) He explained that the media landscape was like a high school cafeteria with NPR as the table for "kids with peanut allergies." There was also a joke about the time Al Roker soiled himself at the White House.

O'Brien then turned his attention to Republicans, saying that the party refers to Marco Rubio as "our black guy" and joking about Reince Priebus' name. (He was sitting between brothers "Lather Priebus and Repeat Priebus.") He went fairly easy on the president, asking why he was still asking for money, and joking about how old he looks.

Before his final joke he took a moment to address Boston, his hometown, and thank the president for going there, but he ended by casting his version of a dramatized version of the Beltway. There Joe Biden will be played by Bob Barker, Paul Ryan by Mr. Bean, and John Kerry by an Easter Island Head:

O'Brien's performance?in which he talked very loudly into the microphone and occasionally banged a gavel?did not go over entirely well on Twitter.

Note to #WHCD: Maybe we just forget about a "headliner" for the next couple years?

? aarongell (@aarongell) April 28, 2013

Watch Obama's speech here and O'Brien's here.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-obrien-cast-versions-d-c-white-house-234708035.html

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Have A Wonderful Traveling Experience With These Tips

There is more to travel than just jumping on a plane. The experience can be thrilling. There are a ton of travel options and a wide variety of adventures to take. Are you ready to have some fun? Following are some travel tips that can help you to get started.

Before you settle on a destination, be sure to consider the influence that the weather can have on your trip. Check the forecast for your destination. Freezing rain on a Florida beach, or unseasonal sunshine on an Aspen ski trip, will ruin the best laid travel plans.

You can save money by waiting until you reach your final destination to change currencies. If you know there won't be a place to easily exchange currency once you land in your destination country, exchange a limited amount before you leave and then look for a better exchange rate once you arrive in-country.

If there is hotel room available on a floor that is higher, you should request that one. It is easier for thieves to break into rooms that are close to the ground. If you can, request a hotel room that has only windows and no sliding glass doors. Rooms such as this can be broken into easier.

If you have a long travel time you should ensure that you give yourself some time to stretch, even if you are getting up for no reason. Sitting for too long reduces blood flow and can lead to blood clots.

Use caution when you get an email about great deals in travel. If you have signed up for a travel newsletter, you can trust these emails; avoid all others, though.

Whenever you go camping, but most importantly when you go hiking, you must carry local maps along with you. A GPS and compass will come in handy also in the event that you become lost or disoriented in the woods.

Don't wait until you are on the cruise ship to discover that you get seasick. This could ruin your entire trip and make you very dreadful. You will be bedridden, recovering from the seasickness, and not having fun. If you can, get a prescription for a sea sickness medication and take it with you.

This will enable you to hook your laptop up to the hotel tv. This allows you to watch Netflix and similar streaming services instead of expensive hotel movies.

Attach a label with your name and contact information to your luggage and place another one on the inside. This is good in the event the bag is lost, since it will help pinpoint who the owner is. Remember that your luggage and its contents are at risk whenever they leave your sight.

Research local laws and customs prior to traveling. Failure to do so can result in people being angry with you, or even jail time over something you wouldn't have expected to be a problem. Be respectful of local laws, customs, and authorities while traveling, and you should be fine.

If your travels include multiple countries, ensure that your visas are appropriate and up-to-date. It is important to understand that getting a visa doesn't automatically give you the power to get inside a country. There are different kinds of visas that you need to know about. A great place to find out the requirements is your travel agency. If you don't have a travel agency, you can consult the embassy of each country you are visiting.

The article shows you some ideas on how to make travel easier. Many people can be confused about all the decisions they have to make when traveling. That said, if you have great travel advice, you can easily plan a trip. Use the tips from this article and start making better travel plans today.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Have-A-Wonderful-Traveling-Experience-With-These-Tips/4578827

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FAA: Air traffic system soon at full operation

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

A United Airlines jet departs in view of the air traffic control tower at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Tuesday, April 23, 2013, in Seattle. A day after flight delays plagued much of the U.S., air travel is smoother Tuesday. But the government is warning passengers that the situation can change by the hour as it runs the nation's air traffic control system with a smaller staff. Airlines and members of Congress urged the Federal Aviation Administration to find other ways to make mandatory budget cuts besides furloughing controllers. While delays haven't been terrible yet, the airlines are worried about the long-term impact late flights will have on their budgets and on fliers. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)

The control tower stands in the background as a passenger lays on the pavement outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

A passenger sits at right in the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

The control tower stands in the background as a passenger paces while on the phone outside the international terminal at Hartsfield-Jackson airport, Friday, April 26, 2013, in Atlanta. Congress easily approved legislation Friday ending furloughs of air traffic controllers that have delayed hundreds of flights daily, infuriating travelers and causing political headaches for lawmakers.(AP Photo/David Goldman)

(AP) ? The Federal Aviation Administration said that the U.S. air traffic system will resume normal operations by Sunday evening after lawmakers rushed a bill through Congress allowing the agency to withdraw furloughs of air traffic controllers and other workers.

The FAA said it has suspended all employee furloughs and that traffic facilities will begin returning to regular staffing levels over the next 24 hours. The furloughs were fallout from the $85 billion in automatic-across-the-board spending cuts this spring.

They started to hit air traffic controllers this past week, causing flight delays that left thousands of travelers frustrated and furious. Planes were forced to take off and land less frequently, so as not to overload the remaining controllers on duty.

The FAA had no choice but to cut $637 million as its share of $85 billion in automatic, government-wide spending cuts that must be achieved by the end of the federal budget year on Sept. 30.

Flight delays piled up across the country Sunday and Monday as the FAA kept planes on the ground because there weren't enough controllers to monitor busy air corridors. Cascading delays held up flights at some of nation's busiest airports, including New York, Baltimore and Washington. Delta Air Lines canceled about 90 flights Monday because of worries about delays. Just about every passenger was rebooked on another Delta flight within a couple of hours. Air travel was smoother Tuesday.

The cuts were required under a law enacted two years ago as the government was approaching its debt limit. Democrats were in favor of raising the debt limit without strings attached so as not to provoke an economic crisis, but Republicans insisted on substantial cuts in exchange. The compromise was to require that every government "program, project and activity" ? with some exceptions, like Medicare ? be cut equally.

The FAA had reduced the work schedules of nearly all of its 47,000 employees by one day every two weeks, including 15,000 air traffic controllers, as well as thousands of air traffic supervisors, managers and technicians who keep airport towers and radar facility equipment working. That amounted to a 10 percent cut in hours and pay.

Republicans accused the Obama administration of forcing the furloughs to raise public pressure on Congress to roll back the budget cuts. Critics of the FAA insist the agency could have reduce its budget in other ways that would not have inconvenience travelers including diverting money from other accounts, such as those devoted to research, commercial space transportation and modernization of the air-traffic control computers.

President Barack Obama chided lawmakers Saturday over their fix for widespread flight delays, deeming it an irresponsible way to govern, dubbing it a "Band-Aid" and a quick fix, rather than a lasting solution to the spending cuts known as the sequester.

"Republicans claimed victory when the sequester first took effect, and now they've decided it was a bad idea all along," Obama said, singling out the GOP even though the bill passed with overwhelming Democratic support in both chambers.

He scolded lawmakers for helping the Federal Aviation Administration while doing nothing to replace other cuts that he said harm federal employees, unemployed workers and preschoolers in Head Start.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-04-27-FAA-Furloughs/id-57961b2ae846408c9ad97944fb159470

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Leftist priests: Francis can fix church 'in ruins'

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) ? A new pope from Latin America known for ministering to the poor in his country's slums is raising the hopes of advocates of liberation theology, whose leftist social activism had alarmed previous pontiffs.

Prominent liberation theologian Leonardo Boff said Pope Francis has what it takes to fix a church "in ruins" and shares his movement's commitment to building a church for the world's poor.

"With this pope, a Jesuit and a pope from the Third World, we can breathe happiness," Boff said Saturday at a Buenos Aires book fair. "Pope Francis has both the vigor and tenderness that we need to create a new spiritual world."

The 74-year-old Brazilian theologian was pressured to remain silent by previous popes who tried to draw a hard line between socially active priests and leftist politics. As Argentina's leading cardinal before he became pope, Francis reinforced this line, suggesting in 2010 that reading the Gospel with a Marxist interpretation only gets priests in trouble.

But Boff says the label of a closed-minded conservative simply doesn't fit with Francis.

"Pope Francis comes with the perspective that many of us in Latin America share. In our churches we do not just discuss theological theories, like in European churches. Our churches work together to support universal causes, causes like human rights, from the perspective of the poor, the destiny of humanity that is suffering, services for people living on the margins."

The liberation theology movement, which seeks to free lives as well as souls, emerged in the 1960s and quickly spread, especially in Latin America. Priests and church laypeople became deeply involved in human rights and social struggles. Some were caught up in clashes between repressive governments and rebels, sometimes at the cost of their lives.

The movement's martyrs include El Salvador's Archbishop Oscar Romero, whose increasing criticism of his country's military-run government provoked his assassination as he was saying Mass in 1980. He was killed by thugs connected to the military hierarchy a day after he preached that "no soldier is obliged to obey an order that is contrary to the will of God." His killing presaged a civil war that killed nearly 90,000 over the next 12 years.

Romero's beatification cause languished under popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI due to their opposition to liberation theology, but he was put back on track to becoming a saint days after Francis became pope.

Scores of other liberation theologians were killed in the 1970s and 1980s. Six Jesuit teachers were slaughtered at their university in El Salvador in 1989. Other priests and lay workers were tortured and vanished in the prisons of Chile and Argentina. Some were shot to death while demanding land rights for the poor in Brazil. A handful went further and picked up arms, or died accompanying rebel columns as chaplains, such as American Jesuit James Carney, who died in Honduras in 1983.

While even John Paul embraced the "preferential option for the poor" at the heart of the movement, some church leaders were unhappy to see church intellectuals mixing doses of Marxism and class struggle into their analysis of the Gospel. It was a powerfully attractive mixture for idealistic Latin Americans who were raised in Catholic doctrine, educated by the region's army of Marxist-influenced teachers, and outraged by the hunger, inequality and bloody repression all around them.

John Paul and his chief theologian, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, drove some of the most ardent and experimental liberation theologians out of the priesthood, castigated some of those who remained, and ensured that the bishops and cardinals they promoted took a wary view of leftist social activism.

Yet much of the movement remained, practiced by thousands of grassroots "base communities" working out of local parishes across the hemisphere, nurtured by nuns, priests and a few bishops who put freedom from hunger, poverty and social injustice at the heart of the Church's spiritual mission.

Hundreds of advocates at a conference in Brazil last year declared themselves ready for a comeback.

"At times embers are hidden beneath the ashes," said the meeting's final declaration, which expressed hopes of stirring ablaze "a fire that lights other fires in the church and in society."

Boff and other advocates are thrilled that this new pope spent so much time ministering in the slums, and are inspired by his writings, which see no heresy in social action.

"The option for the poor comes from the first centuries of Christianity. It is the Gospel itself," said then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio during a 2010 deposition in a human rights trial. He said that if he were to repeat "any of the sermons from the first fathers of the church, from the 2nd or 3rd century, about how the poor must be treated, they would say that mine would be Maoist or Trotskyite."

Msgr. Gregorio Rosa Chavez, the auxiliary bishop of San Salvador, said Romero and Francis have the same vision of the church. "When he says 'a church that is poor and for the poor,' that is what Monsignor Romero said so many times," he said.

Rosa Chavez said neither cardinal was among the most radical of churchmen.

"There are many theologies of liberation," he said. "The pope represents one of these currents, the most pastoral current, the current that combines action with teaching." He described Francis' version as "theologians on foot, who walk with the people and combine reflection with action," and contrasted them with "theologians of the desk, who are from university classrooms."

John Paul II himself embraced the term "liberation theology," but was also credited with inspiring resistance to the communist regime in his native Poland, and was allergic to socialist pieties.

For 30 years, the Vatican has been seeding Latin America, Africa and Asia with cardinals "who have tended to be, adverse, to put it kindly, to liberation theology," said Stacey Floyd-Thomas, a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

In Brazil, Sao Paulo Archbishop Odilo Scherer, widely considered a possible pope, told the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper last year that liberation theology "lost its reason of being because of its Marxist ideological underpinnings . which are incompatible with Christian theology."

"It had its merits by helping bring back into focus matters like social justice, international justice and the liberation of oppressed peoples. But these were always constant themes in the teachings of the Church," Scherer said.

In 1984, Ratzinger put Boff in Galileo's chair for a Vatican inquisition over his writings, eventually stripping him of his church functions and ordering him to spend a year in "obedient silence." Nearly a decade later, in 1993, the Vatican pressured him again, and he quit the Franciscan order.

Now Boff says Francis has brought a "new spring" to the global church.

"Josef Ratzinger. He was against the cause of the poor, liberation theology," Boff said. "But this is from last century. Now we are under a new Pope."

___

Associated Press Writers Michael Warren in Buenos Aires, Jenny Barchfield in Rio de Janeiro, Marcos Aleman in San Salvador and John Rice in Mexico City contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/leftist-priests-francis-fix-church-ruins-213627659.html

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Pakistan Taliban bomb politicians' offices, kill 9

PARACHINAR, Pakistan (AP) ? Pakistani Taliban detonated bombs at the campaign offices of two politicians in the country's northwest on Sunday, police said, killing at least nine people in an escalation of attacks on secular, left-leaning political parties.

In first attack, on the outskirts of Kohat city, a bomb ripped through the office of Syed Noor Akbar, killing six and wounding 10 people, police official Mujtaba Hussain said.

A second bomb targeted a campaign office of another candidate, Nasir Khan Afridi, in the suburbs of Peshawar city. That attack killed three people and wounded 12, police official Saifur Rehman Khan said.

Both politicians, who were not in the offices at the time of the blasts, are running as independent candidates for national assembly seats to represent constituencies in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, where scores of militant groups operate including some with links to al-Qaida. The general elections will be held on May 11.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for both attacks, as well as two others against secular political parties in the southern port city of Karachi.

"We are against all politicians who are going to become part of any secular, democratic government," he told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The Taliban previously announced a strategy to target three political parties, including the Awami National Party (ANP), the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP). All three are perceived as liberal, having earned the Taliban's ire by opposing the insurgency and extremism during their time in the outgoing government.

The onslaught has forced many of the parties to change their campaign strategy and has raised questions about whether the vote can be considered valid if some mainstream parties can't properly take part.

Such attacks have killed at least 28 people in just last four days.

One of the most serious attacks occurred on April 21, when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a meeting of the ANP in the northwestern city of Peshawar, killing 16 people. The Taliban said the target of the attack was Haroon Ahmad Bilour, whose father, a senior party leader, was killed in a suicide bombing in Peshawar in December. He escaped unscathed, but his uncle, Ghulam Ahmad Bilour, suffered minor injuries.

In the capital, Islamabad, Pakistani officials said they planned to seal the border with Afghanistan and restrict the movement of Afghan refugees on election day.

Officials at the Interior Ministry and the election commission have said that the measure is aimed at preventing terrorist attacks during the vote. However, officials did not say how they would restrict the movement of hundreds of thousands of people spread out across the country or block crossings along the porous border. Pakistan announced similar measures in the past but failed to take action.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The Islamist and center-right political parties have been spared by the Taliban and have been holding big public rallies without fear of being attacked. They largely support peace talks with the Taliban instead of military offensives.

The leaders of the political parties under Taliban attack have said the violence amounts to election rigging. But they have, so far, decided not to boycott the vote.

____

Associated Press Writers Riaz Khan and Rasool Dawar in Peshawar contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-taliban-bomb-politicians-offices-kill-9-125711860.html

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Zach Braff raises $2M on Kickstarter in 3 days

NEW YORK (AP) ? Zach Braff has met his goal on Kickstarter, raising $2 million in three days to fund his follow-up to "Garden State."

The actor-director's crowd-funding campaign follows Rob Thomas' wildly successful use of Kickstarter to finance a movie of the defunct TV series "Veronica Mars." Thomas pulled in $2 million in less than a day, eventually gathering more than $5.7 million in 30 days.

But some observers have criticized Hollywood stars for using the Kickstarter website to dip into the pockets of their loyal fans. Braff has said this is the only way for him to direct his first film since "Garden State" with final cut and his desired casting.

After passing his goal Saturday, the "Scrubs" star said on Twitter: "I will not let you down. Let's go make a killer movie."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zach-braff-raises-2m-kickstarter-3-days-205951957.html

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Researcher studies hormone levels and sexual motivation among young women

Friday, April 26, 2013

Feeling frisky? If so, chances are greater your estrogen level ?? and, perhaps, fertility ?? are hitting their monthly peak. If not, you're more likely experiencing a profusion of desire-deadening progesterone, and the less fertile time in your cycle. Oh, the power of hormones.

Researchers have long suspected a correlation between hormone levels and libido, but now scientists at UC Santa Barbara, led by James Roney, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, have actually demonstrated hormonal predictors for sexual desire. Their findings appear in the current issue of the journal Hormones and Behavior.

"We found two hormonal signals that had opposite effects on sexual motivation," said Roney, the article's lead author. "Estrogen was having a positive effect, but with a two-day lag. Progesterone was having a persistent negative effect, both for current day, day before, and two days earlier." When hormone levels and sexual desire were factored against the menstrual cycles of test subjects ?? in this case, undergraduate students ?? the researchers saw a measurable increase in progesterone levels at the same time the subjects noted decreases in sexual motivation. Progesterone, the researchers say, is mediating this drop in desire from the fertile window to the luteal phase ?? the second half of the menstrual cycle.

"Progesterone acting as a potential stop signal within cycles is a novel finding in humans," noted Roney. "We know in rhesus monkeys there is a strong negative correlation with progesterone and a positive correlation with estrogen. The patterns are actually comparable to what you see in non-human primates, but hadn't been shown in humans."

The researchers' findings have potential implications on the treatment of low sexual desire and how hormone replacement trials are done. "We're not controlling hormones the way they do in the hormone replacement literature, so, in a sense, that literature is more directly applicable in terms of medical applications," said Roney. "But in the long run, it would be good to have a model of the combination of signals that operates in the natural cycle. The way hormone replacement trials are done now, there's no model of the natural signals, so they're sort of random ?? let's give estrogen, let's give testosterone, let's combine them this way or that way."

Roney noted that his findings don't present a full model, and he'd like to replicate his results with women of different age groups. "Undergraduates might be unique for a lot of reasons," he said. "Their hormone levels tend to be a bit different from those of women even just a little bit older. And married women in their 30's are likely to be more consistently sexually active, and that might change the patterns in some ways. They also tend to have higher hormone secretion and more regular cycles than younger women," he said

Eventually, Roney continued, the goal would be to have a better model of the signals in a natural cycle that might then inform medical research.

Another interesting finding, according to Roney, was the impact ?? or lack thereof ?? of testosterone on the women's sexual motivation. "There's a common belief in the medical literature that testosterone is the main regulator of women's libido," he explained. "Doctors tend to believe that, though the evidence isn't that strong in humans. In the natural cycles, we weren't finding effects of testosterone. It wasn't significantly predicting outcomes."

Roney doesn't deny that testosterone does seem to have a positive effect in hormone replacement therapy, but suggests the effects may be pharmacological. "Testosterone has those effects if you inject it externally in women who are menopausal, and there are a lot of reasons that might be the case," he said. "For example, testosterone can be converted to estrogen through a particular enzyme. If you inject menopausal women with testosterone, it might be acting as a device that's delivering estrogen to the target cells. So the fact that it works doesn't necessarily mean it's an important signal in the natural cycle."

###

University of California - Santa Barbara: http://www.ucsb.edu

Thanks to University of California - Santa Barbara for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127964/Researcher_studies_hormone_levels_and_sexual_motivation_among_young_women

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Source: http://www.nuhitz.com/blog/16791/structured-settlement-wrongful-death/

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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Synaptics results beat Street estimates; shares soar

(Reuters) - Touchscreen chipmaker Synaptics Inc forecast current-quarter revenue above analysts' estimates and reported better-than-expected third quarter results as it sold more chips to smartphone and other mobile devices makers.

The company, whose shares rose 19 percent in after-hours trading, said it expected current-quarter revenue of $190.0 million to $205.0 million, above the average analyst forecast of $158.4 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue from mobile customers rose 57 percent to $104.7 million in the quarter, while revenue from PC products declined 9.9 percent.

Synaptics makes touchscreen chips that are used in smartphones such as Google Inc's Nexus 4, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd's Galaxy Music, HTC Corp's Windows 8X and 8S and Lenovo Group Ltd's last week forecast weak current-quarter margins as rising competition hurt prices of touchscreen microcontrollers.

Synaptics's gross margin rose 240 basis points in the third quarter to 49.6 percent.

Net income rose to $36.4 million, or $1.07 per share, from $11.4 million, or 33 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 79 cents per share.

Revenue rose 24 percent to $163.3 million.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of 57 cents per share on revenue of $145.6 million.

(Reporting by Neha Alawadhi in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/synaptics-profit-rises-three-fold-204530138--sector.html

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Friday, April 26, 2013

PFT: Jaguars looking to move second-round pick

UntitledAP

The Jets used a high second-round pick on quarterback Geno Smith.? G.M. John Idzik said that this development has only one meaning for Mark Sanchez.

?What this means for Mark is competition,? Idzik told the media on Friday night.

But are there plans to cut him, as reported by Adam Schefter of ESPN?

?There are plans to let him compete,? Idzik said.

Still, Idzik declined to say that this means Sanchez will get a chance to compete in training camp.? ?I look at that one day at a time,? Idzik said.

That?s a message Sanchez possibly hasn?t gotten from Idzik, because Idzik said the Jets haven?t talked to Sanchez on Friday, either before or after drafting a quarterback in round two.? (This directly conflicts with comments from Sanchez?s brother/agent, Nick, to Sal Paolantonio of ESPN.)

So the incumbent starting quarterback once again has been undermined via the acquisition of a new quarterback.? And the General Manager won?t commit to Sanchez being on the team when camp opens.

This may not end well, but it sure feels like, sooner than later, Sanchez?s time in New York will end.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/26/jags-want-to-make-a-deal-at-top-of-round-two/related/

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Oh Man, This Genius Guy Created a Robot to Steal from Vending Machines

You could use measuring tape to steal a can of soda from a vending machine but if you're a genius, why not just invent a freaking robot to do the dirty work for you? This guy did just that. He inserts his robot inside the vending machine and controls it to grab as many sodas as possible. Awesome. More »
    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CbG9lrtyDhc/oh-man-this-genius-guy-created-a-robot-to-steal-from-vending-machines

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Exxon quarterly profit up slightly

(Reuters) - Exxon Mobil Corp said on Thursday its quarterly profit edged up, helped by higher earnings in its chemicals business but oil and gas production fell.

Earnings per share topped Wall Street expectations but the gains largely came after a big stock buyback that reduced the number of outstanding shares by 5 percent.

"Their reliance on share buybacks mutes the earnings per share beat," said Brian Youngberg, energy company analyst at Edward Jones in St Louis. "I'd rather see them give the cash to shareholders in the form of a dividend increase."

First-quarter profit for the world's largest publicly traded oil company totaled $9.5 billion, or $2.12 per share, compared with $9.45 billion, or $2 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected the Irving, Texas, company to report a profit of $2.05 per share.

Total oil and natural gas production declined 3.5 percent to 4.395 million barrels oil equivalent per day from the same quarter a year ago.

Profit in Exxon's exploration and production unit fell about 10 percent to $7 billion, but low natural gas prices in North American led to an 62 percent increase in profit in its chemicals business.

Shares of Exxon fell 0.6 percent to $88.91 in premarket trade.

(Reporting by Anna Driver; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Jeffrey Benkoe)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/exxon-quarterly-profit-slightly-121705701--finance.html

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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Samsung Galaxy S 4 coming to US Cellular April 30th

Samsung Galaxy S 4 coming to US Cellular April 30th

Wait, what inventory shortage? US Cellular doesn't seem to have any issue with getting the Samsung Galaxy S 4 on its retail and virtual shelves -- it confirmed to us in an email that it will begin selling the flagship device on April 30th. You'll be able to purchase the 16GB version in either white or black for $199 with a two-year commitment. If you didn't get in on the pre-order, now's your chance to get hooked up.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/t9UNCKUVj0U/

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3 Doors Down bassist enters rehab following arrest

A?photo released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department is Robert Todd Harrell. Harrell, bassist with the rock band 3 Doors Down has been charged with vehicular homicide by intoxication after an interstate crash claimed the life of another motorist Sunday April 21, 2013, in the Nashville area, police said. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)

A?photo released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department is Robert Todd Harrell. Harrell, bassist with the rock band 3 Doors Down has been charged with vehicular homicide by intoxication after an interstate crash claimed the life of another motorist Sunday April 21, 2013, in the Nashville area, police said. (AP Photo/Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)

(AP) ? An attorney says 3 Doors Down bassist Robert Todd Harrell has checked himself into drug treatment after being charged with killing someone while driving under the influence.

Attorney Ed Ryan says he could not disclose where Harrell is being treated.

Harrell is facing multiple charges, including vehicular homicide by intoxication. Authorities say he caused a fatal interstate crash in a Nashville suburb last weekend. Records show authorities discovered that Harrell had numerous narcotics on him while he was being processed into the Nashville jail.

Police say the 41-year-old bassist was speeding down Interstate 40 in his Cadillac CTS when he clipped the back of a pickup truck, causing a crash that killed the driver of the truck.

The bassist is due in court next month and is free on bond.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-24-3%20Doors%20Down%20Bassist/id-220263f086f3445085c69e5e7c94fdbf

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Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Earthquakes blamed on wastewater injection

New Mexico Tech Seismological Observatory

Earthquakes in New Mexico and Colorado from 2001 to 2011.

By Becky Oskin
LiveScience

An ongoing earthquake swarm in New Mexico and Colorado, which includes Colorado's largest earthquake since 1967, is due to underground wastewater injection, researchers said Friday?at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting in Salt Lake City.

The earthquakes are concentrated near wastewater injection wells?in the Raton Basin, where mining companies are extracting methane from coalbeds. The basin, which is actually a series of rock layers exposed in the Rocky Mountain foothills, stretches from northeastern New Mexico to southern Colorado.

Since 2001, seismicity has increased rapidly in the region, said Justin Rubinstein, a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) research geophysicist and lead author of one of several studies on the Raton Basin presented at the meeting. The rapid rise in earthquakes followed a significant increase in wastewater injection starting in 1999, he said. Wastewater injection is the disposal of water and brine produced from fracking. When mining companies extract resources via fracking, they inject water to make new fractures. After the water is removed, it's usually stored nearby, in porous rocks deep underground.

There were 20 times as many magnitude-3 or larger earthquakes between 2001 and 2011 as there were from 1970 to 2001, Rubinstein said. The USGS also looked at larger earthquakes, removing foreshocks and aftershocks from the record, and still found a statistically significant increase, he said.

"Can this rate change be natural? I certainly don't think so," Rubinstein said.

One of the largest earthquakes linked to wastewater injection was the Aug. 22, 2011, magnitude-5.3 earthquake in Trinidad, Colo., which cracked walls and toppled chimneys in the historic town.

The earthquakes have revealed at least two faults cross the Raton Basin, concentrating earthquakes along their length, according to the USGS. Researchers think one way wastewater injection can trigger quakes is by increasing fluid pressure along faults, making it easier for them to rupture.

The largest earthquake linked to wastewater injection to date was a magnitude-5.6 earthquake in Oklahoma in 2011.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2b1f6d94/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C240C178975120Eearthquakes0Eblamed0Eon0Ewastewater0Einjection0Dlite/story01.htm

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?Stoopid Tall? bike is over 14 feet tall

MUNICH, April 23 (Reuters) - Barcelona centre half Gerard Pique acknowledged his team were thoroughly second best as Bayern Munich romped to a 4-0 win in their Champions League semi-final first leg at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. "They gave us a thrashing," he said. "We will try to turn it around in the return leg (on May 1) and put in a good performance for the fans. "They were better and faster than us. There is no point talking about the referee, there is no excuse." Arjen Robben, who sparkled on the wing for Bayern and scored one of the goals, hailed his team's spectacular performance. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/stoopid-tall-bike-over-14-feet-tall-212924545.html

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Tuesday, April 23, 2013

PSY's new single 'Gentleman' continues record run

NEW YORK (AP) ? PSY continues to set records on YouTube.

The South Korean pop star hit another mark for viral views with his new single "Gentleman," earning 38 million views in a single day as it set a blistering pace to 200 million views.

Kevin Allocca, YouTube's trends manager, says "Gentleman" was viewed 38 million times on April 14, surpassing the single-day record of 30 million set by the "KONY 2012" short film. It also holds the day-of-debut record with 18.5 million views.

PSY's "Gangnam Style" is YouTube's most-viewed video at 1.5 billion.

"Gentleman" reached 100 million views in four days and was approaching 204 million views Monday afternoon. It's not clear if those are records, but it took "Gangnam Style" more than 50 days to reach 100 million views.

___

Online:

http://bit.ly/Yk9inv

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/psys-single-gentleman-continues-record-run-225534861.html

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Would Lochte take risks on his show? Oh, jeah!

By Ree Hines, TODAY contributor

On Sunday night, fans of Ryan Lochte got a glimpse of what life's like for the five-time Olympic gold medalist when he's not hanging out poolside thanks to his new reality TV show, "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" But for those who missed the premiere, there's still a chance to find out the answer to the show's title question.

During a Monday morning visit to TODAY, Lochte revealed that he'd do just about anything -- the bigger the risk, the better.

"I?m not your average Olympian," he said. "You know when you think about Olympians, you think about (how) they eat, they train, they sleep. That?s it. For me that?s not the case at all. I like doing other stuff. I like going out and having a good time. I like doing stuff I could probably get myself hurt in, like playing basketball, skateboarding, surfing -- you name it, I'm doing it."

And viewers will see it -- not that he's only sharing the exciting stuff with the public. After all, the cameras capture everything!

"The first, like, couple of days ? I was awake and brushing my teeth and the camera was right there," Lochte recalled. "I'm going downstairs to eat breakfast before swim practice, the camera's there. The camera is there 24/7, and I wasn?t used to that."

But now he doesn't mind the living under the lens. In fact, he's found one big perk that's come from it.

"The best thing about this show was I got really close with my family," the swimmer explained. "I mean, I was seeing them maybe once or twice every three months (before). (With) this show, I saw them once or twice every week, and it just brought us a lot closer together."?

Catch more from Lochte -- and his family -- when "What Would Ryan Lochte Do?" airs next Sunday at 10 p.m. on E!

More in The Clicker:

?

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/04/22/17861683-would-ryan-lochte-take-big-risks-on-his-new-reality-show-oh-jeah?lite

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HBT: Pujols says he's 'hurting real bad'

You?d never know it if you looked at his stats ? the Angels? slugger is hitting .317 with eight extra-base hits ? but Albert Pujols has been bothered by plantar fasciitis in his left foot. With another start at DH this afternoon, he has now started more games as the DH (nine) than as the first baseman (eight). Pujols himself admits the injury is bothering him.

?I?m dying,? Pujols said according to Bill Shaikin. ?It?s hurting real bad.?

The Angels will continue to use Pujols until he cannot handle the pain anymore.

?You?re always picking at a scab a little bit, when you?re trying to play and trying to run,? Manager Mike Scioscia said. ?Certainly, you don?t want it to regress. He?s swinging the bat real well.

?You want to keep it to where he can still DH and hopefully get him to first base at some point.?

The Angels have used Mark Trumbo at first base when Pujols has been the DH, which should be the case for the foreseeable future.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/21/albert-pujols-is-hurting-real-bad/related/

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Twitter #Music Catches Emerging Artist Frances Cone By Surprise, Calls It A ?Meet And Greet? For Bands And Fans

8170670086_35408a7c5c_bWhen Twitter #Music launched last week, it wasn’t a surprise at all to those following tech stories, since rumors had been kicking up about its existence for months. However, it was a surprise to the?Frances Cone Band, which is popping up in the “emerging artists” section of the app. In a world where we focus so much on “big stars,” especially ones with millions of followers on Twitter, it’s important to remember that these platforms can make all the difference for those who are just getting started and are waiting and hoping to be discovered. I spoke with their lead singer, Frances Cone, who didn’t get a chance to play with the app before it was launched. She wasn’t a big Twitter user before, but has been pleasantly surprised thus far: “I was a pretty light Twitter user before the music app because I felt like it should be reserved for jokes. Only the best jokes. Or original feelings, of which there are few.” She says that “Twitter and I are in love” when discussing the new experience, giving us some insight into what it’s like to start getting tweets, and more importantly new listeners, from a group of people that have never heard of you before: It’s been really, really great. I wasn’t sure how to engage potential followers/fans and they basically just perfectly did it for me… like they set up a meet and greet and I get to hug all of these music lovers. The “meet and greet” aspect is an interesting one, as we knew that Twitter could be a massive distribution platform if some order was brought to it. Twitter #Music pulls in all of the tweets that include links to music that people are listening to, and then drops them into pages in the app that show trending information in order to get people engaged. More than likely, you’re not going to catch every song that the people you follow are listening to, so this is a way to trap all of that to go back to at any time. The mix of new fans and the devastating news out of Boston gave Cone mixed emotions, but reminded her that people can rely on music to get through tough times: It’s been so nice to be able to engage with actual people all over the world. It started happening simultaneously to the Boston news

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/58wfp8IzXvc/

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The Week: A Bear?s Brain Surgery, Babies? Consciousness and More

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Recent developments in health and science news. This week: a wet washcloth experiment in space, a resolution on drugs to ward off breast cancer, and seismic activity.
    


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/23/science/a-bears-brain-surgery-babies-consciousness-and-more.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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?The Kill Team?: A U.S. unit in Afghanistan that snapped

Three years ago, the U.S. was stunned by a horrific story that emerged from the front lines of the war in Afghanistan: Several members of an Army platoon had killed at least three unarmed Afghan civilians, apparently for sport. The soldiers referred to themselves as ?the Kill Team??a nickname that seemed tailor-made for television news, which devoted hours of coverage to the case.

Dan Krauss, a San Francisco-based filmmaker who was nominated for an Academy Award for his debut documentary, ?The Death of Kevin Carter,? was captivated by the case and, in particular, one of the soldiers under arrest: Adam Winfield, who was described by the Army as both a whistle-blower and a murderer.

?I wondered how he could be both of those things,? Krauss recalled in an interview with Yahoo News. His quest to answer that question is the basis of his latest film, ?The Kill Team,? which is playing at Tribeca Film Festival in New York this week and premieres at the San Francisco Film Festival on Friday.

Winfield, an Army specialist who was just 20 at the time of the crimes, had tried to warn the military about the killing spree by telling his father, Chris, a retired Marine, who then tried to alert authorities. But Army officials told Chris Winfield they could do something only if Adam were to report the crimes to a superior in the field.

The only problem: Winfield?s squad leader was the ringleader of the murders. When fellow soldiers in the platoon began to sense that Winfield was about to rat them out, they threatened to kill him, too.

Scared, Winfield was pressured to run with the crowd, and in May 2010, he was implicated in the murder of an unarmed Afghan man. The killings were discovered after another soldier complained about drug use in the unit, and in June 2010, Winfield and four other soldiers were back at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Wash.?imprisoned and charged with heinous war crimes.

Krauss wanted to get access to Winfield and the other accused soldiers, but since they were in confinement, he knew he was unlikely to get to them ?through conventional media channels? with the military, he said. So he approached Eric Montalvo, Winfield?s attorney, who told Krauss he needed someone to help film a 10-minute video of Winfield and his family for the military court.

Krauss volunteered?with the condition that he would have editorial control over the footage and, if the family agreed, he could continue filming for an eventual movie.

The result is an unprecedented inside look at the military justice system and the soldiers caught up in the case?many of whom speak about the killings for the first time on camera.

Much of the film takes place inside a tiny conference room at Fort Lewis where Winfield worked with his parents on his defense?and where Montalvo, at one point in the film, warns them against speaking outside of ?this zone? about the case because they are potential enemies to Winfield's quest to be cleared.

?You don?t talk to anybody,? the attorney warns.

But Krauss is right there, filming Winfield and his parents in their most vulnerable moments?from the soldier?s psychiatric evaluation to the family?s debates over whether he should take a plea deal in the case, even though they believe, in their words, that he?s being used as ?a pawn? by Army officials who want to resolve the case quickly.

?I would have never in a million years imagined that I?d be going to jail,? Winfield says in the opening moments of the film. His parents openly worry their son will commit suicide.

Krauss also interviews some of the other soldiers involved, who not only corroborate Winfield?s claim that they threatened to kill him but openly discuss the murders they committed, speaking about them in such a casual way that it?s likely to be disturbing and depressing to some viewers.

Discussing how he and another officer killed an unarmed 15-year-old Afghan boy, Andrew Holmes, a private first class who was 19 at the time of the killings, says, ?Man, we straight up murdered that dude.?

Another officer, Cpl. Jeremy Morlock, who was 21 at the time, matter-of-factly admits why he and others decided to ?get some kills,? as he puts it: They were bored.

After months of training for heavy combat, platoon members were dropped into an area of rural Afghanistan where they saw little fighting and instead were instructed to help local Afghans drill wells, construct schools and perform other nation-building efforts that many had not been trained to do. War, Morlock says at one point in the film, ?was nothing like people hyped it to be.?

Krauss told Yahoo News that many of the soldiers expressed a sense of betrayal.

"They had been promised an experience, they had been trained in the application of force, and the training, the culture, did not match with the experience. ... It was about hearts and minds, and they were there to kick ass and defend America and defeat terrorism. And that's what they had grown up thinking the military was about, and that was the culture they had trained for and wanted."

The turning point for the platoon came when the sergeant in charge was severely wounded in a roadside bomb attack?only worsening the low morale, especially among the younger soldiers.

His replacement was Calvin Gibbs, a 25-year-old staff sergeant, who allegedly began bragging about murders he had gotten away during an earlier stint in Iraq. According to Winfield and others, Gibbs said he shot people and then planted weapons like grenades that he had obtained ?off the books? on his victims.

Gibbs then took fingers as trophies?with the ultimate goal of making a ?bone necklace.? (Gibbs, who declined Krauss?s interview requests, has maintained his innocence, insisting he shot only when he was fired upon. He is serving a life sentence for his role in the murders.)

Eventually, Morlock and others joined Gibbs on a killing spree. In the film, Morlock says he felt little guilt, telling the camera that he ?buried it, just ... powered through it" before killing again.

Now in prison, he explains how he views his role in the killings: "It?s not that you?re a murderer. It?s that you were convicted of murder."

But Winfield was horrified by what he was seeing, telling his father at the time that he was mystified at why no one else thought this was wrong. Krauss?s film centers around that moral dilemma Winfield faced?especially in May 2010, when the soldiers decided to kill an Afghan man in Winfield?s presence.

As Winfield says in the film, his choice was, ?Should I do the right thing and put myself in danger, or should I just shut up and deal with it??

He chose the latter?which ultimately earned him a sentence of three years in prison and a bad conduct discharge. He was released from prison in August 2012.

In an interview, Krauss says the film is meant to cast a light on how young people are sent into war with little preparation for the emotional choices they will have to make.

?Some of these kids were literally teenagers,? Krauss said. ?I wanted to examine the idea that we are sending very young people into situations where they have to make decisions, sometimes instantly, about incredibly complex situations where you face moral questions that would be difficult for anyone, much less for someone who is 18, 19 or 20."

In spite of the subject matter, Krauss?s film does not have an explicit anti-war sentiment?and in fact, he says, he left footage on the cutting room floor in order to keep the movie from coming across as overtly political. But he acknowledged it will be hard for some to watch without coming away with a sense of alarm about the horrors of war, especially as one soldier says that killings like this happen all the time, ?We?re just the ones that got caught.?

?You?re training us from the day we join to the day you?re out to kill. Your job is to kill. ? Your job is to kill everything that?s in your way,? Justin Stoner, the soldier whose initial complaint about drug use within the platoon exposed the murders, says in the film. ?Well, then why the hell are you pissed off when we do it??

In the film, Stoner, who was not charged with any crimes, says he never wants to be referred to as a ?whistle-blower? in the case.

?It?s worse than what they are being accused of,? says Stoner, who is now a member of the Army Reserve. ?If I could go back, I wouldn?t have said anything.?

Krauss?s film doesn?t cast Winfield as a hero or a saint, but does convey his anguish over doing nothing to protect the Afghan man he saw murdered, or the other victims of "the Kill Team."

Krauss said his goal was to give the soldiers involved a chance to tell their side of the story "without political or moral judgment."

"This is a film about morality in the context of war," Krauss said. "I am hoping that people who watch the film come away with a deeper understanding of what the young men and women we send to war are confronted with."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/kill-team-examines-moral-dilemmas-facing-young-soldiers-155420443.html

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