NYT reporter responds to Tesla Model S data logs, impropriety accusations

Data logs of the Model S that left New York Times reporter John Broder stranded revealed a "violation of common sense" according to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, but Broder is now offering his side of the story to help make sense of the information. According to the journalist, he wasn't provided with "detailed instructions on maximizing the driving range" before his trip, and he placed roughly a dozen calls to the folks at Tesla about how he could address the car's declining range and make it to his destination. Apparently, some of the doubt-instilling data was caused by following the advice of Tesla representatives on how to maximize the vehicle's charge. For example, Broder says the auto lost a drastic amount of juice while parked in the cold over night, and a low-power one-hour charge was recommended by Tesla reps in conjunction with driving at a moderate speed to "restore" the lost power.

Broder also mentions that he didn't drive around a parking lot to run down the battery, but did so since he couldn't find the poorly-lit and unmarked Supercharger at night. New York Times Public Editor Margaret Sullivan called Musk several times throughout the day and couldn't get ahold of him, but plans to ask the company's founder to open source the logs and other information. Come Friday, Sullivan expects to have some conclusions on the matter. Click the bordering source link to see Broder's entire point-by-point response to the logs for yourself.

Comments

Source: The New York Times (1), (2)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/14/new-york-times-editor-responds-to-tesla-model-s-data-logs-accusations/

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Syrian rebels capture oilfield in northeast

BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian activists say rebels have captured a town and a nearby oil field after a three-day battle with regime forces in the energy-rich northeast.

The director of the Britain-based activist group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said the rebels captured the town of Shadadah in the Hasaka province on Thursday.

The fighters also took control of most of a nearby oil field, although there was still sporadic gunfire in the area, Abdul-Rahman said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-capture-oilfield-northeast-131953267.html

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Protein paves the way for correct stem cell differentiation

Friday, February 8, 2013

A single embryonic stem cell can develop into more than 200 specialized cell types that make up our body. This maturation process is called differentiation and is tightly regulated. If the regulation is lost, specialized cells cannot develop correctly during development. In adulthood, the specialized cells may forget their identity and develop into cancer cells. Research from BRIC, University of Copenhagen, has identified a crucial role of the molecule Fbxl10 in differentiation of embryonic stem cells and suggests the molecule as a new potential target for cancer therapy.

"Our new results show that this molecule is required for the function of one of the most important molecular switches that constantly regulates the activity of our genes. If Fbxl10 is not present in embryonic stem cells, the cells cannot differentiate properly and this can lead to developmental defects", says Professor Kristian Helin, who heads the research group behind the new findings.

Fbxl10 recruits and activates genetic switches

The Polycomb protein complexes PRC1 and PRC2 are some of the most important genetics switches, which control the fate of individual cells through negative regulation of gene activity. The mechanism by which PRCs are recruited to DNA has been elusive as they are not capable of binding DNA directly. The new results from the Helin research group provide a mechanism for how the PRCs are recruited to the genes that are to be silent.

"Our results show that Fbxl10 is essential for recruiting PRC1 to genes that are to be silenced in embryonic stem cells. Fbxl10 binds directly to DNA and to PRC1, and this way it serves to bring PRC1 to specific genes. When PRC1 is bound to DNA it can modify the DNA associated proteins, which lead to silencing of the gene to which it binds", says postdoc Xudong Wu, who has led the experimental part of the investigation.

Fbxl10 is a potential target for cancer therapy

Timing of gene activity is not only crucial during development, but has to be maintained throughout the lifespan of any cell. Some genes are active at a certain times, but inactive at other times.. Here PRC1 comes into play. PRC1 is dynamically recruited to and dissociated from genes according to the needs of our organism. When cancer strikes, this tight regulation of gene activity is often lost and the cells are locked in a less differentiated stage. This loss of differentiation and the accumulation of other mutations allow the cancer cells to undergo indefinite self-renewal through endless cell divisions, an ability that normal differentiated cells are prohibited from through tight gene regulation.

"Given the emerging relationship between cancer and stem cells, our findings may implicate that an aberrant activity of Fbxl10 can disturb PRC function and promote a lack of differentiation in our cells. This makes it worth studying whether blocking the function of Fbxl10 could be a strategy for tumour therapy", says Xudong Wu.

And that is exactly what the researchers want to try. In collaboration with the biotech company EpiTherapeutics, the researchers want to develop inhibitors to Fbxl10 as a potential novel therapy for cancer.

The results are published in the journal Molecular Cell on February 7, 2013: Wu et al.: Fbxl10/Kdm2b Recruits Polycomb Repressive Complex 1 to CpG Islands and Regulates H2A Ubiquitylation.

###

University of Copenhagen: http://www.ku.dk

Thanks to University of Copenhagen for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/126708/Protein_paves_the_way_for_correct_stem_cell_differentiation

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Worried Indonesian president steps in to lead unpopular ruling party

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia's president has stepped in to take over his ruling party, so damaged by a series of corruption scandals that even its senior members concede it faces a rout in elections next year.

One of his ministers was felled in December after being named as a suspect in a bribery investigation by a powerful anti-corruption agency which has in recent months sunk its teeth into several politicians, including top members of the country's most successful Muslim-based party.

The latest issue surrounds the chairman of the ruling Democrat Party, Anas Urbaningrum, who has been linked to a graft case surrounding the construction of a sports stadium, and whom President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono effectively pushed from his post on Friday night following his return from an overseas trip.

"While I am sorting things out ... I am giving (Anas) time to focus on his KPK (Corruption Eradication Agency) legal case," Yudhoyono told reporters at his home on Friday night.

However, the president said Anas remained party chairman, counter to what media have said was a strong push by senior party members to have Anas ousted completely and try to repair the party's tattered image.

Indonesia has long been listed as among the world's most graft-ridden societies.

But it is only more recently, after little more that a decade of democracy in the world's fourth most populous nation, that Indonesia has really had the means through the KPK anti-corruption agency to chase down suspected officials and politicians.

The agency has had to fend of repeated attempts, including by police and legislators, to weaken its powers. But its head, Abraham Samad, sounded confident enough this week to state that even the president could not interfere with its investigations.

The rash of graft cases comes ahead of next year's general and presidential votes, with no clear front runner for either.

Government coalition member the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has also been badly hit after its head was forced to step down after investigations into the allegations the party was involved in a beef-import scam.

That has led to widespread media speculation that the position of Agriculture Minister Suswono, a member of the PKS party, could be at risk.

SPECULATION, SETBACKS

The PKS is the most successful of the Islam-based parties in the world's most populous Muslim country. But it has faced repeated scandals including an incident when one of its MPs was photographed looking at pornography on a tablet computer in parliament.

With Yudhoyono coming to the end of his second and final five-year term next year, speculation is high over who might take over. Months of horse-trading are expected as more powerful parties try to lure candidates with some chance of winning.

One top Democrat Party official told Reuters last week that the ruling party itself would be lucky to get 10 percent of the vote next year.

The other main party, Golkar, is pushing controversial businessman Abdurizal Bakrie as its presidential candidate but he is seen even among some of his own party officials as unpopular and unelectable.

His campaign appears to have suffered a setback when sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Friday that his debt-ridden company was in talks to sell its majority stake in a media company, potentially depriving him of easy national television access.

One of the most frequently mentioned names is the ex-son-in-law of former autocratic ruler Suharto, Prabowo Subianto, who heads the relatively small Great Indonesia Movement Party.

Prabowo, who has been denied a visa to the United States over his chequered military past, is the brother of one of Indonesia's wealthiest businessmen.

There is speculation he might be discussing a tie-up with the head of another major party, with links to the country's second biggest Muslim organisation, who is close to Yudhoyono.

In the absence of a strong contender, some have suggested that the popular Jakarta governor, Joko Widodo, who has escaped the graft smears that usually attach themselves to the country's top politicians, might try his chances.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/worried-indonesian-president-steps-lead-unpopular-ruling-party-070350018.html

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Run your small business right with Cashboard

Running a small business is no small feat, and it helps to have the right tools handy to help keep things running smoothly, whether it?s internal communication, managing projects, or staying on top of finances. There are scores of apps out there to tackle these challenges, but wouldn?t it be nice to have everything in one place, so you don?t have to scurry from one tab to another to get things done?

Cashboard might be the answer you?ve been looking for ? it packs a ton of functionality into a single app so you can do all of the above with ease, while allowing your employees to access and share data and giving you an overview of how your company is doing. Let?s take a look at what it has to offer and whether it?s the right fit for your outfit.

Overview

Cashboard has been around since 2007, offering freelancers and small businesses a way to manage projects, track time, send out quotes, invoice clients, get paid and keep everyone happy without breaking the bank. Developed by the fine folks at Subimage, the app is available on desktop and mobile browsers and will soon run natively on iOS and Android. There?s a free two-week trial of the premium service, so you can try it out with no risk to see if it meets your needs.

Cashboard welcomes you with tips on getting started

Getting started

Freelancers can use Cashboard for free, with a single employee account, two active projects, and unlimited clients, estimates and invoices. Businesses are better off going with the premium plan that costs only $15/month with two employees (and additional accounts at $5/user/month), unlimited projects and clients. That?s less than what FreshBooks costs just for invoicing or what Xero costs for accounting per month, making this a great choice for companies with tight budgets.

Once you?ve signed up, you can dive right in or go through Cashboard?s extensive setup guide to learn how everything works. Filling in your company?s details and preferences such as default currency and mode of payment , and integrating with Basecamp if you use it, are good ways to start. You can then add contacts of your suppliers and clients and then get cracking on a project.

Adding client companies and contacts is quick and easy

Working with Cashboard

Whether you?re selling a product or offering a service, you can track the entire process by creating a project ? simply list all the tasks involved, assign them to employees with due dates, watch them get completed and bill your clients for the time your company spent on it. Or, you could create an estimate from your detailed project with just a couple of clicks and send it out to a client from within the app before you begin.

Create and assign tasks to team members in a project

Once your estimate is approved, your employees can fill out daily or weekly timesheets indicating the tasks they completed so you know how their time was spent. You can even generate reports to keep tabs on your team and get an idea of all the billable/unbillable hours involved in projects, giving you full visibility on how things work within your organization.

Estimates and invoicing

If you need to create an estimate from scratch, you?ll be delighted by Cashboard?s flexible estimate creation tool, that allows you to add all kinds of details, including two types of tax, billing by the hour for services or by prices for products with additional flat fees and markup percentages with high and low estimates, and rich formatting using the Textile markup language (with a useful guide available above every supported input field).

Create detailed estimates and invoices with Cashboard?s flexible builder

These can be converted to invoices in a pinch and then emailed to clients via the app or exported as a PDF. You can also create deposit invoices (for work not yet performed, with payments recorded as outstanding credit) and scheduled invoices for recurring billing if needed. Plus, clients can pay you online once you?ve set up your accounts.

Accepting payments

Cashboard can be set up to accept payments online though Stripe, Authorize.net, and PayPal variants, of which only PayPal Standard works with non-US/Canada users. Using PayPal Standard will redirect clients to PayPal?s site for their transactions, while PayPal Website Payments Pro will allow for processing credit card payments within Cashboard. Stripe, meanwhile costs 2.9% + $0.55 per transaction. This range of options makes it convenient to accept payments for your work online, and keeps things simple for your clients.

Tracking expenses

You?ve got to spend money to make money, but you don?t have to let things get out of hand. With Cashboard, you can quickly enter your expenses, add notes and mention which of your suppliers you paid, and also bill your expenses to projects if your clients are covering costs. Once you?re done, Cashboard will show you a breakup of your expenses across clients and across the year, and allow you to export the data as a CSV too.

Add expenses, bill them to clients and generate reports

Using Cashboard

As a freelancer and former employee of a few small businesses, I can tell you that staying on top of your company?s money and time can pretty much necessitate a full-time job, even if it?s a small organization. Cashboard is great at all the things it does, and manages to be both flexible and easy to use so anyone in a company can generate estimates, invoices and reports.

I love the simple interface that?s easy to get used to, the fine-grained control you get over every detail in your estimates and invoices, and most of all, the ability to work with Cashboard the way you?re most comfortable ? the workflow isn?t set up in any particular way, so you?re free to create a project and build an estimate from it or to skip that process altogether. This makes it a great choice for all kinds of projects. Plus, it allows you to import contacts, expenses, invoices, and time entries from CSV files!

The dashboard gives you a summary of your company?s activity

There are several neat little touches across the app that make it a joy to use, such as sending welcome email with login details to clients, allowing for export data as CSV and IIF (for use with QuickBooks), formattable text (and even images like logos and signatures) on documents using Textile markup, keyboard shortcuts for working quickly, displaying the last used invoice number when creating a new invoice, and even allowing for customization of the app?s color scheme.

Conclusion

Cashboard is a beautiful solution to many of the challenges faced by freelancers and small business who want to get and stay organized. It?s well thought out, powerful and simple enough for anyone in your team to handle. Plus, it offers an incredible value for money ? I have yet to come across a similar suite that costs so little to use, while offering such powerful features.

If you?re just getting started with a new business or want to streamline the way your company manages time and money, give Cashboard a try. And if you?re a freelancer, this is a no-brainer ? it?s free!

Source: http://web.appstorm.net/reviews/project-management/run-your-small-business-right-with-cashboard/

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Study: Many stroke survivors think about suicide

One in 12 stroke survivors thought about suicide or that they would be better off dead, a troubling federal survey reveals. That's more than those with other health problems such as heart attacks or cancer, and it suggests that depression after stroke is more serious than many had realized.

"It was surprising" and shows a need for more treatment, said the study's leader, Dr. Amytis Towfighi of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. "When patients have their depression treated they're more motivated to take their medication, do therapy and live a full life."

The study was discussed Thursday at an American Stroke Association conference in Honolulu.

More than 6 million Americans have had a stroke; about 800,000 occur each year in the U.S. Studies suggest that up to a third of stroke survivors develop depression, but few have looked at suicidal thoughts ? one sign of how serious it is.

"It's not necessarily active suicidal thoughts with a plan, but perhaps wishing you hadn't survived the event," Towfighi explained.

She used the National Health and Nutrition Surveys, a government project that gives checkups and questionnaires to a representative sample of adults. More than 17,000 people were surveyed from 2005 through 2010.

They included 678 who had suffered a stroke; 758 who had had a heart attack; 1,242 with cancer, and 1,991 with diabetes. Researchers don't know how long ago these problems occurred of if people were still being treated for them.

They were asked a question that many studies use to gauge suicidal thinking: "Over the last two weeks, how often have you been bothered by thoughts that you would be better off dead, or of hurting yourself?"

About 8 percent of stroke survivors reported such thoughts, compared to 6 percent of heart attack survivors, 5 percent of those with diabetes and 4 percent with cancer.

Suicidal thoughts were more likely in people who scored high on depression tests, were younger, overweight, less educated, poor, female or unmarried.

Depression may develop partly because strokes damage the very thing that controls mood ? the brain, said a neurologist with no role in the study, Dr. Brian Silver of Brown University and Rhode Island Hospital.

"It's not necessarily the reaction to the disease ... it's also the disease itself that is causing the depression," by releasing harmful chemicals that can trigger it, he said.

Suicidal thinking is a well-known problem, but this study "puts a number on it" and shows the need to watch for and treat it, Silver said.

___

Online:

Stroke conference: www.strokeassociation.org

___

Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/study-many-stroke-survivors-think-suicide-170606294.html

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Lutheran pastor apologizes over Sandy Hook vigil

Pastor Rob Morris of Newtown's Christ the King Lutheran Church provided the closing benediction at an interfaith event following the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 16.

By Edith Honan, Reuters

Published at 6:33 a.m. ET: A Connecticut Lutheran pastor has apologized for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil for the 26 children and adults killed at a Newtown elementary school in December because his church bars its clergy from worshipping with other faiths.

The December prayer vigil was attended by President Barack Obama, leaders from Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths, and relatives of the 20 first graders who were gunned down in their classrooms two days earlier after a gunman entered their school.

The Dec. 14 shooting shook the nation and led to calls for improved school security, gun control and better mental health care.

Watch the entire interfaith vigil for Connecticut shooting victims, including President Obama's speech. Pastor Rob Morris gives the closing benediction, beginning 73 minutes, 10 seconds into the video.

The pastor, Rob Morris of Newtown's Christ the King Lutheran Church, provided the closing benediction at the interfaith event on Dec. 16.

Earlier this month, the president of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, Pastor Matthew Harrison, wrote a letter to church members saying he had requested an apology from Morris for his participation in "joint worship with other religions."

"There is sometimes a real tension between wanting to bear witness to Christ and at the same time avoiding situations which may give the impression that our differences with respect to who God is, who Jesus is, how he deals with us, and how we get to heaven, really don't matter in the end," Harrison wrote.

"There will be times in this crazy world when, for what we believe are all the right reasons, we may step over the scriptural line," he wrote.

Harrison said he had accepted Morris' apology.

This is not the first time a Lutheran leader has been chastised for participating in a community service in the wake of a local tragedy.

'False teaching'
David Benke, a Lutheran pastor in New York, was suspended for praying at an interfaith vigil in 2001, 12 days after the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. Benke, who had refused to apologize for the incident, was reinstated in 2003.

In his own letter to his church, Morris wrote that it was not his intent to endorse "false teaching" and apologized to those who believed he had.

"I did not believe my participation to be an act of joint worship, but one of mercy and care to a community shocked and grieving an unspeakably horrific event," he wrote. "I apologize where I have caused offense by pushing Christian freedom too far, and I request you charitably receive my apology."

Related:

Full coverage of the Sandy Hook shooting from NBC News

Fierce debate after Newtown school shootings: Where was God?

People of Newtown pray and grieve together

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Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/07/16882169-lutheran-pastor-apologizes-for-taking-part-in-sandy-hook-service?lite

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Hidden explosives found in Mali city

GAO, Mali (AP) ? Malian soldiers patrolling a city recently abandoned by Islamic insurgents uncovered a stash of industrial-strength explosives Wednesday. They found grenades at another site and a possible booby-trapped vehicle, underscoring the risk of urban terror-style attacks.

The discoveries came a day after one rocket fired by suspected militants landed in a dusty residential neighborhood of Gao and French soldiers clashed with militants outside the town. The developments highlight the complications for the military intervention by France and the risks of a looming French troop drawdown.

"It's a real war ... when we go outside of the center of cities that have been taken, we meet residual jihadists," France's defense minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Wednesday on Europe-1 radio. French troops clashed Tuesday with Islamic extremists firing rocket launchers outside Gao, he said.

French President Francois Hollande said France may start pulling out of this vast nation in northwest Africa at the end of March. Government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said in Paris Wednesday that the withdrawal will depend on an increase in the deployment of African forces, which are meant to take over the international effort to secure Mali and help its weak army keep the peace.

The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to hold private consultations on Mali on Wednesday. The Security Council is likely to wait until the end of February to adopt a new resolution authorizing a U.N. peacekeeping force for Mali, a well-informed U.N. diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. France is expected to keep a rapid reaction force in Mali to back up the U.N. force, two U.N. diplomats said.

The stash of NITRAM 5 explosives was hidden inside rice bags that were left in a communal trash area amid used tin cans of meat and empty plastic bottles. The Malian soldiers urged crowds of civilians who gathered nearby to stay away.

Groups of Malian soldiers on foot were called out to several sites Wednesday, including one building where they found grenades alongside a large suitcase and reading material in Arabic script about Shariah law. At another site, they called in a bomb team after finding what appeared to be a booby-trapped vehicle.

Gao has been held by French-led forces since late January, and there have been concerns of a counterinsurgency by remnants of the Islamic radicals belonging to the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa, or MUJAO.

France's defense minister said hundreds of Islamist fighters have been killed, speaking Tuesday night on France BFM TV. French troops also have suffered casualties, but only some light wounds, he said Wednesday on Europe-1 radio. It is the first report of French casualties since a helicopter pilot was killed Jan. 11.

Le Drian said French aircraft are continuing airstrikes every night on suspected militant arms depots and mine-making sites. On the ground, troops have found war materiel, weapons manuals and makeshift laboratories for constructing improvised explosive devices.

"We discovered preparations for a true terrorist sanctuary," he said.

On Wednesday, frightened residents displayed a hole in a sandy field where they said a rocket had landed and was later removed by the Malian military.

"If they had hit a house, there would have been bodies here," said Adama Younoussa, a young man who lives nearby.

"If a MUJAO fighter can set himself up just 10 meters (yards) from here and fire things like this at us, what's the good of the army being here?" he asked.

France launched a swift military intervention Jan. 11 against Islamist extremists who had taken over northern Mali, where they imposed a harsh version of Shariah law.

In Timbuktu on Wednesday, civilians handed over dozens of arms and munitions that were piled in a heap in a city square.

They had been abandoned by Malian troops fleeing advancing rebels.

"These arms were abandoned by Malian soldiers in the houses of Timbuktu at the time they left the city in March 2012," explained Al-Hosseiny Dicko, an officer with the city's largest youth organization.

The proliferation of arms in the city of Timbuktu remains a real danger to civilians, officials and residents said.

"For every five houses that we search, we find arms in at least one," said Capt. Samba Coulibaly, spokesman for the Mali army in Timbuktu.

The French-led mission started Jan. 11 after the Islamic radicals began pushing southward, raising fears they were headed toward the capital of Bamako. While the French-led forces quickly seized Timbuktu and Gao, the effort has been slower in the third provincial capital of Kidal.

A secular rebel movement fighting for a separate nation for Mali's minority Tuareg nomads claims it is holding several smaller northern towns, including Kidal, even though French and Chadian troops entered the city Tuesday.

Moussa Ag Assarid of the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad, or NMLA, said their fighters also are holding the northeastern towns of Tessalit, Menaka, Aguelhok and Tinzawatten. Azawad is what the Tuaregs call their homeland.

Mali army national spokesman Diarran Kone refused to comment on the NMLA claims, saying only that "the re-conquest is continuing." It was not immediately possible to verify the NMLA claims. Phone networks remained down in the area.

Trouble began last year in Mali, once a stable democracy in West Africa, with the latest in a series of Tuareg rebellions in the north. The Malian army staged a coup in the faraway capital, Bamako, and in the chaos that followed, the Tuaregs and Islamic extremists made rapid advances, seizing the main cities in northern Mali. Poorly armed and demoralized Malian soldiers fled before their advance.

But the secular fighters fell out with the Islamist extremists. As the extremists have fled the French bombing campaign, it appears the NMLA fighters have moved back into some areas.

They have said they are willing to work with the French forces but not Malian troops, whom they accuse of committing reprisals against the lighter-skinned Tuaregs and Arabs.

___

Charlton reported from Paris. Associated Press writers Edith Lederer in New York, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg and Baba Ahmed in Timbuktu contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hidden-explosives-found-mali-city-131214544.html

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Ariz. woman gives sexual details about slain lover

PHOENIX (AP) ? A woman charged with killing her lover in the shower of his Arizona home described in graphic detail Wednesday how he made repeated sexual advances all while converting her into the Mormon faith during their heated initial courtship.

Jodi Arias, 32, took the witness stand on what was a provocative day of testimony about the volatile relationship that culminated with her stabbing Travis Alexander to death after a lust-filled day of sex and raunchy photographs.

Arias spent the first two days of testimony recounting her childhood and troubled romances in her teens and 20s, and got to key details of her relationship with Alexander on Wednesday.

She faces the death penalty if convicted of murder in a case that seemed made for the tabloids with its tales of sex, violence and betrayal. Trial was set to resume Monday.

Her defense team put her on the stand in an apparent attempt to gain sympathy with jurors in hopes that they see her as the victim of a domineering womanizer. She says the killing was self-defense, and says Alexander belittled her and used her for sex.

Prosecutors have portrayed Arias as a jealous ex-girlfriend who snapped and killed the motivational speaker and successful businessman.

The testimony was an unusual mix of Mormon theology and X-rated descriptions of their relationship. At one point, naked pictures of Alexander were shown in the courtroom.

Alexander, a Mormon, persuaded Arias to become a member of the church and performed her baptism in late 2006, she said.

But at the same time, she said she felt uncomfortable by Alexander's behavior in the bedroom that seemed to contradict the church's teachings that forbid sex before marriage.

On the same day that he baptized her, Arias said the two went into a bedroom, removed their church clothes and engaged in sexual intercourse that she called painful. Alexander told her the sex was OK under Mormon teachings because their encounter did not involve vaginal intercourse.

Arias said she believed Alexander was using her for sex, and had little interest in connecting with her on an emotional level or even holding her hand in public.

"I kind of felt like a prostitute," she said at one point.

Arias has described physical and emotional abuse at the hands of family and lovers and cast Alexander as someone who took advantage of her. Arias told investigators that she went to Alexander's home for sex on the day of the killing, but he turned violent, forcing her to fight for her life.

She said she first met Alexander at a Las Vegas convention in late 2006 after years of bad relationships. She was almost immediately enamored by him, and it appeared he was taken with her, too. She suddenly saw both personal and professional opportunities.

Arias said she soon ended her relationship with another man, and within a week, she saw Alexander again. That's when things became sexual, she testified.

They carried on a long-distance relationship between her home in California and his in Mesa, Ariz., and their relationship began to take off. She said they made a trip to Missouri and Illinois to visit significant Mormon landmarks and to attend a work convention in Oklahoma where he became closed-off and flirted with another woman in front of her.

She claims they dated for about five months, then broke up but continued to see each other for sex. Alexander's friends said she stalked him after the breakup and became possessive and jealous.

Authorities said they found her hair and bloody palm print at the scene of the killing, along with time-stamped photographs on a memory card in a camera discovered inside Alexander's washing machine that place Arias there on the day he died. The photos included one of Arias nude on his bed, one of Alexander alive in the shower, and one of his body on the bathroom floor.

In the trial that began in early January, defense attorneys have yet to explain why Arias apparently attempted to clean the scene, washing Alexander's bedding and the camera, and what happened to the weapons.

Authorities say Alexander was shot in the head with a .25 caliber gun, the same caliber Arias' grandparents reported stolen from their Northern California home about a week before the killing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ariz-woman-gives-sexual-details-slain-lover-191728470.html

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Russia exploits migrant workers at Olympic venue: rights group

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Migrant workers helping Russia prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi are being cheated out of wages and denied adequate rest, food and housing, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

A senior Russian official said the accusations by New York-based Human Rights Watch were exaggerated and that the government was monitoring workers' rights closely.

Human Rights Watch released its report as President Vladimir Putin visited Sochi to inspect preparations for the Games, which start a year from now.

It said more than 16,000 migrant workers had come to Sochi, on Russia's Black Sea coast, in the hope of finding work, largely in the construction of Olympic facilities.

In a report based on interviews with 66 of the workers, it said they were suffering "consistent patterns of abuse" in poorly paid jobs. Such workers, it said, had come from Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Serbia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine.

"People work, they don't get paid, and leave. Then a bus comes and unloads a fresh group of workers to repeat the cycle," it quoted a Ukrainian worker as saying.

It accused employers of illegally withholding pay and failing to provide sick pay, sufficient time off or suitable food and housing.

Human Rights Watch said migrant workers were particularly vulnerable as their legal status in Russia depends on them being in work. Employers frequently failed to provide copies of work permits and documentation, and threatened to denounce them to authorities as illegal immigrants, the report said.

The group also called for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to take a more active role in ensuring workers' human rights are respected.

"There is an Olympic charter that talks about dignity and the spirit of Olympism," said Human Rights Watch researcher Yulia Gorbunova.

"It is really not compatible with using and abusing people that are involved in constructing those incredible venues."

A spokesman for the IOC said it had "a longstanding commitment to follow-up" on human rights issues connected to the games and had taken steps ensure a handful of reported instances of non-payment of wages were resolved.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, accompanying Putin in Sochi, said Russia was monitoring the workers' situation.

"There have not been enough complaints to deserve an international report," Kozak told reporters, adding that 96,000 workers and 500 construction firms were employed in Sochi.

"It's clear that migrant workers don't have it very easy, in Sochi or in Moscow. But I cannot say that massive violations of people's rights are taking place during the preparations for the Olympics."

Olympstroy, a Russian state corporation created to oversee construction for the games, said that it had received only five complaints relating to wages, all of which had been resolved.

(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-exploits-migrant-workers-olympic-venue-rights-group-104729279--oly.html

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Ron Jeremy Feeling Better & Thanks Fans For Support

Ron Jeremy Feeling Better & Thanks Fans For Support

Ron Jeremy has given his fans an update on his health, revealing he is feeling much better. The adult-film star suffered an aneurysm near his heart late last month and had to have two emergency surgeries. He was in critical condition, but he is now recovering. Jeremy took a picture with one of his nurses, ...

Ron Jeremy Feeling Better & Thanks Fans For Support Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/02/ron-jeremy-feeling-better-thanks-fans-for-support/

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Augmented Reality Case Turns Your iPhone Into a (Kind Of) Accurate Tape Measure

There are already a handful of iOS apps that can turn your iPhone into a tape measure (minus the tape) in a pinch, but Incipio's new Rugged AR Case promises a usable level of accuracy when it comes to measuring distances of up to 20 feet. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/8xaaT38Iet4/augmented-reality-case-turns-your-iphone-into-a-kind-of-accurate-tape-measure

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Althouse: "[E]lementary school-aged boys are actually smarter than ...

That's a meme ? or a distortion of the meme ? but is it what the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study really showed?

Rather, its [sic] more likely that differences in noncognitive skills mediated boys' ability to demonstrate performance in the classroom. We tend to have this idea that test scores reflect the magical truth about how well children "really" perform. But the reality is that there's no magical ideal of "true" performance. There's plenty of evidence that how you score on tests has significant predictive power in life. But how children execute and demonstrate skills in classroom and real-life tasks matters, too. Teacher-assigned grades reflect students' demonstrated performance in the classroom (on both regular class and homework assignments and teacher-created tests). And it's likely that boys' weaker non-cognitive skills resulted in submitted work that demonstrated lower quality of performance than the girls did. After all, if you're not good at being organized, persisting in completing tasks, or paying attention, you're probably not going to do as well in school as someone who is good at those things.

The really interesting question, then, is what you do with that result. Some people have responded to this study by saying that it's evidence that school practices systematically discriminate against boys....

Source: http://althouse.blogspot.com/2013/02/elementary-school-aged-boys-are.html

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Mass. gas prices up 14 cents in a week

BOSTON (AP) -- Gas prices in Massachusetts increased sharply over the past week.

AAA Southern New England reported Monday that the average price of regular gas is now about $3.60 a gallon. That's 14 cents higher than last Monday. The motor club blames the increase on higher crude oil prices.

The average price in Massachusetts is seven cents higher than the national average and 10 cents higher that the average price in the state a year ago.

AAA found self-serve regular selling as low as $3.50 a gallon and as high as $3.80 a gallon.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mass-gas-prices-14-cents-163224476.html

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Panetta, Dempsey to testify on Libya attack

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Senate Armed Services Committee says Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will testify on Thursday about the deadly assault on the U.S. Consulate in Libya last September.

The Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Republicans have pressed for Obama administration officials to testify on the raid. Hillary Rodham Clinton, then secretary of state, defended the administration in her appearance last month.

The testimony by Panetta, who is stepping down, could be his last on Capitol Hill. President Barack Obama has nominated former two-term Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel to replace him, a choice that has faced GOP opposition.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-02-04-US-Libya/id-dec698eeb29848e9a0910528ea957079

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