By Carey Gillam (Reuters) - Heavy use of the world's most popular herbicide, Roundup, could be linked to a range of health problems and diseases, including Parkinson's, infertility and cancers, according to a new study. The peer-reviewed report, published last week in the scientific journal Entropy, said evidence indicates??
Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/weightloss
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The main suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing are said to be two brothers from Chechnya, a mountainous and mainly Muslim republic in southern Russia that has been the scene of cyclical revolts and brutal crackdowns by Moscow's forces for the past 200 years. Though Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev have spent most of their lives outside of Chechnya, their postings on YouTube and the Russian-language VKontakte social media site illustrate a proud attachment to their ancestral homeland and offer many hints that both identified closely with Chechnya's defiant and fiercely independent mountain warrior traditions.
Where is Chechnya?
Chechnya is one of eight mainly Muslim ethnic republics that sprawl across the northern face of the Caucasus Mountains ? which contain some of Europe's highest peaks ? between the Black and Caspian Seas. The region is a patchwork of separate nationalities, speaking wildly different tongues, who have a history of intense animosity between each other that's eclipsed only by their historic tensions with Russia.
The approximately 1.2 million Chechens, whose republic occupies about 6,600 square miles in the center of the chain, are a fierce mountain people who speak Noxchi Mott, a language that's incomprehensible to most of their neighbors ? but which was one of the three languages, along with Russian and English, that the younger Tsarnaev claimed to speak fluently on his VKontakte page.
How did it become part of Russia?
The Caucasus region was conquered by Czarist Russia, whose armies took three decades to overcome the resistance of the guerrilla warriors. The long war, whose brutal and treacherous nature was brilliantly captured by Russian writer Leo Tolstoy in his last novel, Hadji Murat, was finally won by Russian Gen. Mikhail Yermolov, who used scorched earth tactics, hostage taking, and deliberate bloody civilian massacres to crush the Chechen rebels.
Chechnya has erupted in revolt every time the Russian grip has weakened ever since, notably amid the chaos following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and after Nazi Germany invaded the USSR in 1941. Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was so infuriated by Chechen disloyalty in World War II that he ordered the entire Chechen nation ? half a million people ? deported to Central Asia in 1944. An estimated 150,000 Chechens died on the bitter winter march.
The Chechens were allowed to return home after Mr. Stalin died, but they declared independence as the USSR crumbled in 1991. The Russian Army invaded in 1994, but withdrew in defeat after two years of futile war and an estimated 80,000 mostly civilian casualties.
After winning independence, however, the Chechens failed to build a viable state. Leading warlords such as Shamil Basayev and the Jordanian-born Khattab embraced Islamist ideology and sought to export their revolution to neighboring republics. Russia, now led by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, invaded again in 1999.
How did Chechnya become linked with terrorism?
During Russia's second assault on Chechnya, most of the little republic's first wave of independence-seeking leaders, who had espoused secular nationalism, were either killed or defected to the Russian side. Militant Islamists, seeking to create a Caucasus-wide "caliphate," took over the movement and found tactical inspiration, as well as material support, from Middle Eastern Islamist terror networks like Al Qaeda. The Islamist insurrection has since spread to neighboring republics, especially Ingushetia and Dagestan.
Chechen-led terrorists have struck repeatedly in the Russian heartland, notably a mass hostage-taking at a downtown Moscow theater in 2002 that killed 130 people and a horrific school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia, that killed 330 people, half of them children. A double suicide bombing by "black widow" terrorists ? wives of rebels killed by Russian security forces ? left 40 people dead in a 2010 Moscow metro attack and another suicide bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo airport the next year left 35 people dead.
What is Chechnya like today?
In 2009 the Kremlin declared victory in Chechnya, pulled its army out, and left the republic under control of a pro-Moscow strongman named Ramzan Kadyrov. Under Mr. Kadyrov, Chechnya has enjoyed a stunning economic rebirth, financed mainly by subsidies from Moscow.
But Russian human rights monitors allege the republic has become a legal black hole, where opponents of Kadyrov are rounded up by official death squads, and critical journalists sometimes turn up bullet-ridden and dead on the side of the road. In defiance of the Russian constitution, critics say, Kadyrov is also imposing sharia law in the republic, and meting out punishment to those who disobey.
Still, Kadyrov can rightly claim ? as he routinely does to visiting celebrities ? that Chechnya is practically the safest place in the turbulent northern Caucasus these days.
How will the alleged involvement of Chechens in the Boston bombings affect US-Russia relations?
Since the beginning of the second Chechen war, Mr. Putin has tried to convince US leaders that Russia's war in Chechnya is a chapter of the global war against terrorism, and that the US should stop criticizing Russia's brutal crackdown there and join forces with Moscow.
This argument has gained little traction in Washington, where the often horrific outcomes of Moscow's campaign to pacify Chechnya have made it difficult to see things Putin's way. Despite repeated rumors about Chechen involvement with anti-American terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and the Taliban, little solid evidence has ever turned up.
But the Chechen brothers who allegedly carried out the Boston Marathon bombing might prompt US leaders to rethink that approach.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chechnya-remote-russian-republic-became-linked-terrorism-161021744.html
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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) ? Songwriter George Jackson, co-author of "Old Time Rock and Roll" and hundreds of other soul, rock and rhythm and blues tunes, has died. He was 68.
Jackson died Sunday morning at his home in Ridgeland, a suburb of Jackson, said Thomas Couch Sr., board chairman of Malaco Records. Jackson had been sick with cancer for about a year.
"It was not unexpected, but it's always too soon," Couch said.
Born in Indianola, Miss., Jackson was writing songs by the time he was in his teens. It was Ike Turner who brought Jackson to New Orleans R&B pioneer Cosimo Matassa's studio in 1963, where he recorded his first song.
Jackson recorded dozens of singles in the 1960s and worked in Memphis, Tenn., but made his mark as a writer, beginning with FAME Studios in Muscle Shoals, Ala. He later was a songwriter for crosstown rival Muscle Shoals Sound Studios before returning to Memphis. When Malaco bought Muscle Shoals Sound, it hired Jackson to write songs, said Wolf Stephenson, Malaco's vice president and chief engineer.
"George had hooks coming out of his ears," Stephenson said. "They weren't all hits, but I never heard him write a bad song. He never really got the recognition that's normally due a writer of his stature."
The Osmonds recorded Jackson's "One Bad Apple" in 1970, taking it to No. 1. Jackson and Thomas Jones III wrote "Old Time Rock and Roll," which Bob Seger recorded in 1978.
Stephenson said "Old Time Rock and Roll" is truly Jackson's song, and he has the tapes to prove it, despite Seger's claims that he altered it.
"Bob had pretty much finished his recording at Muscle Shoals and he asked them if they had any other songs he could listen to for the future," Stephenson said.
Besides Seger, the Osmonds and Ike and Tina Turner, Jackson's songs were also recorded by James Brown, Wilson Pickett and Clarence Carter. Later, he wrote "Down Home Blues" for Z.Z. Hill, a song which was a keystone for Malaco. The Mississippi label is a storehouse of soul, rhythm and blues and gospel music.
"He had a way of seeing things about life and saying them in a way that a lot of other people could relate to," Couch said.
Jackson's own vocal performances were mainly scattered over singles, although some have been collected into albums, including a 2011 reissue of his FAME recordings, "Don't Count Me Out," which won critical acclaim. That and other compilations were aimed at part at fans in the United Kingdom, where Stephenson said Jackson had a strong following.
Funeral arrangements were still being made.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rock-soul-songwriter-george-jackson-dies-68-235909797.html
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SALMON, Idaho - A fire sparked by an electrical short swept through a house in Idaho on Saturday, killing a family of four and a teenage friend who had been spending the night as part of a birthday celebration, a fire official said.
Orofino Fire Chief Mike Lee said flames had fully engulfed the home and likely caused the smoke inhalation deaths of the five occupants by the time firefighters arrived at a blaze reported by a neighbor at 1:38 a.m. local time. The home did not have smoke alarms.
The fire in the small logging community in north-central Idaho killed a couple and their two teenage children as well as the teenage friend, Lee said.
There was no sign of foul play, he said. Autopsies were planned early next week for the dead, whose names were withheld pending notification of family.
"It is the worst tragedy we've ever had in Orofino, fire-wise," Lee said. He added that two veteran Idaho state fire marshals reported they had never investigated a house fire that took as many lives.
The fire was ignited by a short in an overloaded extension cord on the front porch of a two-story home in a residential neighborhood, Lee said. He said the family was likely asleep when the fire swept through the rooms on the ground floor of the home.?
-- Reuters
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FILE - In this April 7, 2013 file photo Pope Francis waves to faithful upon his arrival for his installation Mass at the St. John in Lateran Basilica, in Rome. Pope Francis has named nine cardinals to advise him on running the church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatican announced Saturday, April 13, 2013 the members of the advisory panel and said they would hold their first meeting Oct. 1-3. They include current Vatican officials but more importantly cardinals from Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia,File)
FILE - In this April 7, 2013 file photo Pope Francis waves to faithful upon his arrival for his installation Mass at the St. John in Lateran Basilica, in Rome. Pope Francis has named nine cardinals to advise him on running the church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatican announced Saturday, April 13, 2013 the members of the advisory panel and said they would hold their first meeting Oct. 1-3. They include current Vatican officials but more importantly cardinals from Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia,File)
FILE - In this Wednesday, April 10, 2013 file photo cardinals line up to salute Pope Francis, not pictured, at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square, at the Vatican. Pope Francis has named nine cardinals to advise him on running the church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy. The Vatican announced Saturday, April 13, 2013 the members of the advisory panel and said they would hold their first meeting Oct. 1-3. They include current Vatican officials but more importantly cardinals from Europe, the Americas, Australia and Asia. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino, File)
VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Pope Francis marked his first month as pontiff on Saturday by naming eight cardinals from around the globe to a permanent advisory group to counsel him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy ? a bombshell announcement that indicates he intends a shift in how the papacy should function.
The panel includes only one current Vatican official; the rest are cardinals from North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia ? a clear indication that Francis wants to reflect the universal nature of the church as he goes about governing.
The church is growing and counts most of the world's Catholics in the southern hemisphere while it's shrinking in Europe, yet the Vatican and the 200-strong College of Cardinals, traditionally the pope's primary advisers, remain heavily European.
In the run-up to the conclave that elected Francis the first Latin American pope one month ago, cardinals demanded the Vatican be more responsive to their needs on the ground, and said the bureaucracy itself must be overhauled. Including representatives from each continent in a permanent advisory panel to the pope would seem to go a long way toward answering those calls.
In its announcement Saturday, the Vatican said Francis got the idea to form the advisory body from the pre-conclave meetings where such complaints were aired. "He has formed a group of cardinals to advise him in the governing of the universal church and to study a revision of the apostolic constitution Pastor Bonus on the Roman Curia," the statement said.
Pope John Paul II issued Pastor Bonus in 1988, and it functions effectively as the blueprint for the administration of the Holy See, known as the Roman Curia, and the Vatican City State. The document metes out the work and jurisdictions of the congregations, pontifical councils and other offices that make up the governance of the Catholic Church.
Pastor Bonus itself was a revision of the 1967 document that marked the last major reform of the Vatican bureaucracy, undertaken by Pope Paul VI.
A reform of the Vatican bureaucracy has been demanded for decades, given that both John Paul and Benedict XVI essentially neglected in-house administration of the Holy See in favor of other priorities. But the calls for change grew deafening last year after the leaks of papal documents exposed petty turf battles within the Vatican bureaucracy, allegations of corruption in the running of the Vatican city state, and even a purported plot by senior Vatican officials to out a prominent Catholic as gay.
Francis' advisory group will meet in its inaugural session Oct. 1-3, the Vatican said in a statement.
The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, stressed that the cardinals are a consultative body, not a decision-making one, and that they don't take the place of the Vatican bureaucracy. His comments appeared aimed at reassuring Vatican bureaucrats that they weren't being sidelined by a counterweight advisory body that better reflects the geographic distribution of today's church.
The members of the panel include Italian Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, president of the Vatican city state administration ? a key position that oversees, among other things, the Vatican's profit-making museums. The non-Vatican officials include Cardinals Francisco Javier Err?zuriz Ossa, the retired archbishop of Santiago, Chile; Oswald Gracias, archbishop of Mumbai, India; Reinhard Marx, archbishop of Munich and Freising, Germany; Laurent Monsengwo Pasinya, archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo; Sean Patrick O'Malley, the archbishop of Boston; George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia; and Oscar Andr?s Rodr?guez Maradiaga, archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, who will serve as coordinator.
Monsignor Marcello Semeraro, bishop of Albano, Italy will be the panel secretary.
In theory, all popes have cardinals at their disposal to serve as advisers; advising the pope is a cardinal's main job aside from voting in conclaves. But neither John Paul nor Benedict made frequent use of their cardinal advisers, in part because they were so far away and numbered more than 200.
With such a small group of men hand-picked by the pope to specifically advise him in running the church and reforming the Vatican, it appears Francis wants a more collegial type of governance. That also would meld with his reluctance to call himself pope in favor of his other main title, bishop of Rome.
That said, the former Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is on record saying that when it comes time to actually making decisions, he is very much a loner.
"One can ask for advice but, in the end, one must decide alone," he said in the 2010 book "The Jesuit" written by his authorized biographer. Doing so means making mistakes, and Bergoglio acknowledged he had made plenty in his lifetime.
"That's why the important thing is to ask God," he said.
In the run-up to his election, cardinals were very clear that the status quo of the Vatican was untenable.
Prelates said they wanted term limits on Vatican jobs to prevent priests from becoming career bureaucrats. They wanted consolidated financial reports to remove the cloak of secrecy from the Vatican's murky finances. And they wanted regular Cabinet meetings where department heads actually talk to one another to make the Vatican a help to the church's evangelizing mission, not a hindrance.
They also said they wanted the Vatican to serve the bishops in the field, and not the other way around.
"It just doesn't work either very quickly or very efficiently," U.S. Cardinal Francis George, the archbishop of Chicago, said in an interview soon after Francis was elected. "Take marriage cases: People shouldn't have to be asked to wait three, four, five, six years to get a response" for a request for an annulment.
Aside from Saturday's announcement, Francis has made one Vatican appointment so far, naming a member of his namesake Franciscan order to the important No. 2 spot at the Vatican's congregation for religious orders.
His most eagerly-watched appointment has yet to come: that of the Vatican secretary of state, who runs the day-to-day administration of the Holy See. Currently, the position is held by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, a 78-year-old canon lawyer whose administrative shortcomings have been blamed for many of the Vatican's current problems today.
George Weigel, a papal biographer who interviewed Bergoglio last May for his new book "Evangelical Catholicism," said Francis understands well the problems of the curia, saying he "displayed a shrewd, but not cynical, grasp of just what was wrong with the church's central bureaucratic machinery, and why."
"I think we can expect the new pope to lead the church in a purification and renewal of the episcopate, the priesthood, the religious life, and the curia, because he understands that scandal, corruption, and incompetence are impediments" to the mission of spreading the faith, Weigel wrote in a recent essay.
Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who has become something of the ringleader of the reform group, said he had high hopes that Francis would turn the Holy See into a model of good governance given his background and no nonsense style.
"Sometimes in the past the curia has been an example of what not to do, instead of what to do," Dolan said in an interview after Francis' installation. "We need to look to the Holy See and the Roman Curia as a model of good governance, of honesty, of simplicity, of frugality, of transparency, of candor, of raw Gospel service, of a lack of careerism, of people who are driven by virtue."
Dolan suggested that one crucial area of reform would be imposing term limits on Vatican bureaucrats to prevent them from becoming lifers. He said there was also no reason why more laymen and women couldn't be brought into the Vatican bureaucracy, and that the administration itself could shrink.
Archbishop Claudio Mario Celli, who heads the Vatican's social communications office, wants greater communication within the various Vatican departments, including regularly scheduled meetings of department heads.
"We need a more synergetic activity," Celli said in an interview. "If we want to have a more effective service in the church, we need to have a symphonic approach."
George, the archbishop of Chicago, dismissed speculation that one area of Francis' reforms would involve closing the Vatican bank, the Institute for Works of Religion, which has long been a source of scandal for the Vatican.
Doing so would be financial suicide for the Vatican, since it currently provides the pope with about 50 million euros ($65 million) a year in income investing, among other things, assets of its account holders that would have to be returned if it were to close.
The Vatican spokesman, Lombardi, has said any speculation about the IOR's possible closure "is purely hypothetical and isn't based on any believable or concrete facts."
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
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This post is part of the Global Mom Relay. Every time you share this blog, $5 will go to women and girls around the world. Scroll to the bottom to find out more.
Esther lives just off the main road of a small town in Western Kenya in a mud-walled, tin-roofed home, typical of the area. Despite her meager income, she had spruced up the interior of her home with lace doilies, plastic flowers and framed pictures of loved ones, making the small space inviting and comfortable. Until last year, she had scraped together a living selling fruit, and, even without a husband's support (hers passed when the children were young), she was able to see four children through secondary school. This was no small feat in a country where secondary school fees often exceed a rural family's income.
Her last child had just graduated from secondary school, freeing her from the largest expense of child-rearing, when she got the news: her eldest son's girlfriend, Lydia, lay in the hospital dying of complications from childbirth.
Esther had never met Lydia, but it was easy to pity her. A gracefully beautiful but shy woman, Lydia had endured her pregnancy and birth in a city far from her rural homeland and nearly alone, save the support of a 14-year-old cousin. When her post-birth bleeding continued too long and her strength seemed to be disappearing too completely, this girl was the only person around to take Lydia to the hospital.
When Esther arrived in the district hospital and saw Lydia clinging to life and the tiny newborn grandsons that just the day before she hadn't even imagined existed, she collapsed to the floor. When she regained consciousness, Lydia spoke to her with what little strength remained, saying "I know you do not know me, but these children are your blood. Please care for them. I have named one Michael for my father and the other one you may name." She died the next day.
Esther felt she had no choice but to take in these twins as her own. Having raised her own children largely as a single mother, she couldn't imagine them growing up without a "mother's love." The babies' father was entering college, and she knew they would be given the best chance when their father could finish his degree and better provide for his sons. Only her care would allow for that.
Despite Esther's insistence that she could not "deny a dying wish," she fretted over the unfathomable burden she had inherited. The early days were nearly impossible. With two crying infants and no one to help her, she barely slept at all, and she was forced to abandon the only money-making endeavor she ever knew. She attempted nursing the newborns, which is possible in some cases even if the woman didn't give birth, but with twins it was simply too hard. And formula was an unaffordable luxury.
But slowly, through perseverance and some outside help, Esther has given these babies a real shot at life. She has lovingly cared for them, fed them, kept them warm at night, immunized them and seen them through a bought of malaria, which nearly killed them.
The twins are now 10 months old. They are fat and healthy and growing into two distinct personalities. Michael, Esther told me, is more of a mama's boy and more reticent around strangers, she guesses because he's the one who sleeps closer to her at night. Joseph, who sat willingly on my lap much of our most recent visit, was the first to crawl and is now pulling himself up taking some steps.
Esther and the countless women like her are true heroes, but we should not spend too much time celebrating their immense sacrifice. They should not have to make it. The babies they care for should never have been orphaned.
Too many mothers die needlessly in childbirth, victims of poverty, lack of access to care and inability to control reproductive decisions. The losses remained an abstraction to me until I moved to Kenya and became pregnant with my second child. As my belly swelled and I felt the baby move, I learned of an acquaintance who didn't make it through her own birth, leaving a devastated family to care for a needy infant. While nursing my newborn, I learned of Lydia's too early demise. Now those losses had become grim, unthinkable realities.
For those in wealthy countries, the worry that comes with an impending birth centers on enduring or shaping the experience. For women in Kenya, the worry centers on surviving the experience.
Eliminating maternal mortality is not a pipe dream, it's a stated goal. 189 countries signed on to the Millennium Development Goal of reducing maternal mortality (MDG #5) by three-quarters by 2015. This will take resources and commitment. It will take champions of the cause, like the women at World Moms Blog, and political will.
While the global community works to improve access to better care for mothers, nameless other women, just like Esther, are working tirelessly and silently to care for the living victims of maternal death. Their work is the loving sacrifice that embodies the very spirit of motherhood.
Each time you share this Global Mom Relay piece on Facebook, Twitter, or Email, or donate $5 or more through clicking on the above graphic, a $5 donation (up to $62,500 per week or $125,000 every two weeks) will be donated by Johnson & Johnson and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to the Mobile Alliance for Maternal Health(MAMA). Join us by sharing it forward and unlock the potential for women and children around the globe. For more information, visit www.unfoundation.org/
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kim-siegal/global-mom-relay-kenya_b_3072630.html
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CONAKRY, Guinea (AP) ? A Guinean official says that exiled former coup leader Moussa Dadis Camara has arrived on a flight to the southern town of Nzerekore to attend the funeral of his mother.
The governor of the Nzerekore region, Lancei Conde, confirmed that Camara arrived Saturday afternoon on a flight from Burkina Faso, where he been living following an attempt to assassinate him in late 2009. Local resident Souleymane Bah said that Dadis Camara was accompanied by a military aide of Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore.
The burial of Dadis Camara's mother is scheduled for Sunday in Nzerekore.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guinea-ex-leader-dadis-camara-comes-burial-150407730.html
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Bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacterial cells, employ an arsenal of chemical weapons. Microbiologist Vincent Fischetti of Rockefeller University describes using tricks learned from the phage in developing new antibiotics that may be effective even where others fail.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/12/177029253/looking-to-nature-for-antibiotic-inspirations?ft=1&f=1007
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By James Mackenzie
ROME (Reuters) - A panel of "wise men" named by Italy's president proposed a package of political and economic reforms on Friday, but there was little sign they would create a consensus program to unite feuding political parties.
Italy has been left with a caretaker government for 45 days since an inconclusive election gave no party enough seats in parliament to govern alone, while rivalries among faction leaders have made it all but impossible to agree a coalition.
In an effort to bridge the divide, President Giorgio Napolitano, whose term ends in May, named a 10-man group last month to come up with policy proposals that could serve as the basis for a broad common platform.
The panel including a former head of the Constitutional court, a member of the Bank of Italy's board and senior politicians, proposed a range of changes to Italy's system of government. They said red tape should be slashed, the bloated political system cut back, administration simplified and tax collection made more efficient.
Italy should also do more to help families hurt by the current recession and encourage small and medium-sized business, while sticking to fiscal austerity targets promised to European partners, the panel said.
It also called for a new electoral law to replace the system which helped to produce the current stalemate, although it did not come up with a final recommendation for a replacement.
"The decisions are now up to the political forces and it will be up to my successor to draw the conclusions," Napolitano said after meeting the group in his office at Rome's Quirinale palace.
The proposals, which have no legal force, differed little from a host of recommendations made by private economists, think tanks, industry associations and institutions including the Bank of Italy, as even some of the "wise men" acknowledged.
Maurizio Mauro, a centrist politician on the panel, said he agreed with one assessment that the recommendations amounted to "reinventing the wheel" but defended the exercise nonetheless.
"This work has highlighted a number of points which show that the things we agree on are stronger than the things which divide us," he told SkyTG24 television. "Having said that the parties now have to get together for the good of the country."
DIVISIONS
Among the panel's proposals were cutting the number of members of parliament, reforms to the Senate and changes to party financing.
Italy's political parties all say they are committed to deep reforms that would improve the way the country is run and help bring it out of a recession that already equals the longest in postwar history, with no end in sight.
However, they have proved incapable of resolving the stalemate created by the election which left parliament split into three main blocs and gave no group the majority in both houses needed to form a government.
On Friday, former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi said he would be prepared to accept a center-left candidate as president of the Republic but only in exchange for a "grand coalition" which would give his center-right bloc a share in power.
That option has already been ruled out repeatedly by center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani, who won control of the lower house but fell short of a majority in the Senate where he would need the support of rival parties to win a confidence vote.
Bersani has failed to win the backing of the other main force in parliament, the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement led by ex-comic Beppe Grillo, which refuses any deal with the mainstream parties.
He now hopes to form a minority government tolerated by enough members of the rival parties to pass a limited set of reforms but he is under pressure within his own Democratic Party to abandon his attempt and go back to elections.
Voting for the next president, due to begin on Thursday, is the next hurdle facing parliament and will be vital to ending the stalemate. Napolitano's mandate is almost complete and he no longer has the power to dissolve parliament.
Numerous names have been floated as his successor including former prime ministers Romano Prodi and Giuliano Amato plus former European Commissioner Emma Bonino, but no favorite has emerged.
(editing by David Stamp)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italy-wise-men-urge-reform-help-break-political-131013856.html
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FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 file photo, Syrian man carries his sister who was wounded in a government airstrike hit the neighborhood of Ansari, in Aleppo, Syria. President Bashar Assad has exploited his greatest advantage on the battlefield _ his air power _ to push back rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in its northern stronghold. Along the way, fighter jets and helicopters bombed bakeries, makeshift hospitals and residential areas, according to a new report by a U.S.-based rights group released Thursday, April 11, 2013 accusing the regime of committing war crimes with indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed more than 4000 since summer. (AP Photo/Abdullah al-Yassin, File)
FILE - In this Sunday, Feb. 3, 2013 file photo, Syrian man carries his sister who was wounded in a government airstrike hit the neighborhood of Ansari, in Aleppo, Syria. President Bashar Assad has exploited his greatest advantage on the battlefield _ his air power _ to push back rebel advances and prevent the opposition from setting up a rival government in its northern stronghold. Along the way, fighter jets and helicopters bombed bakeries, makeshift hospitals and residential areas, according to a new report by a U.S.-based rights group released Thursday, April 11, 2013 accusing the regime of committing war crimes with indiscriminate airstrikes that have killed more than 4000 since summer. (AP Photo/Abdullah al-Yassin, File)
AL-QASR, LEBANON (AP) ? Syrian forces battled rebels in the central province of Homs near the border with Lebanon on Friday as part of a counteroffensive aimed at regaining control of territory around the country and along strategic border areas.
With a fresh influx of weapons, opposition fighters have made significant gains in the past weeks, particularly in the southern province of Daraa, where rebels have been advancing in the region between the Jordanian border and the capital, Damascus.
The province of Homs and its capital of the same name were the scenes of some of the heaviest fighting during the first year of Syrian conflict. The violence has escalated there in recent weeks, with Syrian war planes hitting the city daily.
In the past two days, troops have clashed with rebels on the edges of the province along the Lebanese border in some of the worst fighting in the area in months.
On Friday, sporadic explosions inside Syria could be heard from the Lebanese side of the border and an Associated Press reporter said Syrian warplanes carried out at least one airstrike inside Syrian territory.
The border area is strategically important to both sides fighting in Syria's civil war and battles there have been frequent in past weeks, particularly in and around the town of Qusair in Homs province. The area is considered vital to the Syrian regime because of its location along a road linking Damascus with the city of Homs, a strategic supply route for the military.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday's clashes between soldiers and opposition fighters were concentrated around Qusair. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
Overlooking Qusair from the Lebanese side are villages populated mostly by Shiite Muslim supporters of the Hezbollah militant group, who have supported Assad's regime during Syria's two-year conflict. The rebels fighting to topple Assad, a member of the minority Alawite sect, are overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim. The Alawites are an offshoot of Shiite Islam.
In the Lebanese village of al-Qasr, which is on the opposite side of the border from Qusair, residents said they had gotten used to the shelling.
"Yesterday, the explosions were nonstop," Ali Nasereddine said, sitting in the garden of his two-story house, fewer than 100 meters (yards) from a Syrian army post.
A funeral was held for Riyad Kinyar, a Shiite Syrian soldier who was wounded in the fighting Thursday and died upon arrival in a hospital in al-Qasr. Later Friday, the soldier was taken across the border to his hometown of Matraba for burial. Shooting in the air ? a sign of mourning ? could be heard across the border.
The Syrian conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war that has increasingly taken sectarian overtones. More than 70,000 people have been killed in the war, according to the United Nations.
Also on Friday, Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes around the country, hitting targets in Daraa in the south, in Hasaka province in the north east near the border with Turkey and in the northern city of Aleppo, parts of which have been under rebel control since last summer.
The airstrikes come a day after a U.S.-based human right group accused the Syrian air force of carrying out indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas around the country ? attacks the group claims amount to war crimes. More than 4,300 people have been killed in aerial bombardments since last summer, Human Rights Watch said in a report Thursday.
In Tehran, Iranian state broadcaster Irib said an Iranian journalist was wounded on Thursday in a shooting near Damascus.
The Irib report on Friday blamed "terrorists" for the attack ? a term the Syrian regime uses for rebels. Iran has backed Assad's regime in the civil war.
Irib says the unidentified journalist was shot in the abdomen and was treated in a hospital in the capital.
An Iranian official in Damascus told The Associated Press that the journalist was driving his car on a highway linking the city with the Damascus airport when he was shot. The official identified the journalist as Mohsen Khazaei of Iran's TV News Network Shabake Khabar.
He was treated in a hospital and released on Thursday, the official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information on the incident.
____
AP writer Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed.
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BlackBerry to ask regulators to probe report on returns
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry said on Friday it would ask securities regulators in Canada and the United States to probe a report about retail return rates for its new Z10 smartphone that it called "false and misleading." The Canadian company, which has pinned its turnaround hopes on its new BlackBerry 10 line, said return rates were at or below its forecasts and in line with industry norms.
U.S. tells North Korea new missile launch would be "huge mistake"
SEOUL (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry warned North Korea on Friday it would be a "huge mistake" to launch a medium-range missile and said the United States would never accept the reclusive country as a nuclear power. Addressing reporters after talks with South Korea's president and leaders of the 28,000-strong U.S. military contingent in the country, Kerry also said it was up to China, North Korea's sole major ally, to "put some teeth" in efforts to press Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
Sudan's Bashir in first South Sudan visit since split
JUBA (Reuters) - Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir said on Friday he wanted normal ties with his nation's old adversary South Sudan on his first visit there since southern secession in 2011. The neighbors agreed in March to resume cross-border oil flows and ease tension that has been permanent since South Sudan's independence in July 2011 following a 2005 treaty which ended decades of civil war.
Venezuela election to test Chavez's socialist legacy
CARACAS (Reuters) - The late Hugo Chavez's self-declared socialist revolution will be put to the test at a presidential election on Sunday that pits his chosen successor against a younger rival promising change in the nation he polarized. Most opinion polls give his protege, acting President Nicolas Maduro, a strong lead over opposition challenger Henrique Capriles thanks to Chavez's endorsement and the surge of grief and sympathy over his death from cancer last month.
Italy "wise men" urge reform to help break political deadlock
ROME (Reuters) - A panel of "wise men" named by Italy's president proposed sweeping political and economic reforms on Friday, but there was little sign they would achieve the aim of creating a consensus program to unite feuding political parties. Italy has been left with a caretaker government for 45 days since an inconclusive election gave no party enough seats in parliament to govern alone, while personal enmity among faction leaders has made it all but impossible to agree a coalition.
Iraq mosque bombing kills seven worshippers
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A bomb explosion killed at least seven people and wounded 25 in front of a Sunni Muslim mosque in Iraq's Diyala province as worshippers were leaving after Friday prayers, police and medics said. A surge of attacks by Sunni Islamists have targeted Shi'ite Muslims this year in growing sectarian confrontation, although officials say insurgents also hit Sunni religious sites as part of their campaign.
Hurdles for U.N. team on standby to probe Syria chemical arms
THE HAGUE (Reuters) - A team of U.N.-led experts is on standby in Cyprus waiting for the go-ahead to investigate allegations of chemical weapons attacks in Syria, but the mission has been held up by diplomatic wrangling over their powers and how to keep them safe. The team of at least 15 investigators includes analytical chemists, able to collect and test suspected samples, and World Health Organisation experts on the medical effects of exposure to toxins, who could examine alleged victims.
Some 50,000 flee Sudan into Chad after Darfur clashes
N'DJAMENA (Reuters) - Some 50,000 Sudanese have fled into southeastern Chad in the past week following fresh tribal conflict in the restive Darfur region, U.N. and Chadian officials said on Friday. Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, said the fighting had spread as each side received reinforcements from tribal allies and had become more violent, with entire villages being razed.
Ministers' wealth list to expose France's "caviar left"
PARIS (Reuters) - An inventory of French ministers' assets could set off a storm when it goes public on Monday, exposing a handful of millionaires in the Socialist government as the nation endures spending cuts and rampant unemployment. For the first time in France, President Francois Hollande is publishing a list of bank deposits and property held by all 38 ministers as he scrambles to stem public fury over his ex-budget minister's disclosure he lied about a secret Swiss bank account.
Yemen shake-up positive but could shield officers from the law: HRW
DUBAI (Reuters) - Human Rights Watch on Friday applauded this week's shake-up of Yemen's army and security leadership but expressed concern that putting key figures into diplomatic posts would make it harder to call them to account for potential past crimes. President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi on Wednesday removed the son of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, Brigadier General Ahmed, from his post as commander of the elite Republican Guard and appointed him ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ca-news-summary-001038768.html
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New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony (7) high fives team mates Raymond Felton (2) Jason Kidd (5) and J.R. Smith (8) during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony (7) high fives team mates Raymond Felton (2) Jason Kidd (5) and J.R. Smith (8) during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York Knicks' J.R. Smith goes up past Washington Wizards' Kevin Seraphin (13) and A.J. Price during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Knicks won 120-99. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York Knicks head coach Mike Woodson gives his team direction during the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Knicks won 120-99. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
New York Knicks' J.R. Smith, foreground, and Jason Kidd celebrate a goal from the bench during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Washington Wizards, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Knicks won 120-99. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Washington Wizards' Kevin Seraphin (13) blocks New York Knicks' Chris Copeland from going to the basket during the second half of an NBA basketball game, Tuesday, April 9, 2013, at Madison Square Garden in New York. The Knicks won 120-99. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
NEW YORK (AP) ? They hung nicely in the lockers, T-shirts that can only be won, not bought.
"Can't Stop NY Knicks," they read. "2013 Division Champions."
A "long overdue" prize for the franchise, coach Mike Woodson called it, and one that players set as a top priority in training camp.
"It's a great thing to achieve one of your main goals, and now we've just got to go get that gold ball," reserve J.R. Smith said.
The Knicks romped to their first Atlantic Division title since 1994, getting 36 points from Carmelo Anthony and beating the Washington Wizards 120-99 on Tuesday night for their 13th straight victory.
Anthony put this one away with 21 points during the Knicks' 37-point third quarter that gave them a 95-71 lead. The NBA's scoring leader added eight rebounds and six assists while becoming the first Knick since newly elected Hall of Famer Bernard King with five straight 35-point games.
"I just think Melo, he's been on a nice run and I mean it's nice to see because and I know what he's thinking," Woodson said. "He was thinking winning that division tonight and he wasn't going to leave any doubt in anybody's mind that we earned the rights to win the division tonight."
Iman Shumpert added 18 points for the Knicks, who negated a height disadvantage by tying a franchise record with 20 3-pointers. Smith and Chris Copeland each added 17 points.
On their longest winning streak since winning 15 in a row from March 1 to April 2, 1994, the Knicks can tie the franchise record of 18 in a row, set early in their first NBA championship season of 1969-70, by winning their final five games.
Next up is a visit Thursday to the Chicago Bulls, who have won all three meetings this season and ended Miami's 27-game winning streak last month.
The Knicks have won or shared six division titles, but had gone nearly two decades without looking at the rest of the Atlantic from the top.
Division titles aren't particularly important in the NBA ? the Knicks don't even hang banners that recognize theirs. It guarantees teams a top-four seeding in the playoffs but not necessarily home-court advantage in a series, which is determined by won-loss record, and Boston coach Doc Rivers said he couldn't even remember talking to the Celtics about winning the division while they were taking the last five Atlantic titles.
But Woodson has been talking about it as a goal since replacing Mike D'Antoni last March. There was little celebration afterward, with many fans having already left when the public address announcer told the crowd the Knicks had won it after Anthony finished his on-court interview.
"There's no reason not to have a smile on your face at this moment," Anthony said. "We accomplished one of our goals that we set before the season in training camp, so it's a stepping stone for us."
The Knicks played without center Tyson Chandler (bulging disk), then lost replacement Kenyon Martin to an apparent ankle injury after he'd missed the previous two games with a sore left knee.
It was a blowout by then, though with so many injuries in the frontcourt they were obviously concerned when Martin when down after grabbing a defensive rebound, pounding the floor in anger. The team said he had a sprained left ankle and that X-rays were negative.
John Wall scored 33 points for the Wizards, who gave the Knicks way too much shooting space on the perimeter and lost their 10th in a row at Madison Square Garden.
Anthony stayed right on the blistering pace that won him Eastern Conference player of the week honors after averaging 41.8 points while inching ahead of Kevin Durant for the NBA scoring lead last week. He sat out the fourth quarter after going 13 of 21 from the field.
"We know he's hot and we tried to get the ball out of his hands, but he's very efficient and can score in various ways," Wall said. "Hats off to him."
The Knicks made 10 of their first 14 3-point attempts and finished 20 of 36 (55.6 percent) while remaining 2 ? games ahead of Indiana for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Chandler, who recently missed 10 games, told Woodson he felt soreness after Sunday's victory at Oklahoma City. It left the Knicks, already missing veteran big men Rasheed Wallace, Amare Stoudemire, Marcus Camby and Kurt Thomas, undersized against the Wizards' front line that includes Nene and Emeka Okafor.
But the Knicks spread the ball around the perimeter and the Wizards couldn't get close to them. New York was 9 of 12 on 3-pointers in the first quarter, with Copeland hitting one at the buzzer to make it 36-23.
"They shot the ball extremely well," Wizards coach Randy Wittman said. "They hit 20 3s, they spread the floor and they have guys that can take you off the dribble. When they're shooting like that, they're a tough team to beat."
The Knicks slowed down in the second and Washington was within seven late in the period, but the Knicks scored seven points in the final 50.3 seconds, with Raymond Felton stealing the ball from Wall and laying it in with 1.3 seconds left to make it 58-43.
Notes: The NBA announced Tuesday that Anthony tops its jersey sales list, based on sales at the NBA Store in New York and on nbastore.com since November. He became the first Knicks player to top the list since it began in 2001-02. The Knicks also topped the team merchandise sales list. ... Wallace, out since December and recovering from a broken bone in his foot, started shooting Tuesday and the Knicks still hope he can return for the playoffs. ... The Wizards played without Trevor Ariza, bothered by knee and ankle pain. Trevor Booker played despite a sore lower back.
___
Follow Brian Mahoney on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Briancmahoney
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The past year and a half has been a period of big changes for the Engadget Show, eschewing our longstanding studio format for a new kind of program that's given us the freedom to travel the world, in search of bigger, deeper stories. We spent the year speaking to some of tech's top minds -- abstract thinkers like Douglas Rushkoff and DJ Spooky, representatives from leading companies like Google and Sony, modders like Ben Heck and researchers at top universities including MIT and Carnegie Mellon. We hung with Wayne Coyne and LeVar Burton, got animated with John Hodgman, flew drones with Chris Anderson, went behind the scenes at Improv Everywhere, rode some crazy hacked bikes in Boston, played classic pinball, spoke to a disembodied robotic head, went ghost hunting, solved a few mysteries and even discovered the true meaning of the holidays (it's presents, by the way).
All in all, we thought we had a good year -- and it's nice to know the folks at the Webby Awards felt the same. We're hoping you enjoyed it too (after all, as fun as the past year's been, we're not just doing this for ourselves). If so, now's the time to let us know. The voting for the People's Voice Award opens today, so we're asking you, dear viewer, to show us some love with a quick vote over at the Webby site (where you can also catch a quick reel to relive some of 2012's highlights). Thanks everyone for helping us make the Engadget Show better than ever (and thanks in advance for voting). We'll see you again soon on the small screen.
Source: Webby Awards
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/04/10/engadget-show-webby/
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PARIS (AP) ? Years before Impressionism ? the influential Paris-based art movement ? began, a similar style of painting capturing colorful impressions of light may have existed in Italy, according to a new exhibit.
The show at Paris' Orangery museum displays works from 1860s Florence with vivid, dappled light ? in a strikingly similar way to famed painters like Claude Monet from the 1870s.
The movement was called "Macchiaioli," after the Italian for "stain," to evoke splashes of light in the painting.
"It's practically unknown around the world, but like the Impressionists they used the bright light of open air, contrasting shadows, and they wished to rebel against academic painting by going out and in the open air," said curator Beatrice Avanzi.
"The Macchiaioli: the Italian Impressionists?" show runs Wednesday through July 22.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/paris-exhibit-asks-italian-monet-184504977.html
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The new lawsuits all name one specific title from each company: Gameloft is targeted for the in-app purchases in Real Soccer 2012, and Disney's suit mentions Where's My Water? [pictured]. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has also posted about the lawsuits, calling Lodsys a "patent troll" and asking for legal help to fight the company.
Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/04/08/patent-troll-lodsys-sues-gameloft-disney-and-more-for-using-in/
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BEIRUT (AP) ? Al-Qaida's branch in Iraq said it has merged with Syria's extremist Jabhat al-Nusra, a move that shows the rising confidence of radicals within the Syrian rebel movement and is likely to trigger renewed fears among its international backers.
A website linked to Jabhat Al-Nusra confirmed on Tuesday the merger with the Islamic State of Iraq, whose leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi first made the announcement in a 21-minute audio posted on militant websites late Monday.
Jabhat Al-Nusra has taken an ever-bigger role in Syria's conflict over the last year, fighting in key battles and staging several large suicide bombings. The U.S. has designated it a terrorist organization.
The Syrian group has made little secret of its ideological ties to the global jihadist movement and its links across the Iraqi border but until now has not officially declared itself to be part of al-Qaida.
Al-Baghdadi said that his group ? the Islamic State of Iraq ? and Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra will now be known as the Islamic State in Iraq and Sham. Sham is a name for Syria and the surrounding region.
"It is time to announce to the Levantine (Syrian) people and the whole world that Jabhat al-Nusra is merely an extension and part of the Islamic State of Iraq," he said.
He said that the Iraqi group was providing half of its budget to the conflict in Syria. Al-Baghdadi said that the Syrian group would have no separate leader but instead be led by the "people of Syria themselves" ? implying that he would be in charge in both countries.
For such a high-profile Syrian rebel group to formally join al-Qaida is likely to spark concerns among backers of the opposition that are in the global terror network's crosshairs, including both Western countries and Gulf Arab states.
It may increase resentment of Jabhat al-Nusra among other rebel groups. Rebels have until now respected Nusra fighters for their prowess on the battlefield but a merger with al-Qaida will complicate any effort to send them arms from abroad.
A website linked with Jabhat al-Nusra known as al-Muhajir al-Islami ? the Islamic emigrant ? confirmed the merger.
The authenticity of neither message could be independently confirmed, but statements posted on major militant websites are rarely disputed by militant groups afterward.
Jabhat al-Nusra emerged as an offshoot of Iraq's al-Qaida branch in mid-2012 as one of a patchwork of disparate rebel groups in Syria.
One of the most dramatic attacks by the groups came on March 4, when 48 Syrian soldiers were killed in a well-coordinated ambush after seeking refuge across the border in Iraq following clashes with rebels in their home country. The attack occurred in Iraq's restive western province of Anbar, where al-Qaida is known to be active.
A top Iraqi intelligence official told The Associated Press in Baghdad that they have always known that "al-Qaida in Iraq is directing Jabhat al-Nusra."
He said they announced their unity because of "political, logistical and geographical circumstance." The official said Iraqi authorities will take "strict security measures to strike them."
Iraqi officials say the jihadi groups are sharing three military training compounds, logistics, intelligence and weapons as they grow in strength around the Syria-Iraq border, particularly in a sprawling region called al-Jazeera, which they are trying to turn into a border sanctuary they can both exploit. It could serve as a base of operations to strike either side of the border.
Baghdad officials said last week they have requested U.S. drone strikes against the fighters in Iraqi territory. A U.S. official confirmed that elements within the Iraqi government had inquired about drone strikes. But the official said the U.S. was waiting to respond until the top level of Iraqi leadership makes a formal request, which has not happened yet.
All officials spoke anonymously as they were not authorized to give official statements to the media
Eastern Syria and western Iraq have a predominantly Sunni Muslim population like most of the rebels fighting President Bashar Assad, who belongs to the minority Alawite Sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Baghdad government is dominated by Shiites, who are majority in Iraq.
The announcement came hours after a suicide car bomber struck Monday in the financial heart of Syria's capital, killing at least 15 people, damaging the nearby central bank.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attack but such operations were claimed by Jabhat al-Nusra in the past.
Activists reported violence in different parts of Syria on Tuesday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported air raids on suburbs of the capital Damascus as well as the northern province of Raqqa and Idlib.
Syria's crisis, which began in March 2011 with protests calling for Assad's ouster, then evolved into a civil war. The U.N. says more than 70,000 have been killed in the conflict.
_____
Youssef reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Qassim Abdul-Zahra contributed to this report from Baghdad.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-al-qaida-syria-militants-announce-merger-114411187.html
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