Ohio air show resumes after stuntwoman, pilot die

CINCINNATI (AP) ? Spectators have returned to an air show in southwestern Ohio a day after a pilot and wing walker were killed in a horrifying crash that was captured on video.

Gates at the Vectren Air Show near Dayton opened Sunday morning, with the day's events set to begin with a moment of silence to honor pilot Charlie Schwenker and wing walker Jane Wicker.

The two were killed Saturday when the plane crashed suddenly in front of spectators who screamed in shock as the aircraft quickly was engulfed in flames. No one else was hurt.

The show was canceled for the rest of the day but reopened Sunday.

The cause of the crash is unclear and the conclusion of an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board likely will take months.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-air-show-resumes-stuntwoman-pilot-die-131204772.html

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Access Hollywood section

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Source: http://www.today.com/id/7358550/ns/today-entertainment/

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Square roots? Scientists say plants are good at math

LONDON (Reuters) - Plants do complex arithmetic calculations to make sure they have enough food to get them through the night, new research published in journal eLife shows.

Scientists at Britain's John Innes Centre said plants adjust their rate of starch consumption to prevent starvation during the night when they are unable to feed themselves with energy from the sun.

They can even compensate for an unexpected early night.

"This is the first concrete example in a fundamental biological process of such a sophisticated arithmetic calculation," mathematical modeler Martin Howard of John Innes Centre (JIC) said.

During the night, mechanisms inside the leaf measure the size of the starch store and estimate the length of time until dawn. Information about time comes from an internal clock, similar to the human body clock.

"The capacity to perform arithmetic calculation is vital for plant growth and productivity," JIC metabolic biologist Alison Smith said.

"Understanding how plants continue to grow in the dark could help unlock new ways to boost crop yield."

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; editing by Keiron Henderson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/square-roots-scientists-plants-good-math-040924317.html

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Why closely related species do not eat the same things

June 21, 2013 ? Closely related species consume the same resources less often than more remotely related species. In fact, it is the competition for resources, and not their kinship, which determines the food sources of the species of a community. Under the effect of this competition, closely related species have specialized on different food resources. This is the conclusion of a study carried out by researchers from CNRS, the Mus?um National d'Histoire Naturelle and Exeter University (United Kingdom). These results were obtained by studying trophic interactions between species at an extraordinary level of detail in an English meadow.

Published on 20 June 2013 in the journal Current Biology, the work provides important insights into the evolution of ecological communities at a time when certain are being disrupted by climate change and the arrival of invasive species.

In ecology, the present paradigm considers that kinship relations between species determine the identity of the partners with which the species interact: the more closely related the species, the more chance they have of interacting with the same partners. Thus, according to this view, two closely related species should share the same predators and the same preys. Recent work carried out by a team of researchers from CNRS, the Mus?um National d'Histoire Naturelle and Exeter University shows that this is not necessarily the case. For the first time, the scientists have shown that although kinship between species effectively determines what feeds on species, it is competition for resources and not degree of kinship that determines what species feed on.

To arrive at this conclusion, they made a series of observations over a ten-year period in a meadow in the south east of England. These observations, carried out at an extraordinary level of detail, made it possible to establish the interactions between one hundred or so species situated on four trophic levels: plants (23 species), aphids that feed on these plants (25 species), wasps that lay their eggs in the bodies of the aphids (22 species), and other wasps that lay their eggs in the larvae of the preceding wasps inside aphids (26 species).

The researchers have shown that two closely related species of aphid, for example, are generally the prey of the same species of wasp. It is thus the kinship of species that determines the identity of their predators. On the other hand, these two closely related species of aphid do not necessarily feed on the same plants. Going up the food chain, the scientists observed that there was little chance that the most closely related wasps feed on the same species of aphid. This is explained by the fact that under the pressure of competition for food sources, closely related species diversify what they feed on, which has the effect of reducing competition. It was possible to reach this conclusion thanks to the level of detail of the observations made, enabling dynamics to be revealed at a very local scale.

At a time when global warming is creating an imbalance in communities and when numerous species are invading ecosystems to which they were previously alien, these conclusions need to be taken into account if it is wished to predict the new interactions that will result from such changes. In fact, these results show that the resources consumed by a species joining a community cannot be predicted by its kinship relations with those species already present.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/yZyIR8b4HWQ/130621104336.htm

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Obama nominates James Comey to head FBI

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Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653381/s/2da105ed/l/0Lvideo0Bmsnbc0Bmsn0N0Cid0C52279165/story01.htm

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Human brain mapped in 3-D with high resolution

?BigBrain? model, the most detailed atlas yet, could improve brain scanning tools and neurosurgeons? navigation

?BigBrain? model, the most detailed atlas yet, could improve brain scanning tools and neurosurgeons? navigation

By Meghan Rosen

Web edition: June 20, 2013

Enlarge

A BIG BRAIN PROJECT

By slicing a brain into ultrathin sheets and digitally pasting them together, researchers have created the first 3-D high-resolution map of the human brain.

Credit: Courtesy of Amunts, Zilles, Evans et al

A new 3-D map of the brain is the best thing since sliced cold cuts, at least to some neuroscientists.

?It?s a remarkable tour-de-force to reconstruct an entire human brain with such accuracy,? says David Van Essen, a neuroscientist at Washington University in St. Louis.

Using a high-tech deli slicer and about 100,000 computer processors, researchers shaved a human brain into thousands of thin slivers and then digitally glued them together. The result is the most detailed brain atlas ever published. Dubbed BigBrain, the digital model has a resolution 50 times greater in each of the three spatial dimensions than currently available maps, researchers report in the June 21 Science.

The difference is like zooming from a satellite view of a city down to the street level, says coauthor Alan Evans, a neuroimaging scientist at McGill University in Montreal.

BigBrain allows researchers to navigate the landscape of the human cortex, the rugged outer layer of the brain. And unlike previous maps, the tool also lets scientists burrow beneath the surface, tunnel through the brain?s hemispheres and step slice-by-slice through high-res structural data.

Around 100 years ago, neuroscientists relied on thick slabs of brain tissue to crudely chart out neural regions. More recently, imaging tools such as MRI have let researchers take a more detailed look. But even the very best MRI maps are still a little fuzzy, says Hanchuan Peng, a computational biologist at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle.

In 2010, a team of Chinese researchers constructed a digital map of the mouse brain using techniques similar to the ones that produced BigBrain. But until now, no one had done it in humans. Because the human brain is thousands of times bigger than the mouse brain, Evans and colleagues had to massively scale up slicing and computing methods. First, Katrin Amunts and colleagues at the J?lich Research Center in Germany carved the donated brain of a 65-year-old woman into 7,404 ultrathin sheets, each about the thickness of plastic wrap.

Next, researchers stained the sheets to boost contrast, took pictures of each sheet with a flatbed scanner, and then harnessed the processing power from seven supercomputing facilities across Canada to digitally stitch together the images. In all, the researchers analyzed about one terabyte, or 1,000 gigabytes, of image data. That?s about the same amount of data as 250,000 MP3 songs.

?Your laptop would choke if it tried to run a typical image-processing program to look at this dataset,? Evans says.

His team designed a software program that lets researchers dig into BigBrain?s data. Users will be able to pick up the brain, rotate it in any direction and cut through any plane they want. ?It?s like a video game,? he says.

?Evans hopes BigBrain will provide a digital scaffold for other researchers to layer on different kinds of brain data. Scientists could stack on information about chemical concentrations or electrophysical signals, just as climate and traffic data can be layered onto a geographical map.

The 3-D map could also help researchers interpret data from lower-resolution brain-scanning techniques such as MRI and PET, study coauthor Karl Zilles of the J?lich Research Center said during a press briefing June 19. Overlaying images from these scans onto BigBrain might give neuroimagers a better idea of where exactly damaged tissue lies in diseased brains.

And neurosurgeons might use BigBrain to guide placement of electrodes during deep-brain stimulation for Alzheimer?s or Parkinson?s diseases, he said.

Though all human brains have largely similar architecture, Evans says, every person has subtle shape variations. As a result, he?d like to make maps of more brains for comparison.

Now that the teams have ironed out BigBrain?s technical kinks, the researchers think they can compile a second brain?s map in about a year. ?The computational tools are all largely in place now,? Evans says.

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/351137/title/Human_brain_mapped_in_3-D_with_high_resolution

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How a Used Bottle Becomes a New Bottle Again

Recycling! It's good for the planet, or something. It's also a very sensible thing to do. But how does the bottle you just drank out of become a new bottle you'll drink out of in the future? No, it's not just refilling the glass. It's a process that involves magnets, soda ash, a 2,700 degree furnace, something called gobs and more.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Mpmm6r_aoeg/how-a-used-bottle-becomes-a-new-bottle-again-514484451

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BlackBerry reportedly still plans to launch 3-4 more BlackBerry 10 phones in 2013

A Canadian couple who recently stumbled upon a 400-year-old skeleton is now saddled with a $5,000 bill, the Star reports. Two weeks ago, Ken Campbell of Sarnia, Ontario, came upon some bones while digging postholes in his backyard. His wife, Nicole Sauve, encouraged him to unearth the rest of the skeleton. Ontario police, who cordoned [...]

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-reportedly-still-plans-launch-3-4-more-181536679.html

Stephanie Rice

Google announces Chromebooks are coming to more retailers around the world

Sure, you can already snag one of those Chromebooks from places such as Amazon, Best Buy and Google's own Play shop. But, starting today, the Mountain View-based company is making various Chrome OS-sporting laptops available at more retailers around the globe -- over 6,600, to be specific. Google says the likes of Walmart and Staples will now have a selection of Chromebooks up for grabs, while Office Depot, Office Max and Fry's are expected to do the same "in the coming months." For those across the pond, you can expect to find some of Google's laptops at Dixon retailers in the UK, as well as Mediamarket, FNAC and Elgiganten stores in the Netherlands, France and Sweden, respectively. All in all, this is definitely a good thing for Google's plan to get its Chromebook machines in as many locations as possible.

Filed under: Laptops, Google

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Source: Google

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/nK8-yaewrkQ/

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Food Network Star Recap: The Chopped Challenge

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/06/food-network-star-recap-the-chopped-challenge/

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Baked Pasta Casserole | citronlimette

This Baked Pasta Casserole ?is hearty, satisfying, and easy to prepare. Always a family favorite. Inexpensive and easy for weeknights.

Add a green salad and some crusty bread for a complete meal.

?

Casseroles are one of America?s most popular comfort foods, they can feed a crowd and be prepared in advance for entertaining.

My secret is to cook the pasta al dente so the pasta retains its texture after baking.

Make a baked pasta?dish recipe that?s sure to satisfy the hunger of friends and family alike. Baked Italian?recipes are great for hearty one-dish dinners or on-the-go casserole for potluck.

The recipe for the marinara sauce makes enough for several meals.

The recipe makes 12 cups. Store in the freezer.

You can also use store-bought marinara sauce.

Adapted from COOKING LIGHT MAGAZINE.

• 6 ounces uncooked whole wheat penne
• 2 cups Basic Marinara, homemade or store-bought
• 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese, divided
• ? cup (1 ounce) shredded parmesan, divided
• ? teaspoon salt
• ? teaspoon hot pepper sauce (such as Tabasco)
• 6 ounces ground turkey breast
• Cooking spray

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cups chopped yellow onion (about 3 medium)
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons dried basil
• 1? teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• ? teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 3 (28-ounce) cans no-salt-added crushed tomatoes

1. Preheat oven to 350?.
2. Cook pasta according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Drain.
3. Combine pasta, Basic Marinara, ? cup mozzarella, 2 tablespoons parmesan, salt, pepper sauce, and turkey in a large bowl. Spoon into an 8-inch square baking dish coated with cooking spray; sprinkle with remaining ? cup mozzarella and remaining 2 tablespoons Asiago. Bake at 350? for 30 minutes or until cheese is lightly browned. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

1. Heat oil in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion to pan; cook 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add sugar and next 6 ingredients (through fennel seeds); cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in vinegar; cook 30 seconds. Add broth and tomatoes; bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat for 55 minutes or until sauce thickens, stirring occasionally.

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Tags: baked pasta, baked penne casserole recipe, casserole, casserole recipe, featured, ground beef, ground turkey, pasta casserole

Category: Main Dishes, Pasta

Source: http://citronlimette.com/recipe_archive/main_dishes/baked-pasta-casserole/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=baked-pasta-casserole

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5 things to know about Iran's presidential vote

Iran holds its presidential election Friday. Here are five things you should know:

THE FIELD

Iran's election overseers allowed eight candidates on the ballot to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again in this election because of term limits. Six candidates remained on the final ballot. Most are solid loyalists to the ruling Islamic theocracy, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Among the main questions: Will pro-reform voters rally behind one of the relative moderate candidates, former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani, or boycott in protest of the relentless crackdowns in recent years?

WHO REALLY RULES

The Iranian president does not have a direct say in major policies such as the country's nuclear program or relations with the West. Those decisions are in the hands of the ruling clerics and its defenders, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. The presidency, however, can help sway views. The president also directs the economy, an increasingly important role as international sanctions bite deeper over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

PURPLE POWER

Rowhani has surged in recent days as reformists, liberals and others helped his campaign gain momentum. Rowhani is backed by prominent reform-minded figures including former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who was denied a spot on the ballot by Iran's election overseers. Rowhani's campaign adopted purple as its signature color.

TIGHT SECURITY

Iran's security forces are on high alert. In 2009, massive protests rocked the country after Ahmadinejad's rivals claimed the outcome was rigged in his favor. There have been no indications of widespread demonstrations this time. Authorities, however, are clamping down on everything from pro-reform gatherings to social media.

OPPOSITION UNDER WRAPS

The leaders of the 2009 protests, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, have been under house arrest since early 2011. Both ran against Ahmadinejad and alleged vote fraud. Mousavi is a former prime minister. Karroubi served as speaker of Iran's parliament.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/5-things-know-irans-presidential-vote-171755252.html

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Saudi edges Qatar to control Syrian rebel support

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has prevailed over its small but ambitious Gulf neighbor Qatar to impose itself as the main outside force supporting the Syrian rebels, a move that may curb the influence of Qatari-backed Islamist militants.

Though governments in neither Riyadh nor Doha would provide official comment, several senior sources in the region told Reuters that the past week's wrangling among Syria's opposition factions in Istanbul was largely a struggle for control between the two Gulf monarchies, in which Saudi power finally won out.

"Saudi Arabia is now formally in charge of the Syria issue," said a senior rebel military commander in one of northern Syria's border provinces where Qatar has until now been the main supplier of arms to those fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

The outcome, many Syrian opposition leaders hope, could strengthen them in both negotiations and on the battlefield - while hampering some of the anti-Western Islamist hardliners in their ranks whom they say Qatar has been helping with weaponry.

Anger at a failure by one such Qatari-backed Islamist unit in a battle in April that gave Syrian government forces control of a key highway helped galvanize the Saudis, sources said, while Qatari and Islamist efforts to control the opposition political body backfired by angering Riyadh and Western powers.

The northern rebel commander said Saudi leaders would no longer let Qatar take the lead but would themselves take over the dominant role in channeling support into Syria.

"The Saudis met leaders of the Free Syrian Army, including officers from the Military Council in Jordan and Turkey, and have agreed that they will be supporting the rebels," he said after attending one of those meetings himself.

Prince Salman bin Sultan, a senior Saudi security official, was now running relations with the Syrian rebels, backed by his elder brother, intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Qatar also gave ground in the political field, accepting finally, late on Thursday, that the National Coalition should add a non-Islamist bloc backed by Saudi Arabia.

"In the end Qatar did not want a confrontation with Saudi Arabia and accepted the expansion," said a source close to the liberals who were allowed to join a body which the United States and European Union want to become a transitional government.

The rebels, whose disunity has been a hindrance both in the field and in maneuvering for a possible international peace conference in the coming weeks, still face a huge task to topple Assad, who has long labeled his enemies Islamist "terrorists" and has his own powerful allies abroad, notably Iran and Russia.

Washington and EU powers have been reluctant to send arms, partly for fear of them reaching anti-Western rebels, including some aligned with al Qaeda. But Britain and France this week ended an EU arms embargo and tighter, Saudi supervision of supply channels could make it easier for London and Paris to start sending weapons if planned peace talks fail.

SAUDI CONTROL

Describing the shift in military supervision, several sources from the political and military leadership of the Syrian opposition and a Saudi source said that anyone, whether a state or among wealthy Arabs who have been making private donations to the rebel cause, would now need the Saudi princes' approval over what is supplied to whom if they wish to send arms into Syria.

Qatari help was still expected. But a division between a Qatari sphere of influence on the northern border with Turkey and a Saudi sphere on the southern, Jordanian border was over.

"The goal is to be effective and avoid arms getting into the wrong hands like before," said a senior Saudi source. "Saudi and Qatar share the same goal. We want to see an end to Bashar's rule and stop the bloodshed of the innocent Syrian people."

Qatar and Saudi Arabia are close allies in many respects: both armed by the United States, as Sunni Muslims they share an interest in thwarting Shi'ite, non-Arab Iran and its Arab allies - Shi'ites in Iraq and Lebanon and Assad's Syrian Alawites. Both also want to preserve the absolute domestic power of the ruling dynasties and Western demand for their vast energy resources.

But their interests diverge, particularly over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups viewed with suspicion by Western powers and in Riyadh. As in Syria, Qatar has delivered extensive financial and other support to Islamists who have risen to prominence in Egypt and Libya as a result of the Arab Spring pro-democracy protests of 2011.

Keen to punch above its weight in the world, independent of its dominant Saudi neighbor, Qatar hosts both a major U.S. air base and influential Islamists exiled from other Arab states; while preserving autocracy at home it has also aided liberals abroad, not least through its Al Jazeera satellite TV channel.

Saudi Arabia, whose king enjoys special status with the Sunni rebels as guardian of the holy city of Mecca, has long been suspicious of the Muslim Brotherhood. In the Cold War, it lent it support as a counterbalance to leftist Arab nationalism which threatened the traditional Gulf monarchies. But the U.S.-allied kingdom now sees political Islam as a graver threat.

Riyadh's view of Syrian Islamist rebels is also influenced to some extent by its experience backing Arabs who flocked to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s; some returned home, like the Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden, to wage a campaign of violence intended to topple the house of Saud.

"FINAL STRAWS"

Two events finally prompted Saudi Arabia and the United States to lose patience with Qatar's Syrian role - one on the battlefield and another among the political opposition in exile.

In mid-April, Assad's troops broke a six-month rebel blockade of the Wadi al-Deif military base on Syria's key north-south highway, after a rebel brigade that was seen as close to Qatar broke ranks - exposing fellow fighters to a government counterattack that led to the deaths of 68 of their number.

A rebel commander, based near Damascus and familiar with the unit which buckled, said its failure had been due to its leaders having preferred using their local power to get rich rather than fighting Assad - a common accusation among the fractious rebels:

"Qatar's bet ... failed especially in the Wadi al-Deif battle. The regime managed to break through them after they became the new local warlords, caring for money and power not the cause," the senior commander told Reuters. That battlefield collapse infuriated Qatar's allies in the anti-Assad alliance.

"The straw that broke the camel's back was the failure to take over Wadi al-Deif camp," the commander said.

In diplomatic struggles, Western nations were angered by the appointment by the opposition in mid-March of Ghassan Hitto as the exiles' prime minister. He was seen by Western diplomats as Qatar's Islamist candidate and Hitto's rejection of talks with Assad's government was seen as a block to negotiating a peace.

For one Western diplomat familiar with deliberations in the Friends of Syria alliance that backs the rebels, choosing Hitto was "the final straw" in galvanizing the Western powers behind the move to rein in Qatar by promoting Saudi leadership.

"They wanted to clip the wings of the Muslim Brotherhood," the Syrian commander from the north said.

For Saudi Arabia and its Western allies, concerned that the fall of Assad might mean a hostile, Islamist state, Qatar's flaw was an enthusiasm for winning the war - as it helped Libyan rebels do in 2011 - without ensuring how any peace might look.

A Syrian rebel military source who has been close to Saudi officials expressed it thus: "Qatar tried to carve out a role for itself. But it did so without wisdom: they had no clear plan or a view of what would happen later. They just want to win."

(Additional reporting Amena Bakr in Doha and Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Istanbul; Editing by Dominic Evans and Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-saudi-edges-qatar-control-syrian-rebel-support-165943953.html

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Acer outs the Iconia A1: 7.9-inch IPS display and built-in 3G, priced at $169 (hands-on)

And the news just keeps on coming. Acer just made yet a third product announcement here at its New York City press event. That would be the Acer Iconia A1 tablet, the same Android tablet leaked by a French retailer a few weeks back. Well, it's official now, and it's going on sale in the US later this month for $169. Spec-wise, it measures 11.1mm thick, runs a 1.2GHz quad-core processor from MediaTek, and is topped off by a 7.9-inch IPS display with 1,024 x 768 resolution (hey, what'd you expect on a budget tablet?). It also has 8 or 16GB of internal storage, as well as built-in 3G, similar to the comparably priced FonePad from ASUS. As for software customizations, you'll find Acer's WakeApp feature which lets you launch into a designated app when you wake the tablet from sleep.

In our brief hands-on, the device felt like you'd expect a $169 tablet to feel: it's made of plastic, and lacks any sort of visual flare, but the back cover at least feels durable, and doesn't seem to pick up many fingerprints (especially in white). The display, too, might be the best part about the device, its low pixel count be damned: the viewing angles are wide enough that you can read the screen with the tablet lying face-up on a table. That's all for now, but we've got some hands-on shots below.

Update: We've amended the post with full (and correct!) specs.

Update #2: Acer's confirmed the 16GB version of the tablet should sell for about $199 in the US. It's expected to ht shelves by the end of the month.

Gallery: Acer Iconia A1 hands-on

Filed under: Tablets, Acer

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/03/acer-iconia-a1-tablet/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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US calls for NKorea amnesty for sentenced American

A South Korean man watches a television news program showing Korean American Kenneth Bae at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Bae detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday ? a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A South Korean man watches a television news program showing Korean American Kenneth Bae at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 2, 2013. Bae detained for six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state, the North's media said Thursday ? a move that could trigger a visit by a high-profile American if history is any guide. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A photo provided by Bobby Lee, shows Kenneth Bae, right, and Bobby Lee together when they were freshmen students at the University of Oregon in 1988. Bae is being detained in North Korea and could face the death penalty if he is convicted on charges that he planned to overthrow the North Korean government. (AP Photo/The Register-Guard, Bobby Lee)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

In this March 20, 2013 photo, a North Korean flag hangs inside the interior of Pyongyang?s Supreme Court. North Korea says it will soon deliver a verdict in the case of detained American Kenneth Bae it accuses of trying to overthrow the government, further complicating already fraught relations between Pyongyang and Washington. The announcement about Bae comes in the middle of a lull after weeks of war threats and other provocative acts by North Korea against the U.S. and South Korea. Bae, identified in North Korean state media by his Korean name, Pae Jun Ho, is a tour operator of Korean descent who was arrested after arriving with a tour on Nov. 3 in Rason, a special economic zone bordering China and Russia. (AP Photo)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The U.S. called Thursday for North Korea to grant amnesty and immediately release a Korean-American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor for "hostile acts" against the state.

Kenneth Bae, 44, a Washington state man described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

Analysts say Bae's sentencing could be an effort by Pyongyang to win diplomatic concessions in the ongoing standoff over its nuclear program. But there was no immediate sign a high-profile envoy was about to make a clemency mission to the isolated nation which has taken an increasingly confrontational stance under its young leader Kim Jong Un.

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. was still seeking to learn the facts of Bae's case. He said the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which handles consular matters there for the U.S., did not attend Tuesday's Supreme Court trial and that there hasn't been transparency in the legal proceedings.

"There's no greater priority for us than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad, and we urge the DPRK authorities to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release," Ventrell told a news conference, referencing the socialist country's formal title, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

North Korea has faced increasing international criticism over its weapons development. Six-nation disarmament talks involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington. Tensions have escalated since it conducted its third nuclear test since 2006 in February.

Pyongyang's tone has softened somewhat recently, following weeks of violent rhetoric, including threats of nuclear war and missile strikes. There have been tentative signs of interest in diplomacy, and a major source of North Korean outrage ? annual U.S.-South Korean military drills ? ended Tuesday.

Patrick Cronin, a senior analyst with the Washington-based Center for a New American Security, called Bae's conviction "a hasty gambit to force a direct dialogue with the United States."

"While Washington will do everything possible to spare an innocent American from years of hard labor, U.S. officials are aware that in all likelihood the North Korean regime wants a meeting to demonstrate that the United States in effect confers legitimacy on the North's nuclear-weapon-state status," Cronin said in an email.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Mexico that if North Korea is interested in discussion, they should live up to their obligations under the six-party talks.

"Thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric that brings them no closer to a situation where they can improve the lot of the North Korean people or re-enter the community of nations," Carney said.

The state-run Korean Central News Agency announcement of Bae's sentencing came just days after it reported Saturday that authorities would soon indict and try him. It referred to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name. The State Department had appealed Monday for his release on humanitarian grounds.

Bae, from Lynnwood, Wash., was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae's alleged crimes has not been revealed.

"Kenneth Bae had no access to a lawyer. It is not even known what he was charged with," the human rights group Amnesty International said in a statement. "Kenneth Bae should be released, unless he is charged with an internationally recognizable criminal offense and retried by a competent, independent and impartial court."

Ventrell said the Swedish embassy's most recent access to Bae was last Friday. It has only had a handful of brief opportunities to see him since he was arrested in early November, according to U.S. officials.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans. Bae's mother in the United States did not answer calls seeking comment Thursday.

There are parallels to a case in 2009. After Pyongyang's launch of a long-range rocket and its second underground nuclear test that year, two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after sneaking across the border from China.

They later were pardoned on humanitarian grounds and released to Clinton, who met with then-leader Kim Jong Il. U.S.-North Korea talks came later that year.

In 2011, Carter visited North Korea to win the release of imprisoned American Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labor for crossing illegally into the North from China.

On Thursday, Carter's press secretary, Deanna Congileo, said by email that the former president has not had an invitation to visit North Korea and has no plans to visit.

Korean-American Eddie Jun was released in 2011 after Robert King, the U.S. envoy on North Korean human rights, traveled to Pyongyang. Jun had been detained for half a year over an unspecified crime.

Jun and Gomes are also devout Christians. While the North Korean Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, in practice only sanctioned services are tolerated by the government.

U.N. and U.S. officials accuse North Korea of treating opponents brutally. Foreign nationals have told varying stories about their detentions in North Korea.

The two journalists sentenced to hard labor in 2009 stayed in a guest house instead of a labor camp due to medical concerns.

Ali Lameda, a member of Venezuela's Communist Party and a poet invited to the North in 1966 to work as a Spanish translator, said that he was detained in a damp, filthy cell without trial the following year after facing espionage allegations that he denied. He later spent six years in prison after a one-day trial, he said.

___

Kim reported from Seoul. Associated Press writers Lou Kesten and Nedra Pickler in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-02-US-NKorea-American-Detained/id-b58ec65081db4a9aac2a59bad78dff28

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Vt. woman disfigured in attack reveals new face

BOSTON (AP) ? A Vermont woman revealed her new face Wednesday, six years after her ex-husband disfigured her by dousing her with industrial-strength lye, and said she went through "what some may call hell" but has found a way to be happy.

Carmen Blandin Tarleton of Thetford had face transplant surgery at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital in February and spoke publicly for the first time at a news conference at the hospital Wednesday.

"I'm now in a better place, mentally and emotionally, than I ever could have imagined six years ago," said Tarleton, a former transplant nurse. "I want to share my experience with others, so they may find that strength inside themselves to escape their own pain."

In 2007, the 44-year-old mother of two was attacked by her then-husband, Herbert Rodgers, who believed she was seeing another man. Police say he went to the house looking for that man, then went into a fury directed toward Tarleton, striking her with a bat and pouring lye from a squeeze bottle onto her face.

When police arrived, Tarleton was trying to crawl to a shower to wash away the chemical. It already had distorted her face.

In 2009, Rodgers pleaded guilty to maiming Tarleton in exchange for a prison sentence of at least 30 years.

"I learned that ... forgiveness doesn't condone anything he did and it's not about him ? it's about forgiving him, it's forgiving myself, it's allowing myself to move forward and not getting stuck in the tragedy of that night," said Tarleton, who has undergone 55 surgeries during the past five years.

During the face transplant surgery, more than 30 surgeons, anesthesiologists and nurses worked for more than 15 hours to replace her skin, muscles, tendons and nerves, the hospital said.

The face donor was a Williamstown, Mass., woman named Cheryl Denelli Righter who died of a sudden stroke, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Righter's daughter, Marinda, told Tarleton on Wednesday that she looked beautiful, adding she was certain her mother had somehow picked Tarleton. "They are both mothers, they are both survivors, they are both beacons of light," she said.

Righter said that after meeting Tarleton for the first time Tuesday, she felt overjoyed for the first time in a long time.

"I get to feel my mother's skin again, I get to see my mother's freckles, and through you, I get to see my mother live on," she said before going to Tarleton to hug and kiss her again. "This is truly a blessing."

Tarleton is legally blind and read her remarks from a tablet. She thanked Righter's family for what she called "a tremendous gift" that's greatly alleviated the physical pain she'd felt daily.

She referred to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing and said the city is "facing the challenges of pain and forgiveness."

"There is a lot to learn and take from horrific events that happen," Tarleton said. "I want others to know that they need not give up on feeling (like) themselves when tragedy strikes, but instead they can make a choice to find the good and allow that to help them heal."

Tarleton described how it feels to touch and wash her face since her transplant.

She said she still doesn't have full sensation on her new face, but she is experiencing tingling in certain areas. As all that tissue starts to settle, she feels the sensation change almost every week, she said.

The tingling and other sensations are triggered by the regrowth of nerves that were connected during transplant surgery, said Dr. Bohdan Pomahac, the lead surgeon for the face transplant and the director of Plastic Surgery Transplantation at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

"Carmen will be able to feel her face, and gradually, close to what we feel (on) our faces," he said.

"I have been on this incredible journey for the last six years and receiving this wonderful gift ends this chapter of my life," Tarleton said. "What a great way to move forward with what life has for me now."

___

Associated Press Writer Jay Lindsay contributed to this report.

___

Rodrique Ngowi can be reached at www.twitter.com/ngowi

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/vt-woman-disfigured-attack-reveals-face-160657366.html

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Rubio seeks to boost border language in new bill

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio says a new immigration bill he helped write needs stronger border security provisions or it will fail in the House and may even have trouble getting through the Senate.

Rubio, who is the chief emissary to conservatives on the contentious legislation, said in a radio interview and in an opinion piece being published in Friday's Wall Street Journal that he's been hearing concerns in recent days that more work is needed to boost the bill's language on the border and he said he's committed to trying to make those changes.

In his Wall Street Journal piece, Rubio cited "triggers" in the bill that aim to make new citizenship provisions contingent on border security accomplishments. Critics say those provisions are too weak, because in some cases the Homeland Security secretary is tasked with undertaking studies ? but not with delivering results ? before millions in the U.S. illegally can obtain legal status.

Rubio also mentioned revisiting "waivers" in the bill that give federal officials discretion in applying the law, another flashpoint for conservative critics; concerns about the bill's cost; and the possibility of making legalization provisions for immigrants already here "tougher, yet still realistic." He didn't offer details.

"Clearly what we have in there now is not good enough for too many people and so we've got to make it better. And that's what I'm asking for and that's what we're working on," Rubio said separately this week in an interview with "The Sean Hannity Show" radio program.

"This bill will not pass the House and, quite frankly, I think, may struggle to pass the Senate if it doesn't deal with that issue, so we've got some work to do on that front," he said.

Rubio's comments came during Congress' one-week recess. Back home, lawmakers are hearing feedback about the 844-page bill. Rubio and seven Democratic and Republican senators ? the so-called Gang of Eight ? introduced the legislation April 17. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin voting on it next week.

In addition to improving border security, the bill would create new visa programs to bring many more foreign workers into the U.S., require employers to check their workers' legal status, and create a new pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living here illegally.

The bill faces a tough road in the Democratic-led Senate and an even tougher one in the GOP-controlled House, and some supporters say it will only be successful if Republicans believe it does enough on the border.

The bill allocates $5.5 billion for border measures aimed at achieving 100 percent surveillance of the entire border and blocking 90 percent of border crossers and would-be crossers in high-entrance areas.

The Homeland Security Department would have six months to create a new border security plan to achieve the 90 percent effectiveness rate. Also within six months, the department would have to create a plan to identify where new fencing is needed. Once that happens, people living here illegally could begin to apply for a provisional legal status.

If the 90 percent rate isn't achieved within five years, a commission made of border state officials would make recommendations on how to do it.

After 10 years, people with provisional legal status could apply for permanent residency if the new security and fencing plans are operating, a new mandatory employment verification system is in place, and a new electronic exit system is tracking who leaves the country.

Critics say these triggers don't do enough.

"The triggers aren't triggers at all," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in a statement. "The day the bill passes, there will be an effective amnesty for the vast majority of illegal immigrants ? abandoning the Gang of Eight's public promise of enforcement first."

But changes aimed at strengthening the border security provisions could cause heartburn among Democrats. Advocates and the Obama administration have been reluctant to see citizenship made contingent on border security. Immigrants here illegally already face a 13-year path to citizenship under the bill ? which Rubio said actually could stretch to as many as 20 years for some, given how long it takes to undertake certain steps ? and anything that could make it more onerous raises concerns with supporters on the left.

The border security agreement is "a very fragile and delicately worded part of the bill," said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the liberal Center for American Progress. "To me it really goes to the fundamental question of workability."

Border security is just one issue that's likely to provoke a fight. There's also a brewing dispute over whether the bill should recognize gay unions so that gays could sponsor their partners to come to the U.S. Gay groups are pushing for an amendment in the Judiciary Committee to allow that, but Rubio and other Republicans have made clear it would cost their support.

White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about the gay immigration issue on Air Force One en route to Mexico City on Thursday. "We have said that we support that provision, but we also think it's very important to recognize that the overall bill here accomplishes what the president believes needs to be accomplished," Carney said.

___

Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rubio-seeks-boost-border-language-bill-192343126.html

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Apple expands SSD options for configure-to-order iMacs

If you're in the market for a new iMac and you value raw speed over storage capacity, you may be interested in a recent change at Apple's online store. Apple is offering new storage options for iMac buyers interested in configuring their systems with Solid State Drives (SSDs), according to Eric Slivka at MacRumors. Now Apple will configure 21.5-inch and 27-inch iMacs with 256GB and 512GB SSDs. You'll add $300 or $600 to the cost of your machine, respectively.

This is particularly good news for 21.5-inch iMac customers, who up until now have been limited to two choices: either a 1TB SATA hard disk drive, or a 1TB "Fusion" drive that mixes 128GB of SSD storage and a conventional hard disk together to improve performance. Going pure SSD should speed things up even further.

Apple continues to offer a 768GB SSD as a $900 option on the 27-inch iMac, but the other two SSD sizes allow users with tighter purse strings to jump on the SSD bandwagon without paying such a heavy premium.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/j2wCgpZrLFY/story01.htm

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Jon Bon Jovi to watch signing of NJ's overdose law

FILE - Musician Jon Bon Jovi performs at a campaign event for President Barack Obama at the Waldorf Astoria, in this June 4, 2012 file photo taken in New York. Bon Jovi is slated to be on hand when Gov. Chris Christie signs New Jersey's drug overdose prevention bill into law Thursday May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

FILE - Musician Jon Bon Jovi performs at a campaign event for President Barack Obama at the Waldorf Astoria, in this June 4, 2012 file photo taken in New York. Bon Jovi is slated to be on hand when Gov. Chris Christie signs New Jersey's drug overdose prevention bill into law Thursday May 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

PATERSON, N.J. (AP) ? Jon Bon Jovi is slated to be on hand when Gov. Chris Christie signs New Jersey's drug overdose prevention bill into law Thursday.

The measure shields someone overdosing on drugs and those who get them medical assistance from prosecution if they act in good faith.

The issue hits close to home for Bon Jovi. The rocker's daughter apparently overdosed on heroin in a New York college dorm room last year.

A district attorney dropped drug charges against Stephanie Bongiovi and another student under New York's so-called Good Samaritan 911 law that was designed to reduce overdose deaths by encouraging people to call 911 without fear of being arrested for drug possession.

New Jersey lawmakers had reached a compromise with Christie, who had conditionally vetoed the legislation to limit its scope.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-05-02-Overdose%20Samaritan-Jon%20Bon%20Jovi/id-93ff479b073a4e6f8e821670038b02f8

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Currency for iPhone review: Convert between currencies on the go

Currency is a super simple, yet beautiful, currency converter for the iPhone. It features a clean design and historical charts. If you're an avid traveler or have financial interest in other currencies, Currency may be an excellent app to add to your collection.

When I say Currency is simple, I mean it. The main screen is a list of all the currencies you're interested with the primary currency at the top. So if you have 400 USD set for the main currency, the equivalent amounts for the other selected countries will be displayed below. Swiping the main amount to the right will reset the amount back to zero; sliding to the left will go back to your previous amount.

When you tap on the main amount, the keyboard will slide up from the bottom of the screen, or you can manually slide it up yourself. Swiping the keyboard to the left will review the historical data over the past six months for your #2 currency. Ordering your currencies how you want is a bit of chore, however, because they appear in the order tapped. So you if you want USD followed by CAD, then you need to tap CAD to bring it to the top, followed by USD to push CAD down to the second spot.

The good

• Beautiful design
• 160+ currencies
• Offline Mode
• Always up to date
• Simple gesture interface
• Live historical charts

The bad

• No decimals
• Can't reorder currency list
• Not a fan of the fact that the keyboard is never completely hidden (top row is always visible)

The bottom line

Although it can benefit from a few more features, especially decimals and the ability to reorder the list, Currency is a beautiful currency converter and I appreciate its simplicity. There's a lot of potential in this little app.

• $1.99 - Download now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/LitWPdl6Dgk/story01.htm

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