Thousands march in Istanbul in solidarity with Kurds

By Ece Toksabay

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Thousands of protesters marched to Istanbul's Taksim Square on Saturday chanting slogans against the government and police after security forces killed a Kurdish demonstrator in southeastern Turkey.

The protest had been planned as part of larger unrelated anti-government demonstrations that have swept through the country since the end of May, but became a voice of solidarity with the Kurds after Friday's killing.

"Murderer police, get out of Kurdistan!" some protesters chanted. "This is only the beginning, the struggle continues. The murderer state will pay!"

Turkish forces killed the man and wounded 10 others when they fired on a group protesting against the construction of a gendarmerie outpost in the Kurdish-dominated region.

The incident, in the Lice district of Diyarbakir province, appeared to be the most violent in the region since a ceasefire declaration in March by jailed Kurdish rebel chief Abdullah Ocalan in a decades-old conflict between his fighters and the Turkish state, and it risks derailing the nascent peace process.

Around 10,000 protesters descended on Taksim, which has been the center of weeks of anti-government demonstrations, but were prevented from entering the square by riot police.

Many in the crowd sat in the roads leading to the square after being denied entry. "Long live the brotherhood of the people!" people shouted in both Turkish and Kurdish.

Most of the protesters dispersed after a couple of hours, with a group of around 1,000 remaining near the square. Riot police pushed them away from the square with shields and slow moving water cannon trucks although no water was fired. Announcements were made for protesters to return to their homes.

The Kurdish tensions come at a time of increased vigilance among Turkish security forces after the anti-government protests in Istanbul, Ankara and other cities in which four people have died and thousands have been injured.

The protests, which had largely died down over the past week, have emerged as the biggest public challenge to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's 10-year rule. He has dismissed the protesters as pawns of Turkey's enemies and has called supporters to back his party in municipal elections next year.

PROTEST AT FUNERAL

Earlier, hundreds of Kurds chanted anti-government slogans at the funeral of 18-year-old Medeni Yildirim, raising fears of violence at protest marches around the country on Sunday called by Turkey's main pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).

The mourners in the city of Diyarbakir warned Erdogan to respect the peace process.

"Behave, Erdogan, don't push us to the mountains!" they chanted - a reference to the camps of Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the mountains of northern Iraq from where they used to attack targets within Turkey.

Erdogan tried on Friday to reassure Turkey's Kurds that the anti-government would not harm the peace process.

"The peace process was not affected ... and our brotherhood grew stronger thanks to our people's common sense," he said.

Turkey's Interior Ministry said inspectors would investigate Friday's incident, which it said had involved up to 250 people attacking the construction site. It said the death resulted from warning shots fired to disperse the crowd.

Hours before the killing, the BDP called for marches in three major cities on Sunday to launch a summer of protests to raise pressure on Ankara for reforms under the peace process with the PKK. Leaders said the rallies would be peaceful.

PKK militants began withdrawing from Turkish territory to bases in northern Iraq last month as part of the deal between the state and Ocalan, imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul since 1999, to end a conflict that has killed 40,000 people.

There has been little evidence of progress with attention focused on the countrywide protests.

But the BDP has said the withdrawal was continuing successfully and the process had entered a second stage during which Ankara needed to broaden the rights of Kurds, who make up some 20 percent of the 76 million population.

The BDP protests will call for a halt to the construction of military outposts, the release of political prisoners, education in Kurdish, lowering of the threshold of 10 percent electoral support required to enter parliament, and the release of Ocalan.

The PKK, designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and European Union, took up arms against the state in 1984 with the aim of carving out a Kurdish state, but subsequently moderated its goal to autonomy.

(Writing by Jonathon Burch and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Alison Williams)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/thousands-march-istanbul-solidarity-kurds-185547685.html

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Verizon starts selling 32GB Samsung Galaxy S 4 online for $299

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Verizon customers -- now's your chance to grab Samsung's latest flagship device with more internal storage. The carrier has started selling the 32GB Galaxy S 4 online, giving buyers another choice besides the 16GB version sold on its website for $199. Shipments aren't promised until July 3rd, but you can buy the 32GB Galaxy S 4 right now for $299 -- assuming you're interested in paying $100 more for storage on a phone that already features expandable memory. If you'd rather shell out more money for an unlocked bootloader, though, Verizon also sells the Developer Edition at the lofty price of $650 each.

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http://www.engadget....sung-galaxy-s4/

Source: http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1161884-verizon-starts-selling-32gb-samsung-galaxy-s-4-online-for-299/

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The Wanted and Backstreet Boys perform at G-A-Y in London - Pics

Backstreet's back, alright?

As you may have noticed, there's nothing we love more here at Sugarscape than a good boyband. There's just something about those silky smooth tones, perfectly-quiffed bouffants and bulging biceps that do funny things to us. So you can imagine our delight when, last night, The Wanted boys performed at London's Heaven nightclub...WITH THE BACKSTREET BOYS *yelp*.

Yup, Backstreet's officially back - and our fave fivesome off of the 90s took to the stage alongside five of our current faves in a massive boyband sandwich. And it was beautiful.

To celebrate London Pride, the lads stormed the stage as loads of excitable peeps went a bit cray cray over what was happening in front of them. Like...it's not every day you get to see Max George making out with Jay McGuiness, is it?

Or Max being actually mauled, for that matter.

And OBVIOUSLY carnage ensued when Nathan Sykes got his rocket out and was well unapologetic about it...

OOF. Now let's just have a little perv over them all again, shall we? Warning: includes quite frankly RIDICULOUS Siva cheekbone action.

Amazing.

What d'ya reckon? Do you want it that way? We'd have it any way, to be honest. We're not fussy. Comments please. GO.

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Nathan Sykes rejoins The Wanted at the Capital FM Summertime Ball - WATCH

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sugarscape/~3/BmjgNWVNXGw/wanted-and-backstreet-boys-perform-gay-london-pics

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Obama to announce new power initiative for Africa

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, stands for a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela during an official dinner with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, stands for a moment of silence for Nelson Mandela during an official dinner with South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama toast during an official dinner hosted by South African President Jacob Zuma at the Presidential Guest House on Saturday, June 29, 2013, in Pretoria, South Africa. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama wave as they depart Waterkloof Air Base for a flight to Cape Town on Sunday, June 30, 2013, in Centurion, South Africa. The president is in South Africa, embarking on the second leg of his three-country African journey. The visit comes at a poignant time, with former South African president and anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela ailing in a Johannesburg hospital. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Performers dressed in traditional Xhosa outfits dance at the wedding of Sbongiseni Tetani and his wife Charity from the Xhosa tribe, near the home of former South African president Nelson Mandela house in Qunu, South Africa, Saturday, June 29, 2013. President Barack Obama plans to visit privately Saturday with relatives of former South African President Nelson Mandela, but doesn't intend to see the critically ill anti-apartheid icon he has called a "personal hero." (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Sunday will announce a new initiative to double access to electric power in sub-Saharan Africa, part of his effort to build on the legacy of equality and opportunity forged by his personal hero, Nelson Mandela.

Obama, who flew from Johannesburg to Cape Town Sunday, will pay tribute to the ailing 94-year-old Mandela throughout the day. The president and his family will visit Robben Island, where the anti-apartheid leader spent 18 years confined to a tiny cell, including a stop of the lime quarry where Mandela toiled and developed the lung problems that are ailing him today.

The White House said Obama's guide during his tour of the island will be 83-year-old South African politician Ahmed Kathrada, who was also in captivity at the prison for nearly two decades and guided Obama on his 2006 visit to the prison as a U.S. senator. The president will also view the prison courtyard where Mandela planted grapevines that remain today, and where he and others in the dissident leadership would discuss politics, sneak notes to one another and hide writings.

Following the tour, Obama will deliver what the White House has billed as the signature speech of his weeklong trip at the University of Cape Town, an address that will be infused with memories of Mandela.

During that speech, Obama will unveil the "Power Africa" initiative, which includes an initial $7 billion investment from the United States over the next five years. Private companies, including General Electric and Symbion Power, are making an additional $9 billion in commitments with the goal of providing power to millions of Africans crippled by a lack of electricity.

Gayle Smith, Obama's senior director for development and democracy, said more than two-thirds of people living in Sub-Saharan African do not have electricity, including 85 percent of those living in rural areas.

"If you want lights so kids can study at night or you can maintain vaccines in a cold chain, you don't have that, so going the extra mile to reach people is more difficult," Smith said.

The U.S. and its private sector partners will initially focus its efforts on six African countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, and Tanzania, where Obama will wrap up his trip later this week. Former President George W. Bush, who supports health programs throughout the continent, will also be in Tanzania next week, and the White House did not rule out the possibility that the two men might meet.

Obama will also highlight U.S. efforts to bolster access to food and health programs on the continent. His advisers said the president sees reducing the poverty and illness that plague many parts of Africa as an extension of Mandela's example of how change can happen within countries.

The former South African president has been hospitalized in critical condition for three weeks. Obama met Saturday with members of Mandela's family, but did not visit the anti-apartheid icon in the hospital, a decision the White House said was in keeping with his family's wishes.

Obama's weeklong trip, which opened last week in Senegal, marks his most significant trip to the continent since taking office. His scant personal engagement has come as a disappointment to some in the region, who had high hopes for a man whose father was from Kenya.

Obama has visited Robben Island before as a U.S. senator. But since being elected as the first black American president, Obama has drawn inevitable comparisons to Mandela, making Sunday's visit particularly poignant.

The president said he's also eager to bring his family with him to the prison to teach them about Mandela's role in overcoming white racist rule, first as an activist and later as a president who forged a unity government with his former captors.

He told reporters Saturday he to "help them to understand not only how those lessons apply to their own lives but also to their responsibilities in the future as citizens of the world, that's a great privilege and a great honor."

Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser, said Mandela's vision was always going to feature prominently in the speech. But the former South African leader's deteriorating health "certainly puts a finer point on just how much we can't take for granted what Nelson Mandela did."

Harkening back to a prominent theme from his 2009 speech in Ghana ? his only other trip to Africa as president ? Obama will emphasize that Africans must take much of the responsibility for finishing the work started by Mandela and his contemporaries.

"The progress that Africa has made opens new doors, but frankly, it's up to the leaders in Africa and particularly young people to make sure that they're walking through those doors of opportunity," Rhodes said.

Obama will speak at the University of Cape Town nearly 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ripple of Hope" speech from the school. Kennedy spoke in Cape Town two years after Mandela was sentenced to life in prison.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-06-30-AF-Obama/id-c013cf58f8b542928adfebec2aab3b43

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China 'terrorists' riot in latest Xinjiang clash: report

Beijing, Jun 29, 2013 (AFP):

China's state-run media today blamed around 100 people it branded as "terrorists" for sparking 'riots' in the ethnically-divided region of Xinjiang, where clashes killed 35 days earlier.

The riot took place in the prefecture of Hotan yesterday, where the group "(attacked) a number of people with weapons after gathering at local religious venues," the state-run Global Times said today.

The latest incident followed clashes on Wednesday that were the deadliest to hit the western desert region -- home to around 10 million members of the mostly Muslim Uighur minority -- since 2009, when riots killed around 200 people.

It also quoted a source as saying police opened fire on Uighurs as they left a local mosque.

"Young Uighurs on motorcycles were leaving the mosque, they were shouting religious slogans...The police were frightened and started shooting at them ... At least two died and one was injured," the report said.

A state-run news website, Tianshan Web, said that no members of the public had been killed or injured, without stating whether police or government staff had died.

China's President Xi Jinping said following the attacks that "(the incidents) must be handled quickly to guarantee the general stability of the society," Tianshan Web reported today.

China often labels outbreaks of sporadic unrest in the region as terrorism -- claims denied by Uighur rights groups who blame unrest on economic inequality and religious repression.

It was not possible to verify details of Wednesday's clash independently as reporters were barred from entering the town detained and later followed by local police.
The Uyghur American Association, run by exiled members of the minority, said a "blackout of news" on attacks in the region cast doubt on Chinese government claims in a statement released today.

"The state then uses its propaganda apparatus to label the incident 'terrorism' without presenting any evidence that can be independently proved," the group said.
The recent unrest occurred shortly before the anniversary of the 2009 riots, and ahead of celebrations for the Muslim Ramadan festival -- which Uighurs have said are repressed by local authorities.

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Source: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/341723/china-039terrorists039-riot-latest-xinjiang.html

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Alec Baldwin Could Have Anger Issues?

Alec Baldwin Could Have Anger Issues…

Alec Baldwin is really angry and took to Twitter to go off on a Daily Mail reporter named George Stark. The actor went on a profane rant after a website claimed his pregnant wife, Hilaria Thomas, had been inappropriately tweeting during James Gandolfini’s funeral service. Baldwin tweeted, “Someone wrote that my wife was tweeting at ...

Alec Baldwin Could Have Anger Issues… Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/06/alec-baldwin-could-have-anger-issues/

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Spiral galaxies like Milky Way bigger than thought

June 27, 2013 ? Let's all fist bump: Spiral galaxies like our own Milky Way appear to be much larger and more massive than previously believed, according to a new University of Colorado Boulder study by researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope.

CU-Boulder Professor John Stocke, study leader, said new observations with Hubble's $70 million Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, or COS, designed by CU-Boulder show that normal spiral galaxies are surrounded by halos of gas that can extend to over 1 million light-years in diameter. The current estimated diameter of the Milky Way, for example, is about 100,000 light-years. One light-year is roughly 6 trillion miles.

The material for galaxy halos detected by the CU-Boulder team originally was ejected from galaxies by exploding stars known as supernovae, a product of the star formation process, said Stocke of CU-Boulder's astrophysical and planetary sciences department. "This gas is stored and then recycled through an extended galaxy halo, falling back onto the galaxies to reinvigorate a new generation of star formation," he said. "In many ways this is the 'missing link' in galaxy evolution that we need to understand in detail in order to have a complete picture of the process."

Stocke gave a presentation on the research June 27 at the University of Edinburgh's Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics in Scotland at a conference titled "Intergalactic Interactions." The CU-Boulder research team also included professors Michael Shull and James Green and research associates Brian Keeney, Charles Danforth, David Syphers and Cynthia Froning, as well as University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Blair Savage.

Building on earlier studies identifying oxygen-rich gas clouds around spiral galaxies by scientists at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College and the University of California, Santa Cruz, Stocke and his colleagues determined that such clouds contain almost as much mass as all the stars in their respective galaxies. "This was a big surprise," said Stocke. "The new findings have significant consequences for how spiral galaxies change over time."

In addition, the CU-Boulder team discovered giant reservoirs of gas estimated to be millions of degrees Fahrenheit that were enshrouding the spiral galaxies and halos under study. The halos of the spiral galaxies were relatively cool by comparison -- just tens of thousands of degrees -- said Stocke, also a member of CU-Boulder's Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, or CASA.

Shull, a professor in CU-Boulder's astrophysical and planetary sciences department and a member of CASA, emphasized that the study of such "circumgalactic" gas is in its infancy. "But given the expected lifetime of COS on Hubble, perhaps another five years, it should be possible to confirm these early detections, elaborate on the results and scan other spiral galaxies in the universe," he said.

Prior to the installation of COS on Hubble during NASA's final servicing mission in May 2009, theoretical studies showed that spiral galaxies should possess about five times more gas than was being detected by astronomers. The new observations with the extremely sensitive COS are now much more in line with the theories, said Stocke.

The CU-Boulder team used distant quasars -- the swirling centers of supermassive black holes -- as "flashlights" to track ultraviolet light as it passed through the extended gas haloes of foreground galaxies, said Stocke. The light absorbed by the gas was broken down by the spectrograph, much like a prism does, into characteristic color "fingerprints" that revealed temperatures, densities, velocities, distances and chemical compositions of the gas clouds.

"This gas is way too diffuse to allow its detection by direct imaging, so spectroscopy is the way to go," said Stocke. CU-Boulder's Green led the design team for COS, which was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. of Boulder for NASA.

While astronomers hope the Hubble Space Telescope keeps on chugging for years to come, there will be no more servicing missions. And the James Webb Space Telescope, touted to be Hubble's successor beginning in late 2018, has no UV light-gathering capabilities, which will prevent astronomers from undertaking studies like those done with COS, said Green.

"Once Hubble ceases to function, we will lose the capability to study galaxy halos for perhaps a full generation of astronomers," said Stocke. "But for now, we are fortunate to have both Hubble and its Cosmic Origins Spectrograph to help us answer some of the most pressing issues in cosmology."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/JOkGclMu0Qg/130627102625.htm

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Plaintiffs in gay marriage case wed in SF, LA

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ? The four plaintiffs in the U.S. Supreme Court case that overturned California's same-sex marriage ban tied the knot Friday, just hours after a federal appeals court freed gay couples to obtain marriage licenses in the state for the first time in 4 1/2 years.

Attorney General Kamala Harris presided at the San Francisco City Hall wedding of Kris Perry and Sandy Stier as hundreds of supporters looked on and cheered. The couple sued to overturn the state's voter-approved gay marriage ban along with Jeff Katami and Paul Zarrillo, who married at Los Angeles City Hall 90 minutes later with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa presiding.

"By joining the case against Proposition 8, they represented thousands of couples like themselves in their fight for marriage equality," Harris said during Stier and Perry's brief ceremony. "Through the ups and downs, the struggles and the triumphs, they came out victorious."

Harris declared Perry, 48, and Stier, 50, "spouses for life," but during their vows, the Berkeley couple took each other as "lawfully wedded wife." One of their twin sons served as ring-bearer.

Although the couples fought for the right to wed for years, their nuptials came together in a flurry when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a brief order Friday afternoon dissolving a stay it had imposed on gay marriages while the lawsuit challenging the ban advanced through the courts.

Sponsors of California's same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, also were caught off-guard and complained that the San Francisco-based 9th Circuit's swift action made it more difficult for them to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision.

Under Supreme Court rules, the losing side has 25 days to ask the high court to rehear the case, and Proposition 8's backers had not yet announced whether they would do so.

"The resumption of same-sex marriage this day has been obtained by illegitimate means. If our opponents rejoice in achieving their goal in a dishonorable fashion, they should be ashamed," said Andy Pugno, general counsel for a coalition of religious conservative groups that sponsored the 2008 ballot measure.

"It remains to be seen whether the fight can go on, but either way, it is a disgraceful day for California," he said.

The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that Proposition 8's sponsors lacked standing in the case after Harris and Gov. Jerry Brown, both Democrats, refused to defend the ban in court.

The decision lets stand a trial judge's declaration that the ban violates the civil rights of gay Californians and cannot be enforced.

The Supreme Court said earlier this week that it would not finalize its ruling in the Proposition 8 case "at least" until after the 25-day period, which ends July 21.

The appeals court was widely expected to wait until the Supreme Court's judgment was official. Ninth Circuit spokesman David Madden said Friday that the panel's decision to act sooner was "unusual, but not unprecedented," although he could not recall another time the appeals court acted before receiving an official judgment from the high court.

The panel ? Judge Stephen Reinhardt, who was named to the 9th Circuit by President Jimmy Carter and has a reputation as the court's liberal lion; Judge Michael Daly Hawkins, an early appointee of President Bill Clinton; and Judge Randy Smith, the last 9th Circuit judge nominated by President George W. Bush ? decided on its own to lift the stay, Madden said.

Its order read simply, "The stay in the above matter is dissolved effective immediately."

Vikram Amar, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Davis, said the Supreme Court's 25-day waiting period to make its decisions final isn't binding on lower courts.

"Some people may think it was in poor form, But it's not illegal," Amar said. "The appeals court may have felt that this case has dragged on long enough."

The same panel of judges ruled 2-1 last year that Proposition 8 was unconstitutional, but it kept same-sex marriages on hold while the case was appealed. But when the Supreme Court decided Proposition 8's backers couldn't defend the ban, it also wiped out the 9th Circuit's opinion.

Proposition 8 passed with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, 4 1/2 months after same-sex marriages commenced in California the first time. The Williams Institute, a think tank at the University of California, Los Angeles, estimates 18,000 couples from around the country got married in the state during that window.

Shortly after the appeals court issued its order Friday, the governor directed California counties to resume performing same-sex marriages. A memo from the Department of Public Health said "same-sex marriage is again legal in California" and ordered county clerks to comply by making marriage licenses available to gay couples.

Given that word did not come down from the appeals court until mid-afternoon, most counties were not prepared to stay open late to accommodate potential crowds. The clerks in a few counties announced that they would stay open a few hours late Friday before reopening Monday.

A jubilant San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee announced that same-sex couples would be able to marry all weekend in his city, which is hosting its annual gay pride celebration.

___

Associated Press writers Jason Dearen, Paul Elias and Mihir Zaveri contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/plaintiffs-gay-marriage-case-wed-sf-la-015212241.html

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Are Flip Flops Bad for Your Health? - Health News and Views ...

From New York?s sweltering sidewalks to Brazil?s sandy beaches, there?s no sandal that signals summer quite like the flip-flop. But are these no-fuss flats as harmless as they seem? Studies show that despite their easy-breezy appeal, extended flip flop use can cause a range of physical ailments, ranging from plantar fasciitis and muscle soreness, to lower back pain. Not exactly what we signed up for, right?

Foot Action ? Why it Matters

With the average American taking 5,117 steps a day ? and experts recommending we take close to 5,000 more ? our footwear is hardly an inconsequential choice. A 2012 survey found 78 percent of American adults over the age of 21 ?report having had some sort of foot pain or issue at some point in their lives, and more than half reported having such issues at the time of the survey. And while there?s no single shoe that?s a perfect across the board, flip flops may be the riskiest pick of them all?? excluding Gaga?s armadillo hoof stilettos, of course (and just imagine how that armadillo feels).

While a 2010 study suggests flip flops may actually decrease the load on our knees, it looks like there?s more risk in wearing the unsupportive shoes than benefits. In one?study, researchers compared the effects of wearing flip-flops and athletic shoes on 39 male and female college students. The flip-flop wearers took shorter steps and struck their heel to the ground with less vertical force than when in sneakers, causing their gaits to sway away from their natural rhythm. The reason? Most flip-flop wearers tend to clench their toes around the thong portion of the sandal to keep them from flying off. But toe curls aren?t quite what the doctor ordered and can instead lead to repetitive stress on the ankle and foot.

Where Flip Flops Fall Flat ? The Answer/Debate

Even though thong-like sandals provide some cushioning benefit over bare feet alone, studies show?they?re responsible for throwing human gait kinetics out of whack. The body is forced to compensate, and what starts as stress on the arch, heel, and the rest of the foot can eventually manifest as soreness in the legs, hips, and lower back.

Among the most treated flip-flop induced injuries is plantar faciitis, an inflammation of the connective tissue along the bottom of the foot that affects close to two million Americans each year. This acute heel pain is most often sparked by all-day wear, with overweight or sedentary wearers even more susceptible since their arches are already under strain. Roughly 20 percent of sufferers develop a chronic condition, making plantar faciitis even worse.

But it?s not all doom and gloom on the flip-flop front. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when picking a pair to rock for the warm weather:

• Time it right. Replace flip-flops every three to four months, and only wear them for short periods of time.
• Opt for leather.?The plastic ones may come in every color under the sun, but a soft, high-quality pair of leather flip-flops is less likely to cause irritation, including blisters.
• Find the right fit. Make sure the heel and toes don?t hang off the edges of the sandal and that when you bend the sandal from end to end it bends where the ball of the foot hits ?? not at the arch!
• Wear selectively. Beach walking, pool deck trolling, and a quick run to the grocery store? Yes. Soccer game, lawn mowing, and a five-mile hike? Not so much.
• Make it official. Look for sandals approved by the American Podiatric Medical Association. They have a whole handy-dandy list of the approved shoes (of all types), so search around and see if there?s something you dig!
• And whatever you do: Please, don?t wear them with socks.

Originally published June 2011. Updated August 2012. Updated June 2013.

Photo by Jordan Shakeshaft

Source: http://news.health.com/2013/06/27/are-flip-flops-bad-for-your-health/

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Galaxy S4 and HTC One Google Edition Hands-On: The Best Got Better

For years, one of Android's biggest problems has been Android skins that weigh down the best hardware the platform has to offer. But now the two best Android phones in the world?the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S4?come in pure, stock Google Editions. And after spending some time with both, we can confirm that ditching the skins has made them better than ever.

Since you can buy them as of today, we've broken down how the two compare with each other, and with the skinned versions of themselves.

HTC One: Stock Android vs. Sense

The One with Sense enabled was already pretty much the snappiest phone we've ever used. With stock Android, it's even faster. Apps open just a little bit quicker and swiping around the UI is just a little bit smoother. The biggest difference you'll notice, though, is that it's just cleaner. Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) is a very minimal OS. Apps like the calendar, the clock, and even the apps drawer are more pared-back and easier to use. Desktop customization, for example, is much simpler.

You still get the same great phone on the hardware side. From a design standpoint it's still our favorite phone ever, and it's by far the most satisfying to hold. The screen is incredibly sharp and looks just as good as it did on the skinned version. The dual, front-facing speakers still sound incredible (best sounding phone ever), and when you have headphones in you have that same Beats by Dre EQ, which focuses on the bass a little more and sounds very good (the HTC One has a dedicated pre-amp to help with this). Unfortunately, it's not all good news.

The only significant drawback in the Google Edition unit we tested is that the camera doesn't work nearly as well anymore. You might recall how the HTC One's "ultrapixel" sensor took the win in our smartphone camera battle. Clearly, HTC's camera software had something to do with balancing that rather unique sensor, because the stock Android camera app doesn't do nearly as good of a job. Photos tend to be washed out, over-exposed, and under-saturated. Even in low light, it isn't as good.

The new camera app itself is very cleanly laid-out and easy to use, but you lose a lot of the advanced shooting features found in the Sense camera app (though many of these reappear in the editing menu in stock Android's Gallery app), in addition to the specialty modes, though you do gain Google's mega-panoramic PhotoSphere, which is fun but is ultimately a small consolation.

There's a chance, though, that the fault may lie in our unit. A Google spokesperson responded to our inquiries about it as follows:

"The camera hardware and underlying software (image processing, etc.) are the exact same between the Stock and Sense UX versions of HTC One, so there should not be any differences. Our camera tests show that the quality is consistent between the two."

That said, the Google engineers saw what we were talking about in our photos, and they are doing more testing, but they believe we have a faulty device. So who knows! Hopefully it's just a glitch with our One. We'll be getting a new one shortly and will update.

There are a few other quibbles, too, some small things you may have taken for granted with Sense that you don't get with stock. In HTC Sense's dialer app, you can start punching a friend's name into the number pad (using the superscript letters) and it will quickly pull up contacts. The stock dialer doesn't do this, so you have to scroll through your long list of contacts.

HTC Sense also offers built-in profiles?an easy way to switch between Normal, Vibrate, and Silent modes. Not so in stock. Also, the HTC One has a built-in IR blaster for using your phone as a remote control. Not only does the stock version not come with a preinstalled app that lets you use it, but as of right now there are no apps in the Play Store that can take advantage of it, either. We were told that capability would be coming in the next software build, though APIs will still have to be released, and someone will still have to make an app that uses them.

There's also the rather steep sticker price of $600, but that sounds like a bigger number than it actually is. For an unlocked, unsubsidized phone it's pretty standard. If you're used to paying $200 for a high-end phone and have your wireless carrier subsidize the rest (as a part of a two-year contract, typically) may experience some sticker-shock.

That might sound like it all adds up to a lot of negative, but it's really negligible, especially assuming we were dealing with an abnormal camera. And we haven't even mentioned the biggest advantage of a Google Edition phone yet: Updates. The stock version of the HTC One will all but certainly be upgraded to the newest version of Android right along with (or at least close to) the Nexus program. The One with Sense, by contrast, is still running Android version 4.1.2, which is now more than a year old. For people who want the latest and greatest coming out of Google HQ, this is huge. And trust us, you want the latest and greatest.

The stock HTC One runs on AT&T, T-Mobile, and other GSM carriers (i.e. not Verizon or Sprint), and yes, LTE works. We tested it on AT&T's network in NYC, and when we had four bars of LTE we averaged download speeds of over 20Mbps and upload speeds of over 12Mbps. We did have some problems with our radio, initially, but after talking with Google it appears that was unique to our particular test unit. And once we worked out the bug (it chose the wrong APN, for you geeks out there), it performed flawlessly. So, really, our only major gripe here is the camera. We've reached out to Google about it, and will update if we hear anything back.

Galaxy S4: Stock vs. TouchWiz

In our initial review of the Galaxy S4, almost all of our complaints about it were software-related. So you would think that replacing TouchWiz with stock Android would fix almost all of its problems, right?

Yep. That's pretty much true.

Samsung's TouchWiz is such a heavy skin that it slows things down despite the super-fast 1.9GHz quad-core Snapdragon 600 processor in its belly. But while stock Android makes the HTC One a little faster, it's a serious change in the Galaxy S4. Scrolling through menus and across screens is faster and smoother. Apps generally open more quickly, and most importantly, there is now almost zero shutter lag on the camera, whereas the TouchWiz version can lag behind by as much as a second.

TouchWiz is also just a clusterfrak of settings and bells and whistles, most of which sit there unused, clogging up menus. Stock Android is starkly minimalist by comparison. The stock apps look better and are more intuitive to use almost without exception. Desktop customization is way simpler. We were also able to install and use Google Wallet on it (not so on the HTC One Google Edition), which is typically blocked by AT&T. Why it worked on the S4 and not the One despite using the same SIM card for both, we do not know.

On the hardware side, thankfully, photos the 13MP camera took look almost identical to those on the TouchWiz version. Again, the camera app is much simplified, and though you gain PhotoSphere and easier access to HDR, you do lose a lot of the fun camera modes that Samsung came up with, like Drama Shot (which superimposes several images of a subject in motion into a single shot) and animated GIFs. As you know, the Galaxy S4 features a micro SD card slot, and while you can read files off of it (photos, etc.) you can't take full advantage of it. For example, there is no native way to move apps over to your SD card, as there is in the skinned versions of Android.

There are, of course, things you lose that you will miss. Again, TouchWiz's dialer lets you punch in numbers to get to your contacts quickly, stock Android's dialer doesn't (please fix this, guys!), and you lose TouchWiz's profiles feature as well. TouchWiz has some handy shortcuts to settings within the notification screen and some people may miss those, but for our money, the way stock Android handles it is better, and keeps your notification panel looking cleaner and easier to read. Also, while the IR blaster is technically ready to be used, the API hasn't been released yet, and so there are no downloadable apps that can take advantage of it yet. And, the S4 too, will only work on GSM carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile (not Verizon or Sprint).

And as with the HTC One, the sticker price might be tough to swallow. At $650, it ain't exactly cheap, but again, that's not bad for a high-end, unlocked, unsubsidized phone. As we suspected, putting stock Android on the Galaxy S4 made one of the very best smartphones even better.

Stock Galaxy S4 vs. Stock HTC One

So, if you've decided you're going to go with one of these stock phones. Now that the software is essentially identical, here's how they compare.

Build

• The HTC One is still arguably the best-designed phone we've ever used, and its build quality is unmatched. It was cut from a solid block of aluminum and it feels amazing. The Galaxy S4 is by no means bad, but with its slippery plastic back, there's no comparison. The One is slightly narrower and is a bit easier to handle, too.

Winner: HTC One

Screen

• The screens are definitely two different looks, as you can see in the video above. They're both 1080p. The S4 is a full 5 inches which gives you a little more real estate, whereas the One's 4.7-inch screen means the pixel density is every so slightly higher, making it look very slightly sharper.
  
• In the whites HTC One skew a bit on the rosy side, whereas the whites on the Galaxy S4 skew blueish-green. Which is "better" is more a matter of personal preference, though we slightly prefer the One.
• In the blacks, there's no contest. The Galaxy S4 is like looking into the cold, black vacuum of space, even at full brightness. At full brightness, the HTC One's blacks are very slightly gray. It's still very good, but it's definitely not as good as the S4.

Winner: Tie

Camera

• As you can see in the video above, the stock HTC One locks focus and snaps shots faster than stock Galaxy S4. But, as we mentioned above, the camera on the stock HTC One was under-performing compared to the original. As a result, the camera on the Galaxy S4 is much sharper, has better color, and better contrast. The One does, however, still stomp the S4 in low light. Hopefully we just got a bum HTC unit, but for now the Galaxy S4's camera is better. Click here for a gallery of comparison shots.

Winner: Galaxy S4 (pending)

Audio

• The HTC One is the hands down winner here. It's not even close. The stereo front-facing speakers are loud and clear. The S4's external speaker (on the back) is quiet and terrible by comparison. Also, the pre-amp in the HTC One makes listening to music through headphones noticeably better.

Winner: HTC One

User Interface

• Unlike full on Nexus phones, the One and the S4 both have hardware navigation buttons. The One has two capacitive buttons: One for Home, and one for Back. You double-tap home to bring up the task-switcher, and you long-press it to bring up Google Now.
• The Galaxy S4 on the other hand has three navigation buttons: Back and Menu are both capitative and there's a home button in the center which is press-able. You press it once to go home, twice quickly for multitasking, and long press for Google Now.
• The capacitive buttons on the HTC (for home and task switching) are simply faster and easier to use. Also, because there is no physical menu button, that puts the menu options on screen in apps, which we find to be more intuitive.

Winner: HTC One

Speed

• Navigating around the OS, the HTC One is just a hair quicker. Considering it has the same software and the same processor but it's clocked 0.2 GHz slower than the S4, that shouldn't be the case. But it is. Go figure. We're talking about a very small difference, though. Even in benchmarks, the two were dead even, with one or the other coming out a hundred or two hundred points ahead of the other in both Quadrant and Geekbench 2 tests, but the One came out ahead two out of three times. Go figure.

Winner: HTC One

Battery Life

Too soon to tell. More testing required.

Winner: TBD

Options

• You want expandable storage? The S4's got it, the HTC One doesn't. Want a removable battery? Ditto. If you like to tinker, you're going to get frustrated fast with the HTC One's lack of fungibility.
• Similarly, while there are some accessories available for the One, Samsung has built itself a much more robust third-party ecosystem. If you want your phone with a side of stuff, the S4 is the way to go.

Winner: Galaxy S4

Price

• Last but not least, the price. The HTC One is $600, and the Galaxy S4 is $650.

Winner: HTC One

Overall

Honestly, these are both terrific phones, and you'd be happy with either. If an SD card slot and removable battery are a big deal for you, go ahead and get the Galaxy S4. Otherwise, the HTC One is our favorite by a nose. Most of all, though, just be glad that you can finally get the best possible versions of the best possible phones on Android. It's about time.

You can get the stock Android HTC One here and you can get the stock Android Samsung Galaxy S4 here. They should ship out by July 9th.

Source: http://gizmodo.com/galaxy-s4-and-htc-one-google-edition-hands-on-the-best-586723181

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New Animal's Skull Discovered in Niger

Link Information - Click to View

New Animal's Skull Discovered in Niger
The face of the Bunostegos' looks like it was made by a kindergartner who went wild with a tub of Play-Doh. Flaps of skin are stretched below its chin, hanging like stalactites. Hard knobs decorate its nose and forehead. As weird looking as the animal is, it was able to live in the harsh deserts of the ancient supercontinent, Pangea.????

Source: ABC News
Posted on: Wednesday, Jun 26, 2013, 8:19am
Views: 11

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128790/New_Animal_s_Skull_Discovered_in_Niger

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Putin says no to US request to extradite Snowden

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying that Snowden hasn?t crossed the Russian border as he seeks to evade prosecution. Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn?t say where Snowden is, but he angrily lashed out at the U.S. for demanding his extradition and warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying that Snowden hasn?t crossed the Russian border as he seeks to evade prosecution. Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn?t say where Snowden is, but he angrily lashed out at the U.S. for demanding his extradition and warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

FILE - In this June 21, 2013 file photo, a banner supporting Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee who leaked top-secret documents about sweeping U.S. surveillance programs, is displayed at Central, Hong Kong's business district. The Hong Kong government says Snowden wanted by the U.S. for revealing two highly classified surveillance programs has left for a "third country." The South China Morning Post reported Sunday, June 23, 2013 that Snowden was on a plane for Moscow, but that Russia was not his final destination. Snowden has talked of seeking asylum in Iceland. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov speaks at a news conference in Moscow on Tuesday, June 25, 2013. Lavrov on Tuesday bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying that Snowden hasn?t crossed the Russian border as he seeks to evade prosecution. Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn?t say where Snowden is, but he angrily lashed out at the U.S. for demanding his extradition and warnings of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev)

Light shines through a cabin window on seat 17A, the empty seat that an Aeroflot official said was booked in the name of former CIA technician Edward Snowden, during Aeroflot flight SU150 from Moscow to Havana, Cuba, Monday, June 24, 2013. Confusion over the whereabouts of National Security Agency leaker Snowden grew on Monday after SU150 Aeroflot flight filled with journalists trying to track him down flew from Moscow to Cuba with the empty seat booked in his name.(AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, right, greets passersby from the balcony of the presidential palace during the weekly, The Change of the Guard, in Quito, Ecuador, Monday, June 24, 2013. The Ecuadorian government declared Monday that national sovereignty and universal principles of human rights would govern their decision on granting asylum to Edward Snowden, powerful hints that the former National Security Agency contractor is welcome despite potential repercussions from Washington. Correa said on Twitter that "we will take the decision that we feel most suitable, with absolute sovereignty." AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

NAANTALI, Finland (AP) ? Russian President Vladimir Putin says that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is in the transit zone of a Moscow airport and will not be extradited to the United States.

Putin said that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border and is free to go anywhere.

Speaking on a visit to Finland Tuesday, he added that Russian security agencies "didn't work and aren't working" with Snowden. He gave no more details.

Commenting on a U.S. request to extradite him, Putin said that Russia doesn't have an extradition agreement with the U.S. and thus wouldn't meet the U.S. request.

He voiced hope that Snowden will depart as quickly as possible and that his stopover at Moscow's airport wouldn't affect bilateral ties.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Russia's foreign minister bluntly rejected U.S. demands to extradite National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden, saying Tuesday that Snowden hasn't crossed the Russian border.

Sergey Lavrov insisted that Russia has nothing to do with Snowden or his travel plans. Lavrov wouldn't say where Snowden is, but he lashed out angrily at Washington for demanding his extradition and warning of negative consequences if Moscow fails to comply. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden.

"We consider the attempts to accuse Russia of violating U.S. laws and even some sort of conspiracy, which on top of all that are accompanied by threats, as absolutely ungrounded and unacceptable," Lavrov said. "There are no legal grounds for such conduct by U.S. officials."

The defiant tone underlined the Kremlin's readiness to challenge Washington at a time when U.S.-Russian relations are strained over Syria and a Russian ban on adoptions by Americans.

U.S. and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia. He fled there Sunday from Hong Kong, where he had been hiding out since his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified U.S. counterterror surveillance programs. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security.

Kerry said Tuesday that although the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Russia, he called on Moscow to comply with common law practices between countries where fugitives are concerned.

"I would simply appeal for calm and reasonableness. We would hope that Russia would not side with someone who is 'a fugitive' from justice,' " Kerry said at a news conference in Saudi Arabia.

Lavrov claimed that the Russian government found out about Snowden's flight from Hong Kong only from news reports.

"We have no relation to Mr. Snowden, his relations with American justice or his travels around the world," Lavrov said. "He chooses his route himself, and we have learned about it from the media."

Snowden booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight from Moscow on Monday en route to Venezuela and then possible asylum in Ecuador, but he didn't board the plane. Russian news media have reported that he has remained in a transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, but journalists there haven't seen him.

A representative of WikiLeaks has been traveling with Snowden, and the organization is believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum. The organization's founder, Julian Assange, said Monday that Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.

A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, saying the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties."

He described the decision on whether to grant Snowden asylum as a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country."

State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S. has revoked Snowden's passport.

"We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters.

Some experts said it was likely that Russian spy agencies were questioning Snowden on what he knows about U.S. electronic espionage against Moscow.

"If Russian special services hadn't shown interest in Snowden, they would have been utterly unprofessional," Igor Korotchenko, a former colonel in Russia's top military command turned security analyst, said on state Rossiya 24 television.

The Kremlin has previously said Russia would be ready to consider Snowden's request for asylum.

The state ITAR-Tass news agency cited unidentified sources as saying that Snowden hasn't applied for a Russian entry visa and can't cross the border without it. It said that he has remained in the transit zone of the Sheremetyevo airport.

Legally, an arriving air passenger "crosses the border" after clearing immigration checks.

The Interfax news agency, which has close contacts with Russian security agencies, quoted an unidentified "well-informed source" in Moscow as saying Tuesday that Snowden could be detained for a check of his papers if he crosses the Russian border. The report could reflect that authorities are searching for a pretext to keep Snowden in Russia.

Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to newspapers the Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.

Snowden also told the South China Morning Post newspaper in Hong Kong that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying.

Some observers said in addition to the sensitive data, Snowden's revelations have provided the Kremlin with propaganda arguments to counter the U.S. criticism of Russia's crackdown on opposition and civil activists under President Vladimir Putin.

"They would use Snowden to demonstrate that the U.S. government doesn't sympathize with the ideals of freedom of information, conceals key information from the public and stands ready to open criminal proceedings against those who oppose it," Konstantin Remchukov, the editor of independent daily Nezavisimaya Gazeta, said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

Putin has accused the U.S. State Department of instigating protests in Moscow against his re-election for a third term in March and has taken an anti-American posture that plays well with his core support base of industrial workers and state employees.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-25-NSA-Surveillance/id-2a373bf4d7d2412b9ead05624cf5f480

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Supreme Court strikes down section of Voting Rights Act (cbsnews)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories Stories, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315164566?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Attack on Afghan palace could sink peace talks

By Mirwais Harooni and Hamid Shalizi

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban militants attacked key buildings near Afghanistan's presidential palace and the U.S. CIA headquarters in Kabul, a brazen assault that could derail attempts for peace talks to end 12 years of war.

The Taliban, who have said they are willing to take part in talks with the United States and Afghan President Hamid Karzai's administration, said they launched the early morning assault, which triggered a 90-minute firefight.

A U.S. envoy was in Kabul on Tuesday to try to smooth the way forward for the stalled talks in the Gulf state of Qatar ahead of the pullout from Afghanistan of most of the NATO-led troops next year. He had been expected to meet reporters at the U.S. Embassy, but the conference was called off.

Karzai was also due to attend, but his whereabouts were not known. A palace official said he was safe.

A Reuters reporter at the palace said the attack began soon after 6.30 a.m. (10:00 p.m. EDT) when at least one man opened fire with an automatic rifle close to a gate to the palace in central Shash Darak district. The fighting was over before 8 a.m.

Reporters at the palace gates for security checks took cover when the firing started.

A senior government official told Reuters four or five attackers had used fake identify papers to try to make their way through security gates in the Shash Darak district, which leads to Kabul's most tightly guarded areas.

One car made it through, but a second vehicle was stopped and those inside began shooting. Grenades were thrown.

The area is home to the presidential palace compound, the Ministry of Defense and an annexe of the U.S. embassy at the old Ariana Hotel. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Afghanistan station is based there.

Afghan forces and U.S. servicemen returned fire and explosions resounded through the area. Children walking to school were caught in the shooting, but escaped serious injury.

A thick plume of smoke was seen rising from the Ariana at the height of the exchanges.

One of the attackers was killed when he detonated a bomb on his body, the government official said, and three or four were killed by security forces. At least two Afghan security guards were killed.

The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, Jim Cunningham, condemned the attack and called on the Taliban to once again commit to the nascent peace process in Doha.

"We remain steadfast in supporting the Afghan government and people against the scourge of terrorism and the violence directed against them," he said.

REJUVENATING PEACE TALKS

U.S. officials have been trying to rejuvenate peace talks in Qatar, thrown off course after rows last week over the opening there of a Taliban office.

The U.S. envoy appointed to help Kabul pursue peace with the Taliban, James Dobbins, arrived on Monday and met Karzai and the Afghan body intended to negotiate with the insurgents.

He told reporters that Washington was trying to determine if the Taliban were willing to engage in talks.

In claiming responsibility for the attack, the Taliban said it had targeted the presidential palace, the CIA office and the Defense ministry.

But Afghan security officials told Reuters they believed it had been carried out by the Taliban-linked Haqqani Network. The Haqqani Network is accused of masterminding high-profile attacks in Kabul and is believed to have close links to al Qaeda.

Adela Raz, a spokeswoman for Karzai, dismissed the suggestion that the palace had been under threat, saying any shooting had taken place far from the compound's walls.

The Defense ministry said the assault had been aimed at the Ariana.

In southern Afghanistan, a roadside bomb killed eight women, two children and an elderly man travelling in a minivan in southern Kandahar province on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Kandahar government said.

(U.S. envoy had been due to meet reporters at embassy, not at the palace, paragraph 3)

(Additional reporting by Dylan Welch; Writing by Dylan Welch; Editing by Ron Popeski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gunmen-attack-afghan-presidential-palace-reuters-witnesses-022942464.html

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Rotation-resistant rootworms owe their success to gut microbes

June 24, 2013 ? Researchers say they now know what allows some Western corn rootworms to survive crop rotation, a farming practice that once effectively managed the rootworm pests. The answer to the decades-long mystery of rotation-resistant rootworms lies -- in large part -- in the rootworm gut, the team reports.

The findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Differences in the relative abundance of certain bacterial species in the rootworm gut help the adult rootworm beetles feed on soybean leaves and tolerate the plant's defenses a little better, the researchers report. This boost in digestive finesse allows rotation-resistant beetles to survive long enough to lay their eggs in soybean fields. Their larvae emerge the following spring and feast on the roots of newly planted corn.

"These insects, they have only one generation per year," said University of Illinois entomology department senior scientist Manfredo Seufferheld, who led the study. "And yet within a period of about 20 years in Illinois they became resistant to crop rotation. What allowed this insect to adapt so fast? These bacteria, perhaps."

Controlling rootworms is an expensive concern faced by all Midwest corn growers, said study co-author Joseph Spencer, an insect behaviorist at the Illinois Natural History Survey (part of the Prairie Research Institute at the U. of I.). Yield losses, the use of insecticides and corn hybrids engineered to express rootworm-killing toxins in their tissues cost U.S. growers at least $1 billion a year.

In a 2012 study, Seufferheld, Spencer and their colleagues reported that rotation-resistant rootworm beetles were better able than their nonresistant counterparts to tolerate the defensive chemicals produced in soybeans leaves. This allowed the beetles to feed more and survive longer on soybean plants. The researchers found that levels of key digestive enzymes differed significantly between the rotation-resistant and nonresistant rootworms, but differences in the expression of the genes encoding these enzymes did not fully explain the rotation-resistant beetles' advantage. Seufferheld and his colleagues thought that microbes in the rootworms' guts might be helping them better tolerate life in a soybean field.

To test this hypothesis, graduate student Chia-Ching Chu analyzed the population of microbes living in the guts of rootworm beetles collected from seven sites across the Midwest. Some of these sites (including Piper City, Ill.) are hot spots of rotation-resistance and others (in Nebraska and northwest Missouri, for example) lack evidence of rotation-resistant rootworms.

Chu found significant and consistent differences in the relative abundance of various types of bacteria in the guts of rotation-resistant and nonresistant rootworms (see graphic). These differences corresponded to differing activity levels of digestive enzymes in their guts and to their ability to tolerate soybean plant defenses.

The researchers found other parallels between the composition of gut microbes and the life history of the rootworms. The beetles' gut microbial structure corresponded to the insects' level of activity (rotation-resistant rootworms are usually more active), and also paralleled -- in a graduated fashion -- the plant diversity of the landscapes they inhabited. (Rotation-resistant rootworms are most abundant in regions where rotated corn and soybean fields are the dominant components of the agricultural landscape.)

To determine whether the microbes were in fact giving the rotation-resistant beetles an advantage, the researchers dosed the beetles with antibiotics. Low-level exposure to antibiotics had no effect on any of the beetles, but at higher doses the rotation-resistant beetles' survival time on soybean leaves fell to that of the nonresistant beetles. Antibiotics also lowered the activity of digestive enzymes in the rotation-resistant beetles' guts to that of their nonresistant counterparts.

The message of the research, Seufferheld said, is that the gut microbes are not just passive residents of the rootworm gut.

"They are very active players in the adaptation of the insect," he said. "The microbial community acts as a versatile multicellular organ."

"It's not just the rootworm that we have to worry about," Spencer said. "There's really this whole conspiracy between the rootworm and its co-conspirators in the gut that can respond fairly quickly, relatively speaking, to the assaults that they face."

The research team also included former postdoctoral researcher Jorge Zavala (now a professor at the University of Buenos Aires) and graduate student Matias Curzi.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/slJG9FABJYI/130624152603.htm

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Car bombs kill dozens in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Ten car-bomb explosions killed at least 39 people across the Iraqi capital on Monday, police and medical sources said.

In the central district of Karada, two parked car bombs went off killing at least eight people, and another two car bombs exploded simultaneously near a market in the western district of Jihad, killing eight.

Violence has been increasing in Iraq in recent months, with more than 1,000 people killed in May alone, making it the deadliest month since the sectarian bloodletting of 2006-07.

Insurgents including al Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate have been regaining ground and recruits from the country's Sunni minority, which feels sidelined since the U.S.-led invasion toppled former dictator Saddam Hussein and empowered majority Shi'ites.

Sectarian tensions in Iraq and the wider region have been inflamed by the civil war in Syria, where mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, whose Alawite sect derives from Shi'ite Islam.

(Reporting Kareem Raheem and Suadad al-Salhy; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/seven-bomb-blasts-kill-27-people-iraqi-capital-170556994.html

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Hotel Reservations: Now Few Clicks Away - ArticleSnatch.com

The best thing about making the hotel reservations online is its simplicity and convenience. One does not have to ponder for one hotel to another after reaching at the desired destination for accommodation. With online transactions becoming handy, one can directly book a room in advance and compare the price of the various packages available. The hotel industry has witnessed a quantum jump in online bookings in the recent years. People are now more inclined towards this cutting-edge facility to manage their trips, be it for business or pleasure.

While the tourism industry and its associated companies depend on the online services to manage their entire official tours, people are also making use of the online media to layout their itineraries.
With an array of booking sites available and all reputed hotels having their official sites, making reservations in your favorite hotel is just a few clicks away.

Travelling was never so easy before. One can manage everything including hotel reservations, car rental, flight bookings and even reserving a table at one's favorite diner with the available online services. The transactions are secured making the online bookings quite reliable even for the first time users.

While thousands of customers trying to grab a desired space, the reservation sites on other hand effortlessly show results within no time. All this has been made possible with various online travel aggregators.

They easily show up the available rooms as per one's requirement and budget. There are some booking sites, which can take you through various hotels as per the parameter you've set and enable you to book a room at the spot. There are other sites which only offer you details of the availability of rooms and redirect through a third party for the bookings.

Unlike other online businesses, hotels have a limited supply, so first cum first service is always witnessed in such business. This kind of information prompts the users to book without wasting time in browsing other hotel/booking sites, especially during the peak seasons. The users are more convinced after reading the reviews of past customers, thereby making it easy for them to make desired bookings.

With so much of facilities available, one can now easily book online hotels to avail maximum comforts in a cost-effective way. These hotels are well equipped with the world class services and amenities that make the stay of the guests comfortable and pleasant.

About the Author:
The author is shared traveling experiences in India. If you are looking more details about Hotels Reservations and also more information Hotels in India or Business Hotels in India.

Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Hotel-Reservations--Now-Few-Clicks-Away/5115619

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