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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:50

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - U.S. Highway 550 is shut down in central Sandoval County as an 18-wheel tanker truck loaded with propane burns out of control.

New Mexico State Police report no injuries have been reported, but the highway is closed in both directions around mile marker 27.

That's 27 miles northwest of Interstate 25 and about four miles west of San Ysidro.

Police are stopping northbound traffic at San Ysidro and southbound traffic at Cuba. Shortly before 6 p.m. police said the closure is expected to last a couple of hours.

As of 8 p.m. the road remained closed, according to the state Department of Transportation.

The fire was reported about 5:10 p.m. At last report the cab and trailer were fully engulfed in flames.

State Police said the fire is being treated as a hazardous-materials incident.

Four-lane U.S. 550 is the main route connecting central New Mexico and the Four Corners, will reopen.

Garry Kasparov was among the more than 30 people arrested at a protest in Moscow over the guilty verdict handed down to three members of the punk band Pussy Riot.

OUR EDITOR RECOMMENDS

Pussy Riot Found Guilty of Hooliganism by Russian Court

Paul McCartney Pledges Support for Jailed Russian Punk Rockers Pussy Riot

The former chess world champion and current opposition politician was speaking with journalists when he was cornered by police, according to his Facebook page.

"Garry Kasparov has just been arrested outside the Moscow courthouse where the Pussy Riot trial is taking place," a first post announced. "He was not there to protest, simply to attend, and the police cornered him and dragged him into the police van."

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Source: Telegraaf.nl - prive

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:31

zo 19 aug 2012, 13:52

van onze redactieAMSTERDAM - Madonna heeft zich uitgelaten over de veroordeling van de Russische meidengroep Pussy Riot.

Madonna vindt de veroordeling 'hardvochtig' en 'onmenselijk'. Ze doet een oproep om de meiden zo snel mogelijk vrij te krijgen.

"Ze hebben lang genoeg vast gezeten.Ik roep Rusland op Pussy Riot vrij te laten."

De drie zangeressen werden vrijdag veroordeeld tot twee jaar celstraf. Jekaterina Samoetsjevitsj (29), Maria Aljochina (24) en Nadja Tolokonnikova (22) zouden opzettelijk de orde hebben verstoord en de gevoelens van gelovigen uit haat tegen het Russisch-orthodoxe geloof enorm hebben gekwetst.

Pussy Riot drong op 21 februari tijdens een dienst de kathedraal van Christus de Verlosser vlak bij het Kremlin binnen en zongen een 'punkgebed' over de huidige president Vladimir Poetin en de Russisch-Orthodoxe Kerk. Zij vroegen de Maagd Maria om Poetin af te zetten.

Proefabonnement, 10 weken '‚¬ 30,-!(C) 1996-2012 Telegraaf Media Nederland | Landelijke Media B.V., Amsterdam.Alle rechten voorbehouden.e-mail: redactie-i@telegraaf.nlPrivacy | Cookies | Disclaimer

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Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:24

West's "Pussy Riot" media coverage worse than "Soviet era" propaganda. by Tony Cartalucci August 6, 2012 - Accurately described as bigots and hooligans, the 3 member musical band known as "Pussy Riot" is now on trial for "hooliganism motivated by religious hatred." This came after they burst into a church in Moscow, disturbing the peace while mocking the beliefs of practitioners in an attempt to protest against Russian President Vladimir Putin. Had skinheads done something similar in a synagogue in the West, surely they'd have long ago paid steep fines and begun their lengthy jail sentences for "public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity" (and here).

The Guardian's article titled, "Pussy Riot trial 'worse than Soviet era'," opens immediately with overt propaganda, describing the courtroom and Russian flag as "shabby" and a police dog as "in search of blood." The British paper attempts to portray Russia itself as having a "stark divide" between conservatives and liberals, the latter fighting against the state "with any means it can."

Already the Guardian runs into trouble - by portraying Russia as "divided" it is dismissing recent elections that granted Vladimir Putin and his United Russia party a sound mandate to lead the country. And while it is true that in reality, between voter turnout and Putin's garnering the support of 63% of those that did turn out (in a 5-way race), only about 40% of Russia's total registered voters actually voted for Putin, his mandate is still sounder than that of US President Barack Obama's 32% in a mere 2-way race, or last year's victory here in Thailand by Yingluck Shinawatra with a tenuous 35%, a victory hailed by the Western media as a "sweeping" mandate.

Image: Screenshot taken from the National Endowment for Democracy website featuring US funding for the NGO "GOLOS." GOLOS allegedly was searching for "election irregularities" in Russia's recent elections" GOLOS and other US-backed NGOs and opposition parties are now attempting to trigger an "Arab Spring" in Russia. (click to enlarge.)

It should also be noted that Russia's recent elections were marred by election monitoring NGO "GOLOS" attempting to call the results fraudulent. It would be later revealed that this NGO, billed as "independent" by the Western press, was in fact funded and directed by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). Attempts by Wall Street and London to frame the elections as fraudulent set the groundwork for a wider campaign of political destabilization - a campaign "Pussy Riot" has now become a key player in.Tasteless PR Stunt the Work of the US State Department

The Guardian however is absolutely correct when they call the "Pussy Riot" proceedings a "show trial." However, they are wrong in claiming that the showmanship is the work of the Russian Federation. Instead, it is showmanship put on by the Western media and the US State Department's vast network of faux-NGOs.

The Guardian's entire article is propaganda written with a literary rather than journalistic tone. The article itself cites the defendant's lawyer whose comments form the very basis of the article's title. And while the Guardian may prey successfully on the emotions of ill-informed, unsuspecting, but well-intentioned readers, it lets slip several telling clues as to who is really behind the showmanship.

According to the Guardian, the defense "tried to call 13 witness, including opposition leader Alexey Navalny." Navalny, of course, is a longtime operative receiving both political and financial support from the West in efforts to undermine the Russian government and bring back the days of Wall Street and London's unhindered plundering that marked the 1990's.

Alexey Navalny was a Yale World Fellow, and in his profile it states:

"Navalny spearheads legal challenges on behalf of minority shareholders in large Russian companies, including Gazprom, Bank VTB, Sberbank, Rosneft, Transneft, and Surgutneftegaz, through the Union of Minority Shareholders. He has successfully forced companies to disclose more information to their shareholders and has sued individual managers at several major corporations for allegedly corrupt practices. Navalny is also co-founder of the Democratic Alternative movement and was vice-chairman of the Moscow branch of the political party YABLOKO. In 2010, he launched RosPil, a public project funded by unprecedented fundraising in Russia. In 2011, Navalny started RosYama, which combats fraud in the road construction sector."The Democratic Alternative, also written DA!, is indeed a National Endowment for Democracy fund recipient, meaning that Alexey Navalny is an agent of US-funded sedition. And despite posing as a champion for "transparency," Navalny is willfully hiding this from his followers. The US State Department itself reveals this as they list "youth movements" operating in Russia:"DA!: Mariya Gaydar, daughter of former Prime Minister Yegor Gaydar, leads DA! (Democratic Alternative). She is ardent in her promotion of democracy, but realistic about the obstacles she faces. Gaydar said that DA! is focused on non-partisan activities designed to raise political awareness. She has received funding from the National Endowment for Democracy, a fact she does not publicize for fear of appearing compromised by an American connection."Navalny was involved directly in founding a movement funded by the US government and to this day has the very people who funded DA! defending him throughout Western media. The mention of co-founder Mariya Gaydar is also revealing, as she has long collaborated, and occasionally has been arrested with, Ilya Yashin, yet another leader of a NED-funded Russian "activist" opposition group.Photo: Alexei Navalny, Yale World Fellow and co-founder of US National Endowment for Democracy Da! or "Democratic Alternative/Yes in Russian." It is yet another Otpor-esque organization courtesy of the United States government and willful traitors to their motherland.If "Pussy Riot's" defense is calling up a documented agent of Western interests as a "witness," one wonders under what context and to what degree Navalny, and by consequence, the National Endowment for Democracy, is involved with the defendants. Navalny admits that he is "acquainted" with one of the band members, but was not actually a "witness," and rather would have testified in order to "defend law and justice."Clearly then, the defense's attempts to include him in the trial were politically motivated, having nothing to do with either law or justice, and serves simply as a means to link "Pussy Riot" to the US State Department's subversive opposition, many of whose leaders were caught filing into the US Embassy in Moscow earlier this year.

Also telling, is that Oksana Chelysheva - board member of the Finnish-Russian Civic Forum and a steering committee member of the NED, convicted criminal George Soros Open Society-funded FIDH, Open Society, Ford Foundation, Sigrid Rausing Trust-funded Front Line Defenders, and US State Department-run Amnesty International-affiliated EU-Russia Civil Society Forum - is heading "Pussy Riot's" support campaign.

Images: "Pussy Riot's" support campaign is spearheaded by Oksana Chelysheva of the US State Department-funded "Russian-Chechen Friendship Society," a clearing house for Chechen terrorist propaganda. Along with US State Department-subsidized Alexey Navalny and the West's media outlets on their side, the hooligan anti-establishment "punk rockers" now on trial in Moscow have a decidedly "establishment" backing. (click images to enlarge) Chelysheva was also "Deputy Executive Director" of the Russian-Chechen Friendship Society, fully funded by the US State Department via the National Endowment for Democracy. The "Friendship Society" was essentially a public relations front of Al Qaeda-aligned Chechen terrorists ravaging Russia's Caucasus region - a plot offered new relevance as the US, NATO, and Gulf States openly support similar groups of terrorists now ravaging Syria. The "Friendship Society" served a similar function to the now discredited "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights." While it is unknown, so far, whether or not the members of "Pussy Riot" were contacted by any of these groups, or by the US State Department or its subsidiaries to carry out their hooliganism, it is clear that these groups and the US State Department itself has turned an otherwise tasteless disturbance of peace and a violation of Church-goers' rights to practice their faith without harassment, into a point of political leverage against Russia.

Helping to push down on this political lever are propaganda outfits like the Guardian, portraying the trial as a case of liberal Russian opposition groups fighting against a judicial throwback to the Soviet Union. In reality, it is another Wall Street-London production in the same vein as Serbia's US-funded Otpor movement, the Kony 2012 fraud and the US-engineered "Arab Spring."

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 20:05

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Source: WT news feed

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:46

According to Walid Shoebat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton adviser and former Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner wife, Huma Abedin, was an executive board member of the Muslim Students Association circa 1996-97.

In addition to Huma Abedin returning to the United States circa 1996 and landing a job with both Hillary Clinton and the Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs (IMMA), she also joined the Muslim Students Association (MSA) Executive Board at George Washington University.

The following screen shot is courtesy of Wayback Machine and shows that in 1997, Huma Abedin served on the MSA Executive Board as the Head of Social Committee.

The Muslim Students Association is a bona fide Muslim Brotherhood front group. Patrick Poole wrote a report on the MSA here at the Tatler in February 2011, in which he detailed connections between the MSA, the Muslim Brotherhood, and international Islamist terrorism.

Abedin's past membership in the MSA does not mean that she agrees with the group or its goals now. But that membership does indicate that Abedin agreed with the MSA at one time, and shows that Rep. Michele Bachmann et al's questions about Muslim Brotherhood influence on the US State Department are based in facts about the past and present beliefs of figures like Abedin.

At a time when the Muslim Brotherhood is taking power across the Middle East, and when its offspring include Hizballah, Hamas and al Qaeda, it is reasonable to expect that such a group would seek to influence the US government and its foreign policy. It would be delusional and naive to assume that the group has no such interest.

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Thu, 16 Aug 2012 22:36

MPAC's Hollywood Bureau serves as a bridge between the Muslim community and the entertainment industry. The Bureau is responsible for advancing Muslim American perspectives in the entertainment industry by serving as an information clearinghouse in Islam for the Hollywood community. The Bureau also works with the Muslim American community to nurture creative talent and connect aspiring Muslim filmmakers, writers and actors with Hollywood professionals.

MPAC experts provide information, background, and consultation that addresses cultural and religious sensitivities in such areas as civil rights, politics, foreign affairs, art, culture, history, law, family issues and more.

WHAT THE HOLLYWOOD BUREAU OFFERS

Fostering Relationships with Industry ProfessionalsBureau staff meet regularly with executives, producers, directors, screenwriters and actors to develop mutually beneficial relationships, and share expertise and insight that can lead to financially and critically successful projects.

Consulting on Film and TV ProjectsThe Bureau works with studios and production companies to serve as a consultant on film and television projects that depict Islam or have an impact on the Muslim community. The Bureau seeks to promote balanced and accurate portrayals of Muslim-related issues in such movies and shows, as well as educate the filmmakers and producers about religious, political and cultural issues in the Muslim world in order to give deeper context to their creative work.

Networking EventsThe Bureau will host events in order to create opportunities for industry insiders to interact with aspiring Muslim filmmakers with the goal of facilitating Muslim American involvement in Hollywood. It will also provide opportunities for studios and filmmakers to screen their work before Muslim audiences and gather feedback.

Honoring Voices of Courage and ConscienceIn coordination with the MPAC Foundation, the Bureau recognizes professionals in the entertainment industry whose work offers humanizing and multi-dimensional portrayals of Islam and Muslims. The Media Awards gala dinner honors artists, actors, authors, and activists for their artistic contributions in promoting diversity and mutual understanding.

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:54

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:49

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:50

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:47

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Source: VK: Home

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 15:58

Bewerkt door: Redactie ''18/08/12, 16:46 '' bron: AFP

(C) AFP. Een Tsjechische agent tijdens een oefening op 18 april jl. Foto ter illustratie.

De Tsjechische politie heeft in Ostrava, in het noord-oosten van het land, een 29-jarige man opgepakt die van plan was om aanslagen te plegen zoals de Noorse massamoordenaar Anders Breivik die vorig jaar in Noorwegen pleegde. De arrestant zou een grote bom willen laten ontploffen. In zijn woning werden explosieven, een politie-uniform en een automatisch pistool gevonden.

Volgens Radovan Vojta, chef van de politie in Ostrava, zou hij een afstandsbediening bij zich hebben gehad om een bom te laten ontploffen. Het is niet duidelijk wat het doel was van de man. Vojta zei dat er nog onderzoek gedaan moet worden naar de motieven van de man. Hij wordt aan Breivik gelinkt, omdat hij de naam van de Noorse massamoordenaar gebruikte op internet.

De identiteit van de arrestant is niet bekend gemaakt. Wel is bekend dat hij vijf keer eerder werd veroordeeld. De laatste keer in 2010, hij kreeg toen zes maanden cel voor een poging een zelfgemaakte bom tot ontploffing te brengen voor een benzinestation. Het Tsjechische persbureau CTK interviewde de buren van de man, die zeiden dat er niets op wees dat de arrestant extreem-rechtse sympathien zou koesteren. Hij zou in de war zijn.

Op 22 juli vorig jaar liet Anders Behring Breivik in Oslo een bom ontploffen, daarna schoot hij jongeren dood tijdens een jongerenkamp van de sociaal-democratische partij op het eiland Utoya. In totaal kwamen 77 mensen om het leven. Breivik motiveerde zijn moorden door te zeggen dat hij Noorwegen wilde behoeden voor de multiculturele samenleving.

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Source: Global Security Newswire Daily News

Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:01

Medical practitioners in the Tampa, Fla., area have been asked to be "extra vigilant" as they forward information on disease incidents to public health officials ahead of this month's GOP convention, the Associated Press reported on Friday (see GSN, March 12).

Any signs of a biological weapons attack that could involve such highly infectious disease agents as plague or smallpox are of interest to health authorities in advance of, amid and following the event, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Officials also want to be informed quickly of unexpected fatalities of people with no known medical issues, a major contagious disease with no obvious explanation and other health danger indicators.

The Republican National Convention is to take place in Tampa from Aug. 27 through 30 and is to be attended by presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney and vice president pick Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), among a host of others (Associated Press/Sacramento Bee, Aug. 17).

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 04:31

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Source: Twitter / BreakingNews

Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:41

Injunction Won't Stop Aerial Spraying: Judge Clay Jenkins

Dallas Co. Judge Clay Jenkins says aerial spraying will go ahead despite an injunction filed Thursday.

More Photos and VideosA much-rumored injunction to stop aerial spraying was never filed by the time the Dallas County courthouse closed on Thursday, apparently leaving no legal way to prevent the process from beginning as planned at 10 pm.

Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins had fueled the speculation earlier in the day when he said an injunction had been filed and would not work, however, the injuction was never filed.

The aerial spraying has been deemed necessary to curb the population of mosquitoes carrying West Nile virus in Dallas County, where 10 people have died after contracting the virus and hundreds more have become infected.

"As long as we are under the state of emergency, and these disaster declarations, the spraying will go forward. We are going to take the steps necessary today to ensure that the home rule cities have the capability to protect their citizens," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said he did not know specifics and it was not clear how he was misinformed.

"What the CDC tells me, as far as that goes, in the most hard-hit areas, the delay in spraying can be counted in the number of West Nile cases and potential deaths and so we're not going to let that happen. The spraying will happen," Jenkins said.

Jenkins said he believes the county and the municipalities have acted appropriately by filing emergency declarations this week, allowing for the decision to approve aerial spraying without the need for a vote of council members.

Opponents to the aerial spraying are concerned about the affects the adulticide may have on people and pets. While the adulticide, Duet, is considered safe by the EPA, residents are advised to take the following precautions: Avoid being outside, close windows and bring pets inside during spraying. If exposed, wash skin and clothing with soap and water. Residents should also rinse homegrown fruits and vegetables with water and cover ornamental fish ponds.

Spraying is planned for Thursday night between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. inside an area bound by Interstate 635 to the north and east, the Dallas North Tollway to the west and Interstate 30 to the south. The target area covers 49,000 acres and includes University Park, Highland Park and all of east Dallas.

An additional 20,000 acres may be added late Thursday.

NBC 5's Ben Russell, Scott Gordon, and Frank Heinz contributed to this report.

Viral encephalitis can occur either as a direct effect of an acute infection, or as one of the sequelae of a latent infection. The most common causes of acute viral encephalitis are rabies virus, Herpes simplex, poliovirus, measles virus, and JC virus.[1] Other causes include infection by flaviviruses such as Japanese encephalitis virus, St. Louis encephalitis virus or West Nile virus, or by Togaviridae such as Eastern equine encephalitis virus (EEE virus), Western equine encephalitis virus (WEE virus) or Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEE virus).

DYNAMIC AVLEASE INC

BRIDGEWATER, VA

American Mosquito Control Association

www.mosquito.org

n 1997, at the urging of Dr. Robert Rose of the EPA's Office of Pesticide Programs, the American Mosquito Control Association became a "Partner" in the EPA's Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP). The goal of this partnership program is to encourage reducing pesticide risk. Initially within the AMCA, a PESP Working Group was formed and as part of the original partnership application, a Strategy Document was developed. This document provided an overview of the mosquito control industry's methodologies and how they contribute to reducing pesticide risk. Later, the Working Group developed criteria allowing State and Regional mosquito control associations to become a "PESP Partner under the AMCA's auspices". Through 2004, seven associations have become partners in this program. Beginning in 2005, the AMCA Board of Directors and the PESP Working Group are allowing individual AMCA Sustaining Member mosquito control operations to apply for partnership. The AMCA's PESP participation has been rewarded with the Association receiving a "PESP Excellence Award for pesticide risk reduction" in November 1999. In October 2003, the AMCA was chosen as a "PESP Champion for demonstrating outstanding efforts towards risk reduction and exhibiting an extraordinary level of commitment to our common goals". As a partnership requirement, annual reports are provided to the EPA documenting activities in which the AMCA is promoting PESP goals.

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:10

Syrian security forces have retaken control over more areas in the country's northern city of Aleppo, as neighborhoods are being cleared of insurgents.

A Syrian Army official in Aleppo said on Thursday that after two days of a major operation in the city's Sayf al-Dawla neighborhood, Army troops managed to inflict heavy losses on the insurgents fighting the Syrian government, and forced many of the anti-government elements to surrender.

The official added that there were foreign nationals among the insurgents.

Security forces also engaged the insurgents in Aleppo's other neighborhoods, including al-Sukkari and al-Hellok.

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Source: The Guardian World News

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:14

Bashar al-Assad attends prayers at al-Hamad mosque in Damascus. Photograph: Sana/REUTERS

Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, has attended Eid prayers in a mosque in Damascus, his first appearance in public after a bombing in the Syrian capital last month that killed the defence minister and three other top security officials.

Elsewhere across Syria on Sunday, thousands held anti-government protests in mosques and cemeteries to mark Eid al-Fitr, a holiday when pious Muslims traditionally visit graves and pray for the dead.

The three-day holiday marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which was particularly deadly in Syria as the 18-month-old uprising reached the country's two largest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

Amateur video posted by activists on the internet showed a large group of worshippers in a mosque at al-Zahera district in Damascus shouting: "There is no God but Allah and Assad is the enemy of God," while clapping their hands over their heads.

"May God protect the Free Syrian Army!" they also cried, referring to the main rebel group fighting to topple Assad.

Syrians also protested in many other parts of the country, demanding freedom and calling for Assad to go.

Opposition groups reported fierce artillery shelling that targeted a main cemetery in the rebel-held town of Rastan, north of the central city of Homs, as people visited the graves of dead relatives, but the reports could not be independently confirmed.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said one woman was killed in the shelling on Rastan.

Meanwhile, Syrian state TV broadcast footage showing Assad praying at the city's Rihab al-Hamad mosque, a relatively small mosque in al-Muhajireen district only a few hundred metres from the presidential palace, to mark the start of Eid.

Residents of Damascus said security forces blocked streets and encircled several central mosques in the capital on Saturday evening, possibly to confuse people about where Assad would attend the traditional holiday prayers.

Unlike previous years, Assad was not shown arriving or leaving in his convoy '' only seated on the mosque floor, wearing a suit and tie, and later, standing and briefly shaking hands with officials.

"All this points to a state of confusion and lack of confidence at the leadership level," said Syria-based activist Mohammad Saeed. "It shows they don't have security in the capital under control."

The last time Assad appeared in public was on 4 July, when he gave a speech in parliament.

Since then, there has been a sharp escalation in the civil war with almost daily fighting in some districts of the capital between security forces and rebels seeking to topple Assad.

The Syrian regime has suffered a series of setbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on the country.

The 18 July rebel bombing of the state security headquarters in the capital was a major blow to Assad. His brother-in-law was among the four officials killed.

There has also been a steady stream of high-level defections by government officials, diplomats and generals, though Assad's inner-circle and military have largely kept their cohesive stance behind him. And the regime has been unable to fully subdue rebel challenges in the two major cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

Assad's appearance comes amid much speculation on the whereabouts of Syria's vice president, Farouk al-Sharaa, who was said by some members of the Free Syrian Army to have defected to the opposition. On Saturday, his office denied the reports and said Sharaa "did not think, at any moment, of leaving the country".

Sharaa did not appear in the footage at the mosque with Assad, but observers note the two rarely attend the same functions for security reasons.

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Sun, 19 Aug 2012 04:28

The removal of this individual from the SDN List is effective as of August 14, 2012.

Assistant Director, Compliance Outreach & Implementation,Office of Foreign Assets Control,Department of the Treasury,1500 Pennsylvania Avenue NW (Treasury Annex),Washington, DC 20220, Tel.: 202/622-2490.

This document and additional information concerning OFAC are available from OFAC's Web site (www.treas.gov/ofac) or via facsimile through a 24-hour fax-on-demand service, Tel.: 202/622-0077.

On May 18, 2011, the President issued Executive Order 13573, ''Blocking Property of Senior Officials of the Government of Syria,'' (the ''Order'') pursuant to, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-06). In the Order, the President took additional steps with respect to the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13338 of May 11, 2004, which was expanded in scope in Executive Order 13572 of April 29, 2011. The Order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with the Secretary of State, to designate additional persons or entities determined to meet certain criteria set forth in Executive Order 13573.

The Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control has determined that this individual should be removed from the SDN List.

The following designation is removed from the SDN List:

1. HIJAB, Riyad (a.k.a. HIJAB, Riyad Farid), Syria; DOB 1966; POB Deir Ezzor, Syria; Prime Minister (individual) [SYRIA].

The removal of this individual from the SDN List is effective as of August 14, 2012. All property and interests in property of the individual that are in or hereafter come within the United States or the possession or control of United States persons are now unblocked.

Dated: August 14, 2012.

Barbara C. Hammerle,

Acting Director, Office of Foreign Assets Control.

[FR Doc. 2012-20386 Filed 8-17-12; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 4811-AL-P

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Source: BBC News - Middle East

Sat, 18 Aug 2012 20:06

18 August 2012Last updated at 15:37 ET The Egyptian president is to visit Iran to attend meetings of the Non-Aligned Movement at the end of August, Egyptian media report.

If the visit to Tehran goes ahead, Mohammed Mursi's trip will be the first visit by an Egyptian head of state since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Previous reports suggested he might send his deputy, Mahmoud Mekki.

Egypt currently heads the movement, created during the Cold War to promote the interests of the developing world.

A visit by Mr Mursi could mark a thaw in relations between Iran and Egypt after decades of discord.

Egypt's formal recognition of Israel and Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution led, in 1980, to the breakdown of diplomatic relations between the two states.

Under former President Hosni Mubarak, Egypt sided with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-dominated Arab nations in a bid to isolate Shia-led Iran.

In June, Mr Mursi said he would sue an Iranian news agency after it quoted him as saying he would seek to restore relations with Tehran.

Jenny Gallagher, a nurse who treated victims of the highly suspicious "Batman" shooting in Aurora, Colorado last month, is dead at age 46. The reported cause of death: drowning.

"She worked the morning after the Batman massacre in a very busy unit of the hospital -- so she saw everything really, some really bad injuries," her husband Greg reportedly told Ireland's Herald earlier today.

The mass-shooting, which left 12 dead and 58 more injured at a midnight premiere of The Dark Knight Rises at Century theater, is widely suspected to have been a black operation (akin to Columbine or the Sikh Temple shooting) based on the available evidence, numerous inconsistencies and implausibilities in the "official story", the timing, and the way the event has been framed (some would say exploited) by certain powerful interests in the media and political arena.-

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Source: Twitter / BreakingNews

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:16

KHARTOUM, Sudan '-- The office of the Sudanese president says all 32 people on board died when a plane carrying a government delegation crashed in the country's south.

The crash in the early hours of Sunday killed the country's minister of endowment, Ghazi al-Sadeq, and a leading member of Sudan's Peace and Justice Party, Makki Balayela.

They were en route to the volatile South Kordofan state, to attend prayers for a Muslim holiday.

Earlier reports from Sudan's state news agency SUNA said the plane crashed "due to harsh weather conditions" in a mountainous area near Talodi, a small town about 650 kilometers, or 406 miles, southwest of the capital, Khartoum.

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Source: euronews

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:06

At least two people were killed and two others wounded when three car bombs went off in the centre of the Libyan capital Tripoli.Both the dead were civilians.The blasts happened near to the Interior Ministry and women's police academy which has been used recently by'...

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Source: Reuters: World News

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:47

MANILA | Sun Aug 19, 2012 7:07am EDT

MANILA (Reuters) - The Philippines has widened a search for the interior minister and two pilots a day since they went missing after a twin-engine light plane carrying them plunged into the sea off the central island of Masbate, the navy commander said on Sunday.

Five navy and coastguard ships, nine aircraft and eight teams of divers searched waters off Masbate for the wreckage of a six-seat Piper Aircraft Seneca plane carrying Interior Minister Jesse Robredo on Saturday.

Security officials said Robredo, 54, was aboard with his bodyguard and two pilots. Only the bodyguard is known to have survived. Fishermen found him floating about 300 meters from the shoreline.

A U.S. military aircraft, equipped with infrared and Sonar, has also joined the search after one navy ship detected some metal on the seabed.

"The process is that if something is detected, it will have to be checked by divers," Vice Admiral Alexander Pama, the navy chief, told reporters in Manila. "There is still no confirmation. We don't want to call it search and recovery."

Pama said there is still hope for a miracle to find the minister alive, but he told Reuters the search area has been widened every hour that passed because of the strong currents in the sea around Masbate.

President Benigno Aquino and his defense minister Voltaire Gazmin, flew to Masbate on Sunday to monitor developments in the search and rescue.

Robredo visited the police training centre in Cebu on Saturday and was returning home to Camarines Sur province when his plane malfunctioned, forcing the pilots to seek the nearest airfield on Masbate.

Witnesses told police they saw the plane crash into the sea, about 500 meters (1,640 feet) from the airport runway.

Robredo is Aquino's close political ally and was presented with a Magsaysay Award, Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize, in 2000 for reforms introduced as mayor of Naga City in the central Philippines.

(Reporting By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Ed Lane)

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Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:48

19 August 2012Last updated at 06:11 ET US TV host Jay Leno has taken a pay cut to save the jobs of other members of staff working on the popular late night talk show The Tonight Show.

Some 20 staff reportedly lost their jobs on Friday, as broadcaster NBC moves to reduce the show's costs.

"Jay's foremost concern is for the wonderful people who work with him at The Tonight Show," said Bruce Bobbins, a spokesman for Leno.

Reports suggest his salary will drop by more than $5 million (£3m) to $20m.

"He did what was necessary to ensure their well-being," said Mr Bobbins.

Leno's current salary is between $25 million and $30 million (£16-19m), and it is understood he volunteered to take a pay cut if it would save some jobs.

Reports suggest his annual pay will now be closer to $20 million (£12.8m). He reportedly brings home another $15-$20m annually through personal appearances as a stand-up comedian.

Other senior staff on The Tonight Show are also believed to have agreed to pay cuts.

Weekly budget

While the show remains the most watched late night show in the US, it struggles to make any money, according to experts inside the industry.

The job cuts and salary reductions - first reported by Deadline.com - are believed to be part of a restructuring programme that will see the show's weekly production budget, estimated to be around $2.3 million, cut by 25% to $1.7m.

NBC Universal has declined to comment.

Leno has presented the talk show since taking over from host Johnny Carson in 1992. However, he briefly left in 2009 for a primetime slot on the network, and was replaced by Conan O'Brien.

But ratings for both shows slumped and NBC took the decision to move Leno's new show to his original 23:35 slot and move O'Brien and the Tonight Show to after midnight.

Following an acrimonious dispute, O'Brien evenutally quit with a $33m (£20m) pay-off after eight months, and Leno returned as host of The Tonight Show in March 2010.

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Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:16

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While doing an open Q&A on the community website Reddit, CEO-Luke Muehlhauser explains that the superhuman AI would end up 'optimizing' the entire globe and starving resources from humans. In other words, the AI would suppress humans similar to the premise of iRobot or other similar works. This is particularly interesting when considering that artificial bodies and brains have been promised first to the wealthy elite by the 2045 program creator, allowing world rulers and the financial elite to achieve 'immortality' and subsequently a never-ending rule over the humans of the world.

Muehlhauser explains how humans would become a 'prey' to the ruthless 'super-human' AI with the completion of Singularity:

"Unfortunately, the singularity may not be what you're hoping for. By default the singularity (intelligence explosion) will go very badly for humans... so by default superhuman AIs will end up optimizing the world around us for something other than what we want, and using up all our resources to do so."

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:51

Adam,

I think you misstated exactly what a Green on Blue attack is. You referred to it as an Army attack on Police and while that would seem to make sense based on the typical colors of Army Units (green) and Police Units (blue) it is incorrect.

In the first Gulf War in 1991 there were several incidents of US troops attacking other US troops because they thought they were the bad guys. These incidents were termed as Blue-on-Blue. I believe the term actually originates from the color of the symbols used on US military maps. Historically US military units have been represented by blue symbols.

A lot of these incidents happened at night because US Doctrine was in the process of changing to a "We Own the Night," system where everyone in every unit was using NODS (Night Observation Device), or happened in bad weather or smoky situations where typical visual id was not useful they figured out they needed some technological way to keep abreast of the situation.

So after the first Gulf War they spent god knows how much money to develop the "Blue Force Tracker," a computerized moving map system that shows dynamically the positions of all US military units at all times in all weather conditions with US units represented by blue icons/symbology. I believe it uses their Battlespace management systems which integrates their mesh network with basically a aircraft type transponder with IFF-Integrated Friend or Foe capability plus the ability to include more data (Unit name, specific vehicle/unit id, GPS id-speed, heading, altitude) than an aircraft type system of number & altitude (3221, squawk ident). I have seen some systems built by Honeywell in HumVees. It is supposed to allow everyone on the ground and in the air to have total situational awareness of the Battlespace. Apparently it also uses battlefield deployed systems to allow increased GPS precision like what they have done with GPS approach & landing systems here in the US. Increased precision on the battlefield is a good thing when you are dropping JDAM's in close proximity to troops. Remember the US Army's failed LandWarrior system? They wanted to bring this down to the individual rifleman in the field using a 45 pound system of sensors, computers, eye displays and batteries. They have since killed most of LandWarrior but there are still projects to run a simplified system a la "Find My Friends/Foursquare" on modified Android handsets.

So in current parlance in A-Stan a Green-on-Blue incident is Green-either ANA-Afghan National Army or ANP-Afghan National Police on Blue-US Forces.

Sorry for the lengthy reply, just wanted you to have some better intel. Keep up the great work. Congrats to you & the missus', I hope your trip home is a safe one.

In the morning,

Mike

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video

On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's The Cycle the group discussed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's assertion that President Obama should ''take [his] campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.'' Co-host Tour(C) saw what he believes to be explicit racial connotations beneath what Romney was saying, calling it the ''niggerization'' of the campaign.

''That really bothered me,'' he said. ''You notice he said anger twice. He's really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the 'otherization,' he's not like us.''

''I know it's a heavy thing, I don't say it lightly, but this is 'niggerization,''' Tour(C) said to the apparent shock of his co-panelists. ''You are not one of us, you are like the scary black man who we've been trained to fear.''

Naturally this led to a battle between Tour(C) and conservative co-host S.E. Cupp. She took particular issue with the fact that Tour(C) admitted that VP Joe Biden's ''chains'' comments were divisive, but is now calling Romney a ''racist'' for saying the Obama campaign is ''angry.''

''Do you see how dishonest that is?'' she asked.

- RELATED: Biden's Staff Tried To Influence Reporting On His Virginia Trip, According To Report

Tour(C) denied calling anyone a racist, which prompted Cupp to say, ''Certainly you were implying that Mitt Romney and the base will respond to this dog-whistle, racially-charged coding, and hate Obama, the angry black man?''

''Absolutely,'' he replied.

''That's so irresponsible,'' Cupp answered back.

''This is not a revolutionary comment,'' Tour(C) later said. ''This is a constituency all-white party that rejects the black vote.''

''You have two white guys in Joe Biden and Mitt Romney,'' Cupp clarified. ''Joe Biden made the overtly racial comment and has a history of making bigoted remarks. Mitt Romney was responding to the comment. Yet he is the one responsible for the whole Republican history of racism in politics?''

''That's not what Tour(C) is saying,'' co-host Krystal Ball interjected. ''You're twisting his words.''

''No, he can speak for himself,'' Cupp shot back.

''He's using the playbook Republicans have been using for decades now,'' Tour(C) concluded.

Take a look below, via MSNBC:

'' ''>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 20:52

New York Times bestelling author Ed Klein gives more recent details regarding Valerie Jarrett's power in deciding nearly every aspect of the Obama administration:

EXCERPT:

Klein, whose book is No. 2 on the NYT bestseller list, quoted unnamed sources who revealed that top Obama aide Valerie Jarrett put the vice presidency on the table during a lunch with the secretary of state. ''The lunch was ostensibly about policy issues, but the subject of the vice presidency came up,'' he said. ''Hillary told Valerie Jarrett that she was not interested in running as Obama's vice president.''

Klein said she cited two reasons: If elected, she didn't want to be tied to Obama's left-leaning politics in her own 2016 bid. Second, if Obama loses, she would be tarred as a loser.

New on Friday: Klein told Secrets that Bill Clinton is working fast to get a 2016 Hillary for President campaign up and going. His sources told him that Clinton is sniffing around for a major donor to offer up a jet for the potential candidate to use. Also, Klein said, Clinton is looking for somebody to take over the Clinton Global Initiative ''so that he can devote his full time to Hillary's campaign.''

Klein has sources deep in the Clinton camp and he said that they said she is eager for a rest followed by a makeover. ''She clearly is exhausted. She needs to lose weight and get her energy back for a four-year slog.'' LINK

The document above, an invite for a Whitman-Walker Health clinic fundraising event tonight, doesn't look too good for journalist Gwen Ifill. As NewsBusters and the Blaze have alleged, there's an apparent conflict of interest in these words:

"Please join Gwen Ifill, managing editor of Washington Week and senior correspondent for the PBS News Hour, and the Whitman-Walker family as we honor United States Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius for advancements in health care."

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 23:42

A US drone strike launched in northern Pakistan killed five people reported as militants in a suspected militant hideout. The target was an unnamed warlord leader, who was not among the five killed.

As is usual, no hard information was provided about the individuals killed in the strike. Despite the fact that everybody knows about the drone war in Pakistan, the program is still technically secret and so the Obama administration refuses to answer questions about it. The underlying premise here being that it's none of the American people's business who their own government is killing.

The intended target was Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant commander whose forces frequently target US troops in neighboring Afghanistan. The five killed were said to be ''supporters'' of his, although this is unknown given the Obama administration's policy of automatically counting military age males in a strike zone a militant, unless posthumously proved otherwise.

Pakistan considers drone strikes into its territory a severe breach of its sovereignty. Despite repeated demands for Washington to stop bombing their country, the Obama administration has continued the drone war unabated.

Christof Heyns, UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has questioned the legality of America's drone war. ''Current targeting practices weaken the rule of law,'' he said. ''Killings may be lawful in an armed conflict [such as Afghanistan] but many targeted killings take place far from areas where it's recognized as being an armed conflict.''

UN rights chief Navi Pillay has raised similar concerns. ''Drone attacks do raise serious questions about compliance with international law,'' she said, after urging an investigation in June.

''I see the indiscriminate killings and injuries of civilians in any circumstances as human rights violations,'' she said, adding that, ''Because these attacks are indiscriminate it is very, very difficult to track the numbers of people who have been killed.''

Last 5 posts by John Glaser

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 00:05

Women's contraceptive options have evolved over time, but men have limited options. This could change following a new discovery. AAP/KRTUS researchers have identified a compound that may offer the first effective and hormone-free birth control pill for men.

The discovery, reported in medical journal Cell, is of a small molecule which the researchers found makes male mice reversibly infertile without destroying their sex drive.

''A pharmacologic approach to male contraception remains a longstanding challenge in medicine,'' the researchers, from the Baylor College of Medicine, University of Oxford and Harvard Medical School, said in the report.

''Toward this objective, we explored the spermatogenic effects of a selective small-molecule inhibitor (JQ1).''

Harvard Medical School's James Bradner said JQ1 is a new small molecule inhibitor of a bookmark placed throughout human genomes at regions of chromatin that are associated with gene activation.

''We developed JQ1 in my laboratory first as a cancer therapeutic with the idea that we might cause cancer cells to forget, in effect, that they are cancer,'' Dr Bradner said.

With the discovery that JQ1 effectively blocks the cell division necessary for normal sperm production, the researchers have also demonstrated quite clearly that it's possible to separate the male hormonal production of testosterone from sperm production and that you can interfere with one without interfering with another, said David de Kretser, founding director of the Monash Institute of Medical Research.

''It's a nice piece of work which describes a process that can be interfered with in terms of sperm development which basically does not interfere with the hormone secretions of the testis which define sex drive and masculinity,'' Professor de Krester said.

But couples looking for a quick and easy male contraceptive option might be disappointed.

''This was developed by injection '' I'm not sure it would survive being given by a pill,'' Professor de Krester said. ''The next step really would be trying to see if you could find a molecule that survived being swallowed.''

The development of a potential new contraceptive is also likely to very long and arduous process leading up to the first human studies, said Robert McLachlan, director of clinical research at Prince Henry's Institute of Medical Research.

''This requires industry partners, who at this point in time have been reluctant to engage in male contraceptive initiatives because of concerns such as side effects, efficacy and the size of the potential market,'' Professor McLachlan said.

However Moira O'Bryan, head of the Male Infertility and Germ Cell Biology Laboratory at Monash University, said the medical and social costs of unplanned pregnancies are enormous and studies from both academics and drug companies have repeatedly shown that there is a strong desire for male-based contraceptives.

''Although there is undoubtedly an urgent need for additional contraceptive options, the path between this paper and a new product is likely to be long,'' Professor O'Bryan said.

''Several doses of drug will need to be tested and the method of delivery improved. Frequent injections are unlikely to be acceptable to many.''

''It will be fascinating to see how JQ1 evolves, but we know that such pipelines may require 15 years of evaluation and there are many potential pitfalls along the journey,'' Professor McLachlan said.

Post a Comment TagsContraceptive pill

Related articles30 July 2012 Monday's medical myth: the pill affects long-term fertility 8 December 2011 Catholic church urged to give nuns the pill to protect against cancer21 October 2011 Why the contraceptive pill won't stop you sniffing out your soulmate21 July 2011 Birth control pill shrinks bones

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 22:33

We don't know whether global warming is causing the droughts seen around much of the United States this summerPhotograph by Scott Olson/Getty Images.

''Everyone knows'' that you should drink eight glasses of water a day. After all, this is the advice of a multitude of health writers, not to mention authorities like Britain's National Health Service. Healthy living now means carrying water bottles with us, sipping at all times, trying to drink our daily quota to ensure that we stay hydrated and healthy.

Indeed, often we drink without being thirsty, but that is how it should be: As the beverage maker Gatorade reminds us, ''your brain may know a lot, but it doesn't know when your body is thirsty.'' Sure, drinking this much does not feel comfortable, but Powerade offers this sage counsel: ''You may be able to train your gut to tolerate more fluid if you build your fluid intake gradually.''

Now the British Medical Journalreports that these claims are ''not only nonsense, but thoroughly debunked nonsense.'' This has been common knowledge in the medical profession at least since 2002, when Heinz Valtin, a professor of physiology and neurobiology at Dartmouth Medical School, published the first critical review of the evidence for drinking lots of water. He concluded that ''not only is there no scientific evidence that we need to drink that much, but the recommendation could be harmful, both in precipitating potentially dangerous hyponatremia and exposure to pollutants and also in making many people feel guilty for not drinking enough.''

The drink-more-water story is curiously similar to how ''everyone knows'' that global warming only makes climate more extreme. A hot, dry summer (in some places) has triggered another barrage of such claims. And, while many interests are at work, one of the players that benefits the most from this story are the media: the notion of ''extreme'' climate simply makes for more compelling news.

Consider Paul Krugman, writing breathlessly in the New York Times about the ''rising incidence of extreme events'' and how ''large-scale damage from climate change is '... happening now.'' He claims that global warming caused the current drought in America's Midwest, and that supposedly record-high corn prices could cause a global food crisis.

But the United Nations climate panel's latest assessment tells us precisely the opposite: For ''North America, there is medium confidencethat there has been an overall slight tendency toward less dryness (wetting trend with more soil moisture and runoff).'' Moreover, there is no way that Krugman could have identified this drought as being caused by global warming without a time machine: Climate models estimate that such detection will be possible by 2048, at the earliest.

And, fortunately, this year's drought appears unlikely to cause a food crisis. According to the Economist, ''price increases in corn and soybeans are not thought likely to trigger a food crisis, as they did in 2007-08, as global rice and wheat supplies remain plentiful.'' Moreover, Krugman overlooks inflation: Prices have increased six-fold since 1969, so, while corn futures did set a record of about $8 per bushel in late July, the inflation-adjusted price of corn was higher throughout most of the 1970s, reaching a whopping $16 in 1974.

Finally, Krugman conveniently forgets that concerns about global warming are the main reason that corn prices have skyrocketed since 2005. Nowadays 40 percent of corn grown in the United States is used to produce ethanol, which does absolutely nothing for the climate, but certainly distorts the price of corn'--at the expense of many of the world's poorest people.

Bill McKibben similarly frets in The Guardian and The Daily Beast about the Midwest drought and corn prices. Moreover, he confidently tells us that raging wildfires from New Mexico and Colorado to Siberia are ''exactly'' what the early stages of global warming look like.

In fact, the latest overview of global wildfire incidence suggests that, because humans have suppressed fire and decreased vegetation density, fire intensity has declined over the past 70 years and is now close to its preindustrial level.

When well-meaning campaigners want us to pay attention to global warming, they often end up pitching beyond the facts. And, while this may seem justified by a noble goal, such ''policy by panic'' tactics rarely work, and often backfire.

Remember how, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Al Gore (and many others) claimed that we were in store for ever more devastating hurricanes? Since then, hurricane incidence has dropped off the charts; indeed, by one measure, global accumulated cyclone energy has decreased to its lowest levels since the late 1970's. Exaggerated claims merely fuel public distrust and disengagement.

That is unfortunate, because global warming is a real problem, and we do need to address it. Warming will increase some extremes (it is likely that both droughts and fires will become worse toward the end of the century). But warming will also decrease other extremes, for example, leading to fewer deaths from cold and less water scarcity.

Similarly, there are real health problems'--and many of them. But focusing on the wrong ones'--like drinking a lot of water'--diverts our attention from more important issues. Telling tall tales may benefit those with a stake in the telling, but it leaves us all worse off.

This article was originally published by Project Syndicate. For more from Project Syndicate, visit their new Web site, and follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 17:06

Belgium has seven nuclear reactors at two plants, Doel and Tihange, owned by GDF Suez unit Electrabel. In 2009, atomic energy provided 55% of the country's electricity generation.

In 2009, Belgium decided to keep its oldest nuclear reactors running for 10 years longer than planned in 2003, but this change never came into force as the government that decided the measure lost power.

In 2011, the country's political parties reached a conditional agreement to shut down the three oldest reactors by 2015 and to abandon of nuclear energy by 2025. The agreement is conditional on finding enough energy from alternative sources to prevent shortages.

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Thu, 16 Aug 2012 23:38

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

By Debbie Emery - Radar Reporter

The criminal investigation into the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse case is a far from over as prosecutors claim they have a "great deal" of "highly incriminating" evidence that they never brought up during his trial that could lead to more charges.

The statements are part of a transcript released Thursday from a closed-door meeting held in June, after Sandusky had been found guilty of child sex abuse, reported ABCNews.com, that were kept secret for fear of interfering with an ongoing investigation.

"We turned over transcripts of other potential victims and transcripts relating to the Penn State University and some of the potential events involving Penn State's connection with this case that I think would be highly sought by the media and that would not be in the best interests of anybody, especially potentially ongoing matters to be disclosed," said Pennsylvania's deputy Attorney General Frank Fina.

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The Attorney General did not comment on who the investigation will be targeting, and it is not known if it is related to RadarOnline.com's recent exclusive report that both the FBI and a criminal investigative division of the United States Postal Service are looking into the possible existence of a pedophile ring that involved Sandusky sharing boys with other men connected to Penn State.

''Investigators have interviewed at least one man who claims to have knowledge of Sandusky, 68, and a very prominent man, with strong ties to Penn State, both sexually abusing a boy,'' a source familiar with the situation told RadarOnline.com.

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In June, the former Penn State assistant coach was found guilty of 45 counts of sexual assault against minors following allegations that ranged from rape to indecent touching, and covered a 15-year period involving ten victims.

The meeting was called after a recording of Jerry's son, Matt Sandusky, talking to the Pennsylvania attorney general was leaked to NBC. On the tape, Matt told prosecutors that his adopted father had acted inappropriately with him, a charge that stunned Sandusky's defense team in the middle of the trial.

Prosecutors, investigators and Jerry Sandusky's defense attorneys all denied supplying NBC with the recording, and asked the judge to institute an all-encompassing order sealing all of the evidence in the case, according to ABC.

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Fina revealed that only three copies of the tape existed, one of which was given to Sandusky's attorneys, Joseph Amendola and Karl Rominger and the others were held by the state. Rominger claims he never listened to the recording and it is "still in his car. I made no copies of it, and I have no copies of it."

Penn State athletic director, Tim Curley, and former vice president of finance, Gary Schultz, have already both been charged in connection with the Sandusky case, relating to lying to the grand jury and having prior knowledge of the abuse and it is not yet known who else will join them to face trial.

According to the internal investigation report released by former FBI director Louis Freeh in July, both Curley and Schultz, along with former head coachJoe Paterno and former university president Graham Spanier, all knew about two incidences in which Sandusky was showering with boys on Penn State's campus.

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Instead of reporting him to the police after a 1998 investigation, they merely banned the former football coach from bringing children onto campus '' which was then not enforced.

Spanier has not yet been charged but many believe that he could be the next on the chopping block for his role in covering up a 2001 abuse allegation against Sandusky from assistant coach Mike McQueary, and the newly released report "suggests potential liability for Spanier."

As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Joe Paterno died of lung cancer in January at age 85, he was diagnosed with the disease in November just days after he was ousted as PSU's head coach.

RELATED STORIES:Jerry Sandusky Found Guilty!Jerry Sandusky's Adopted Son Drops Bombshell: I'm A Victim Too!

Defense Abruptly Rests In Jerry Sandusky Sex Abuse Trial Without Him Testifying

Jerry Sandusky's Wife Dottie Testifies At His Child Sex Abuse Trial

Jerry Sandusky Labeled 'Pedophile' By Psychologist In 1998

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Source: BBC News - Middle East

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 06:35

17 August 2012Last updated at 15:22 A new threat targeting infrastructure in the energy industry has been uncovered by security specialists.

The attack, known as Shamoon, is said to have hit "at least one organisation" in the sector.

Shamoon is capable of wiping files and rendering several computers on a network unusable.

On Wednesday, Saudi Arabia's national oil company said an attack had led to its own network being taken offline.

Although Saudi Aramco did not link the issue to the Shamoon threat, it did confirm that the company had suffered a "sudden disruption".

In a statement, the company said it had now isolated its computer networks as a precautionary measure.

The disruptions were "suspected to be the result of a virus that had infected personal workstations without affecting the primary components of the network", a statement read.

It said the attack had had "no impact whatsoever" on production operations.

Rendered unusableOn Thursday, security firms released the first detailed information about Shamoon.

Experts said the threat was known to have had hit "at least one organisation" in the energy sector.

"It is a destructive malware that corrupts files on a compromised computer and overwrites the MBR (Master Boot Record) in an effort to render a computer unusable," wrote security firm Symantec.

Continue reading the main storyWhy would someone wipe files in a targeted attack and make the machine unusable?''

End QuoteSeculertThe attack was designed to penetrate a computer through the internet, before targeting other machines on the same network that were not directly connected to the internet.

Once infected, the machines' data is wiped. A list of the wiped files then sent back to the initially infected computer, and in turn passed on to the attacker's command-and-control centre.

During this process, the attack replaces the deleted files with JPEG images - obstructing any potential file recovery by the victim.

'Under the radar'Seculert, an Israel-based security specialist, also analysed the malicious code and concluded that it had unusual characteristics compared with other recent attacks.

"The interesting part of this malware is that instead of staying under the radar and collect information, the malware was designed to overwrite and wipe the files," the company said.

"Why would someone wipe files in a targeted attack and make the machine unusable?"

Shamoon is the latest in a line of attacks that have targeted infrastructure.

One of the most high-profile attacks in recent times was Stuxnet, which was designed to hit nuclear infrastructure in Iran.

Others, like Duqu, have sought to infiltrate networks in order to steal data.

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Sat, 18 Aug 2012 13:49

TRH is produced by the hypothalamus in medial neurons of the paraventricular nucleus.[3] At the beginning, it is synthesized as a 242-amino acid precursor polypeptide that contains 6 copies of the sequence -Glu-His-Pro-Gly-, flanked by di-basic peptides that are later processed through proteolysis to give the mature TRH molecule.

It travels across the median eminence to the anterior pituitary gland via the hypophyseal portal system where it stimulates the release of thyroid-stimulating hormone from cells called thyrotropes[4] and excess levels inhibit dopamine which will then stimulate the release of prolactin which in turn decreases GnRH.

A woman has won her fight to prove she was left deaf by the MMR jab -- only the second time it has been linked to disability.

But a medical assessment panel ruled Katie Stephen, 21, will not receive compensation because she is not considered disabled enough.

Katie was given the measles, mumps and rubella jab in 1991 when she was 15 months old.

But she developed a fever and irreparable damage to the nerve between her brain and ear, and is deaf on her left side.

Officials at the Vaccine Damage Payment Unit accepted the vaccine was the likely cause of her hearing problems.

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Fri, 17 Aug 2012 11:44

Chemotherapy during pregnancy does not lead to increased health complications for newborn infants, a new study has found.

Researchers examined a group of more than 400 women from across Europe who were diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer while pregnant.

Just under half of the mothers-to-be had chemotherapy and experts found the only difference with their newborns was a slightly lower birth weight.

The findings were welcomed by cancer charities who described the new findings as ''reassuring'' for women and their families who found themselves diagnosed with cancer while pregnant.

Professor Sibylle Loibl, of the German Breast Group which led the study, said: ''Babies exposed to chemotherapy in utero appeared to have no higher risk of birth defects and no more frequent blood disorders than those whose mothers did not receive chemotherapy while pregnant.

''If our findings are confirmed by other studies, breast cancer during pregnancy could be treated as it is in non-pregnant women without putting foetal and maternal outcomes at substantially increased risk.''

The number of chemotherapy treatments a women had while pregnant also did not appear to cause any different side affect on her babies' health.

The experts did find a slightly higher number of women who underwent cancer treatment had their babies slightly earlier than their due date compared with mothers who had not had cancer treatment.

But they said any complications those early babies had were the same seen in other babies born early whose mum had not had cancer.

The team concluded the children would probably have been born early irrespective of their mother's exposure to chemotherapy.

Prof Loibl said: ''Our work suggests treating patients with breast cancer while pregnant is possible, and there is no need to interrupt the pregnancy or receive inferior therapy.''

''Our findings emphasise the importance of prioritising a full-term delivery in women who undergo chemotherapy while pregnant. Illness and mortality in newborn babies is directly related to gestational age at delivery.''

The team said the number of mothers-to-be diagnosed with cancer was increasing due to the rise in women delaying having children until they are older.

Previous studies have suggested pregnant women who have chemotherapy have a 5 per cent chance of giving birth to a child with a birth defect.

They claim the cancer treatment can hinder its growth and development in the womb.Doctors say there is a range of drugs available to treat pregnant women, depending on their individual circumstances such as age, health history and how many weeks pregnant they are.

Martin Ledwick, Cancer Research UK's head information nurse, said: ''There's already evidence women with breast cancer can safely have chemotherapy during pregnancy. So it's reassuring for pregnant women to see new results confirm this.

''Chemotherapy for pregnant women with breast cancer is usually delayed until the second or third trimester of the pregnancy and given after the woman has had surgery to treat the disease.

''By the time pregnant women have discovered the disease they are usually likely to be in their second or third trimester.''

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On Thursday's edition of MSNBC's The Cycle the group discussed Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's assertion that President Obama should ''take [his] campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago.'' Co-host Tour(C) saw what he believes to be explicit racial connotations beneath what Romney was saying, calling it the ''niggerization'' of the campaign.

''That really bothered me,'' he said. ''You notice he said anger twice. He's really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the 'otherization,' he's not like us.''

''I know it's a heavy thing, I don't say it lightly, but this is 'niggerization,''' Tour(C) said to the apparent shock of his co-panelists. ''You are not one of us, you are like the scary black man who we've been trained to fear.''

Naturally this led to a battle between Tour(C) and conservative co-host S.E. Cupp. She took particular issue with the fact that Tour(C) admitted that VP Joe Biden's ''chains'' comments were divisive, but is now calling Romney a ''racist'' for saying the Obama campaign is ''angry.''

''Do you see how dishonest that is?'' she asked.

- RELATED: Biden's Staff Tried To Influence Reporting On His Virginia Trip, According To Report

Tour(C) denied calling anyone a racist, which prompted Cupp to say, ''Certainly you were implying that Mitt Romney and the base will respond to this dog-whistle, racially-charged coding, and hate Obama, the angry black man?''

''Absolutely,'' he replied.

''That's so irresponsible,'' Cupp answered back.

''This is not a revolutionary comment,'' Tour(C) later said. ''This is a constituency all-white party that rejects the black vote.''

''You have two white guys in Joe Biden and Mitt Romney,'' Cupp clarified. ''Joe Biden made the overtly racial comment and has a history of making bigoted remarks. Mitt Romney was responding to the comment. Yet he is the one responsible for the whole Republican history of racism in politics?''

''That's not what Tour(C) is saying,'' co-host Krystal Ball interjected. ''You're twisting his words.''

''No, he can speak for himself,'' Cupp shot back.

''He's using the playbook Republicans have been using for decades now,'' Tour(C) concluded.

Take a look below, via MSNBC:

'' ''>> Follow Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) on Twitter

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Sun, 19 Aug 2012 12:16

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