Sunday, June 30, 2013

Crowds march in Egypt, pushing for Morsi removal

An Egyptian protester waves a national flag as Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square during a demonstration against President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

An Egyptian protester waves a national flag as Egyptians gather in Tahrir Square during a demonstration against President Mohammed Morsi in Cairo, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi protest outside the presidential palace in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Supporters of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi hold sticks and shields as they rally in Nasser City, Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.(AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Graffiti, including a caricature of President Mohammed Morsi, left and ousted President Hosni Munarak, is painted on the wall of a building across from the Ministry of Culture in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him. The red Arabic words below the face drawing reads, "Whoever cost it didn't die." The Arabic next to the face drawing reads, "Down with the rule of sheep." The red and white Arabic reads, "The revolution is everywhere against the killer and the traitor." (AP Photo/Hiro Komae)

Opponents of Egypt's Islamist President Mohammed Morsi protest outside the presidential palace, in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, June 30, 2013. Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured out onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

(AP) ? Hundreds of thousands of opponents of Egypt's Islamist president poured onto the streets in Cairo and across much of the nation Sunday, launching an all-out push to force Mohammed Morsi from office on the one-year anniversary of his inauguration. Fears of violence were high, with Morsi's Islamist supporters vowing to defend him.

Nationwide, the rallies were among the most gigantic Egypt has seen in nearly 2 ? years of continuous upheaval, including during the square-packing, 18-day uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

Waving Egyptian flags and carrying posters of Morsi crossed out in red, crowds packed central Cairo's Tahrir square, the birthplace of anti-Mubarak, thunderous chants of "erhal!", or "leave!" rang out.

At the same time, a tidal wave of crowds marched on the Ittihadiya presidential palace, filling a broad boulevard for blocks and spilling over into nearby avenues. "You lied to us in the name of religion," some chanted, and others raised a banner proclaiming, "Morsi=Mubarak. Early presidential elections." The crowds hoisted long banners in the colors of the Egyptian flag and raised red cards ? a sign of expulsion in soccer.

Near Ittihadiya palace, thousands of Islamists gathered in a show of support for Morsi outside the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque. Some Morsi backers wore homemade body armor and construction helmets and carried shields and clubs ? precautions, they said, against possible violence. Their crowd also swelled as sun went down and summer temperatures became more tolerable.

Up until nightfall, violence was limited to a few pockets in the provinces as the two sides largely stayed apart. The anti-Morsi protests had a festive, celebratory atmosphere, with many families with young children among the crowds of men, women and elderly.

In a potentially volatile confrontation after nightfall, however, several dozen youths attacked the headquarters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood on a plateau overlooking the capital. They threw stones and firebombs at the building, and people inside the walled villa fired at the attackers with birdshot, according to an Associated Press Television News cameraman at the scene. Earlier in the day, two offices belonging to the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, were attacked and ransacked in the city of Bani Suef, south of Cairo.

The opposition's goal is to show through sheer numbers in the street that so much of the country has turned against Morsi, the country's first freely elected president, that he can no longer rule. Similarly sized crowds turned out in the Mediterranean city of Alexandria and the Nile Delta cities of Mansoura, Tanta and Damanhour, with sizeable rallies in cities nationwide.

"Mubarak took only 18 days although he had behind him the security, intelligence and a large sector of Egyptians. Morsi got all of us against him, even the army and police," said Amr Tawfeeq, an oil company employee marching toward Ittihadiya with a Christian friend. "He won't take long. We want him out and we are ready to pay the price."

Morsi, who has three years left in his term, has said he will not step down, saying street protests cannot be used to overturn the results of a free election.

"There is no room for any talk against this constitutional legitimacy," he told Britain's The Guardian newspaper in an interview published Sunday, rejecting early elections.

If an elected president is forced out, "well, there will (be) people or opponents opposing the new president too, and a week or a month later, they will ask him to step down," he said.

As the crowds massed, Morsi's spokesman repeated the president's longstanding offer of dialogue with the opposition to resolve the nation's political crisis, calling it "the only framework through which we can reach understandings."

"I cannot imagine any substitute for dialogue," said the spokesman Ihab Fahmi. The opposition has repeatedly turned down his offers for dialogue, arguing that they were for show.

There is a sense among opponents and supporters of Morsi that Sunday is a make-or-break day, hiking worries that the two camps will come to blows, even as each side insists it won't start violence. Already at least seven people, including an American, have been killed in clashes the past week, mainly in Nile Delta cities and the coastal city of Alexandria.

The confrontation is the culmination of polarization and instability that have been building since Morsi's June 30, 2012 inauguration as Egypt's first freely elected leader. The past year has seen multiple political crises, bouts of bloody clashes and a steadily worsening economy, with power outages, fuel shortages, rising prices and persistent lawlessness and crime.

In one camp are the president and his Islamist allies, including the Muslim Brotherhood and more hard-line groups. Morsi supporters accuse Mubarak loyalists of being behind the protests, aiming to overturn last year's election results, just as they argue that remnants of the old regime have sabotaged Morsi's attempts to deal with the nation's woes and bring reforms.

Hard-liners among them have also given the confrontation a sharply religious tone, denouncing Morsi's opponents as "enemies of God" and infidels.

On the other side is an array of secular and liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, Christians ? and what the opposition says is a broad sector of the general public that has turned against the Islamists. They say the Islamists have negated their election mandate by trying to monopolize power, infusing government with their supporters, forcing through a constitution they largely wrote and giving religious extremists a free hand, all while failing to manage the country.

With protesters from a range of social and economic levels in a festive atmosphere, the crowds resembled those from the 18 days of protests against Mubarak ? a resemblance the protesters sought to reinforce, chanting the slogan from that time: "The people want to topple the regime."

In Cairo, some marchers carried tents, planning to camp in Tahrir or outside the palace. Residents of nearby buildings sprinkled water down on the marchers to cool them in the punishing summer heat and waved flags and blew whistles in support.

"The country is only going backward (under Morsi). He's embarrassing us and making people hate Islam," said Donia Rashad, a 24-year-old unemployed woman who wears the conservative Islamic headscarf. "We need someone who can feel the people and is agreeable to the majority," added Rashad, who wore a tiny tiara in the letters of "erhal."

"Today is the Brotherhood's last day in power," said Suliman Mohammed, a manager of a seafood company who was protesting at Tahrir, where crowds appeared to approach 300,000 after nightfall.

"I came here today because Morsi did not accomplish any of the (2011) revolution's goals. I don't need anything for myself, but the needs of the poor were not met."

At the pro-Morsi rally at the Rabia al-Adawiya Mosque, the crowd chanted, "God is great," and some held up copies of Islam's holy book, the Quran.

"The people hold the legitimacy and we support Dr. Mohamed Morsi," Ahmed Ramadan, one of those at the rally said. "We would like to tell him not to be affected by the opponents' protests and not to give up his rights we are here to support and protect him."

Underlining the potential for deadly violence, a flurry of police reports on Sunday spoke of the seizure of firearms, explosives and even artillery shells in various locations of the country, including Alexandria and the outskirts of Cairo. Banks closed early and most government offices shut down on Sunday, a work day in Egypt.

The opposition protests emerge from a petition campaign by a youth activist group known as Tamarod, Arabic for "Rebel." For several months, the group has been collecting signatures on a call for Morsi to step down.

On Saturday the group announced it had more than 22 million signatures ? proof, it claims, that a broad sector of the public no longer wants Morsi in office.

It was not possible to verify the claim. If true, it would be nearly twice the around 13 million people who voted for Morsi in last year's presidential run-off election, which he won with around 52 percent of the vote. Tamarod organizers said they discarded about 100,000 signed forms because they were duplicates.

Morsi's supporters have questioned the authenticity and validity of the signatures, but have produced no evidence of fraud.

Adding to his troubles, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists.

A legal adviser to Morsi also announced his resignation late Saturday in protest of what he said was Morsi's insult of judges in his latest speech on Wednesday.

A week ago, with the public sense of worry growing over the upcoming confrontation, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last week gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise. He warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel."

Army troops backed by armored vehicles were deployed Sunday in some of Cairo's suburbs, with soldiers, some in combat gear, stood at traffic lights and major intersections. Army helicopters flew over Cairo on several occasions on Sunday, adding to the day's sense of foreboding. The aircraft were loudly cheered every time they flew over Tahrir.

Morsi had called for national reconciliation talks in a Wednesday speech but offered no specifics. Opposition leaders dismissed the call as cosmetics.

Asked by The Guardian whether he was confident that the army would not intervene if the country becomes ungovernable, Morsi replied, "Very."

The Egyptian leader, however, said he did not know in advance of el-Sissi's comments last week.

____

AP reporters Tony G. Gabriel and Mariam Rizk contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-30-Egypt/id-94b127d3ff9f440da62e0293fde1f1eb

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Saturday, June 29, 2013

All-Cash Offers: Healthy for Real Estate Market, or a Hindrance ...

stacks of dollarsBy Kate Rogers

With many pointing to the housing market as the backbone of the economic recovery, investors are flooding the market with all-cash offers and it's squeezing out many traditional homebuyers.

"People are worried about the returns on alternative investments," says Karen Dynan, vice president and co-director of economic studies at the Brookings Institute. "There is still a lot of uncertainty about bonds and the stock market, which makes the housing market look good."

According to the National Association of Realtors May 2013 Confidence Report, all-cash offers account for 33 percent of home sales, with international buyers taking the lead. In addition, 87 percent of surveyed Realtors say they are expiring constant or increasing home prices. Homebuyers, particularly first-time homebuyers, are already battling low inventory and rising home prices, but the added pressure from investors creates stiff competition.

William Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird Research & Insights, says cash buys are being bolstered by investor pools snapping up real estate, and less so by individuals looking to live in the home. "These are investment pools paying cash for houses to hopefully get returns," he says. "It's not necessarily a trend among individual homeowners because most people going to buy houses don't have that kind of cash sitting around."

And for sellers, an all-cash deal is ideal since is cuts down on complications, says Patrick Newport, U.S. economist at IHS Global Insights. "If you own a home and are selling yourself, it's probably easier if someone pays you cash -- it cuts out the messiness and having the homebuyer get approved for a loan." Typical cash buyers are either young people who come into a lot of cash, or international investors, he says.

Cash buys signal a housing market that people are more willing to invest in, says Delwiche, but the market's attractiveness may also be due to a lack of other solid investment options. "The housing market is recovering, but people are also looking to diversify their portfolios," he says. "They don't' want to put it all in stocks and bonds."

It's a sign that people are under the impression the market is turning around, says Dynan, which may be a self-fulfilling prophecy if enough investors follow. "A lot of those cash investors are looking for a return," she says. "If a lot of people think home prices will rise, they will put money into the market, and that increases demand and pushes up prices."

The cash-buying trend also gives the overall economy a short-term boost, according to Delwiche.
"This helps to bid up asset values for houses, and is good for homeowners who already own houses," he says. "There is also a benefit to state and local government finances because of the taxes associated with these purchases."

Dynan says the trend will reinforce the momentum in the housing market, but will impact hopeful first-time homeowners negatively in the future. "It just makes the housing market less affordable," she says. "It's good for the overall economy, but not for every person in the economy."

Delwiche agrees, and says it may prevent more people from getting into the market in the future.
"Home prices go up and it affects housing affordability," Delwiche says. "You can't have first-time homeowners who are seeds for long-term growth, because they are then crowded out of the market. So short term it's something of a positive, but is a headwind for first-time homeowners."

Delwiche says he'd be surprised to see the trend continue, as well. "It's just a reflection of poor alternatives for investment dollars," he says.

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Source: http://realestate.aol.com/blog/2013/06/28/all-cash-offers-healthy-for-real-estate-market-or-a-hindrance/

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Friday, June 28, 2013

Buying games set to be a more expensive affair in India

Your wait to get a copy of the soon to be released videogames could soon prove to be a costly affair. Just as global videogame prices have shot up, India will also feel the pinch.

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MCV India reports that all the games, which will be released after September, would be sold at a higher price than their predecessors. Chris Gatherer, Regional Director for EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) markets, EA said, ?We will be launching our pre-orders on Origin soon and I can confirm the pricing will be comparative to global market pricing.? The list of game that will be affected by the price hike includes upcoming popular titles such as FIFA 14, Battlefield 4, Call of Duty: Ghosts and Watch Dogs. Console versions of the games will now be sold for around $59.99 (Rs 3,570), the current global price, while the PC version of the same can be bought for Rs 1,499.

Watch Dogs to get dearer

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Though it is still unknown if these new prices will be restricted to Origin games alone or if they will also be applicable to the boxed releases in the country, one gets a sense that the rising dollar prices in comparison to the rupee will only add to the eventual price. This could also be one way for publishers to shift the selling strategy for PC games from boxed releases to digital distribution. Gamers could eventually choose the convenience of digitally-distributed games at a similar or the same price as boxed sets.

Online retailer Flipkart has already made changes in the pricing of many of the upcoming games, which include games like Watch Dogs, Battlefield 4 and Call of Duty: Ghosts. The pre-order price for the PC version of Watch Dogs is Rs 1,499, while Call of Duty: Ghosts is priced at Rs 3,499. The Xbox 360 and the PS3 version of Ghosts is priced at Rs 4,099.

Source: http://tech2.in.com/news/gaming/buying-games-set-to-be-a-more-expensive-affair-in-india/897870

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U.N. chemical weapons team in Turkey to investigate Syria claims

By Anthony Deutsch and Parisa Hafezi

AMSTERDAM/ANKARA (Reuters) - U.N.-appointed inspectors, blocked from entering Syria, are in Turkey to gather information about possible use of chemical weapons in the civil war, officials said on Thursday.

The Syrian government and rebels fighting it have accused each other of using lethal chemical agents, including sarin gas, in the two-year-old conflict in which the death toll is estimated at more than 100,000.

The United States and its European allies have concluded that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, which Washington called a "red line" that justified providing military aid to the rebels.

Members of the team assembled by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had been on standby in Cyprus since April, unable to enter Syria as Western governments accused President Bashar al-Assad's forces of chemical weapons attacks.

The team went to Turkey this week and its head, Swedish scientist Ake Sellstrom, met Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Thursday, a senior Turkish official told Reuters.

Sellstrom is expected to deliver an interim report in July, which U.N. diplomats said may just be oral and is expected to be inconclusive since it is impossible for him to make definite pronouncements about the chain of custody of the samples he has received from Britain, France and the United States.

One senior Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Britain and the United States alone have notified U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of 10 separate incidents of the use of chemical weapons by Assad's forces.

The diplomat also said Sellstrom would be visiting Berlin soon to discuss his investigation.

FRUSTRATED

More than 100,000 people have been killed since fighting began in March 2011 in what is the longest and most violent of the recent Arab uprisings, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Western governments have grown frustrated that the U.N. mission has been unable to make progress on investigating the chemical weapons claims, a diplomat told Reuters.

From Turkey, the team will be unable to gather soil samples or scientific evidence needed to prove chemical use, but could compile intelligence and interviews or take blood samples from witnesses or victims of alleged attacks.

"As he cannot travel to Syria, Sellstrom visits countries like Turkey, France and Britain that have some information about possible use of chemical weapons in Syria," said the Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Sellstrom visited the Turkey-Syria border area and talked to officials who shared data on chemical weapons use, the official said.

Syria is one of seven countries that has not joined the 1997 convention banning chemical weapons. Western countries believe it has stockpiles of undeclared mustard gas, sarin and VX nerve agents.

Assad's government says accusations by the United States, Britain and France that it used chemical weapons are an attempt to justify foreign military intervention.

(Additional reporting by Lou Charbonneau in New York; Editing by Peter Graff)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-chemical-weapons-team-turkey-investigate-syria-154003201.html

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Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Monsanto fiscal 3Q profit slips 3 percent

Monsanto says its fiscal third quarter net income slipped 3 percent, as hits to the agricultural product company's cotton and soybean seed segments restrained revenue growth.

The St. Louis company says it earned $909 million, or $1.68 per share, in the quarter ended May 31. That's down from $937 million, or $1.74 per share, last year. Revenue inched up less than 1 percent to $4.25 billion.

Monsanto says it earned $1.66 per share, not counting a tax matter resolution.

Analysts expected earnings of $1.61 per share on $4.41 billion in revenue.

Monsanto Co. makes seeds for crops like corn, soybean, cotton and wheat and crop protection chemicals like the herbicide Roundup. The agricultural giant produces genetically engineered seeds used by farmers for their pest resistance and ability to produce bigger crops.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-06-26-US-Earns-Monsanto/id-522def9ad2ad4a8f9bc74ca2681baf4c

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Strange bedfellows: Two creatures shared ancient burrow

ESRF / V. Fernandez

Scanning revealed an amphibian, which was suffering from broken ribs, crawled into a sleeping mammal's shelter for protection some 250 million years ago.

By Megan Gannon
LiveScience

Scientists have discovered a burrow in South Africa where two unlikely creatures shared a home before being entombed by a flash flood 250 million years ago.

The strange bedfellows were a beat-up young amphibian seeking shelter and a sleeping cynodont, considered a distant ancestor of mammals, researchers say.

The burrow was unearthed from what is today South Africa's Karoo Basin, which would have been part of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana?at the start of the Triassic Period. Using high-energy X-rays from the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in France, scientists were able to see through the lair and look at its contents without destroying it. [Wipe Out: History's Most Mysterious Extinctions]

The scans first revealed the skull of a mammal-like reptile?called Thrinaxodon. As the X-ray progressed, scientists realized the animal was sharing its grave with an amphibian dubbed Broomistega.

"While discovering the results we were amazed by the quality of the images, but the real excitement came when we discovered a second set of teeth completely different from that of the mammal-like reptile," study researcher Vincent Fernandez of Wits University, South Africa, said in a statement. "It was really something else."

ESRF / V. Fernandez

Using synchrotron imaging, scientists discovered an ancient "odd couple," shown here, with a mammal forerunner nestled with a primary aquatic amphibian in the burrow.

The world these animals lived in was still recovering from the mass extinction at the end of the Permian era that wiped out most of life on Earth. It was a time marked by pronounced climatic warming and monsoons. To survive this hostile environment, many animals, including the ancestors of modern mammals, learned how to dig out burrows to take shelter, researchers say.

Thrinaxodon not only adapted a burrowing behavior but also went into periods of dormancy, called aestivation, which helped it survive, researchers say. Many fossils of the species have been found in a curled-up position.

"This state of torpor explains why the amphibian was not chased out of the burrow," Bruce Rubidge, another Wits University researcher, said in a statement.

As for the amphibian, the scans revealed it was a juvenile with several broken ribs that showed signs of healing, suggesting it had survived for some time after receiving a crippling injury. This animal was mostly aquatic and had no burrowing abilities of its own. Researchers think that in its handicapped state, the amphibian gingerly crawled into the burrow seeking protection without disturbing the dormant Thrinaxodon inside.

The researchers eliminated the possibility that the animals were in a predator-prey tussle at the time of death since there were no tooth-marks on the bones. The scientists also don't think it's likely that these two species would have cohabitated under normal circumstances.

"Burrow-sharing by different species exists in the modern world, but it corresponds to a specific pattern," Fernandez explained in a statement. "For example, a small visitor is not going to disturb the host. A large visitor can be accepted by the host if it provides some help, like predator vigilance. But neither of these patterns corresponds to what we have discovered in this fossilized burrow."

The peaceful coexistence of these two animals ended when a sudden flood?rushed into the burrow, likely burying the creatures alive and preserving them together in the sediments for 250 million years. The small diameter of the tunnel also rules out the possibility that the Broomistega was randomly washed into the mammal-like reptile's lair when the flood hit, the researchers say.

The research was detailed online Friday in the journal PLOS ONE.

Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebookand Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com.

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/2dc6bc74/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A60C250C191342510Estrange0Ebedfellows0Etwo0Ecreatures0Eshared0Eancient0Eburrow0Dlite/story01.htm

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Twitch Android app updated with persistent login, followed channels

DNP Twitch Android app update adds followed channel viewing, still no search or chat

An update for the Twitch.tv app on Android is finally letting users log into their accounts, providing easier access to their personal favorites out of the top 300 live streaming channels. Features still not accounted for include search and chat, however Community Manager Jared Rea mentions they're in the works. According to Rea, development of its Android app -- until three months ago it had gone a year without being updated -- received "yet another incentive" with the launch of the Ouya gaming console. Hit the links below for the new app, info on its development and the top-300 channel restriction that applies whether you're watching on a console or handheld device.

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Source: Google Play, Twitch.tv: The Official Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/26/twitch-android-app-update/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Possible Moto X prototype sighted once again, Sprint release rumored

Moto X

Motorola 'XT1056' said to be in testing on Sprint, appears to be running vanilla Android

While Motorola has officially acknowledged that the "Moto X" will be its next flagship device, we've yet to hear much in the way of official details from the manufacturer — and in the absence of any hard information, the rumors and leaks continue to flow. Today brings a fresh image of what might well be the front face of the device, sent to PhoneArena by an anonymous source. The phone appears to match the device sighted in Vietnam a few months back, and more recently in an AT&T-centric leak, hiding behind a dummy case.

read more

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/EciCamemNk4/story01.htm

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Brain cancer: Hunger for amino acids makes it more aggressive

June 24, 2013 ? An enzyme that facilitates the breakdown of specific amino acids makes brain cancers particularly aggressive. Scientists have discovered this in an attempt to find new targets for therapies against this dangerous disease.

To fuel phases of fast and aggressive growth, tumors need higher-than-normal amounts of energy and the molecular building blocks needed to build new cellular components. Cancer cells therefore consume a lot of sugar (glucose A number of tumors are also able to catabolize the amino acid glutamine, an important building block of proteins. A key enzyme in amino acid decomposition is isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH). Several years ago, scientists discovered mutations in the gene coding for IDH in numerous types of brain cancer. Very malignant brain tumors called primary glioblastomas carry an intact IDH gene, whereas those that grow more slowly usually have a defective form.

"The study of the IDH gene currently is one of the most important diagnostic criteria for differentiating glioblastomas from other brain cancers that grow more slowly," says Dr. Bernhard Radlwimmer from the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ). "We wanted to find out what spurs the aggressive growth of glioblastomas." In collaboration with scientists from other institutes including Heidelberg University Hospital, Dr. Martje T?njes and Dr. Sebastian Barbus from Radlwimmer's team compared gene activity profiles from several hundred brain tumors. They aimed to find out whether either altered or intact IDH show further, specific genetic characteristics that might help explain the aggressiveness of the disease.

The researchers found a significant difference between the two groups in the highly increased activity of the gene for the BCAT1 enzyme, which in normal brain tissue is responsible for breaking down so-called branched-chain amino acids. However, Radlwimmer's team discovered, only those tumor cells whose IDH gene is not mutated produce BCAT1. "This is not surprising, because as IDH breaks down amino acids, it produces ketoglutarate -- a molecule which BCAT1 needs. This explains why BCAT1 is produced only in tumor cells carrying intact IDH. The two enzymes seem to form a kind of functional unit in amino acid catabolism," says Bernhard Radlwimmer.

Glioblastomas are particularly dreaded because they aggressively invade the healthy brain tissue that surrounds them. When the researchers used a pharmacological substance to block BCAT1's effects, the tumor cells lost their invasive capacity. In addition, the cells released less of the glutamate neurotransmitter. High glutamate release is responsible for severe neurological symptoms such as epileptic seizures, which are frequently associated with the disease. When transferred to mice, glioblastoma cells in which the BCAT1 gene had been blocked no longer grew into tumors.

"Altogether, we can see that overexpression of BCAT1 contributes to the aggressiveness of glioblastoma cells," Radlwimmer says. The study suggests that the two enzymes, BCAT1 and IDH, cooperate in the decomposition of branched-chain amino acids. These protein building blocks appear to act as a "food source" that increases the cancer cells' aggressiveness. Branched-chain amino acids also play a significant role in metabolic diseases such as diabetes. This is the first time that scientists have been able to show the role of these amino acids in the growth of malignant tumors.

"The good news," sums up Radlwimmer, "is that we have found another target for therapies in BCAT1. In collaboration with Bayer Healthcare, we have already started searching for agents that might be specifically directed against this enzyme." The researchers also plan to investigate whether BCAT1 expression may serve as an additional marker to diagnose the malignancy of brain cancer.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/XtS28wdqu44/130624132800.htm

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A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

The seven-year-old Emma M?rsk can carry more cargo than a 41-mile-long train and has a turning radius of almost a mile. Even compared to oil tankers, she?s more like a city than a boat?albeit a city that few people ever get to explore. But in 2010, a young photographer named Jakob Wagner became one of the rare civilian passengers to board Emma.

Wagner was working as a photo assistant at the time, and an assignment brought him aboard the ship, which operates on a regular route from Denmark to Asia, travelling through the the Strait of Gibraltar and the Suez Canal along the way. ?Through my work, sometimes I get the chance to visit places that are refused to outsiders,? he explains, describing the trip as ?a really impressive journey.?

Wagner only experienced a small piece of Emma?s cross-global route, but the photos he captured along the way are no less remarkable: They show the process of loading Emma in Rotterdam, leaving port, and making the journey to Felixstowe, about 100 miles across the English Channel. Wagner seems to have had right of passage around the ship, and ended capturing amazing details, including the lights of commercial airplanes overhead and the captain, lounging in a sandals-and-socks combo atop Emma?s massive navigation deck.

It might just be the long-exposures, but there?s a definite sense that time moves more slowly aboard a vessel this large. Check out more of Wagner?s work on his website.

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

A Photographer's Rare Trip Aboard One of the World's Largest Ships

Source: http://gizmodo.com/a-photographers-rare-trip-aboard-one-of-the-worlds-la-571482399

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High court voids key part of Voting Rights Act

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a key provision of the landmark Voting Rights Act cannot be enforced unless Congress comes up with an up-to-date formula for deciding which states and localities still need federal monitoring.

The justices said in 5-4 vote that the law Congress most recently renewed in 2006 relies on 40-year-old data that does not reflect racial progress and changes in U.S. society.

The court did not strike down the advance approval requirement of the law that has been used, mainly in the South, to open up polling places to minority voters in the nearly half century since it was first enacted in 1965. But the justices did say lawmakers must update the formula for determining which parts of the country must seek Washington's approval, in advance, for election changes.

Chief Justice John Roberts said for the conservative majority that Congress "may draft another formula based on current conditions."

That task eluded Congress in 2006 when lawmakers overwhelmingly renewed the advance approval requirement with no changes in which states and local jurisdictions were covered, and Congress did nothing in response to a high court ruling in a similar challenge in 2009 in which the justices raised many of the same concerns.

"The coverage formula that Congress reauthorized in 2006 ignores these developments, keeping the focus on decades-old data relevant to decades-old problems, rather than current data reflecting current needs," Roberts said.

The decision means that a host of state and local laws that have not received Justice Department approval or have not yet been submitted will be able to take effect. Prominent among those are voter identification laws in Alabama and Mississippi.

Going forward, the outcome alters the calculus of passing election-related legislation in the affected states and local jurisdictions. The threat of an objection from Washington has hung over election-related proposals for nearly a half century. At least until Congress acts, that deterrent now is gone.

That prospect has worried civil rights groups which especially worry that changes on the local level might not get the same scrutiny as the actions of state legislatures.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, joined by her three liberal colleagues, dissented from Tuesday's ruling.

Ginsburg said no one doubts that voting discrimination still exists. "But the court today terminates the remedy that proved to be best suited to block that discrimination," she said in a dissent that she read aloud in the packed courtroom.

Ginsburg said the law continues to be necessary to protect against what she called subtler, "second-generation" barriers to voting. She identified one such effort as the switch to at-large voting from a district-by-district approach in a city with a sizable black minority. The at-large system allows the majority to "control the election of each city council member, effectively eliminating the potency of the minority's votes," she said.

Justice Clarence Thomas was part of the majority, but wrote separately to say again that he would have struck down the advance approval requirement itself.

Civil rights lawyers condemned the ruling.

"The Supreme Court has effectively gutted one of the nation's most important and effective civil rights laws. Minority voters in places with a record of discrimination are now at greater risk of being disenfranchised than they have been in decades. Today's decision is a blow to democracy. Jurisdictions will be able to enact policies which prevent minorities from voting, and the only recourse these citizens will have will be expensive and time-consuming litigation," said Jon Greenbaum, chief counsel for the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. The group represented a black resident of the Alabama County that challenged the law.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said, "This is like letting you keep your car, but taking away the keys."

The decision comes five months after President Barack Obama, the nation's first black chief executive, started his second term in the White House, re-elected by a diverse coalition of voters.

The high court is in the midst of a broad re-examination of the ongoing necessity of laws and programs aimed at giving racial minorities access to major areas of American life from which they once were systematically excluded. The justices issued a modest ruling Monday that preserved affirmative action in higher education and will take on cases dealing with anti-discrimination sections of a federal housing law and another affirmative action case from Michigan next term.

The court warned of problems with the voting rights law in a similar case heard in 2009. The justices averted a major constitutional ruling at that time, but Congress did nothing to address the issues the court raised. The law's opponents, sensing its vulnerability, filed several new lawsuits.

The latest decision came in a challenge to the advance approval, or preclearance, requirement, which was brought by Shelby County, Ala., a Birmingham suburb.

The lawsuit acknowledged that the measure's strong medicine was appropriate and necessary to counteract decades of state-sponsored discrimination in voting, despite the Fifteenth Amendment's guarantee of the vote for black Americans.

But it asked whether there was any end in sight for a provision that intrudes on states' rights to conduct elections, an issue the court's conservative justices also explored at the argument in February. It was considered an emergency response when first enacted in 1965.

The county noted that the 25-year extension approved in 2006 would keep some places under Washington's oversight until 2031 and seemed not to account for changes that include the elimination of racial disparity in voter registration and turnout or the existence of allegations of race-based discrimination in voting in areas of the country that are not subject to the provision.

The Obama administration and civil rights groups said there is a continuing need for it and pointed to the Justice Department's efforts to block voter ID laws in South Carolina and Texas last year, as well as a redistricting plan in Texas that a federal court found discriminated against the state's large and growing Hispanic population.

Advance approval was put into the law to give federal officials a potent tool to defeat persistent efforts to keep blacks from voting.

The provision was a huge success because it shifted the legal burden and required governments that were covered to demonstrate that their proposed changes would not discriminate. Congress periodically has renewed it over the years. The most recent extension was overwhelmingly approved by a Republican-led Congress and signed by President George W. Bush.

The requirement currently applies to the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It also covers certain counties in California, Florida, New York, North Carolina and South Dakota, and some local jurisdictions in Michigan. Coverage has been triggered by past discrimination not only against blacks, but also against American Indians, Asian-Americans, Alaska Natives and Hispanics.

Towns in New Hampshire that had been covered by the law were freed from the advance approval requirement in March. Supporters of the provision pointed to the ability to bail out of the prior approval provision to argue that the law was flexible enough to accommodate change and that the court should leave the Voting Rights Act intact.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced an agreement that would allow Hanover County, Va., to bail out.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-voids-key-part-voting-rights-act-141637132.html

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Bing's making a play for schools with a new ad-free version of search.

Bing's making a play for schools with a new ad-free version of search. And in addition to wiping the ads, Bing for Schools will also boast enhanced privacy protection, explicit content filtering by default, and other features to "promote digital literacy." Not a bad idea!

Source: http://gizmodo.com/bings-making-a-play-for-schools-with-a-new-ad-free-vers-558712818

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Miley Cyrus Praises Disney Channel for "Inspiring" Introduction of Gay Characters

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/miley-cyrus-praises-disney-channel-for-inspiring-introduction-of/

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Monday, June 24, 2013

Kerry urges climate change action on eve of India talks

By Lesley Wroughton

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged fast-growing India to work with Washington to tackle climate change and develop green technologies, on the eve of talks on trade and regional security.

Emerging economies like India have resisted pressure in global climate talks to commit to targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a dispute with rich nations over whose industries should bear the brunt of the cuts.

But Kerry, on a seven-nation tour in the Middle East and Asia, said on Sunday failing to act would undermine growth and hurt the poorest the most.

The day before he was due to take part in the fourth annual US-India Strategic Dialogue in New Delhi, he urged India to work with the United States to negotiate a global treaty on curbing global warming.

"We should work constructively side-by-side in the UN climate negotiations. I am convinced we can move toward a global agreement ... that is sensitive to and respectful of the diversity of national circumstances," he said in a speech.

"The health of our planet and the irreversible climate challenge speeding toward us, crying out for a global solution, is the place to begin this conversation," Kerry added.

Cooperation on developing clean technologies would also spur economic growth and create jobs, he added.

"As we look forward, India and the United States, with our traditions of innovation and technology, are particularly well-positioned and ready to roll up our sleeves and take advantage of this opportunity," he said.

"If we do this right, it won't hurt our economies - it will grow them," he said, noting that new energy markets were worth $6 trillion.

Over the years, the United States and India have expanded cooperation on clean energy through the US-India Partnership to Advance Clean Energy, or PACE, mobilizing more than $1.7 billion to finance clean energy initiatives.

Kerry's talks with India's Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other leaders on Monday are expected to focus on increasing opportunities for business and trade.

In recent weeks, U.S. business groups have increased their calls for the Obama administration to press India to change policies they say threaten American exports, jobs and innovation.

In a letter to U.S. President Barack Obama earlier this month, U.S. lawmakers said Indian policymakers and courts had taken a series of actions designed to block imports by forcing local production of a wide range of manufactured goods.

Monday's talks will also hone in on regional security issues, including the drawdown of NATO troops and an election in Afghanistan next year together with political transitions in Pakistan and Iran.

(Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Andrew Heavens)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-urges-action-climate-change-eve-india-talks-203759805.html

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Boston Bruins black-and-blue hockey not enough in this Stanley Cup final

The Boston Bruins hit everything in sight in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup final, but the Chicago Blackhawks skated circles around them, winning 3-1.

By Mark Sappenfield,?Staff writer / June 23, 2013

Boston Bruins center Chris Kelly (23) trips over Chicago Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford (50) who blocked his shot in the first period during Game 5 of the NHL hockey Stanley Cup final Saturday in Chicago.

Bruce Bennett/AP

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For nearly six weeks, the Toronto Maple Leafs were just a memory.

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How had that band of young upstarts, in the playoffs for the first time since 2004, come within 52 seconds of eliminating the Big Bad Boston Bruins? For weeks after, those frantic moments when the Bruins scrambled back to win Game 7 after being down 4-1 with 11 minutes left seemed merely a first-round hiccup.

The Bruins, after all, had found their stride since. They had roughed up the New York Rangers and then, with delicious impudence, sent the prima donnas of Pittsburgh packing in four games.

Even in the first four games of the Stanley Cup final, the Bruins seemed on even keel, playing the Chicago Blackhawks into overtime in three of them and managing to take two of the four. ?

Then the Blackhawks came out for Game 5 as though coach Joel Quenneville had brandished a cattle prod in the pregame speech, and something shifted. The Blackhawks, who are quite well equipped to match the Bruins' wrecking-ball style of hockey, found a new gear ? almost as though they had forgotten they had it ? and the Bruins could do nothing about it.

For a moment, it looked like the Maple Leafs all over again.

There can be something mesmerizing about Bruins hockey. For a sport played mostly by big, angry boys with sticks, it can be a default mode. The crowd loves it. North American players have been raised in the Cult of Don Cherry to believe this is "real hockey." You hit me, I'll hit you. And again. And again. It is the endlessly repeating integer of Boston's Stanley Cup equation.

In truth, the real genius of Boston hockey is that it is about making opponents pay an enormous price for every goal. Often, that price is physical. Sometimes, it is mental. The Penguins, for instance, must have wondered when they were ever going to score.

But at its core, Boston hockey is mostly about fundamental hockey.

We will dump the puck into your zone to keep it away from our goal. We will forecheck ferociously to make it as hard as possible to get the puck out of your own zone. We will build a defensive wall around our goaltender. And then, in those rare times when everything breaks down, our spectacular goaltender will stop you.

In Bruins hockey, goals are like the planets aligning ? they come only rarely and usually only with a symphonic coincidence of fortuitous circumstances. In Bruins hockey, a team with no clear superstar can become far more than the sum of its parts.

So the Bruins won the Stanley Cup in 2011. So they are in the Stanley Cup final this year.

Yet in the Blackhawks, the Bruins have met a team that can play "Bruins hockey" ? fundamentally sound, physically taxing, emotionally draining ? yet is more talented than they are. The result, as became clear Saturday, is that no matter how long the two teams play, the Blackhawks will always create more and more dangerous scoring chances when they are at their best.

The Maple Leafs are not as talented as the Blackhawks. But they are young and fast. At times against the Maple Leafs, the Bruins played as though someone had pulled the fire alarm.

Though not as pronounced Saturday, the same impression was inescapable. For all their gristle and hustle, the Bruins could not cope with the Blackhawks' skating.

After spending much of the series flitting about on the edges of the action, Blackhawk Patrick Kane has figured out that it is not his muscle but his movement that is needed. He scored two goals Saturday by ceaselessly seeking the empty patches of ice near the goal that open and close with the speed of a camera shutter.?

There's never been much of a doubt that the Blackhawks could put together a game like Game 5. Consider that they are up 3-2 in the series despite the fact that Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask has been guiltless in virtually all of the Blackhawks' 14 goals. That is a testament to the Blackhawks' ability to create offensive chances.

This is not to say that the Blackhawks must win the series. Teams don't always play at their best. Moreover, as solid as Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford has been at times, his glove has been a weakness; Rask could still steal a game or two for the Bruins.

But on Saturday, it was clear: The Blackhawks took Bruins hockey to another level.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/HxaXqH6ixaU/Boston-Bruins-black-and-blue-hockey-not-enough-in-this-Stanley-Cup-final

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Robo-pets may contribute to quality of life for those with dementia

June 24, 2013 ? Robotic animals can help to improve the quality of life for people with dementia, according to new research.

A study has found that interacting with a therapeutic robot companion made people with mid- to late-stage dementia less anxious and also had a positive influence on their quality of life.

The pilot study, a collaboration led by Professor Wendy Moyle from Griffith University, Australia and involving Northumbria University's Professor Glenda Cook and researchers from institutions in Germany, investigated the effect of interacting with PARO -- a robotic harp seal -- compared with participation in a reading group. The study built on Professor Cook's previous ethnographic work carried out in care homes in North East England.

PARO is fitted with artificial intelligence software and tactile sensors that allow it to respond to touch and sound. It can show emotions such as surprise, happiness and anger, can learn its own name and learns to respond to words that its owner uses frequently.

Eighteen participants, living in a residential aged care facility in Queensland, Australia, took part in activities with PARO for five weeks and also participated in a control reading group activity for the same period. Following both trial periods the impact was assessed, using recognised clinical dementia measurements, for how the activities had influenced the participants' quality of life, tendency to wander, level of apathy, levels of depression and anxiety ratings.

The findings indicated that the robots had a positive, clinically meaningful influence on quality of life, increased levels of pleasure and also reduced displays of anxiety.

Research has already shown that interaction with animals can have a beneficial effect on older adults, increasing their social behaviour and verbal interaction and decreasing feelings of loneliness. However, the presence of animals in residential care home settings can place residents at risk of infection or injury and create additional duties for nursing staff.

This latest study suggests that PARO companions elicit a similar response and could potentially be used in residential settings to help reduce some of the symptoms -- such as agitation, aggression, isolation and loneliness -- of dementia.

Prof Cook, Professor of Nursing at Northumbria University, said: "Our study provides important preliminary support for the idea that robots may present a supplement to activities currently in use and could enhance the life of older adults as therapeutic companions and, in particular, for those with moderate or severe cognitive impairment.

"There is a need for further research, with a larger sample size, and an argument for investing in interventions such as PARO robots which may reduce dementia-related behaviours that make the provision of care challenging as well as costly due to increased use of staff resources and pharmaceutical treatment."

The researchers of the pilot study have identified the need to undertake a larger trial in order to increase the data available. Future studies will also compare the effect of the robot companions with live animals.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/jFB6Ff3OGnY/130624075748.htm

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

'Dumb Ways To Die' Is Sweeping Cannes - Business Insider

Cannes has only just begun and "Dumb Ways to Die," an Australian viral animation with a fun little ditty promoting public transport safety, is already sweeping the prestigious advertising competition.

The three-minute long spot won the?Grand Prix in the public relations and direct marketing categories ? quite the feat for a local public service announcement for Melbourne's Metro system.

"Dumb Ways to Die" captured the hearts of viewers when it was released last November. In nine months, it has accumulated almost 50 million YouTube views.?And apparently reduced metro deaths by 20%.?Because while poking a grizzly bear with a stick or using your private parts as piranha bait is silly (as the ad says), ignoring safety regulations is the dumbest way to go.

Watch the ad that's sweeping Cannes below:

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/dumb-ways-to-die-is-sweeping-cannes-2013-6

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Sunday, June 16, 2013

Jeb Bush Adds 'Immigrants Are More Fertile' to Reform Debate

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ABC News' Michael Falcone reports:

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush told a gathering of Christian conservatives this morning that he was "sick to my stomach" about the slow pace of the U.S. economic recovery and outlined a four-point plan for speeding it up.

Among the points was immigration overhaul. And one of Bush's arguments in discussing his support for the Senate's version: "Immigrants are more fertile."

"Immigrants create far more businesses than native-born Americans," Bush declared at the Faith and Freedom Coalition conference in Washington. "Immigrants are more fertile, and they love families, and they have more intact families, and they bring a younger population. Immigrants create an engine of economic prosperity."

Indeed, the argument about the fertility rate of immigrants has gained traction among some conservatives. And President Obama's outgoing chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, Alan Krueger, said at a U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce event earlier this year: "Given current trends, nearly all of the growth of the nation's working-age population in the next 40 years will be accounted for by immigrants and their children."

Bush, a potential 2016 Republican presidential contender, also touted his support for immigration overhaul Thursday at a Bipartisan Policy Center panel. But he found himself at odds at today's event with fellow Republican Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota congresswoman and 2012 presidential hopeful who urged other members of her party to take a go-slow approach.

Bachmann, who recently announced she would forgo a re-election campaign next year, cautioned that immigration overhaul was making its way through Congress with "breathtaking speed." And although she insisted that she was not delivering an "anti-immigrant speech," she warned that amnesty "will cost a fortune."

Speakers at the three-day Faith and Freedom gathering addressed a wide range of issues, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Rand Paul's Thursday lament about the persecution of Christians around the world, former Sen. Pennsylvania Rick Santorum's assessment of what went wrong for Republicans during the 2012 election cycle, and Rep. Paul Ryan's values-based appeal today.

"Faith isn't a Christmas ornament," the 2012 vice presidential nominee told the audience. "It's not something that you take out on a seasonal basis."

As Republicans grapple with an internal tug-of-war on the direction of the party, Faith and Freedom Coalition founder Ralph Reed pushed back on what he called the "emerging consensus that we're the problem."

When it comes to opposition to abortion rights and gay marriage, Reed argued, "We cannot and we will not be silent - not now, not ever - because our faith requires us to speak to it."

Also Read

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jeb-bush-adds-immigrants-more-fertile-reform-debate-191540278--abc-news-politics.html

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Friday, June 14, 2013

At least 30 injured in La. plant explosion

GEISMAR, La. (AP) ? Officials say ambulances and helicopters have taken at least 30 people from a burning chemical plant after an explosion in Louisiana.

Residents of the community of Geismar (GYS'-mahr), about 20 miles southeast of Baton Rouge, were told to remain indoors with doors and windows closed.

Department of Environmental Quality spokeswoman Jean Kelly says helicopters took three or four people Thursday from the plant owned by The Williams Companies Inc., and ground ambulances took 30. She did not have other details about injuries.

Kelly says tests have not found dangerous levels of chemicals in the air so far.

Louisiana State Police Capt. Doug Cain says the explosion occurred around 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the plant. It makes ethylene and propylene ? highly flammable gases that are basic building blocks in the petrochemical industry.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/least-30-injured-la-plant-explosion-162017122.html

Stephanie Rice

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Lenovo rebranding storage products, demotes Iomega to entry-level gear

Lenovo rebranding storage products, demotes Iomega to entrylevel products

Remember when Cingular became AT&T, Federal Express became FedEx and RIM became BlackBerry? The next company that'll need to reprint its business cards is Iomega, which is seeing the bulk of its products rebranded as Lenovo EMC. The Iomega name will still exist, but only as the face for entry-level storage gear, while the StorCenter and EZ Media and Backup Center lines will now carry the livery of their corporate parent. Curious about the company's history before it became a marque? There's detailed PR after the break.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/coiiS4Ehgoc/

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Rival hedge funds hope to feast on SAC Capital redemptions

By Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Katya Wachtel

BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A long list of rival hedge funds is eager to tap the billions in outside money that Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors is expected to return to investors by year-end.

Large hedge-fund firms structured like SAC, where Cohen allocates capital to dozens of portfolio teams that trade mainly in stocks, stand to benefit most from the ongoing insider trading probe, hedge fund industry investors and analysts said in a series of interviews. (Most did not want to be identified because of running or investing in funds that compete with SAC or have done business with it.)

Israel Englander's $18 billion Millennium Management, which has long had a rivalry with SAC, is the name that comes up most often as a possible alternative investment, the industry sources said. The firm also relies on a group approach where dozens of smaller portfolio teams, rather than one or two main managers, buy and sell securities quickly, often thousands of them.

Balyasny Asset Management, Visium Asset Management and Kenneth Griffin's Citadel, which all feature multi-manager trading teams, have also been named frequently as candidates for some of the estimated $3 billion to $4 billion expected to leave SAC, said industry sources.

Several people mentioned Hutchin Hill, a $1.1 billion firm run by former SAC Capital trader Neil Chriss. The firm employs a strategy similar to Cohen's and is taking money from new investors.

All five firms either declined to comment or did not return requests for comment.

A person who worked for a fund invested with SAC said investors had two options: They could stick with Cohen's trading style and move money to some of his direct competitors or spin-offs. Or they could switch strategies and allocate money to funds that make longer-term and often more-concentrated stock investments.

Industry insiders said there were thousands of possible choices in the $2.25 trillion hedge fund industry. Investors had until June 3 to tell SAC whether they wanted to exit the fund, making it one of the mostly hotly watched industry deadlines in recent memory.

A handful of people familiar with SAC Capital said it would take months for the money to be returned to investors. (A representative for SAC Capital declined to comment.) Several cautioned that it was far too soon to say with any certainty who might stand to benefit from Cohen's current woes, even though long-time SAC investors would probably prefer to find similar kinds of managers.

Investment committees usually take time to switch their asset allocations. Those that have liked SAC's roughly 30 percent annual returns and are not concerned about the decentralized investing model may want to stick with firms that have a kindred approach.

Millennium Management was built much as SAC was over the last two decades. Both firms are big: Millennium employs some 1,310 employees, including 810 investment professionals; SAC's respective figures are roughly 1,000 and 400. Englander's firm has returned an average 14.5 percent per year since its launch in 1989. The two firms have often vied for the same traders and portfolio managers, said people who know them both well.

Millennium paid $180 million in 2005 to settle charges of improper mutual-fund trading. It now has what some insiders are calling some of the toughest compliance requirements in the industry.

Blackstone Group Inc, which has $46 billion under management, recently notified Cohen that it intended to redeem most of its clients' $550 million investments. The firm invests money for pensions, corporations, foundations and wealthy individuals with dozens of prominent hedge funds.

A representative for Blackstone declined to comment.

Some of its clients have said they are becoming more sensitive to seeing one of their money managers in the news. Nine former or current SAC employees have been charged with or implicated in improper trading.

"What is in now are funds that are squeaky clean," with "excellent reputations and no sorts of legal problems," said Ferenc Sanderson, a partner with hedge fund advisory and research firm PrevInvest. "The funds that are run as platforms have pretty much fallen out of favor."

One manager, who asked not to be named because he might be in the running to get some redeployed SAC money, was blunter. "This is going to be the death knell for funds where you have 50 traders with their own profit and loss statements ... The government is going to make you responsible for them."

Industry experts agreed that the multi-billion-dollar hedge funds with the infrastructure to cater to institutional clients will be the ones to benefit as pension funds and others get out of SAC.

Adam Kahn, managing partner at headhunting firm Odyssey Search Partners, had another thought: "There are going to be a few very good managers coming out of SAC launching funds. Depending on how well these guys are known by investors, they may see some of that cash too."

(Reporting by Svea Herbst Bayliss and Katya Wachtel, with additional reporting by Sam Forgione; editing by Jennifer Ablan and Prudence Crowther)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rival-hedge-funds-hope-feast-sac-capital-redemptions-213104756.html

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AT&T to hire more than 1,800 employees in Texas

AT&T is seeking applicants for more than 1,800 jobs that are now open throughout Texas, US. The positions include technicians to help with U-verse installation, customer service representatives for the company's call centres and openings at retail stores. AT&T is filling these positions immediately. AT&T also recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment plan to expand and enhance its mobile and fixed IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its mobile network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, AT&T plans to expand LTE coverage by end of 2014, as well as expand the AT&T wired IP and AT&T fibre network by end of 2015.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TelecompaperGeneral/~3/R1IJrHir0NI/atandt-to-hire-more-than-1800-employees-in-texas--949314

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Planned Parenthood, ACLU file suit to block new Alabama abortion law

Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit on Tuesday asking a federal judge to block enforcement of a new Alabama law that critics say will force the closure of three of the state?s five abortion clinics on July 1.

The new measure, signed into law in April, requires all physicians in the state who perform abortions to have staff privileges at a local hospital.

Abortion clinic officials in Montgomery, Birmingham, and Mobile say they cannot comply with the requirement.

RECOMMENDED: Briefing Roe v. Wade at 40: Six questions about abortion rights

Lawyers say the new measure is a pretext to prevent abortions in Alabama. A similar provision that would have shut down the only abortion provider in Mississippi was recently blocked by a federal judge in that state.

?The purpose and effect of the requirement, which is wholly unnecessary and unreasonable, is to impose a substantial obstacle in the path of women seeking abortion prior to viability,? the Alabama complaint says.

?It is an unreasonable health regulation, and it has the unlawful purpose and effect of imposing an undue burden on women?s right to choose abortion,? the lawsuit says.

Proponents of the law say it is a necessary step to ensure that clinics meet health standards. The author of the law, state Rep. Mary McClurkin, told the Montgomery Advertiser that "when a physician removes a child from a woman, that is the largest organ in a body."

But Alexa Kolbi-Molinas, a staff attorney with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, calls it part of national strategy by antiabortion activists to exploit novel ways to shut down abortion clinics at the state level.

?We are in court to protect a woman?s ability to make her own personal, private health care decisions,? the president of Planned Parenthood Southeast, Staci Fox, said in a statement.

Hospital staff privileges can be difficult for an abortion provider to obtain, Ms. Kolbi-Molinas said, because they are generally reserved for physicians who regularly admit patients to the hospital. She said the designation requires that the doctor admit 12 to 48 patients a year.

Abortion is such a safe procedure, she said, that there is no way an abortion provider could come close to meeting such a requirement.

In the few cases that do require emergency treatment, the patient should be permitted to receive medical attention at the closest hospital to the patient without requiring the presence of the doctor who performed the abortion, the lawyer said.

The complaint says that some abortion providers might be denied staff privileges because of a hospital?s religious opposition to abortion. Some require the doctor to reside close enough to the hospital to be available on call, and university hospitals require physicians to obtain a faculty appointment prior to gaining staff privileges.

The 14-page complaint was filed in federal court in Montgomery, Ala. It says that if the law shut down abortion clinics in the state?s three major cities, only two other clinics would remain open in Alabama ? in Huntsville and Tuscaloosa.

?If the staff privileges requirement takes effect, women in Montgomery, Birmingham, and all points south would be forced to travel at least 100 miles, and some more than 200 miles ? to obtain an abortion in the state,? the suit says.

It adds that most women would have to make the trip twice, first for counseling, and second, at least 24 hours later, for the abortion.

Other similarly situated health-care providers are not required to have staff privileges at a local hospital, the suit says.

The lawsuit names Gov. Robert Bentley and Attorney General Luther Strange as defendants. Also named are the district attorneys in Montgomery County, Jefferson County, Mobile County, and four state health officials.

The case is Planned Parenthood v. Bentley.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/planned-parenthood-aclu-file-suit-block-alabama-abortion-220129744.html

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