সোমবার, ২৮ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Video: Freed American student: ?It was very scary?



'ESTER HOLT, co-host: We do want to begin, though, with the homecoming for those three American students detained in Cairo this week. They were arrested last Sunday, accused of throwing Molotov cocktails off the roof of a building during a protest near Tahrir Square . After nearly a week of uncertainty in jail, they were released and are back in the US . Joining us now is one of the students, Derrik Sweeney , and his mother Joy . Good morning to both of you. Thanks for joining us.

Ms. JOY SWEENEY (Mom of College Student Released from Cairo Jail): Good morning.

Mr. DERRIK SWEENEY (College Student Released from Cairo Jail): Good morning, Lester .

HOLT: Derrik , what's it like to be home?

Mr. SWEENEY: It's really wonderful. The world is beautiful.

HOLT: And we mentioned, you've got some stories to tell. There's a picture of the three of you that was sent out this week after you were arrested. You are the tallest one on the right. And in front of you -- at one point one of the pictures has a bag of supplies for Molotov cocktails that you were accused of using. What was going through your mind at that time?

Mr. SWEENEY: That was perhaps the scariest moment of my life. I was not sure whether I would get to see America , my family, or my loved ones again. I actually fainted right after that, the only time I recall fainting in my life. It was very, very scary.

HOLT: And as we noted, there were some materials for bomb making or Molotov cocktails . You were accused, along with the other two other students, of throwing these off a roof. Were you even on the rooftop at the time of all this?

Mr. SWEENEY: No. That was actually one of the strangest things. I didn't know where that came from. We were never on a rooftop, and also we did not ever handle or deal or throw Molotov cocktails .

HOLT: Were you participating in the protests in any way?

Mr. SWEENEY: We were at the protests. We were there. We didn't even chant the slogans. It was in Arabic, couldn't really even understand most of it. So we were there but not really participating.

HOLT: Listen, at one point you do end up in jail, but before that you were held in captivity somewhere else, and I understand those were the most harrowing hours. Tell us about those first several hours in captivity.

Mr. SWEENEY: Yeah, the first -- the first hours they -- well, they threatened to force feed us gasoline. They put our shirts up over our heads so we couldn't see where we were at all, and they hit us in the face and the back of the neck a lot. Then we spent about seven hours in the fetal position with our hands behind our back, handcuffed in the dark, and they were behind us with guns saying that if we moved at all they would shoot us. And at that point, I sort of -- I just -- I just recall that existence is love and everything is beautiful. It was very scary.

HOLT: And as you're telling that story, I'm watching you mom, Joy , the look of worry across your face again. What was it like for those days trying to find the latest on Derrik , his whereabouts and whether he would get out?

Ms. SWEENEY: Oh, my goodness. It was such an emotional roller coaster, you know. And then to find out the story behind it, I mean, I knew that the entire time I was praying, everybody that I knew was praying. I got prayers, messages from people. Total strangers would stop me at the grocery store and say, 'I've been praying for your son's safe return.' And our prayers were finally answered and we're so grateful.

HOLT: And, Derrik , I have to assume you did a little some praying yourself. Was there a point when you think this homecoming might not happen, that this thing could go sideways in a hurry?

Mr. SWEENEY: There was a point when that possibility seemed quite logically likely, though I never really allowed it to enter my thinking too much.

HOLT: Well, listen, we're glad you're back together. I know you've got a delayed Thanksgiving meal, and we thank you for taking time to send with us this morning.

Mr. SWEENEY: Thank you.

Ms. SWEENEY: Thank you.

HOLT: All right, Derrik and Joy Sweeney . And now here's Jenna .

JENNA WOLFE, co-host: What a great spirit he has, huh? Lester , thank you.

Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/45452223/

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রবিবার, ২৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Philippines say arrested hackers funded by Saudi group (Reuters)

MANILA/BOSTON (Reuters) ? Philippine police and the FBI have arrested four people that Manila said were paid by a militant Saudi Arabian-based group to hack into U.S. telecom AT&T's system, but the company said it was neither targeted nor breached.

The Philippines' Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) said those arrested in Wednesday's operation in Manila with the Federal Bureau of Investigation were paid by the same group the FBI said had funded the November 2008 attacks in Mumbai.

"The hacking activity resulted in almost $2 million in losses incurred by the company," the CIDG said in a statement.

It did not name the group who it said had funded the Mumbai attacks, but India has blamed the militant Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) for carrying out the attacks which killed 166 people.

AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. mobile provider, said it "ended up writing off some fraudulent charges that appeared on customer bills" but did not comment on the $2 million figure.

"AT&T and its network were neither targeted nor breached by the hackers," AT&T spokeswoman Jan Rasmussen said. "AT&T only assisted law enforcement in the investigation that led to the arrest of a group of hackers."

Police said the suspects had hacked into the trunk-lines of different telecom companies, including AT&T, with revenues diverted to accounts of the unnamed Saudi-based group.

Earlier this week, AT&T said it was investigating an attempt to access customer information, but did not believe any accounts had been breached.

The CIDG said the FBI sought the help of its Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division (ATCCD) in March after they found the Saudi group had targeted AT&T using the hackers.

Among the four arrested was 29-year-old Paul Michael Kwan, who ATCCD chief Police Senior Superintendent Gilbert Sosa said had been arrested in 2007 after the FBI launched an international crackdown on groups suspected of financing militant activities.

Sosa said in the statement the Filipinos were being paid by a group originally run by Muhammad Zamir, a Pakistani arrested in Italy in 2007. He said Zamir was a member of Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant network with links to al Qaeda.

"Zamir's group, later tagged by the FBI to be the financial source of the terrorist attack in Mumbai, India, on November 26, 2008, is also the same group that paid Kwan's group of hackers in Manila," Sosa said in the statement.

Last month, Philippine police said weak laws against cyber crime and poor technical capabilities had made the country an attractive base for organized crime syndicates involved in cyber pornography, cyber sex dens, illegal gambling, credit card fraud and identity theft.

(Reporting by John Mair in Manila and Jim Finkle in Boston; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/asia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111126/wl_nm/us_philippines_usa

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Analysis: Tsar sacking unlikely to curb Nigerian graft (Reuters)

LONDON (TrustLaw) ? The sacking this week of Nigeria's anti-graft chief may give the country's fight against corruption a short-term boost, but significant change is unlikely without deeper reforms to the justice system, analysts say.

President Goodluck Jonathan's unexpected firing of Farida Waziri, the chair of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday was welcomed by critics who saw Waziri's tenure as politicized and ineffective.

Anti-corruption expert Alexandra Wrage described the dismissal as "a step toward greater credibility" for the EFCC. But analysts warned that institutional and legislative reform must be prioritized if the oil-rich nation is to make progress in its anti-corruption efforts.

"Waziri's dismissal is likely to revitalize the anti-graft campaign in the short-term," Roddy Barclay, analyst at Control Risks, told TrustLaw, a legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"But lasting improvements ... will only occur if the government shows a genuine commitment to supporting anti-corruption initiatives and reforming the structures and powers of the EFCC and its supporting institutions, notably the judiciary," he said.

Jonathan has been criticized, along with his predecessors, for doing too little to tackle entrenched corruption in Africa's most populous nation. Graft is most Nigerians' number-one gripe, and foreign investors cite it as the main reason for steering clear of the continent's second-biggest economy.

"Corruption is endemic and institutionalized - it happens at the very top. So the sacking of the EFCC chair may just be window-dressing. It cannot in itself end the pervasive grand corruption in the country," said Adetokunbo Mumuni, executive director of the Social Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a Nigerian watchdog.

UNFAVOURABLE COMPARISONS

A polarizing figure, Waziri's tenure was often compared unfavorably to former EFCC chair and candidate in the 2011 presidential elections, Nuhu Ribadu.

An EFCC official who had worked for both chairs said in an August report published by Human Rights Watch that the "tempo is no longer as it was before."

"We are doing a good job but you can't compare it to the work being done under Ribadu," the official added.

While Ribadu was a more popular EFCC chair than Waziri, neither was able to secure many high-profile corruption convictions. And both were accused of failing to prosecute allies of the presidents that appointed them.

"The EFCC's mandate is to fight corruption that the political system actually rewards, and to accomplish that by working through institutions that are either broken or compromised," Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement following Waziri's sacking.

"That's an almost impossible job no matter who is in charge."

JUDICIAL QUAGMIRE

Since the EFCC's formation in 2003, the commission has arraigned 35 prominent political figures on corruption charges, including 19 former state governors, but has only secured convictions against four senior officials, according to Human Rights Watch.

Analysts and officials alike blame Nigeria's under-resourced court system.

"Clever defense lawyers have been able to delay cases before the courts for years while the suspect enjoys bail and there have been strong rumors of corruption in the judiciary," said Kayode Akindele, partner at Lagos-based financial advisory firm 46 Parallels.

This week Waziri herself attacked Nigeria's slow-moving courts as a serious hindrance to her work.

"The best any law enforcement agency can do is to properly investigate cases and file charges, after which the courts take over," she said in a lecture at Nigeria's National Defense College.

"The frustrations faced by the law enforcement agencies within the tedious common law process of administration of justice must be voided," she added.

These obstacles have not been entirely ignored. The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) announced this month that all judges presiding over corruption-related cases must complete them within six months or return them to the prosecution.

"These delays cannot be tolerated any longer," the Nigerian Compass newspaper quoted Justice Dahiru Musdapher as saying.

LACK OF INDEPENDENCE

Unless the EFCC gets greater independence, analysts are pessimistic about its chances of securing high-profile convictions. The fact that both Ribadu and Waziri were fired before the end of their tenure is one key reason why an EFCC chair might seek political allies.

"One of the EFCC's greatest weaknesses has been its lack of independence and susceptibility to political pressure," Human Rights Watch's Bekele said.

Akindele of 46 Parallels noted that the president has the right to remove the chair of the anti-graft agency, but only according to the provisions of the EFCC Act.

"Even for someone as unpopular as Mrs Waziri, the rule of law must be seen to be adhered to. If not, what stops an effective head from being removed as well?" he said.

President Jonathan, currently in France on a drive to attract foreign investment, has yet to give a reason for dismissing Waziri.

(TrustLaw is a free legal news service run by Thomson Reuters Foundation http://www.trust.org/trustlaw/)

(Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Lagos and George Fominyen in Dakar; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111125/wl_nm/us_nigeria_corruption

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শনিবার, ২৬ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Michelle Chen: Washington's Debt Panic and the Real Social Debt in America

In the wake of the Congressional super committee's collapse, we finally have consensus on both sides of the aisle: the lawmakers orchestrating the partisan drama are, behind the scenes, happy to collaborate on destroying economic security for all but the wealthiest Americans.

Though the debt hysteria made good political theater, the main immediate impact on the budget is simply to prolong the sense of doom hovering over struggling households. The budget problem those families face isn't some theoretical future debt crisis but the possibility of losing unemployment checks when a year-end legislative deadline hits.

Federally funded unemployment benefits, which conservatives dismiss as a fluffy cushion for the shiftless poor, have been a lifeline for some 17 million Americans in the past three years. In addition to helping individual households pay their bills, the benefits have had a ripple effect on cities and towns battered by an anemic job market,? ?contributing nearly $180 billion in hard cash to those communities struggling with severe unemployment,? according to a report issued in October by the National Employment Law Project.

In January alone, 1.8 million workers who currently receive federal unemployment insurance or would have begun to receive it will be cut off if Congress does not renew the program before it expires on December 31st.... Nearly 650,000 workers in 33 states and the District of Columbia will face an immediate "hard" cut-off of their benefits in January, after struggling to find work and pay their bills for over a year in most cases. There is no phase-out allowing these workers to collect the remainder of their final 13 to 20 weeks of benefits.

Those numbers of course didn?t get much airtime as super committee lawmakers grandstanded by slinging around proposed cuts to social programs and tax breaks for the rich. But if deficit-obsessed lawmakers actually examined the impact of unmployment insurance and other endangered assistance programs, they might start to understand how poverty and inequality is entrenched in America today.

Without unemployment benefits, absolute poverty would engulf a much larger share of the 99 percent. According to NELP, were it not for this assistance,

the increase in the number of Americans in poverty would have more than doubled, from 2.6 million to 5.8 million people. To put these figures in perspective, the number of people protected against destitution has increased nearly sevenfold since 2007 thanks to the unemployment program.

And if people couldn't fall back on meager unemployment payments, their communities, including those cities where people have taken to the streets to express their anger and desperation, would be suffering even more. Those benefits were immediately funneled into local businesses, helping prop up local economies. An unemployment check might be a family's last line of defense against the poor health, disruptions in education, and long-term instability that are associated with severe poverty.

Yet unemployment benefits and other public programs cover just a tiny fraction of the massive social deficits that have plagued the country?s poor, even before this recession hit. An analysis of household economic security by Wider Opportunities for Women found that about 45 percent of Americans are now "unable to cover their basic expenses." Even a large portion of households with two income earners fail to make ends meet. The economic inequality is further polarized along racial lines: ?a startling 77 percent of African American and Hispanic children, are living in families without economic security.?

Following the manufactured "failure" of the Supercommittee's vicious deficit-slashing agenda, we?re looking at more fiscal limbo and bad tidings for the year to come as the unemployment insurance deadline looms.

Maybe over the holiday break, lawmakers will get a glimpse of the real world outside the Beltway, and see that the nation?s real debt lies not in Washington?s fiscal projections but in the economic injustice that robs millions of the most basic dignity.

Cross-posted from In These Times.

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Follow Michelle Chen on Twitter: www.twitter.com/meeshellchen

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michelle-chen/unemployment-benefits_b_1111703.html

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Fern Siegel: Stage Door: Seminar, Richard II (Huffington post)

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শুক্রবার, ২৫ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

GOP's Romney defends ad's use of Obama 2008 line (AP)

DES MOINES, Iowa ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is defending a TV ad that quotes President Barack Obama out of context, signaling he's ready for bare-knuckled campaigning despite sharp complaints from Democrats and some neutral observers.

Romney said while campaigning in Iowa Wednesday that the ad is fair game, and underscores how the former Massachusetts governor stressing his decades in the private sector intends to confront the president if Romney is the GOP nominee next year.

The ad which began airing in New Hampshire Tuesday uses audio of then-Sen. Obama campaigning in the state in 2008, saying: "If we keep talking about the economy, we're going to lose.

The ad omits any acknowledgement that Obama was quoting the campaign of his opponent, 2008 GOP nominee John McCain. Instead, the ad leaves the impression that it is Obama who does not want to discuss the economy.

Romney told reporters in Des Moines his campaign distributed the ad with a press release noting the words were originally from Obama's opponent.

"There was no hidden effort on the part of our campaign. It was instead to point out that what's sauce for the goose is now sauce for the gander," Romney said, after addressing more than 300 employees of a downtown insurance company. "This ad points out, now, guess what, it's your turn. The same lines used on John McCain are now going to be used on you, which is that this economy is going to be your albatross."

It's a more aggressive tone for Romney, who all along in his second bid for the GOP nomination has cast himself as the field's most prepared candidate to tackle the economy. Now, he is signaling that he'll pull no punches with Obama.

"How we will beat President Obama is by speaking day in and day out about the one topic he does not want to talk about. And that's the economy," Romney said, with U.S. Sen. John Thune, a South Dakota Republican who endorsed him Wednesday, by his side. "If I'm the nominee, he'll be trying to take me apart."

Democrats roundly criticized the ad as misleading.

PolitiFact, a non-partisan campaign watchdog, referred to the ad's use of Obama's past comment as "ridiculously misleading," and noted the campaign could have conveyed the point that the tables had turned on Obama "without distorting Obama's words."

Romney's appearances in Iowa Wednesday reflect his recent stepped-up his activity in the state that will hold the first caucuses on Jan 3.

While just his fifth visit to the state this year, it was his third in about a month.

In the meantime, his small campaign staff has grown modestly, been in regular touch with the statewide network of supporters he has held onto since his second-place finish in the 2008 caucuses. He is organizing a series of telephone question-and-answer sessions with thousands of Iowans, and is planning to unveil campaign ads in Iowa soon.

He still has not appeared with his Republican competitors in the state, having skipped three events over the past month.

Romney has said he plans to debate his GOP rivals in Iowa. There are debates scheduled December 10 in Des Moines and five days later in Sioux City.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111124/ap_on_el_pr/us_romney2012

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৪ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

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T-Mobile's Samsung Galaxy S II in white for the holidays

T-Mobile Samsung Galaxy S II

Samsung's being a bit shy with the details, but the T-Mobile version of the Galaxy S II will be available in white for the holidays. That's the same 4.5-inch device we've come to know and love -- be sure to read our full review -- only in white. We can't imagine it'll cost any more than the black version, but we'll let you know more on that when we get it.

More: T-Mobile Galaxy S II forums



Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/g5tg7q21r3c/story01.htm

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Iran daily closed over Ahmadinejad aide interview (Reuters)

TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iranian authorities shut down a reformist newspaper on Sunday after it published a scathing attack by an aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the president's rival conservatives, the latest sign of a split in the highest echelons of the Islamic Republic.

The aide, media adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr, was also sentenced to a year in jail and banned from journalism over a separate publication which was deemed to have offended public decency, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Both incidents spotlighted a feud between Ahmadinejad's camp and others in the conservative establishment that runs the world's fifth biggest oil exporter and faces increasing international pressure over its nuclear activities.

Tehran's prosecutor's office ordered the daily Etemad to close for two months for "disseminating lies and insults to officials in the establishment," according to Fars.

In the interview in Saturday's edition, Javanfekr hit back at critics who accuse Ahmadinejad of being in the thrall of a "deviant" circle seeking to undermine the Islamic clergy, saying they had "poisoned" politics and implying many were corrupt.

"What have we 'deviated' from? Yes, we have deviated from those friends, from their beliefs, behavior and interpretations," Javanfekr, who also heads the official Iranian news agency IRNA, told Saturday's Etemad.

"If they meant the deviant current is a deviation from their beliefs, we confirm it."

The counter-attack, published verbatim over three pages, signaled the determination of Ahmadinejad's camp to fight back as Iran gears up for parliamentary elections in March.

Javanfekr's lawyer told Reuters he had not been notified of the jail sentence and three-year ban from journalism imposed by the prosecutor's office following a guilty verdict pronounced by the Press Supervisory Board earlier this month.

Abdollah Nakhaie said he would appeal the sentence which, according to the ISNA news agency, he has 20 days to do.

Javanfekr was convicted over an article published earlier this year on the historical origins of women's Islamic dress.

The article, in a supplement to the Iran daily in August, contained an interview suggesting that chadors - the traditional black dress of devout Iranian women - had their origins in 19th-century Paris, rather than being prescribed by Islam.

The suggestion outraged traditional hardliners who had already accused Ahmadinejad's faction of putting secular nationalist values ahead of its Islamic identity.

STABILITY AT STAKE

With the opposition "Green" movement crushed after protesting Ahmadinejad's 2009 re-election, the battle for power in Iran is now between rival conservatives -- the traditional religious hardliners and the more populist Ahmadinejad camp.

That rift became more apparent after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei forced Ahmadinejad to reinstate the intelligence minister he sacked in April -- a move seen by the president's critics as a political maneuver.

Since then parliament and the judiciary have moved against the president, with lawmakers threatening impeachment and prosecutors arresting some people on the fringes of his faction.

Rebutting accusations that Ahmadinejad's faction sought to undermine Iran's clerical ruling system, Javanfekr said that the president had been endorsed by Khamenei.

"The great leader of the revolution called Ahmadinejad's government the government of work and effort. If they believe the government is not serving people it is better that they say they have a problem with the supreme leader," he said.

Analysts say that Khamenei prefers to keep Ahmadinejad in place rather that allow his rivals to unseat him and jeopardize stability at a time of economic difficulties and the risk of popular unrest spilling over from the nearby Arab world.

But Javanfekr said Ahmadinejad was far from a spent force and retained public support that meant he did not need the support of conservatives who backed him in 2009 as the best bet against a strong showing by reformists.

"It was not us who were ungrateful, they were the ones that did not acknowledge Ahmadinejad and his government...Ahmadinejad has popularity and does not owe them anything," he said.

Javanfekr criticized the treatment of Mohammad Sharif Malekzadeh, an ally of Ahmadinejad's top aide, who was arrested in June, saying he had been held in solitary confinement and suffered mental and physical consequences.

Etemad was among the few reformist papers still publishing after the June 2009 election. It has suffered temporary bans since for alleged violation of media law -- something critics say is a catch-all offence used to suppress dissent.

(Additional reporting by Ramin Mostafavi; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/iran/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111120/wl_nm/us_iran_media_closure

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মঙ্গলবার, ২২ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

[OOC] Pairings

Forum rules
This forum is for OOC discussion about existing roleplays.

Please post all "Players Wanted" threads in the Roleplayers Wanted forum!

This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Love and it's consequences?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

Topic Tags:

Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

So for the pairings, each guy is going to pick the top two girls he'd like his chachter with. One of them will be his mate, the other will be his true love. So even if some is picked twice, they dont have to fight over her. (fun as that may be.) One person will have them as their mate, the other will have her as their true love. I pick the mate/true love part.

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Horseygirl
Member for 2 years



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সোমবার, ২১ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Chinese strip down for Ai Weiwei amid porn investigation (Reuters)

BEIJING (Reuters) ? First it was money folded into paper planes that were flown over the walls of dissident artist Ai Weiwei's home. Now Chinese Internet users' latest show of solidarity with Ai has taken the unlikeliest form of protest: mass nudity.

By Monday afternoon, seventy people had posted nude photos of themselves on a website called "Ai Wei Fans' Nudity -- Listen, Chinese Government: Nudity is not Pornography" -- a rare form of protest in a country where public nudity is still taboo.

They uploaded the photos after Beijing police questioned Ai's videographer on Thursday for allegedly spreading pornography online by taking nude photographs of Ai and four women.

Supporters of Ai, whose 81-day secret detention earlier this year sparked an international outcry, say that the questioning over the nude photographs is China's latest effort to intimidate its most famous social critic.

The videographer, Zhao Zhao, said Beijing police interrogated him for about four hours on the motives behind the photographs.

"They said: 'Don't you know that the photos that you've taken are obscene photos?'" Zhao told Reuters by telephone. "I said: 'I didn't know that' and said 'how can they be considered obscene?' They said they've characterized them as such."

Ai paid a bond of 8.45 million yuan ($1.3 million) last Tuesday, paving the way to file what he fears may be an ultimately futile appeal on a tax evasion charge that his supporters have said is a political vendetta. The money was raised from contributions from his supporters.

Wen Yunchao, who posted two nude photographs of himself on the website, said he believed the investigation against Ai's assistant was the latest form of "persecution" against Ai.

"This is a matter that has made many people very indignant," Hong Kong-based Wen said. "Because the interpretation of people's naked bodies in itself is an individual freedom and a form of creative freedom. Also, we don't see any pornographic elements in (Ai's) photographs. So we are using this extreme method to express our protest."

Many of the photos posted on the website were accompanied with politically tinged commentaries.

"Grandpa, is this pornography?" wrote a user, who was photographed bare-bottomed and writing on a wall with the words "'89 political turmoil," referring to the June 4, 1989, armed crackdown in Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

During Ai's confinement, police had also questioned him about the nude photographs that were taken in August last year, Ai told Reuters.

Ai said the nude photographs had no deeper political meaning and were not meant to criticize the government, but he added that the government could perceive the photos as a "rebellious act."

"We did it because it was a way to remove fear and the feeling of isolation," Ai told Reuters. "Because fear and the feeling of isolation are defining characteristics in certain societies.

"Today, in reality, these (actions) are inappropriate for the time being. So when I see everyone like this, I feel young people still have some conscience."

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Don Durfee)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/china/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111121/wl_nm/us_china_dissident

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Despite loss, Lawlor continues reign as UFC walkout king

At UFC 139 on Saturday night, Tom Lawlor pulled out another walkout to remember. The day after attending weigh-ins dressed as Steven Seagal, Lawlor walked out the Olivia Newton-John classic "Let's Get Physical," and used an exercise band to pump up along the way.

Despite loss, Lawlor continues reign as UFC walkout king

Unfortunately for Lawlor, the walkout didn't help him win his fight. Chris Weidman choked him unconscious in the first round. Still, kudos to any fighter who brings Olivia Newton-John to the Octagon.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Despite-loss-Lawlor-continues-reign-as-UFC-walk?urn=mma-wp9679

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শুক্রবার, ১৮ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

'Ghost mountains mystery solved'

Scientists say they can now explain the existence of what are perhaps Earth's most extraordinary mountains.

The Gamburtsevs are the size of the European Alps and yet they are totally buried beneath the Antarctic ice.

Their discovery in the 1950s was a major surprise. Most people had assumed the rock bed deep within the continent would be flat and featureless.

Survey data now suggests the range first formed over a billion years ago, researchers tell the journal Nature.

The Gamburtsevs are important because they are thought to be the location where the ice sheet we know today initiated its march across Antarctica.

Unravelling the mountains' history will therefore inform climate studies, helping scientists to understand not just past changes on Earth but possible future scenarios as well.

"Surveying these mountains was an incredible challenge, but we succeeded and it's produced a fascinating story," Dr Fausto Ferraccioli from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) told BBC News.

Continue reading the main story

Fly-through of Antarctica's 'ghost mountains'

The Gamburtsevs are the size of the European Alps and yet are totally buried beneath the Antarctic ice.

Dr Ferraccioli was a principal investigator on the AGAP (Antarctica's Gamburtsev Province) project.

This multinational effort in 2008/2009 flew aircraft back and forth across the east of the White Continent, mapping the shape of the hidden mountain system using ice-penetrating radar.

Other instruments recorded the local gravitational and magnetic fields, while seismometers were employed to probe the deep Earth.

The AGAP team believes all this data can now be meshed into a credible narrative for the Gamburtsevs' creation and persistence through geological time.

It is a story that starts just over a billion years ago, long before complex life had formed on the planet, when the then continents were drifting together to create a giant landmass known as Rodinia.

The resulting collision pushed up the mountains, and also produced an underlying thick, dense "root" that sat down in the crust.

Over the course of hundreds of millions of years, the peaks would have gradually eroded away. Only the cold root would have been preserved.

Then, about 250-100 million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the planet, the crust started to pull apart in a series of rifting events close to the old root.

This rifting warmed and rejuvenated the root, giving it the buoyancy needed to lift the land upwards once more to re-establish the mountains.

Further uplift still was achieved as deep valleys were later cut by rivers and by glaciers.

And it would have been those glaciers that also wrote the final chapter some 35 million years ago, when they spread out and merged to form the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, entombing the Gamburtsevs in the process.

"This research really solves the mystery of how you can have young-looking mountains in the middle of an old continent," said US principal investigator Dr Robin Bell from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.

"In this case, the original Gamburtsevs probably completely eroded away only to come back, phoenix-like. They've had two lives," she told BBC News.

A proposal is likely to go to funding agencies soon to drill into the mountains to retrieve rock samples. These samples would confirm the model being put forward in the Nature publication.

The search also goes on for a suitable place in the range to drill for ancient ice.

By examining bubbles of air trapped in compacted snow, it is possible for researchers to glean details about past environmental conditions, including temperature of the concentration of gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide.

Somewhere in the Gamburtsev region there ought to be a location where ices can be retrieved that are more than a million years old. This would be at least 200,000 years older than the most ancient Antarctic ice cores currently in the possession of scientists.

To some extent, however, the AGAP survey has actually depressed this quest. The radar data has indicated the base of the sheet has been severely disrupted by water that has been freshly frozen, layer upon layer, on to the bottom of the ice column.

Continue reading the main story

ANTARCTIC GAMBURTSEV PROJECT (AGAP)

  • Two camps (N & S) were established deep in the Antarctic interior around the plateau region known as Dome A
  • Aircraft used radar to detect ice thickness and layering, and mapped the shape of the deeply buried bedrock
  • The planes also conducted gravity and magnetic surveys to glean more information about the mountains' structure
  • By listening to seismic waves passing through the range, scientists could probe rock properties deep in the Earth
  • The Gamburtsev range is totally hidden by ice. In some places that ice covering is more than 4,000m thick
  • A key quest was to find a location to drill ancient ice - ice made from snow that has accumulated over a million years
  • The oldest ice drilled so far comes from a location known as Dome C. It records climate conditions 800,000 years into the past

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/science-environment-15749757

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Video: Judge overturns four murder convictions

Sorry, Readability was unable to parse this page for content.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45343471#45343471

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ১৭ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

Shimano showcases the Ultegra Di2 electronic bike gears, we go for a ride

How much would you spend for an upgrade to smooth shifting on your next road bike? If $8,000 is in the ballpark, then Shimano-powered electronic shifters may be in your future. We took the cycling giant's latest gear for a spin in Central Park, drawing envious glances from various spandex-clad bikers during the ride. Outfitted with the company's newest Ultegra 6770 Di2 series of gears, the shifters gave us a taste of technology normally reserved for Tour de Francers -- at new, more affordable pricing. So what was it like to be the envy of cyclists everywhere? Jump past the break to find out.

Continue reading Shimano showcases the Ultegra Di2 electronic bike gears, we go for a ride

Shimano showcases the Ultegra Di2 electronic bike gears, we go for a ride originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/11/14/shimano-showcases-the-ultegra-di2-electronic-bike-gears-we-go-f/

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Boom and bust shapes Saturn's rings

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Tyco profit tops Wall Street forecasts (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? Industrial conglomerate Tyco International Ltd (TYC.N) reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings on Wednesday amid higher sales and margins in its security systems business.

The company, which also makes valves and fire safety equipment, posted net income of $400 million, or 85 cents per share, for the fourth quarter ended September 30, compared with $266 million, or 53 cents per share, a year earlier.

Earnings before special items were 92 cents a share, beating Wall Street estimates by 6 cents, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

A lower share count helped boost earnings-per-share. The company spent $1.3 billion on stock buybacks during the year and has continued buying back shares since the end of the quarter.

Sales rose 4 percent to $4.69 billion, also above forecasts. Revenue was up 11 percent in Tyco's security business that includes ADT, its biggest segment, but operating profit jumped 30 percent, helped in part by improved demand from commercial customers.

This was the first earnings report since Tyco announced plans in September to split into three companies, potentially turning its businesses into acquisition targets.

Tyco said the split would allow its three businesses -- ADT North America residential security, flow control products and services, and a fire and security business -- to have more options for growth. That split is on track to be completed this fiscal year, it said.

Tyco said it would give a fiscal 2012 forecast on its conference call before the start of trading.

(Reporting by Nick Zieminski in New York; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Derek Caney)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111116/bs_nm/us_tyco

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মঙ্গলবার, ১৫ নভেম্বর, ২০১১

APEC leaders seek firewall against Europe crisis (Reuters)

HONOLULU (Reuters) ? Asia-Pacific leaders sought a united front on Sunday to prop up economic growth despite divisions over trade and currency policies as they face a common threat from Europe's debt crisis.

Fresh from a rare success over agreement on the outlines of a regional trade deal, the 21 nations at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit looked to the immediate challenge of safeguarding themselves against the fallout from Europe.

President Barack Obama, seeking to reassert U.S. leadership to counter China's expanding influence around the Pacific Rim, opened talks with APEC leaders declaring the region was "absolutely critical" to America's prosperity.

But he insisted Asia-Pacific economies must address "imbalances" and promote "balanced and sustainable growth," a clear reference to U.S. concerns about a huge trade deficit with China's export-driven economy.

"It's time to get down to work," Obama told leaders gathered in his native city of Honolulu. "Nearly 3 billion citizens (are) looking to us to bring our economies closer, to increase exports, to expand trade and opportunities that creates jobs and economic growth."

By harnessing the potential for expanded trade with Asia-Pacific countries -- the world's fastest-growing region -- Obama hopes he can create U.S. jobs to help him through a tough reelection fight in 2012.

"We are not going to be able to put our folks back to work and grow our economy and expand opportunity unless the Asia-Pacific region is also successful," he said.

Obama's drive for a pan-Pacific free trade zone got a boost when Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Canada wants to join the talks. Japan has also expressed interest and Mexico is weighing the idea.

Obama is seeking to assure allies of U.S. reengagement as China flexes economic and military muscle in the region. But leaders may doubt whether Washington can avoid being distracted by economic woes at home and foreign policy priorities like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran.

The outlook for the Asia-Pacific region, which accounts for more than half of the world's economic output, also remains clouded by the threat of Europe's fiscal contagion.

After talks on Sunday, leaders were expected to release a statement expressing concern that Europe's unresolved debt troubles will spill over into the Asia-Pacific region and committing themselves to bolster their defenses.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde, who has warned that strains from the euro zone could hurt Asia, attended the Honolulu summit to consult with the leaders.

ASIAN ENGINE SLOWING

Unlike the United States, where the Federal Reserve has already cut interest rates to near zero, many Asian economies have room to reduce benchmark borrowing costs to try to spur faster growth. Most of them also boast healthy public finances, giving them more leeway to boost government spending.

Obama has predicted that Asia-Pacific countries could be an "extraordinary engine for growth" if the European crisis can at least be contained.

But that engine is slowing down and inflation-wary Asian leaders do not necessarily want to rev it back up. China is reluctant to unleash another huge stimulus package like the one in 2009 because of concern over wasteful spending.

China's economic growth will likely dip below 9 percent next year for the first time in a decade. That would still be four times faster than the U.S. economy is likely to grow.

Although leaders will put on a show of unity, the APEC summit revealed some growing rifts, particularly between the two biggest players -- the United States and China.

An aide said Obama cautioned Chinese President Hu Jintao that Americans are growing increasingly impatient and frustrated with the pace of change in China's economic policy.

The two met on Saturday and the White House said Obama was "very direct" with Hu about currency and trade issues.

The United States has long complained China keeps its currency, the yuan, artificially weak to give its exporters an advantage. China counters the yuan should rise only gradually to avoid harming the economy and driving up unemployment, which would hurt global growth.

Hu was quoted by Chinanews.com in Beijing on Sunday as saying a big appreciation in the yuan against the dollar would not help solve U.S. woes.

"The trade deficit and unemployment problems are not caused by the yuan exchange rate. Even a major appreciation of the yuan would not resolve the problems facing the United States," Hu said in comments echoed by China's foreign ministry.

(Reporting by Reuters APEC team; Additional reporting by Chris Buckley and Judy Hua in BEIJING; Writing by Matt Spetalnick and Emily Kaiser; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111114/bs_nm/us_apec1

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Angry over spying, Muslims say: 'Don't call NYPD'

In this Oct. 26, 2011, photo, Joseph Ramagli, left and Robin Gordon-Leavitt, law students at the City University of New York, teach a group of Muslims in the Brooklyn borough of New York how to identify a police informant. They were acting out an actual transcript of a recorded conversation between a police informant and his target. in the Brooklyn borough of New York, teach them about their rights in regard to an NYPD surveillance program targeting Muslims. Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to police with concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups. Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to an attorney before speaking with authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. (AP Photo/Chris Hawley)

In this Oct. 26, 2011, photo, Joseph Ramagli, left and Robin Gordon-Leavitt, law students at the City University of New York, teach a group of Muslims in the Brooklyn borough of New York how to identify a police informant. They were acting out an actual transcript of a recorded conversation between a police informant and his target. in the Brooklyn borough of New York, teach them about their rights in regard to an NYPD surveillance program targeting Muslims. Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to police with concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups. Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to an attorney before speaking with authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. (AP Photo/Chris Hawley)

This Oct. 26, 2011, photo shows Ramzi Kassem, a law professor with the City University of New York, teaches a group of Muslims in the Brooklyn borough of New York about their legal rights in relation to an NYPD surveillance program. in the Brooklyn borough of New York, teach them about their rights in regard to an NYPD surveillance program targeting Muslims. Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to police with concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups. Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to an attorney before speaking with authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. (AP Photo/Chris Hawley)

In this Oct. 27, 2011, Muslim women listen to Cyrus McGoldrick, a civil rights expert, at Brooklyn College in the Brooklyn borough of New York, teach them about their rights in regard to an NYPD surveillance program targeting Muslims. Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to police with concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups. Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to an attorney before speaking with authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. (AP Photo/Chris Hawley)

This Oct. 26, 2011, photo shows Robin Gordon-Leavitt, a law student at the City University of New York, teaching a group of Muslims in the Brooklyn borough of New York about their legal rights in relation to an NYPD surveillance program. The seminar was held at at Brooklyn College where police infiltrated a Muslim student group. in the Brooklyn borough of New York, teach them about their rights in regard to an NYPD surveillance program targeting Muslims. Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to police with concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups. Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to an attorney before speaking with authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. (AP Photo/Chris Hawley)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Fed up with a decade of the police spying on the innocuous details of the daily lives of Muslims, activists in New York are discouraging people from going directly to the police with their concerns about terrorism, a campaign that is certain to further strain relations between the two groups.

Muslim community leaders are openly teaching people how to identify police informants, encouraging them to always talk to a lawyer before speaking with the authorities and reminding people already working with law enforcement that they have the right to change their minds. Some members of the community have planned a demonstration for next week.

Some government officials point to this type of outreach as proof that Muslims aren't cooperating in the fight against terrorism, justifying the aggressive spy tactics, while many in the Muslim community view it as a way to protect themselves from getting snared in a secret police effort to catch terrorists.

As a result, one of America's largest Muslim communities ? in a city that's been attacked twice and targeted more than a dozen times ? is caught in a downward spiral of distrust with the nation's largest police department: The New York City Police Department spies on Muslims, which makes them less likely to trust police. That reinforces the belief that the community is secretive and insular, a belief that current and former NYPD officials have said was one of the key reasons for spying in the first place.

The outreach campaign follows an Associated Press investigation that revealed the NYPD had dispatched plainclothes officers to eavesdrop in Muslim communities, often without any evidence of wrongdoing. Restaurants serving Muslims were identified and photographed. Hundreds of mosques were investigated, and dozens were infiltrated. Police used the information to build ethnic databases on daily life inside Muslim neighborhoods.

Many of these programs were developed with the help of the CIA.

At a recent "Know Your Rights" session for Brooklyn College students, someone asked why Muslims who don't have anything to hide should avoid talking to police.

"Most of the time it's a fishing expedition," answered Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York. "So the safest thing you can do for yourself, your family and for your community, is not to answer."

New York Republican Rep. Peter King said this kind of reaction from the Muslim community is "disgraceful."

Muslim groups have previously organized educational programs around the country describing a person's legal rights, such as when they must present identification to a police officer and when they can refuse to answer police questions. A California chapter of a national Muslim organization produced a poster that warned Muslims not to talk to the FBI. The national organization ultimately asked the California branch to take down the poster.

In New York, the AP stories about the NYPD and internal police documents have outraged some Muslims and provided evidence of tactics that they suspected were being used to watch them all along. These disclosures have intensified the outreach campaigns in New York.

A recently distributed brochure from the City University of New York Law School warns people to be wary when confronted by someone who advocates violence against the U.S., discusses terror organizations, is overly generous or is aggressive in their interactions. The brochure said that person could be a police informant.

"Be very careful about involving the police," the brochure said. "If the individual is an informant, the police may not do anything ... If the individual is not an informant and you report them, the unintended consequences could be devastating."

Sweeping skepticism of police affects community relations with all levels of law enforcement on a wide range of issues, not just the NYPD's counterterrorism programs. Interactions with a real terror operative could go unreported to law enforcement out of an assumption that the operative is actually working for the NYPD. A victim of domestic abuse or street violence may not trust the police enough to call for help.

Retired New York FBI agent Don Borelli said intelligence gathering is key to police work, not just in terrorism cases. But he said it can backfire when people feel their rights are being violated.

"When they do, these kinds of programs are actually counterproductive, because they undermine trust and drive a wedge between the community and police," said Borelli, now a security consultant with the Soufan Group.

Since the 2001 terror attacks, the NYPD, city government officials and federal law enforcement have spent years building relationships with the New York Muslim community, assuring many Muslims that they are considered partners in the city's fight against terrorism. But in some cases, community members who have been hailed as partners and even dined with Mayor Michael Bloomberg were secretly followed by the NYPD or worked in mosques that the department had infiltrated, according to secret NYPD documents obtained by the AP.

"There's not a reference here to the fact that New York is the No. 1 target of Islamic terrorists, that the NYPD and the FBI have protected New York," King said, referring to one of the recent brochures about detecting police informants.

King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, has held a series of hearings about the threat of radicalization within American Muslim communities and the level of cooperation members of the community provide to law enforcement. Muslim and civil rights advocacy groups have decried the hearings and pointed to terror cases around the country in which members of the Muslim community helped law enforcement foil plots.

New York Muslim community groups say they've held dozens of meetings for people who are worried about police surveillance and the NYPD's counterterrorism programs. In one instance, an audience of college students watched as a law student played out the role of a police informant and another played the role of the person the informant was targeting. The goal was to teach people to spot informants.

"Stay away from these people. That's one of the most powerful things you can do," said Robin Gordon-Leavitt, a member of an advocacy organization Creating Law Enforcement Accountability and Responsibility.

At another meeting, organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, students watched a film of two actors portraying FBI agents talking their way into a young Muslim's home and interrogating him. At the meeting, students were warned not to speak with police even if their parents, imams or Muslim clerics urge them to cooperate.

"You'll even hear imams saying, 'As long as I obey the law, I have nothing to worry about.' But that's not how it plays out on the ground," said Cyrus McGoldrick, CAIR New York's civil rights manager.

CAIR has had a strained relationship with law enforcement and was named an unindicted co-conspirator in a terrorist financing case.

The Muslim community wants an independent commission to investigate all NYPD and CIA operations in the Muslim community.

___

Sullivan reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Matt Apuzzo and Adam Goldman contributed to this report from Washington.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-11-14-NYPD%20Intelligence/id-6ab9c5e42dab4e8c99f6864a34b8be4d

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