Getting a good night's sleep is a nightmare for many Americans

June 29, 2013 ? Summer means more hours of daylight and for many, it contributes to trouble falling asleep. More than 40 million Americans suffer from chronic sleep disorders, resulting in $18 billion in cost to employers due to sleep loss issues."The inability to get a good night's sleep can be a complex issue, and is not as simple to cure as telling people to count sheep," says John Wilson, MD, neurologist at Gottlieb Memorial Hospital, part of Loyola University Health System. Wilson regularly works with the sleep lab to diagnose patients with chronic sleep issues.

Omar Hussain, DO, pulmonologist at Gottlieb who is board certified in sleep medicine says, "Many societal trends such as working from home or swing shift workers have economic-based lifestyles that prevent regular sleep patterns." Obesity, which was recently declared a disease by the American Medical Association, also has a direct link to poor sleep, says Ashley Barrient, RD, who counsels patients at the Loyola Center for Metabolic Surgery and Bariatric Care. One-third of all Americans are overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Here are some healthful tips from Loyola medical experts Wilson, Hussain and Barrient on how to get a better night's sleep.

Do this:

Relax. "At least one hour before bedtime, start quieting down and relaxing. Don't exercise or engage in vigorous acitvities," says Wilson.

Turn off the handheld devices. "The need to text and email is a real problem for many when it comes to sleep," says Hussain. "Turn the electronic device off and put it in another room. That way, if you wake up in the middle of the night, you don't automatically reach for the phone but instead turn over and fall back asleep."

Read a magazine. "Lighter content and shorter articles are ideal," says Wilson. "Many like entertainment and celebrity-focused magazines as quick bedtime reads."

Darken the room. "Close the curtains or blinds; darkness is conducive to sleep," says Wilson

Diminish noise. "Use a sound machine to create white noise or experiment with soothing noises such as rain or the lap of waves," says Hussain.

Create a comfortable environment. "A consistent room temperature, bedding and mattress and even sleepwear should all be appropriate to the season and comfortable," says Hussain.

Go to the bathroom. "Waking up to use the bathroom is a complaint of many," says Wilson. "Do not eat or drink several hours before bed to avoid sleep interruptions from toileting."

Check medications. "Some people who take medications before bed may do better to take them in the morning when they wake up or vice versa," says Wilson. "Talk to your physician about changing your pill dosing schedule."

Write it down. "Jot down worries, future errands or simply what is on your mind before bed," said Barrient. "This helps to allay anxieties, organize thoughts and prepare for sleep."

Have a regular routine. "Try and go to bed at the same time every night to buiid routine and consistency," says Wilson.

Limit animals. "Pets may be comforting and companionable, but if they move in the night and make noise, they disturb sleep," says Wilson.

Partner with your partner. "Talk to those you live with and share your strategies," says Hussain. "You need to get the cooperation of those in the entire household to be successful."

Reserve the bedroom. "Train the body and mind to associate the bedroom with relaxation and sleep, not watching TV, playing games or exercising," says Wilson.

Stick with the new routine. "You may not change sleeping patterns overnight so give it a few weeks to acclimate your mind and body and establish the new habits," says Barrient.

Don't do this: Eat two hours or less before bed."If you bave to have something, try a small cup of hot chamomile or other decaffeinated tea," says Barrient.

Have an alcoholic drink. "Alcohol does induce sleep but it is not restorative sleep," says Wilson.

Watch TV or play electronic games before bed. "And don't turn them on if you awaken in the middle of the night," advises Hussain.

Many people with sleeping disorders undergo sleep studies and are diagnosed with chronic sleep apnea. Medical devices such as a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine pumps oxygen into the passages by way of a mask to keep the airway open. "Often it is the partner of the person with sleeping troubles who cannot stand the snoring or the irritability and issues an ultimatum for the person to get help," says Wilson. "When one person has a chronic sleep disorder, the whole family suffers."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/living_well/~3/rQLxerZQNkU/130629164630.htm

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New iron catalyst promises green future for hydrogenation

June 27, 2013 ? A new iron nanoparticle catalyst developed by researchers in Japan and Canada promises to drastically improve the efficiency of hydrogenation, a key chemical process used in a wide array of industrial applications. Cleaner, safer and cheaper than traditional rare metal-based catalysts, the new, more environmentally friendly technique marks a breakthrough for the emerging field of green chemistry.

Hydrogenation, the reaction of molecular hydrogen with another compound or element, is one of the world's most highly studied chemical reactions, with industrial applications ranging from petrochemistry, to food production, to pharmaceuticals.

Most such applications of hydrogenation use rare metal catalysts such as palladium or platinum to speed up chemical reactions. While highly efficient, these metals are expensive and limited in supply, posing environmental and economic challenges.

To get around these problems, researchers at McGill University, the RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science and the Institute for Molecular Science developed their new technique using iron, a much less expensive and far more abundant element. Iron has been ruled out in the past due to the fact that it rusts in the presence of oxygen and water, negating its catalytic effect.

The new technique, described in a paper published in the journal Green Chemistry, produces iron nanoparticles directly inside a polymer matrix, which protects the iron surface from rusting while allowing the reactants to reach it and react. The resulting system of polymer-stabilized iron nanoparticles in water is the first of its kind: a safe, cheap and environmentally friendly catalyst system for hydrogenation reactions.

"Our aim is to develop iron-based catalysts not only for hydrogenation but also a variety of organic transformations that can be used in future industrial applications," explains RIKEN researcher Dr. Yoichi M. A. Yamada, one of the authors of the paper. "If rare metal-based catalysts can be replaced by iron-based ones, then we can overcome our costly and dangerous dependency on rare metals."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/matter_energy/biochemistry/~3/imYeAQLJTtE/130627083032.htm

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Texas abortion bill falls after challenge

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) ? Texas' lieutenant governor has acknowledged that Republicans missed their deadline to pass new abortion restrictions after protesters screamed down lawmakers as the final 15 minutes passed before the special legislative session's deadline.

Senators from both parties emerged from a private meeting with Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and said they were about to officially acknowledge that fact.

Immediately following the vote, Republicans insisted they had started voting before the midnight deadline and passed the bill that Democrats spent much of Tuesday filibustering. But after official computer records and printouts of the voting record showed the vote took place Wednesday, and then were changed to read Tuesday, the senators convened for a private meeting.

More than 400 protesters erupted at 11:45 p.m. when Republicans suspended an 11-hour filibuster staged by Sen. Wendy Davis, D-Fort Worth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-abortion-bill-falls-challenge-080130212.html

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Woman asked to prove she?s female to get driver?s license

A 37-year-old Georgia woman whose birth certificate mistakenly labeled her as male had to jump through some major hoops to get her driver's license renewed.

Fox 5 Atlanta spoke with Nakia Grimes of Clayton County about her odyssey to get the typo cleared up. Grimes said she never really had occasion to look closely at her birth certificate, so she never noticed the mistake.

"You only look at the name, the date and the year," Grimes told Fox 5. "I've never seen that."

The woman working at Georgia's Department of Driver Services did notice and came to Grimes with an unusual request. "She said I needed to go have a PAP exam, have a doctor write a note verifying you're a woman and bring it back notarized," Grimes explained to Fox 5. That was something Grimes said she was unwilling to do. Instead she reached out to the station for help.

A reporter from Fox 5 spoke to Georgia's Vital Records department on Grimes' behalf. The director of the agency said she would look into the incident.

The matter was cleared up once state authorities examined the birth certificate of Grimes' son. The document listed Grimes as the mother, which cleared up any confusion about whether or not she was really female.

Earlier this year, a computer glitch at Pennsylvania's Division of Vital Records resulted in about 500 birth certificates listing the wrong fathers.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/woman-asked-prove-she-female-driver-license-165135691.html

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Drayson Racing sets electric land speed record at 204.2MPH (video)

Nissan's ZEOD RC may sound fast at 186MPH, but it's a slow poke next to Drayson Racing's B12/69EV. The modified Le Mans car just broke the FIA's land speed record, hitting 204.2MPH on a course at the former RAF Elvington base in Yorkshire. While Drayson is quick to admit that the 850HP racer is unusual, it sees the project as groundwork for both a 2015 Formula E car and technologies that could filter down to regular vehicles. The speed record also gives electric racing more credibility at a crucial moment -- when EVs are just starting to rival gas-powered counterparts on the track, any leap in performance can help.

Filed under: Transportation

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Via: Pocket-lint

Source: BBC, Drayson Racing Technologies

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/0fAu8xfmp1U/

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Dems move past Scott Brown ghost with Mass. win

Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, with wife Dr. Susan Blumenthal, celebrates his victory in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate at his campaign party Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Boston. Markey defeated Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, with wife Dr. Susan Blumenthal, celebrates his victory in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate at his campaign party Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Boston. Markey defeated Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, with wife Dr. Susan Blumenthal, celebrates his victory in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate at his campaign party Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Boston. Markey defeated Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez for the Senate seat vacated by John Kerry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Gabriel Gomez, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in the Massachusetts open seat special election, pauses while addressing supporters during an election day party in Boston, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Gomez lost his bid against Democrat U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, who won the election and will take the seat vacated by John Kerry's departure to become Secretary of State. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey speaks to supporters at his campaign party Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Boston. Markey defeated Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

Democratic U.S. Rep. Edward Markey, with wife Dr. Susan Blumenthal, takes the stage to celebrate his victory in the Massachusetts special election for the U.S. Senate at his campaign party Tuesday, June 25, 2013, in Boston. Markey defeated Republican candidate Gabriel Gomez for the Senate seat vacated by Secretary of State John Kerry. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

BOSTON (AP) ? Drawing on the political might of the White House, Democrats have exorcized the ghost of Scott Brown.

Three years after the little-known Republican state senator shocked the political world with an unlikely victory here, veteran Democratic Congressman Ed Markey won the special election for U.S. Senate to replace John Kerry on Tuesday, defeating a Republican political newcomer with an all-star resume who failed to inspire Massachusetts voters and Washington's Republican leaders alike.

It was a resounding victory in a low-turnout election for a national Democratic Party still haunted by Brown's 2010 special election stunner.

"To everyone in the state, regardless of how you voted, I say to you tonight this is your seat in the United States Senate," Markey, 66, declared in his victory speech, echoing one of Brown's most common lines.

Markey defeated Republican Gabriel Gomez, a former Navy SEAL, 55 percent to 45 percent.

Tuesday's contest served as a reminder that President Barack Obama has vowed to play a more aggressive political role for his party through next year's mid-term elections with huge stakes for his legacy and final-term agenda. Democrats face several competitive Senate contests in less-friendly terrain in 2014, when their grip on the Senate majority will be tested.

The White House, led by Obama himself, invested heavily in the Massachusetts' election, fueled largely by widespread fear of another Brown-like surprise.

"The people of Massachusetts can be proud that they have another strong leader fighting for them in the Senate, and people across the country will benefit from Ed's talent and integrity," Obama said in a statement Tuesday night.

Republicans claimed a moral victory of sorts, having forced Democrats to deploy their biggest political stars in an election in which Markey enjoyed significant advantages in Democrat-friendly Massachusetts. Markey's victory follows personal visits by Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, former President Bill Clinton and Democratic National Committee chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.

"Not every fight is a fair fight," Gomez said in his concession speech. "Sometimes you face overpowering force. We were massively overspent. We went up against literally the whole national Democratic Party. And all its allies."

From the beginning, it appeared that national Democrats were more committed to the contest than national Republicans, raising questions about the GOP's commitment to candidates who might help improve the party's appeal after a painful 2012 election season.

Washington Republican leaders distanced themselves from Gomez partly by design. The 47-year-old businessman attacked Markey as the ultimate Washington insider and was reluctant to link himself to the same national forces he condemned. But as Democrats poured money and manpower into Massachusetts, Gomez needed help to capitalize on Markey's weaknesses.

U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani campaigned in Boston for Gomez.

But what help he got appeared to be too little too late.

"It's unclear whether Republicans in Washington intended to compete in this race and truly let an opportunity slip away or they were just blowing smoke the whole time," Guy Cecil, executive director of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, wrote in a post-election memo.

Both sides conceded that Markey was not a perfect candidate.

The senator-elect, who first became a congressman in 1977, struggled to connect with voters at times on the campaign trail. He also faced repeated questions about whether he was a full-time resident of Washington or Massachusetts.

On paper, Gomez's credentials appeared to fit the gold standard for the new breed of mass-appeal Republican that the GOP wants as it works to improve its standing among women and minorities. A former Navy SEAL turned businessman, Gomez speaks Spanish, supports immigration reform and moderate positions on social issues ? characteristics the Republican National Committee recently called for in a post-election internal autopsy as key to GOP growth.

Washington's traditional Republican campaign apparatus sent Gomez some paid workers and campaign cash, but Markey and his national allies dramatically outspent Gomez's side. The disparity was fueled by Gomez's inability to attract pro-Republican super PACs that funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into elections to help Republican candidates last fall.

At the same time, Gomez's moderate positions alienated the GOP's most passionate voters. The national tea party movement that helped fuel Brown's rise sat out the race.

"Gomez left his base unenthused and unexcited," said Sal Russo, chief strategist to the Tea Party Express, which was among the first national groups to help Brown's 2010 campaign. "When a Republican tries to look like a Democrat-light, what Democrats do is vote for a Democrat. You have to create some contrast."

Still, Republicans suggest that Markey's need to involve the White House could mean trouble for Democrats in the mid-term elections.

Almost immediately after winning re-election, Obama vowed to go all out for his party for the 2014 elections, mindful that sending more Democrats to Congress could be the difference between success and failure for key aspects of his second-term agenda like immigration, climate change and a budget deal.

Already, Obama and the first lady have hit the campaign trail with vigor this year, traversing the nation to raise money and rally support for Democratic candidates and the committees that work to elect them. In addition to Massachusetts, the president has campaigned this year in California, Texas, Illinois, New York and Georgia. But Republicans and Democrats agree that Obama's direct involvement would be less helpful in competitive 2014 Senate contests in states such as South Dakota, West Virginia, Arkansas and Iowa, where he's not as popular as in Massachusetts.

"The national climate for Democrats is not good," said Republican strategist Ron Kaufman, also a Massachusetts national Republican committeeman. "I promise it's not good in places like Iowa and the Dakotas where we have open Democrat seats."

Meanwhile, Gomez's future is unclear.

He said this week that, win or lose, he'd be willing to help the GOP expand its appeal among the nation's growing Hispanic population. And he has repeatedly hinted that his political career would not end with Tuesday's election.

"In the future, we are going to be better," Gomez said in Spanish at the end of his concession speech.

Markey, who serves out the rest of Kerry's term, faces his first re-election test in 2014.

___

Associated Press writers Steve LeBlanc and Bob Salsberg contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-26-US-Massachusetts-Senate/id-80b60a625e3e4d80ad7f091798401a87

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Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg loses bid to dismiss NY case

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) - Former American International Group Chief Executive Maurice "Hank" Greenberg failed to persuade New York state's highest court to dismiss a lawsuit seeking to hold him accountable for sham transactions at the insurer.

The decision by the state's Court of Appeals is a victory for New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who has been pursuing a case first brought in 2005.

Greenberg, 88, has argued that there was no admissible evidence that he orchestrated a $500 million transaction with reinsurer General Re Corp that misled AIG shareholders, and that the case should have ended in April when the state dropped a claim for as much as $6 billion in damages.

But in a 7-0 decision on Tuesday, the Court of Appeals said there was easily enough evidence that Greenberg and co-defendant Howard Smith, AIG's former chief financial officer, knew the AIG-Gen Re transaction was fraudulent for the case to go forward.

"We have no difficulty in concluding that ... there is evidence sufficient for trial that both Greenberg and Smith participated in a fraud," Judge Robert Smith wrote for the state's top court.

The ruling also said that the attorney general could seek to ban Greenberg and Smith, 68, from participating in the securities industry and from serving as officers and directors of public companies.

Greenberg led AIG for nearly four decades before he was ousted in 2005. The following year, AIG paid $1.64 billion to settle federal and state probes into its business practices.

The Greenberg case was brought by former state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, and was later pursued by his successors Andrew Cuomo, now New York's governor, and Schneiderman.

The long-running state case against Greenberg and Smith hit a roadblock in April when a federal judge approved a $115 million settlement between AIG shareholders and Greenberg, Smith and other defendants over the alleged improper accounting.

Schneiderman withdrew the damage claims because of an unrelated 2008 Court of Appeals ruling that barred his office from seeking restitution on behalf of victims who settled a federal class-action, even if they were not made whole.

But the attorney general said the state still wanted a trial of Greenberg and Smith over the transaction with General Re, a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc

, which allegedly boosted loss reserves without transferring risk.

The state case also includes a transaction with Capco Reinsurance Co that hid a $210 million underwriting loss in an auto-warranty program.

The AIG-Gen Re transaction was the subject of a federal criminal case in which Greenberg and Smith were named as alleged co-conspirators, but not defendants.

In the criminal case, four former Gen Re executives and a former AIG executive were found guilty in 2008 of engineering the reinsurance deal. In 2011, however, a federal appeals court threw out the convictions and ordered a new trial, citing errors by the judge. Last year, the former executives admitted to conducting the fraudulent transaction and cut deals to end the criminal case against them.

Smith cited the federal appeals court decision in his opinion on Tuesday, saying the court held there was enough evidence to support the jury's finding that the fraudulent conspiracy started with a telephone call from Greenberg.

David Boies, a lawyer for Greenberg, and Vincent Sama, a lawyer for Smith, said they were disappointed with the Court of Appeals ruling. But they said they would seek to dismiss the remaining case in the lower courts because the state isn't entitled to the remedies it is seeking.

Boies may argue the state can't go for the bans because there's no risk of continuing violations by his client.

The state also claims it is entitled to go after performance based compensation affected by the fraud. But Boies may argue it can't seek the compensation, because AIG paid it, not the state. AIG and Greenberg and Smith released all claims that existed against each other in November 2009.

There is room for argument about whether the proposed bans "would be a justifiable exercise of a court's discretion," Smith wrote in his opinion. But that question and the availability of other relief Schneiderman may seek must be decided by the lower courts, the court said.

The appeal originally included a much-anticipated challenge to New York's Martin Act, a powerful 1921 securities fraud statute that Spitzer used aggressively to fight Wall Street. That issue become moot after Schneiderman withdrew the damages claim.

The case is New York v. Greenberg et al, New York State Court of Appeals, No. 63.

(Reporting by Karen Freifeld, additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Phil Berlowitz)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-aig-ceo-hank-greenberg-loses-bid-dismiss-180137802.html

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Websites in 2 Koreas shut down on war anniversary

A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A man walks by a gate at Cyber Terror Response Center of National Police Agency in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. South Korea said multiple government and private sector websites were hacked on Tuesday's anniversary of the start of the Korean War, and Seoul issued a cyberattack alert warning officials and citizens to take security measures. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Members of Korea Freedom Federation wave their national flags during a ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. The three-year Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, when Soviet tank-led North Koreans invaded South Korea. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

South Korean elementary school students participate in a ceremony to mark the 63rd anniversary of the outbreak of the Korean War in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, June 25, 2013. The three-year Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, when Soviet tank-led North Koreans invaded South Korea. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Major government and media websites in South and North Korea were shut down for hours Tuesday on the 63rd anniversary of the start of the Korean War. Seoul said its sites were hacked, while it was unclear what knocked out those north of the border.

Seoul said experts were investigating attacks on the websites of the South Korean presidential Blue House and prime minister's office, as well as some media servers. There were no initial reports Tuesday that sensitive military or other key infrastructure had been compromised.

The attacks in South Korea did not appear to be as serious as a March cyberattack that shut down tens of thousands of computers and servers at South Korean broadcasters and banks. Seoul alerted people to take security measures against cyberattacks.

The North Korean websites that shut down Tuesday included those belonging to the national airline, Air Koryo, the Rodong Sinmun newspaper, the North's official Uriminzokkiri site and Naenara, the country's state-run Internet portal. All but Air Koryo were operational a few hours later.

South Korean National Intelligence Service officials said they were investigating what may have caused the shutdown of the North Korean websites. North Korea didn't make any immediate comment.

Operators of several Twitter accounts who purported to be part of a global hackers' collective known as Anonymous claimed that they attacked North Korean websites. The Associated Press received no answer to several requests to speak to the Twitter users. Shin Hong-soon, an official at South Korea's science ministry in charge of online security, said the government was not able to confirm whether these hackers were linked to Tuesday's attack on South Korean websites.

It wasn't immediately clear who was responsible. North and South Korea have traded accusations of cyberattacks in recent years.

South Korean officials blamed Pyongyang for a March 20 cyberattack that struck 48,000 computers and servers, hampering banks and broadcasters for several days, although television programming was not interrupted and officials have said that no bank records or personal data were compromised. Seoul officials said in April that an initial investigation pointed to a North Korean military-run spy agency as the culprit.

North Korea blamed South Korea and the United States for cyberattacks in March that temporarily disabled Internet access and websites in North Korea.

Experts believe North Korea trains large teams of cyber warriors and that the South and its allies should be prepared against possible attacks on key infrastructure and military systems. If the inter-Korean conflict were to move into cyberspace, South Korea's deeply wired society would have more to lose than North Korea's, which largely remains offline.

The shutdowns came on a war anniversary that both countries were marking with commemorations. They also are gearing up for the 60th anniversary of the end of the fighting July 27, a day North Koreans call "Victory Day" even though the Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty.

Tens of thousands of North Koreans were gathering Tuesday to Pyongyang's main Kim Il Sung Square for the largest of many rallies around the nation denouncing the United States. On Monday evening, men lined up in the shadow of the capital's iconic Juche Tower to practice coordinating their steps as they hoisted signs reading "Sweep away the imperialist American aggressors," ''sworn enemies," and "U.S. troops out of South Korea" while a man with a megaphone barked out orders.

In South Korea, thousands of people, including Korean war veterans, gatherrf at Jamsil Stadium in Seoul for a commemoration. Two South Korean army units held military drills in Yeoncheon in Gyeonggi Province, near the demilitarized zone, defense officials said in Seoul.

North Korea in recent weeks has pushed for diplomatic talks with Washington. Tensions ran high on the Korean Peninsula in March and April, with North Korea delivering regular threats over U.N. sanctions and U.S.-South Korean military drills.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-25-Koreas-Cyberattack/id-0965ea4480814afeac54f8d8a83860e2

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10 most monstrous tag teams

Professional wrestling has always been filled with hulking masses of humanity, doing battle to establish their supremacy over the competition. However, some titans towered over even the biggest Superstars.

Monster tag team photos?|?Watch the titans demolish the opposition

Sometimes, these giants of the squared circle teamed up, resulting in complete devastation. Like the beasts that rise from the ocean in Guillermo Del Toro?s thriller ?Pacific Rim,? these gargantuan grapplers left nothing but destruction in their paths. The carnage they caused seemed like something out of a monster movie, but for their opponents, it was very, very real and extremely painful.

Witness the ruin caused by 10 monstrous tag teams that left other duos crushed beneath their humongous boots.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/classics/10-most-monstrous-tag-teams

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Fugitive Snowden in Russia seeking Ecuador asylum

By James Pomfret and Lidia Kelly

HONG KONG/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Fugitive former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden is seeking asylum in Ecuador, the Quito government said on Sunday, after Hong Kong let him leave for Russia despite Washington's efforts to extradite him on espionage charges.

In a major embarrassment for the Obama administration, an aircraft thought to have been carrying Snowden landed in Moscow, and the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks said he was "bound for the Republic of Ecuador via a safe route for the purposes of asylum."

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino, visiting Vietnam, tweeted: "The Government of Ecuador has received an asylum request from Edward J. #Snowden."

Ecuador has been sheltering WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange at its London embassy for the past year, and Ecuador's ambassador to Russia said he expected to meet Snowden in Moscow on Sunday.

Snowden, who worked for the U.S. National Security Agency in Hawaii, had been hiding in the former British colony, which returned to China in 1997, since leaking details about U.S. surveillance activities at home and abroad to news media.

U.S. authorities had said only on Saturday they were optimistic Hong Kong would cooperate over Snowden.

On Friday, U.S. authorities charged Snowden with theft of U.S. government property, unauthorised communication of national defense information and willful communication of classified communications intelligence to an unauthorised person, with the latter two charges falling under the U.S. Espionage Act.

Earlier on Sunday, a source at the Russian airline Aeroflot said Snowden would fly on from Moscow within 24 hours to Cuba, although that source said he planned to go on to Venezuela. The chief of Cuba's International Press Center, Gustavo Machin, said he had no such information though pro-government bloggers heaped praise on Snowden and condemned U.S. spying activity.

Venezuela, Cuba and Ecuador are all members of the ALBA bloc, an alliance of leftist governments in Latin America that pride themselves on their "anti-imperialist" credentials.

Ecuadorean Ambassador Patricio Alberto Chavez Zavala told reporters at a Moscow airport hotel that he would hold talks with Snowden and Sarah Harrison, a WikiLeaks representative.

CHINA AND RUSSIA CRITICIZED

Influential Democratic Senator Charles Schumer charged that Russian President Vladimir Putin likely knew and approved of Snowden's flight to Russia and thought Beijing was involved. He said that will "have serious consequences" for a U.S.-Russian relationship already strained over Syria and human rights.

"Putin always seems almost eager to stick a finger in the eye of the United States - whether it is Syria, Iran and now of course with Snowden," Schumer told CNN's "State of the Union."

"It remains to be seen how much influence Beijing had on Hong Kong," he said. "As you know, they coordinate their foreign policies and I have a feeling that the hand of Beijing was involved here."

In their statement announcing Snowden's departure, the Hong Kong authorities said they were seeking clarification from Washington about reports of U.S. spying on government computers in the territory.

The Obama administration has previously painted the United States as a victim of Chinese government computer hacking.

At a summit earlier this month, Obama called on his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping to acknowledge the threat posed by "cyber-enabled espionage" against the United States and to investigate the problem. Obama also met Putin in Northern Ireland last week.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong government said it had allowed the departure of Snowden - considered a whistleblower by his critics and a criminal or even a traitor by his critics - as the U.S. request for his arrest did not comply with the law.

In Washington, a Justice Department official said it would seek cooperation with countries Snowden may try to go to and sources familiar with the issue said Washington had revoked Snowden's U.S. passport. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said revoking the passport of someone under a felony arrest warrant was routine. "Such a revocation does not affect citizenship status," she said.

"It's a shocker," Simon Young, a law professor with Hong Kong University said of the case. "I thought he was going to stay and fight it out. The U.S. government will be irate."

The issue has been a major distraction for Obama, who has found his domestic and international policy agenda sidelined as he has scrambled to deflect accusations that U.S. surveillance practices violate privacy protections and civil rights. The president has maintained that the measures have been necessary to thwart attacks on the United States.

The White House had no immediate comment on Sunday's developments.

WikiLeaks said Snowden was accompanied by diplomats and that Harrison, a British legal researcher working for WikiLeaks, was "accompanying Mr Snowden in his passage to safety."

"The WikiLeaks legal team and I are interested in preserving Mr Snowden's rights and protecting him as a person," former Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon, legal director of WikiLeaks and lawyer for Assange, said in a statement.

"What is being done to Mr Snowden and to Mr Julian Assange - for making or facilitating disclosures in the public interest - is an assault against the people."

WIKILEAKS CASE

Assange, an Australian, said last week he would not leave the sanctuary of Ecuador's London embassy even if Sweden stopped pursuing sexual assault claims against him because he feared arrest on the orders of the United States.

The latest drama coincides with the court martial of Bradley Manning, a U.S. soldier accused of providing reams of classified documents to WikiLeaks, which Assange began releasing on the Internet in 2010, and, according to some critics, put its national security and people's lives at risk.

A spokesman for Wikileaks refused to make any comment about possible routes to Ecuador. Asked why Ecuador, he replied "That is something that Mr. Snowden needs to reply to. ... It was a decision taken by him. ... Various governments were approached."

Iceland refused on Friday to say whether it would grant asylum to Snowden. Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said this month that Russia would consider granting asylum if Snowden were to ask for it and pro-Kremlin lawmakers supported the idea, but there has been no indication he has done so.

Hong Kong's South China Morning Post newspaper earlier quoted Snowden offering new details about U.S. surveillance activities, including accusations of U.S. hacking of Chinese mobile phone firms and targeting of China's Tsinghua University.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Snowden needed to be caught and brought back for trial as secrets he was carrying could do a lot of damage to U.S. interests.

"I think we need to know exactly what he has," she told CBS's "Face the Nation." "He could have a lot, lot more that may really put people in jeopardy."

Documents previously leaked by Snowden revealed that the NSA has access to vast amounts of internet data such as emails, chat rooms and video from large companies, including Facebook and Google, under a government program known as Prism.

The head of the National Security Agency, General Keith Alexander, said he did not know why it failed to prevent Snowden leaving Hawaii for Hong Kong with the secrets.

"It's clearly an individual who's betrayed the trust and confidence we had in him," he told the ABC News "This Week" program.

He said procedures had since been tightened.

"We are now putting in place actions that would give us the ability to track our system administrators, what they're doing, what they're taking, a two-man rule. We've changed the passwords. But at the end of the day, we have to trust that our people are going to do the right thing."

(Additional reporting by Fayen Wong in Shanghai; Nishant Kumar in Hong Kong; Andrew Cawthorne, Mario Naranjo and Daniel Wallis in Caracas; Alexandra Valencia in Quito; Alexei Anishchuk and Steve Gutterman in Moscow, and Tabassum Zakaria, Mark Felsenthal, Paul Eckert and Mark Hosenball in Washington; Writing by David Stamp and David Brunnstrom; Editing by Jackie Frank)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/former-nsa-contractor-snowden-leaves-hong-kong-moscow-080843121.html

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Syrian rebels renew fight for Aleppo

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels battled President Bashar al-Assad's forces in and around the northern city of Aleppo on Sunday, seeking to reverse gains made by loyalist forces in the commercial hub over the last two months, activists said.

The fighting, by a variety of insurgent groups, happened as France urged moderate rebels to wrest territory back from radical Islamists whose role in the fight to topple Assad poses a dilemma for Western countries concerned that arms shipments could fall into the hands of people it considers terrorists.

The 11 Western and Arab countries known as the "Friends of Syria" agreed on Saturday to give urgent military support to the rebels, channeled through the Western-backed Supreme Military Council in a bid to prevent arms getting to Islamist radicals.

But radical forces showed they remained formidable on Sunday when the Islamist Ahrar al-Sham brigade detonated a car bomb at a roadblock at an entrance to Aleppo killing at least 12 loyalist soldiers, according to the opposition Aleppo News Network and other activists in the city.

Aleppo, 35 kms (20 miles) south of Turkey, has been contested since July last year, when rebel brigades entered the city and captured about half of it. In recent weeks, Assad has focused his military campaign on recapturing rebel-held areas.

He has also been expanding control of the central province of Homs after capturing a strategic town on the border with Lebanon, and has used heavy bombardment and siege warfare to contain rebels dug in around the capital, according to opposition sources and diplomats monitoring the conflict.

Firas Fuleifel, with the moderate Islamist al-Farouq Brigade, said six rebel fighters were killed in fighting in Aleppo in the last day.

WIN BACK CONTROL

French President Francois Hollande, whose country has been at the forefront of Western efforts to re-organize and back the opposition, said moderate rebels must take territory held by radical Islamists whose involvement in the conflict, he said, gives Bashar al-Assad a pretext for more violence.

"The opposition needs to win back control of these areas ... ???they have fallen into the hands of extremists," Hollande told a news conference in the Doha a day after the Friends of Syria met in the Qatari capital.

"If it seems that extremist groups are present and tomorrow they could be the beneficiaries of a chaotic situation, it will be Bashar al-Assad who will seize on this pretext to continue the massacre," Hollande said.

In Damascus, the Ahrar al-Sham and the Islamist Tawhid al-Asima brigades detonated a car bomb in an area known as Mezze 86, inhabited by members of Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has controlled Syria since the 1960s. Two people were killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.

Rebels also attacked two security compounds in Damascus, killing at least five people, sources in the capital said.

In regional repercussions of the increasingly sectarian Syrian conflict, four Lebanese soldiers were killed in clashes with followers of a Sunni Islamist cleric who is a critic of the role of Hezbollah - the Shi'ite Lebanese group - in giving military support to Assad.

Sources in the city said the fighting broke out when a follower of Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir was arrested at an army roadblock in Sidon, 40 km (28 miles) south of Beirut.

The clashes were followed by fighting between Hezbollah members based in the mostly Sunni city and Assir's followers in which automatic weapons and shoulder fired rockets were used, the sources said.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam in Beirut and Yara Bayoumy in Doha; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-rebels-renew-fight-aleppo-172833977.html

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Climate change, business top Kerry visit to India

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center left, is greeted by Aman Puri, with the Indian protocol office, upon arrival in New Delhi, India on Sunday, June 23, 2013, on his first visit to India as secretary. At right is U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center left, is greeted by Aman Puri, with the Indian protocol office, upon arrival in New Delhi, India on Sunday, June 23, 2013, on his first visit to India as secretary. At right is U.S. Ambassador to India Nancy Powell. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry speaks to the traveling press on board the airplane as he leaves Doha, Qatar en route to New Delhi, on Sunday, June 23, 2013. In Qatar Kerry spent time discussing Syria and Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)

NEW DELHI (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will urge fast-growing India on Sunday to curb emissions that contribute to global warming and ease barriers to U.S. business and investment in the world's largest democracy that is viewed as a counterweight to China.

New Delhi is the second stop on Kerry's two-week visit to seven countries in the Mideast and Asia. During his stay, the top U.S. diplomat also is expected to discuss a myriad of other topics, including enhancing security in the region and prospects for finding a political resolution to the war in Afghanistan.

Kerry has traveled to India before, but his two-day visit is his first to the country as secretary of state. He is to deliver a speech that will focus on climate change along with other bilateral issues.

India has installed about 1,000 megawatts of solar power in the past 2 1/2 years ? about one fifth with American financing. Education also will figure prominently in their discussions. India is facing the challenge of educating about 500 million young people during the next decade or so and there is an opportunity for U.S. schools to help meet the demand.

Discussions also will include India's relationship with its archenemy, Pakistan, and the hope that Pakistan's new president, Nawaz Sharif, will try to improve relations, thus reducing the chance of a fourth major war between the nuclear-armed neighbors.

Kerry is talking about climate change just two days before President Barack Obama is to unveil his long-awaited national plan on the issue.

People consulting with White House officials on Obama's plan say they expect the president to put forth regulations on heat-trapping gases emitted by coal-fired power plants that are already running. Environmental groups have been pleading with Obama to take that step, but the administration has said it's focused first on controls on new power plants.

More than half of India's power comes from coal and while the U.S. has emission issues of its own, it wants to see India and other nations in the region rely less on old, coal generation facilities. The U.S. is backing a Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline that would bring energy to a power-starved region.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-23-Kerry/id-a3f45b40ee844001b8bff0db7ecf4cc2

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Inhabitat's Week in Green: flying bicycle, tatooed fruits and a wireless EV-charging system

Each week our friends at Inhabitat recap the week's most interesting green developments and clean tech news for us -- it's the Week in Green.

This week, the MS Tûranor PlanetSolar -- the world's largest solar-powered boat -- docked in downtown Manhattan, and Inhabitat was on the scene to tour the 115-foot Swiss catamaran and learn about its latest trans-Atlantic voyage. The PlanetSolar team isn't the only one pioneering new technologies, though. Google announced plans to deploy fleets of solar-powered balloons to bring the internet to remote locations around the world. A pair of British men debuted the world's first flying bicycle, which combines a bike with a fan-powered paraglider. A 16-year-old developed a cleaner, more efficient way to create biofuel from algae, and Coca-Cola produced a classic Coke bottle that's made entirely from ice that melts away when you're finished with it.

Filed under: Misc, Internet

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/a6EBCQnUku0/

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Business Briefing | Company News: Monsanto Calls Altered Wheat in Field Suspicious

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Monsanto officials said that the presence of the company?s experimental, genetically altered wheat in an Oregon field could not have happened through normal farming practices.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/business/monsanto-calls-altered-wheat-in-field-suspicious.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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triple a travel: Successful Tele Selling - FreeArticleZines Free Article ...

Tele selling is an significant avenue for sales for most business establishments in the present time eventuality. While most people make use of tele selling, there are just 1 or 2 who?re profitable. In case you wish to be productive too, make sure that you abide by the provided tips.

Smile, when you?re tele selling your goods. While the person on the other end of the phone may not observe your facial expression, he or he?s going to definitely feel it. Smiling not only makes you more confident however additionally gives your voice a pleasing undertone. Moreover, when you smile, you?re bound to feel relaxed and that will also reflect in your voice. So, when you sound confident, pleasant and chilled, the individual you?re calling is certain to be more willing to lend an ear to what you are saying.

Learn to listen to your clients. Most tele executives are more engaged in narrating their part of the tale than listening to what the customer has to say. This disposition may merely frustrate the receiver of your call and so you must make it a point to hear what the other person is saying before continuing with what you ought to say. Do not multitask when on a call as you might not be able to listen to what?s being stated. By lending a patient and alert ear, you will be able to make your discussion more productive.

To make sure that you have an engaging and smooth conversation, include various open ended investigations in the call. This can give a chance to the receiver to speak his/her mind. In reality it?s much better in case the prospective customer is at the speaking end more than you. Purpose being this creates a comfortable atmosphere for the recipient. This may aid you coax the person to go ahead with the purchase.

Come in rhythm to the recipient?s style of talking. In case the person at the other end of the phone speaks softly and carefully, try to take up the same speaking style. As the pace plus the style of speaking reaches a common zone, the chances of successful chat raises manifolds. The recipient develops an affinity with the caller and thereby strikes an engaging chat.

Besides the above mentioned tips, you could also look at recording your calls to increase your success quotient. Recording your calls and listening to them will aid you understand the areas where you could improve. You may wish to say ?Hi? in a distinct tone all together. Or you might realize that your articulation is not very apparent to the other person. Work on your flaws and you will manage to collect success for sure.

So, in case you desire your tele selling to bring the preferred revenue and profits, it makes sense to take on the given tips at the earliest.

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Online dating company Cupid gets approaches for casual dating websites

(Reuters) - Internet dating site Cupid Plc said it has been approached by multiple parties for its casual dating websites and added that it expects core earnings for the first half to be hit by higher marketing costs.

Cupid, which disclosed last month that it was in talks to sell its casual dating business that operates the benaughty.com and flirt.com websites, said on Friday it was exploring the approaches it has received for the business.

The company said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, for the six months ending June 30 is estimated to be about 2.5 million pounds ($3.9 million). Cupid reported adjusted EBITDA of 5.9 million pounds last year.

Cupid, which faced media allegations earlier this year about the methods it used to encourage people to buy subscriptions, said an independent review of its member database and operating practices was due to be completed by the end of June.

The company said it has also undertaken a separate review by a legal team and implemented several recommendations, including clearer guidelines for customer service staff interactions.

Shares in the company closed at 69 pence on Thursday on the London Stock Exchange. They have lost roughly two-thirds of their value so far this year.

(Reporting by Tasim Zahid in Bangalore; Editing by Supriya Kurane)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/online-dating-company-cupid-gets-approaches-casual-dating-071546411.html

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Obama nominates Comey to head FBI

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama nominated James Comey to be the new FBI director Friday, tapping a Bush-era Justice Department official to lead the agency as it grapples with privacy debates over a host of recently exposed investigative tactics.

Obama praised Comey for demonstrating unyielding integrity in the face of uncertainty. Flanked by Comey and his outgoing FBI director, Robert Mueller, in a sunny White House Rose Garden announcement, Obama said Comey recognizes that in times of crisis, America is judged not only by how many plots are disrupted, but also by its commitment to civil liberties and the ideals espoused in the Constitution.

"Jim understands, deeply in his core, the anguish of victims of crime ? what they go through," Obama said. "He's made it his life's work to spare others that pain."

"He's a rarity in Washington sometimes: He doesn't care about politics," Obama added.

Comey is perhaps best-known for a remarkable 2004 standoff at the hospital bedside of Attorney General John Ashcroft over a no-warrant wiretapping program. Comey rushed to the room of his bedridden boss to physically stop White House officials from trying to get an ailing Ashcroft to reauthorize the program.

If confirmed by the Senate, Comey would serve a 10-year term and replace Mueller, who has held the job since the week before the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. Obama praised Mueller effusively and said he could declare without equivocation that countless Americans are alive today because of Mueller's efforts. Mueller is set to resign on Sept. 4 after overseeing the bureau's transformation into one the country's chief weapons against terrorism.

"I must be out of my mind to be following Bob Mueller," Comey said. "I don't know whether I can fill those shoes, but I know that however I do, I will be truly standing on the shoulders of a giant."

Comey was a federal prosecutor who served for several years as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York before coming to Washington after the Sept. 11 attacks as deputy attorney general. In recent years, he's been an executive at defense company Lockheed Martin, general counsel to a hedge fund, board member at HSBC Holdings and lecturer on national security law at Columbia Law School.

The White House may hope that Comey's Republican background and strong credentials will help him through Senate confirmation at a time when some of Obama's nominees have been facing tough battles. Republicans have said they see no major obstacles to his confirmation, although he is certain to face tough questions about his hedge fund work and his ties to Wall Street as well as how he would handle current, high-profile FBI investigations.

The FBI is responsible for both intelligence and law enforcement with more than 36,000 employees. It has faced questions in recent weeks over media leak probes involving The Associated Press and Fox News; the Boston Marathon bombings; the attack at Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans; and two vast government surveillance programs into phone records and online communications.

The leaker of those National Security Agency programs, former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, also is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation. And just this week, Mueller revealed the FBI uses drones for surveillance of stationary subjects and said the privacy implications of such operations are worthy of debate.

"This work of striking a balance between our security but also making sure we're maintaining fidelity to those values that we cherish is a constant mission," Obama said.

Comey played a central role in holding up Bush's warrantless wiretapping program, one of the administration's great controversies and an episode that focused attention on the administration's controversial tactics in the war on terror.

In dramatic testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in 2007, Comey said he thought the no-warrant wiretapping program was so questionable that he refused to reauthorize it while serving as acting attorney general during Ashcroft's hospitalization. Comey said when he learned that the White House chief of staff Andrew Card and counsel Alberto Gonzales were heading to Ashcroft's room, despite Ashcroft's wife's instructions that there be no visitors, Comey beat them there and watched as Ashcroft turned them away.

"That night was probably the most difficult night of my professional life," Comey testified. He said he and Ashcroft had reservations about the program's legality, but he would not discuss details since the program was classified.

Senior government officials had expressed concerns about whether the NSA, which administered the warrantless eavesdropping program, had the proper oversight in place. Other concerns included whether any president possessed the legal and constitutional authority to authorize the program as it was carried out at the time.

Comey was deputy attorney general in 2005 when he unsuccessfully tried to limit tough interrogation tactics against suspected terrorists. He told then-Attorney General Gonzales that some of the practices were wrong and would damage the department's reputation.

Some Democrats denounced those methods as torture, particularly the use of waterboarding, which produces the sensation of drowning.

Comey's defiance won him praise from Democrats. In a statement, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who will oversee Comey's confirmation hearing, said, "Mr. Comey showed the kind of independence needed to lead the FBI when he stood up to those in the last administration who sought to violate the rule of law." Leahy called for senators to give Comey "the swift and respectful confirmation he deserves."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Comey's experience on national security would benefit the FBI. "He's previously dealt with these matters with integrity and shown a willingness to stand his ground if necessary," Grassley said in a statement. He added that he wants to question Comey on his work in the hedge fund industry and wonders whether he could improve the Obama administration's efforts to prosecute Wall Street for its role in the economic downturn.

Concerns over Comey were raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, which doesn't take positions on nominees but is interested in civil liberties issues. ACLU senior policy counsel Mike German said while Comey stood up to some surveillance, he eventually approved the NSA program along with interrogation techniques that included waterboarding, as well as defended the indefinite detention of Jose Padilla, an American terrorism suspect.

"We want to make sure whoever sits in that chair has a determined interest in protecting the rule of law, particularly since they will be there 10 years, outlasting this president and potentially the next president," German said.

German said these issues are particularly relevant given new revelations about surveillance programs.

As U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Comey headed one of the nation's most prominent prosecutorial offices and one at the front lines in the fight against terrorism, corporate malfeasance, organized crime and the war on drugs.

As an assistant U.S. attorney in Virginia, Comey handled the investigation of the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers housing complex near Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 U.S. military personnel.

He led the Justice Department's corporate fraud task force and spurred the creation of violent crime impact teams in 20 cities, focusing on crimes committed with guns.

After leaving government in 2005, Comey was senior vice president and general counsel at Lockheed Martin. In 2010, he went to the Westport, Conn.-based hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, before leaving in February.

The White House also said Comey has developed improvements in the military justice system's performance regarding crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan as a member of the Defense Legal Policy Board, which provides independent advice to the defense secretary.

Comey also has taught at the University of Richmond Law School and worked for law firm McGuireWoods LLP, also in Richmond. He has a bachelor's degree from the College of William & Mary, a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School and clerked for former District Court Judge John M. Walker, Jr. in the Southern District of New York.

___

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-nominates-comey-head-fbi-182258647.html

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LA to give every student an iPad; $30M order

NEW YORK (AP) ? Los Angeles' school system, the second largest in the United States, is ordering iPads for all its students, handing Apple a major success in its quest to make the tablet computer a replacement for textbooks.

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved the purchase of $30 million worth of iPads as the first part of a multi-year commitment. It found that the iPad was the least expensive option that met its specifications.

The initial order is for more than 31,000 iPads, Apple said. The Los Angeles Unified School District has more than 640,000 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

The textbooks will be delivered through an application from Pearson, a major publisher, rather than through Apple's own iBooks. Apple and its publisher partners launched a suite of textbooks for iBooks in early 2012.

According to biographer Walter Isaacson, changing the textbook market was a pet project of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, even in the last year of his life. At a dinner in early 2011, Jobs told News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch that paper textbooks could be made obsolete by the iPad. Jobs wanted to circumvent the state certification process for textbook sales by having Apple release textbooks for free on the tablet computer.

Apple said 10 million iPads are in use in schools today. The company said that when the rollout is completed, Los Angeles will be the largest school district in the nation to provide each student with an iPad.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-06-19-Apple-iPads%20For%20School/id-bcfe0203c1014304aa88e5cb36ad7f13

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Senators closing in on border security compromise

WASHINGTON (AP) ? White House-backed immigration legislation gained momentum in the Senate on Thursday as lawmakers closed in on a bipartisan compromise to spend tens of billions of dollars stiffening the bill's border security requirements without delaying legalization for millions living in the country unlawfully.

"Once the Senate adopts our amendment, I will be proud to vote for a bill that secures our border and respects our heritage as an immigrant nation," Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., said in a statement. Additional GOP support was expected as a result of measures that backers dubbed a "border surge."

Under the emerging compromise, the government would grant legal status to immigrants living in the United States illegally at the same time the additional security was being put into place. Green cards, which signify permanent residency status, would be withheld until the security steps were complete.

Officials said the plan envisions doubling the size of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents, completing 700 miles of new fencing along the border with Mexico and purchasing new surveillance drones to track would-be illegal border crossers. The cost of the additional agents alone was put at $30 billion over a decade.

In addition, immigrants would not be able to claim credit for Social Security taxes they paid while working without lawful status. Credits are used to determine the amount in Social Security benefits a worker receives after retirement.

Under another change, neither the administration nor states would be permitted to grant welfare benefits for five years to immigrants currently living unlawfully in the United States

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to terms hashed out by senators in both parties, although Democrats kept administration officials apprised of the talks.

The agreement began to take shape over the past several days beginning with a series of meetings involving Republicans who were uncommitted on the legislation but receptive to supporting it after changes were made. Eventually, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., both authors of the bill, joined the talks.

If agreed to, the changes could clear the way for a strong bipartisan vote within a few days to pass the measure that sits atop President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda.

The officials who described the emerging deal spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were private.

The developments came as Democrats who met with House Speaker John Boehner on Wednesday quoted him as saying he expected the House to pass its own version of an immigration bill this summer and Congress to have a final compromise by year's end.

Boehner, R-Ohio, already has said the legislation that goes to the House in the next month or two will not include a pathway to citizenship for immigrants in the United States illegally.

The potential compromise in the Senate came into focus Wednesday, one day after the Congressional Budget Office jolted lawmakers with an estimate saying that as drafted, the legislation would fail to prevent a steady increase in the future in the number of residents living in the United States illegally.

The estimate appeared to give added credibility to Republicans who have been pressing Democrats to toughen the border security provisions already written into the bill.

"Our whole effort has been to build a bipartisan group that will support the bill," said Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., who's helped develop the deal along with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "That's what this is all about, and it's focused on border security."

Schumer and Menendez met at midday Wednesday with Graham, Hoeven, Corker and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The Democrats, Graham and McCain are part of the so-called Gang of Eight.

It was unclear which other portions of the Senate legislation might be changed. There is pressure from some Republicans to make sure no federal benefits go to immigrants who are in the country illegally, at least until they become citizens.

The underlying legislation already envisions more border agents; additional fencing along the U.S-Mexico border; surveillance drones; a requirement for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers; and a biometric system to track foreigners who enter and leave the United States at air and seaports and by land.

Schumer said discussions with Republicans "have been really productive."

"We've made a lot of progress in the last 24 hours. Now we have some vetting to do with our respective allies," he said.

If ratified, the compromise would mark concessions on both sides.

Some Republicans have been unwilling to support a bill that grants legal status to immigrants in the country illegally until the government certifies that the border security steps have achieved 90 percent effectiveness in stopping would-be border crossers.

On the other hand, Democrats have opposed Republican proposals to make legalization contingent on success in closing the border to illegal crossings. Under the legislation as drafted, legalization could begin as soon as a security plan was drafted, but a 10-year wait is required for a green card.

One plan to change that was sidetracked on a vote of 61-37 Wednesday.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said his proposal would require Congress to vote annually for five years on whether the border is secure. If lawmakers decide it is not, "then the processing of undocumented workers stops until" it is, he said. The decision would be made based on numerous factors, including progress toward completion of a double-layered fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and toward a goal of 95 percent capture of illegal entrants. A system to track the border comings and goings of foreigners is also required.

Across the Capitol, House Republican leaders sought to present a friendlier face to Hispanics ? a group that gave Obama more than 70 percent support in last year's presidential election.

Boehner met with the Democratic-dominated Congressional Hispanic Caucus, while rank-and-file members of his party reviewed areas of agreement with Latino religious leaders.

"It's a conversation Republicans want to have," Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said later at a news conference outside the Capitol.

Separately, the House Judiciary Committee approved legislation creating a program allowing farm workers to come to the United States to take temporary jobs in the United States.

The measure is one of several that the panel is considering in the final weeks of June as part of a piece-by-piece approach to immigration rather than the all-in-one bill that Senate is considering.

___

Associated Press writer Laurie Kellman contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-06-20-US-Immigration/id-003cdd0354fe4297b18268b947c1576a

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