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Thursday, February 28, 2013
8 elementary students pass gun around at Tennessee school
By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News
Eight elementary school students in Memphis, Tenn., face discipline and possibly juvenile charges after a 7-year-old brought a gun to school and passed it around on campus.
Memphis police were dispatched to Ross Elementary School shortly before noon on Tuesday when school officials reported that students had a firearm, NBC station WMC-TV reported. When officers arrived, they found the gun in the possession of a 10-year-old boy. That boy was arrested.
Police said that the gun was loaded and that the 7-year-old boy had brought the gun to school to show friends.
District officials said no injuries were reported.
On Wednesday, school principal Evette Smith sent a letter to parents that was obtained by WMC-TV.
?School administrators and Memphis Police Department will strictly discipline in accordance with the law and (Memphis City Schools) board policy,? the letter read.
Sgt. Karen Rudolph of the Memphis Police Department told NBC News that all eight of the students involved -- boys whose ages ranged from 7 to 10 -- were issued juvenile summons to appear in court for carrying a weapon on school property.
No other details were immediately available.
A representative from Memphis City Schools was not available.
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Sunday, February 24, 2013
Oscar foreign film nominees reveal movie magic
FILE - This publicity film image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Mads Mikkelsen, left, and Alicia Vikander in a scene from "A Royal Affair." The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category. The 85th Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/Magnolia Pictures, File)
FILE - This publicity film image released by Magnolia Pictures shows Mads Mikkelsen, left, and Alicia Vikander in a scene from "A Royal Affair." The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category. The 85th Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/Magnolia Pictures, File)
Producer Gale Anne Hurd, left, and director Nikolaj Arcel pose together during the The Oscars Foreign Language Film Award Directors Reception at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Arcel's feature film "A Royal Affair" is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP)
FILE - This publicity image released by Item 7 shows a scene from "War Witch." The film was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category. The 85th Academy Awards will air live on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/Item 7)
FILE - This publicity film image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Jean-Louis Trintignant in a scene from the Austrian film, "Amour." The film directed by Michael Haneke is nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category. The 85th Academy Awards air live on ABC on Sunday, Feb. 24, 2013. (AP Photo/Sony Pictures Classics)
Director Alexander Payne, left, and director Michael Haneke pose together during the The Oscars Foreign Language Film Award Directors Reception at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif. on Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Haneke's feature film "Amour" is nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. (Photo by Dan Steinberg/Invision/AP)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A few old-school video cameras, a cloned apartment, a sea of digital sharks, and an actress who helped herself to craft services were just a few tricks that international filmmakers employed in their Oscar nominated films.
The five directors nominated for this year's foreign language film Academy Award revealed on Saturday how they used movie magic:
? "No," an account of the advertising tactics used in the 1988 campaign to oust Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, was filmed with U-Matic video cameras to give the film a grainy VHS aesthetic similar to the political commercials it depicted.
"We got used to it, and we just started loving it," said director Pablo Larrain, who noted that the vintage cameras had less resolution than an iPhone. "When we get to see regular movies now, they look so sharp!"
? Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke based the apartment where much of his relationship drama "Amour" takes place on his parents' own home because it felt comfortable and inspired him when crafting the film about an elderly French couple. The apartment was built on a soundstage and digital effects were used in windows to make the cityscape come alive.
"It was an exact reproduction," said Haneke through a translator. "Not because their story had anything to do with what was happening on screen, but it gave me ideas and helped me find solutions when writing the script."
? The 18th century Danish period piece "A Royal Affair," which centers on the forbidden romance between the Queen of Denmark and royal physician and minister Johann Struensee, was filmed in Prague, not Denmark.
"No street in Copenhagen looks remotely like it used to look in the 1760s," said director Nikolaj Arcel. "But you can actually go to Prague, and they've quite beautifully kept some of these old streets and restored them."
? Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, the directors of the Norwegian film "Kon-Tiki," digitally recorded their historical drama about the treacherous 1947 sea voyage of adventurer Thor Heyerdahl so they wouldn't run out of film.
Ronning said the filmmakers shot 140 terabytes worth of material ? roughly about the size of 6,000 Blu-ray discs. They captured the boatload of footage because "Kon-Tiki" was shot in both Norwegian and English and included over 500 special effects shots.
? Kim Nguyen, the Canadian director of "War Witch," said his Congo-set drama about a young woman who becomes embroiled in an African rebellion was filmed chronologically, and that Rachel Mwanza, the film's 16-year-old star from the Congo, gained weight during production. It wasn't an issue because her character becomes pregnant in the film.
"She actually gained like 15 or 20 pounds during the film, which was perfect," said Nguyen. "Best special effect ever."
___
Online:
http://www.oscars.org
___
AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang will be tweeting from inside the Dolby Theatre during the 85th annual Academy Awards. Follow him on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang
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Moscow will forgive part of Cuba?s $25 billion Soviet-era debt and restructure t...
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Jamie Dupree's Washington Insider: Gauging the sequester's impact
One of the big unanswered questions right now is what happens when we hit the March 1 deadline for automatic budget cuts? Will the cuts be "brutal" as the President has described them, or will we not notice right away?
The Pentagon gave one answer on Wednesday as officials outlined the plans to furlough over 700,000 civilian defense workers to deal with the estimated $46 billion in cuts the military will have to make the rest of this fiscal year.
"Our estimate is $4-$5 billion of savings," said Defense Undersecretary David Hale.
"We feel we don't have any choice but to impose furloughs even though we would much prefer not to do it," Hale added.
But at the Pentagon briefing, and also at the White House briefing for reporters, there were skeptical questions as to whether such plans were overkill or not.
First, from the White House, with Press Secretary Jay Carney:
?
Q??? Jay, on the sequester, you said repeatedly today and yesterday that these are real and urgent cuts that would take place quickly.? But The New York Times points out today that when the President was saying yesterday in his remarks that tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids, that that?s not really going to happen on March 1st, is it?? I mean, how do you back up that tens of thousands of parents will be searching for childcare immediately?
?
MR. CARNEY:? Well, look, whether these cuts -- whether that search begins on March 1st or in the near future, the impact on our economy, the impact on people?s lives is real.? Again, don?t take my word for it.? Macroeconomics Advisers, Moody's, the CBO all estimate massive job loss if the sequester is allowed to take effect.? That?s just a fact.
Q??? So what happens on March 1st?? What happens on March 2nd?? How quickly does this -- because when you say -- the President said that yesterday, too -- hundreds of thousands of jobs.? There's not going to be hundreds of thousands of job losses the first week, are there?
MR. CARNEY:? No, but there will be job losses, and that?s been clear.? Look, we have already --
Q??? But people want to quantify this because you're making -- you're scaring the public that this is going to happen, it's going to be horrible --
MR. CARNEY:? So these outside economic firms are scaring the public?? And the CBO is scaring the public?
Q??? I'm just saying, how do you back up that this is urgent and that hundreds of thousands of jobs are going to be lost?
?
Over at the Pentagon, reporters also zeroed in on questions about the level of funding that the military would be left with, and whether it would necessitate large furloughs.
?
Q: I have a broader question for you. Both the CBO [Congressional Budget Office] and the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments have said that a $45 billion cut would basically take the Defense Department back to 2007, 2006 levels, when you were fighting a huge war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Why can't the department absorb that kind of cut, rather than lay it all the -- and that experience all these purported draconian consequences? What's wrong with that picture? You seem to have a lot of money, if you look back at '07 and '06.
UNDER SEC. HALE: Well, first off, there's a timing issue. I mean, the $46 billion cut will occur five months into the year, when we have expended a lot of the -- particularly on the operating side, we've extended -- or we'll have expended roughly five-twelfths of the money, so we're going to have to take it in a seven-month period and without, frankly, you know, time to get ready.
But more generally, I'd say I?m always troubled, if we're trying to determine the adequacy of defense budgets based on real dollar levels in a particular year. I mean, I think that you need to look at the threats that we face, and they remain quite substantial, I guess complex set of security challenges is the word. And, therefore, I don't think returning to some arbitrary past number for defense makes sense.
...
Q: But there's no sense of, like, well, if this is going to happen and it's going to hurt so bad, let me give you some other options so that we all can get to this goal of, you know, deficit reduction that everyone seeks. So I'm just wondering, would that be a strategy for you guys to say, look, we're staring down the barrel here, let's do this instead, and we're cool with this, so let's do it (off mic)
UNDER SEC. HALE: Well, I mean, I think the president has made proposals; the Republicans have made proposals. I think the adjudication of those or the bargaining probably isn't -- I'm probably not the right guy to -- to be -- to be speaking to that, even though I'm intensely interested in the outcome.
?
As for how the sequester will impact the White House staff or the Congress, there aren't many details publicly available on that as yet.
On Capitol Hill, one chief of staff I spoke with yesterday said they are waiting to hear exactly how much the cuts would be for the Legislative Branch before deciding whether to institute furloughs, layoffs or pay cuts.
One lawmaker told me he has his office short on personnel right now, so he should be fine even if cuts are instituted.
Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) told a news conference in his home state Wednesday that he is returning $600,000 in funds from his office account to the Treasury, as he tries to spend less than what his office was budgeted for.
Asked about the $85 billion in automatic cuts, Paul said it was just a "pittance" from the federal budget.
One man's pittance is another man's brutal cuts.
Source: http://www.wsbradio.com/weblogs/jamie-dupree/2013/feb/20/gauging-sequesters-impact/
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Saturday, February 23, 2013
Ask Emily Bazelon Anything
Hi, I?m Emily Bazelon, a senior editor at Slate and the author of a new book, Sticks and Stones: Defeating the Culture of Bullying and Rediscovering the Power of Character and Empathy. I also teach at Yale Law School, where one of my classes is designed around comparing the ethics of lawyers and journalists. Some might call that a race to the bottom, but I try to persuade my students otherwise. I write about the Supreme Court and, when I?m lucky, TV shows like Friday Night Lights and Breaking Bad. I?m also partial to dark topics with hope at the end of the tunnel, like restitution for child pornography victims, which I wrote about for the New York Times Magazine. I love Thursdays because I get to tape the Slate Political Gabfest with John Dickerson and David Plotz. (We?re doing a live show in New York on March 21.) Oh, and when I went on The Colbert Report to talk about my book, I made Stephen Colbert cry.
?
Join me Thursday, Feb. 28, at 1 p.m. ET on?Reddit, where I?ll be happy to answer whatever questions you have about Slate, the Gabfest, my book, law school, and the thrill of being a guest on Colbert.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=d9d9107dd3aaad317e3b4662d18bedc2
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Cuba's Raul Castro raises possibility of retiring
HAVANA (AP) ? Cuban President Raul Castro has unexpectedly raised the possibility of leaving his post, saying Friday that he is old and has a right to retire. But he did not say when he might do so or if such a move was imminent.
The Cuban leader is scheduled to be named by parliament to a new five-year term Sunday, and Castro urged reporters to listen to his speech that day.
"I am going to resign," Castro said at a joint appearance with visiting Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, an enigmatic smile on his face. It was not clear whether he was joking.
"I am going to be 82 years old," Castro added. "I have the right to retire, don't you think?"
When reporters continued to shout questions about his plans for the next five years, Castro replied: "Why are you so incredulous?"
He said to listen carefully on Sunday.
"It will be an interesting speech," he said. "Pay attention."
Castro's tone was light and his comments came in informal remarks at a mausoleum dedicated to soldiers from the former Soviet Union who have died around the world.
The Cuban leader has spoken before of his desire to implement a two-term limit for all Cuban government positions, including the presidency. He has also alluded to the limited time he has left to overhaul the island's weak Marxist economy.
That has led many to speculate that this upcoming term would be his last, though term limits have never been codified into Cuban law.
In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland had no comment on Castro's remarks.
Most Havana residents had not heard about the comments, which were not shown on Cuban television, although other footage from his appearance with Medvedev was shown. Many reacted with skepticism.
"Who would they put in?" asked Marta Alvarez, a 45-year-old housewife walking through Old Havana. "But I don't think it would be now. It would happen in five years."
Castro will be 86 when his next term ends in 2018. Up until now, all eyes had been on who would emerge as Castro's first and second vice presidents during Sunday's proceedings. The positions are currently occupied by two loyal octogenarians who fought in the 1959 revolution.
Putting someone younger in one of those roles would be the first sign that Castro was settling on a potential next-generation successor, something he and his brother Fidel have never done, even as many comrades have succumbed to old age.
As far back as December 2010, Castro began to reflect on his responsibility, and that of his aging generation, to right Cuba's economy, noting that the actuarial tables leave them few remaining years.
"The time we have left is short, the task is enormous," he told lawmakers in his year-end speech that year. "I think we have an obligation ... to set (the country) on the right course."
When Raul Castro does leave the political stage, it would end more than a half century of unbroken rule by the two brothers, who came to power in 1959 at the head of a revolution against U.S.-backed strongman Fulgencio Batista.
Armando Gutierrez, a 78-year-old Cuban-American lawyer in Florida and veteran of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, said he hoped Castro wasn't joking about retiring, but doubted that whoever follows would bring true political change.
"Can you imagine 54 years?" Gutierrez said. "Not even the Roman emperors lasted that long."
Relations with the United States have been sour since shortly after the revolution. One of the key provisions of the 51-year U.S. economic embargo on Cuba stipulates that it cannot be lifted while either of the Castros is in power.
Castro has implemented a series of economic and social reforms since taking over from his ailing brother in 2006, but the island is still ruled by one party. Fidel Castro is 86 and retired, and has seemed increasingly frail in recent appearances.
The elder Castro was also visited by Medvedev, Cuban state-run media reported. Communist Party newspaper Granma reported that the two countries signed an agreement on restructuring more than $20 billion in Soviet-era debt Cuba owes.
The terms of the restructuring weren't announced. The debt has been a point of contention between Cuba and Russia for years. It was originally built up in rubles to pay the Soviet Union for services provided in the 1980s, and Cuba has questioned how much it should be worth today.
___
Associated Press journalists Camilo Losada and Anne-Marie Garcia in Havana and Christine Armario in Miami contributed to this report.
___
Follow Paul Haven on Twitter: www.twitter.com/paulhaven
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cubas-raul-castro-raises-possibility-retiring-235006986.html
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Hill-Murray football coach Mark Mauer caught in Fridley prostitution sting
Hill-Murray School's head football coach was arrested in a prostitution sting in Fridley this week.
Mark Steven Mauer, 54, was among 19 men arrested and charged with misdemeanor soliciting prostitution, police said.
Mauer, of Woodbury, is in his first year of coaching at Hill-Murray, a private Catholic prep school in Maplewood. He is the second high-profile Hill-Murray staff member to be accused of a sex-related crime in recent years.
Mauer also was a St. Paul City Council member for a brief time in the late 1990s.
A call to Mauer was not immediately returned Friday, Feb. 22. He has no previous criminal record, according to Minnesota data.
In a statement Friday, Hill-Murray President Susan Paul called Mauer's arrest
"distressing."Fridley police said four women also were arrested in the sting Monday and Tuesday at the LivInn Suites on the north side of the Anoka County suburb.
The women were cited for alleged prostitution.
The sting was staged by undercover officers on online sites such as Backpage.com. Fridley police say they conduct about two such stings a year and have increased such efforts as the sex trade has evolved on the Internet.
According to the police report, Mauer arrived at the hotel about 7:30 p.m. and met with a female undercover officer. Mauer verbally agreed to pay the woman $100 for a half-hour of "full service," the report said.
Mauer then told the woman he left his money in the car
and had to go get it, police said. He was arrested when he left the room.When questioned, Mauer reportedly told police he was just "messing around" and didn't intend to return to the room.
According to the report, Mauer said "he has done this a couple times in the past, where he calls women and then leaves without doing anything."
Police said he had with him $100 and a bottle of unmarked pills that Mauer said were Viagra, a prescription drug used to treat impotence.
Mauer, a cousin of Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer, is a former St. Paul Harding High School and University of Nebraska quarterback who played in the 1982 Orange Bowl.
Mauer previously was the head coach at Concordia University of St. Paul. He stepped down after the 2010 season to pursue business interests, ending seven years at the school.
He also had previously coached at Wisconsin, New Mexico State, Ball State and North Dakota State.
Mauer worked at the family business, Mauer Chevrolet in Inver Grove Heights, for a year before Hill-Murray athletics director Bill Lechner called him with a job offer.
Mauer accepted the job in May 2012 -- his first high school coaching position.
In 1997, Mauer was appointed to the St. Paul City Council to
Feb. 2013 courtesy photo of Mark Steven Mauer, 54, of Woodbury. Mauer, Hill-Murray's head football coach, was arrested for soliciting prostitution in Fridley on Feb. 19, 2013. Photo courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff's Department.
fill a vacancy when his former boss, 7th Ward council member Dino Guerin, was elected to the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners with one year of his third council term remaining. Mauer had been Guerin's aide for five years.After four weeks as a council member, Mauer resigned to become an assistant head football coach at North Dakota State University.
In 2010, Hill-Murray's then-president Joseph Peschges was arrested after a sting at Crosby Farm Regional Park, off Shepard Road in St. Paul, during which a male undercover officer reported that Peschges touched him in the groin area, over his clothing.
Peschges, who was relieved of his duties at Hill-Murray, was cited with misdemeanor indecent conduct. He was placed on probation for a year. In 2011, after meeting conditions of probation, the charge was dismissed.
Lechner told the Pioneer Press on Friday that he had little information about the allegations against Mauer and deferred to Hill-Murray's administration on the matter.
In her statement, Paul, the school president, said:
"I want to share with you some distressing news regarding our school and make you aware of an alleged incident involving Hill-Murray staff member and head football coach, Mark Mauer, that is being reported in the press.
"I want to be clear that this incident is not related in any way to Hill-Murray, our students or Mr. Mauer's work responsibilities. Nor will this incident affect the high quality education that our families expect at Hill-Murray School. We ask for your prayers for all members of the Hill-Murray School community."
Elizabeth Mohr can be reached at 651-228-5162. Follow her at twitter.com/LizMohr.
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Friday, February 22, 2013
3 British men convicted in terrorist bomb plot
This undated photo made available by West Midlands Police shows, left to right, Irfan Khalid, Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali, all from Birmingham, England, who were today found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of being "central figures" in a terrorist bomb plot, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The three young British Muslims were convicted Thursday of plotting terrorist bombings that prosecutors said were intended to be bigger than the 2005 London transit attacks. A London jury found Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, guilty of being central figures in the foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas ? attacks potentially deadlier than the July 7, 2005 explosions on subway trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters. Judge Richard Henriques told the men ? who had been arrested in September 2011 ? they will all face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May for plotting a major terrorist attack in Birmingham, a city of roughly 1 million people located 120 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) northwest of London. (AP Photo/West Midlands Police)
This undated photo made available by West Midlands Police shows, left to right, Irfan Khalid, Irfan Naseer and Ashik Ali, all from Birmingham, England, who were today found guilty at Woolwich Crown Court of being "central figures" in a terrorist bomb plot, Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013. The three young British Muslims were convicted Thursday of plotting terrorist bombings that prosecutors said were intended to be bigger than the 2005 London transit attacks. A London jury found Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, guilty of being central figures in the foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas ? attacks potentially deadlier than the July 7, 2005 explosions on subway trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters. Judge Richard Henriques told the men ? who had been arrested in September 2011 ? they will all face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May for plotting a major terrorist attack in Birmingham, a city of roughly 1 million people located 120 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) northwest of London. (AP Photo/West Midlands Police)
This undated photo made available by West Midlands Police shows a clock purchased as a timing device found in the safe house in White Street, Birmingham, England. Three young British Muslims were convicted Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013, of plotting terrorist bombings that prosecutors said were intended to be bigger than the 2005 London transit attacks. A London jury found Irfan Naseer, 31, and Irfan Khalid and Ashik Ali, both 27, guilty of being central figures in the foiled plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded areas ? attacks potentially deadlier than the July 7, 2005 explosions on subway trains and a bus which killed 52 commuters. Judge Richard Henriques told the men ? who had been arrested in September 2011 ? they will all face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May for plotting a major terrorist attack in Birmingham, a city of roughly 1 million people located 120 miles (nearly 200 kilometers) northwest of London. (AP Photo/West Midlands Police)
LONDON (AP) ? They were very ordinary would-be terrorists, with big plans but bad luck.
On Thursday, a London jury convicted the three young British men of being ringleaders of an al-Qaida-inspired plot to explode knapsack bombs in crowded parts of Birmingham, England's second-largest city. The men had pleaded not guilty, but were recorded discussing plans for attacks that one said would be "another 9/11."
The trial exposed how the trio ? Ashik Ali, 27; Irfan Khalid, also 27; and 31-year-old Irfan "Chubbs" Naseer ? were foiled by a mix of police intelligence, personal incompetence, and lousy luck as they tried to spread terror.
They attempted to recruit others to their cause, but four young men they dispatched to Pakistan for training were sent home within days when the family of one man found out. Those four have since pleaded guilty to terrorism-related offenses.
The plotters initially raised cash as street collectors for Muslim charities. But when Rahin Ahmed, an alleged co-conspirator described as the cell's "chief financier," tried to boost the group's budget on the financial markets, he lost the bulk of the funds through his "unwise and incompetent" trading, prosecutor Brian Altman said.
Among the pieces of evidence at the four-month trial was a sports injury cool pack, which prosecutors said Naseer had mistakenly believed would contain ammonium nitrate, a key bomb-making ingredient.
The group considered a variety of outlandish attacks, including tying sharp blades to the front of a truck and driving it into a crowd. Naseer was heard talking about the possibility of mixing poison into creams such as Vaseline or Nivea and smearing them on car handles to cause mass deaths.
Despite the amateurish nature of some of their efforts, officials said the group was serious about sowing chaos.
The men were "the real deal" and, if successful, would have perpetrated "another 9/11 or another 7/7 in the U.K.," said Detective Inspector Adam Gough, the case's senior investigating officer, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, which killed nearly 3,000 people, as well as the July 7, 2005, London transit bombings, which killed 52 commuters.
Prosecutors described the men as a home-grown terror cell inspired by the anti-Western sermons of U.S.-born Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in Yemen in a U.S. drone strike in September 2011.
Among evidence found by investigators was a partially burned note written by Naseer detailing how to make what an expert witness said would have been a viable bomb ? although no evidence of such an explosive was recovered.
Prosecutors said the men ultimately gravitated toward a plan to detonate up to eight knapsack bombs ? either on timers or in suicide attacks ? in a bid to bring mass carnage to Birmingham.
Judge Richard Henriques told the men they face life in prison when sentences are imposed in April or May. "It's clear that you were planning a terrorist outrage," he said at London's Woolwich Crown Court.
Police said the terrorist conspiracy was the most significant uncovered in Britain since a plot to blow up airliners in mid-air was foiled in 2006. However, no specific targets had been chosen and no bombs built when the men were arrested in a police swoop in September 2011. Twelve suspects were arrested in all, several of whom have pleaded guilty to terrorism offenses.
Prosecutors traced the plot's origins to Naseer and Khalid, who had traveled to Pakistan for terror training and learned details of poisons, bomb-making and weaponry. The pair also made "martyrdom videos" justifying their planned attacks.
On their return to England in July 2011, prosecutors said they began their recruitment and fundraising drive, and also began experimenting with chemicals, aided by Naseer's university degree in pharmacy.
Fatally for the plot, by mid-2011 the men were under surveillance by police and the intelligence services. Their car was followed and their safe house bugged.
Naseer was recorded talking about knapsack bombs going "boom, boom, boom everywhere," while Khalid said the attack would be "revenge for everything, what we're doing is another 9/11."
On the recordings, the trio spoke of themselves as martyrs and jihadi warriors ? but also, tellingly, compared themselves to the hapless protagonists of the 2010 British comedy film "Four Lions," which tells the story of four clueless jihadists whose attempts to wage holy war degenerate into tragic farce. In the movie the bombs go off.
Ali was recorded saying to his ex-wife: "Oh, you think this is a flipping 'Four Lions.' We're one man short."
Raffaello Pantucci, a terrorism expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said the foiled plot bore the hallmarks of a decentralized al-Qaida, in which local cells operate independently, often after receiving rudimentary training.
He said that "the time spent training foreign fighters by al-Qaida or affiliated networks is now being constrained because there is the threat of drone strikes" on the Pakistan-Afghan border.
"The command and control element is drawing back," he said. "It has a negative impact on their capacity to launch attacks because people aren't being trained as well. There is sometimes a clownish element to it."
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Al-Qaida tipsheet on avoiding drones found in Mali
TIMBUKTU, Mali (AP) ? One of the last things the bearded fighters did before leaving this city was to drive to the market where traders lay their carpets out in the sand.
The al-Qaida extremists bypassed the brightly colored, high-end synthetic floor coverings and stopped their pickup truck in front of a man selling more modest mats woven from desert grass, priced at $1.40 apiece. There they bought two bales of 25 mats each, and asked him to bundle them on top of the car, along with a stack of sticks.
"It's the first time someone has bought such a large amount," said the mat seller, Leitny Cisse al-Djoumat. "They didn't explain why they wanted so many."
Military officials can tell why: The fighters are stretching the mats across the tops of their cars on poles to form natural carports, so that drones cannot detect them from the air.
The instruction to camouflage cars is one of 22 tips on how to avoid drones, listed on a document left behind by the Islamic extremists as they fled northern Mali from a French military intervention last month. A Xeroxed copy of the document, which was first published on a jihadist forum two years ago, was found by The Associated Press in a manila envelope on the floor of a building here occupied by al-Qaida of the Islamic Maghreb.
The tipsheet reflects how al-Qaida's chapter in North Africa anticipated a military intervention that would make use of drones, as the battleground in the war on terror worldwide is shifting from boots on the ground to unmanned planes in the air. The presence of the document in Mali, first authored by a Yemeni, also shows the coordination between al-Qaida chapters, which security experts have called a source of increasing concern.
"This new document... shows we are no longer dealing with an isolated local problem, but with an enemy which is reaching across continents to share advice," said Bruce Riedel, a 30-year veteran of the CIA, now the director of the Intelligence Project at the Brookings Institution.
The tips in the document range from the broad (No. 7, hide from being directly or indirectly spotted, especially at night) to the specific (No 18, formation of fake gatherings, for example by using dolls and statues placed outside false ditches to mislead the enemy.) The use of the mats appears to be a West African twist on No. 3, which advises camouflaging the tops of cars and the roofs of buildings, possibly by spreading reflective glass.
While some of the tips are outdated or far-fetched, taken together, they suggest the Islamists in Mali are responding to the threat of drones with sound, common-sense advice that may help them to melt into the desert in between attacks, leaving barely a trace.
"These are not dumb techniques. It shows that they are acting pretty astutely," said Col. Cedric Leighton, a 26-year-veteran of the United States Air Force, who helped set up the Predator drone program, which later tracked Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. "What it does is, it buys them a little bit more time ? and in this conflict, time is key. And they will use it to move away from an area, from a bombing raid, and do it very quickly."
The success of some of the tips will depend on the circumstances and the model of drones used, Leighton said. For example, from the air, where perceptions of depth become obfuscated, an imagery sensor would interpret a mat stretched over the top of a car as one lying on the ground, concealing the vehicle.
New models of drones, such as the Harfung used by the French or the MQ-9 "Reaper," sometimes have infrared sensors that can pick up the heat signature of a car whose engine has just been shut off. However, even an infrared sensor would have trouble detecting a car left under a mat tent overnight, so that its temperature is the same as on the surrounding ground, Leighton said.
Unarmed drones are already being used by the French in Mali to collect intelligence on al-Qaida groups, and U.S. officials have said plans are underway to establish a new drone base in northwestern Africa. The U.S. recently signed a "status of forces agreement" with Niger, one of the nations bordering Mali, suggesting the drone base may be situated there and would be primarily used to gather intelligence to help the French.
The author of the tipsheet found in Timbuktu is Abdallah bin Muhammad, the nom de guerre for a senior commander of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based branch of the terror network. The document was first published in Arabic on an extremist website on June 2, 2011, a month after bin Laden's death, according to Mathieu Guidere, a professor at the University of Toulouse. Guidere runs a database of statements by extremist groups, including al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, and he reviewed and authenticated the document found by the AP.
The tipsheet is still little known, if at all, in English, though it has been republished at least three times in Arabic on other jihadist forums after drone strikes took out U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki in Yemen in September 2011 and al-Qaida second-in-command Abu Yahya al-Libi in Pakistan in June 2012. It was most recently issued two weeks ago on another extremist website after plans for the possible U.S. drone base in Niger began surfacing, Guidere said.
"This document supports the fact that they knew there are secret U.S. bases for drones, and were preparing themselves," he said. "They were thinking about this issue for a long time."
The idea of hiding under trees to avoid drones, which is tip No. 10, appears to be coming from the highest levels of the terror network. In a letter written by bin Laden and first published by the U.S. Center for Combating Terrorism, the terror mastermind instructs his followers to deliver a message to Abdelmalek Droukdel, the head of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, whose fighters have been active in Mali for at least a decade.
"I want the brothers in the Islamic Maghreb to know that planting trees helps the mujahedeen and gives them cover," bin Laden writes in the missive. "Trees will give the mujahedeen the freedom to move around especially if the enemy sends spying aircrafts to the area."
Hiding under trees is exactly what the al-Qaida fighters did in Mali, according to residents in Diabaly, the last town they took before the French stemmed their advance last month. Just after French warplanes incinerated rebel cars that had been left outside, the fighters began to commandeer houses with large mango trees and park their four-by-fours in the shade of their rubbery leaves.
Hamidou Sissouma, a schoolteacher, said the Islamists chose his house because of its generous trees, and rammed their trucks through his earthen wall to drive right into his courtyard. Another resident showed the gash the occupiers had made in his mango tree by parking their pickup too close to the trunk.
In Timbuktu also, fighters hid their cars under trees, and disembarked from them in a hurry when they were being chased, in accordance with tip No. 13.
Moustapha al-Housseini, an appliance repairman, was outside his shop fixing a client's broken radio on the day the aerial bombardments began. He said he heard the sound of the planes and saw the Islamists at almost the same moment. Abou Zeid, the senior al-Qaida emir in the region, rushed to jam his car under a pair of tamarind trees outside the store.
"He and his men got out of the car and dove under the awning," said al-Housseini. "As for what I did? Me and my employees? We also ran. As fast as we could."
Along with the grass mats, the al-Qaida men in Mali made creative use of another natural resource to hide their cars: Mud.
Asse Ag Imahalit, a gardener at a building in Timbuktu, said he was at first puzzled to see that the fighters sleeping inside the compound sent for large bags of sugar every day. Then, he said, he observed them mixing the sugar with dirt, adding water and using the sticky mixture to "paint" their cars. Residents said the cars of the al-Qaida fighters are permanently covered in mud.
The drone tipsheet, discovered in the regional tax department occupied by Abou Zeid, shows how familiar al-Qaida has become with drone attacks, which have allowed the U.S. to take out senior leaders in the terrorist group without a messy ground battle. The preface and epilogue of the tipsheet make it clear that al-Qaida well realizes the advantages of drones: They are relatively cheap in terms of money and lives, alleviating "the pressure of American public opinion."
Ironically, the first drone attack on an al-Qaida figure in 2002 took out the head of the branch in Yemen ? the same branch that authored the document found in Mali, according to Riedel. Drones began to be used in Iraq in 2006 and in Pakistan in 2007, but it wasn't until 2009 that they became a hallmark of the war on terror, he said.
"Since we do not want to put boots on the ground in places like Mali, they are certain to be the way of the future," he said. "They are already the future."
__
Associated Press writers Baba Ahmed in Timbuktu, Mali, Robert Burns in Washington and Dalatou Mamane in Niamey, Niger contributed to this report.
The document can be seen in Arabic and English at http://hosted.ap.org/specials/interactives/_international/_pdfs/al-qaida-papers-drones.pdf.
___
Rukmini Callimachi can be reached at www.twitter.com/rcallimachi
Baba Ahmed can be reached at www.twitter.com/babahmed1
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/al-qaida-tipsheet-avoiding-drones-found-mali-173015912.html
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Thursday, February 21, 2013
NY Times again prepares to sell Boston Globe
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that it is putting The Boston Globe and its related assets up for sale four years after it called off a previous attempt to sell the newspaper.
Mark Thompson, the Times' chief executive, said in a statement a sale would be in the best long-term interests of both properties, "given the differences between these businesses and The New York Times."
Thompson said the sale would help the company concentrate its attention and investments on The New York Times' brand.
The newspapers' differences are stark. The Times has a national ? even international ? audience, and has been adding digital subscribers at a rapid clip. Last year, it launched a Chinese-language website and has a loyal, growing subscriber base in the U.S.
Meanwhile, the Globe is focused on its readers in the New England region, and while its digital subscriptions have been increasing, analysts believe they aren't rising fast enough to be meaningful. The Globe had 28,000 digital subscribers at the end of 2012, up 8 percent from three months earlier.
In comparison, the Times and International Herald Tribune had 640,000 paying subscribers online, up 13 percent over three months.
Analyst John Janedis of UBS said in a research note that the sale has been expected for years and "will allow NYT to focus on the core brand as it attempts to further build out its digital platform."
He estimated that the Globe earned about $37.5 million in profits before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization on $375 million in revenue.
Janedis said the sale could bring in $150 million to $175 million, not including pension liabilities or the value of the Globe's headquarters.
Along with the Globe, the Times plans to sell the Worcester Telegram & Gazette; the publications' related websites; the Globe's direct mail marketing company, GlobeDirect; and a 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper for commuters.
Led by Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the Times Co. is controlled by a family trust whose trustees are the descendants of Adolph Ochs, who bought the newspaper in 1896. The trust holds 90 percent of the non-traded Class B stock that is required to elect a majority of the board.
The Times bought the Globe in 1993 for $1.1 billion from the family of Stephen Taylor, a former Globe executive. But the newspaper has faced difficulties in recent years as advertisers cut spending on newspapers and moved more ads online.
A round of cost cutting in 2009, which involved pay cuts, helped put the newspaper on better financial footing. It prompted the Times to call off a planned sale and rebuff the offers of several bidders. In late 2011, the Globe started charging for access to its online version at BostonGlobe.com. The move helped boost circulation revenues.
Times doesn't separate Globe revenue from Times revenue in its financial statements. But the Globe had an average weekday circulation of 230,351 in the six months through September, up 12 percent from a year ago, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The newspaper's increase in digital subscriptions more than offset declines in print. But the total is still down significantly from the nearly 413,000 it boasted in September 2002.
Wednesday's announcement follows the sale of several Times assets recently.
In September, the newspaper company sold its About.com website and related businesses for $300 million to Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp. In January 2012, the Times sold its regional media group to Halifax Media Holdings for $143 million.
Asset sales helped triple net income in the final quarter of 2012 to $176.9 million, or $1.14 per share, as revenue grew 5 percent to $575.8 million. Without the sales, earnings per share would have fallen.
Analyst Edward Atorino with The Benchmark Co. said he views the sale as part of a strategy by the Ochs-Sulzberger family that controls the Times Co. to delist as a public company and go private.
"They're selling everything not nailed down," Atorino said. "The family will simply take the Times private. That's the only logical end game."
The Times Co.'s stock has fallen precipitously in recent years from above $50 in 2002 to around $4 during the depths of the recession in 2009. Since then, the stock has recovered somewhat, closing down 4 cents at $9.03 on Wednesday shortly after news of the sale broke.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ny-times-again-prepares-sell-boston-globe-225439854--finance.html
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Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Multimillion-dollar diamond heist at Brussels airport
BRUSSELS (AP) ? Eight armed and masked men made a hole in a security fence at Brussels' international airport, drove onto the tarmac and snatched millions of dollars' worth of diamonds from the hold of a Swiss-bound plane without firing a shot, authorities said Tuesday.
The gang used two vehicles in their daring raid Monday, grabbed the cache of stones and sped off into the darkness, said Anja Bijnens, spokeswoman for the Brussels prosecutor's office.
Police found a burnt-out vehicle close to the airport later Monday night and said they were still looking for clues.
The heist was estimated at some $50 million in diamonds, said Caroline De Wolf of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
"What we are talking about is obviously a gigantic sum," De Wolf told VRT network.
An airport spokesman said the robbers made a hole in the perimeter fence and drove up to the Swiss passenger plane, which was ready to leave. The robbers got out of the car, flashed their weapons and took the loot from the hold, said airport spokesman Jan Van Der Crujsse. Without firing a shot they drove off through the same hole in the fence, completing the spectacular theft within minutes, he said.
Van Der Crujsse could not explain how the area could be so vulnerable to theft. "We abide by the most stringent rules," he said.
The Swiss flight, bound for Zurich and operated by Helvetic Airways, was canceled. Swiss, an affiliate of Germany's Deutsche Lufthansa AG, declined to comment on the heist, citing the ongoing judicial investigation.
The insurance for air transport ? handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies ? is usually relatively cheap because it's considered to be the safest way of transporting small high value items, logistics experts say.
Unlike a car or a truck, an airplane cannot be attacked by robbers once it's on its way, and it is considered to be very safe before the departure and after the plane's arrival because the aircraft is always within the confines of an airport ? which are normally highly secured.
Philip Baum, an aviation security consultant in Britain, said the robbery was worrying ? not because the fence was breached, but because the response did not appear to have been immediate. That, he said, raised questions as to whether alarms were ringing in the right places.
"It does seem very worrying that someone can actually have the time to drive two vehicles onto the airport, effect the robbery, and drive out without being intercepted," Baum said.
That amount of time would also allow someone to board the plane, he said.
A decade ago the Belgian city of Antwerp, the world capital of diamond-cutting, was the scene of what was probably one of the biggest diamond heists in history, when robbers took precious stones, jewels, gold and securities from the high-security vaults at Antwerp's Diamond Center, yielding loot that police in 2003 estimated to be worth about $100 million.
Antwerp's Diamond Center stands in the heart of the high-surveillance diamond district where police and dozens of cameras work around the clock, and security has been beefed up further since the spectacular 2003 robbery.
___
Juergen Baetz and Don Melvin contributed to this report from Brussels.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/multimillion-dollar-diamond-heist-brussels-105956646.html
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Wives Of Denzel Washington And Samuel Jackson Team Up To Do A Play In Southwest Atlanta
"Two Trains" Take Duo Of Wives Out Of Their Husbands' Shadows
Director LaTanya Richardson Jackson and actress Pauletta Washington are working together on the August Wilson play ?Two Trains Running,? which will be at Kenny Leon?s True Colors Theatre in the Southwest Arts Center through March 10. The two women have husbands whose careers have a higher profile: Samuel L. Jackson and Denzel Washington
But the reasons their husbands are better known, both say, are due in part to willing choices each woman made and stinging choices made for them. They discussed those decisions before a rehearsal last week at the arts center.
Though both are classically trained and saw early momentum in their stage careers, in the early years of their careers the big, breakout film and television roles never seemed to go to darker-skinned, shapely women such as them.
?I always have felt a bit bitter that the industry didn?t recognize the pure talent because they are looking for superficial things,? Washington said, as she gestured to Richardson Jackson, though in some ways she was speaking for herself as well.
But both women put voluntary brakes on their careers after they began having children. Two traveling actors can?t make a stable home, they said.
Source: http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2013/02/wives-of-denzel-washington-and-samuel.html
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Saoirse Ronan has tech glitches during Google+ hangout
After Justin Bieber?s hyped Ustream session on Grammy night failed, ?The Lovely Bones? star Saoirse Ronan had some tech glitches during a Google+ hangout with ?Twilight? creator Stephenie Meyer. ?Oh, [bleep]!? Ronan was heard saying as she joined the chat late while a trailer for her highly anticipated Meyer film ?The Host? began. Meyer was at Google?s headquarters while Ronan beamed in from the set of Wes Anderson?s ?Grand Budapest Hotel,? co-starring Bill Murray and Jude Law, at the Savoy Hotel in London. After answering a few questions, the red-headed Ronan announced she didn?t have her laptop charger, so she?d be falling out of the hangout.
AFP/Getty Images
Saoirse Ronan
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Saturday, February 16, 2013
Movie review: Love endures the worst in powerful 'Amour' | The Salt ...
This film image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Jean-Louis Trintignant in a scene from the Austrian film, "Amour." (AP Photo/Sony Pictures Classics, File)
Review ? Two French legends provide great performances.
In "Amour," the Austrian writer-director Michael Haneke ? infamous for the cruelty he inflicts on his characters in films such as "Funny Games," "Cache" and "The White Ribbon" ? finally meets a subject more brutal than he is: growing old.
The result is a haunting drama, precise in its chilling details, and showcasing powerfully painful performances by two legends of French film.
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?Amour?
Two legends of French film partner for director Michael Haneke?s tough portrait of an elderly couple facing their toughest moments together.
Where ? Broadway Centre Cinemas.
When ? Opens Friday, Feb. 15.
Rating ? PG-13 for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and for brief language.
Running time ? 127 minutes; in French with subtitles.
It begins, as things like this usually do, with something small. Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), married music teachers in their 80s, are eating lunch together and talking about the usual stuff. Then, for a minute, Anne goes blank, unresponsive to Georges? voice or touch. She snaps out of it and tries to continue as normal.
But nothing will be normal from now on.
Visits to doctors reveal that Anne?s body is deteriorating. Gradually, she?s unable to walk, or talk normally, or do the little things she used to do easily. As Anne?s physical condition grows worse, it takes its toll on her emotional state ? and on Georges? ability to cope.
This is what Haneke means, in the film?s acidly ironic title, by love. It?s not the easy, carefree love of Georges and Anne?s early days, when they shared their music and love for their daughter (played as an adult living abroad by Isabelle Huppert). This is love when it?s the hardest, when one person is entirely at the mercy of the other?s care, when only love keeps either person from feeling resentment or anger at the situation into which they are locked.
With any other director, this material could easily sink into sentimental quicksand. But Haneke?s astringent script and direction, so meticulously focused on the harrowing details of Anne?s debilitation and Georges? frustration, keep sentimentality at arm?s length. As a result, the movie is a gut-punch, all the way to the end.
The performances are heartwrenching. Riva, who first tasted fame with Alain Resnais? 1959 classic "Hiroshima Mon Amour," earns her late-in-life Oscar nomination by unflinchingly portraying Anne?s physical decline and her fierce anger at her body?s betrayal.
Trintignant (whose career ranges from "A Man and a Woman" to Costa-Gavras? "Z" to "Three Colors: Red") matches Riva in intensity as Georges endures his wife?s growing pain and humiliation. Together, they create a portrait of love ? patient, kind and self-sacrificing ? worthy of the film?s title.
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Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/entertainment2/55751223-223/anne-love-georges-amour.html.csp
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Friday, February 15, 2013
Near-Earth asteroid makes preview appearance
Feb. 14, 2013 ? Like trailers for the coming attraction, new images show asteroid 2012 DA14 on its way to a record-close approach to Earth on Feb. 15. One image, taken by amateur astronomer Dave Herald of Murrumbateman, Australia, on Feb. 13, shows the asteroid as a tiny white dot in the field of view. Another set of animated images, obtained by the Faulkes Telescope South in Siding Springs, Australia, on Feb. 14, and animated by the Remanzacco Observatory in Italy, shows the asteroid as a bright spot moving across the night sky.
These are some of many images that may be taken of the asteroid during its close -- but safe -- encounter with Earth. It will be observed by numerous optical observatories worldwide in an attempt to determine its rough shape, spin rate and composition. NASA scientists will use NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar, located in California's Mojave Desert, to take radar images of the asteroid to determine its precise size and shape on Feb. 16, 18, 19 and 20. The NASA Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program will continue to track the asteroid and predict its future orbit.
Asteroid 2012 DA14 is about 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter. It is expected to fly about 17,200 miles (27,000 kilometers) above Earth's surface at the time of closest approach, which is about 11:25 a.m. PST (2:25 p.m. EST) on Feb. 15. This distance is well away from Earth and the swarm of low Earth-orbiting satellites, including the International Space Station, but it is inside the belt of satellites in geostationary orbit (about 22,200 miles, or 35,800 kilometers, above Earth's surface.) The flyby of 2012 DA14 is the closest-ever predicted approach to Earth for an object this large.
The NASA Near Earth Object Observation (NEOO) Program detects and tracks asteroids and comets passing close to Earth using ground- and space-based telescopes. The network of projects supported by this program, commonly called "Spaceguard," discovers these objects, characterizes a subset of them and plots their orbits to determine if any could be potentially hazardous to our planet.
The Near-Earth Object Program Office at JPL manages the technical and scientific activities for NASA's Near-Earth Object Observation Program of the Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL is a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. The NEOO Program Office performs more precise orbit determination on the objects, and predicts whether any will become an impact hazard to Earth, or any other planet in the solar system.
More information is available at: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/asteroidflyby.html .
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/astronomy/~3/pxHUfr2QdGE/130214111111.htm
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Oil Basins Limited (ASX:OBL) New Equity Research Report prepared by Gordon Capital
Melbourne, Feb 15, 2013 (ABN Newswire) - Oil Basins Limited (
ASX:OBL) wishes to make the following announcement as a matter of record.
ASX:OBL) wishes to make the following announcement as a matter of record.A new research report prepared by Gordon Capital is available at the Shareholder Centre / Research section of the Company's website www.oilbasins.com.au
About Gordon Capital
Gordon Capital assists small and micro-cap companies in telling their story to and connecting with the investment community. More specifically, they provide ongoing research support for companies without broker coverage and distribute this research widely through the investment community to advisers, analysts and small cap fund managers.
About Oil Basins Limited
Oil Basins Limited (ASX:OBL) is engaged in the investment in selected exploration production and development opportunities in the upstream oil and gas sector. Oil Basins Limited was listed on the ASX on 23 August 2006 and is involved in exploration for oil and gas initially in the offshore Gippsland Basin waters of south-eastern Australia and the onshore Canning Basin of Western Australia. Since listing the Company has increased its leverage across all of its assets and has increased its exposure to attractive and prospective areas with the Canning Basin.
Source: http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/74686/
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Thursday, February 14, 2013
'A drop of ink on the luminous sky:' Wide Field Imager snaps cosmic gecko
Feb. 11, 2013 ? This part of the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer) is one of the richest star fields in the whole sky -- the Large Sagittarius Star Cloud. The huge number of stars that light up this region dramatically emphasise the blackness of dark clouds like Barnard 86, which appears at the centre of this new picture from the Wide Field Imager, an instrument mounted on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile.
This object, a small, isolated dark nebula known as a Bok globule [1], was described as "a drop of ink on the luminous sky" by its discoverer Edward Emerson Barnard [2], an American astronomer who discovered and photographed numerous comets, dark nebulae, one of Jupiter's moons, and made many other contributions. An exceptional visual observer and keen astrophotographer, Barnard was the first to use long-exposure photography to explore dark nebulae.
Through a small telescope Barnard 86 looks like a dearth of stars, or a window onto a patch of distant, clearer sky. However, this object is actually in the foreground of the star field -- a cold, dark, dense cloud made up of small dust grains that block starlight and make the region appear opaque. It is thought to have formed from the remnants of a molecular cloud that collapsed to form the nearby star cluster NGC 6520, seen just to the left of Barnard 86 in this image.
NGC 6520 is an open star cluster that contains many hot stars that glow bright blue-white, a telltale sign of their youth. Open clusters usually contain a few thousand stars that all formed at the same time, giving them all the same age. Such clusters usually only live comparatively short lives, on the order of several hundred million years, before drifting apart.
The incredible number of stars in this area of the sky muddles observations of this cluster, making it difficult to learn much about it. NGC 6520's age is thought to be around 150 million years, and both this star cluster and its dusty neighbour are thought to lie at a distance of around 6000 light-years from our Sun.
The stars that appear to be within Barnard 86 in the image above are in fact in front of it, lying between us and the dark cloud. Although it is not certain whether this is still happening within Barnard 86, many dark nebulae are known to have new stars forming in their centres -- as seen in the famous Horsehead Nebula, the striking object Lupus 3 (eso1303) and to a lesser extent in another of Barnard's discoveries, the Pipe Nebula. However, the light from the youngest stars is blocked by the surrounding dusty regions, and they can only be seen in infrared or longer-wavelength light.
[1] Bok globules were first observed in the 1940s by astronomer Bart Bok. They are very cold, dark clouds of gas and dust that often have new stars forming at their centres. These globules are rich in dust that scatters and absorbs background light, so they are almost opaque to visible light.
[2] This quotation comes from E. E. Barnard, Dark Regions in the Sky Suggesting an Obscuration of Light, Yerkes Observatory, Nov 15 1913.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/FBUs8Ko5NX0/130213082424.htm
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Senate GOP blocks Hagel vote for now
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans have, for now, blocked Chuck Hagel's nomination to become defense secretary.
The Senate came up two votes short of the 60 needed to move Hagel's nomination forward as lawmakers prepare to leave town for a week's break. Democrats hold a 55-45 edge in the Senate.
Republicans had been blocking the confirmation of their former colleague from Nebraska who is a Vietnam veteran until they received information from the White House on President Barack Obama's actions during the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya.
The White House responded to that request earlier Thursday, saying Obama spoke with Libyans a day after the attack.
Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HAGEL_SENATE_VOTE?SITE=ORROS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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Kimberly's A.J. Klein likes chances in NFL
Green Bay - Mobile quarterbacks have been multiplying at an unprecedented rate. The spread offense has become more default than novelty. Not to mention the read option, the pistol and whatever else the mad scientists in college football are creating next.
That's why A.J. Klein is eager for the next step. Teams need linebackers like him.
They need intelligent, fast, read-and-react players in the heart of their defense. So this off-season with the hunt for Kaepernick and RGIII antidotes at an all-time high, maybe general managers are steered toward Kimberly, Wis.
That's where they'll find Klein, a three-year starter at Iowa State.
"In this day and age," Klein said, "linebackers need to be reflections of the skill positions on the offensive side of the ball. You have to be fast. You have to be mobile. You have to play with your head and make quick decisions."
At Iowa State, Klein faced the spread weekly. From a Heisman Trophy winner (Robert Griffin III) to a Heisman Trophy finalist (Collin Klein) to a potential No. 1 overall pick (Geno Smith) to an always-potent Oklahoma attack, defenses were stretched thin in the conference. Linebackers were challenged. Kimberly's Klein - projected as a top-five inside linebacker - could be one early-round option for the Green Bay Packers and others.
When he watches the NFL, Klein sees the Big 12 game translating. He said football in general has evolved into a game of speed that "puts a lot of pressure on the linebackers."
The Cyclones were hot and cold, usually a gear behind the Big 12 competition. But Klein hopes his three years in the eye of this storm pay off.
"I'm fast and physical but at the same time, I play the game with technique and a sense of finesse that comes with the part of the game you have to think," Klein said. "I move to the ball well. When people watch me play, it just seems like it's natural for me. Nothing seems forced."
Through his three years as the starter, Klein amassed 344 tackles (19 for loss) and his four interceptions returned for touchdowns tied an NCAA record for a linebacker. He finished as a two-time all-Big 12 player and was the 2011 co-defensive player of the year.
The light bulb came on after his sophomore season. Klein admits he didn't know the entire playbook. It was a "week-to-week thing." He said he took "baby steps."
That following spring, Klein needed to make some changes.
"I took on a whole new personality," Klein said. "I kind of re-evaluated my goals, my mind-set and said, 'Hey, coming into my junior year, I want to be a difference-maker on this team. I want to be a leader.' . . . That's when the game really started slowing down for me from a mental standpoint."
This is what will make Klein different, his coach says. Mentally, defensive coordinator Wally Burnham believes Klein is a cut above. Burnham, who has coached more than 40 years, working with the likes of Deion Sanders and Derrick Brooks in college, called Klein one of the smartest players he has ever coached.
During games, the two always discussed adjustments. Burnham said Klein "religiously" studied the stances of offensive linemen and the pre-snap tendencies of running backs. During the week, he lived at the facility. In his four years, Klein missed only two practices. And even then - with bronchitis and a 103-degree temperature - Klein was on the sideline with his teammates to absorb the game plan for Iowa State's bowl game against Tulsa.
In the 31-17 loss, Klein had 19 tackles.
To gain a mental edge and keep pace in the Big 12, he was always around. In this sense, Burnham says Klein is similar to Brooks, the 11-time Pro Bowl player.
"Derrick was a very cerebral player," Burnham said. "He was a very smart kid. They compare that way really well. A.J. was a lot bigger. When I coached Derrick, he was 220, 225. A.J. is 245. They have different styles but are both really sharp kids."
In the Big 12, Klein faced a full menu of rocket-armed, dizzying quarterbacks. He did not face many smashmouth offenses. This will be his adjustment.
"They're going to run the ball a little bit more up there than they do here, so getting off blocks and using his hands a little bit better," Burnham said. "He's got good feet and has good hips. But I'm sure he's going to get bigger and stronger up top. I can see that as something he'll really need to do as far as getting better right now to make an impact at the next level early."
Klein has talked to the Packers as well as several other teams. Growing up 20 miles from Green Bay, he was, naturally, a Packers fan. He watched A.J. Hawk and Nick Barnett closely as well as several other linebackers. The classic thumper - ramming into a line without a conscience - won't go extinct. After all, both of this year's Super Bowl teams featured power rushing attacks.
But today, the nimble, smart linebacker is a must. Griffin III isn't just fast. He's "super fast," Klein said. For three years, Klein faced the nation's best quarterbacks.
Now this Wisconsinite heads to the pros.
"When it comes to the mental part of the game, I think I can separate myself from a lot of people," Klein said. "I enjoy playing football. I have a passion for it. People say that, but for me, it's been a big part of my life."
Source: http://www.jsonline.com/sports/packers/kimberlys-klein-likes-chances-in-nfl-868p4km-191136221.html
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