Japan to allow airlines to resume 787 flights

(Ends first round) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japan-allow-airlines-resume-787-flights-075835088--finance.html

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Developmental neurobiology: How the brain folds to fit

Apr. 26, 2013 ? During fetal development of the mammalian brain, the cerebral cortex undergoes a marked expansion in surface area in some species, which is accommodated by folding of the tissue in species with most expanded neuron numbers and surface area. Researchers have now identified a key regulator of this crucial process.

Different regions of the mammalian brain are devoted to the performance of specific tasks. This in turn imposes particular demands on their development and structural organization. In the vertebrate forebrain, for instance, the cerebral cortex -- which is responsible for cognitive functions -- is remarkably expanded and extensively folded exclusively in mammalian species. The greater the degree of folding and the more furrows present, the larger is the surface area available for reception and processing of neural information. In humans, the exterior of the developing brain remains smooth until about the sixth month of gestation. Only then do superficial folds begin to appear and ultimately dominate the entire brain in humans. Conversely mice, for example, have a much smaller and smooth cerebral cortex.

"The mechanisms that control the expansion and folding of the brain during fetal development have so far been mysterious," says Professor Magdalena G?tz, a professor at the Institute of Physiology at LMU and Director of the Institute for Stem Cell Research at the Helmholtz Center Munich. G?tz and her team have now pinpointed a major player involved in the molecular process that drives cortical expansion in the mouse. They were able to show that a novel nuclear protein called Trnp1 triggers the enormous increase in the numbers of nerve cells which forces the cortex to undergo a complex series of folds. Indeed, although the normal mouse brain has a smooth appearance, dynamic regulation of Trnp1 results in activating all necessary processes for the formation of a much enlarged and folded cerebral cortex.

Levels of Trnp1 control expansion and folding

"Trnp1 is critical for the expansion and folding of the cerebral cortex, and its expression level is dynamically controlled during development," says G?tz. In the early embryo, Trnp1 is locally expressed in high concentrations. This promotes the proliferation of self-renewing multipotent neural stem cells and supports tangential expansion of the cerebral cortex. The subsequent fall in levels of Trnp1 is associated with an increase in the numbers of various intermediate progenitors and basal radial glial cells. This results in the ordered formation and migration of a much enlarged number of neurons forming folds in the growing cortex.

The findings are particularly striking because they imply that the same molecule -- Trnp1 -- controls both the expansion and the folding of the cerebral cortex and is even sufficient to induce folding in a normally smooth cerebral cortex. Trnp1 therefore serves as an ideal starting point from which to dissect the complex network of cellular and molecular interactions that underpin the whole process. G?tz and her colleagues are now embarking on the next step in this exciting journey -- determination of the molecular function of this novel nuclear protein Trnp1 and how it is regulated.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit?t M?nchen.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Ronny Stahl, Tessa Walcher, Camino De?Juan?Romero, Gregor?Alexander Pilz, Silvia Cappello, Martin Irmler, Jos??Miguel Sanz-Aquela, Johannes Beckers, Robert Blum, V?ctor Borrell, Magdalena G?tz. Trnp1 Regulates Expansion and Folding of the Mammalian Cerebral Cortex by Control of Radial Glial Fate. Cell, 2013; 153 (3): 535 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2013.03.027

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/VfzsNww9vBA/130426115501.htm

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Hey John Piper, Is My Femininity Showing? | Her.meneutics ...

In a recent podcast, John Piper describes acceptable ways for women to exert public influence. As he explains why men can read biblical commentaries from women, but not be taught by them in person, he reveals some profoundly troubling assumptions about women and a dated view of the female body.

Piper?a complementarian who believes in male headship and leadership?endorses women's commentaries on the Bible because they are "indirect" and "impersonal" venues of influence. He emphasizes that in reading a woman's words, he doesn't see her with his own eyes, conveying particular qualms with a woman looking at him while teaching. As blogger Rachel Held Evans asserts, Piper's reasons for preferring an indirect and impersonal encounter with a woman point to one factor: the offensive presence of her body.

According to Piper, the role of a city planner is appropriate for a woman because she exercises authority ensconced in an office at a desk, while a woman teacher stands before him, he says, making him aware of his own manhood and her womanhood. On the other hand, when a woman communicates to him indirectly and impersonally through writing, he can handle it because "she's not looking at me and confronting me and authoritatively directing me as a woman."

A book, he adds, "puts [the woman] out of my sight and in a sense takes away the dimension of her female personhood." Believing Pauline instruction prohibits women from authoritative positions in religious and secular settings, public or private, Piper uses 1 Timothy 2:12 as a foundation to argue against women influencing men in "direct" and "personal" ways.

Concern over women's bodies in public is what barred them from representing themselves in civic or political situations 200 years ago, right around when they started feeling the itch for the vote. A woman's presence on a public platform was scandalous; it was even more scandalous for her to look upon a mixed audience and speak to them.

As rhetorician Lindal Buchanan notes in her book Regendering Delivery, 19th-century women's "disembodied ? voices became acceptable long before their public bodies did." Because the presence of their bodies in public was so disgraceful, women used indirect techniques to influence the direction of the country, techniques Piper would probably support (generating and signing petitions, promoting their projects through male family members, and writing letters, tracts, and novels). These women hid or shielded their bodies from the male gaze in order for their voices to be heard.

Source: http://www.christianitytoday.com/women/2013/april/hey-john-piper-is-my-femininity-showing.html

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Max Clifford faces 11 counts of indecent assault

Max Clifford, British celebrity publicist, has been charged with child sex assault, including seven girls under age 19. Max Clifford says the allegations are 'completely false.'

By Cassandra Vinograd,?Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Publicist Max Clifford outside his home in Hersham, England, after he was charged with 11 historic counts of indecent assault against teenage girls, Friday April 26, 2013.

(AP Photo/PA, Steve Parsons)

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Prominent celebrity publicist Max?Clifford has been charged with 11 counts of indecent assault, British officials said Friday.

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The 70-year-old public relations guru, the second person to be charged as part of a broad investigation into child sex abuse spurred by the scandal involving the late BBC personality Jimmy Savile, professed his innocence, saying there was "absolutely no truth and substance" to the allegations.

Prosecutors said the charges against Clifford relate to assaults allegedly committed between 1966 and 1985. The charges involve seven female complainants who were between the ages of 14 and 19 at the times of the alleged assaults, they added in a statement.

Clifford, considered an affable and sage "go to" guy for celebrities embroiled in public relations fiascos, was arrested in December 2012. He said Friday he's been in a "24/7 nightmare" since then and vowed to clear his name.

"The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false ? very upsetting, very distressing, but completely false," he told reporters outside of his home. "I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life, and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings."

Clifford will appear at a London court on May 28.

Former BBC chauffeur David Smith, 55, is the only other person so far to be charged as a result of Operation Yewtree, an investigation launched after revelations that Savile may have targeted hundreds of young victims over five decades. Savile died in 2011 at age 84.

About a dozen people have been arrested as part of the Yewtree probe, including veteran entertainer Rolf Harris and former pop star Gary Glitter.

Clifford long has been a fixture on British television news programs and in newspapers, which frequently seek his thoughts on how celebrities can come up with novel marketing strategies to maximize their appeal ? and how celebrities dealing with marital breakdowns, drug problems, legal issues or fading popularity can rebound.

His clients have included entertainment mogul Simon Cowell, former Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed, and the late reality TV star Jade Goody. He also has represented dozens of ordinary people who found themselves at the vortex of the news and who sought to sell their stories to the press, which is a common, and lucrative, practice in Britain.

___

Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/m59lLjaMQLc/Max-Clifford-faces-11-counts-of-indecent-assault

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CBS renews 'Two and a Half Men' for another year

In this May 18, 2011 publicity image released by CBS, the cast of "Two and a Half Men," from left, Jon Cryer, Ashton Kutcher, and Angus T. Jones are shown during their presentation at CBS' Upfront, at Carnegie Hall, in New York. CBS said Friday, April 26, 2013, it?s renewed ?Two and a Half Men? for another season. (AP Photo/CBS, Jeffrey R. Staab, File)

In this May 18, 2011 publicity image released by CBS, the cast of "Two and a Half Men," from left, Jon Cryer, Ashton Kutcher, and Angus T. Jones are shown during their presentation at CBS' Upfront, at Carnegie Hall, in New York. CBS said Friday, April 26, 2013, it?s renewed ?Two and a Half Men? for another season. (AP Photo/CBS, Jeffrey R. Staab, File)

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? CBS says it's bringing "Two and a Half Men" back next season.

The network announced the decision Friday on Twitter. It didn't address whether the full cast would return.

The series stars Ashton Kutcher, Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones as Cryer's son.

Jones' character is serving in the Army this season and has been somewhat less visible on "Two and a Half Men."

In January, the 19-year-old actor apologized to CBS after calling the popular sitcom "filth" and "very inappropriate."

CBS declined comment on Jones' future with the sitcom, now in its 10th season.

"Two and a Half Men" has dealt with cast changes before, when Kutcher came aboard in 2011 after Charlie Sheen's firing.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-26-US-TV-Two-and-a-Half-Men/id-8a621bf9bdba4a7a9d401b12a557998d

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Dutch schools color orange for new king

(Ends first round) NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Selections in the first roundof the 2013 NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall on Thursday (picknumber, NFL team, player, position, college): 1-Kansas City, Eric Fisher, offensive tackle, Central Michigan 2-Jacksonville, Luke Joeckel, offensive tackle, Texas A&M 3-Miami (from Oakland), Dion Jordan, defensive tackle, Oregon 4-Philadelphia, Lane Johnson, offensive tackle, Oklahoma 5-Detroit, Ezekiel Ansah, defensive end, Brigham Young 6-Cleveland, Barkevious Mingo, linebacker, LSU 7-Arizona, Jonathan Cooper, guard, North Carolina 8-St. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-schools-color-orange-king-085650678.html

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SKorea to withdraw workers at factory in NKorea

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Seoul said Friday that it has decided to withdraw the roughly 175 South Koreans still at a jointly run factory complex in North Korea, raising a major question about the survival of the last symbol of inter-Korean cooperation.

The statement by the country's minister in charge of inter-Korean relations came after North Korea rejected Seoul's demand for talks on the factory park that has been closed nearly a month.

Seoul said it issued a Friday deadline for North Korea to respond to its call for talks because it was worried about its workers not having access to food and medicine. North Korea hasn't allowed supplies or workers to cross the border since early this month.

"We've made the inevitable decision to bring back all the remaining personnel in Kaesong for the protection of our people as their difficulties continue to grow," Unification Minister Ryoo Kihl-jae said in a televised statement. He didn't take questions from reporters.

Ryoo urged North Korea to protect the property of South Korean companies at Kaesong and ensure the safety of South Korean managers when they return home. He didn't say when the withdrawal would take place.

Pyongyang's powerful National Defense Commission earlier said Seoul's demand for working-level talks was deceptive and that ongoing U.S.-South Korean military drills and the spreading of anti-North Korea leaflets at the border were proof of Seoul's insincerity.

"This is a war of pride between the Koreas, but they are conducting it while leaving some room for talks," Lee Hochul, a political science professor at Incheon National University in South Korea, said, adding neither side is mentioning a permanent shutdown of the industrial complex.

"Once drills end and tension subsides, they may try to revive contact over Kaesong," Lee said.

An association of South Korean businessmen with factories in Kaesong released a statement saying they were shocked at Seoul's decision to pull the workers out.

The park in the North Korean border town of Kaesong is the most significant casualty so far in the recent deterioration of relations between the Koreas. Pyongyang barred South Korean managers and cargo from entering North Korea early this month, then recalled the 53,000 North Koreans who worked on the assembly lines. More than 800 South Korean managers were stationed in Kaesong before the ban.

"If they are truly worried about the lives of South Korean personnel in the (complex), they may withdraw all of them to the south side where there are stockpiles of food and raw materials and sound medical conditions," the statement from an unidentified spokesman for the North's National Defense Commission said Friday. It added that North Korea would guarantee the workers' safety during the withdrawal.

"If the South's puppet group looks away from reality and pursues the worsening of the situation, we will be compelled to first take final and decisive grave measures," the statement said.

The statements on Kaesong this week follow what had been something of a lull after a weeks-long tirade of warlike North Korean rhetoric that included threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. Tension rose as Seoul responded with its own tough language to Pyongyang's outburst, which was unusually violent, even by the standards of the already hostile relationship between the Koreas.

Meanwhile, the military drills continue. On Friday, airplanes flew over South Korea's southeastern city of Pohang and amphibious vessels landed on the coast. North Korea calls the drills, which are set to end Tuesday, war preparations.

"Even at this moment, South Korea is ramping up the intensity of coastal landing drills with the United States in the east, driving the already tense situation to a point of explosion," North Korea said in its statement. It said the annual drills and the scattering of North Korean leaflets along the border belie the South Korean government's calls for talks.

The Kaesong complex has operated with South Korean know-how and technology and with cheap labor from North Korea since 2004. It weathered past cycles of hostility between the rivals, including two attacks blamed on North Korea in 2010 that killed 50 South Koreans.

"Seoul has executed a high-stakes gambit" by deciding to pull South Korean workers from Kaesong, said Kim Han-jung, a Yonsei University professor who once served as an aide to liberal President Kim Dae-jung, under whom the idea of the park was conceived. "The deadlock over the park is likely to persist for a long time. It will take a lot of political effort to restore it."

Both analysts said that Pyongyang could confiscate South Korean properties in Kaesong in the worst scenario as it did in 2010 at a South Korean-built mountain resort on North Korea's east coast. The cross-border tourism project came to a halt in 2008 after a South Korean tourist was fatally shot by a North Korean guard at the Diamond Mountain resort.

Impoverished North Korea objects to views in South Korea that the Kaesong park is a source of badly needed hard currency. South Korean companies paid salaries to North Korean workers averaging $127 a month, according to South Korea's government. That is less than one-sixteenth of the average salary of South Korean manufacturer workers.

Pyongyang also has complained about alleged South Korean military plans in the event the North held the Kaesong managers hostage.

A South Korean employee at Kaesong said she watched the ministry's briefing on television. She did not know whether she would leave Kaesong because her company's headquarters in the South had not called her yet.

"I've been staying here to protect our factory and our goods," she said when reached by phone, declining to be identified because her company asked her not to speak to the media. She has been in Kaesong since April 2, one day before North Korea blocked entry to South Korean workers, and has been eating rice and noodles, she said. One other colleague is staying with her.

___

AP writer Youkyung Lee contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skorea-withdraw-workers-factory-nkorea-101844845.html

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How to Power the World without Fossil Fuels: Scientific American

Mark Jacobson says he can run the planet solely on wind, water and solar energy. First stop: New York State

By Mark Fischetti

New York State could end fossil-fuel use and generate all of its energy from wind, water and solar power, according to Mark Jacobson. Image: Graphic by Karl Burkart

Three times now, Mark Jacobson has gone out on the same limb. In 2009 he and co-author Mark Delucchi published a cover story in Scientific American that showed how the entire world could get all of its energy?fuel as well as electricity?from wind, water and solar sources by 2030. No coal or oil, no nuclear or natural gas. The tale sounded infeasible?except that Jacobson, from Stanford University, and Delucchi, from the University of California, Davis, calculated just how many hydroelectric dams, wave-energy systems, wind turbines, solar power plants and rooftop photovoltaic installations the world would need to run itself completely on renewable energy.

The article sparked a spirited debate on our Web site, and it also sparked a larger debate between forward-looking energy planners and those who would rather preserve the status quo. The duo went on to publish a detailed study in the journal Energy Policy that also called out numbers for a U.S. strategy.

Two weeks ago Jacobson and a larger team, including Delucchi, did it again. This time Jacobson showed in much finer detail how New York State?s residential, transportation, industrial, and heating and cooling sectors could all be powered by wind, water and sun, or ?WWS,? as he calls it. His mix: 40 percent offshore wind (12,700 turbines), 10 percent onshore wind (4,020 turbines), 10 percent concentrated solar panels (387 power plants), 10 percent photovoltaic cells (828 facilities), 6 percent residential solar (five million rooftops), 12 percent government and commercial solar (500,000 rooftops), 5 percent geothermal (36 plants), 5.5 percent hydroelectric (6.6 large facilities), 1 percent tidal energy (2,600 turbines) and 0.5 percent wave energy (1,910 devices).

In the process, New York would reduce power demand by 37 percent, largely because the new energy sources are more efficient than the old ones. And because no fossil fuels would have to be purchased or burned, consumer costs would be similar to what they are today, and the state would eliminate a huge portion of its carbon dioxide emissions.

New York State could end fossil fuel use and generate all of its energy from wind, water and solar power, according to Mark Jacobson. Image: Graphic by Karl Burkart

Once again, reaction was swift. The New York Times heralded the study as scientifically groundbreaking and practically impossible. But this time Jacobson, a professor of civil and environmental engineering, is digging in. He took his analysis a step further and found a surprising way to sell his plan. And he?s close to finishing a similar study for California, which will lend more depth to his vision. I asked Jacobson why he?s out to change the world, how he answers his critics and what it will take for his plans to get traction in government.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

At first glance, your proposals to convert society wholesale to renewable energy, and relatively soon, sound wild. What kinds of reactions do you get?

Mostly, it?s pretty positive. A lot of people say, ?Wow, we should really make a huge effort to push this forward.? There are always naysayers who think it?s pie in the sky, that we?ll never get there. And there are people who are tied into a certain industry who push back the most. It?s almost like motherhood and apple pie, though; it?s hard to say ?Oh, I don?t like it.? The real question is: How do policy makers react? Few of them say they would be against it. It?s more that they still want to push other energy sources. You need policy makers behind it, and you also need grassroots efforts.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-power-the-world

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Prisoners, guards clash over Guantanamo Bay raid

MIAMI (AP) ? Months of increased tension at the Guantanamo Bay prison boiled over into a clash between guards and detainees Saturday as the military closed a communal section of the facility and moved its inmates into single cells.

The violence erupted during an early morning raid that military officials said was necessary because prisoners had covered up security cameras and windows as part of a weekslong protest and hunger strike over their indefinite confinement and conditions at the U.S. base in Cuba.

Prisoners fought guards with makeshift weapons that included broomsticks and mop handles when troops arrived to move them out of a communal wing of the section of the prison known as Camp 6, said Navy Capt. Robert Durand, a military spokesman. Guards responded by firing four "less-than-lethal rounds," he said.

There were no serious injuries from the rounds, which included a modified shotgun shell that fires small rubber pellets as well as a type of bean-bag projectile, said Army Col. Greg Julian, a spokesman for Miami-based U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the prison at the U.S. base in Cuba.

"I know for sure that one detainee was hit but the injuries were minor, just some bruises," Julian said.

The confrontation came a day after a team from the International Committee of the Red Cross finished a three-week visit to Guantanamo to meet with prisoners and assess conditions.

"The ICRC continues to follow the current tensions and the hunger strike at Guantanamo very closely and with concern," spokesman Simon Schorno said. "If necessary, an ICRC team will in coming days return to Guantanamo to assess the situation of the detainees on hunger strike in view of this latest development."

Camp 6 had previously been a section of the camp reserved for detainees who followed prison rules. In exchange they were allowed to share meals and pray together, have nearly round-the-clock recreation time as well as access to satellite TV, computer games and classes. It held a majority of the 166 prisoners at the base before the hunger strike began, but the military said the number was down to fewer than 70 on Saturday.

Prisoners in the communal section had access to materials with which to make some of the improvised weapons used in the clash with guards. Durand said troops were confronted with batons made with tape and plastic water bottles, about three to four feet long and "as big around as a broomstick," he said.

The guards moved the hunger strikers and all other detainees at the communal section to single cells in a separate wing of Camp 6 around 5 a.m. Prisoners will eventually be allowed back into communal living conditions in the future if they follow rules. Hunger strikers will be allowed back into the communal section eventually as well if they follow the rules, Durand said.

"For now, housing detainees in individual cells will enable us to observe them more closely," he said. He said one of the concerns of military officials was that some prisoners might have been coerced into participating in the hunger strike.

Tensions had been high at the prison for months. Lawyers for prisoners said a hunger strike began Feb. 6 in protest over their indefinite confinement and what the men believed were tighter restrictions and intrusive searches of their Qurans for contraband. Prisoners offered to give up the Muslim holy book that each one is issued by the government but officials refused, considering it a tacit admission of wrongdoing.

"This is exactly the opposite of what they should be doing," Carlos Warner, a federal public defender in Ohio, said of the decision to move prisoners into single cells instead of negotiating an end to the strike. "The military is escalating the conflict."

The military said 43 prisoners were classified as hunger strikers under a definition that includes missing nine consecutive meals. Lawyers for prisoners have insisted the strike is much more widespread and say almost all of the men are refusing to eat.

Officials were also concerned that some men were surreptitiously starving themselves to avoid being classified as hunger strikers and force fed. The military said it was conducting individual assessments of all the prisoners.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prisoners-guards-clash-over-guantanamo-bay-raid-214116253.html

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Baidu, Hillhouse & GGV Reportedly Invest $57M In Qunar As The Chinese Travel Site Weathers A Boycott

Baidu, Hillhouse Capital, and GGV Capital have invested a total of $57 million in Chinese travel site Qunar, according to a report by First Financial Daily (link via Google Translate). The news comes as Qunar weathers a boycott by third-party service providers triggered by a change in its operational and pricing policies. South China Morning Post writer Doug Young speculates that Qunar might have hiked its prices in a bid to increase revenue and profits before making its first public filing for an offering.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/S8vfKb566ig/

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Ladybug for iPhone and iPad review: Learn about ladybugs in a fun and interactive way

Scholastic First Discovery: Ladybug is an iPhone and iPad app that is all about ladybugs. It teaches about the basic anatomy, eating habits, and developmental stages of ladybugs and more.

Each page of Ladybug is narrated by a woman's voice and includes fun interactions. For examples, you can view a 3D model of a ladybug, tap its wings to see them open, and help a ladybug eat a bunch of aphids.

The good

• Clean design
• Great graphics and illustrations
• Interesting
• Interactive
• Fully narrated

The bad

• Not universal. iPhone and iPad versions are separate purchases even though there aren't any special interface elements for the iPad version.

The bottom line

If you have kids, they are sure to enjoy learning about ladybugs with Ladybug for iPhone and iPad. It's easy to use and has fun interactions. And you never know, you may learn a thing or two yourself that you never knew about ladybugs!

• $1.99 for iPhone - Download now
• $1.99 for iPad - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/QNM17t8OvGc/story01.htm

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Kerry to visit family of U.S. diplomat killed in Afghanistan

TOKYO (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he will go to Chicago on his return from a 10-day overseas tour to visit the family of a young diplomat who was killed in Afghanistan earlier this month.

Anne Smedinghoff, 25, was killed along with four other Americans in a car bomb blast on April 6 as their convoy traveled in the southern province of Zabul to deliver textbooks to school children. Her parents live near Chicago.

"Everybody understands and feels that kind of a loss," Kerry told employees at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, Japan, before leaving for home.

"Twenty-five year old young woman, full of idealism, full of hopes, taking books to children in a school so they could learn. And wiped out by terrorism, by the worst kind of nihilism."

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry's meeting with Smedinghoff's parents would be private and there would no press coverage.

Smedinghoff had volunteered for the assignment in Afghanistan, where she served as an assistant information officer. Before that, she had been assigned to Caracas, Venezuela.

(Reporting by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kerry-visit-family-u-diplomat-killed-afghanistan-065803460.html

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Page Not Found (404) - Salon.com

Copyright ? 2013 Salon Media Group, Inc. Reproduction of material from any Salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited.

SALON ? is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark of Salon Media Group Inc.

Associated Press articles: Copyright ? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.salon.com/salon/index

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The Real Housewives of Atlanta Recap -The Wig Returns

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-recap-the-wig-returns/

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Gunmen attack Mogadishu court; 5 dead reported

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) ? Militants launched a serious and sustained assault on Mogadishu's main court complex Sunday, detonating at least two blasts, taking an unknown number of hostages and engaging in extended gunbattles with government security forces, witnesses said.

Later, a suicide car bomber rammed a vehicle carrying Turkish citizens.

No official death toll was immediately released. However, a police officer at the court complex said he saw five dead bodies. Given the amount of gunfire and the length of the shoot-out, though, it appeared likely the death toll would rise. Later, in what appeared to be a secondary attack, two Turkish citizens were killed by a car bomb.

The complex and sustained nature of the assault on the court system suggested militants had laid plans to inflict severe casualties. Sunday's attack was the most serious in Mogadishu since al-Shabab fighters were pushed out of the city in August 2011.

Western officials knew militants had been planning something major. The British Foreign Office on Friday released a travel warning for Somalia that said British officials saw a high threat of terrorism. "We continue to believe that terrorists are in the final stages of planning attacks in Mogadishu," it said.

The attack on the Supreme Court complex began at around 12:30 p.m. and running battles with police and army forces lasted more than two hours. Two bomb blasts were heard and gunmen were seen on a court building roof firing shots, an Associated Press reporter at the scene said. Police officer Hassan Abdulahi said he saw five dead bodies lying at the entrance to the court.

Ugandan troops stationed in Mogadishu as part of the African Union force arrived at the scene and began taking up sniper positions on rooftops.

The Supreme Court was in session and that the court's chief justice may have been the target of the assault, said a Western official who had been speaking to Somali officials. Reports indicated that up to nine attackers ? including a half dozen wearing suicide vests ? may have carried out the assault, said the official, who spoke on condition he wasn't identified because he wasn't authorized to release the information.

The gunmen took hostages in the complex's main courtroom and forced their way into other rooms in the complex, said another police officer, Abdinasir Nor. The number of hostages wasn't immediately known.

The court complex is a confusing labyrinth of buildings and rooms, allowing for plenty of places to hide but also for many places for gunmen to take hostages. The armed men forced their way inside the complex and immediately set off an explosion, said Yusuf Abdi, who was near the court when the attack happened.

About two hours after the assault began, survivors of the attack began coming out of the court complex. Some were crying and others held their heads in their hands.

"I never expected to make it out alive today," said Halima Geddi, who fled the court complex about two hours after the attack. She said she had taken cover behind an outer wall. "There is no peace. No one protects us. I came to see my boy who was supposed to be tried here."

At about 3 p.m. a suicide car bomber rammed his vehicle into a car carrying Turkish citizens to the airport, said Mohamed Anjeh, a police commander.

Mogadishu's main government center is heavily guarded with multiple security checks. However, the security at the court complex is not nearly as strong. The Ugandan troops who arrived on scene began pushing back on-lookers shortly after the attack began.

Most militant attacks in Mogadishu are blamed on fighters from al-Shabab, the al-Qaida-linked Islamic extremist rebel group in Somalia. Al-Shabab ruled Mogadishu from roughly 2006 until August 2011, when African Union and Somali forces pushed them out of the city. Since then the al-Shabab extremists have launched suicide bombings on the capital city every few weeks.

Despite those intermittent attacks, Mogadishu is generally considered more peaceful today than most of the previous seven years.

___

Straziuso contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-attack-mogadishu-court-5-dead-reported-112725972.html

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Tunisia publishes images of suspects in secular leader's killing

TUNIS (Reuters) - The Tunisian government on Saturday published the names and photographs of five people it said were suspected of involvement in the February assassination of a secular politician and asked citizens to help track them down.

The killing of Chokri Belaid on February 6 provoked the worst unrest in the North African state since the overthrow of strongman Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali two years ago that launched the Arab Spring wave of popular uprisings.

"We ask all citizens to contribute to the search for the main suspect and the rest of those involved in the assassination of the martyr Chokri Belaid," the Interior Ministry said in statement.

The ministry's website posted the names and pictures of five men, one of them bearded in the style of hard-line Islamists, and pledged to provide protection and confidentiality for anyone who helped locate suspects in the killing.

Police believe Belaid's killer was a member of a radical Islamist Salafist group who is on the run, Prime Minister Ali Larayedh said recently, without giving more details.

The government, led by the moderate Islamist Ennahda movement, had been under intensifying public pressure to take concrete steps to arrest suspects in the assassination.

No one has claimed responsibility. Ennahda has denied accusations by some, including Belaid's brother, that it was involved in the shooting death, which it has condemned.

Protests after the assassination of Belaid ended with the resignation of the government of Ennahda's Hamadi Jebali. Larayedh, also from Ennahda, succeeded him and formed an uneasy coalition with two secular parties.

Tunisia's political transition from popular upheaval has been more peaceful than in neighboring Egypt and Libya. But tensions have risen between Islamists freely elected to power and liberals who fear the loss of hard-won individual liberties.

Since Ben Ali's fall, the struggle over the role of religion in government and society has emerged as the most divisive issue in Tunisia, which for decades was considered among the most secular countries in the Arab world.

(Reporting by Tarek Amara; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tunisia-publishes-images-suspects-secular-leaders-killing-155937650.html

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Twitter to Launch Music Service

Well OK! If you go to music.twitter.com, you’ll see the above image, a clear sign that Twitter is getting into the music business. How? That remains to be officially seen, but it looks like the House of Birds will come ...

Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2013/04/twitter-to-launch-music-service/

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Red Epic Dragon sensor updates start tomorrow for $8,500, watch the actual process at NAB

Red has announced that Dragon sensor updates will start tomorrow for Epic-M and Epic-X owners for $8,500 and, interestingly, is letting owners (and the public) see the operation for themselves at its NAB booth. The new sensor will bring 6K resolution, 120 fps at 5K and 15+ stops of dynamic range in a slightly larger format, according to Red. Epic owners who wait until Thursday or later will be able to grab the update for $9,500, and filmmakers hoping for a new Epic-M with the Dragon instead of the Mysterium-X sensor will be able to pre-order tomorrow for $29,000 or so. Meanwhile, there's good news for those who ordered the more budget-minded Scarlet -- they'll be able to upgrade to the Epic directly or get a 6k Dragon sensor and ASICs, with pricing details coming tomorrow and pre-orders launching on Thursday. Red may have a tough row to hoe with recent NAB news from the likes of BlackMagic Design and Vision Systems, but how many companies will actually let you watch your camera get operated on? Check the source for more.

Filed under: Cameras

Comments

Source: Red

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ijaagbS1QKM/

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AIG files to dismiss part of Greenberg suit over bailout

(Reuters) - Insurer American International Group Inc has asked a court to block Maurice "Hank" Greenberg's efforts to sue the government on AIG's behalf, saying its former CEO has not proven he should have the right to do so.

Earlier this year, AIG drew sharp criticism from members of Congress and an outraged public when the firm considered the possibility of joining Greenberg's lawsuit, which challenges the terms of the insurer's $182.3 billion bailout by the federal government in 2008.

AIG said Greenberg had forced its hand in even deliberating the prospect, but that ultimately it did not want to sue anyway amid a public backlash.

Absent AIG's participation, Greenberg is pursuing a derivative claim, seeking to sue the government on AIG's behalf over the terms of the $182.3 billion rescue. Greenberg and his company Starr International, which owned 12 percent of AIG before the rescue, are also suing the government directly.

But the insurer, in a filing dated Friday, said Starr had not met the burdens necessary to be allowed to pursue claims on the company's behalf.

"Starr has alleged no facts showing that the AIG board's decision to refuse Starr's demand cannot be attributed to a rational business purpose," AIG said.

The company said its board also feared "incalculable harm to AIG's corporate brand and image and relationships with shareholders, customers, regulators and elected officials" if it pursued a lawsuit.

A spokeswoman for Starr's lawyer declined comment on Monday. The company has until April 26 to respond in court. Last month Starr amended its complaint, more than doubling the damages it is seeking to roughly $55.5 billion.

The Case is Starr International Co Inc vs. United States, U.S. Court of Federal Claims, No. 11-00779.

(Reporting By Ben Berkowitz; Additional reporting by Aruna Viswanatha in Washington; Editing by David Gregorio)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aig-files-dismiss-part-greenberg-suit-over-bailout-162310291--finance.html

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The Real Housewives of Atlanta Reunion Recap, Part I: Kill the Fan!

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/the-real-housewives-of-atlanta-recap-kill-the-fan/

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Homegrown Developers, Localization Breathe Life Into South Asian Gaming

Editor?s note:?Hassan Baig?is?an entrepreneur who runs?White Rabbit Studios, a South Asian gaming startup he founded four years ago in Pakistan. Follow him on Twitter?@baigi. It’s an open secret that the social gaming industry is no longer the cornucopia of opportunities it used to be. Rising CPAs, falling k-factors, plateuing ARPUs and channel saturation all have made life difficult for the typical gaming studio devoid of a big network of users or a deep warchest of advertising money.?But there’s a new gaming opportunity on the horizon, and the savvy tech investor will do well to take notice of it now that it’s still nascent. This opportunity is the impending mobile gaming boom in South Asia, scheduled to arrive by 2015 for all practical purposes. Read on for a thorough look at the gaming history of the region, emerging fundamentals and future expectations. Fighting Bollywood And TV Spurred by 200,000 gaming cafes popping up across the country, China witnessed an online gaming revolution in the early aughts. Facing no serious competition from traditional entertainment media heavily tethered by government censorship, gaming companies like Shanda and Giant Interactive firmly entrenched themselves in the typical gamer’s consciousness, making gaming a life-changing pastime?in China. By 2006, sensing the time had come for neighboring South Asia to take the plunge as well, India’s Reliance Entertainment released a gaming portal called Zapak. But unlike China, the response that Reliance received was lukewarm at best, and it turned out to be a stalled revolution. Zapak is still?alive today, as are?Shanda and Giant Interactive, but whereas the latter have grown to become industry leaders, Zapak never validated the business case upon which it was built. Ultimately gaming failed to take root in India because of stiff competition from the prevalent form of entertainment in the region: Bollywood and TV. Zapak’s offerings were too underdeveloped, and subsequent interest in them was too thin to displace these highly mature regional media. Thus, other than a curious fringe, Zapak never made a dent in the South Asian universe like online gaming did across the border in China. Analysts are mistaken to equate South Asia’s lackluster past performance with its potential as a mobile gaming hub. Today when mobile gaming is en route to become a $48 billion industry by 2016, South Asia is excluded from the discussion almost entirely given its tepid history. But here’s the thing: Analysts are mistaken to equate

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/C8XpiU9lA5U/

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Two-step ovarian cancer immunotherapy made from patients' own tumor benefits three quarters of trial patients

Apr. 6, 2013 ? As many as three quarters of advanced ovarian cancer patients appeared to respond to a new two-step immunotherapy approach -- including one patient who achieved complete remission -- according research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013 (Presentation #LB-335).

The immunotherapy has two steps -- a personalized dendritic cell vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapy. The team reports that in the study of 31 patients, vaccination therapy alone showed about a 61 percent clinical benefit, and the combination of both therapies showed about a 75 percent benefit.

The findings offer new hope for the large number of ovarian cancer patients who relapse following treatment. The first step of the immunotherapy approach is to preserve the patient's tumor cells alive, using sterile techniques at the time of surgery so they can be used to manufacture a personalized vaccine that teaches the patient's own immune system to attack the tumor. Then, the Penn Medicine team isolates immune cells called dendritic cells from patients' blood through a process called apheresis, which is similar to the process used for blood donation. Researchers then prepare each patient's personalized vaccine by exposing her dendritic cells to the tumor tissue that was collected during surgery.

Because ovarian cancer symptoms can be stealth and easily mistaken for other issues -- constipation, weight gain, bloating, or more frequent urination -- more than 60 percent of patients are diagnosed only after the disease has spread to their lymph nodes or other distant sites in the body, when treatment is much less likely to produce a cure compared to when the disease is detected early. As the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States, it takes the lives of more than 14,000 women each year.

"Given these grim outcomes, there is definitely a vast unmet need for the development of novel, alternate therapies," said lead author Lana Kandalaft, PharmD, PhD, MTR, a research assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of clinical development and operations in Penn Medicine's Ovarian Cancer Research Center. "This is the first time such a combination immunotherapy approach has been used for patients with ovarian cancer, and we believe the results are leading us toward a completely new way to treat this disease."

Both treatments are given in conjunction with bevacizumab, a drug that controls the blood vessel growth that feeds tumors. Combining bevacizumab with immunotherapy makes a powerful duo, Kandalaft says. The vaccine trial is still open to accrual to test new combinatorial strategies.

The other Penn authors are Janos Tanyi, Cheryl Chiang, Daniel Powell, and George Coukos. This study was funded by a National Cancer Institute Ovarian Specialized Program of Research Excellence grant, the National Institutes of Health and the Ovarian Cancer Immunotherapy Initiative.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/NgpeMoGt25w/130407090732.htm

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Fact Checker: Lindsey Graham?s claim (Washington Post)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Fetal exposure to excessive stress hormones in the womb linked to adult mood disorders

Apr. 6, 2013 ? Exposure of the developing fetus to excessive levels of stress hormones in the womb can cause mood disorders in later life and now, for the first time, researchers have found a mechanism that may underpin this process, according to research presented April 7 at the British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience (BNA2013) in London.

The concept of fetal programming of adult disease, whereby the environment experienced in the womb can have profound long-lasting consequences on health and risk of disease in later life, is well known; however, the process that drives this is unclear. Professor Megan Holmes, a neuroendocrinologist from the University of Edinburgh/British Heart Foundation Centre for Cardiovascular Science in Scotland (UK), will say: "During our research we have identified the enzyme 11?-HSD2 which we believe plays a key role in the process of fetal programming."

Adverse environments experienced while in the womb, such as in cases of stress, bereavement or abuse, will increase levels of glucocorticoids in the mother, which may harm the growing baby. Glucocorticoids are naturally produced hormones and they are also known as stress hormones because of their role in the stress response.

"The stress hormone cortisol may be a key factor in programming the fetus, baby or child to be at risk of disease in later life. Cortisol causes reduced growth and modifies the timing of tissue development as well as having long lasting effects on gene expression," she will say.

Prof Holmes will describe how her research has identified an enzyme called 11?-HSD2 (11beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2) that breaks down the stress hormone cortisol to an inactive form, before it can cause any harm to the developing fetus. The enzyme 11?-HSD2 is present in the placenta and the developing fetal brain where it is thought to act as a shield to protect against the harmful actions of cortisol.

Prof Holmes and her colleagues developed genetically modified mice that lacked 11?-HSD2 in order to determine the role of the enzyme in the placenta and fetal brain. "In mice lacking the enzyme 11?-HSD2, fetuses were exposed to high levels of stress hormones and, as a consequence, these mice exhibited reduced fetal growth and went on to show programmed mood disorders in later life. We also found that the placentas from these mice were smaller and did not transport nutrients efficiently across to the developing fetus. This too could contribute to the harmful consequences of increased stress hormone exposure on the fetus and suggests that the placental 11?-HSD2 shield is the most important barrier.

"However, preliminary new data show that with the loss of the 11?-HSD2 protective barrier solely in the brain, programming of the developing fetus still occurs, and, therefore, this raises questions about how dominant a role is played by the placental 11?-HSD2 barrier. This research is currently ongoing and we cannot draw any firm conclusions yet.

"Determining the exact molecular and cellular mechanisms that drive fetal programming will help us identify potential therapeutic targets that can be used to reverse the deleterious consequences on mood disorders. In the future, we hope to explore the potential of these targets in studies in humans," she will say.

Prof Holmes hopes that her research will make healthcare workers more aware of the fact that children exposed to an adverse environment, be it abuse, malnutrition, or bereavement, are at an increased risk of mood disorders in later life and the children should be carefully monitored and supported to prevent this from happening.

In addition, the potential effects of excessive levels of stress hormones on the developing fetus are also of relevance to individuals involved in antenatal care. Within the past 20 years, the majority of women at risk of premature delivery have been given synthetic glucocorticoids to accelerate fetal lung development to allow the premature babies to survive early birth.

"While this glucocorticoid treatment is essential, the dose, number of treatments and the drug used, have to be carefully monitored to ensure that the minimum effective therapy is used, as it may set the stage for effects later in the child's life," Prof Holmes will say.

Puberty is another sensitive time of development and stress experienced at this time can also be involved in programming adult mood disorders. Prof Holmes and her colleagues have found evidence from imaging studies in rats that stress in early teenage years could affect mood and emotional behaviour via changes in the brain's neural networks associated with emotional processing.

The researchers used fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to see which pathways in the brain were affected when stressed, peripubertal rats responded to a specific learned task. [1].

Prof Holmes will say: "We showed that in stressed 'teenage' rats, the part of the brain region involved in emotion and fear (known as amygdala) was activated in an exaggerated fashion when compared to controls. The results from this study clearly showed that altered emotional processing occurs in the amygdala in response to stress during this crucial period of development."

Abstract title: "Perinatal programming of stress-related behaviour by glucocorticoids." Symposium: "Early life stress and its long-term effects -- experimental studies."

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/eVqdzmTpLPM/130407090835.htm

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Chinese mantises hatching!

After five weeks of protecting these egg cases from certain disaster, I was incredibly to see that my egg cases have finally sprung for spring! Before these hatched, I was raising three live mantises. A lot of people stay away from mantises due to their short life spans, but they are among my favorite animals to take care of. Easy to handle, interesting to watch, and very entertaining to feed. A lot of people I've shown these two hate insects and arachnids, but they think these guys are pretty darn cute...

I've been breeding them for natural pest control, they have protected my succulent plants from certain doom. Once infested with aphids, I've watched them make a meal out of nearly all of them.

Source: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?246627-Chinese-mantises-hatching!

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Two-step ovarian cancer immunotherapy made from patients' own tumor shows promise

As many as three quarters of advanced ovarian cancer patients appeared to respond to a new two-step immunotherapy approach?including one patient who achieved complete remission?according research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania that will be presented today in a press conference at the AACR Annual Meeting 2013.

The immunotherapy has two steps ? a personalized dendritic cell vaccination and adoptive T-cell therapy. The team reports that in the study of 31 patients, vaccination therapy alone showed about a 61 percent clinical benefit, and the combination of both therapies showed about a 75 percent benefit.

The findings offer new hope for the large number of ovarian cancer patients who relapse following treatment. The first step of the immunotherapy approach is to preserve the patient's tumor cells alive, using sterile techniques at the time of surgery so they can be used to manufacture a personalized vaccine that teaches the patient's own immune system to attack the tumor. Then, the Penn Medicine team isolates immune cells called dendritic cells from patients' blood through a process called apheresis, which is similar to the process used for blood donation. Researchers then prepare each patient's personalized vaccine by exposing her dendritic cells to the tumor tissue that was collected during surgery.

Because ovarian cancer symptoms can be stealth and easily mistaken for other issues ? constipation, weight gain, bloating, or more frequent urination ? more than 60 percent of patients are diagnosed only after the disease has spread to their lymph nodes or other distant sites in the body, when treatment is much less likely to produce a cure compared to when the disease is detected early. As the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in the United States, it takes the lives of more than 14,000 women each year.

"Given these grim outcomes, there is definitely a vast unmet need for the development of novel, alternate therapies," said lead author Lana Kandalaft, PharmD, PhD, MTR, a research assistant professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and director of clinical development and operations in Penn Medicine's Ovarian Cancer Research Center. "This is the first time such a combination immunotherapy approach has been used for patients with ovarian cancer, and we believe the results are leading us toward a completely new way to treat this disease."

Both treatments are given in conjunction with bevacizumab, a drug that controls the blood vessel growth that feeds tumors. Combining bevacizumab with immunotherapy makes a powerful duo, Kandalaft says. The vaccine trial is still open to accrual to test new combinatorial strategies.

More information: Dr. Kandalaft will present the findings of the trial on Saturday, April 6, 2013 in the Late Breaking Clinical Trials press conference at 1:00 p.m. ET in room 153 of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, 801 Mt Vernon Pl. NW, Washington, DC. She will also present during the Late-Breaking Research: Immunology poster session in Hall A-C (Poster Section 46) on Wednesday, April 10, from 8 a.m. to noon ET.

Provided by University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine

Source: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-two-step-ovarian-cancer-immunotherapy-patients.html

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Traffic Tip: Safety guards or flaps required on dually trucks

• By David Brogger
• Originally published April 7, 2013 at 1:54 p.m., updated April 7, 2013 at 9:50 p.m.

This week's traffic tip focuses on safety guards and flaps.

Why this specific code and how does it relate to driving in Victoria?

A man waved me down the other day and had a question regarding "mud flaps" on dually trucks. The man was concerned with an influx of oil-field trucks in the area, which are primarily dually trucks. He said that the dually truck tires tend to throw up gravel and debris from the roadway, which could cause problems.

The law states that any vehicle with four or more tires at the rear must have "safety guards or flaps" that are no less than 8 inches from the ground.

So, if you have a dually truck, please make sure it is equipped with safety guards, commonly called "mud flaps," so it will be legal.

The law is found in Texas Transportation Code 547.606.

Safety guards or flaps required. (a) A road tractor, truck, trailer, truck-tractor in combination with a semitrailer or semitrailer in combination with a towing vehicle that has at least four tires or at least two super single tires on the rearmost axle of the vehicle or the rearmost vehicle in the combination shall be equipped with safety guards or flaps.

The Victoria Police Department Traffic Safety Unit invites residents to ask us about any traffic issues you observe. The easiest way to do this is go to our website, victoriapd.com, then go to the VPD Customer Service Request tab in the center of the page and follow the directions.

If you have a traffic law question, contact Senior Police Officer David Brogger, Victoria Police Department Traffic Safety Unit, 361-485-3700.

Source: http://www.victoriaadvocate.com/news/2013/apr/07/city_traffic_tip_040813_205624/

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Kerry seeks speedy fix for Turkish-Israeli ties

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters traveling abroad with him shortly after finding out their aircraft had a mechanical problem before take off Saturday, April 6, 2013, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. A backup aircraft was brought in to replace the plane. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry talks to reporters traveling abroad with him shortly after finding out their aircraft had a mechanical problem before take off Saturday, April 6, 2013, at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. A backup aircraft was brought in to replace the plane. (AP Photo/Paul J. Richards, Pool)

ISTANBUL (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkish leaders Sunday to speedily restore full diplomatic relations with Israel, two American allies the U.S. sees as anchors of stability in a Middle East wracked by Syria's civil war, Arab Spring political upheavals and the potential threat posed by Iran's nuclear program.

Turkey, however, demanded that Israel end all "embargoes" against the Palestinians first.

In Istanbul on the first leg of a 10-day overseas trip, Kerry met with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu with the aim of firming up the rapprochement between Turkey and Israel that President Barack Obama kick-started during a visit to the Jewish state last month.

Kerry met later Sunday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan before traveling on to Israel.

"We would like to see this relationship that is important to stability in the Middle East and critical to the peace process ... get back on track in its full measure," Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with Davutoglu. He said that meant promises of "compensation be fulfilled, ambassadors be returned and full relations be embraced."

The two nations were once close partners, but the relationship plummeted in 2010 after an Israeli raid on a flotilla bound for the Gaza Strip. Eight Turks and a Turkish-American died.

Before leaving Israel two weeks ago, Obama arranged a telephone conversation between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Erdogan. Netanyahu apologized for the incident, and compensation talks are expected to begin this week.

But Davutoglu suggested that full normalization of ties would probably take some time.

"There is an offense that has been committed and there needs to be accountability," Davutoglu said. He signaled that Turkey would pursue a "careful" advance toward a complete restoration of relations, with compensation and an end to Israeli trade restrictions on the Gaza Strip as the stumbling blocks.

"All of the embargoes should be eliminated once and for all," he said, speaking through an interpreter.

Fixing the Turkish-Israeli relationship has been a long-sought goal of the Obama administration, and the U.S. desperately wants significant progress by the time Erdogan visits the White House in mid-May.

The Turks have reveled somewhat in what they view as a diplomatic victory, with billboards in Ankara celebrating Netanyahu's apology and praising Erdogan for bringing pride to his country. Perhaps seeking to buffer his leverage further, Erdogan signaled shortly after the call that he was in no hurry to finalize the deal and pledged to visit the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory soon.

From a U.S. strategic sense, cooperation between the American allies has only become more important as Syria's two-year conflict has grown ever deadlier. More than 70,000 people have died in the war, according to the United Nations, but the U.S. fears it could get even worse ? by spilling into neighboring countries or through chemical weapons being used. Both potential scenarios have prompted intense contingency planning among Washington and its regional partners, Israel and Turkey included.

Kerry, who noted his twice-weekly telephone chats with Davutoglu, spoke of shared U.S. and Turkish efforts to support Syria's opposition coalition. The opposition has suffered from poor coordination between its political leadership and the military factions leading the fight against the Assad regime, and from intense infighting among those who seek to guide the amorphous movement's overall strategy.

Turkey has gone further than the U.S. in its assistance, accepting some 180,000 Syrians as refugees and sending advanced weaponry to rebels fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad. The U.S. is only providing non-lethal aid to the rebels in the form of meals, medical kits and training.

Kerry praised Turkey for its generosity toward refugees and commitment to keeping its borders open, an issue of growing U.S. concern as the outflow of Syrians stretches the capacities of neighboring countries to accommodate them.

"The United States and Turkey will continue cooperating toward the shared goal of a peaceful transition in Syria," he said.

Although given short shrift at the news conference, a U.S. official stressed ahead of Kerry's meetings that he would also urge the Turks to remain cautious over the contentious issue of Iraqi oil.

Turkey wants to import oil directly from Iraq's autonomous Kurds in the north, a step that would enrage the central government in Baghdad and one the U.S. opposes. Washington doesn't want the riches of Iraq to bring the country back to sectarian warfare and has urged that any export arrangement get the Iraqi government's blessing.

The secretary of state is flying later Sunday to Israel, his third trip there in the span of two weeks. He'll meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah on Sunday night, followed by Netanyahu and other senior Israeli and Palestinian officials Monday as part of a fresh American bid to unlock the long-stalled Middle East peace process.

Conversations in Israel will also cover shared U.S. and Israeli concerns over Iran's nuclear program. The U.S. and other world powers met the Islamic republic in Kazakhstan for another round of negotiations, but no breakthrough was announced on a proposed deal that would see international sanctions on Iran eased if Tehran convinces the world it is not trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Kerry said the "door is still open" for a negotiated agreement, but that the onus was on the Iranians.

"If you have a peaceful program for nuclear power, as a number of nations do, it's not hard to prove that," he said. "They have chosen not to live up to the international requirements and standards with respect to verification of their program."

The other stops on his trip are Britain, South Korea, China and Japan. He returns to Washington on April 15.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-07-Kerry/id-ddfcf82f5ee84aae883b711e25b0d88c

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