Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/295732944?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Sunday, March 31, 2013
Hundreds of migrants rescued off Italian coast
ROME (Reuters) - Italian coastguards said on Friday they had intercepted almost 700 mostly African migrants trying to get to the country on board 10 flimsy and rickety boats.
One vessel crammed with 150 people sent out a distress call about 80 miles off the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Friday afternoon, the service said.
Emergency services were sent to rescue them and another 70 people in a rubber craft nearby. All the other boats were stopped over the last two days.
Italy's coast is a common destination for migrants from north and sub-Saharan Africa.
Thousands have died during the risky voyage across the Mediterranean as a result of shipwreck, harsh conditions and a lack of food and water, say activists.
"With the arrival of the spring and the subsequent improvement in the weather conditions, migrant attempts to reach the Italian coast have picked up massively," the coastguard said in a statement.
A 15-metre long rubber boat carrying 98 people from sub-Saharan Africa was intercepted 96 miles off the coast of the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Thursday, a coastguard official said.
Rescue workers then received an emergency call from another boat carrying 131 people from sub-Saharan Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh close to Lampedusa, which they brought to shore.
Overnight the coastguard rescued 31 people from Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa on a boat off the southern coast of Sicily, which was also heading to Lampedusa.
The official said 214 other migrants, mainly from Africa, on five boats had also been detained in the past 48 hours.
All the migrants are being held in reception centers in Sicily and Lampedusa, the official said.
An estimated 1,500 migrants lost their lives in the Mediterranean in 2011, many of them trying to escape the Arab Spring uprisings in North Africa, according to Human Rights Watch. It estimated the death toll in 2012 at more than 300.
(Reporting By Catherine Hornby; Editing by Pravin Char)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-migrants-rescued-off-italian-coast-194313849.html
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AP: Gas trade group seeks fracking probe
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) ? A formal complaint filed with New York's lobbying board asks it to investigate whether Artists Against Fracking, a group that includes Yoko Ono and other A-List celebrities, is violating the state's lobbying law, according to the document obtained by The Associated Press.
The Independent Oil & Gas Association, an industry group that supports gas drilling, filed the complaint Tuesday with the state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics.
The complaint is based on an AP story that found that Artists Against Fracking and its members, including Ono, her son Sean Lennon, actors Mark Ruffalo and Robert De Niro and others, aren't registered as lobbyists and therefore didn't disclose their spending in opposition to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to remove gas from underground deposits.
"The public has been unable to learn how much money is being spent on this effort, what it is being spent on, and who is funding the effort," said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. "I understand the power of celebrity that this organization has brought to the public discussion over natural gas development, but I do not understand why this organization is not being required to follow the state's lobbying law."
The group confirmed it filed the complaint but didn't comment further.
Artists Against Fracking, formed by Ono and Lennon, says its activities are protected as free speech. The group was created last year amid the Cuomo administration's review to determine whether to allow hydraulic fracturing to remove gas from vast underground shale formations in southern and central New York.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues his review as public opinion has shifted from initial support based on the promise of jobs and tax revenue from drilling in economically depressed upstate New York to mixed feelings because of concerns over potential environmental and health effects.
Seven months after Artists Against Fracking was formed, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute on March 20 found that New York voters were for the first time opposed to fracking, 46 percent to 39 percent.
"There's no doubt the celebrities had an effect," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. "As far as I can tell, they made all the difference."
A spokesman for Artists Against Fracking said the group and its individual members don't have to register as lobbyists.
"As private citizens, Yoko and Sean are not required to register as lobbyists when they use their own money to express an opinion and there's also no lobbying requirement when you are engaged in a public comment period by a state agency," spokesman David Fenton said.
"If the situation changes then, of course, Artists Against Fracking will consider registering," Fenton said. "Up to now, there has been no violation because they are entitled to do this as private citizens with their own money."
On its website, the group implores readers: "Tell Governor Cuomo: Don't Frack New York." Celebrities supporting the group have led rallies and performed in the song "Don't Frack My Mother," also carried on the Internet.
Ethics commission spokesman John Milgrim didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. By law, the commission doesn't confirm or deny pending investigations.
New York's former lobbying regulator, attorney David Grandeau, said he believed the group and the supporting artists, including musicians Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga and actress Anne Hathaway, should be registered and required to disclose details on their efforts to spur public opposition to gas drilling.
"When you are advocating for the passage or defeat of legislation or proposed legislation and spend more than $5,000, you are required to register," Grandeau said Friday. "Just because you are a celebrity doesn't mean that lobbing laws don't apply to you. Your celebrity status does not protect you in Albany."
Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and developer Donald Trump are among the high-profile figures who clashed with the commission when Grandeau was regulator. The biggest penalty for failure to follow the lobbying law resulted in a $250,000 fine against Trump and others over casinos in 2000.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apnewsbreak-gas-trade-group-seeks-fracking-probe-172054771.html
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Saturday, March 30, 2013
Children with sleep apnea have higher risk of behavioral, adaptive and learning problems
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Public release date: 29-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lynn Celmer
lcelmer@aasmnet.org
630-737-9700
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Left untreated, sleep apnea may cause problems with hyperactivity, disruptive behaviors, social competence, self-care and school performance
DARIEN, IL A new study found that obstructive sleep apnea, a common form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), is associated with increased rates of ADHD-like behavioral problems in children as well as other adaptive and learning problems.
"This study provides some helpful information for medical professionals consulting with parents about treatment options for children with SDB that, although it may remit, there are considerable behavioral risks associated with continued SDB," said Michelle Perfect, PhD, the study's lead author and assistant professor in the school psychology program in the department of disability and psychoeducational studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "School personnel should also consider the possibility that SDB contributes to difficulties with hyperactivity, learning and behavioral and emotional dysregulation in the classroom."
The five-year study, which appears in the April issue of the journal SLEEP, utilized data from a longitudinal cohort, the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea Study (TuCASA). The TuCASA study prospectively examined Hispanic and Caucasian children between 6 and 11 years of age to determine the prevalence and incidence of SDB and its effects on neurobehavioral functioning. The study involved 263 children who completed an overnight sleep study and a neurobehavioral battery of assessments that included parent and youth reported rating scales.
Results show that 23 children had incident sleep apnea that developed during the study period, and 21 children had persistent sleep apnea throughout the entire study. Another 41 children who initially had sleep apnea no longer had breathing problems during sleep at the five-year follow-up.
The odds of having behavioral problems were four to five times higher in children with incident sleep apnea and six times higher in children who had persistent sleep apnea. Compared to youth who never had SDB, children with sleep apnea were more likely to have parent-reported problems in the areas of hyperactivity, attention, disruptive behaviors, communication, social competency and self-care. Children with persistent sleep apnea also were seven times more likely to have parent-reported learning problems and three times more likely to have school grades of C or lower.
The authors report that this is the first sleep-related study to use a standardized questionnaire to assess adaptive functioning in typically developing youth with and without SDB.
"Even though SDB appears to decline into adolescence, taking a wait and see approach is risky and families and clinicians alike should identify potential treatments," said Perfect.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, obstructive sleep apnea occurs in about two percent of children who are otherwise healthy. Children with sleep apnea generally have larger tonsils and adenoids than other children their age, and most children with sleep apnea have a history of loud snoring. Effective treatment options for children include the surgical removal of the tonsils and adenoids or the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Public release date: 29-Mar-2013[ | E-mail |
Share ] Contact: Lynn Celmer
lcelmer@aasmnet.org
630-737-9700
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Left untreated, sleep apnea may cause problems with hyperactivity, disruptive behaviors, social competence, self-care and school performance
DARIEN, IL A new study found that obstructive sleep apnea, a common form of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB), is associated with increased rates of ADHD-like behavioral problems in children as well as other adaptive and learning problems.
"This study provides some helpful information for medical professionals consulting with parents about treatment options for children with SDB that, although it may remit, there are considerable behavioral risks associated with continued SDB," said Michelle Perfect, PhD, the study's lead author and assistant professor in the school psychology program in the department of disability and psychoeducational studies at the University of Arizona in Tucson. "School personnel should also consider the possibility that SDB contributes to difficulties with hyperactivity, learning and behavioral and emotional dysregulation in the classroom."
The five-year study, which appears in the April issue of the journal SLEEP, utilized data from a longitudinal cohort, the Tucson Children's Assessment of Sleep Apnea Study (TuCASA). The TuCASA study prospectively examined Hispanic and Caucasian children between 6 and 11 years of age to determine the prevalence and incidence of SDB and its effects on neurobehavioral functioning. The study involved 263 children who completed an overnight sleep study and a neurobehavioral battery of assessments that included parent and youth reported rating scales.
Results show that 23 children had incident sleep apnea that developed during the study period, and 21 children had persistent sleep apnea throughout the entire study. Another 41 children who initially had sleep apnea no longer had breathing problems during sleep at the five-year follow-up.
The odds of having behavioral problems were four to five times higher in children with incident sleep apnea and six times higher in children who had persistent sleep apnea. Compared to youth who never had SDB, children with sleep apnea were more likely to have parent-reported problems in the areas of hyperactivity, attention, disruptive behaviors, communication, social competency and self-care. Children with persistent sleep apnea also were seven times more likely to have parent-reported learning problems and three times more likely to have school grades of C or lower.
The authors report that this is the first sleep-related study to use a standardized questionnaire to assess adaptive functioning in typically developing youth with and without SDB.
"Even though SDB appears to decline into adolescence, taking a wait and see approach is risky and families and clinicians alike should identify potential treatments," said Perfect.
According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, obstructive sleep apnea occurs in about two percent of children who are otherwise healthy. Children with sleep apnea generally have larger tonsils and adenoids than other children their age, and most children with sleep apnea have a history of loud snoring. Effective treatment options for children include the surgical removal of the tonsils and adenoids or the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
###
[ | E-mail | Share ] ?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-03/aaos-cws032813.php
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Halloween social of horror as vicious, unprovoked attack on stranger ...
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What was supposed to be a lighthearted Halloween social spent with friends turned into a terrifying ordeal for a Winnipeg man after he was attacked by a total stranger, spent days in a coma and needed months off work to recover.
Prosecutors are now seeking a three-year prison term for Leigh James Bryant, 25, who admitted Thursday he was responsible for lashing out and pummelling the victim, possibly believing he was being mocked over a drink-spilling mishap.
Bryant pleaded guilty to a single charge of aggravated assault in the Court of Queen?s Bench stemming from the Oct. 30, 2010 incident.
Bryant and the victim separately attended a weekend costume-party social at the Travelodge Winnipeg East hotel on Alpine Avenue.
Bryant purchased a number of shots and was trying to navigate a crowded area with the drinks on a tray near where the victim ? dressed as a ?rescued Chilean miner? in honour of the internationally-acclaimed rescue mission ? was standing nearby with friends, Crown attorney Scott Cooper said.
Somebody, but not the victim, bumped Bryant and his shooters tumbled, drawing his ire. When he looked up, he saw the victim laughing, Cooper said. However, evidence showed he just happened to be laughing while talking with someone else, said Cooper.
?Whether Mr. Bryant took that as laughing at the fact that he dropped the drinks or not is not entirely clear ? however, what Mr. Bryant did is approach (the victim) and punched him once in the face,? the Crown attorney said.
The punch caused the innocent partygoer to tumble backwards down a small flight of stairs. Bryant hit him again as it happened and the victim bashed his head on the floor.
As he lay out cold, Bryant slipped on his rubber party mask and fled out an exit door. The victim spent five days in a coma, suffered a brain bleed and it was feared he?d suffered a permanent brain injury.
After extensive rehabilitation, including speech therapy, the victim regained his health.
?Luckily he made a full recovery through significant efforts of his own,? said Cooper.
Medical reports will be tabled when the case returns to court in June.
Defence lawyer Eric Wach will request a two-year sentence for Bryant, court was told. No information was provided Thursday about Bryant?s background or personal circumstances.
?
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Friday, March 22, 2013
What to Expect (And What We Want) From Windows Blue
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/uUbvcDeXuvg/
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U.S. put off by Venezuela's "bizarre" behavior: official
By Brian Winter
(Reuters) - Increasingly "bizarre" accusations by acting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro have cast doubt on whether Washington will be able to improve ties with his government if he wins an election next month, a senior U.S. official told Reuters on Thursday.
Maduro has repeatedly lashed out at Washington since former President Hugo Chavez died on March 5, accusing the United States of secretly causing Chavez's cancer and plotting to kill his rival in the April 14 presidential election.
Anti-U.S. rhetoric was used frequently, and often effectively, by Chavez to rally domestic support during his 14-year socialist rule. So some observers have regarded Maduro's allegations as a relatively harmless tactic as he tries to prove he is Chavez's natural heir ahead of the election.
But the severity of the accusations, plus Foreign Minister Elias Jaua's declaration on Wednesday that Venezuela was suspending informal talks with Washington, have made President Barack Obama's administration wonder if their hopes for a relative warming of ties are misplaced, the senior official said.
"Some of the recent false allegations are bizarre and unhelpful, similar with efforts in the past to draw us into an unnecessary debate," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We're not interested in getting involved."
"We're aware of the electoral environment, but this is kind of above the norm," the official said. "It calls into question whether we're dealing with rational actors."
Some in the U.S. government have hoped for a detente that could allow for greater Venezuelan cooperation on drug trafficking, terrorism, trade and other key issues. U.S. companies such as Chevron Corp. that do business in Venezuela and could be aided by a warming in ties.
"We have a genuine desire to have a functional relationship with Venezuelan authorities," the official said.
The latest downturn in ties came after Roberta Jacobson, the U.S. State Department's lead official on Latin America, said in a newspaper interview that "Venezuelans deserve open, fair and transparent elections."
"With Jacobson's latest comments ... we have realized that it doesn't make sense to continue wasting our time," Jaua said during a ceremony this week.
The U.S. official said the Obama administration "will continue to promote human rights and democracy" in Venezuela, in line with regional diplomatic accords.
(Editing by Stacey Joyce)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-put-off-venezuelas-bizarre-behavior-official-233659230.html
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Scientists develop innovative twists to DNA nanotechnology
Mar. 21, 2013 ? In a new discovery that represents a major step in solving a critical design challenge, Arizona State University Professor Hao Yan has led a research team to produce a wide variety of 2-D and 3-D structures that push the boundaries of the burgeoning field of DNA nanotechnology.
The field of DNA nanotechnology utilizes nature's design rules and the chemical properties of DNA to self-assemble into an increasingly complex menagerie of molecules for biomedical and electronic applications. Some of the Yan lab's accomplishments include building Trojan horse-like structures to improve drug delivery to cancerous cells, electrically conductive gold nanowires, single molecule sensors and programmable molecular robots.
With their bio-inspired architectural works, the group continues to explore the geometrical and physical limits of building at the molecular level.
"People in this field are very interested in making wire frame or mesh structures," said Yan. "We needed to come up with new design principles that allow us to build with more complexity in three dimensions."
In their latest twist to the technology, Yan's team made new 2-D and 3-D objects that look like wire-frame art of spheres as well as molecular tweezers, scissors, a screw, hand fan, and even a spider web.
The Yan lab, which includes ASU Biodesign Institute colleagues Dongran Han, Suchetan Pal, Shuoxing Jiang, Jeanette Nangreave and assistant professor Yan Liu, published their results in the March 22 issue of Science.
The twist in their 'bottom up,' molecular Lego design strategy focuses on a DNA structure called a Holliday junction. In nature, this cross-shaped, double-stacked DNA structure is like the 4-way traffic stop of genetics -- where 2 separate DNA helices temporality meet to exchange genetic information. The Holliday junction is the crossroads responsible for the diversity of life on Earth, and ensures that children are given a unique shuffling of traits from a mother and father's DNA.
In nature, the Holliday junction twists the double-stacked strands of DNA at an angle of about 60-degrees, which is perfect for swapping genes but sometimes frustrating for DNA nanotechnology scientists, because it limits the design rules of their structures.
"In principal, you can use the scaffold to connect multiple layers horizontally," [which many research teams have utilized since the development of DNA origami by Cal Tech's Paul Rothemund in 2006]. However, when you go in the vertical direction, the polarity of DNA prevents you from making multiple layers," said Yan. "What we needed to do is rotate the angle and force it to connect."
Making the new structures that Yan envisioned required re-engineering the Holliday junction by flipping and rotating around the junction point about half a clock face, or 150 degrees. Such a feat has not been considered in existing designs.
"The initial idea was the hardest part," said Yan. "Your mind doesn't always see the possibilities so you forget about it. We had to break the conceptual barrier that this could happen."
In the new study, by varying the length of the DNA between each Holliday junction, they could force the geometry at the Holliday junctions into an unconventional rearrangement, making the junctions more flexible to build for the first time in the vertical dimension. Yan calls the backyard barbeque grill-shaped structure a DNA Gridiron.
"We were amazed that it worked!" said Yan. "Once we saw that it actually worked, it was relatively easy to implement new designs. Now it seems easy in hindsight. If your mindset is limited by the conventional rules, it's really hard to take the next step. Once you take that step, it becomes so obvious."
The DNA Gridiron designs are programmed into a viral DNA, where a spaghetti-shaped single strand of DNA is spit out and folded together with the help of small 'staple' strands of DNA that help mold the final DNA structure. In a test tube, the mixture is heated, then rapidly cooled, and everything self-assembles and molds into the final shape once cooled. Next, using sophisticated AFM and TEM imaging technology, they are able to examine the shapes and sizes of the final products and determine that they had formed correctly.
This approach has allowed them to build multilayered, 3-D structures and curved objects for new applications.
"Most of our research team is now devoted toward finding new applications for this basic toolkit we are making," said Yan. "There is still a long way to go and a lot of new ideas to explore. We just need to keep talking to biologists, physicists and engineers to understand and meet their needs."
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Arizona State University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
- D. Han, S. Pal, Y. Yang, S. Jiang, J. Nangreave, Y. Liu, H. Yan. DNA Gridiron Nanostructures Based on Four-Arm Junctions. Science, 2013; 339 (6126): 1412 DOI: 10.1126/science.1232252
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
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Syria: Bombing kills top pro-Assad Sunni preacher
In this undated photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar, speaks at a press conference. Al-Buti, a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad was killed in a suicide bombing in the Eman Mosque, at the Mazraa district, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 21, 2013, state TV reported . (AP Photo/SANA)
In this undated photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar, speaks at a press conference. Al-Buti, a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad was killed in a suicide bombing in the Eman Mosque, at the Mazraa district, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 21, 2013, state TV reported . (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian doctors treat an injured man who was wounded at the Eman Mosque where a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar, at the Mazraa district, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 21, 2013. A suicide bomber blew himself up during evening prayers inside a mosque in Damascus Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad and least 13 other people, state TV reported. Al-Buti's death is a big blow to Syria's embattled leader, who is fighting mainly Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, the Eman Mosque is seen destroyed after a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar, at the Mazraa district, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 21, 2013. A suicide bomber blew himself up during evening prayers inside a mosque in Damascus Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad and least 13 other people, state TV reported. Al-Buti's death is a big blow to Syria's embattled leader, who is fighting mainly Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, a Syrian doctor, left, treats an injured man who was wounded at the Eman Mosque where a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti, an 84-year-old cleric known to all Syrians as a religious scholar, at the Mazraa district, in Damascus, Syria, Thursday, March 21, 2013. A suicide bomber blew himself up during evening prayers inside a mosque in Damascus Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and longtime supporter of President Bashar Assad and least 13 other people, state TV reported. Al-Buti's death is a big blow to Syria's embattled leader, who is fighting mainly Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. (AP Photo/SANA)
Map locates suicide bombing Syria
BEIRUT (AP) ? A suicide bomb ripped through a mosque in the heart of the Syrian capital Thursday, killing a top Sunni Muslim preacher and outspoken supporter of President Bashar Assad in one of the most stunning assassinations of Syria's 2-year-old civil war. At least 41 others were killed and more than 84 wounded.
The slaying of Sheikh Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Buti removes one of the few remaining pillars of support for Assad among the majority Sunni sect that has risen up against him.
It also marks a new low in the Syrian civil war: While suicide bombings blamed on Islamic extremists fighting with the rebels have become common, Thursday's attack was the first time a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a mosque.
A prolific writer whose sermons were regularly broadcast on TV, the 84-year-old al-Buti was killed while giving a religious lesson to students at the Eman Mosque in the central Mazraa district of Damascus.
The most senior religious figure to be killed in Syria's civil war, his assassination was a major blow to Syria's embattled leader, who is fighting mainly Sunni rebels seeking his ouster. Al-Buti has been a vocal supporter of the regime since the early days of Assad's father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad, providing Sunni cover and legitimacy to their rule. Sunnis are the majority sect in Syria while Assad is from the minority Alawite sect ? an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
"The blood of Sheik al-Buti will be a fire that ignites all the world," said Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddine Hassoun, the country's top state-appointed Sunni Muslim cleric and an Assad loyalist.
Syrian TV showed footage of wounded people and bodies with severed limbs on the mosque's blood-stained floor, and later, corpses covered in white body bags lined up in rows. Sirens wailed through the capital as ambulances rushed to the scene of the explosion, which was sealed off by the military.
Among those killed was al-Buti's grandson, the TV said.
The bombing was among the most serious security breaches in the capital. An attack in July that targeted a high-level government crisis meeting killed four top regime officials, including Assad's brother-in-law and the defense minister.
Last month, a car bomb that struck in the same area, which houses the headquarters of Syria's ruling Baath party, killed at least 53 people and wounded more than 200 others in one of the deadliest Damascus bombings of the civil war.
A small, frail man, al-Buti was well known in the Arab world as a religious scholar and longtime imam at the eighth-century Omayyad Mosque, a Damascus landmark. State TV said he has written 60 books and religious publications.
In recent months, Syrian TV has carried al-Buti's sermons from mosques in Damascus live every week. He also has a regular religious TV program.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for Thursday's attack.
Among the opposition, there was a mixture of suspicion and shock that an elderly religious figure such as al-Bouti would be targeted by a suicide bomber inside a mosque.
"I don't know of a single opposition group that could do something like this," said Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition opposition group, speaking on Al-Arabiya TV.
Syrian TV began its evening newscast with an announcement from the religious endowments minister, Mohammad Abdelsattar al-Sayyed, declaring al-Buti's "martyrdom" as his voice choked up. It then showed parts of al-Buti's sermon from last Friday, in which he praised the military for battling the "mercenaries sent by America and the West" and said Syria was being subjected to a "universal conspiracy."
Assad's regime refers to the rebels fighting against it as "terrorists" and "mercenaries" who are backed by foreign powers trying to destabilize the country. The war, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people, has become increasingly chaotic as rebels press closer to Assad's seat of power in Damascus after seizing large swaths of territory in the northern and eastern parts of the country.
On Thursday, rebels captured a village and other territory on the edge of the Golan Heights as fighting closed in on the strategic plateau that Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and later annexed, activists and officials said.
The battles near the town of Quneitra in southwest Syria sent many residents fleeing, including dozens who crossed into neighboring Lebanon. The fighting in the sensitive area began Wednesday near the cease-fire line between Syrian and Israeli troops.
One of the worst-case scenarios for Syria's civil war is that it could draw in neighboring countries such as Israel or Lebanon.
There have already been clashes with Turkey, Syria's neighbor to the north. And Israel recently bombed targets inside Syria said to include a weapons convoy headed for Hezbollah in Lebanon, a key ally of the Damascus regime and an arch-foe of the Jewish state.
If the rebels take over the Quneitra region, it will bring radical Islamic militants to a front line with Israeli troops. The rebels are composed of dozens of groups, including the powerful al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra, which the Obama administration labels a terrorist organization.
Israel has said its policy is not to get involved in the Syrian civil war, but it has retaliated for sporadic Syrian fire that spilled over into Israeli communities on the Golan Heights.
The Golan front has been mostly quiet since 1974, a year after Syria and Israel fought a war.
The Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels seized control of parts of villages a few miles (kilometers) from the cease-fire line with Israel after fierce fighting with regime forces.
The Local Coordination Committees, another anti-regime activist group, reported heavy fighting in the nearby village of Sahm al-Golan and said rebels were attacking an army post.
The Observatory said seven people, including three children, were killed Wednesday by government shelling of villages in the area.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory, said the fighting around the town of Arnabeh intensified Thursday, a day after rebels captured it. He added that the rebels captured two nearby army posts.
In Lebanon, security officials said 150 people, mostly women and children, walked for six hours in rugged mountains covered with snow to reach safety in the Lebanese border town of Chebaa. They said eight wounded Syrians were brought on mules from Beit Jan and taken in ambulances to hospitals in Chebaa.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said the Syrians fled from the town of Beit Jan, near the Golan Heights.
The Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, a rebel group active in southern Syria, said in a statement on its Facebook page that its fighters stormed an army post between the villages of Sahm al-Golan and Shajara.
Activists on Facebook pages affiliated with rebels in Quneitra announced the start of the operation to "break the siege on Quneitra and Damascus' western suburbs."
The fighting moved closer to Israel as President Barack Obama was visiting the Jewish state for the first time since taking office more than four years ago.
___
Associated Press writer Albert Aji in Damascus contributed to this report.
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Thursday, March 21, 2013
'Only one playboy at Playboy, and that's Hef'
FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner poses at his home at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Kristian Dowling, File)
FILE - In this Oct. 13, 2011 file photo, American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises, Hugh Hefner poses at his home at the Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Kristian Dowling, File)
Middle Tennessee players sit on the bench in the closing seconds of their 67-54 loss to St. Mary's in a first-round game of the NCAA men's college basketball tournament, Tuesday, March 19, 2013, in Dayton, Ohio. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)
Welcome to BracketRacket, the one-stop shopping place for all your NCAA tournament needs.
Today, we have The Rock, the world's ugliest tie, the sneakiest coaching move of the season ? from France; what, you were expecting John Calipari? ? and the answer to the question on everyone's mind with the games that matter still two days away: Will Hef be watching in a smoking jacket surrounded by Playboy bunnies?
But first, we simulate the entire tournament so you don't have to.
___
HAZARDOUS DUTY
When Associated Press sportswriter Noah Trister volunteered to sit in one place and watch the NCAA drama unfold from start to finish, we worried that as a Princeton man (Class of '01), he might not know some teams actually play more than one game before heading home.
So to conserve energy, we told him to skip the play-in games ? here's all you need to know: North Carolina A&T 73, Liberty 72; Saint Mary's 67, Middle Tennessee 54.
Then we offered to equip him with this http://bit.ly/13abAwQ , this http://bit.ly/XY3KSK , and one of these http://bit.ly/10fOukD .
But he took a pass and let us in on his secret instead, a website called whatifsports.com. You can simulate any tournament matchup you want there, complete with play-by-play and a boxscore, or the whole shebang in just under two hours. Let's go right to the highlights:
Creighton star Doug McDermott provides the first are-you-kidding-me moment, a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give the Bluejays a 79-76 win over Cincinnati. ... Pacific shoots 9 of 14 from 3-point range to bounce No. 2 seed Miami in the biggest upset of the round of 64. ... No. 10 Colorado beats top-rated Indiana in the East regional final (Trister: "Yes, you read that correctly"), and No. 9 Wichita State shocks third-rated New Mexico (on Malcolm Armstead's trey with 1 second left) to win the West. ... The other top seeds, Louisville and Kansas advance out of the Midwest and South, respectively.
On to the Final Four:
Louisville 68, Wichita State 58. Kansas 71, Colorado 44. (Time saved to this point: 17 days and counting.)
And the championship game April 8:
Kansas leads 42-40 at halftime, then goes on a 7-0 run to stretch the lead to 64-52. Louisville cuts the deficit to eight with 4:48 left on a 3-pointer by Wayne Blackshear. But the Cardinals don't score again. Jeff Withey scores 16 and grabs 13 rebounds to close out Kansas' 77-63 victory. Cue "One Shining Moment."
Now go here: http://bit.ly/Yqkwqk
And don't forget to turn out the lights.
___
CELEBRITY ALUM (OR HAZARDOUS DUTY, PART 2)
The Rock was in London the other day, doing what The Rock does, though usually not at tournament time ? walking the red carpet at the premiere of another of his everything-gets-blown-to-smithereens-by-the-end movies, in this case "G.I. Joe: Retaliation."
And man, does The Rock ever know about retaliation.
Born Dwayne Johnson, he's the son and grandson of pro wrestlers (both grandparents, in fact, on his maternal side), and the old WWF is where he made his name and boatloads of money before making the segue to the silver screen.
What many people don't know is that Johnson was also a big-time football prospect who got a full ride to the University of Miami back when the Hurricanes were pillaging everything in sight across the college landscape. Then he got hurt and future NFL star Warren Sapp stepped into his place ? think Wally Pipp and Lou Gehrig ? so Johnson collected his championship ring (1991) and his degree (Class of '92), took up with the woman who became his wife and lit out for Calgary in the Canadian Football League.
"Fast & Furious" doesn't begin to describe that stint; it lasted two months.
Now fast-forward to Monday, when AP entertainment and lifestyles producer Reetu Rupal was waiting in the rain ? naturally, we're back in London now ? to find out whether The Rock, who takes March Madness very seriously, had time to fill out his bracket.
Feel free to add your own inflections, accents and gestures to the following brief conversation.
Rupal (who is British and reading the questions off a list we sent him): "Are you following March Madness?"
The Rock: "Yes."
Rupal: "And who are you rooting for?"
The Rock (nostrils flaring): "Who do you think? Who would you think?"
Rupal: The Miami.
The Rock (thrilled): The Miami Hurricanes! Exactly. We're doing amazing, I'm very, very proud of my team."
Rupal (now thrilled as well): And have you filled out your bracket form yet?"
The Rock: "I have not, no."
Rupal: "Do you know who's going to be in your Final Four?"
The Rock (even more thrilled): "I can tell you who's going to be my No. 1!"
Rupal, on the other hand, has yet to pick a team. Or get more excited.
"Don't really know much about it, I'm afraid," he said. "But it sounds like fun "
___
I'LL SHOW YOU FUN
Not everybody on the other side of the Atlantic, of course, is still learning the game. This is the story of one guy who apparently learned too much for his own good.
His name is Laurent Sciarra, and he's a former French national team player who now coaches Rouen in France's second division. With the clock running down and his team tied at 84 with Boulogne Sur Mer in a recent game, watch what he tries to get away with at around the 30-second mark here: http://bit.ly/XVLvQj .
Sacrebleu!
That's right. He tries to steal the ball from a Boulogne player, but gets caught and whistled for a technical foul. The two resulting free throws cost Rouen the game. But the best part is how Sciarra, like some pro wrestler, denies the whole thing and then fakes outrage the refs would dare accuse him of something so silly.
Which raises the question: Where is The Rock when you really need him?
___
DO NOT ADJUST YOUR TV
If you're dreading to see whether some of teams show up for the tournament dressed in the same Phyllis Diller-inspired uniforms they trotted out in the regular season, relax. It can't get much worse than this: http://deadsp.in/146wqwf .
Now, if you dare, go back and read the second commenter.
___
SPEAKING OF RACY
For some reason, the idea that Hugh Hefner would be padding around the Playboy mansion in LA late at night, keeping track of the progress of his beloved Illini (Class of '49), seemed reassuring. So we asked AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode to investigate.
She couldn't get past CEO Scott Flanders, but he was thrilled to talk about the tournament. Flanders grew up Indianapolis, went to Colorado for his undergrad degree, then moved back home for law school at Indiana. So he's got two very promising rooting interests to keep track of in the tournament and almost as good, hated rival Kentucky is nowhere to be found.
"If Kentucky played the Russians, I?d be for the Russians. And for them not to make it after winning last year," he savored the moment, "is delicious."
Great. But what about Hef?
"He is not a big sports fan. I would say he likes what the girls like. He watches a lot of popular TV, like 'Dancing with the Stars,' and his real passion is vintage movies," Flanders said. "Now he?s married and he watches what Crystal likes to watch."
Sacrebleu!
So Rexrode asked Flanders whether he'd don one of the founder's trademark smoking jackets and surround himself with bunnies because ... well, just because he can.
"There?s only one playboy at Playboy, and that?s Hef.' he laughed. "I?ve gotten a few smoking jackets as gag gifts from people, but no."
No playmates, either?
"Hef?s job," Flanders replied. "He still picks every playmate, every month."
Apparently that's what keeps him up late at night.
___
STAT OF THE DAY
No matter what you call the tournament-opening games ? play-in or First Four ? they're rarely as close as the first game between North Carolina A&T and Liberty. Over the previous 10 NCAAs, only 6 percent of those were decided by three points or fewer, or in overtime.
But if that game was the start of a trend, research by STATS suggests fans who stress easily might want to load up on Kava Kava or Valerian Root (since we only prescribe herbal remedies here at BracketRacket). Because once the round of 64 kicks into gear Thursday, the number of close games rachets up to 17 percent, then 23 percent for all the subsequent rounds combined.
___
QUOTE OF THE DAY
"I don't even understand it, like who cares if I go to the grocery store, I went to the cleaners this morning? Get a life," ? old-school Saint Louis University coach Jim Crews on why he doesn't use Twitter.
___
TUESDAY'S RESULTS
North Carolina A&T 73, Liberty 72
Saint Mary's 67, Middle Tennessee 54
___
Jim Litke is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and follow him at Twitter.com/JimLitke.
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013
A Memo to Investors in 11D Technologies, Inc.
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/eTv1gT_ZjMw/a-memo-to-investors-in-11d-technologies-inc
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Public Prostitution Could Become Legal In Paris If Proposal To ...
Sexual solicitation may be illegal in France's capital city, but it might not stay that way for long.
If a proposal to repeal a 10-year-old solicitation law passes the French Senate latter this month, public prostitution could become legal in Paris, the Local notes.
Proposed by Sen. Esther Benbassa, a member of the French Green Party, the legislation seeks to overturn a law introduced in 2003 by then-Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy that made it illegal for sex workers to wear revealing attire and solicit customers in a public place.
As the Economist notes, prostitution is not currently illegal in France, but many of the activities associated with the trade, such as solicitation and brothels, are against the law.
Explaining her motives behind the proposal during a protest Saturday, Benbassa said that the law has only served to isolate workers, rather than dismantle prostitution networks, Huffington Post France reports. If it had achieved the later, she would be in favor of the law; however, Benbassa said, the legislation has achieved the opposite effect.
About 250 people gathered for a demonstration in Paris over the weekend -- one of several rallies that has taken place since the law was first enacted -- to demand that the law be repealed. STRASS, the trade union for sex workers, claims the existing legislation leads to increased violence and reduced rates, according to HuffPost France.
The proposed repeal will likely pass the French Senate when it is brought up for discussion on March 28, since it has received support from both President Fran?ois Hollande and Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who serves as France's minister of women's rights.
Hollande first expressed his interest in eliminating Sarkozy's law during his bid for the French presidency last March. In an interview with French-language blog Seronet.info, Hollande said the law "ultimately translates into less health care access and social services for prostitutes."
While Vallaud-Belkacem initially told Le Journal du Dimanche she wanted to "see prostitution disappear" when she was first appointed to her post in June, she has since changed her tune and confirmed that Hollande's campaign pledge will be executed.
Speaking to Le Parisien, Vallaud-Belkacem revealed that a repeal of the solicitation law will be required as part of her plan to develop more comprehensive legislation to govern prostitution and sex trafficking.
The nation's parliament moved to ban prostitution across the board in 2011, but the measure was unsuccessful.
Also on HuffPost:
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Passcode bypass bug discovered for iOS 6.1.3 on non-Siri devices
Apple recently released iOS 6.1.3 which included a fix for the passcode bypass bug that would allow an unauthorized person to access the Phone app on a locked iPhone. One day after the update, however, Matthew Panzarino of The Next Web is reporting that a new bypass bug has been discovered, this time by videosdebarraquito. But you may not need to be too worried about this one.
The passcode bypass in the previous versions of iOS 6 required a series of well-timed taps and button presses. The result was full access to the Phone app on a locked device without entering the passcode. This new bug (not quite new, it seems to have existed prior to iOS 6.1.3) requires a sequence that?s a little easier to execute as can be seen in this video. For some reason, this bypass doesn?t seem to affect Siri-capable devices.
The iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 are susceptible to the bypass which is achieved using the Voice Dial feature. By holding the Home button on a device for a few seconds, the Voice Dial feature will come up. Issue a dial command such as ?Dial 303-555-1212?, then as the call is being initiated, eject the SIM card. The iPhone detects the SIM has been removed, cancels the call, and displays an alert saying there is no SIM. Behind the alert you will see the Phone app and after dismissing the alert, you will have full access to the Phone app. As before this means you can access contact information as well as all photos on the device.
On the iPhone 4S and 5, performing this bypass will sometimes expose your Phone app?s Contacts list for a brief second, before the screen quickly turns black. However, causing this to happen on a 4S or 5 would require Siri to be disabled and Voice Dial to be enabled. And having Voice Dial enabled in this situation, you already leave your contact information exposed to a certain extent.
Since the full bypass does not work on the iPhone 4S or iPhone 5, the number of users vulnerable to this exploit is much smaller than the previous bypass. Unlike the previous bug, this bypass can also easily be prevented by disabling Voice Dial. This can be done in the iPhone?s Settings app, under General > Passcode Lock, by turning the Voice Dial switch to off. With the way Apple has been handling these so far, it would not be surprising to see this fixed in a 6.1.4 update.
Source: videosdebarraquito via The Next Web
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/RSytPmF0PPU/story01.htm
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'Pacific Rim' Kaiju Bleed Blue In Dailies!
Earlier today, we got a look at a footprint left by one of the Kaiju of Guillermo del Toro's "Pacific Rim," and now another tease, this time of the creatures' blood, has surfaced online. Also, David Brent from "The Office" is back in today's Dailies! » A collection of films told as GIFs [reddit] » [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/03/18/pacific-rim-kaiju-blood/
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Tuesday, March 19, 2013
LG suspects Samsung of infringing its eye-tracking patents with the Galaxy S 4
Samsung's Galaxy S 4 isn't even available yet, but already it's being eyed for possible patent infringement. According to a report from Korea's Yonhap News, LG suspects the S 4 might violate eye-tracking patents used in the Optimus G Pro. At the crux of this squabble is Samsung's Smart Pause feature, which LG finds similar to its Smart Video technology. Chiefly, LG is focusing on a patent it applied for in 2009, though the company also plans to investigate whether Samsung infringed other eye-tracking patents dating back to 2005. So far, of course, Samsung has denied any wrongdoing, saying its eye-tracking tech is implemented differently and is based on proprietary technology. Given that the phone isn't even out yet, we'll leave it to LG to do its due diligence before accusing Samsung in court.
Filed under: Cellphones, Samsung, LG
Via: The Verge
Source: Yonhap News Agency
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The cost of relying on free apps
The true costs associated with free apps isn't limited to free-to-play-games, or the consequences to just our wallets. Michael Jurewitz, who up until last year worked as a developer evangelist at Apple, has outlined another profound cost on his blog, Jury:
Last week brought a couple high profile announcements in the tech world. Google announced it would shutter Google Reader on July 1 and Dropbox announced it had acquired the hugely-popular-but-how're-they-gonna-make-money Mailbox app. At face value, these were two separate and unconnected events but they bear a lesson for all of us to take to heart: Running a sustainable business requires generating sustainable revenue. Charge money for what you create.
Both during and after his stint at Apple, Jury has been a consistent voice on this. Make a great product. Charge a fair price. Align your interests with your customers. It's a virtuous cycle.
Free can be done well and done right. But free is also a dependency for everyone involved. Companies that make free products cede control of their own destiny to venture capitalists and those who would acquire them. Customers who use free products cede control of their data to servers that are more likely to change hands, perhaps multiple times, or disappear entirely.
With Google Reader, we ultimately lost out to their Google+ agenda. With Mailbox, their customer was ultimately Dropbox and not us. Something even better could replace Google Reader. Dropbox could make Mailbox the email client of the future. But we didn't buy either of them, and ultimately we got what we paid for.
Whether you're a developer or a customer, read Jury's piece and think about whether investing your money is better deal than investing your time and/or data.
Source: Jury
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/cTYYfOqbWLU/story01.htm
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Ryan Seacrest & Julianne Hough Split!
Ryan & Julianne have called it quits! See more celeb pairs who are back to going solo.
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Monday, March 18, 2013
Vera Farmiga was drawn to Norma Bates' warped, contradictory ...
BATES MOTEL
Monday, 10 p.m., A&E
'Quite frankly," Vera Farmiga says of Norma Bates, the iconic character she plays in the new, revisionist TV thriller Bates Motel, she didn't think much about who Norman Bates' mother was, or what happened to make her the person she became in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960 film classic Psycho.
Norma Bates was, strictly speaking, not a character in suspense writer Robert Bloch's original 1959 novel but rather an unseen presence.
Farmiga, with her arts-oriented upbringing and drama background - a stint with the American Conservatory The-ater and New York's prestigious Barrow Group, followed by roles in the films Return to Paradise, Down to the Bone, The Departed, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, The Vintner's Luck and an Academy Award-nominated turn opposite George Clooney in 2009's Up in the Air - seemed an unlikely choice to play an emotionally abusive mother to a disturbed teenage boy in a TV thriller.
But then Bates Motel is no ordinary TV thriller.
Farmiga approaches her roles from a theatrical, artistic vantage point and draws on her affinity for independent film when considering a part.
She had seen Hitchcock's Psycho years earlier - "I had done a whole comprehensive Hitchcock about a decade ago," she says - but Norma Bates didn't leave much of an impression.
Then she read the first three scripts of Bates Motel, and she saw a different side to the part. The more she immersed herself in the pages, the more she realized this was a role she was meant to play.
Bates Motel, conceived by Lost co-writer and producer Carlton Cuse and Friday Night Lights' Kerry Ehrin, is a dark and moody, postmodern, updated-to-present-day psychological thriller, more in the vein of David Lynch and Twin Peaks than a typical TV clinker.
It was filmed earlier this year in Aldergrove, B.C., filling in for moody, small-town middle America.
Bates Motel was inspired by, rather than adapted from, the Hitchcock classic.
It's written as a contemporary examination of Norman Bates' formative years, his relationship with his mother, and the emotional world they navigate, inside and outside the motel and hilltop house where they've lived since Norma Bates' husband died.
Norman is played in the series by 21-year-old U.K. actor Freddie Highmore, who counts Finding Neverland, The Golden Compass and The Spider-wick Chronicles among his film roles.
"It isn't even necessarily Hitchcockian," Farmiga explained in Los Angeles earlier this year, during a break from filming in Vancouver.
"Yes, she's a cool blond that at the outset, appears very lovely but acts in a very animalistic way when she encounters danger. That's Norma. For me, though, she was drawn more from Ibsen and Chekhov. She really was. I can equate her more to those kinds of heroines than Hitchcock. I didn't think of Hitchcock's Norma Bates and what that would mean to an audience."
The postdated, modern-day setting and Bates Motel's different rhythms and emotional beats make it seem unique and distinctive, Farmiga suggested, rather than a conventional remake of a time-honoured classic.
"We have a lot of bounce with this springboard to be inventive," Farmiga said, "because we know nothing about her."
Bates Motel takes a page from film noir, Farmiga added, as reflected in the first episode's title, First You Dream, Then You Die. People have desires and dreams. Occasionally they do bad things in pursuit of those dreams, and there can be terrible consequences as a result.
"I went into this wanting to defend who this woman is," Farmiga said. "In the early episodes I read, she was, to me, such a beautiful portrait of valiant maternity. I saw the challenge therein. To me, the story is a beautiful love letter between a mother and her son. That's how I perceive the character.
"To me, it's like the Edvard Munch painting of the Madonna. It's really warped and it kind of exudes the sacred and the profane. It's just psychologically gripping. And that's what I was drawn to with Norma.
She's a playground for an actress.
"The character's riddled with contradiction. She's as strong and tall as an oak, and as fragile as a butterfly, and everything in between that I admire in female characters I come across - resilience and passion and intellect. And, at the same time, she's an absolute train wreck.
"Bad things happen to her, but in her perseverance there's a lot of strength."
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