Dec 24 2011
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Source: http://funny-pictures-blog.com/2011/12/24/meme-facebook-chat/
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SINGAPORE ? Oil prices closed in on $100 a barrel Friday in Asia amid expectations an improving U.S. economy will boost demand for crude.
Benchmark crude for February delivery was up 23 cents to $99.76 a barrel at late afternoon Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 86 cents to finish at $99.53 on Thursday.
In London, Brent crude was down 4 cents at $107.85 on the ICE futures exchange.
Crude has jumped from below $93 earlier this week on evidence of a slow but steady improvement in the U.S. economy.
The number of people applying for unemployment benefits dropped last week to the lowest level since April 2008, the third week in a row that applications fell. The Conference Board reported that its measure of future economic activity jumped last month, the second straight gain.
"This is a market that just appears to want to go higher," energy consultant and trader The Schork Group said in a report. "All good positive economic headlines are hyped and all poor headlines are ignored. Bears seem unable to keep crude from finishing 2011 below $100."
The market is also primed for potential threats to global crude supplies, such as rising tensions between Iran and Western nations over Iran's nuclear power program. The U.S. and Europe may bolster sanctions against the world's fourth crude biggest producer.
"Iran might not passively wait for sanctions to be applied and could act unilaterally to embargo supplies," J.P Morgan said in a report. "We are also concerned about Iraq, where political uncertainties seem to be rising following the U.S. troop pullout."
"We expect Iraq to add about 500,000 barrels a day of new supply in both 2012 and 2013, and any deviation from its present course could have serious implications for global supply."
Trading volume is normally low during the next week as many traders take vacations around the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays. Global oil markets are closed Monday for Christmas.
In other energy trading on the Nymex, natural gas fell 3.3 cents to $3.14 per 1,000 cubic feet. Heating oil rose 0.4 cent to $2.92 a gallon and gasoline futures were up 0.4 cent to $2.64 a gallon.
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Source: http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=1984675e89b2a29fccb87b51ef3f202e
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WASHINGTON?? The government told passenger airlines Wednesday they'll have to do more to ensure pilots aren't too tired to fly, nearly three years after the deadly western New York crash of a regional airliner flown by two exhausted pilots.
Don't miss these Travel stories
Getting ready to brave the teeming masses at the airport later this week? Turns out you may need less courage than you might think.
The Federal Aviation Administration's update of airline pilot work rules, some of which dated to the 1960s, reflects a better understanding of the need for rest and how night shifts and traveling through time zones can increase errors.
"This is a big deal," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said. "This is as far as our government has ever gone" to protect the traveling public from pilot fatigue.
Carriers have two years to adapt to the new rules. The FAA estimated the cost to industry at $297 million over 10 years, a fraction of the $2 billion a year that an airline trade association had estimated the draft proposal released by FAA over a year ago would cost.
The airline industry had opposed the draft rule as too costly for the safety benefits it would achieve. But FAA officials made substantial changes to the final rule to lower the cost. Several expensive reporting and training requirements were eliminated.
Safety advocates have been urging FAA for over two decades to update pilot work rules, but previous efforts stalled after airlines and pilots unions were unable to agree on changes. Those efforts were revived after the February 2009 crash near Buffalo that killed 50 people. Families of the dead have lobbied relentlessly for more stringent regulations to fight pilot fatigue.
The rules would limit the maximum time a pilot can be scheduled to be on duty ? including wait time before flights and administrative duties ? to between nine and 14 hours. The total depends on the time of day pilots begin their first flight and the number of time zones crossed.
The maximum amount of time pilots can be scheduled to fly is limited to eight or nine hours, and pilots would get a minimum of 10 hours to rest between duty periods, a two-hour increase over the old rules. The minimum amount of time off between work weeks will be increased 25 percent, and there will be new limits on how many hours per month pilots can fly. Pilots flying overnight would be allowed fewer hours than pilots flying during the day.
But cargo carriers ? which do much of their flying overnight when people naturally crave sleep ? are exempted from the new rules. The FAA said forcing cargo carriers to reduce the number of hours their pilots can fly would be too costly when compared with the safety benefits.
Imposing the rules on cargo airlines like Federal Express or United Parcel Service would have added another $214 million to the cost, FAA officials said.
The exemption for cargo carriers, which runs counter to the FAA's goal of "one level of safety" across the aviation industry, drew strong criticism from pilots unions.
"To potentially allow fatigued cargo pilots to share the same skies with properly rested passenger pilots creates an unnecessary threat to public safety. We can do better," said Robert Travis, president of the Independent Pilots Association, which represents UPS pilots.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman, while calling the new rule "a huge improvement," also expressed dismay that cargo operations weren't included.
"A tired pilot is a tired pilot, whether there are 10 paying customers on board or 100, whether the payload is passengers or pallets," she said.
LaHood said he plans to invite top officials from cargo airlines to meet with him next month so that he can urge them to voluntarily follow the new rules.
The charter airlines that transport nearly 90 percent of U.S. troops around the world had also lobbied heavily for an exemption to the new rules, saying military missions could be jeopardized. But FAA officials rejected those pleas.
The rules will prevent about one and a half accidents a year and an average of six deaths a year, FAA officials predict. They should also improve pilots' health, officials said.
Jean Medina, a spokeswoman for the Airlines for America trade association, said the group is reviewing the new requirements. "We support changes to the rule that are science-based and that will improve safety," she wrote in an email.
Researchers say fatigue, much like alcohol, can impair a pilot's performance by slowing reflexes and eroding judgment.
The changes replace "rules that were dangerously obsolete and completely ineffective," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. "The rule applies fatigue science in a way that makes sense."
Susan Bourque, who lost a sister in the Buffalo air crash, said she was particularly pleased that the rule will require pilots to sign a statement before each flight stating that they are rested and fit for duty. "It's a pretty good day," said Bourque, of East Aurora, N.Y.
Scheduling wasn't an issue in the Buffalo accident, but NTSB concluded that the pilots' performance was likely impaired by fatigue.
Neither pilot appeared to have slept in a bed the previous night. The flight's captain had logged onto a computer in the middle of the night from an airport crew lounge where sleeping was discouraged. The first officer had commuted overnight from Seattle to Newark, N.J., much of the time sitting in a cockpit jumpseat. They could be heard yawning on the ill-fated flight's cockpit voice recorder.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45754819/ns/travel-news/
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ROME (Reuters) ? Pope Benedict brought tears to the eyes of hardened criminals Sunday, telling them in a visit to one of Italy's toughest prisons that overcrowding was a "double sentence" and whatever their offence, it could not erase their dignity.
His Christmas visit to Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome took place two days after Italy's new government announced extraordinary measures to improve prison conditions.
The 84-year-old pope appeared in good form, reading an address to inmates and delivering unscripted answers to their questions for about half an hour. He greeted a number of them personally in the prison's church.
"I know that overcrowding and degradation in prison can make detention even more bitter," he told representatives of several hundred inmates of the prison, which has 500 more inmates than the 1,240 it was built to hold.
"Prisoners are human beings who are worthy, despite their crime, of being treated with respect and dignity," he said.
He said overcrowding and poor conditions were tantamount to serving "a double sentence" and that authorities should do everything possible to improve the situation.
New Justice Minister Paola Severino, who attended the meeting, announced on Friday a decree that would ease overcrowding by allowing many prisoners to serve the last 18 months of their sentences under house arrest.
Italy has some 68,000 inmates, 24,000 more than normal capacity, among the worst rates of overcrowding in Europe.
"A VERY DIFFICULT SITUATION"
"I know that you live in a very difficult situation that often, instead of helping to renew your friendship with God and humanity, makes the situation worse," he told a prisoner named Rocco who asked him if politicians knew what prisoners endure.
He heard one African, Omar, speak of "our suffering and that of our families." Another African, Okai, asked: "Does God listen only to the rich?"
An Italian inmate named Federico complained that inmates who are HIV positive are looked at "ferociously."
The pope told him: "People speak ferociously even against the pope, but nonetheless we have to move on."
One prisoner read "The prayer from behind bars" which he had composed.
Alberto, an Italian inmate, told the pope he felt he was a new man who had paid his debt to society. He wanted to know why he could not go home to his 2-month-old daughter. He showed the pope a picture of the girl, named Gaia, and her mother.
Tears welled up in Alberto's eyes when the pope told him: "I am happy that you consider youself a new man and that you have a splendid daughter ... I pray and hope that you can soon embrace your daughter and wife and form a splendid family."
Severino, the justice minister, acknowledged in her address to the pope that he was visiting "a place of profound suffering" and that statistics could not do justice to the "terrible conditions of persons who keep their experiences, sufferings in their hearts."
There have been calls in Italy for the government to proclaim a general amnesty for those jailed for minor crimes and the pope heard the prisoners' views on this.
As he left the complex, they chanted "amnesty, amnesty, amnesty."
(Editing by Alistair Lyon)
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By msnbc.com news services
Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who gained fame as the underdog football player at the University of Notre Dame and inspired the 1993 movie?"Rudy," was sued Friday?by the Securities and Exchange Commission.?
Ruettiger?and 12 others were charged with running a scheme to deceive investors into buying stock in Ruettiger's sports drink company.
The SEC lawsuit?called it "a classic pump-and-dump scheme involving a penny stock called Rudy Nutrition" that occured between February and September 2008 and?generated more than $11 million in illicit profits.
"Investors were lured into the scheme by Mr. Ruettiger's well-known, feel-good story but found themselves in a situation that did not have a happy ending," SEC enforcement lawyer Scott Friestad said in a statement.
The company, which is no longer in business, provided false and misleading statements about the company to investors, the?SEC said.
Ruettiger and 10 of the scheme's other participants have agreed to settle the SEC's charges without admitting or denying the allegations. Ruettiger agreed to pay $382,866 to settle the case.
In a review of the movie, The New York Times said the lead actor?"doesn't soft-pedal his character's annoying obstinacy. He is not afraid of making Rudy a royal pain."
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WASHINGTON ? Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans ? nearly 1 in 2 ? have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income.
The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families.
"Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too `rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty.
"The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."
Congressional Republicans and Democrats are sparring over legislation that would renew a Social Security payroll tax reduction, part of a year-end political showdown over economic priorities that could also trim unemployment benefits, freeze federal pay and reduce entitlement spending.
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far. He said some people described as poor live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs.
"There's no doubt the recession has thrown a lot of people out of work and incomes have fallen," Rector said. "As we come out of recession, it will be important that these programs promote self-sufficiency rather than dependence and encourage people to look for work."
Mayors in 29 cities say more than 1 in 4 people needing emergency food assistance did not receive it. Many formerly middle-class Americans are dropping below the low-income threshold ? roughly $45,000 for a family of four ? because of pay cuts, a forced reduction of work hours or a spouse losing a job.
States in the South and West had the highest shares of low-income families, including Arizona, New Mexico and South Carolina, which have scaled back or eliminated aid programs for the needy. By raw numbers, such families were most numerous in California and Texas, each with more than 1 million.
The struggling Americans include Zenobia Bechtol, 18, in Austin, Texas, who earns minimum wage as a part-time pizza delivery driver. Bechtol and her 7-month-old baby were recently evicted from their bedbug-infested apartment after her boyfriend, an electrician, lost his job in the sluggish economy.
After an 18-month job search, Bechtol's boyfriend now works as a waiter and the family of three is temporarily living with her mother.
"We're paying my mom $200 a month for rent, and after diapers and formula and gas for work, we barely have enough money to spend," said Bechtol, a high school graduate who wants to go to college. "If it weren't for food stamps and other government money for families who need help, we wouldn't have been able to survive."
About 97.3 million Americans fall into a low-income category, commonly defined as those earning between 100 and 199 percent of the poverty level, based on a new supplemental measure by the Census Bureau that is designed to provide a fuller picture of poverty. Together with the 49.1 million who fall below the poverty line and are counted as poor, they number 146.4 million, or 48 percent of the U.S. population. That's up by 4 million from 2009, the earliest numbers for the newly developed poverty measure.
The new measure of poverty takes into account medical, commuting and other living costs as well as taxes. Doing that pushed the number of people below 200 percent of the poverty level up from the 104 million, or 1 in 3 Americans, that was officially reported in September.
Broken down by age, children were most likely to be poor or low-income ? about 57 percent ? followed by seniors 65 and over. By race and ethnicity, Hispanics topped the list at 73 percent, followed by blacks, Asians and non-Hispanic whites.
Even by traditional measures, many working families are hurting.
Following the recession that began in late 2007, the share of working families who are low income has risen for three straight years to 31.2 percent, or 10.2 million. That proportion is the highest in at least a decade, up from 27 percent in 2002, according to a new analysis by the Working Poor Families Project and the Population Reference Bureau, a nonprofit research group based in Washington.
Among low-income families, about one-third were considered poor while the remainder ? 6.9 million ? earned income just above the poverty line. Many states phase out eligibility for food stamps, Medicaid, tax credit and other government aid programs for low-income Americans as they approach 200 percent of the poverty level.
The majority of low-income families ? 62 percent ? spent more than one-third of their earnings on housing, surpassing a common guideline for what is considered affordable. By some census surveys, child-care costs consume close to another one-fifth when a mother works.
Paychecks for low-income families are shrinking. The inflation-adjusted average earnings for the bottom 20 percent of families have fallen from $16,788 in 1979 to just under $15,000, and earnings for the next 20 percent have remained flat at $37,000. In contrast, higher-income brackets had significant wage growth since 1979, with earnings for the top 5 percent of families climbing 64 percent to more than $313,000.
A survey of 29 cities conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors released Thursday points to a gloomy outlook for those on the lower end of the income scale.
Many mayors cited the challenges of meeting increased demands for food assistance, expressing particular concern about possible cuts to federal programs such as food stamps and WIC, which assists low-income pregnant women and mothers. Unemployment led the list of causes of hunger in cities, followed by poverty, low wages and high housing costs.
Across the 29 cities, about 27 percent of people needing emergency food aid did not receive it. Kansas City, Mo.; Nashville, Tenn.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Trenton, N.J., were among the cities that pointed to increases in the cost of food and declining food donations. Mayor Michael McGinn in Seattle cited an unexpected spike in food requests from immigrants and refugees, particularly from Somalia, Burma and Bhutan.
Among those requesting emergency food assistance, 51 percent were in families, 26 percent were employed, 19 percent were elderly and 11 percent were homeless.
"People who never thought they would need food are in need of help," said Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Mo., who co-chairs a mayors' task force on hunger and homelessness.
___
Online:
Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov
U.S. Conference of Mayors: http://www.usmayors.org/
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FILE - This Sept. 19, 2007, file photo, shows the National Security Agency building at Fort Meade, Md., during a visit by President Bush. The military intelligence complex an hour outside Washington where the WikiLeaks case goes to court this week is known as a cloak-and-dagger sanctum off-limits to the rest of the world. That reputation is only partly true. In many ways, Maryland?s Fort Meade is an ordinary Army post, albeit one with a 5,000-acre complex and a golf course. It?s also home to the super secure compound of the code-breaking National Security Agency. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)
FILE - This Sept. 19, 2007, file photo, shows the National Security Agency building at Fort Meade, Md., during a visit by President Bush. The military intelligence complex an hour outside Washington where the WikiLeaks case goes to court this week is known as a cloak-and-dagger sanctum off-limits to the rest of the world. That reputation is only partly true. In many ways, Maryland?s Fort Meade is an ordinary Army post, albeit one with a 5,000-acre complex and a golf course. It?s also home to the super secure compound of the code-breaking National Security Agency. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, file)
FILE - This undated file photo obtained by The Associated Press shows Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private suspected of being the source of some of the unauthorized classified information disclosed on the WikiLeaks website. As the suspected source for the biggest leak of intelligence material in American history faces his first hearing Friday Dec. 15, 2011, U.S. prosecutors have their eye on another prize: The man who disclosed the documents to the world. When WikiLeaks' spectacular disclosures of U.S. secrets exploded onto the scene last year, much of Washington's anger coalesced around Julian Assange, the silver-haired globe-trotting figure whose outspoken defiance of the Pentagon and the State Department riled politicians on both sides of the aisle. Pfc. Manning, long under lock and key, hasn't attracted the same level of ire. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - This is a Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011 file photo of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as he talks during a news conference in central London. As the suspected source for the biggest leak of intelligence material in American history faces his first hearing Friday Dec. 15 ,2011, U.S. prosecutors have their eye on another prize: The man who disclosed the documents to the world. When WikiLeaks' spectacular disclosures of U.S. secrets exploded onto the scene last year, much of Washington's anger coalesced around Julian Assange, the silver-haired globe-trotting figure whose outspoken defiance of the Pentagon and the State Department riled politicians on both sides of the aisle. Pfc. Bradley Manning, long under lock and key, hasn't attracted the same level of ire. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, File)
FORT MEADE, Maryland (AP) ? The civilian attorney for Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier accused of leaking classified documents published by the WikiLeaks website, asked the presiding officer at his pretrial hearing Friday to step aside.
Army Lt. Col. Paul Almanza's civilian occupation as a Justice Department prosecutor was the chief reason defense lawyer David Coombs gave in asking him to recuse himself. The Justice Department is conducting a criminal investigation targeting WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
Manning, 23, is charged with aiding the enemy by leaking hundreds of thousands of secret documents that ended up on the website. At the time, he was a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad.
The case has spawned an international movement in support of Manning, who is seen by anti-war activists as a hero who helped expose American mistakes in Iraq and Afghanistan. To others he is a villain, even a traitor, who betrayed his oath of loyalty by deliberately spilling his government's secrets.
Almanza said he hasn't formed an opinion about Manning's guilt or innocence.
Friday's hearing is to determine whether Manning will face a court-martial. If his case goes to trial and he is convicted, Manning could face life in prison. The government has said it would not seek the death penalty.
Dressed in his camouflage Army fatigues, Manning sat at the defense table showing little expression. He occasionally twirled a pen between his thumb and finger.
The hearing is open to the public, but with limited seating. A small number of reporters were present but not allowed to record or photograph the proceedings.
A U.S. military legal expert told reporters shortly before the proceedings began that the presiding officer is likely to make his recommendation on whether to court-martial Manning within eight days after the hearing ends. The hearing is expected to last over the weekend and possibly well into next week.
The legal expert, who could not be identified under Army ground rules, said Manning is to be present for all proceedings, including sessions closed to the public for consideration of classified material.
The site of the hearing, Fort Meade, is home to U.S. Cyber Command, the organization whose mission includes protecting computer networks like the one Manning allegedly breached by illegally downloading huge numbers of classified documents in Iraq.
Manning's lawyer asserts that the documents' release did little actual harm.
Last month, 54 members of the European Parliament signed a letter to the U.S. government raising concerns about Manning's 18-month pretrial confinement.
Manning's supporters planned to maintain a vigil during the hearing and were organizing a rally for Saturday.
Army Maj. Gen. Michael S. Linnington, commander of the Military District of Washington, could choose other courses aside from court-martial, including applying an administrative punishment or dismissing some or all of the 22 counts against Manning.
The Manning case has led to a debate over the broader issue of whether the government's system for classifying and shielding information has grown so unwieldy that it is increasingly vulnerable to intrusions.
Absent from the Meade proceedings will be Assange, who runs WikiLeaks from England. He is fighting in British courts to block a Swedish request that he be extradited to face trial over rape allegations.
A U.S. grand jury is weighing whether to indict Assange on espionage charges, and WikiLeaks is straining under an American financial embargo.
The materials Manning is accused of leaking include hundreds of thousands of sensitive items: Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, State Department cables and a classified military video of a 2007 American helicopter attack in Iraq that killed 11 men, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.
Manning, who turns 24 on Saturday, was detained in Iraq in May 2010 and moved to a Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia, in July. Nine months later, the Army sent him to the military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, after a series of claims by Manning of unlawful pretrial punishment.
When it filed formal charges against Manning in March 2011, the Army accused him of using unauthorized software on government computers to extract classified information, illegally download it and transmit the data for public release by what the Army termed "the enemy."
The first large publication of the documents by WikiLeaks in July 2010, some 77,000 military records on the war in Afghanistan, made global headlines. But the material provided only limited revelations, including unreported incidents of Afghan civilian killings as well as covert operations against Taliban figures.
In October 2010, WikiLeaks published a batch of nearly 400,000 documents that dated from early 2004 to Jan. 1, 2010. They were written mostly by low-ranking officers in the field cataloging thousands of battles with insurgents and roadside bomb attacks, plus equipment failures and shootings by civilian contractors. The documents did not alter the basic outlines of how the war was fought.
A month later, WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of State Department documents that revealed a hidden world of backstage diplomacy, including candid comments from world leaders.
It took months for the Army to reach the conclusion that Manning was competent to stand trial. In the meantime Manning's civilian lawyer, Coombs, has sought to build a case that appears to rest in part on an assertion that the government's own reviews of the leaks concluded that little damage was done.
___
Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.
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"It's hard to imagine there ever being anyone quite like him again," said Barbara Walters as she named Steve Jobs the most fascinating person of 2011. It was the first time she's ever given such an honor to a person who is not alive. Here's the entire list:
[More from Mashable: Apple at Auction: 5 Collectibles Sold for Big Bucks]
[More from Mashable: Pixar Exec Talks Steve Jobs and ?Brave? [VIDEO]]
This story originally published on Mashable here.
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LONDON ? A British court has issued a landmark ruling that may lead to American forces releasing a Pakistani man held without charges for eight years.
The Appeal Court's ruling Wednesday said Britain has seven days to produce Yunus Rahmatullah.
American forces, who are holding Rahmatullah, are not bound by the British court ruling.
British troops in Iraq seized Rahmatullah in 2004, but then handed him over to the American forces who sent him at Bagram Air Base, the main U.S. military installation in Afghanistan . He's currently in US custody.
Although Rahmatullah is not a British national, the UK-legal charity Reprieve sued claiming that British forces were in breach of international law when they rendered him to U.S. custody without any explanation.
The Foreign Office says its lawyers are reviewing the judgment.
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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/45652693#45652693
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Afghans wait for arrival of bodies, who was killed on Monday's suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghans wait for arrival of bodies, who was killed on Monday's suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghans pray over the grave of a victim who was killed in Tuesday's suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber killed 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghans carry the bodies of victims who were killed in Tuesday's suicide attack during a funeral ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber killed 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
Afghans shout slogans during a funeral ceremony for a victim of Tuesday's suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber killed 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)
Afghan touches and kisses the stones of a newly buried body, who was killed on Monday's suicide attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to commemorate the holiday of Ashoura, which honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq)
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (AP) ? A minibus struck a roadside bomb while driving in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday, triggering an explosion that killed 19 Afghan civilians, officials said.
The vehicle was driving on a road in Helmand province's volatile Sangin district ? a Taliban stronghold ? when it hit the bomb, said Daoud Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Helmand government.
At least five children were among the dead, he said. Another six people were wounded and all were being treated at a NATO base. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack ? a common situation when bombs kill civilians.
The blast comes a day after twin bombings on Shiite Muslims celebrating the holiday of Ashoura left 60 dead and sparked fears that attacks in Afghanistan might be taking on a sectarian dimension for the first time. Ashoura honors the death of Imam Hussein, a grandson of the Prophet Muhammad, in 680 A.D.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai cut short a European trip because of Tuesday's attacks and returned to Kabul on Wednesday to visit the scores of wounded and the bereaved families of those killed in the capital.
A suicide bomber slaughtered 56 Shiite worshippers and wounded more than 160 others Tuesday outside a shrine where hundreds had gathered to worship. One U.S. citizen was also among the dead, according to a statement issued by the American embassy in Kabul. The deceased was not a government employee, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Megan Ellis said, but declined to give further details.
The blast, coupled with another smaller explosion in a northern city that killed four people in a holiday vehicle procession, marked the first major assault on a Muslim sect in Afghanistan in recent memory.
Karzai said in a statement shortly after the blast that the attack on Shiites was unprecedented in scope and marked the first time that one had been carried out during a religious event.
His office said Wednesday that he had arrived back in Kabul, cutting short a trip to Britain and Germany, and planned to spend the day visiting the wounded in city hospitals.
Families gathered for funerals across the city on Wednesday. In western Kabul, a group of mourners carried four bodies in a funeral procession through the city's largest Shiite cemetery. They carried pictures of the dead and shouted, "They are martyrs! We honor them!"
One of the mourners said no place felt safe anymore.
"Killing Muslims in front of a holy shrine, it is unbelievable," said Mohammad Nahim, 35. "Last night I told my children not to visit any shrines after dark. It is too dangerous." He said the graphic images of piled bodies came on the television as his family was eating dinner the night before and they all started crying.
"The man who owned the shop on my street corner, the man I bought vegetables from, he was killed in the attack," Nahim said.
At one of the funerals, a member of the city's Shiite council said the attack showed no one can count on the government for protection. "There have been so many attacks, even against government officials, and still they can't stop these things," said Mohaqeq Zada.
It remained unclear what the political reverberations of the attack could be.
The Taliban condemned the attack, which was reminiscent of the wave of sectarian bloodshed that shook Iraq during the height of the war there. Suspicion centered on militant groups based in neighboring Pakistan, where Sunni attacks on minority Shiites are common.
A man who claimed to be from Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami, a Pakistan-based group that has carried out attacks against Shiite Muslims, called various media outlets in Pakistan to claim responsibility for the bombing in Kabul. The validity of the claim could not be determined.
Until now, the decade-long Afghan war has largely been spared sectarian violence, where civilians are targeted simply for their membership in a particular religious group. Tuesday's attack suggests that at least some militant groups may have shifted tactics, taking aim at ethnic minorities such as the Hazara who are largely Shiite and support the Afghan government and its Western partners.
Afghanistan's Shiite community makes up about 20 percent of the nation's 30 million population. Hard-line Sunnis consider Shiites nonbelievers because their customs and traditions differ from the majority sect.
___
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez, Patrick Quinn, Deb Riechmann and Heidi Vogt in Kabul contributed to this report.
(This version CORRECTS name of Pakistan group to Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al-Alami.)
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LOS ANGELES ? Concertgoers who purchased tickets through Ticketmaster are being notified that they'll soon receive credits for fees they were charged over the past decade.
Emails are being sent to customers who are entitled to the credits as part of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2003 that alleged the company overcharged them. A pair of men had sued in Los Angeles over fees they were charged for purchasing tickets to Wilco and Bruce Springsteen concerts.
A settlement, which received preliminary approval from a judge in October, will give customers a $1.50 credit on up to 17 tickets they purchased between specific dates in 1999 and 2011 that they can use on future purchases. It will also credit purchasers who received tickets via UPS up $5 for up to 17 transactions. The settlement is scheduled to be finalized in May.
The credits are for an "Order Processing Fee" that Ticketmaster assessed on purchases.
The credits come with several restrictions: Customers can only use two credits at a time and cannot use them for events scheduled at venues owned by concert giant AEG Live.
Customers who were charged the fees are receiving emails announcing the settlement and will receive messages after the settlement is finalized with details on how to redeem the credits. A website has also been established explaining the case and the settlement.
Matthew Cameron, a Massachusetts lawyer, is objecting to the settlement, claiming its credits are "virtually useless" and do not fully compensate customers.
He wrote in a statement to the judge handling the case that the credits have no cash value and are "plainly designed to directly profit defendants at the further expense of the class."
Cameron purchased 18 tickets between 2006 and 2010, according to his filing.
Ticketmaster is owned by Live Nation Inc. The company did not immediately return an email message seeking comment.
___
Online:
Settlement details: http://www.ticketfeelitigation.com
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LONDON ? Amy Winehouse's father says meeting the first children to be helped by the foundation set up in his late daughter's name has been both heartbreaking and heartwarming.
The Amy Winehouse Foundation was officially launched 10 weeks ago to support vulnerable youth, and has pledged to donate 500,000 pounds ($780,000) in its first year.
The singer's parents, Mitch and Janis Winehouse, visited Little Havens Children's Hospice in Thundersley, east of London, on Wednesday to meet children benefitting from a 10,000-pound ($15,600) donation.
Mitch Winehouse says "it was heartbreaking actually . . . I'm starting to well up now, but heartwarming at the same time."
A British coroner ruled the singer, known for her beehive hairdo and hits like "Rehab," died of alcohol poisoning.
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Lady Gaga's newest magnum opus is here, a 13-minute self-directed video of her new song "Marry the Night."
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By JIMMY GOLEN
updated 7:58 p.m. ET Dec. 1, 2011
BOSTON - The most intriguing part of Bobby Valentine's first news conference as the Boston Red Sox manager: The possibility of making Bill Buckner his hitting coach.
Valentine and Buckner were college roommates who played together in the Los Angeles Dodgers' system. The new Boston skipper said he would consider the former Red Sox first baseman for his staff.
Despite a 21-year career in which he amassed 2,715 hits, Buckner was best remembered in Boston for his ninth-inning error in Game 6 of the 1986 World Series that helped the New York Mets come from behind and win. The sting of that loss wasn't diminished until the Red Sox ended their 86-year championship drought in 2004.
Valentine said he watched Buckner's kids grow up and, "I respect his every opinion, in baseball and worldy matters."
But he says it's not about friendship. It's about who's best for the job.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsBobby Valentine took over as manager of the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, promising to be hard-working, open-minded and even humble.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45517380/ns/sports-baseball/
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Chevy Volt battery fires in lab tests may have some owners spooked. So GM offers to buy back any Chevy Volt.
Afraid your new Chevrolet?Volt?will catch on fire? General Motors will go as far as to buy it back from you.
Skip to next paragraphAs safety investigations continue on the electric car, which caught fire following test crashes, GM Chief Executive Dan Akerson said the automaker would repurchase?Volts?from any concerned consumers.
The assurance marked an escalation of the company's response to the post-crash reports. Earlier this week, GM offered to loan free vehicles to Chevy Volt?owners until the safety concerns were resolved.
"While the investigation is going on, we will do whatever it takes to allay concerns and keep our customers happy," said GM spokesman Greg Martin, "and if that includes repurchase, we will work individually with any customer."
Martin said that once GM's engineering team and federal safety officials figure out the cause of the fires, which occurred one to three weeks after the crash tests, the company would, if necessary, recall and retrofit everyVolt?that has been sold.
GM has sold about 6,000?Volts, Martin said. So far, about 30 owners have taken the company up on its loaner offer. Martin said details of how a repurchase plan would work had not been determined.
Auto analyst Jessica Caldwell of Edmunds.com said the company was fortunate, in the context of the repurchase, that only a small number of cars had been sold.
"GM is only dealing with a few thousand cars," Caldwell said. "It's much more manageable than a widespread car, like a (Toyota) Camry or Honda Accord, which would be logistically very tough and financially very complicated to do something like a repurchase."
GM said there had been no reports from consumers of fires. "The?Volt's?a safe car," Martin said. "These concerns are based on three incidents up to three weeks after a severe test crash."
John O'Dell, senior editor at Edmunds.com, said he didn't think the company would have to buy back manyVolts, which travel on battery power for 40 miles before a gasoline engine begins to act as a generator, extending the range an additional 300 miles.
"It's an offer you can make when you don't expect many people to take you up on it," O'Dell said. "Most of these cars have been sold to the early-adopter customers.
"They are the least likely people to complain about the car because they want this kind of technology; they've been waiting for it."
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/taJOXXws0A8/Chevy-Volt-Worried-about-fire-Sell-it-back
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After a decade of "following the water," planetary scientists want to see if water co-existed with other critical environmental conditions that could have allowed simple forms of life to emerge.
Mars Science Laboratory, a one-ton chemistry lab on wheels set for launch Saturday morning from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is geared for a unique mission.
Skip to next paragraphThink "extraterrestrial real-estate appraisal," says Pamela Conrad, an astrobiologist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
We're not quite ready to hunt for life itself yet, and the MSL rover isn't designed to do so, say researchers taking part in the $2.5-billion mission to the red planet.
IN PICTURES:?Exploring Mars
But after a decade of "following the water" ? a necessary ingredient for life as researchers currently understand it ? planetary scientists are moving to take the next critical step: see if water co-existed with other critical environmental conditions that could have allowed simple forms of life to emerge.
Organisms on Earth take the forms they do because they are adapted to their environments, MSL researchers explain. If humans eventually hunt for evidence of life itself on the Red Planet, or anywhere else, for that matter, knowing something about the environment organisms inhabit will yield clues about what the organisms were or are like.
"If a Tim Allen, 'Galaxy Quest,' alien rock creature were to come up and bang us on the head, we don't want to ignore it. That would be the 'Ah ha!' moment we'd regret having missed," says Steve Brenner, director of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution in Gainesville, Fla.
For Mars, the incremental Holy Grail is finding organic carbon, the stuff of complex molecules that form the building blocks for life, according to John Grotzinger, a planetary scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif., and the mission's project scientist.
"It's a long shot, but we're going to try," he said during a prelaunch briefing this week..
Meteorites deposit organic compounds on the Martian surface all the time, but today's conditions are so harsh that the compounds are quickly destroyed, he explains.
Finding organic carbon captured in the layered rocks that the rover Curiosity will explore would indicate that at the time the layers were deposited, conditions on the surface at that location could well have been far more benign, allowing organic compounds to exist at the surface.
Set for launch at 10:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Saturday, Curiosity holds a TripTik that sets the rover into Mars' Gale Crater next August.
The oversized ding in Mars' crust is 96 miles across, about 3 miles deep, and sports a gently sloping mountain in its center that rises to a height comparable to California's Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states.
Some researchers crudely estimate the impact crater's age at between 3.5 billion and 3.8 billion years old.
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WALL, N.J. ? The search for a central New Jersey man charged with murder in the death of his 2-year-old daughter has gone nationwide.
First Assistant Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni says the FBI and U.S. Marshals are among several agencies now involved in the search for 27-year-old Arthur Morgan III of Ocean Township. Morgan also was added this weekend as a featured fugitive on the "America's Most Wanted" television show's website.
Authorities believe Morgan fled the state and may have headed out West after Tierra Morgan-Glover was killed Monday, after he picked her up for a court-approved visit.
The toddler was still strapped in her car seat when she was found partially submerged in a creek at Shark River Park in Wall, N.J. The cause of death was listed as "homicidal violence."
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