শুক্রবার, ২৮ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Former UN inspector due in court in sex case

A former U.N. weapons inspector convicted in an online sex sting is scheduled to appear in a northeastern Pennsylvania courtroom on Wednesday and may learn his sentence.

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Scott Ritter, 50, of Delmar, N.Y., exchanged explicit messages with a detective posing as a 15-year-old girl, then performed a sex act on himself in front of a webcam. He testified in his own defense at his April trial that he believed the person he met in a Yahoo chat room in 2009 was an adult acting out her own fantasy.

A Monroe County jury convicted Ritter on six counts, including unlawful contact with a minor.

Ritter is expected to ask for a new trial Wednesday, basing his request on an appeals court ruling in New York that records from previous incidents in that state should not have been unsealed and given to prosecutors in Pennsylvania to be used at his trial.

The Monroe County district attorney's office said the New York ruling has no bearing on Ritter's conviction and wants him sentenced immediately.

Ritter was one of the U.N.'s chief weapons inspectors in Iraq from 1991 to 1998. He resigned after accusing the United States and the U.N. of failing to get tough with Saddam Hussein. Later, he said that Iraq had destroyed its weapons of mass destruction, and he became a vocal critic of the U.S. invasion.

Ritter was charged in New York a decade ago with trying to lure an undercover police officer posing as a 16-year-old girl to a restaurant. The charges were later dropped, and he said in 2003 that the case was designed to silence his war criticism.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45042281/ns/us_news/

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Mayweather not guilty in Vegas harassment case

FILE - In this April 2010 file photo, Floyd Mayweather Jr. poses for a photo during a news conference in Las Vegas. Mayweather is due for trial on Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011 in Las Vegas for misdemeanor charges accusing him of threatening two homeowner association security guards in October 2010 outside his Las Vegas home. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken, File)

FILE - In this April 2010 file photo, Floyd Mayweather Jr. poses for a photo during a news conference in Las Vegas. Mayweather is due for trial on Wednesday Oct. 26, 2011 in Las Vegas for misdemeanor charges accusing him of threatening two homeowner association security guards in October 2010 outside his Las Vegas home. (AP Photo/Isaac Brekken, File)

(AP) ? Floyd Mayweather Jr. was acquitted Wednesday of misdemeanor harassment charges alleging he threatened the lives of two homeowner association security guards in an argument about parking tickets outside the boxer's Las Vegas home.

The 34-year-old prizefighter didn't testify during the Las Vegas Justice Court trial. His attorney called the encounter between Mayweather and the guards a "trivial matter," and said the case hinged on the boxer's celebrity.

Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Diana Sullivan said she wasn't convinced that the guards feared any threat would be carried out. Even the guards testified under questioning by Wright they would have preferred not to take the case to trial.

"If this wasn't Floyd Mayweather, we wouldn't have been in court," attorney Richard Wright said outside the downtown Clark County Regional Justice Center. "Any other case would have resolved with an offer of an apology and a handshake."

The not guilty finding was a victory for the undefeated prizefighter, whose legal problems have mounted in the past year. The most serious charges ? stemming from a domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend and two of their children in October 2010 ? could put him in prison for 34 years if he's convicted.

The case heard Wednesday was over an Oct. 4, 2010 encounter between Mayweather and two security guards at the Southern Highlands community where he lives in a 12,000-square-foot, $9.5 million home.

Parking for Mayweather's 29 cars has been a frequent source of friction in the gated and patrolled community is about 10 miles south of the Las Vegas Strip.

Mayweather found tickets on his cars, berated the guards for touching the vehicles, removed a ticket from one vehicle and stuck it on the windshield of their security patrol vehicle, the guards, 23-year-old Miguel Burgos and 24-year-old Aaron Ryan, told police.

Burgos said Mayweather told them, "my homies have guns, if you want me to call them they'd come over here and take care of you."

The two guards feared for their safety, prosecutor Lisa Luzaich said.

The guard were armed with handguns, Wright countered. They never left their patrol pickup truck during Mayweather's display, and could have driven away.

The judge agreed.

"I do not see evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that they were in fear for their safety," she said.

Wright tried to show the guards decided to press charges under pressure from their supervisors to back up a civil lawsuit filed in January by the Estates at Southern Highlands Golf Club Community Association claiming Mayweather threatened employees and wouldn't follow association rules. The complaint was voluntarily dismissed March 31.

Mayweather, who could have faced up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine on each of the two misdemeanor charges, did not speak to reporters about the decision.

Mayweather is scheduled to stand trial Nov. 4 on an unrelated misdemeanor battery complaint alleging he poked another homeowner association security guard in the face during a separate argument over parking tickets in November. Mayweather has pleaded not guilty.

He also is scheduled for a Dec. 21 evidence hearing on more serious felony charges stemming from the domestic dispute with his ex-girlfriend and two of their children at the woman's home. Mayweather could face 34 years in prison if convicted in that case.

His lawyers have denied wrongdoing on his behalf in those cases.

Mayweather is 42-0 in his professional boxing career, with 26 knockouts.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2011-10-26-Mayweather-Harassment%20Trial/id-ab83331a13784a71a68d9d0535ce5df6

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২৭ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Thousands leave flood-surrounded Thai capital (AP)

BANGKOK ? Residents poured out of the Thai capital by bus, plane and train Thursday, heeding government warnings to use a special five-day holiday to evacuate parts of the flood-threatened metropolis before a weekend deluge rushes through the city.

The evacuation warning applied to only three of Bangkok's 50 districts, but the government acknowledgement the entire city could flood in coming days meant many residents were leaving the city of 9 million people before the floods come.

The latest evacuation warning was issued Thursday morning for Sai Mai district, on the capital's northern outskirts, where waist-high water has turned roads into virtual rivers and swamped gas stations and homes.

At least one foreign government is advising against all but essential travel to Bangkok, with Britain's Foreign Office saying "flooding is likely to disrupt transport, close tourist attractions and may affect electricity and water supplies."

The U.S. Embassy has been advising Americans that ground travel around Thailand was difficult and the situation should be monitored closely.

Thailand's government has for weeks sent conflicting messages about the dangers of the floods ? which have killed 373 people nationwide since July and caused billions of dollars in damage ? at times warning Bangkok was in imminent danger and at other times declaring the city would be safe.

But efforts to protect the capital were dealt a major psychological blow Tuesday, when floodwaters breached barriers around the city's second-largest airport and forced it to close.

Despite that, the vast majority of the city remained dry Thursday.

Thousands of people packed Bangkok's Mo Chit bus terminal Wednesday, trying to leave town on their own to take advantage of the five-day public holiday that runs Thursday through Monday in flood-affected areas, including Bangkok.

Some waited for hours on the sidewalk outside Mo Chit because there was no space inside the terminal, the main departure point for buses to Thailand's north.

Large crowds were also reported at the city's main international gateway, Suvarnabhumi airport, which remained open.

As the waters rose in Sai Mai, hundreds of residents clamored aboard packed military trucks with their belongings, desperate to leave. But help was in short supply.

"We haven't been able to get on one (military truck) yet, we have been waiting for almost an hour," said 71-year-old Saman Somsuk. "There aren't many trucks."

Others got out any way they could ? in paddle boats, plastic tubs, inner tubes and rubber rafts. Several men floated down a flooded road in a makeshift boat made of empty oil barrels tied to a rectangular plank.

As fears of urban disaster set in, some residents built cement walls to protect their shops and homes.

Websites posted instructions on the proper way to stack sandbags. Many residents fortified vulnerable areas of their houses with bricks, gypsum board and plastic sheets. Walls of sandbags or cinderblocks covered the entrances of many buildings.

Concern that pumps would fail prompted a run on plastic containers in which to hoard water. Anticipating worse, one woman traveling on Bangkok's Skytrain transit system carried a bag of life vests.

Panic has gripped parts of the city as more and more of it is affected by the advancing water. Residents stocking up on food and other necessities have emptied supermarket shelves, and stores have posted notices that flooding was disrupting supply chains and leaving them unable to restock certain items.

Residents living near Mahasawat Canal in western Bangkok evacuated on Wednesday after a rapid overnight rise in water.

"I decided to leave because the water came in very fast," said Jong Sonthimen, a 57-year-old factory cleaner. A boat carried her and two plastic garbage bags with her belongings to a Buddhist temple, where pickup trucks waited to take residents to a safer area.

Key floodgates were opened in Bangkok to help drain runoff through urban canals to the sea, but rising tides in the Gulf of Thailand this weekend could slow the process and flood the city.

___

Associated Press writers Vee Intarakratug, David Thurber and Todd Pitman contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111027/ap_on_bi_ge/as_thailand_floods

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Kid Scientists Show Medicines Can Be Mistaken For Candy

60-Second Science | Health

A study by sixth graders found that children and adults can easily mistake some medications for sweets. Rose Eveleth reports.

More 60-Second Science

Can you tell the difference between a pill and an M&M? Can your toddler?

Candies and medicine often look similar ? but confusion between these little shiny morsels could be very dangerous. And it's not just children who mistake treatments for treats. A small study by two smart sixth graders found that more than one in four kindergarteners, and one in five teachers, has difficulty telling the difference between medicine and candy.

Casey Gittelman and Eleanor Bishop asked 30 kindergarteners and 30 teachers to guess which items in a cabinet were candies, and which were medicine. The medicines most frequently confused were Mylanta and Tums for SweetTarts, Sine-off for Reese's Pieces, and Coricidin for M&Ms. Kindergarteners who could not read were even more likely to mistake medicine for candy. The girls presented their results at the national conference of the American Academy of Pediatrics on October 14th.

Do you think you or your children could definitely tell the difference between a Reese's Pieces and a Clonidine? If not, you should probably secure your medicine cabinet to keep a mistake about sweets from turning sour.

?Rose Eveleth

[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]


Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=e72f1dc95249e96dea28f8d715b7cd18

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বুধবার, ২৬ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Battling for gay rights, in Allah's name

Like other aspiring religious reformers before her, Ani Zonneveld takes positions that make her unpopular with America's Islamic leaders.

Not only does she lead prayers ? a task normally reserved for men ? but she is an outspoken advocate for gay, bisexual and transgender Muslims. Later this year, she plans to officiate at the Islamic wedding of a lesbian couple, which is perfectly acceptable by her reading of the Quran.

?The community we are building is very different from most of the mosques you would walk into,? said Zonneveld, a 49-year-old Malaysian-born singer-songwriter. ?We are very inclusive of all Muslims, gay Muslims, mixed-faith couples. ? We also don?t segregate (the genders) when we pray, and we allow women to lead prayer. Our values are very egalitarian and we really live those values out.?

Muslims for Progressive Values, which Zonneveld co-founded in 2007 with Pamela Taylor, a feminist American Muslim, is based on 10 principles. They include a commitment to equality of genders and for LGBTQ (or lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning) people, repudiation of militarism and violence and the need for ?critical engagement with Islamic scripture.?

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Some of the group?s aims dovetail with those of other emerging Muslim groups that challenge the orthodoxy they say is preached in the majority of U.S. mosques. But the nonprofit?s embrace of the LGBTQ population is unique, even among these reform-minded groups.

The American Muslim population, estimated at between 3 million and 6 million, is diverse, including immigrant populations from all over the world as well as U.S.-born faithful and converts. Nearly half said they attend mosque at least once a week, according to a 2011 Pew survey, while many worship privately or infrequently. According to the survey, 37 percent believe there is only one way to interpret the religion. Some wear traditional garb, like head coverings, and grow beards, but more do not.

Parsing the Quran
Even so, unlike the Protestant world, where debate over Biblical interpretation has led to varying positions on homosexuality, few mosques and Muslim organizations question the orthodoxy that homosexuality is banned.

This position on homosexuality typically cites the Quran?s references to ?the people of Lut? ? the residents of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were said to have been destroyed by Allah, presumably because of their 'perverted' sexual practices. In at least six majority Islamic countries, homosexuality is considered a capital crime.

The most influential Muslim religious organization in the United States has taken a position similar to that of the Vatican.

"Homosexuality is a moral disorder. It is a moral disease, a sin and corruption,? Muzammil Siddiqi, former president of the Islamic Society of North America, has written. ?No person is born homosexual, just like no one is born a thief, a liar or murderer. People acquire these evil habits due to a lack of proper guidance and education.?

Siddiqi did not return calls requesting an interview.

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That does not mean that homosexuals are shunned, said Shakeel Syed, executive director of the Islamic Shura Council of Southern California, an umbrella organization for mosques and Muslim organizations with approximately 500,000 members.

?Islam doesn?t cast out anyone," said Syed. "No one will condemn them. LGBTQ people can do whatever they feel is right in their own way and we respect that. But if one seeks sanction from the faith, they will be disappointed.?

When the California Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2008, the council issued a release expressing ?deep dismay? at the decision. ?We believe that the (ruling) is a violation of God?s law as clearly given in the Quran and the Bible,? it said.

But such statements do not mean the mosques are full of homophobes, said Arsalan Iftikhar, a human rights lawyer and author of the book ?Islamic Pacifism, Global Muslims in the Post-Osama Era.?

?Generally speaking, although most Muslims would concede that homosexuality is not allowed within mainstream Islamic teachings, I also believe that most Americans of all religions would also say that LGBTQ Americans should not be discriminated against in any manner because of broader civil rights implications,? Iftikhar said via email.

Same chapter, different interpretation
There are Islamic scholars who say that the passages in the Quran about the people of Lut can be interpreted in different ways. Among them is the nation's only gay imam, Daayiee Abdullah, who has studied the Quran in Arabic and in Chinese and English translations.

"Traditional interpretation is that the Lut story talks about homosexuality ? that (comes) from people who are reading it from a heterosexual normative," said Abdullah, who has worked for more than a decade to help other gay Muslims deal with the apparent conflict between their sexual preference and their religion.

Abdullah's interpretation of Lut is that Allah destroyed the people not because they were engaging in consensual homosexual sex, but engaging in something closer to gang rape, just one facet of what he says was a particularly cruel society.

He also said that attitudes among the general population of American Muslims toward gays have softened in the last decade, but most still do not fully accept the lifestyle.

"It used to be that people thought being gay and Muslim was an oxymoron," he said. "Now, they will concede that there are people who are gay and Muslim, but (that) they should not do the sex thing. They should get married. But that puts innocent women into a position where they are in a loveless relationship. It forces people not to have a sexual part of their life. And God gave sex to people for enjoyment."

'How can you just let it slide'
Zonneveld said her activism grew out of frustration with other American Muslims for being either too willing to accept the word of conservative imams or unwilling to speak out.

?If there is a homophobic sermon at Friday prayer ? nobody would stand up and say, ?I?m sorry that?s an appalling sermon,?? said Zonneveld. ?But I can?t sit with a community where it is acceptable to be homophobic ?. How can you just let it slide??

Muslims for Progressive Values is intended to provide a space to worship and a voice to Muslims who don?t necessarily agree with American Muslim leaders often seen as speaking for the entire flock.

Zonneveld, a lifelong Muslim, spent part of her childhood in Germany and Egypt, then attended college in Illinois. She became a professional singer and songwriter and now works with well-known artists, including include blues singer Keb?Mo and Melissa Manchester. Her husband is from Holland and their 13-year-old daughter goes to a public school.

For many years, Zonneveld kept her religion under wraps, partly out of concern that it could harm her career in the entertainment industry.

But events surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks sparked her to ?come out? as a Muslim.

In the days after the attacks by Muslim extremists, President George W. Bush appeared with Muslim religious and community leaders. She thought it was a commendable gesture ? an effort to signal that the United States should not condemn all Muslims for the actions of a few extremists. But she was appalled to think that the Muslims called upon to represent her and her fellow Muslims did not seem mainstream.

?The vast majority of American Muslims believe in an Islam that is so different from the people (who have been) representing us,? said Zonneveld. ?It would be like if you had an ultra-Orthodox Jewish rabbi representing all American Jews; they would be up in arms. ? It would be complete misrepresentation of the American Jewish community.?

?Jihad is long overdue?
For the first time in her career, Zonneveld incorporated her faith into her profession, producing an album called ?Ummah Wake Up!? and again collided with conservative strictures embraced by some Muslims.

In the title song, she calls on the ?Ummah? ? roughly ?community? in Arabic ? to take up a jihad, which to her means an ?internal struggle to be more godly, more merciful, more forgiving, more like God is.?

?Ummah, Ummah Wake-up. Jihad is long overdue!? she sang accompanied by a rock beat and Middle Eastern-flavor instrumentation created on a synthesizer.

But she said that a number of Muslim retailers and organizations told her that what she had done was forbidden, saying only percussion may accompany the voice, and then only a man?s voice.

?I was in shock that this would happen in America,? said Zonneveld.

She eventually found a group of like-minded Muslims and helped launch a challenge to the ?mainstream? Muslim orthodoxy in 2004 under the Progressive Muslim Union umbrella. The effort flamed out in 2006 because of infighting over whether Republicans could be included and whether members should even have contact with more conservative Muslim groups.

Distributing an alternative message
Zonneveld and Taylor started their own group in 2007, this time focused around 10 guiding principles that they use to define their brand of progressivism, including the equality of genders and sexual orientations.

Members also were called on to engage in critical discourse over Islamic scriptures and issues of people in the faith.

That includes, in Zonneveld?s view, admitting that some interpretations of Islamic writings inspire some people to violence ? typically disaffected young men who are surfing the Internet.

?There is radicalization ? to deny it is silly,? Zonneveld said.

On Monday, Muslims for Progressive Values, which she says now has chapters in five cities and several thousand followers, is holding a fundraiser in Washington, D.C., for a project called ?Literary Zikr? to publicize its interpretation of Islam. The group also is using the Internet to counterbalance strict interpretations of Islam and efforts by others to demonize the religion.?

?Suppose a guy Googles, ?What is Judaism??? said Zonneveld, noting that the search would return many websites that vilify Jews or advocate violence against them. ?Our site would say that ? they are among the (broader definition of) believers."

?This is exactly the type of work that needs to be done,? to combat radicalization in the community, said Zudhi Jasser, who founded Phoenix-based American Islamic Forum for Democracy.

His group also opposes what he says is the "Islamist" approach taken by many Muslim leaders who presume to speak for mainstream Muslims.

Jasser urges Muslim leaders in the United States to remove politics from the mosques and allow greater discourse on the meaning and interpretation of the Quran. He and Zonneveld agree on that, though they diverge on many other points.

Jasser has been savaged by many Muslims for speaking out about radicalization and, in particular, for testifying at Congressional hearings in March on ?the threat of radicalization in the American Muslim Community." He agreed with the assertion that imams and many Muslim organizations dismiss or deny potential radicalization, and by doing so could even encourage it. Many Muslims have characterized him as a shill for the right wing, because the hearings, held by Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., were seen as a platform for politicians capitalizing on anti-Islam sentiment.

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Zonneveld also faces disapproval from Muslims ? not only by those who hold to traditional views ? but also those who argue that singling out Muslim radicalization from other types of extremist violence fuels bigotry.

Her stance also has drawn attention from those with a very different agenda, she said.

She said that after she aired her concerns about radicalism in an event at UCLA in early October, she was approached by a woman from a right-wing political organization who appeared to be recruiting her.

?Just because I?m critical of the Muslim community does not mean I?m interested in being anti-Islam,? she said. ?We are critical. We call a rat a rat. ? I think you can be honest without kowtowing and using the language of Islamophobes.?

Click here to follow Kari Huus on Facebook.

? 2011 msnbc.com Reprints

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44993807/ns/us_news-life/

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মঙ্গলবার, ২৫ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Symbian Anna update rolls out to compatible Nokia smartphones in the US

Nokia may be moving on to other things, but it's not leaving its existing smartphone lineup completely behind just yet. The company confirmed today that Nokia C6-01, E7 and N8 owners in the US are now finally able to download the Symbian Anna OS update, more than two months after it first rolled out elsewhere around the world. That brings with it a whole raft of changes, including a spiffed up UI, a new on-screen QWERTY keypad, a new browser, new Maps, new versions of the Ovi Store and QuickOffice, and a number of other "performance and usability improvements." Look for it in the software update client on your phone if you haven't downloaded it already.

Symbian Anna update rolls out to compatible Nokia smartphones in the US originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Oct 2011 14:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Eurozone to banks: Take bigger loss on Greek debt (AP)

BRUSSELS ? Eurozone finance ministers said Saturday that they have agreed that banks should accept substantially bigger losses on their Greek bonds, with a new report suggesting that writedowns of up to 60 percent may be necessary.

The report from Greece's international debt inspectors, which formed the basis for discussions at the finance ministers' meeting Friday, says that in order to keep rescue loans from the eurozone to the euro109 billion ($150 billion) foreseen under a second bailout deal tentatively reached in July, Greece's debt would have to be cut by 60 percent.

Even that would leave the country's debts still at 110 percent of economic output in 2020.

"Yesterday we agreed that we need a substantial increase in the contribution from the banks," said Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg's prime minister who also chairs the meetings of eurozone finance ministers. That means the July deal, under which banks would have taken writedowns on their Greek bondholdings of about 21 percent, is definitively off the table.

Austria's Finance Minister Maria Fekter told journalists that the eurozone's chief negotiator Vittorio Grilli had been asked to restart negotiations with banks.

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos confirmed as he arrived for the meeting that leaders were looking for banks to write down more than the July agreement envisaged. "But in any case, Greece is not a central problem for the eurozone," he said. "Now the point is to take a more general and more constructive decision for eurozone as a whole."

The report did not make policy recommendations, and in fact the European Central Bank opposes cutting Greece's debts further. But finance ministers are clearly paying close attention to the document.

Another scenario showed that if Greece's debts are cut by 50 percent, the country would need euro114 billion ($157 billion), on top of the July package.

The agreement to push for much bigger losses is a key step in helping Athens eventually dig out from underneath its debt burden.

But asking banks to more significantly write down their Greek debt will raise concerns about their ability to withstand the losses as well as the ensuing turmoil on financial market.

As a result, the finance chiefs from the 27 EU countries, meeting Saturday in Brussels, are also expected to force banks across the continent to raise billions in capital for their rainy-day funds.

Both measures are critical to solving Europe's debt crisis, which is now threatening to engulf larger economies like Italy and Spain and is blamed for dampening growth across Europe and even the world.

"The crisis in the eurozone is doing real damage to many of the European economies, including Britain," George Osborne, Britain's chancellor of the exchequer, said as he headed into Saturday's meeting. "We have had enough of short-term measures, sticking plasters that get us through the next few weeks."

European leaders had promised a solution would come from a summit on Sunday ? following the two days of finance ministers' meetings ? but they have now scheduled another get-together of EU leaders for Wednesday. Still, this weekend, they appeared to be making progress.

Pressure on finance ministers was high, after the report from Greece's debt inspectors ? the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund ? showed that the country's economic situation had deteriorated dramatically since the summer.

If the July deal with banks were to go ahead, the report said, Greece's debt would peak at a massive 186 percent of economic output in 2013 and only decline to 152 percent by the end of 2020.

That would prevent Greece from raising money on the markets until 2021 and require the eurozone and the IMF to put in an extra euro252 billion ($350 billion) in new loans through 2020, according to the report, which was given to the ministers on Friday and seen by The Associated Press.

Greece has already been relying on euro110 billion in international emergency loans since May last year.

While the ministers were making progress on reducing Greece's debts, an arguably bigger problem remained intractable: boosting the firepower of the eurozone's euro440 billion ($600 billion) bailout fund to keep the crisis from spreading.

Increasing the effectiveness of the European Financial Stability Facility is meant to help prevent larger countries like Italy and Spain from being unable to afford to borrow money from markets ? which is exactly what happened to Greece, Portugal and Ireland and why those countries needed bailouts.

But Germany and France still disagree over how to do that and failed to make much progress on that front Friday night. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy are set to meet Saturday evening in the hopes of moving toward a deal.

In a sign that the pressure is rising on leaders to come up with an overarching solution, the finance ministers from the 17 countries that use the euro also said they'll regroup Saturday afternoon.

___

Elena Becatoros contributed to this report from Brussels.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111022/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

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সোমবার, ২৪ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

BP wins OK for exploration plan in Gulf of Mexico

Reporting from Washington?

BP won approval from the Interior Department for a plan to explore for oil and gas in deep-water areas of the Gulf of Mexico, moving the company closer to drilling new wells barred after the blowout of its Macondo well touched off the country's worst offshore environmental disaster.

The exploration plan was the first BP had submitted to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded in April 2010, killing 11 workers and spewing nearly 5 million barrels of oil into the gulf. Although it received approval, BP will still need permits to drill a particular well.

The agency approved the exploration plan under more stringent rules it developed after the Deepwater Horizon explosion revealed uneven, sometimes lax oversight of offshore energy production by the Minerals Management Service, the new agency's predecessor.

For an exploration plan to be approved, a company must now submit a range of specific technical and environmental information as well as plans to handle a worst-case spill scenario in the event of a blowout. The bureau also does its own environmental assessment of the drill sites.

The oil industry and its congressional allies have complained that the bureau is issuing approvals too slowly, and they have demanded that it return to the rapid clip of approvals that existed before the oil disaster.

BP, still the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf of Mexico, did not have to meet more-stringent requirements than any of the other 43 companies that have had exploration plans approved.

David Pettit, senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, said that barring litigation, the chances were highly likely that BP would get drilling permits. Pettit said that while the new regulatory agency is better than its predecessor, more work needs to be done to improve offshore drilling safety, including pushing for "a redesign of deep-sea blowout preventers, and moderniz[ing] cleanup procedures" in the event of a spill.

BP proposes drilling as many as four wells at sites it acquired in lease sales in 1997 and 2003, according to the bureau. The wells would be drilled in water depths of 6,019 to 6,034 feet, and they would be 192 miles from the closest Louisiana shoreline.

neela.banerjee@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/G-nmW2QI3Qw/la-na-bp-drill-20111022,0,3642290.story

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রবিবার, ২৩ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Santorum: Obama to blame for Iran's influence (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: Share on FacebookTweet ThisPost to Google-BuzzSend on GmailPost to Linked-InSubscribe to This Feed | Rss To Twitter | Politics - Top Stories Stories, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/152273585?client_source=feed&format=rss

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German Paleontologists Find a 'Near-Perfect' Dinosaur Fossil

First time accepted submitter howzit writes "German paleontologists have discovered what they believe is the best-preserved dinosaur skeleton ever found.The flesh-eating member of the theropod subgroup, which walked on its hind legs, is about 98 percent complete, and also includes preserved bits of skin. 'The around 135-million-year-old fossil is of outstanding scientific importance.'"

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/nIuX4d6CTSk/german-paleontologists-find-a-near-perfect-dinosaur-fossil

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শনিবার, ২২ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Magnetic algae make biofuels sticky

Los Alamos National Laboratory

The photos show wild type algae and magnetic algae placed in a test tube next to a permanent magnet. The wild type (left) settles to the bottom of the tube under the influence of gravity. The genetically transformed algae (right) stick to the wall due to magnetic attractions.

By John Roach

Scientists at a government lab in New Mexico have created what appear to be magnetic algae, a breakthrough that could lower the cost of harvesting biofuels from the microscopic plants.

The trick involved transferring to algae a gene from soil bacteria that align themselves with Earth's magnetic field, explained Pulak Nath at the Department of Energy's Los Alamos National Laboratory.


"We expressed that gene in algae and it started making what we think are magnetic particles," he told me Friday. "We still have to confirm that, but we could put a magnet next to those algae and see these algae getting attracted."

Magnetism studies
Scientists have studied the soil-living so-called magnetotacic bacteria since the 1970s, primarily as a model to understand how birds are able to migrate thousands of miles each year.

"The whole idea is that they probably have some sort of compass in their brains," Nath said. As a DOE-funded scientist, he turned to those studies in search of an application to cost efficiently harvest algae for biofuels.

Current techniques for extracting algae from the ponds where they are grown include sound waves and the addition of chemicals that cause the algae to clump together, a process known as flocculation.

These techniques account for about 30 percent of the total cost of algae-based biofuel production, Nath noted, and "is one of the limiting steps for algae fuel from becoming cost competitive to fossil fuels."?

Using magnets
Permanent magnets are inexpensive. In theory, algae biofuel systems could flow algae-filled water through a tank lined with the magnets and the algae will get separated from the water, Nath explained.

"And that won't cost us any money in terms of energy input because we are using these permanent magnets and the energy from these permanent magnets ? other than the material ? is free," he said.

The research, he cautioned, is in the early stages. So far, they've created one species of magnetic algae. Going forward, they will try to transfer the gene to more candidates for algae biofuel production.

The lab's ultimate goal, Nath said, is to take the technique to the proof-of-concept stage and then have someone else "take this technology and take it forward."

To take the research forward, there is incentive in the government push to derive 36 billion gallons a year from a mix of biofuels by the year 2022.?

Other factors that must be tackled for the efficient scale-up of algae biofuels include ways to reduce their need for massive amounts of water and land.?

More stories on algae biofuels:


John Roach is a contributing writer for msnbc.com. To learn more about him, check out his website. For more information about energy in our ongoing Future of Technology series, watch the video below.

Anti-nuclear advocate and researcher Arjun Makhijani describes how the smart grid and natural gas could provide a bridge between coal and renewable power sources.

?

Source: http://futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/21/8432368-magnetic-algae-make-biofuels-sticky

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শুক্রবার, ২১ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Turkey vows 'great' revenge after deadly PKK raids

Turkish security forces said they had killed 15 Kurdish militants and they also reportedly launched an incursion inside Iraq Wednesday, after Kurdish rebels killed 26 Turkish soldiers and wounded 22 others in multiple attacks along the border.

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Turkish President Abdullah Gul said revenge would be "very great" for the attacks in southeastern Turkey.

"No one should forget this, those that inflict this pain on us will endure far greater pain. Those that think they will weaken our state with these attacks or think they will bring our state into line, they will see that the revenge for these attacks will be very great and they will endure it many times over," Gul told reporters in Istanbul.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and its Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both cancelled foreign trips after the attacks, the deadliest strike on Turkish security forces in 18 years, Al Arabiya reported. Al Arabiya, citing the AFP, said that the PKK killed 33 unarmed soldiers in Bingol province in 1993.

The Kurdish rebels, who are fighting for autonomy in Turkey's southeast, staged simultaneous attacks on military outposts and police stations near the border towns of Cukurca and Yuksekova early Wednesday.

Turkey's chief of the military and the interior and defense ministers rushed to the border area to oversee the anti-rebel attacks, and the United States and NATO both issued statements supporting the offensive, the largest in more than three years.

"The United States will continue our strong cooperation with the Turkish government as it works to defeat the terrorist threat from the PKK and to bring peace, stability and prosperity to all the people of southeast Turkey," Obama said in a statement.

NTV television said Turkish troops have gone some 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) into Iraq and that helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border. Dogan news agency said more than 20 Kurdish rebels were killed in ensuing clashes, but did not provide a breakdown. Neither report identified its sources.

The incursion appeared to be limited in scope. Turkey last staged a major ground offensive against Iraq in early 2008.

The attacks left 26 soldiers dead and 22 others wounded, the Interior Ministry announced. It was the deadliest Kurdish rebel attack since 1992, according to a tally by NTV television.

Warplane strike bases
In response, Turkish warplanes and artillery units, positioned just inside Turkey, struck Kurdish rebel bases across the border in response, NTV said.

NTV, without citing sources, also said Turkish troops penetrated as deep as 2.5 miles into Iraq and helicopters were ferrying commandos across the border in what appeared to be a cross-border offensive limited in scope for now.

Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, said clashes were taking place in two separate areas close to the mountainous Iraqi-Turkish border.

"We have been clashing with the Turkish forces in two areas since around 3 a.m. today," Dostdar Hamo, a spokesman for the rebel group, said by telephone.

Turkey last week pressured Iraq to move to eradicate the rebel bases in northern Iraq, saying its "patience is running out" in the face of rebel attacks directed at Turkey from Iraqi soil.

Around 100 Kurdish rebels were believed to have participated in the attacks, according to the state-run TRT television. The rebels fled to northern Iraq after the attacks as the military shelled their escape routes, NTV said.

Rebels intensify attacks
The rebels have lately intensified their attacks in the country's Kurdish-dominated southeast, killing dozens of members of the country's security force and at least 18 civilians since mid-July.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb blast killed five policemen and three civilians, including a 4-year-old girl.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people since 1984 as Kurdish politicians pushed for greater cultural and political rights for Kurds, who make up around 20 percent of Turkey's 74 million people, such as the right to education in the mother tongue ? a demand that the Turkish government fears could deepen the ethnic divide in the country.

The government has taken steps toward wider Kurdish-language education by allowing Kurdish-language institutes and private Kurdish courses as well as Kurdish television broadcasts. But it won't permit lower-level education in Kurdish.

The European Union, which Turkey is striving to join, has pushed the Turkish government to grant more rights to the Kurds. But EU countries also have urged Kurdish lawmakers to distance themselves from the rebel group, which is considered a terrorist group by the U.S. and the EU.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44955393/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/

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Six Miles Offshore: The Wreck Of Montebello

Risk Assessment Of Potentially Polluting Shipwrecks

This map highlights the many potentially polluting shipwrecks along U.S. coastlines.

Notes

The Montebello is located on California's Central Coast, near Morro Bay. The NOAA established a Remediation of Underwater Legacy Environmental Threats (RULET) Database to track and categorize shipwrecks, and areas of high priority and concern. ?

A task force is evaluating the risk posed by a sunken oil tanker, the SS Montebello. It went to the bottom after being attacked by a Japanese submarine during World War II. State and federal officials want to know if the ship is still carrying its cargo of oil, and if that oil could escape.

The SS Montebello, shown in its glory days, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II. Enlarge Chevron/UNOCAL

The SS Montebello, shown in its glory days, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

Chevron/UNOCAL

The SS Montebello, shown in its glory days, was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine during World War II.

At stake is a coastline known for its stunning scenery and wildlife sanctuaries. The task force was put together a couple of years ago at the urging of state Sen. Sam Blakeslee.

"I actually was reading in my local weekly newspaper about this amazing history of a shipwreck that occurred off our coast and described the fact that there still may be 3 million gallons of oil down at the bottom of the ocean," Blakeslee says. "And no one in all these 70 years had really stepped up and said, 'It's our responsibility to understand what the threat is to the coast.' "

In fact, for most of the past 70 years, most people didn't even know the oil tanker was down there.

"I didn't even talk about it because I was called a liar," says 92-year-old Richard Quincy, the last surviving member of the crew of the Montebello.

Quincy says they knew the voyage would be dangerous, and took a vote on whether or not they wanted to go. But with the nation at war, "everyone had to give something."

An unmanned ROV (remotely operated vehicle) is launched 900 feet underwater to study the wreckage of the SS Montebello. Enlarge Robert Schwemmer/NOAA/USCG

An unmanned ROV (remotely operated vehicle) is launched 900 feet underwater to study the wreckage of the SS Montebello.

Robert Schwemmer/NOAA/USCG

An unmanned ROV (remotely operated vehicle) is launched 900 feet underwater to study the wreckage of the SS Montebello.

On the morning of Dec. 23, just before dawn, Quincy was on watch when he saw the outline of a Japanese submarine in the water. Then came the torpedo.

"It was dark when we got hit," Quincy says. "It went so fast. It was hard to keep track of time. We were anxious to get off because we figured it was going to catch fire."

But the ship didn't catch fire because the torpedo struck the Montebello in front of the oil tanks. Everyone on the crew escaped in lifeboats, and the ship went to the bottom nearly intact, says Robert Schwemmer, a marine historian with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. He's seen the Montebello from a manned submersible twice, in 1996 and 2003.

"The ship looked like it just left the dock, except the fact that the upper wheel house is missing," Schwemmer says. "So we have 90 percent of the Montebello sitting there squarely on its keel. The question is: Is the oil on board?"

Schwemmer was on the Nanuq, the mother ship for the exploration of the Montebello. The Nanuq is owned by Global Diving & Salvage, and it sailed down from Seattle and basically parked above the sunken tanker. Onboard are unmanned remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, that are being sent below to study the wreck. Schwemmer says they can do a better job than the manned submersibles.

Video of the dive on the Montebello.

"When you do a submersible survey, you are always moving," Schwemmer says. "The ROV allows us to actually come up to different locations, and stay on station, and study them in more detail."

And a detailed assessment of the threat posed by the Montebello is important to more than just California's coast. Kerry Walsh, a project manager with Global Diving & Salvage, says that's because the Montebello's not the only potentially polluting wreck that's been identified by the NOAA.

"This wreck represents the first one in many hundreds of wrecks that NOAA [is] looking at that are around the United States that have oil in them," Walsh says.

 Ordinary Seaman Richard Quincy, then 22, is seen aboard the SS Montebello. Quincy, now 92, is the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the SS Montebello. Enlarge Richard Quincy Collection

Ordinary Seaman Richard Quincy, then 22, is seen aboard the SS Montebello. Quincy, now 92, is the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the SS Montebello.

Richard Quincy Collection

Ordinary Seaman Richard Quincy, then 22, is seen aboard the SS Montebello. Quincy, now 92, is the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the SS Montebello.

Those wrecks are strewn along both the East and West coasts, and the detailed examination of the Montebello could be a blueprint for evaluating them, says Walsh. There are a lot of steps in that evaluation. First, the ROV cleans portions of the Montebello's hull, then uses ultrasound to measure the thickness of the metal.

"Once that's done, then we bring in the nuclear tool, which is a diagnostic scan device, and we press that up against the hull, and we measure through the steel, and we can detect by the return signal from the neutron backscatter what's behind it," Walsh says.

You get one kind of signal if it was seawater and another kind of signal if it was oil, but they'll want to confirm those results. Walsh says Global Diving & Salvage is also taking samples from the cargo tanks with a tool they've invented that both drills into the tank and plugs the hole.

"And if that doesn't work, we have another device that's a magnetic patch that will seal it up forever," Walsh says.

And if it turns out that the Montebello is still carrying her cargo of crude, the biggest challenge of all may be figuring out how to protect the sensitive Central Coast from the threat lying 900 feet below the waves.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/10/18/141453907/oiafter-the-wreck-of-montebello?ft=1&f=1007

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ২০ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Sarkozy says euro zone talks stuck, flies to Germany (Reuters)

PARIS/FRANKFURT (Reuters) ? Plans to tackle the euro zone debt crisis have stalled with Paris and Berlin at odds over how to increase the firepower of the region's bailout fund, French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday.

Sarkozy told French parliamentarians the dispute was holding up negotiations. He then flew to Frankfurt to talk with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in an attempt to break the deadlock ahead of a make-or-break European leaders' summit on Sunday.

A French presidency source said the French and German leaders were meeting other euro zone policy chiefs and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde on the sidelines of an event mark the end of Jean-Claude Trichet's presidency of the European Central Bank.

France has argued the most effective way of leveraging the European Financial Stability Facility is to turn it into a bank which could then access funding from the ECB, but both the central bank and the German government have opposed this.

"In Germany, the coalition is divided on this issue. It is not just Angela Merkel who we need to convince," Sarkozy told the parliamentarians at a lunch meeting, according to Charles de Courson, one of the legislators present.

His comments fueled doubts about whether euro zone leaders will be able to agree a clear and convincing plan when they meet on Sunday.

Failure to do so would further undermine financial markets' already shattered confidence in the currency bloc and its ability to get on top of a two-year-long debt crisis, which threatens the long-term viability of the single currency.

One senior EU official, who is involved in coming up with solutions to the crisis, said the only "circuit-breaker" now was for the ECB to make an explicit commitment to go on buying distressed euro zone debt for "as long as it takes," something Trichet has said should not happen.

That position appeared to be seconded by Barroso, who said in Frankfurt: "The decisive intervention of the ECB in secondary bond markets was and still is a critical element in securing financial stability in the euro area."

Uncertainty over the euro zone's future intensified as Moody's issued a double-notch downgrade of Spain's credit rating a day after the agency warned France its triple-A rating could come under pressure. In Greece, workers began their biggest strike in years in protest at austerity measures.

Merkel warned late on Tuesday that leaders would not solve the debt crisis at a single meeting and reiterated that past errors would not be solved in "one stroke."

"If the euro fails, Europe fails but we will not allow that," she said in Frankfurt.

The hope remains that Sunday's summit will agree new steps to reduce Greece's debt, strengthen the capital of banks with exposure to troubled euro zone sovereigns and leverage the euro zone's rescue fund to prevent contagion to bigger economies.

"You know the French position and we are sticking to it. We think that clearly the best solution is that the fund has a banking license with the central bank, but everyone knows about the reticence of the central bank," French Finance Minister Francois Baroin told reporters in Frankfurt.

"Everyone also knows about the Germans' reticence. But for us that remains ... the most effective solution."

A senior German government source said Berlin remained resolutely opposed to the ECB backstopping the rescue fund.

BANK OR INSURER?

Euro zone officials have told Reuters that an alternative model, whereby the EFSF could underwrite a portion of newly issued euro zone debt, is also on the table.

By guaranteeing the first 20-30 percent of any losses, the EFSF could stretch three to five times further. With about 300 billion euros of its 440-billion-euro capacity still available, the fund could be expanded to more than 1 trillion euros, and give markets pause for thought.

However, analysts are unconvinced that a leverage plan involving a guarantee on first losses would succeed, warning that it could create a two-tier structure in some bond markets and would be meaningless without an explicit commitment from the ECB to go on buying at-risk debt.

"On paper this solution has some merits because it is expedient ... but is in fact fraught with complications that are very likely to make it fail," Shahin Vallee, an analyst with Bruegel, a leading think-tank, said in a research paper.

As well as trying to strengthen the rescue fund, euro zone leaders are racing to convince banks to accept "voluntary" writedowns of up to 50 percent on their Greek sovereign holdings. They are also trying to agree on a blueprint for recapitalizing financial institutions at risk from the deepening crisis.

Greece remains mired in recession and its overall debt is forecast to climb to 357 billion euros ($489 billion) this year, or 162 percent of annual economic output -- which few economists believe can be paid back.

A Reuters polls of economists predicted European leaders will probably ask private investors to shoulder losses of around 50 percent on holdings of Greek government debt, the top end of a range suggested by officials last week.

SPANISH WARNING

Moody's cut Spain's bond rating to A1, from Aa2, the third of the major agencies to act in recent weeks and taking it a notch below the ratings of Standard & Poor's and Fitch.

The agency's reasoning may focus minds ahead of Sunday's summit, highlighting the lack of resolution to the bloc's crisis rather than particular Spanish policy shortcomings.

"Since placing the ratings under review in late July 2011, no credible resolution of the current sovereign debt crisis has emerged and it will in any event take time for confidence in the area's political cohesion and growth prospects to be fully restored," Moody's said.

While Europe's leaders rush to stop a larger writedown of Greek debt infecting others in the euro zone, for ordinary Greeks, the cuts demanded of their country in return for help means several more years of pain.

Black-clad demonstrators hurled stones and fire bombs at police in front of the Greek parliament on Wednesday as tens of thousands rallied for a nationwide general strike to coincide with a vote on painful new austerity measures.

The mood was furious among demonstrators, fed up after repeated doses of austerity and increasingly hostile to both their own political leaders and international lenders demanding ever tougher measures to cut Greece's towering public debt.

"Who are they trying to fool? They won't save us. With these measures the poor become poorer and the rich richer. Well I say: 'No, thank you. I don't want your rescue'," said 50-year public sector worker Akis Papadopoulos.

(Additional reporting by Luke Baker in Brussels, Lefteris Papadimas and Renee Maltezou in Athens, Eva Kuehnen and Edward Taylor in Frankfurt and Elizabeth O'Leary in Madrid; Writing by Mike Peacock, editing by Janet McBride)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111019/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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বুধবার, ১৯ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

David Wild: "Las Vegas Turnaround": A Playlist For The Republican Debate


Though I am perhaps best described as a consistently whiny Democrat, I have watched every single second of each Republican debate to date, and tonight's high stakes happening in Sin City will be no exception. Who knew the Republican debates would be one of Fall TV's biggest hits? So I'll be tuning to see if Rick Perry wakes up in Vegas, if Michele Bachmann have a "Las Vegas Turnaround," if Mitt Romney breaks a sweat, or if Herman Cain performs a big "9-9-9" production number at the Venitian. Here then is my playlist for a night in Vegas where someone will presumably win. And while you're in front of the TV, possibly a little scared, please watch the even more entertainingScream Awards on Spike, which I worked on. Think of this as our very own jobs bill, specifically for me. And as always, please join the debate and add your own songs below.

WAKING UP IN VEGAS - Katy Perry
CHECKOUT TIME IN VEGAS - Drive-By Truckers
LAS VEGAS TURNAROUND - Daryl Hall & John Oates
TAKIN' CARE OF BUSINESS - Bachman-Turner Overdrive
BOYS IN THE GANG - 999
TALKIN' LOUD AND SAYIN' NOTHING - James Brown
YOUR MIND IS ON VACATION - Mose Allison
MONEY TALKS - AC/DC
TURNING TABLES - Adele
EVERYBODY'S TALKIN' - Harry Nilsson
BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN - The Smiths
BORDERLINE - Madonna
ADAM RAISED A CAIN - Bruce Springsteen
TALK TALK - Talk Talk
RUN THE WORLD (GIRLS) - Beyonce
DON'T ANSWER ME - The Alan Parsons Project
AIN'T TALKING ABOUT LOVE - Van Halen
I DON'T WANT THIS NIGHT TO END - Luke Bryan
I'LL BITE YOUR FACE OFF - Alice Cooper
MY BIG MOUTH - The Posies
WINNER GO DOWN - Barry Manilow
LONG DISTANCE WINNER - Buckingham Nicks

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?

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Follow David Wild on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Wildaboutmusic

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wild/las-vegas-turnaround-a-pl_b_1016953.html

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মঙ্গলবার, ১১ অক্টোবর, ২০১১

Bloody details emerge in Northwest crime spree

These booking photos released by the Oregon State Police, on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, show David Joseph Pedersen. Two people suspected in the death of a Washington woman have been issued fugitive warrants by the states of Oregon and Washington and will face arraignments in California on Friday. David Joseph Pedersen and his girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, were stopped Wednesday afternoon north of Sacramento. They are suspects in the death of Pedersen's stepmother in Everett, Wash., and have been named persons of interest in the slaying of an Oregon teenager.(AP Photo/Yuma County, California Sheriff's Office)

These booking photos released by the Oregon State Police, on Thursday, Oct. 6, 2011, show David Joseph Pedersen. Two people suspected in the death of a Washington woman have been issued fugitive warrants by the states of Oregon and Washington and will face arraignments in California on Friday. David Joseph Pedersen and his girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, were stopped Wednesday afternoon north of Sacramento. They are suspects in the death of Pedersen's stepmother in Everett, Wash., and have been named persons of interest in the slaying of an Oregon teenager.(AP Photo/Yuma County, California Sheriff's Office)

FILE - These booking file photos released by the Oregon State Police, on Oct. 6, 2011, show Holly Grigsby. Police in Washington say a woman suspected of killing four people in a Northwest crime spree has admitted to one of the slayings. Investigators said Monday that Holly Grigsby told them she fatally stabbed Leslie Pedersen, who is the stepmother of Grigsby's boyfriend. Grigsby's boyfriend, David Joseph Pedersen, is also accused in the killing spree that spanned Washington state, Oregon and California. (AP Photo/Oregon State Police, File)

This photo released by Oregon State Police on Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, shows Eureka, Calif. homicide victim Reginald Alan Clark, age 53. Holly Grigsby and David Joseph Pedersen, is accused in the killing spree that spanned Washington state, Oregon and California. Police in Eureka, Calif., also linked a fourth body to the couple on Monday. Clark, 54, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head on Friday. Police there did not say how they linked Clark's death to the couple. (AP Photo/Oregon State Police)

Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings speaks with reporters during a news conference Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, in Milwaukie, Ore. The number of bodies in a Northwest killing spree climbed to four Monday after police linked a California slaying to a man and a woman already suspected of killing a couple in Washington state and an Oregon teenager. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

Oregon State Police Lt. Gregg Hastings speaks with reporters during a news conference Monday, Oct. 10, 2011, in Milwaukie, Ore. The number of bodies in a Northwest killing spree climbed to four Monday after police linked a California slaying to a man and a woman already suspected of killing a couple in Washington state and an Oregon teenager. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)

(AP) ? A boyfriend and girlfriend suspected in a string of grisly killings across the Pacific Northwest say they killed the man's father because he molested two young relatives and his wife because she knew about it and didn't stop him.

Police say David "Joey" Pedersen and his girlfriend, Holly Grigsby, who are both known to have white supremacist beliefs, then continued on a bloody crime spree that swept the region for days, eventually killing a man in Oregon they thought was Jewish, and another man in California who was black.

Joey Pedersen, 31, said in a jailhouse interview published in a California newspaper that he takes "full responsibility" for all four killings. But Grigsby, 24, has told police that one of the deaths came at her hands.

Pedersen told The Appeal Democrat in a story published Monday that his plan to kill his estranged father, David Jones "Red" Pedersen started with catching a ride to a bus station.

Red Pedersen, 56, got behind the wheel of his black Jeep Patriot. Grigsby sat up front in the passenger seat. And Joey Pedersen sat behind his father ? so he could shoot him in the back of the head as he drove.

Grigsby reached over, took control of the vehicle and brought it to a stop.

From there, Grigsby told police, the couple returned to the older Pedersen's home in Everett, Wash., where she says she killed Red Pedersen's wife, Leslie Pedersen, with a pair of knives. Grigsby claims Leslie Pedersen, 69, was aware of the molestation they accused Red Pedersen of committing, yet did nothing to put an end to it.

Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said officers have not yet looked into the molestation allegations but planned to do so. He said evidence collected so far indicates much of Grigsby's story could be plausible.

Attempts by The Associated Press to reach Joey Pederson and Grigsby at the Yuba County, Calif., jail were not successful Monday.

As Joey Pederson made the molestation claims against his father, he attempted to take focus away from Grigsby.

"I felt it was my responsibility to make sure it didn't happen again," Joey Pedersen told the newspaper.

He said Grigsby was involved in the slayings only under duress and shouldn't be held accountable for the deaths. Joey Pedersen said he takes "full responsibility" for all of the killings.

Pedersen and Grigsby have pleaded not guilty to charges of weapons possession and vehicle theft. They were expected in court Tuesday afternoon for an extradition hearing. They have not been charged in any of the killings.

Their appointed attorney, Donald Wahlberg, said he did not know anything about the case beyond what had been reported.

Leslie Pedersen's body was discovered on Sept. 28. Her hands were bound with duct tape, a bloody pillow was by her head.

But, authorities say, Joey Pedersen and Grigsby were by then already on the run ? and nowhere near finished.

They drove Red Pedersen's Jeep south toward Oregon, his body still inside the vehicle. Three days later, they encountered 19-year-old Cody Myers, a devout Christian, on his way to a jazz concert on the Oregon coast.

Myers was shot in the head and chest, and his body was discovered hidden in the woods.

"Cody was devoted to his family. He would've done anything for anybody to help anybody," Susan Myers, told reporters at a news conference the day his body was identified last week. "He had passion for life, for God, for his beliefs. He didn't deserve this."

According to court documents obtained by KGW-TV, Grigsby said they killed Cody because based on his last name they thought he was Jewish.

Investigators say Joey Pedersen and Grigsby ditched Red Pedersen's truck. Authorities found it days later in forest terrain so rugged it took them hours to find Red Pedersen's body inside.

The couple continued south in Myers' Plymouth Breeze and, police say, within days encountered 53-year-old Reginald Alan Clark, who was found dead with a bullet wound to the head in Eureka, Calif. Other details surrounding the death are unclear and police have not suggested a motive, but Clark is black.

Joey Pedersen and Grigsby were apprehended Wednesday when a California Highway Patrol officer spotted them in Myers' car.

Joey Pedersen has an extensive criminal history, having spent the ages of 16 to 31 behind bars, except for a one-year stretch. His convictions include assaulting a police officer and threatening a federal judge, and other disciplinary infractions included assault, extortion, disobedience, harassment and destruction of property.

He was released from prison in May.

Grigsby also spent time in prison beginning in 2006 for a variety of charges, including identity theft and unauthorized use of a vehicle. After completing probation, she served two years for identity theft. Even in prison, she got into trouble for assault and possession of contraband.

Both share an interest in white supremacist ideology. Pedersen prominently displays a white supremacy tattoo on his neck. Grigsby's white supremacist leanings were made clear to fellow inmates at Oregon's women's prison.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-10-11-Northwest%20Fugitives/id-79aae7fa97e44b4291e14f2ddad83fc1

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