Sunday, March 31, 2013

District attorney, wife shot to death in Texas county where assistant DA was killed, police say

Kaufman County

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland

By Frank Heinz, NBCDFW.com

Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife Cynthia were found shot to death inside their Forney home Saturday, nearly two months to the day after his top assistant was gunned down on his way to work earlier this year.

Kaufman County Sheriff's Department investigators confirmed the deaths to NBC 5 Saturday evening, but had little else to say in the early stages of the investigation.

See original report at NBCDFW.com

One source close to the probe said the top prosecutor and his wife were found by a concerned relative or close friend who had gone to the house about 4 p.m. after being unable to reach them.


Other sources told NBC 5 that the McLelland's front door may have been kicked in and that gunshots had been fired, though police have not independently confirmed that information.

There was no immediate confirmed link between Saturday's murders and the Jan. 31 slaying of Kaufman County Assistant District Attorney Mark Hasse, but it would be hard to not speculate on possible connections.? With that in mind, officials contacted all Kaufman County officials to ensure their safety Saturday. One former Kaufman County prosecutor was "in hiding" Saturday evening and said others were as well.

While police officers are frequently the target of violence while trying to apprehend criminals, attacks on prosecutors are extremely rare though not unheard of.? McLelland said as much in January when speaking about his slain friend when he said Hasse was aware of the dangers associated with being a prosecutor.

At the time, he described Hasse as a really, really good man that was an excellent friend and a spectacular prosecutor who wouldn't be easily replaced. He also vowed to catch Hasse's killers saying, "I hope that the people that did this are watching. Because we're very confident that we're going to?find you, pull you out of whatever hole you're in, bring you back and let the people of Kaufman County prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law."

FBI agents and Texas Rangers, who were still investigating the unsolved slaying of Hasse, are now leading the investigation into Saturday's murders, according to a federal law enforcement source.

McLelland and his wife, Cynthia Woodward McLelland, have five children including two daughters and three sons.? One of the sons is a Dallas police officer.

Investigators are expected to hold a news conference Sunday morning. ?More information is expected to be released at that time.

NBC 5's Ray Villeda and Scott Gordon contributed to this report.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2a2c4607/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C30A0C175342190Edistrict0Eattorney0Ewife0Eshot0Eto0Edeath0Ein0Etexas0Ecounty0Ewhere0Eassistant0Eda0Ewas0Ekilled0Epolice0Esay0Dlite/story01.htm

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Pilot ejected when small airplane dove near Chattanooga; body recovered

By Gil Aegerter and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

The body of a student pilot who was ejected from a small aircraft above an area east of Chattanooga, Tenn., in a freak accident Friday evening was found on Saturday, authorities said.

The man?s body was located after 8 a.m. local time, Bob Gault, a spokesman for the Bradley County Sheriff?s department, told NBC News.

The accident occurred when the owner of the Zodiac 601XL plane was taking lessons from an instructor, NBC station WRCB of Chattanooga reported, citing police. A malfunction caused the plane to nose dive and the canopy flew open ? and neither man was wearing a seat belt, WRCB reported.

The accident occurred at about 2,500 feet,?the Chattanooga Times Free Press reported.?

The instructor was able to land the aircraft back at Collegedale Municipal Airport, operations manager Chris Hancock confirmed to NBC News. He directed further questions to a Collegedale police spokesman who could not immediately be reached.

?The people inside the plane were not wearing seat belts,? said Troy Spence, director of the county?s emergency management agency, according to WRCB. ?So when they lost control of the plane, in an attempt to regain control of the plane, the passenger was ejected.?

Authorities conducted a ground search in Bradley County, WRCB said. The Times Free Press said the owner-pilot had a cell phone with him and rescuers pinged it in an attempt to find him.

Neither of the men was identified publicly by authorities.

WRCB said the plane had been owned by a man killed in a December crash and then was sold to the current owner, described as an experienced pilot who wanted more training in the Zodiac.

The Zodiac 601XL is a single-engine kit aircraft offered for home builders. Its two seats are side by side under a large domed canopy.

This story was originally published on

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Murray rallies past Ferrer for Sony Open title

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP) ? Andy Murray erased a championship point Sunday and rallied past David Ferrer 2-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) in a grueling final at the Sony Open.

One point from defeat in the last set, Murray skipped a forehand off the baseline to stay in the match. He then dominated the tiebreaker, while Ferrer appeared to cramp and collapsed to the court after one long point.

The match was filled with grinding baseline rallies, including at least a dozen of more than 20 strokes and one lasting 34. Murray and Ferrer dueled for 2 hours, 44 minutes, and as a result, the 11:30 a.m. start on Easter turned out not to be early enough for CBS.

The network cut away from the final when it went to the tiebreaker, switching to the tipoff of the NCAA tournament game between Michigan and Florida. CBS later showed a replay of match point.

Murray also won the title in 2009. His path to this year's championship was made easier because Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal skipped the tournament and Novak Djokovic lost in the fourth round.

Murray made a breakthrough last year by winning an Olympic gold medal and his first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open. He'll now move ahead of Federer to No. 2 in the rankings behind Djokovic.

He became the first Key Biscayne men's champion to save a championship point.

The No. 3-seeded Ferrer, who was seeking the biggest title of his career, fell to 0-13 against top-five players in finals. Spaniards are 0-6 in the Key Biscayne men's final, with Nadal losing three of those matches.

Playing in sunny, 80-degree weather, Murray and Ferrer both appeared drained in the third set, which started with six consecutive service breaks.

Murray was a point from defeat serving at 5-6. When he hit a forehand on the line, Ferrer stopped to challenge the call. A weary Murray leaned on his racket while replay confirmed the ruling to make the score deuce.

He won the game to hold two points later, then raced to a 4-0 lead in the tiebreaker. At 4-1, a 28-stroke exchange ended with Ferrer pulling a backhand wide, and he then crumbled to the concrete, apparently from leg cramps.

Ferrer limped through the final two points. When Murray hit a return winner for the victory, he quickly dropped his racket, eager to call it a day. The two exhausted finalists then met at the net to trade pats on the back.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/murray-rallies-past-ferrer-sony-open-title-184454532--spt.html

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Edible Book Festival: YUM!

A celebration of culinary talent, word play, and classic literature takes place every year in countries around the world.

By Ben Frederick,?Contributor / March 29, 2013

French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin would be proud of the Edible Book Festival celebrated worldwide every year on his birthday.

Enlarge

Founded in 2000 to celebrate the life of French gastronome Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, the International Edible Books Festival is held every year around the world on April 1st. Festival participants create cooked dishes and baked goods designed to look like books, share these images online, and then dine on them.

Skip to next paragraph Ben Frederick

Contributor

Ben Frederick is a contributor to The Christian Science Monitor.

Recent posts

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According to the official website, there are only three rules for participation:

1. The event must be held on April 1st (or close to that date).

2.?All edible books must be "bookish" through the integration of text, literary inspiration or, quite simply, the form.

3.?Organizations or individual participants must register with the festival?s organization and share images on the international festival website (www.books2eat.com).

The sheer range of style in the entries is impressive. Some participants design pastries to look like books; others use a normal cake base, but illuminate a passage, or draw a picture from a favorite book in frosting. Still others use EBF as an opportunity to sculpt flour, eggs, and sugar. The best creations, however, tend to be culinary slapstick efforts that rely heavily on puns.

At some sites, there is voting to determine favorite entries. In 2012, festival winners selected at the University of Texas in Austin included "Tart of Darkness"? and "War and Piece of Cake."

Other fantastically horrible EBF puns have included "Cavity's Rainbow" (Skittles organized by color in a glass case) and an empty blender next to a mint-flavored drink ("The Last of the Mojitos").

Every local festival seems to have its own categories for evaluation of the dishes ? from Best in Show to Punniest to Best Depiction of a Book/TV series ("Game of Scones"). But the highlight at most festivals occurs after the awards are handed out when participants get to eat their creations.

Francis Bacon got it right when he said, "Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."

Ben Frederick is a Monitor contributor.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/RpzebRYwzus/Edible-Book-Festival-YUM

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Saturday, March 30, 2013

SEO Expert Jobs in Pakistan, WebDesign Creative Concepts - Ref ...


Fantastic long term career opportunity with massive growth potential. Opportunity to develop and lead the team. Being the SEO Lead, you will develop and lead a team of junior seo's and copywriters to ensure positive quantifiable results in Search Engine Rankings, Traffic and Conversions and manage all aspects of SEO for a growing range of clients.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES:

*Develop and maintain SEO strategy and project plans to get good rankings on Google for highly competitive keywords
*Evangelize SEO process in projects
*Support optimizing site architectures for Internet Marketing
*Develop, Maintain, and Implement the SEO strategy with team
*Improve indexing and ranking of web pages
*Keyword Discovery and Expansion: Research, analyze and pick high traffic and relevant Keywords for our clients online businesses
*Research and analyze competitor advertising links
Back link strategy and implementation
*Directory submissions and revisions
*Social Media Submitting web pages and content to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit, Squidoo, etc
*Collaborate with web, multimedia, or art design staffs to create multimedia web sites that conform to brand and company visual format.
*Collect and analyze sales data, using web traffic metrics such as page visits, transaction size, link popularity, click-through rates, and cost-per clicks.
*Conduct online marketing initiatives such as paid ad placement, affiliate programs, sponsorship programs, email promotions, and viral marketing campaigns on social media websites.
*Optimize web site exposure by analyzing search engine patterns to direct online placement of keywords or other content.
*Collaborate with other marketing staff to integrate and complement marketing strategies across multiple sales channels.
*Communicate and collaborate with merchants, webmasters, bloggers, or online editors to place sales-oriented hyperlinks in high-traffic locations.
*Conduct financial modeling for online marketing programs or website revenue forecasting.
*Conduct market research analysis to identify electronic commerce trends, market opportunities, or competitor performance.
*Coordinate sales or other promotional strategies with merchandising, operations, or inventory control staff to ensure product catalogs are current and accurate.
*Develop transactional web applications, using web programming software and knowledge of programming languages, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) and extensible markup language (XML).

* Blog postings, Link Building, Article submission, Websites directory submission
* Knowledge and understanding of current search engine algorithms / methods
* Senior SEO expected to produce daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly reporting; assigned analytic projects; and produce independent analysis to help search engine strategy.
* Must have led successful SEO projects which resulted in significant growth in traffic and conversions
* The successful candidate will have strong analytic capabilities with specific knowledge of online marketing analytics

Special knowledge, licenses, etc Expert knowledge of
* SEO
* SEM
* PPC other Internet marketing strategies

Abilities:

* Review code to check for possible SEO ramifications, checking that there are no errors on pages and those pages meet W3C standards.
* Keep up to date on the latest SEO trends and practices.
* Create back links, articles, blogs, forums and other Social Media including FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn.
* Implement methods such paid adverts, PPC, etc

Source: http://www.mustakbil.com/job/78559/

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State Of The Platform As A Service Market, A Discussion For Deploycon

Deploycon LogoThe spring tech tour continues next week in Santa Clara with Deploycon, and I will be there to discuss the spectrum of PaaS providers and how they play across this broad, malleable and often manipulated sector of the market. It has become apparent that the platform as a service (PaaS) market has reached a pivot point. I have written about two companies that have pivoted in recent weeks, and we should expect the transformation to continue as the forces build apps faster with ever more data. It’s also evidence of a greater shift in the market to more standard ways to build apps and APIs. Developers often build out apps that require multiple APIs to connect. Data has to be accessed, signaling a greater need to develop a linking structure and visual way to see updates and interactions in the lifecycle process. For context, I thought it would make sense to look at Krishnan Subramanian’s spectrum of the PaaS market and where the market players fit. At every space on the spectrum is some level of abstraction. On the far left, business users get a high degree of abstraction but primarily so they can focus on creating apps out of custom processes, tasks and other business functions. Coding is not a requirement. Everything except making the connectors is done on the backend. Force.com?and?OrangeScape are the two most noticeable players while companies such as workXpress also compete in this market. The further you get to the center, the abstraction comes with creating more sophisticated apps by having some control over the infrastructure. For example, Subramanian said use cases could be some big data applications or some real-time processing based on various performance parameters. It is about offering different choices. Cloudbees, Heroku, Appfog, and Google App Engine play in this space. With private PaaS, the difference is choice. The developer can have a granular level of control but not necessarily have to worry about middleware or finely tuning the infrastructure. Extensible architectures give developers a way to scale if need be. Cloudfoundry.com, Cumulogic, Apprenda, OpenShift, Uhuru, ActiveState and Iron Foundry (Tier 3) are companies in this space. PaaS players further to the right give developers the capability to do continuous development and provide access to the infrastructure but not worry about backend operations. These platforms also offer open-source plugins and other advanced features. DevOps PaaS simplifies the “assembly” of services, providing capsules

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/o6yAPtzKmXk/

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Friday, March 29, 2013

Pope's foot-wash a final straw for traditionalists

VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis has won over many hearts and minds with his simple style and focus on serving the world's poorest, but he has devastated traditionalist Catholics who adored his predecessor, Benedict XVI, for restoring much of the traditional pomp to the papacy.

Francis' decision to disregard church law and wash the feet of two girls ? a Serbian Muslim and an Italian Catholic ? during a Holy Thursday ritual has become something of the final straw, evidence that Francis has little or no interest in one of the key priorities of Benedict's papacy: reviving the pre-Vatican II traditions of the Catholic Church.

One of the most-read traditionalist blogs, "Rorate Caeli," reacted to the foot-washing ceremony by declaring the death of Benedict's eight-year project to correct what he considered the botched interpretations of the Second Vatican Council's modernizing reforms.

"The official end of the reform of the reform ? by example," ''Rorate Caeli" lamented in its report on Francis' Holy Thursday ritual.

A like-minded commentator in Francis' native Argentina, Marcelo Gonzalez at International Catholic Panorama, reacted to Francis' election with this phrase: "The Horror." Gonzalez's beef? While serving as the archbishop of Buenos Aires, the then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio's efforts to revive the old Latin Mass so dear to Benedict and traditionalists were "non-existent."

Virtually everything he has done since being elected pope, every gesture, every decision, has rankled traditionalists in one way or another.

The night he was chosen pope, March 13, Francis emerged from the loggia of St. Peter's Basilica without the ermine-rimmed red velvet cape, or mozzetta, used by popes past for official duties, wearing instead the simple white cassock of the papacy. The cape has since come to symbolize his rejection of the trappings of the papacy and to some degree the pontificate of Benedict XVI, since the German pontiff relished in resurrecting many of the liturgical vestments of his predecessors.

Francis also received the cardinals' pledges of obedience after his election not from a chair on a pedestal as popes normally do but rather standing, on their same level. For traditionalists who fondly recall the days when popes were carried on a sedan chair, that may have stung. In the days since, he has called for "intensified" dialogue with Islam ? a gesture that rubs traditionalists the wrong way because they view such a heavy focus on interfaith dialogue as a sign of religious relativism.

Francis may have rubbed salt into the wounds with his comments at the Good Friday procession at Rome's Colosseum, which re-enacts Jesus Christ's crucifixion, praising "the friendship of our Muslim brothers and sisters" during a prayer ceremony that recalled the suffering of Christians in the Middle East.

Francis also raised traditional eyebrows when he refused the golden pectoral cross offered to him right after his election by Monsignor Guido Marini, the Vatican's liturgy guru who under Benedict became the symbol of Benedict's effort to restore the Gregorian chant and heavy silk brocaded vestments of the pre-Vatican II liturgy to papal Masses.

Marini has gamely stayed by Francis' side as the new pope puts his own stamp on Vatican Masses with no-nonsense vestments and easy off-the-cuff homilies. But there is widespread expectation that Francis will soon name a new master of liturgical ceremonies more in line with his priorities of bringing the church and its message of love and service to ordinary people without the "high church" trappings of his predecessor.

There were certainly none of those trappings on display Thursday at the Casal del Marmo juvenile detention facility in Rome, where the 76-year-old Francis got down on his knees to wash and kiss the feet of 12 inmates, two of them women. The rite re-enacts Jesus' washing of the feet of his 12 apostles during the Last Supper before his crucifixion, a sign of his love and service to them.

The church's liturgical law holds that only men can participate in the rite, given that Jesus' apostles were all male. Priests and bishops have routinely petitioned for exemptions to include women, but the law is clear.

Francis, however, is the church's chief lawmaker, so in theory he can do whatever he wants.

"The pope does not need anybody's permission to make exceptions to how ecclesiastical law relates to him," noted conservative columnist Jimmy Akin in the National Catholic Register. But Akin echoed concerns raised by canon lawyer Edward Peters, an adviser to the Vatican's high court, that Francis was setting a "questionable example" by simply ignoring the church's own rules.

"People naturally imitate their leader. That's the whole point behind Jesus washing the disciples' feet. He was explicitly and intentionally setting an example for them," he said. "Pope Francis knows that he is setting an example."

The inclusion of women in the rite is problematic for some because it could be seen as an opening of sorts to women's ordination. The Catholic Church restricts the priesthood to men, arguing that Jesus and his 12 apostles were male.

Francis is clearly opposed to women's ordination. But by washing the feet of women, he jolted traditionalists who for years have been unbending in insisting that the ritual is for men only and proudly holding up as evidence documentation from the Vatican's liturgy office saying so.

"If someone is washing the feet of any females ... he is in violation of the Holy Thursday rubrics," Peters wrote in a 2006 article that he reposted earlier this month on his blog.

In the face of the pope doing that very thing, Peters and many conservative and traditionalist commentators have found themselves trying to put the best face on a situation they clearly don't like yet can't do much about lest they be openly voicing dissent with the pope.

By Thursday evening, Peters was saying that Francis had merely "disregarded" the law ? not violated it.

The Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned, had to measure his comments when the purported abuser was the pope himself.

"Before liberals and traditionalists both have a spittle-flecked nutty, each for their own reasons, try to figure out what he is trying to do," Zuhlsdorf wrote in a conciliatory piece.

But, in characteristic form, he added: "What liberals forget in their present crowing is that even as Francis makes himself ? and the church ? more popular by projecting (a) compassionate image, he will simultaneously make it harder for them to criticize him when he reaffirms the doctrinal points they want him to overturn."

One of the key barometers of how traditionalists view Francis concerns his take on the pre-Vatican II Latin Massachusetts. The Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that brought the church into the modern world, allowed the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin. In the decades that followed, the so-called Tridentine Rite fell out of use almost entirely.

Traditionalist Catholics who were attached to the old rite blame many of the ills afflicting the Catholic Church today ? a drop in priestly vocations, empty pews in Europe and beyond ? on the liturgical abuses that they say have proliferated with the celebration of the new form of Massachusetts..

In a bid to reach out to them, Benedict in 2007 relaxed restrictions on celebrating the old Latin Massachusetts... The move was aimed also at reconciling with a group of schismatic traditionalists, the Society of St. Pius X, who split from Rome precisely over the Vatican II reforms, in particular its call for Mass in the vernacular and outreach to other religions, especially Judaism and Islam.

Benedict took extraordinary measures to bring the society back under Rome's wing during his pontificate, but negotiations stalled.

The society has understandably reacted coolly to Francis' election, reminding the pope that his namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, was told by Christ to go and "rebuild my church." For the society, that means rebuilding it in its own, pre-Vatican II vision.

The head of the society for South America, the Rev. Christian Bouchacourt, was less than generous in his assessment of Francis.

"He cultivates a militant humility, but can prove humiliating for the church," Bouchacourt said in a recent article, criticizing the "dilapidated" state of the clergy in Buenos Aires and the "disaster" of its seminary. "With him, we risk to see once again the Masses of Paul VI's pontificate, a far cry from Benedict XVI's efforts to restore to their honor the worthy liturgical ceremonies."

___

Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/popes-foot-wash-final-straw-traditionalists-004235548.html

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Chocolate Chase Rabbit Race 5k | Palos Sports & Recreation ...

Banks made?$32 billion on overdraft fees last year?

Bank customers may complain about hefty overdraft fees, but they?re using the service more and paying the price.

A new report from Moebs Services, a respected economic research firm, shows overdraft revenue at banks, credit unions and thrift institutions totaled $32 billion last year. That?s an increase of $400 million or 1.3 percent from 2011.

?Consumers use of overdrafts shows no indication of going away, and is actually increasing,? said Michael Moebs, who wrote the study.

At the current rate of growth, Moebs predicts revenue from overdraft fees will hit a new record by the end of 2016, topping the old record of $37 billion set in 2009.

The Moebs study found that about a quarter of the people with a consumer checking account ? that?s 38 million people ? frequently overdraft. The median overdraft is about $40.

More than half of the customers who frequently overdraft ? 57 percent or 20 million people ? go to payday lenders when they are short on funds.

Why? Because a payday loan is significantly cheaper.

?Payday lenders are the low-price source for short-term cash needs,? Moebs said. ?You can get a cash advance for $16 as opposed to $25 at a community bank, $27 a credit union and $30 at bank or thrift. Those are median prices.?

While the cost of an overdrawn account has been going up at many financial institutions, the price of borrowing from a payday lender has dropped. The median charge for a $100 cash advance dropped $1.50 from 2011 to 2012, from $17.50 to $16.

Moebs firmly believes many of the people who use a payday lender would rather not, if the cost of the overdraft penalty was more in line with what the payday stores charge. He puts that price point at $20.

What it really costs to cover an overdraft
Consumer groups have long asserted that overdraft fees are revenue generators, deliberately higher than the banks' cost of providing the service.

?It?s very clear that banks are gouging customers with incredibly high and outrageous overdraft fees that are not related to their cost,? said Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director at U.S. PIRG.

A bill introduced in Congress last week (The Overdraft Protection Act of 2013) would require these fees to be ?reasonable and proportional.?

Moebs told me his costs studies, some of which were done for the Federal Reserve Bank, show the prices charged by the big financial institutions ?are legitimate? because their cost structures are so high.

He estimates that a megabank makes about $3 on each overdraft charge, the same profit the payday lender earns with a $100 loan. But because the overhead at the bank is so much higher, it has to charge $30 or $35 to make the same amount.

Smaller banks and credit unions have a smaller nut to crack, so they might be able to reduce the price on an overdraft. Moeb?s advice to these institutions: lower that price and you?ll get more customers.

Cheaper alternatives
Of course, the goal is to avoid overdraft charges. Check your account statement ? online, by phone or at an ATM ? to make sure you don?t try to spend money that?s not in your checking account.

?If you are likely to overdraft, the main street institutions are your best choice ? most credit unions and community banks and some of the thrifts ? because they have a lower overdraft fee,? Moebs said.

Debit-card transactions often cause an account to be overdrawn. Remember: Your bank or credit union will deny a point-of-purchase debit-card payment or cash withdrawal from an ATM if there is not enough money in the account to cover it, unless you ?opt in? to their overdraft protection plan. In that case, the transaction will go through and you?ll get hit with a fee.

A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that 54 percent of the customers who had overdrawn their accounts said they did not realize they had signed up for an overdraft service that cost money. Susan Weinstock, director of Pew?s Safe Checking in the Electronic Age Project, said this shows there is ?a very high level of confusion? about how this overdraft protection works.

Herb Weisbaum is The ConsumerMan. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter or visit The ConsumerMan website.


Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/2a218c87/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cbanks0Emade0E320Ebillion0Eoverdraft0Efees0Elast0Eyear0E1C9133635/story01.htm

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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Making People Paranoid Prank By Jack Vale (VIDEO)

Prankster Jack Vale knows how to get under people's skin... let's just hope the guy with the photo of a gun on his t-shirt has a sense of humor. Watch Vale make everyone around him paranoid simply by talking on the phone.

Via Tastefully Offensive

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/27/making-people-paranoid-prank_n_2962307.html

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Poland and Slovakia focused on 2022 Winter Olympics bid | Sports ...

Poland and Slovakia are poised to step up their efforts to launch a joint bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics after the prime ministers of the two countries stated that the European financial crisis should not be seen as an impediment to such a project.

The two countries share a border straddled by the High Tatras mountains and have been exploring the potential of bidding to host their first Olympics in recent months. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico on Wednesday staged a meeting in the Slovak town of Poprad, the proposed site of Olympic alpine skiing disciplines. The northern town of Poprad unsuccessfully bid for the 2002 and 2006 Winter Games. Fico said, according to Reuters: ?We have a clear vision. We are not interested in any megalomania.?

Slovakia, which hosted the 2011 ice hockey world championships, would also be seeking to stage the sport during an Olympics, while the historic Polish city of Krakow is envisioned as the main hub of the 2022 Games. Tusk stated that Poland and Slovakia?s joint effort would have ?an extraordinary chance? to succeed.

Meanwhile, Fico shrugged off questions over the justification for investing in an Olympic Games amid the euro zone crisis. He said: ?We have crisis now. Should we crawl under the table? When we have crisis, we should not think about the future, ignore any chances that come up??

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has set November 2013 as the application deadline for the 2022 Winter Games and the host city will be elected in July 2015. The chances of Davos and St. Moritz launching a joint bid for the event were seemingly ended after Swiss voters in the canton of Graub?nden rejected the proposal earlier this month. The eastern province, which is home to the two ski resorts along with Klosters and Arosa, staged a referendum which saw 52.7% of voters reject the proposal.

Read the original:
Poland and Slovakia focused on 2022 Winter Olympics bid

Source: http://sportsbusinessinsider.com.au/international-news/poland-and-slovakia-focused-on-2022-winter-olympics-bid/

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Need new employees? Hire the ones you let go ? Business ...

by Jessica Miller-Merrell

woman holding hired signThe economy is like a pendulum, and when it starts to swing back toward prosperity?as it appears it has started to do?your organization might miss some of those talented employees you had to let go during the recession.

Why not hire them back? You can source, hire and train new employees, but there?s something lost?something more than productivity?when you let a long-time staff member go. It?s the experience, insight and industry knowledge that walked out with every pink slip you issued.

Adding to your troubles, talented people who survived the layoffs and stuck by your side through rough times may now be recruiting targets for other companies that are in the same boat as you.

So you need to add talent. Solution: Hire some former employees.

The boomerang boost

First thing to do: Create an employee rehire policy. Keep it simple. Start by determining why an employee left the organization. Ask if the person?s former manager would consider rehiring him or her. Tip: Build this question into the exit process for every employee so it will be easy to find qualified rehire candidates in the future.

Rehires, often referred to as a boomerang employees, may come back to your organization in the same or a different role. The great benefit to the organization: They already understand its culture, know what is expected and are familiar with the work environment.

Don?t limit your consideration of rehires to employees let go in a layoff.?Other candidates are those who left for what seemed like greener pastures or people who retired and then realized they weren?t quite ready for that.

Coach?s call-back

Inviting them back could immediately boost your company?s productivity and talent. I call this the Coach Snyder Effect.

Bill Snyder became head football coach of the Kansas State Wildcats in 1989. What Snyder did for the Wildcats is nothing short of legendary, and his list of awards and accomplishments through the years are amazing. But in 2005, Snyder retired and Kansas State tried to move on.

It didn?t. In fact,?the team took a nosedive. Soon, calls for Snyder to return from retirement started churning. And in 2009, the popular coach returned to the sidelines?a rare return in college football. Kansas State football has made a quick return to glory. Not a shabby performance for any coach, let alone for one who had already retired.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has a similar story. He returned to lead the coffee chain in early 2008 when it was struggling. Upon his return, he made tough management calls that resulted in store closures, layoffs and menu changes. This boomerang made an impact, as Starbucks sales have continued to soar since his return.

Another successful boomerang is Jay Leno, who retired as host of ?The Tonight Show? in 2009, making room for replacement Conan O?Brien. But ratings suffered, and Leno reclaimed his old position to positive reviews a year later.

Stay in touch with alums

Should you bring back your organization?s lost employees? Before you start sifting through past-employee files:

  • Establish a line of communication. Keep in touch with your organization?s ?alumni.??Consider setting up a LinkedIn alumni network or publishing an e-newsletter that goes out periodically to former employees.
  • Demonstrate value. Offer something of value to your alumni community to engage former employees and to spark a conversation between them and their former managers. Examples: a free r?sum?-writing class or webinar.
  • Build a rehire database. Like a talent pipeline within your organization, your rehire database can include ratings, information and insights from previous managers. Build a ?most-wanted? list and target your ?must hires.?

__________________________________________________________________________________________

Jessica Miller-Merrell is an Internet television host, author, speaker and HR professional who specializes in recruiting, training and social media. She manages the HR blog ?Blogging4Jobs? and is author of Tweet This! Twitter for Business. Her company, Xceptional HR, is located in Moore, Okla. Contact her at (405) 293-2564.

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Why sticking around is sometimes the better choice for males

Mar. 26, 2013 ? Researchers from Lund University and the University of Oxford have been able to provide one answer as to why males in many species still provide paternal care, even when their offspring may not belong to them. The study finds that, when the conditions are right, sticking around despite being 'cuckolded' actually turns out to be the most successful evolutionary strategy.

The study, by Charlie Cornwallis and colleagues, is published 26 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology.

In many species, males put a lot of effort into caring for offspring that are not their own. At first glance this makes little sense, because natural selection should dictate that males only care for the offspring that carry their genes. However, this study suggests that the males are both more tolerant and more astute than previously assumed, and in fact adjust their care according to how likely it is that females are unfaithful, whilst also judging whether caring will potentially reduce the number of offspring they can have in the future.

The researchers conducted a meta-analysis of 62 studies across 48 different species including insects, fish, birds and mammals. Overall, the researchers found that promiscuous copulations by females reduced the investment of males by 12%. Although parental care is highly variable across these species, the researchers were able to find a general explanation for why sticking around to care for the offspring is the better choice for some males that have been usurped. The reason is that males tend to be more accepting of offspring fathered by other males in species where the risk of cuckoldry is generally low, or when caring does not harm their future reproductive success.

"This, to me, shows the strength of natural selection, with its footprints clear in species from burying beetles -- which care for young over a few weeks by regurgitating dead mice -- to humans, who spend years providing for their children," says Charlie Cornwallis, researcher at the Department of Biology, Lund University. "These are complex calculations that males are making," he adds, "and it has been difficult to measure the relevant factors correctly, but looking across species has helped us work out what is going on. Moreover, a comparative study like this can guide researchers to the types of species and experimental cues that are likely to provide the most insight into paternal care in the future."

The study therefore opens up the possibility of more targeted research in the area. Now that the researchers know what factors are important, they can design studies to further test their findings and predict what males will do in species that have not yet been studied. For example, in species where the cost of caring is very low, males would not be expected to adjust their level of parental care even if the females are promiscuous. Rather than these males being 'duped', such tolerance has actually been favoured by natural selection.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Ashleigh S. Griffin, Suzanne H. Alonzo, Charlie K. Cornwallis. Why Do Cuckolded Males Provide Paternal Care? PLoS Biology, 2013; 11 (3): e1001520 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.1001520

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

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/mqJSf1LGIHQ/130326194100.htm

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Superhero supercomputer helps battle autism

Mar. 26, 2013 ? When it officially came online at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) in early January 2012, Gordon was instantly impressive. In one demonstration, it sustained more than 35 million input/output operations per second--then, a world record.

Input/output operations are an important measure for data intensive computing, indicating the ability of a storage system to quickly communicate between an information processing system, such as a computer, and the outside world. Input/output operations specify how fast a system can retrieve randomly organized data common in large datasets and process it through data mining applications.

The supercomputer's record-breaking feat wasn't a surprise; after all, Gordon is named after a comic strip superhero, Flash Gordon.

Gordon's new and unique architecture employs massive amounts of the type of flash memory common in cell phones and laptops--hence its name. The system is used by scientists whose research requires the mining, searching and/or creating of large databases for immediate or later use, including mapping genomes for applications in personalized medicine and examining computer automation of stock trading by investment firms on Wall Street.

Commissioned by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 2009 for $20 million, Gordon is part of NSF's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment, or XSEDE program, a nationwide partnership comprising 16 high-performance computers and high-end visualization and data analysis resources.

"Gordon is a unique machine in NSF's Advanced Cyberinfrastructure/XSEDE portfolio," said Barry Schneider, NSF program director for advanced cyberinfrastructure. "It was designed to handle scientific problems involving the manipulation of very large data. It is differentiated from most other resources we support in having a large solid-state memory, 4 GB per core, and the capability of simulating a very large shared memory system with software."

Last month, a team of researchers from SDSC, the United States and the Institute Pasteur in France reported in the journal Genes, Brain and Behavior that they used Gordon to devise a novel way to describe a time-dependent gene-expression process in the brain that can be used to guide the development of treatments for mental disorders such as autism-spectrum disorders and schizophrenia.

The researchers identified the hierarchical tree of coherent gene groups and transcription-factor networks that determine the patterns of genes expressed during brain development. They found that some "master transcription factors" at the top level of the hierarchy regulated the expression of a significant number of gene groups.

The scientists' findings can be used for selection of transcription factors that could be targeted in the treatment of specific mental disorders.

"We live in the unique time when huge amounts of data related to genes, DNA, RNA, proteins, and other biological objects have been extracted and stored," said lead author Igor Tsigelny, a research scientist with SDSC as well as with UC San Diego's Moores Cancer Center and its Department of Neurosciences.

"I can compare this time to a situation when the iron ore would be extracted from the soil and stored as piles on the ground. All we need is to transform the data to knowledge, as ore to steel. Only the supercomputers and people who know what to do with them will make such a transformation possible," he said.

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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/~3/VbpIo_prCLE/130326162343.htm

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Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Tanzania to hike spending in 2013/14, boost infrastructure

By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala

DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) - Tanzania plans to raise spending by 17 percent in 2013/14 to 17.7 trillion shillings with a focus on infrastructure projects, and aims to lift growth to 7 percent in 2013.

The economy grew 6.9 percent in 2012 from 6.4 percent a year before, above the projected 6.8 percent, helped by transport and communications improvements and higher manufacturing output, Finance Minister William Mgimwa told a closed session of parliament on Monday.

The minister, whose presentation was seen by Reuters on Wednesday, also said the government aimed to reduce inflation to single digits. Prices rose 10.4 percent in the year to February.

East Africa's second-biggest economy, plagued by power cuts and other infrastructure challenges, is fast-becoming a regional energy hub following huge offshore natural gas discoveries. It plans to have a gas utilisation master plan in place in 2013/14.

The sectors that led growth in gross domestic product (GDP) in 2012 were communications which rose 20.6 percent, financial services rising 13.2 percent. Manufacturing rose 8.2 percent and construction 7.8 percent.

"The government plans to boost GDP growth to 7 percent in 2013, 7.2 percent in 2014, 7.5 percent in 2015 and 8.5 percent in 2017," the minister said.

The International Monetary Fund said in October that Tanzania needed to limit power outages to keep growth buoyant, predicting the economy would expand by 6.5 to 7 percent in 2012. It said growth was expected to "remain buoyant" in 2013.

"Priority in the government's 2013/14 budget will be in ... increasing availability of electricity, developing transport infrastructure...and strengthening information and communication technology," he said in the presentation.

INFLATION FALLING

Tanzania signed several agreements with China during President Xi Jinping's visit this week for low-interest loans to build a new port and to develop a national information and communications technology network.

Mgimwa said the government planned to raise 9.88 trillion shillings in tax revenue in 2013/14, up from a targeted 8 trillion shillings a year before.

Loans and grants from external sources would fund a fifth of the total budget, or 3.85 trillion shillings. Commercial borrowing would raise 2.86 trillion shillings, with other income coming from non-tax revenue and revenue from local authorities.

Development expenditure will be 5.15 trillion shillings.

"The government will continue to curb the inflation rate and reduce it single digits," said Mgimwa, adding the government aimed to reduce it to 9.5 percent in June this year and to 6 percent in June 2014.

Inflation eased to 10.4 percent in the year to February from 10.9 percent in January. It has now fallen in 12 of the last 13 months.

The government is working on a draft national gas policy and plans new legislation this year to regulate the industry.

Norway's Statoil and Britain's BG announced this month they were going ahead with plans to build a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal in Tanzania after Statoil made its third gas discovery in the region in a year.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tanzania-hike-spending-2013-14-boost-infrastructure-125918695--business.html

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Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Aye-ayes: Endangered lemurs' complete genomes are sequenced and analyzed for conservation efforts

Mar. 25, 2013 ? For the first time, the complete genomes of three separate populations of aye-ayes -- a type of lemur -- have been sequenced and analyzed in an effort to help guide conservation efforts. The results of the genome-sequence analyses will be published in an early edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences online during the week of March 25.

The team of scientists is led by George H. Perry, assistant professor of anthropology and biology at Penn State University; Webb Miller, professor of biology and of computer science and engineering at Penn State; and Edward Louis, director of conservation genetics at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and director of the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, NGO.

The aye-aye -- a lemur that is found only on the island of Madagascar in the Indian Ocean -- recently was re-classified as "endangered" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. "The aye-aye is one of the world's most unusual and fascinating animals," said Perry. "Aye-ayes use continuously growing incisors to gnaw through the bark of dead trees and then a long, thin, and flexible middle finger to extract insect larvae, filling the ecological niche of a woodpecker. Aye-ayes are nocturnal, solitary and have very low population densities, making them difficult to study and sample in the wild."

Perry added that he and other scientists are concerned about the long-term viability of aye-ayes as a species, given the loss and fragmentation of natural forest habitats in Madagascar. "Aye-aye population densities are very low, and individual aye-ayes have huge home-range requirements," said Perry. "As forest patches become smaller, there is a particular risk that there won't be sufficient numbers of individual aye-ayes in a given area to maintain a population over multiple generations. We were looking to make use of new genomic-sequencing technologies to characterize patterns of genetic diversity among some of the surviving aye-aye populations, with an eye towards the prioritization of conservation efforts."

Louis, with his team at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and the Madagascar Biodiversity Partnership, worked to locate aye-ayes and collect DNA samples from three separate regions of Madagascar: the northern, eastern, and western regions. To discover the extent of the genetic diversity in present-day aye-ayes, the researchers generated the complete genome sequences of 12 individual aye-ayes. They then analyzed and compared the genomes of the three populations. They found that, while eastern and western aye-ayes are somewhat genetically distinct, aye-ayes in the northern part of the island and those in the east show a much more significant amount of genetic distance, suggesting an extensive period of time during which interbreeding has not occurred between the populations in these regions.

"Our next step was to compare aye-aye genetic diversity to present-day human genetic diversity," explained Miller. "This analysis can help us to gauge how long the aye-aye populations have been geographically separated and unable to interbreed." To make the comparison, the team gathered 12 complete human DNA sequences -- the same number as the individual aye-aye sequences generated -- from publicly available databases for three distinct human populations: African agriculturalists, individuals of European descent, and Southeast Asian individuals. Using Galaxy -- an open-source, web-based computer platform designed at Penn State for data-intensive biomedical and genetic research -- the team developed software to compare the two species' genetic distances. They found that present-day African and European human populations have a smaller amount of genetic distance than that found to exist between northern and eastern aye-aye populations, suggesting that the aye-aye populations were separated for an especially lengthy period of time by geographic barriers.

"We believe that northern aye-ayes have not been able to interbreed with other populations for some time. Although they are separated by a distance of only about 160 miles, high and extensive plateaus and major rivers may have made intermingling relatively infrequent," explained Miller. He added that the results of the team's data further suggest that the separation of the two aye-aye populations stretches back much longer than 2,300 years, which is when human settlers first arrived on the island and started burning the aye-ayes' forest habitat and hunting lemurs.

The team members hope that their findings will help to guide future conservation efforts for the species. "This work highlights an important region of aye-aye biodiversity in northern Madagascar, and this unique biodiversity is not preserved anywhere except in the wild," said Louis. "There is tremendous historical loss of habitat in northern Madagascar that is continuing at an unsustainable rate today. This study is an excellent example of how a comprehensive and coordinated effort in the field and laboratory can identify previously unknown patterns of biodiversity for an endangered species, which then can be used by conservation organizations to base their management strategies."

The authors added that, in future research, they would like to sequence the genomes of other lemur species -- more than 70 percent of which are considered endangered or critically endangered -- as well as aye-ayes from the southern reaches of the island of Madagascar.

In addition to Perry, Miller, and Louis, other scientists who contributed to this research include Stephan C. Schuster, Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, and Richard Burhans from Penn State; Runhua Lei from the Center for Conservation and Research at Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium; and Steig E. Johnson from the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

Funding for aye-aye sample collection was provided by Conservation International, the Primate Action Fund, and the Margot Marsh Biodiversity Foundation, along with logistical support from the Ahmanson Foundation and the Theodore F. and Claire M. Hubbard Family Foundation. Additional support comes from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, and the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Penn State. The original article was written by Katrina Voss.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. George H. Perry, Edward E. Louis, Jr., Aakrosh Ratan, Oscar C. Bedoya-Reina, Richard C. Burhans, Runhua Lei, Steig E. Johnson, Stephan C. Schuster, and Webb Miller. Aye-aye population genomic analyses highlight an important center of endemism in northern Madagascar. PNAS, March 25, 2013 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211990110

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/th-V7_WkuQM/130325160507.htm

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DICE+ launches $99 developer kit, pre-orders for $40 consumer model start this summer

DNP DICE launches $99 developer kit, hopes to release $40 consumer model this summer

Game Technologies, the Poland-based company behind the little electronic die that is DICE+, has just announced a $99 developer edition that bundles a transparent-cased model along with its software development kit. As a reminder, the DICE+ is an inch-sized rubberized cube packed with Bluetooth, an accelerometer and a rechargeable battery, with the aim of bringing human interaction to electronic board games and beyond.

We had a look at a demo DICE+ here at the 2013 Game Developers Conference and it looks relatively unchanged from the one we saw at E3 last year. However, the microUSB port is now revealed via a sliding mechanism instead of a pull-out flap, which should result in a more balanced roll. Marketing director David Gatti also told us that the cube's internals have been revamped and simplified for more cost-effective production.

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Source: DICE+

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/26/dice-launches-99-dev-kit/

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Zimbabwe court frees rights lawyer

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) ? Zimbabwe's top rights lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa, released by a court after eight days in jail for allegedly obstructing justice, said Monday her arrest was a ploy to intimidate human rights activists and pro-democracy groups ahead of upcoming elections expected in July.

A visibly tired Beatrice Mtetwa walked from the High Court in Harare in the company of two colleagues and her lawyer after her release papers took several hours to complete.?

She told reporters she believed she had been targeted by police.

"It is a personal attack on all human rights lawyers but I was just made the first example. There will be many more arrests to follow as we near elections," Mtetwa said. "The police were all out to get me. They wanted me to feel their might and power because I call myself a human rights lawyer and I felt it."

Mtetwa was arrested on March 17 along with four officials from Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party. The officials are accused of illegally compiling information on high level corruption and are schedule to appeal for bail on Tuesday. Mtetwa was accused of shouting at police officers who were conducting a search at Tsvangirai's staff offices when she demanded to see a search warrant.

Mtetwa and the four officials deny any wrongdoing. ?She said she merely told the police that "what they were doing is illegal, unlawful and undemocratic."

High Court Judge Joseph Musakwa ruled early Monday that Mtetwa was following professional legal procedures when she demanded to see a search warrant from police at the offices of the four officials.

"She was entitled to be appraised of the legality of the search," Musakwa said.

After her release, Mtetwa said she was not well-treated while in police custody. She wasn't allowed to take a bath and was denied access to her lawyers and family.

But she said she will not give up the fight for human rights.

"I will not be cowed," Mtetwa said. "There has to be mutual respect between police and lawyers because we will all be doing our job."

Critics have cited Mtetwa's prolonged jailing as the start of a fresh wave of political intimidation against opponents of President Robert Mugabe by loyalist police and judicial officials ahead of elections.

The European Union said in a statement Monday that European governments were "deeply concerned" by Mtetwa's arrest and the onslaught against civic groups as Zimbabwe prepares for elections to end the shaky and dispute-ridden coalition government.

The European bloc conceded that a referendum vote on March 16 on a new constitution was "credible" and reflected the free will of about 3 million voters who cast their ballots and overwhelmingly accepted the reformed constitution, EU spokesman Carl Skau said Monday.

As a result the EU suspended with immediate effect travel and banking bans on 81 leaders of Mugabe's party. But Mugabe, his wife, military, police and security chiefs and several others key loyalists remain on the ban list.

The restrictions were imposed in 2002 to protest the human rights record, violence, corruption and allegations of vote-rigging by Mugabe's party in past elections.

Regional mediators forged the coalition government between Mugabe and Tsvangirai after the disputed and violent elections in 2008.

So far this year, four rights and advocacy groups have been raided by police searching for alleged subversive materials relating to their activities campaigning for free elections and an end to political intimidation and human rights abuses that have dominated past elections.

Mtetwa had been scheduled to act as lead defense attorney in the trial, resuming Monday, of 29 supporters of Tsvangirai's party charged in the murder of a police inspector in an impoverished township suburb in western Harare.

Most of those suspects were denied bail for more than a year. Defending them, Mtetwa noted that six police officers charged in the assault and murder of a theft suspect received bail within a month of their detention. The officers are still to go to trial in that case nine months ago.

Swaziland-born Mtetwa moved to Zimbabwe in 1983. She has represented key leaders in Tsvangirai's party including its treasurer Roy Bennett, now in self-imposed exile after repeated threats. She has also defended journalists and prominent rights workers, some of whom were tortured, according to evidence in court, and held incommunicado without charge for several weeks late in 2008.

Last week police ignored an earlier High Court order to free Mtetwa and on Wednesday the lower Harare magistrate's court ordered her held in custody to reappear in that court on April 3.

Charges of obstructing justice carry a maximum of two years imprisonment.

The judge said Mtetwa should not have been denied bail because of her "professional standing." He said the police officers conducting the search could have "easily subdued her because she is a woman" if they felt she was hindering them from doing their job.

"She is a lawyer of many years, with a forceful, combative and at times aggressive personality but she remains professional and dignified" when doing her job, the judge said.

Mtetwa is a recipient of an array of awards from international jurists' groups including the American Bar Association over a distinguished career of three decades.

Mtetwa is known for her feisty and outspoken style and for quickly responding to calls for representation around the clock by activists and journalists held by police.

Media freedom groups said her detention, the first time she has been jailed, left independent reporters and rights campaigners fearful of being left without her voice.

The state's Sunday Mail newspaper criticized Mtetwa for thinking she was "untouchable" and said her "stage-managed antics in and outside the courts" earned her "dubious awards" from African and international lawyers groups.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/zimbabwe-court-frees-rights-lawyer-173536426.html

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Monday, March 25, 2013

Washington man calls police to report he's shot his two adult children

By Andrew Rafferty, Staff Writer, NBC News

Police near Tacoma, Wash. say they discovered two people shot in the head after a 69-year-old man called authorities and told them he had shot his two adult children.

Police arrived at a home in Puyallup, Wash. where they talked the man into putting down his gun after receiving the call around 3:30 a.m. local time, according to King5.com.

Inside the home, police found an adult male and an adult female each shot in the head in different rooms, authorities said. The victims appeared to have been shot in their sleep.

The female died and the male is reportedly in critical condition at Tacoma General Hospital, according to KING 5.

Two young children and the suspect's wife were found in the home unhurt, according to police. Authorities believe the male shooting victim is the father of the two smaller children.

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/29ef6869/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C240C174425590Ewashington0Eman0Ecalls0Epolice0Eto0Ereport0Ehes0Eshot0Ehis0Etwo0Eadult0Echildren0Dlite/story01.htm

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Boeing 787 takes to sky in first flight check

NEW YORK - Boeing said on Monday that the first flight test of its reworked battery system for the 787 Dreamliner went "according to plan," enabling it to move on to formal testing.

The successful mission means Boeing can conduct a second flight test that will gather data for the Federal Aviation Administration, which must approve the new system before the 787 can be used for commercial service.

Regulators grounded the global fleet of 50 Dreamliners in January after a battery burned aboard a jet on the ground in Boston, and a second battery overheated on a flight in Japan.

"During the functional check flight (on Monday), crews cycled the landing gear and operated all the backup systems, in addition to performing electrical system checks from the flight profile," Boeing spokesman Marc Birtel said in a statement.

The flight carried six crew members: two Boeing pilots, two instrumentation engineers, a systems operator and a flight analyst, Boeing said.

"More than 600 of these functional check flights were completed in 2012 across Boeing commercial airplane programs."

Resuming flights would be a huge boost for Boeing, which is losing an estimated $50 million a week while the 787 is grounded, and for airlines, which are barred from flying the 787. Boeing also is prevented from delivering the planes to customers during the grounding, though it continues to build them.

Some Boeing officials have said the jet could be back in service by May 1. But some experts cautioned it could take longer.

Oliver McGee, an aerospace and mechanical engineer who was a deputy assistant secretary of transportation under President Bill Clinton, said he was skeptical that federal regulators would allow the 787 to resume flights as early as May 1.

"Take whatever date is agreed upon and add three to six months to it," McGee told Reuters. "I don't think that you're going to see any type of quick fix or compromising on the FAA side."

Once data from the flight has been analyzed, Boeing said it would prepare for a ground and flight demonstration aimed at certifying the company's proposed changes to the battery system, a key step toward getting permission from the FAA to resume flights of the grounded plane.

Birtel said it wasn't clear if the demonstration test for the FAA would conclude Boeing's testing of the new battery system, which was unveiled in Tokyo on March 15. The tests are being conducted in the laboratory, in planes on the ground, and in flight.

"Obviously, progress is being made on all three fronts," Birtel said.

The battery system is made by Thales SA of France, while the battery itself is made by Japan's GS Yuasa Corp.

Boeing plans to conduct one certification demonstration flight using the same LOT plane, Line number 86, to show that the new battery system performs as intended during flight conditions.

Separately, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board on Monday said it would hold a two-day forum April 11-12 to examine the design and performance of lithium-ion batteries in transportation -- a comprehensive review sparked by the battery failures on the two Boeing 787 Dreamliners in January.

The public forum will examine the design and development of various lithium-ion batteries, how their use and manufacturing are regulated, and the use and safety of such batteries in various modes of transportation.

The FAA grounded all 50 Boeing 787s in use worldwide in January after failures of two batteries on two separate aircraft - one parked at the Boston airport, and the other forced to make an emergency landing in Japan.

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653351/s/29faf194/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cboeing0E7870Etakes0Esky0Efirst0Eflight0Echeck0E1B90A66242/story01.htm

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