The health and wellness fair provides tips for students | The ...

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Dr. Diane Morgenthaler, director of the Wellness Center at SCSU, said that if one was to judge the success of the Annual Health and Wellness Fair in terms of attendance then it could be considered a wild success.

?It just seems to be growing every year,? she said. ?Based on how many students keep coming back it seems like they really enjoy it.?

The Health and Wellness Fair brought vendors from across the New Haven area to the Adanti Student Center Ballroom at Southern on Wednesday April 25 to show students the available options they have to stay healthy.

Nicole Martins, a senior public health major, who helped set up the event, contact the vendors, and get together the giveaways; said she has seen how much students really enjoy the event first-hand.

?It?s a really big event ? the biggest that the Wellness Center puts on all year,? she said.

?There are a lot of incentives and giveaways to make the students want to come and that really seems to work.?

Martins said that she believes the event is a success, because it is so ?interactive.?

According to her, food vendors were giving out free samples to students, the participating Zumba group was allowing students to come dance with them, and The Girl Spot, a group of pole-dancing instructors offering classes, were letting people try out some moves.

As for giveaways, she said, Bickram Yoga New Haven was giving away free classes and hoodies and Healthy Coffee was giving out gift baskets of organic coffees and teas.

Morgenthaler said the surveys given out to students at the Health and Wellness Fair have helped them better understand what students want out of the event.

?Based on the suggestions we?ve gotten it seems like students really enjoy the more exercise related areas,? she said.

?Fortunately, we take those surveys with heavy consideration and we are expanding on outside vendors every year.?

She said that the Wellness Center and Health Services try to get vendors from a variety of areas including ?fitness, nutrition, and general mental health.?

?We just want to give all of the vendors an opportunity to share as much information as possible with the students,? said Morgenthaler.

?We want to make students more aware of options for healthy living on and off campus.?

photo courtesy | southernct.edu
Diane Morgenthaler, the Wellness Center Director, provided information to students on how to stay healthy at the Health and Wellness Fair on April 25.

Brigitte Stiles, director of Health Services at SCSU said that she was a part of the first event in 2005 that combined the efforts of the Wellness Center and Health Services.

It is now both the Wellness Center and the Health Services biggest event.

?We just thought it would make sense for it to be a group effort,? she said, ?and based on the attendance of the last few years students really seem to like it.?

Stiles said the main message she wanted students to get from attending the event was how to still eat right, sleep right, and manage their sexual health despite the stresses of college.

?It?s really about general safety concerns,? she said.

Martins, also a student worker for the Wellness Center, said that she hopes the Health and Wellness Fair shows students that there are fun ways to keep active and stay healthy.

She said, ?I just hope that this shows students that staying active and healthy is a lot easier than you may think.?

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Source: http://thesouthernnews.org/2013/04/30/the-health-and-wellness-fair-provides-tips-for-students/

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Researchers track singing humpback whales on a Northwest Atlantic feeding ground

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Shelley Dawicki
shelley.dawicki@noaa.gov
504-495-2378
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Male humpback whales sing complex songs in tropical waters during the winter breeding season, but they also sing at higher latitudes at other times of the year. NOAA researchers have provided the first detailed description linking humpback whale movements to acoustic behavior on a feeding ground in the Northwest Atlantic.

Findings from the study, published April 10 in the journal PLOS ONE, demonstrate the potential applications of passive acoustic tracking and monitoring for marine mammal conservation and management.

Co-author Sofie Van Parijs, who heads the passive acoustics group at the Woods Hole Laboratory of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), says this study is not so much about biology, but about acoustic methods.

"We have monitored and acoustically recorded whale sounds for years, and are now able to 'mine' these data using new computer software applications and methods, " said Van Parijs. "Passive acoustic tracking has enabled us to localize humpback whale song to study the movements of individual whales, and to relate the singing to specific behaviors. This has never before been accomplished for singing humpbacks on a northwest Atlantic feeding ground."

"Passive acoustic tracking of humpback whales and other cetacean species provides an opportunity to collect data on movement patterns that are difficult?or impossible?to obtain using other techniques," said lead author Joy Stanistreet, who worked with Van Parjis and co-author Denise Risch at the NEFSC's Woods Hole Laboratory at the time of the study. Stanistreet is currently a graduate student at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C.

Since 2007, NEFSC researchers have used year-round passive acoustic monitoring to study ocean noise in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a feeding ground for humpback whales and other marine mammal species in the southern Gulf of Maine. Humpback whales typically frequent the sanctuary between April and December and feed on sand lance and other small schooling fish. Humpback whale singing in the sanctuary usually occurs from April through May, following the spring migration from southern waters, and from August to December before the return fall migration. During the summer, humpbacks remain in the sanctuary but generally do not sing while they feed.

The researchers used data from acoustic recordings collected from an array of 10 bottom-mounted marine autonomous recording units (MARUs). Continuous 24-hour recordings units were deployed in the sanctuary for four consecutive three-month periods during 2009. The MARUs were placed three to six miles apart, and the arrays shifted seasonally to areas within the sanctuary having high whale concentrations.

Humpback whale songs were recorded in distinct time periods during spring and fall. No songs were recorded during summer and winter, although humpback whales remained in the area. Songs were most common in the spring, and occurrences of singing increased significantly before and after migration periods.

Forty-three song sessions, each lasting from 30 minutes to eight hours, were used to track individual singing whales. Most of the singers were actively swimming; the patterns and rates of their movement ranged from slow meandering to a faster directional movement. In one case, two singers were tracked at the same time, suggesting a potential reaction by one singer to the presence of the other.

Marine mammal researchers could also use passive acoustic localization and tracking methods to better understand the geographic distribution, abundance, and densities of cetacean species, many of which are threatened by human activities. These applications may help inform and enhance marine mammal conservation and management efforts

###

The study was funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, a collaboration of federal agencies that provides leadership and coordination of national oceanographic research and education initiatives.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 29-Apr-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Shelley Dawicki
shelley.dawicki@noaa.gov
504-495-2378
NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center

Male humpback whales sing complex songs in tropical waters during the winter breeding season, but they also sing at higher latitudes at other times of the year. NOAA researchers have provided the first detailed description linking humpback whale movements to acoustic behavior on a feeding ground in the Northwest Atlantic.

Findings from the study, published April 10 in the journal PLOS ONE, demonstrate the potential applications of passive acoustic tracking and monitoring for marine mammal conservation and management.

Co-author Sofie Van Parijs, who heads the passive acoustics group at the Woods Hole Laboratory of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC), says this study is not so much about biology, but about acoustic methods.

"We have monitored and acoustically recorded whale sounds for years, and are now able to 'mine' these data using new computer software applications and methods, " said Van Parijs. "Passive acoustic tracking has enabled us to localize humpback whale song to study the movements of individual whales, and to relate the singing to specific behaviors. This has never before been accomplished for singing humpbacks on a northwest Atlantic feeding ground."

"Passive acoustic tracking of humpback whales and other cetacean species provides an opportunity to collect data on movement patterns that are difficult?or impossible?to obtain using other techniques," said lead author Joy Stanistreet, who worked with Van Parjis and co-author Denise Risch at the NEFSC's Woods Hole Laboratory at the time of the study. Stanistreet is currently a graduate student at the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, N.C.

Since 2007, NEFSC researchers have used year-round passive acoustic monitoring to study ocean noise in the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary, a feeding ground for humpback whales and other marine mammal species in the southern Gulf of Maine. Humpback whales typically frequent the sanctuary between April and December and feed on sand lance and other small schooling fish. Humpback whale singing in the sanctuary usually occurs from April through May, following the spring migration from southern waters, and from August to December before the return fall migration. During the summer, humpbacks remain in the sanctuary but generally do not sing while they feed.

The researchers used data from acoustic recordings collected from an array of 10 bottom-mounted marine autonomous recording units (MARUs). Continuous 24-hour recordings units were deployed in the sanctuary for four consecutive three-month periods during 2009. The MARUs were placed three to six miles apart, and the arrays shifted seasonally to areas within the sanctuary having high whale concentrations.

Humpback whale songs were recorded in distinct time periods during spring and fall. No songs were recorded during summer and winter, although humpback whales remained in the area. Songs were most common in the spring, and occurrences of singing increased significantly before and after migration periods.

Forty-three song sessions, each lasting from 30 minutes to eight hours, were used to track individual singing whales. Most of the singers were actively swimming; the patterns and rates of their movement ranged from slow meandering to a faster directional movement. In one case, two singers were tracked at the same time, suggesting a potential reaction by one singer to the presence of the other.

Marine mammal researchers could also use passive acoustic localization and tracking methods to better understand the geographic distribution, abundance, and densities of cetacean species, many of which are threatened by human activities. These applications may help inform and enhance marine mammal conservation and management efforts

###

The study was funded by the National Oceanographic Partnership Program, a collaboration of federal agencies that provides leadership and coordination of national oceanographic research and education initiatives.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-04/nfnf-rts042913.php

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Big Sibling's Big Influence: Some Behaviors Run In The Family

Patricia East is a developmental psychologist who began her career working at an OB-GYN clinic in California. Thursday mornings at the clinic were reserved for pregnant teens, and when East arrived the waiting room would be packed with them, chair after chair of pregnant adolescents.

It was in this waiting room, East explains, that she discovered her life's work ? an accidental discovery that emerged from the small talk that staff at the clinic had with their young clients as they walked them back for checkups.

"The nurses and the doctors there would bring a teen back for her prenatal visit and they would say, 'Hey! Aren't you Maria's younger sister?' And the young woman would say, 'Yeah, I am!' And they would say to another patient, 'You know, haven't I seen you before?' And she would say, 'Yes, I was here for my older sister when she was pregnant.' "

Over and over East heard variations of this conversation, until it came to the point that when she saw a younger sibling sitting next to her sister in the waiting room an involuntary thought flashed across her mind.

"It's almost as if you're watching the younger sister get pregnant," she says.

And so East decided to do a study. She wanted to figure out if having an older sister who got pregnant as a teen really did affect the likelihood that the younger sibling would find herself in the same position. She identified a large number of sister pairs ? all pairs came from roughly the same socioeconomic and life circumstances. And by comparing them, she found that a pregnancy in an older sister did often seem to change the trajectory of the younger sibling.

"The younger sisters are five times more likely to get pregnant as other young women who have an older sister who hasn't been pregnant."

In the aftermath of the bombings in Boston many of us have been thinking a lot about siblings ? particularly how older siblings can shape the lives of younger siblings. But until pretty recently, the role siblings play in determining the trajectory of each other's lives hasn't been a particularly hot topic in psychological research. Psychologists, very understandably, have focused on the influences they see as more important ? such as parents and peers and genetics.

But in the past decade that's been changing a bit. Psychologists interested in how siblings affect one another are taking a new look at all kinds of behavior, particularly anti-social behavior.

Richard Rende, a professor of psychiatry at Brown University, is one of the people doing this work, and he says that some of the new findings really challenge the idea that parents are the most important influence on children.

Consider, for example, the research that looks at how much a parent who smokes influences his child to smoke, versus the degree to which an older sibling who smokes influences a younger sibling.

"Both can have an effect, but in a lot of studies they've found that the effect 'older sibling smoking' has is greater than the effect that 'parental smoking' has," Rende says.

It's the opposite of what many people assumed, he says. Older siblings are more influential.

Rende says you can see this influence of big brothers and sisters in all kinds of families ? rich, middle class and poor. But their power is really magnified in the particular subset of families he studies: families that are psychologically and economically unstable. In those families the power of the older sibling is much greater because parents aren't around as much, and the siblings tend to spend a lot of time together.

As part of his research, Rende gives sibling pairs electronic devices like cellphones that, every half hour, prompt both siblings to report what they're doing. Through such reports you can actually see each one ghosting the other's behavior, he says.

"When one sibling is smoking ? in real time [we see] they're having a cigarette, and the other sibling is very likely to report smoking at the same time."

In fact, when one sibling is a smoker, the other is 25 percent more likely to smoke. With drinking the risk is even higher; a person is 36 percent more likely to drink if a sibling does.

Rende, by the way, believes that the reverse is also true. Good behavior in older siblings can be as contagious as bad. It just seems that ? particularly when families are struggling ? the fate of the kids is more tethered to their siblings than we originally thought. For good and, apparently, for bad.

Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/04/29/179266284/Big-Siblings-Big-Influence-Some-Behaviors-Run-In-The-Family?ft=1&f=1007

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Bar Power Is A Nightlife App To Help You Be Less Of A Jerk At Bars

Once you’ve had a few drinks at a bar it’s easy to let loose and blow off steam. Unfortunately, while you’re having fun, you could end up annoying others around you, namely the staff at the venue you’re at. By acting like a fool, you’re jeopardizing your future visits, since bartenders tend to remember who was a jerk and who was a great customer. A project at our Disrupt Hackathon called “Bar Power” is an app that will remind you to “not be a douchebag.” It’s somewhat of a game, walking you through nice things to do when you enter a bar. For example, the app will suggest that you say “hi” to the bartender and introduce yourself. If you do it and mark it?down in the app, you get some karma points. The really interesting part of the app comes into play when you’ve done something wrong. Did you drop a glass? Fall down? Mark that down, too. Naturally, you’ll lose those karma points that you gained by being the perfect customer. I chatted with the team who built it, Patricia Ju and Chris Baily, and they discussed their reasons for creating Bar Power, mostly stemming from Baily’s professional experience in the bar scene. While Bar Power might complicate what you’ve set out to do, which is drink, it is a good way to have a little fun and learn how to be a better customer. Ju explained: “It’s so much better to go out to places where you know people. Bartenders gave us feedback and that helped us make Bar Power’s rules. Once you’re in the app, you select the bar that you’re at and then start doing the nice things that it tells you to do. Slip up? Check that off on the list, too: The map below will track how you’re doing throughout the city, alerting you to areas that you should avoid since you were a freaking jerk the night before: As Baily explained, if people understand what to do and what not to do from the bartender community, their experience will be a better one. If the team can build relationships with venues to get them to interact with customers through the app, this could be a neat rating system that goes both ways, ? la?apps like Lyft and Uber. It sounds like Bar Power has potential past being “just a hack,” and I

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/cmFu8v-5PJw/

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Skip Google+ Sharing And Tweet Photos Directly From Google Glass With GlassTweet

We’re on the ground in New York City at the Disrupt Hackathon and there are a lot of interesting things being created. Since I’m walking around wearing Google Glass, I’ve obviously been looking for teams building apps for it. I met up with Jonathan Gottfried, Twilio’s Developer Evangelist, and he built a quick and dirty app called GlassTweet, which lets you share photos to Twitter, rather than the out-of-the-box experience of sending shots to Google+. Once you’ve installed the app and connected it to Glass and your Twitter account, a new contact comes up that you can share to, called “Tweet”: The excitement about developing for Glass reminds me of the early days on Apple’s App Store. Gottfried explained: “It’s a great platform and being able to create all of the fundamental apps for people is a tremendous opportunity.” There are only a few people testing GlassTweet out right now, but I imagine that small apps like this will be installed by most of the community who are looking for inspiration. It would be interesting to see a photo gallery of those who are using the app as well, perhaps with some geographic location attached to the photo. You can’t tweet videos yet, but Gottfried tells me that the feature is coming soon. During the Glass Collective announcement this month, Kleiner Perkins partner John Doerr mentioned that Twitter was thinking about working on its own app, and it’ll be interesting to see how they adapt their service for the small screen. Surely you don’t want every mention or reply lighting up in front of your face. At least I don’t. Gottfried has built a few Glass apps so far, including ones that lets you purchase a dedicated number through Twilio for texting. Let the Glass games begin. [Photo credit: Flickr]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/o0_fB0gfff0/

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Former Ms. magazine editor Mary Thom dies in N.Y. crash

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) ? Prominent feminist Mary Thom, a writer and former editor of Ms. magazine who also was an avid motorcyclist, crashed while riding on a highway and was killed, her nephew said Saturday. She was 68.

Thom had a passion for riding motorcycles and died riding her 1996 Honda Magna 750 on Friday evening on the Saw Mill River Parkway in Yonkers, just north of New York City, nephew Thom Loubet said.

"The important thing to know about Mary is that she was a major leader of the 70's Feminist movement, but never desired the limelight," Loubet said in an email. "She stayed behind the scenes tirelessly crafting the message and simply making it better."

Thom was one of Ms. magazine's founding members and served as an editor there for about 20 years, leaving in 1992. She also was an author who wrote a book about the history of Ms. and was a co-author, with Suzanne Braun Levine, of an oral history of former congresswoman and activist Bella Abzug.

Most recently, Thom was the editor-in-chief of the Women's Media Center's features department, which produces reports and commentaries by national and international contributors.

Thom, an Akron, Ohio, native, lived for decades in New York City, where she became one of the women's movement's best editors, feminist icon Gloria Steinem said.

"She had a gift for helping people tell their own story, not for helping them sound like others, but helping them find their own voice," Steinem said.

Thom loved baseball, especially the Cleveland Indians, and adored watching Jon Stewart's hit Comedy Central program, "The Daily Show," Loubet said.

Thom is survived by her sister and other relatives.

Her death was first reported by The Journal News. Westchester County police did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the crash.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ex-ms-magazine-editor-mary-thom-dies-ny-011958281.html

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Malians cautiously welcome approval of UN force

BAMAKO, Mali (AP) ? Some Malians are already questioning how successful the United Nations peacekeeping mission to their country will be given its limited mandate and the volatile mix of armed groups across the north.

The U.N. Security Council on Thursday authorized the deployment of a force made up of 11,200 military personnel and 1,440 international police for Mali.

The force is tasked with helping to restore peace after a French-led military operation was launched in January to dislodge radical Islamic fighters who had seized control of the country's vast north.

However, the U.N. peacekeepers will not be authorized to launch offensive military operations or chase terrorists in the desert, which French forces will continue to do, although France is aiming to downscale its presence in its former colony by year-end.

Daouda Sangare, an entrepreneur in Bamako, questioned how much the peacekeepers would do to protect civilians because of their limited mandate. Other U.N. peacekeepers in Africa have been accused of failing to protect local populations from attack, he said.

"The U.N. forces will only be coming to collect their salaries," he said. "We have seen the example in Congo, where the M23 rebels entered Goma and the U.N.'s blue helmets were there in the city and did not protect the population. There were deaths and injuries."

On July 1 the U.N. peacekeepers are supposed to take over from a 6,000-member African-led mission now in Mali, although the deployment date is subject to change depending on security conditions.

The transformation into a U.N.-led mission will be a positive step because it will have considerable financial backing, said Ousmane Diarra, a Bamako-based politician.

"Until now, the African forces that have been in Mali have been financed by their countries," he said. "That was a worry for us because it was not clear that the African countries could continue to finance their military mission in Mali."

Mali fell into turmoil after a March 2012 coup created a security vacuum that allowed secular Tuareg rebels to take over the country's north as a new homeland. Months later, the rebels were kicked out by Islamic jihadists who carried out public executions, amputations and whippings.

When the Islamists started moving into government-controlled areas in the south, France launched a military offensive on Jan. 11 to oust them. The fighters, many linked to al-Qaida, fled the major towns in the north but many went into hiding in the desert and continue to carry out attacks including suicide bombings.

"We know it's going to be a fairly volatile environment and there will certainly be some attacks against peacekeepers where they will have to defend themselves," U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous told reporters on Thursday.

France is gradually easing back on its presence in Mali ? currently just under 4,000 troops ? and French officials said they expect to have roughly 1,000 there by year-end. Some 750 of those will be devoted to fighting the insurgent groups, officials said.

The U.N. force will also operate alongside a European Union mission that is providing military training to the ill-equipped Malian army, which was left in disarray by the March 2012 coup.

___

Associated Press writers Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Jamey Keaten in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/malians-cautiously-welcome-approval-un-force-113918122.html

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Did an Earthquake Destroy Ancient Greece?

The grand Mycenaens, the first Greeks, inspired the legends of the Trojan Wars, "The Iliad" and "The Odyssey." Their culture abruptly declined around 1200 B.C., marking the start of a Dark Ages in Greece.

The disappearance of the Mycenaens is a Mediterranean mystery. Leading explanations include warfare with invaders or uprising by lower classes. Some scientists also think one of the country's frequent earthquakes could have contributed to the culture's collapse. At the ruins of Tiryns, a fortified palace, geologists hope to find evidence to confirm whether an earthquake was a likely culprit.

Tiryns was one of the great Mycenaean cities. Atop a limestone hill, the city-state's king built a palace with walls so thick they were called Cyclopean, because only the one-eyed monster could have carried the massive limestone blocks. The walls were about 30 feet (10 meters) high and 26 feet (8 m) wide, with blocks weighing 13 tons, said Klaus-G. Hinzen, a seismologist at the University of Cologne in Germany and project leader. He presented his team's preliminary results April 19 at the Seismological Society of America's annual meeting in Salt Lake City. [History's Most Overlooked Mysteries]

Hinzen and his colleagues have created a 3D model of Tiryns based on laser scans of the remaining structures. Their goal is to determine if the walls' collapse could only have been caused by an earthquake. Geophysical scanning of the sediment and rock layers beneath the surface will provide information for engineering studies on how the ground would shake in a temblor.

The work is complex, because many blocks were moved by amateur archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in 1884 and later 20th-century restorations, Hinzen said. By combing through historic photos, the team found unaltered wall sections to test. They also hope to use a technique called optical luminescence dating on soil under the blocks, which could reveal whether the walls toppled all at the same time, as during an earthquake.

"This is really a challenge because of the alterations. We want to take a careful look at the original conditions," Hinzen told OurAmazingPlanet.

Another hurdle: finding the killer quake. There are no written records from the Mycenaean decline that describe a major earthquake, nor oral folklore. Hinzen also said compared with other areas of Greece, the region has relatively few active faults nearby. "There is no evidence for an earthquake at this time, but there was strong activity at the subduction zone nearby," he said.

The Mycenaean preference to place their fortresses atop limestone hills surrounded by sediment would concentrate shaking, even from distant earthquakes, Hinzen said. "The [seismic] waves get trapped in the outcrop and this can do a lot of damage. They are on very vulnerable sites," he said.

The researchers also plan to study the ancient Mycenaean city of Midea. The group has done similar work investigating ancient earthquakes in Turkey, Germany and Rome.

Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us?@OAPlanet, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/did-earthquake-destroy-ancient-greece-173454478.html

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4 killed in Pakistan bombings of political parties

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) ? Police say four people were killed and dozens were injured in two separate bombings of political targets in the southern city of Karachi.

The blasts come as Pakistan is preparing for country-wide elections on May 11.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Taliban have threatened three political parties perceived as being more liberal and secular, including two targeted Saturday night.

Police officer Azam Baloch says three people were killed and 21 were injured when a bomb planted on a motorbike exploded during a political meeting. That blast targeted supporters of the Pakistan Peoples Party.

Police official Zahid Hussain says the other bomb targeted an office of the Muttahida Quami Movement. One person died and 21 were wounded in that explosion.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/4-killed-pakistan-bombings-political-parties-204339584.html

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Egypt's Pope says Islamist rulers neglect Copts

By Yasmine Saleh and Paul Taylor

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egypt's Christians feel sidelined, ignored and neglected by Muslim Brotherhood-led authorities, who proffer assurances but have taken little or no action to protect them from violence, Coptic Pope Tawadros II said.

In his first interview since emerging from seclusion after eight people were killed in sectarian violence between Muslims and Christians this month, the pope called official accounts of clashes at Cairo's Coptic cathedral on April 7 "a pack of lies".

He also voiced dismay at attempts by President Mohamed Mursi's Islamist allies to purge thousands of judges appointed under ousted President Hosni Mubarak, saying the judiciary was a pillar of Egyptian society and should not be touched.

"There is a sense of marginalization and rejection, which we can call social isolation," the pope told Reuters on Thursday of the feelings of Christians, who he said make up at least 15 percent of Egypt's 84 million people. Most Egyptians are Sunni Muslims.

Attacks on churches and sectarian tensions increased significantly after the rise of Islamists to power following the 2011 uprising that overthrew Mubarak, even though Christians had demonstrated alongside Muslims for his removal.

Asked about the government's response to this month's attacks, he said: "It made a bad judgment and it was negligent... I would have expected better security for the place and the people."

Mursi and his ministers tried to mend fences with the 60-year-old Coptic pontiff after the April 5 clashes in the town of El Khusus, north of Cairo, in which four Christians and one Muslim were killed.

Sectarian violence spread to the capital's sprawling St Mark's Cathedral, the pope's headquarters, after the funerals.

"Sometimes we get nice feelings from officials, but such feelings require actions, and the actions are slow, and maybe little, and sometimes don't exist at all," the pope said.

Riot police appeared to stand aside during what was the first attack on the seat of Christianity in Egypt in more than 1,400 years, although Coptic churches and community centers have suffered periodic violence for years.

EMIGRATION OUT OF FEAR

The pope said he was concerned by signs that some Copts were emigrating "because they are fearing the new regime". Others were going abroad to study, seek work or join family, he said.

In a concerted drive, the interior minister paid a condolence call on Tawadros on Wednesday and the ministers of information and tourism visited him on Thursday for a meeting televised on state media.

But the pope said that beyond promises to investigate the incidents and bring the perpetrators to justice, nothing practical had been done to improve the lot of Copts.

"After the last incidents, we gained some promises from the authorities and the government, from some ministers, but till now there is nothing new," he said.

Christians have long complained of discrimination in employment and treatment by the authorities and called for changes in laws to make it as easy to build or renovate churches as it is for mosques.

"Christians' problems and hardships have two sides, a religious side and a civilian one. The religious side involves two main issues: building churches and land," the pope said.

"I expect the government to facilitate and solve the chronic problems... For example, the building of a new church takes more than 15-16 years to get permission."

SCATHING

The black-robed pontiff, carrying a white-tipped staff and a Coptic cross in his hand, was particularly scathing about an account of the cathedral violence posted on the Facebook page of Mursi's national security adviser, Essam Haddad.

"It is 100 percent rejected," Tawadros said. "This statement was in English, directed to the U.S. State Department, and was sent with a CD to explain their position and to cover up, but this statement is a pack of lies. It did not tell the truth."

Haddad's office said Christians had instigated the clashes by vandalizing cars outside the cathedral during the funeral procession, and that firearms and petrol bombs had been used from inside the church compound, provoking the security forces.

A Reuters witness saw at least two people carrying guns and petrol bombs on the roof of the cathedral that day, but the pope said mourners had merely been reacting to an assault.

"They did not come to make violence, they came for a funeral, and when they came out of the church, they started to be subjected to violence. And hence they acted. There is a difference between action and reaction," he said.

The pope said the church had not even been asked to provide its account of events to government officials.

Pope Tawadros, the 118th head of Coptic Orthodox church, was picked on November 5 in a ceremony steeped in the traditions of a community that predates Islam's arrival in Egypt. He studied pharmacology in Egypt and England and managed a state-owned pharmaceutical factory for a few years before becoming a monk.

The 60-year-old pontiff succeeded Pope Shenouda III, who had led Egyptian Christians for four decades, clashing early on with former President Anwar Sadat but enjoying warmer relations with Mubarak, who acted as the Copts' political protector.

By contrast, Mursi has kept his distance, staying away from Tawadros' inauguration and shunning Coptic Christmas celebrations, to avoid alienating hardline conservative Salafi Islamists who refuse to recognize Christian holidays.

He offended Copts by setting the date for parliamentary elections on the Coptic Easter holiday, then admitting when he changed the polling day after Christian protests that he had been aware of the religious festival.

During the interview the pope offered an Easter prayer for Mursi, saying: "May God help you to serve in the work you are doing and may the situation in Egypt improve and the bridges of trust between all officials and citizens be strengthened."

(Writing by Paul Taylor; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypts-pope-says-islamist-rulers-neglect-copts-075707398.html

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Facebook hires: corporate communications, consumer content ...

Facebook removed 28 job listings from its?careers page?this week, likely after making hires in the areas of marketing, communications, account management and others.

In notable departures news, Engineering Director?John Hegeman is reportedly leaving Facebook to join Quora, a community knowledge platform started by Facebook co-founder Adam D?Angelo.

Prior listings removed from Facebook?s?careers page:

• Manager, Data Warehouse Operations (Menlo Park)
• Safety and Security Engineer (New York)
• Latin America Business Operations Consultant (S?o Paulo)
• Tax Controversy (Menlo Park)
• Consumer Content Manager (New York)
• Manager, Corporate Communications (Toronto)
• Manager, Global Law Enforcement Response Team (Menlo Park)
• Interview Scheduler ? Contract (Menlo Park)
• Recruiter (London)
• Sourcer, Diversity (Menlo Park)
• UEX/CS Recruiter ? Contract (Menlo Park)
• Communication Designer- University (Menlo Park)
• Creative Producer (Menlo Park)
• Technical Program Manager, Data Center (Menlo Park)
• Marketing Manager, Global Vertical Marketing (Menlo Park)
• Regional Product Marketing Partner (Singapore)
• Product Marketing Manager (Menlo Park)
• Manager, Data Warehouse Operations (Menlo Park)
• Account Manager, Finance (New York)
• Account Manager, Finance (Chicago)
• Growth Manager (LATAM) (Mexico City)
• Team Lead, Media Solutions, Italian (Dublin)
• Strategic Partner Development ? Athletes (Los Angeles ? Menlo Park)
• Agency Partner, Turkey (London)
• Client Partner, South Africa (Dublin)
• Client Partner, Sub Saharan Africa (Dubai)
• Team Assistant (Part-Time) (Dubai)
• Team Assistant (half time ? contract) (Warsaw)

Who else is hiring? The?Inside Network Job Board?presents a survey of current openings at leading companies in the industry.

Source: http://www.insidefacebook.com/2013/04/26/facebook-hires-corporate-communications-consumer-content-global-marketing-more/

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Toby Keith to Take Annual USO Visit to the Pacific and Give Troops and Their Families a Sneak Peak of Hammer Down Tour

Singer/songwriter to perform several USO shows and let troops in the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii know he?s always by their side.

Arlington, VA (PRWEB) April 25, 2013

Twitter Pitch: @TobyKeithMusic to let troops know he?s always by their side during @the_USO tour to the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii.

What: USO tour featuring singer/songwriter Toby Keith

When: April 27 ? May 7, 2013

Where: The Philippines, Guam and Hawaii

Note: No backpacks, totes or large bags will be permitted and all are subject to search.

Why: Award-winning singer/songwriter and entertainer Toby Keith will visit and perform for troops and their families stationed in the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii as part of his 11th USO/Armed Forces Entertainment tour April 27 ? May 7. As part of his three-country USO trip, Keith will perform hits from his upcoming ?Toby Keith Hammer Down Tour Presented by Ford F-Series? ? which kicks off June 8 in Ozark, AR. Additionally, he?ll perform several USO shows for sailors, airmen, soldiers and Marines. The shows are private and open only to military ID holders.

Last year, Keith celebrated a decade of touring the globe with the USO and capped off the year with a return USO visit to the Middle East. Since his first USO tour in ?02, Keith has traveled to 15 countries as well as visited troops aboard the USS Enterprise, USS Leyte Gulf, USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Cape Saint George. Among the countries he has visited are Afghanistan, Bahrain, Belgium, Bosnia, Cuba, Djibouti, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, South Korea and the United States. In total, the star has lifted the spirits of 225,984 servicemen and women.

Adding to his ever increasing list of charitable deeds, in 2007, Keith inspired the creation of USO2GO ? a USO program designed to deliver much needed electronic gaming, sports/musical equipment, and personal care items to troops in remote locations. To date, USO2GO deployed bundles, which weigh nearly one ton each, have been delivered to more than 600 forward operating bases in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Philippines, Egypt, Djibouti and Kuwait. The program celebrated its 1,000th USO2GO bundle in 2012.

Quotes:

Attributed to Toby Keith:

?I can?t say enough about the USO and the importance of these tours. The USO has proven continuously that they are always by the side of our troops and military families. They are on the frontlines, serving troops in harm's way. They are with their loved ones, helping to keep them connected through phone calls and tours like this. They are involved in the recovery process, supporting our wounded, ill and injured. And they are also there for our fallen families providing comfort and support. I am honored to volunteer with the USO again and I look forward to heading over to the Pacific to entertain them there.?

Note: The USO strives to deliver life-changing experiences for troops and their families around the world, like this Toby Keith USO tour to the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. Visit uso.org and learn how the USO is always by the side of those who need us most: our nation?s deployed troops, military families, wounded, ill and injured troops and their caregivers as well as families of the fallen.

About the USO

The USO lifts the spirits of America's troops and their families millions of times each year at hundreds of places worldwide. We provide a touch of home through centers at airports and military bases in the U.S. and abroad, top-quality entertainment and innovative programs and services. We also provide critical support to those who need us most, including forward-deployed troops, military families, wounded warriors and families of the fallen. The USO is a private, non-profit organization, not a government agency. Our programs and services are made possible by the American people, support of our corporate partners and the dedication of our volunteers and staff.

In addition to individual donors and corporate sponsors, the USO is supported by the President?s Circle Partners: American Airlines, AT&T, Clear Channel, The Coca-Cola Company, jcpenney, Jeep, Kangaroo Express, Kroger, Lowe?s, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Procter & Gamble, and TriWest Healthcare Alliance and Worldwide Strategic Partners: BAE Systems, The Boeing Company, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft Corporation and TKS Telepost Kabel-Service Kaiserslautern GmbH & Co. KG. We are also supported through the United Way and Combined Federal Campaign (CFC-11381). To join us in this patriotic mission, and to learn more about the USO, please visit uso.org.

###

Oname Thompson
USO
(703) 908-6471
Email Information

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/toby-keith-annual-uso-visit-pacific-troops-families-201223192.html

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Documentary about Amy Winehouse planned

Toby Melville / Reuters

By Pamela McClintock, The Hollywood Reporter

Universal Music and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Asif Kapadia are teaming to bring the story of Amy Winehouse's life and career to the big screen.

Focus Features International, a division within the Universal empire, will shop the high-profile project to foreign buyers at next month's Cannes Film Market.

?This is an incredibly modern, emotional and relevant film that has the power to capture the zeitgeist and shine a light on the world we live in in a way that very few films can,? said Kapadia and producer James Gay-Rees.

PHOTOS: Posthumous roles: 15 stars who appeared on the big screen after their death

?Amy was a once-in-a-generation talent who captured everyone's attention; she wrote and sung from the heart, and everyone fell under her spell. But tragically, Amy seemed to fall apart under the relentless media attention, her troubled relationships, her global success and precarious lifestyle. As a society we celebrated her huge success, but then we were quick to judge her failings when it suited us," they added.

Winehouse rose to international fame with her second album, "Back to Black," ?which has sold more than 12 million copies worldwide since its release in 2006. The English artist died in 2011 of alcohol poisoning.

Report: Beyonce to cover Amy Winehouse's "Back to Black" for "Gatsby" soundtrack

?Asif and James have the remarkable ability to bring a moving and thought-provoking story to life, as evidenced by Senna. We look forward to seeing their vision of Amy Winehouse," Focus International co-president Alison Thompson said.

The untitled Winehouse doc reunites Kapadia with producer Gay-Rees; they worked together on the 2010 award-winning doc "Senna," which recounts the life and death of Brazilian car-racing champion Ayrton Senna.

Related content:

Source: http://entertainment.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/25/17911172-amy-winehouse-documentary-set-for-the-big-screen?lite

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Wii U spring update now live, promises to speed up software load times

Owning a Wii U can feel like an exercise in patience: games and apps can take up to 30 seconds to load, and downloaded software needs to be manually installed. Thankfully, Nintendo heard its fans lamentations, and has issued the first of two major updates designed to mitigate the problem. In addition to dramatically speeding up software load times, the update revises how the Wii U handles downloads and installs. Rather than manually having to install software, the system will automatically update, download and unwrap patches in the background, even if the console is powered down. The system update also puts the finishing touches on the Wii U Virtual Console, which is promised to launch officially in the coming days. Nintendo's old VC can be accessed a little quicker now, too, as the update now allows users to jump directly into the sandboxed Wii ecosystem by holding the B button during start up. All in all, a pretty solid update to a system that needs a little fixing.

Filed under: Gaming, Nintendo

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/wii-u-update/wii-u-spring-update-now-live-promises-to-speed-up-software-load/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Chile arrests 4 accused of burning baby in rite

In this April 19, 2013 photo released by Chile's Police Investigative Unit on Thursday, April 25, 2013, investigators search for evidence in a house that was used to perform rites by a sect at a house in Colliguay, near the Chilean port of Valparaiso. Police on Thursday, arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist. (AP Photo/ Chile's Police Investigative Unit)

In this April 19, 2013 photo released by Chile's Police Investigative Unit on Thursday, April 25, 2013, investigators search for evidence in a house that was used to perform rites by a sect at a house in Colliguay, near the Chilean port of Valparaiso. Police on Thursday, arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist. (AP Photo/ Chile's Police Investigative Unit)

In this April 19, 2013 photo released by Chile's Police Investigative Unit on Thursday, April 25, 2013, an investigator collects samples of dirt at a farm used by a sect that is accused of burning a baby alive, in Colliguay, near the Chilean port of Valparaiso. Police on Thursday, arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist. (AP Photo/ Chile's Police Investigative Unit)

This undated photo released by Chile's Police Investigative Unit on Thursday, April 25, 2013, shows Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, who authorities said is the leader of a 12-member sect that is accused of burning a baby alive. Police on Thursday, arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because Castillo Gaete believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist. Police said Castillo Gaete, who remains at large, was last seen traveling to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to control the cult members. (AP Photo/ Chile's Police Investigative Unit)

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) ? Chilean police on Thursday arrested four people accused of burning a baby alive in a ritual because the leader of the sect believed that the end of the world was near and that the child was the antichrist.

The 3-day-old baby was taken to a hill in the town of Colliguay near the Chilean port of Valparaiso on Nov. 21 and was thrown into a bonfire. The baby's mother, 25-year-old Natalia Guerra, had allegedly approved the sacrifice and was among those arrested.

"The baby was naked. They strapped tape around her mouth to keep her from screaming. Then they placed her on a board. After calling on the spirits they threw her on the bonfire alive," said Miguel Ampuero, of the Police investigative Unit, Chile's equivalent of the FBI.

Authorities said the 12-member sect was formed in 2005 and was led by Ramon Gustavo Castillo Gaete, 36, who remains at large.

"Everyone in this sect was a professional," Ampuero said. "We have someone who was a veterinarian and who worked as a flight attendant, we have a filmmaker, a draftsman. Everyone has a university degree. "

Police said Castillo Gaete, the ringleader, was last seen traveling to Peru to buy ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic brew plant that he used to control the members of the rite.

__

Luis Andres Henao on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LuisAndresHenao

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-25-LT-Chile-Baby-Burned-Ritual-Arrests/id-1426fd31b49249f687633c24408ebd04

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Predictions of ECB rate cut grow as growth fades

FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? Evidence that Europe's economic downturn is weighing more heavily on its strongest member, Germany, has convinced more and more experts that the European Central Bank will cut interest rates soon.

The latest downbeat sign came Wednesday from the closely watched Ifo index of German business confidence. It fell to 104.4 points in April from 106.7 in March, more than the modest dip foreseen by market analysts to 106.2. That follows surveys earlier this week indicating Germany's manufacturing sector is contracting.

The Ifo index remains at a high level, and the institute's survey chief, Kai Carstensen, said it only means that "the German economy is taking a breather."

But outside analysts said there was now enough doubt about Europe's economic recovery for the ECB's 23-member governing council to cut its key rate from the record low of 0.75 percent, either at its May 2 meeting or on June 6, when it will have new staff economic projections to help justify any decision.

The ECB's benchmark, called the refinancing rate, is what it charges to lend to banks. Through them, the rate influences a host of other rates that determine how much it costs businesses and consumers to borrow.

Low rates in theory encourage borrowing to spend and invest, stimulating the economy. A rate cut also can push investors toward buying stocks and other assets, both in anticipation of growth and by making interest-yielding investments less attractive.

Investors prepared for such a move by buying heavily into European stocks. Germany's stock index is up 3 percent in two days, France's almost 4.5 percent.

ECB President Mario Draghi said in April that the bank remained "ready to act" in case the economic indicators worsened.

In a sign that support for a rate cut may be growing, the head of the German central bank, which has typically been more reluctant to back rate cuts, said last week that a cut could be warranted if economic indicators worsen. Since his comments, they have.

The strength of the German economy is key to the ECB's rate decisions because of its size ? it accounts for 28 percent of the 17-country eurozone's total output. It shrank 0.6 percent in the last three months of 2012.

Germany has been one of the more resilient economies in the eurozone. A slowdown in its economy would make it harder for the region to climb out of recession. The ECB expects the eurozone to contract 0.5 percent for all of this year, with a gradual upturn near year end.

"Resistance to a rate cut will be crumbling," said Christian Schulz, an analyst at Berenberg Bank in London, after the Ifo survey was released.

Analysts at Swiss bank UBS have changed their forecasts and now predict an ECB rate cut on May 2. They had previously expected rates to remain unchanged through the end of next year. Analysts at Royal Bank of Scotland and Nomura also shifted their prediction to a cut to the May meeting.

Other signs of trouble in Europe include unemployment at 12.0 percent, the highest since the euro was introduced in 1999, and auto sales that have fallen for 18 straight months, measured against the same month the year previously.

Analysts say a rate cut might be mostly symbolic and do little to spur lending directly. It could, however, lower the euro's exchange rate, which would help exporters.

Lower rates can push down the euro's exchange rate because they lower the yield on many interest-bearing investments denominated in euros. That reduces demand for the currency.

The ECB has also been looking at unspecified new way to help the economy that go beyond interest rates. Analysts say the ECB might take steps to try to increase bank's willingness to make loans to small and medium size businesses, which provide most of the eurozone's jobs. Ideas that have been floated include loan guarantees from another European Union agency, or permitting banks to bundle loans to small businesses as securities and use them as collateral to get cash loans from the ECB.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/predictions-ecb-rate-cut-grow-growth-fades-114550626--finance.html

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Obama heading to Texas for Bush museum dedication, fundraising

By Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is headed to Texas to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with former President George W. Bush in what could serve as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle against terrorism in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

Obama is due to attend the dedication on Thursday of Bush's presidential library at Southern Methodist University, along with former presidents Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter and hundreds of Bush administration alumni.

While Democrat Obama and Republican Bush have deep political differences, they share a common belief that the United States must defend itself against violent extremism.

The September 11 attacks defined Bush's eight years in the White House and last week's Boston Marathon bombing handed Obama another challenge to homeland security.

"They failed because, as Americans, we refused to be terrorized," Obama said last week, referring to those who set off bombs near the marathon finish line. "They failed because we will not waver from the character and the compassion and the values that define us as a country."

Bush used similar language to rally Americans.

Certain issues require a common response regardless of political party, said David Yepsen, director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Center at the University of Southern Illinois.

"They may get to the office as a conservative or a liberal but there are real forces that move them to the pragmatic center on a variety of issues and national security is one of them," Simon said.

Obama is expected to begin his trip by headlining a $10,000-a-plate fundraising dinner on Wednesday evening for the Democratic National Committee at the Dallas home of major Democratic donor Naomi Aberly.

Obama has hosted a number of such fundraisers to help raise money for his party in the hope that Democrats can wrestle control of the House of Representatives from Republicans and add to the Democrats' Senate majority in 2014 midterm elections.

Without adding Democratic seats, Obama may find it difficult to overcome Republican opposition to many of the priorities of his second term, such as closing tax loopholes enjoyed mostly by the wealthy and stricter gun control.

Thursday's dedication of Bush's library and museum has put the 43rd U.S. president back in the limelight he has largely avoided since leaving office in January 2009.

At the time, the United States was laboring under the burden of two wars and a collapsed economy. Bush's approval rating at the time was 33 percent. A Washington Post-ABC poll this week put his approval rating at 47 percent, basically equal to Obama's.

The museum exhibits cover major points of Bush's presidency and offer visitors an opportunity to decide how they would have responded to those challenges.

A central features of the museum concerns the September 11 attacks on the United States.

Obama has found himself pursuing some of the same policies that Bush began, such using drones on military targets and trying to overhaul U.S. immigration laws.

Obama is expected to speak at the dedication along with the former presidents.

"Regardless of the times when they served and their political and policy differences, there is a commonality of experience that the president believes binds them together," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

After visiting Bush in Dallas on Thursday, Obama is scheduled to attend a memorial service at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, for the 14 people killed when a fertilizer plant exploded last week in West, Texas.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Karey Van Hall, Toni Reinhold)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-heading-texas-bush-museum-dedication-fundraising-195822863.html

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Asia stocks up on US company earnings, home sales

BANGKOK (AP) ? An increase in new U.S. home sales and strong corporate earnings across a range of industries lifted investment sentiment in Asia, where most stock markets rose Wednesday.

Luxury handbag maker Coach, Lockheed Martin and DuPont reported results that were better than analysts expected. Netflix, which streams TV shows and movies over the Internet, announced profits that delighted investors. Meanwhile, the U.S. government reported that sales of new homes rose 1.5 percent in March, adding to evidence of a sustained housing recovery.

That offset results of a survey into manufacturing conditions among the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. The monthly purchasing managers' index fell to a 3-month low in April.

"Sentiment was upbeat yesterday as solid US earnings and new home sales data helped equities shrug off disappointing PMI data earlier in the day," Gary Yau at Credit Agricole CIB said in a commentary.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index jumped 1.8 percent to 13,772.98, trading above 13,700 for the first time in nearly five years. South Korea's Kospi rose 1 percent to 1,936.83. Australia's S&P/ASX 200 added 1.4 percent to 5,087.90.

Hong Kong and mainland Chinese stocks also climbed on expectations that the central government might take action to boost the Chinese economy after recent data showed growth lagging in the world's No. 2 economy.

"Because the macroeconomic situation is still bad, we are expecting there might be some new policy coming out," said Linus Yip, strategist at First Shanghai Securities in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng advanced 1.3 percent to 22,088.95. The Shanghai Composite Index rose 0.7 percent to 2,199.41 and the Shenzhen Composite Index rose 1.3 percent to 935.07. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines also rose.

Among individual stocks, Japanese vehicle maker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. jumped more than 16 percent after raising its group net profit forecast for the year ending March 2013, Kyodo News reported.

On Wall Street, corporate earnings propelled all three major indexes higher. The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 1.1 percent, to close at 14,719.46. The S&P 500 index rose 1 percent to 1,578.78. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.1 percent to 3,269.33.

Later Wednesday in the U.S., consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble, drug maker Eli Lilly and Boeing will release earnings. United Parcel Service, Exxon Mobil and Amazon are among the corporations that will do so on Thursday.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 42 cents to $89.60 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 1 cent to close at $89.18 a barrel on the Nymex on Tuesday.

In currencies, the euro rose to $1.2997 from $1.2991 late Tuesday in New York. The dollar fell to 99.39 yen from 99.44 yen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-us-company-earnings-home-sales-051333740--finance.html

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Reid: Democrats to ease cuts with war savings (The Arizona Republic)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/301060478?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Global warming study suggests human causes dating back to 1800s

Darrell S. Kaufman / Northern Arizona University

Kristi Wallace of the Alaska Volcano Observatory examines a lake sediment core from southern Alaska that shows intricate layering indicating environmental and climatic changes over centuries.

By John Roach, Contributing Writer, NBC News

A long-term global cooling trend ended in the late 19th century, a reversal in temperature that cannot be explained by natural variability alone, according to a new study.

The finding stems from 2,000-year-long continental-scale temperature records inferred from tree rings, ice cores, lake sediments and other so-called proxies from around the world.?

The records show variations in temperature caused by changes in Earth's orbit, output of solar energy, and volcanic eruptions, noted Nicholas McKay, a climate scientist at Northern Arizona University and study co-author. Volcanic eruptions, for example, inject particles in the atmosphere that reflect some of the solar radiation back out to space.

Read:?Warming fastest since dawn of civilization, study shows

"The 18th and 19th centuries would probably have been colder than the 20th century no matter what just because there has been a bit less volcanism in this century, but the amount of warming we've seen is extremely unlikely to have happened solely due to natural processes," he told NBC News.

In fact, he and colleagues note in the study ??published Sunday in Nature Geoscience?? that the natural factors that drove the Earth's long-term cooling are still present today, despite the fact that we are in a period of rising global temperatures.

The "hockey stick"
The record is consistent with other recent temperature reconstructions that show the reversal in long-term cooling coinciding with the acceleration of greenhouse gas emissions from human activity during the industrial revolution at the end of the 19th century.

Gerald North, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told NBC News in an email that the new study seems to fit the emerging consensus of a gradual cooling of the past 1,000 to 2,000 years followed by "an abrupt warming since 1900."

"Each year we have more evidence corroborating these same findings," he said. "It is 15 years since the first paper ... known as the 'hockey stick' paper. We have no credible evidence that they got it wrong."

The researcher behind the iconic 1999?"hockey stick" graph,?Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann,?was not part of the new study, but he told NBC News in an emailed statement that the work of McKay and his team "adds to the growing body of scientific evidence that the recent warming is likely unprecedented even further back in time."

Mann added, "While the study doesn't attribute causality to the warming, there is an extensive body of research that shows that we can only explain the anomalous recent warming with human impacts, i.e. burning of fossil fuels and resulting increase in greenhouse gas concentrations."

Regional temperature variations
One distinguishing feature of the new study, noted McKay, is that it highlights variability in temperature around the globe at any one time. For example, a rise in temperatures known as the Medieval Warm Period followed by cooling during the Little Ice Age was pronounced in Europe and North America, less so in the Southern Hemisphere, he said.

While the paper isn't the first to look at regional climate reconstructions, it is the first so well organized, noted David Anderson, a paleoclimatologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Climatic Data Center. And, collectively, the regions show the end to the cooling trend on a global scale. "It is truly no debate," he told NBC News.

The ability to see the regional variability in response to forces on the global climate ? from human burning of fossil fuels to volcanic eruptions ? will be increasingly important as humans try to mitigate and adapt to future climate change, McKay added.

John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, visit his website.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2b093e55/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A40C220C178647350Eglobal0Ewarming0Estudy0Esuggests0Ehuman0Ecauses0Edating0Eback0Eto0E180A0As0Dlite/story01.htm

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3 Doors Down cancels 4 shows following fatal crash

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? The rock band 3 Doors Down has called off four U.S. appearances following the arrest of the group's bassist, who was accused of driving intoxicated and causing a fatal interstate crash in a Nashville suburb.

The band announced Monday that out of respect for the victim, 47-year-old Paul Howard Shoulders Jr., it was canceling four appearances in the U.S. originally set for April and May.

The cancellations include shows scheduled in Bossier City, La., Nashville, and at two music festivals, Rockville in Jacksonville, Fla., and Carolina Rebellion in Charlotte. The tour will resume May 31 in Moscow and return to the U.S. in July.

Bassist Robert Todd Harrell remained jailed Monday in lieu of $100,000 bail. He awaits a scheduled court appearance Thursday, but court records do not indicate that he had retained a lawyer. He is facing multiple charges, including vehicular homicide by intoxication, violation of the implied consent law, contraband, and two counts of possession of a controlled substance.

Police said the 41-year-old musician was driving under the influence and speeding Friday night on an interstate in a when his car clipped a pickup truck. The pickup lost control, smashed into a guardrail and went down an embankment and overturned, the police statement added. The pickup driver, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was ejected.

Shoulders, the other driver, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.

The band's publicist said in a statement that 3 Doors Down cancelled the four upcoming dates out of respect for Shoulders and his family. The statement didn't give specifics of the dates being canceled.

A neighbor of the victim's family described Shoulders as a good man and a mechanic who helped teach young men in his Nashville neighborhood how to work on cars, adding he tried to steer them from the streets.

"He was always helping these boys in the neighborhood with their cars and different things," Edwin Fulcher said. "He was trying to keep them off drugs, keep them busy."

"It really hurt me to think that such a nice fellow like him got killed because he was such an attribute to the community," Fulcher added.

Police said Harrell showed signs of being impaired during field sobriety tests after the crash. A statement issued by Nashville police said that Harrell acknowledged drinking hard cider and taking the prescription drugs Lortab and Xanax.

The musician is also accused of bringing controlled substances into the jail. Authorities say they discovered a plastic bag concealed in his sock that contained eight Xanax pills, 24 Oxycodone pills and four Oxymorphone pills while they were in the process of booking him in the jail.

After the crash, 3 Doors Down released a statement on its website offering condolences to Shoulders' family.

The band, which formed in the '90s in Mississippi, is known for such hits as "Away from the Sun" and "Kryptonite."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-22-3%20Doors%20Down%20Bassist/id-f5bc2faf648b439584bd57cf8f4dc088

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