Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/EibNG_cpqlQ/
USA Basketball taio cruz taio cruz Winter Olympics 2014 powerball numbers freddie mercury Horshack
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Suri Cruise Gets New Bangs
On Friday, we spotted Suri Cruise with super short bangs while on her way to a friend's house in N.Y.C.
The Fleet of Night
Greetings.
This is a reboot of an idea I had awhile back and liked it to much to let it die. Right now this is on an experimental basis, I just want to see how interested people are in it. If you like it then splendid, we will proceed. If not then at least it gave me an exuse to world build a bit.
This is a reboot of an idea I had awhile back and liked it to much to let it die. Right now this is on an experimental basis, I just want to see how interested people are in it. If you like it then splendid, we will proceed. If not then at least it gave me an exuse to world build a bit.
If you have any questions feel free to ask.
Cheers.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/jkWSNr8dSG0/viewtopic.php
breaking dawn part 2 trailer mississippi state chris carpenter chris carpenter dick cheney hcg drops reason rally
Saturday, March 30, 2013
Eiffel Tower evacuated after bomb threat
PARIS (AP) ? The Eiffel Tower was evacuated Saturday night after an anonymous caller phoned in a bomb threat, police said.
Nearly 1,400 people were sent away from the tourist attraction following a request from tower operators after the warning, a Paris police official said. Police then searched the monument with sniffer dogs, and set up a security perimeter.
No explosives were found and the site was to be reopened, the official said on condition of anonymity because she wasn't authorized to speak publicly.
French authorities have stepped up counterterrorism measures in recent weeks amid heightened concern about threats to France over its military campaign against al-Qaida-linked fighters in Mali which began more than two months ago.
The tower is occasionally evacuated because of such warnings ? at least once last year and twice in 2011. The 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower is one of the world's top tourist attractions, with millions of visitors a year.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/eiffel-tower-evacuated-bomb-threat-204807606.html
Leryn Franco The Campaign Kinesio tape randy travis Allyson Felix Kourtney Kardashian Baby Girl Ashton Eaton
Kenya Supreme Court upholds election result
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? Kenya's Supreme Court on Saturday upheld the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as the country's next president, ending an election season that riveted the nation amid fears of a repeat of the 2007-08 postelection violence.
Outside the Supreme Court, police fired tear gas at Odinga supporters, the second time that has happened in this post-election period.
Outbreaks of violence by angry Odinga supporters were reported in some Nairobi slums and truckloads of police were called in to quell the demonstrations, according to reports on a police radio heard by an Associated Press reporter.
But jubilant Kenyatta supporters flooded the streets of downtown Nairobi, honking horns, blowing the noisy plastic horns known as a vuvuzelas and chanting.
Saturday's verdict ? following a drawn-out court case that raised tensions across the nation ? means that Kenyatta will be sworn in as president on April 9. He will become the second sitting president in Africa to face charges at the International Criminal Court. Kenyatta and Deputy President-elect William Ruto both face charges that they helped orchestrate the 2007-08 postelection violence in which more than 1,000 people died. Both deny the charges. Ruto's trial is set to begin in late May; Kenyatta's is to start in July. Kenyatta has promised to report to The Hague.
Lawyers for challenger Raila Odinga, who finished second, had argued before the Supreme Court that the election was marred by irregularities and that Kenyatta did not win enough votes to avoid a runoff election.
According to official results, Kenyatta won 50.07 percent of the vote, narrowly avoiding a runoff election against Odinga, who said his case before the Supreme Court would put Kenya's democracy on trial.
But the Supreme Court's unanimous verdict, read out by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, said the election was "conducted in compliance with the constitution and the law" and that Kenyatta and Ruto were legally elected.
"It is the decision of the court that (Kenyatta and Ruto) were validly elected," the ruling said. The reasons behind the judges' decision were not given Saturday. The chief justice said a detailed judgment would be delivered within two weeks.
Unlike after the 2007 election, which degenerated into tribe-on-tribe violence that killed more than 1000 people, this time Odinga said he had faith in the judiciary's ability to give him a fair hearing. Odinga, who said he would respect the court's decision whether it favored him or not, was set to address reporters in Nairobi later on Saturday. As Kenyatta's supporters celebrated outside the court premises, police fired tear gas to break up a crowd of Odinga supporters.
The court's ruling ends days of anxiety since March 9, when Kenyatta was declared the winner of the March 4 vote that many described as the most complex in Kenya's history. More than 12 million Kenyans participated in the election. Some observers had expected a low registration of voters because of apathy following the 2007-08 violence, but hyped up campaigns by Kenyatta, Odinga and other presidential candidates led to the highest registration in the country ever. Kenya's electoral commission registered 14.3 million people.
Election day, though, did not go as planned. An electronic voter ID system intended to prevent fraud failed for reasons yet to be explained by the electoral commission. Vote officials instead used manual voter rolls.
After the polls closed, results were to be sent electronically to Nairobi, where officials would quickly tabulate a preliminary vote count in order to maximize transparency after rigging accusations following the 2007 vote. But that system failed, too. Election officials have indicated that computer servers overloaded but have yet to fully explain the problem.
As the early count system was still being used, election results showed more than 330,000 rejected ballots, an unusually high number. But after the count resumed with the arrival in Nairobi of manual tallies, the number of rejected ballots was greatly reduced, and the election commission said the computer was mistakenly multiplying the number of rejected ballots by a factor of eight.
Odinga's lawyers told the Supreme Court this week that the switch from electronic voter identification to manual voter roll was stage managed to allow inflation of Kenyatta's votes to take him past the 50 percent threshold. That accusation was vehemently denied by the electoral commission and Kenyatta's legal team.
Associated Pressfranchise tag lesotho a wrinkle in time benjamin netanyahu storm shelters nick lachey chevy volt
Guitar maker Gibson buys majority stake in TEAC, develops taste for electronica
That gruff American rocker, Gibson Guitar Corp., has gotten tired of its old life. Instead of just suing copycats and putting out the occasional robot axe, it's now looking to diversify, having spent $52 million on a 54 percent stake in Japanese firm TEAC. The last we heard from TEAC, it was making things like headphones and retro-styled radios, which maybe gives us a hint as to where this new partnership is headed. After all, it's not like the path between music brand and consumer electronics hasn't been trodden to a pulp already.
Filed under: Home Entertainment, Portable Audio/Video, HD
Source: AV Watch (Japanese)
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/5IyNv7ea3Es/
whitney houston autopsy results obama trayvon jim yong kim michael bush the host trailer whitney houston cause of death marquette
Salt Sugar Fat
Michael Moss explores how food companies market the title ingredients to the American public.
Salt Sugar Fat By Michael Moss Random House 480 pp.
EnlargeReviewed by Barbara Spindel for Barnes & Noble Review
Skip to next paragraph' +
google_ads[0].line2 + '
' +
google_ads[0].line3 + '
Subscribe Today to the Monitor
The demise ? at least for now ? of New York mayor Michael Bloomberg's large-soda ban captures the dilemmas involved in addressing our nation's obesity crisis. The measure, which was struck down by a state judge just as Michael Moss's Salt Sugar Fat: How the Food Giants Hooked Us was published, would have prohibited the sale of sugary drinks in containers larger than sixteen ounces at restaurants, theaters, and stadiums. Bloomberg defended the ban, which was passed by the city's Board of Health, by arguing that soda and other sugary drinks are a leading cause of obesity. Meanwhile, beverage industry groups accused the government of trampling on consumers' rights, a view apparently shared by the slight majority of New Yorkers who, according to polls, oppose any limits on their prodigious soda habits. The judge, in blocking the measure, called it "arbitrary and capricious."
I wonder whether the judge might have been tempted to rule differently had he read "Salt Sugar Fat" first. (One of Moss's chapters covers soda, and it's framed by the remarkable story of Jeffrey Dunn, a former higher-up at Coca-Cola who is now "doing penance" by marketing baby carrots to kids.) The author's meticulous examination of the processed food industry is alarming, and it could have the potential to be galvanizing were there any clear way out of our salty, sugary, fatty mess. It's dispiriting to finish the book feeling that solutions are elusive, but Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter for The New York Times, does an excellent job of explaining how unhealthy processed food, originally "imagined as occasional fare," came to completely dominate the American diet.
Our family structures have changed, of course, with more women working outside of the home, more single-parent households, and, as a result, less time for home cooking. In the 1970s, market researchers began to find that for consumers, convenience was key, and executives at some of the food companies Moss spoke to still rationalize that they are giving the people what they want: inexpensive, easy sustenance. What's problematic is how dependent that sustenance is on the ingredients of Moss's title, from sugary breakfast cereals to Oscar Meyer's meat- and cheese-based Lunchables to frozen microwavable Hot Pockets, which contain more than 100 ingredients and close to a day's recommended limits of saturated fat and salt. Indeed, as the processed food industry has expanded, salt, sugar, and fat have become its three pillars, cheap components that serve many other functions beyond the obvious ones: adding bulk to food, stimulating overeating, and covering up the tastes of chemical additives, to name a few.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/fcmOSxCTDRg/Salt-Sugar-Fat
what time is the super bowl 2012 nfl mvp lana del rey snl performance nick diaz sheryl sandberg superbowl recipes super bowl kick off
Friday, March 29, 2013
"G.I. Joe: Retaliation," buffed up with 3D, aims to conquer Box-Office world
By Todd Cunningham
LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "G.I Joe:Retaliation" reports for box-office duty Wednesday night, after a nine-month delay. The world's most famous toy soldier and his mates will battle the evil agents of Cobra In the movie, but in the multiplexes, it will be all about 3D.
Paramount last May took the unusual step of delaying its $135 million sequel to "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," originally scheduled to be released last June 29, in order to convert it to 3D. The decision came just after another movie based on a Hasbro toy, Universal's "Battleship," tanked domestically after making more than $200 million overseas.
"We wanted to put out the very best movie we could," Paramount's head of distribution Don Harris told TheWrap Tuesday, "and it became clear to us that 3D was the way to go."
Certainly it will make the kabooms bigger and the fights scenes and panoramas more dizzying, and that should please hardcore fans raised on "G.I. Joe" toys, comic books and cartoons. But the real reason for the conversion was to cash in at the box office, particularly overseas.
The 3D allows for $3 to $4 ticket price upticks. More than 3,000 of the roughly 3,700 theaters showing "G.I. Joe" will be screening the film in the format, along with another 300 Imax screens. Though its official opening date is Thursday, Paramount is getting a big jump on the weekend, debuting the film in a numbers of theaters starting at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
That should translate to a $50 million, four-and-a-half day total and the top spot on the Easter holiday weekend, industry analysts say. The battle for second will be between last week's No. 1 film, DreamWorks Animation's "The Croods," and "Tyler Perry's Temptation" at about $20 million. The latter opens Friday, along with the weekend's other wide opener, the sci-fi thriller "The Host," based on the young adult novel by "Twilight' series author Stephenie Meyer. it's tracking at about $15 million for the three days.
The first ?G.I. Joe" film brought in about $300 million at the global box office, split almost evenly between domestic and foreign. The buzz and anticipation surrounding "Retaliation" has been as strong or stronger than for the first film, and analysts believe "Retaliation" should come close to that domestic total and exceed the foreign number.
Success for "Retaliation" abroad will be critical if Paramount is going to make money. The merchandising and marketing campaigns for the film - including a pricey Super Bowl commercial - were under way when the decision to push the date was made, and that had to raise costs.
It appears set up to score overseas. "Retaliation" will open in 53 foreign markets this weekend, and that's where the studio's decision to convert to 3D could really pay off. The format is still something of a novelty in many countries, and the percentage of 3D screens is very high.
Action films often translate well abroad. "Retaliation" stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Channing Tatum and Bruce Willis, all are proven overseas draws ("Good Day to Die Hard," with Willis starring, just crossed $220 million in foreign grosses for Fox). Pakistan, Tokyo, Nepal London and the Himalayas are locales in the film, and Korean star Byung-hyun Lee will drive grosses in that market.
U.S. critics so far aren't impressed; the film has just a 44 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. But the young males who make up the film's primary fan base are the target demo, and that won't dissuade them; they're expected to dominate the early screenings. By Saturday, though, Paramount is hoping the PG-rated "Retaliation" will begin scoring with families.
The script is by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick ("Zombieland"). Suffice to say that Cobra manages to replace the President of the United States with an evil stand-in, and then the fun begins. John M. Chu ("Step Up 3D," "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never") directs.
Along with Willis, Adrianne Palicki and Elodi Yung join the cast, which includes Jonathan Pryce, D.J. Cotrona and Ray Park. MGM and Skydance Productions were co-producers on the film.
"Tyler Perry's Temptation" is tracking strongly with its target African-American audience. Box-office success is something of an Easter tradition for Perry, who writes and directs. Three of his previous films have debuted on Easter weekend ("Why Did I Get Married Too?," "Madea's Big Happy Family" and "Meet the Browns"), and all opened between $20 million and $30 million.
Lionsgate, which has the PG-rated film in roughly 200 theaters, sees an opening for "Temptation" along the lines of last year's "Tyler Perry's Good Deeds," which debuted to $15 million in February and went on to take in $35 million domestically.
"Temptation" follows a heated romance between the ambitious and married Judith (played by Jurnee Smollett-Bell) and Harley (Robbie Jones), a handsome social media billionaire who aggressively courts her. Reality star and marketing marvel Kim Kardashian plays Judith's co-worker at the high-end couple's therapy business.
"The Host," is a bit of a wild card. Distributor Open Road Films has the film in about 3,200 theaters and is targeting young women - the same group that made the "Twilight" series such a hit.
Tracking is tricky on that group, and few will be surprised if it overperforms or underperforms, like the similarly young-skewing "Beautiful Creatures" did earlier this year.
Andrew Niccol ("The Minutes") directs and adapted Meyer's novel in which an unseen enemy threatens mankind by taking over their bodies and erasing their memories. Saoirse Ronin ("Hanna"), Max Irons and Jake Abel star.
Chockstone Pictures and Nick Wechsler Productions produced, for a reported $40 million.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/g-joe-retaliation-buffed-3d-aims-conquer-box-234043054.html
acapulco mexico hines ward robert deniro mexico news the talented mr ripley weather new orleans orcl
Bosnia: Man sentenced to 45 years for war crimes
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) ? A court in Bosnia on Friday convicted a Montenegrin man of multiple counts of murder, torture, rape and looting during Bosnia's 1992-95 war, and sentenced him to 45 years in prison ? the highest sentence ever issued in the country.
Judge Zoran Bozic said that Veselin Vlahovic, killed 31 people, raped a number of Bosniak and Croat women and tortured and robbed non-Serb residents of a Sarajevo suburb while fighting for the Bosnian Serbs. Among other crimes, the judge described how Vlahovic cut the throats of two brothers in front of their mother, then killed her and raped the men's wives.
"We are happy with the maximum sentence," said Boris Grubisic, the spokesman for the Prosecutor's office.
He said that during the trial some of the 112 witnesses described the rape of heavily pregnant women and mothers being raped in front of their children. Grubisic said that Vlahovic committed the crimes over several months. Although he received the maximum sentence, the prosecution still plans to appeal because he was acquitted on six counts.
Vlahovic's layer Radivoje Lazarevic said he also will appeal the sentence because he believes that some of the 60 counts on which Vlahovic was convicted were not proven.
Vlahovic, 43, showed no reaction when the judge pronounced the verdict.
In 1992, when Bosnian Serb forces laid siege to Sarajevo, they mistreated non-Serb residents of the areas that they controlled. Vlahovic was the commander of a paramilitary unit that went from house to house looking for Muslims and Catholics, then looted their homes, tortured and often killed entire families.
Edina Kamenica, a Muslim woman who lived in one of the Serb-held neighborhoods, followed the trial carefully. She said Vlahovic ? known as "the monster from Grbavica" ? came to her door.
"He asked if there were any Turks inside and if I had answered 'yes' I would have be alive," she said.
During the war Serbs often referred to Muslim Bosnians as Turks because of their hatred of the Turkish-Ottoman empire that ruled over the Balkan peninsula for 500 years.
Bakira Hasecic, the head of an association of victims of wartime rape, said the sentence was the best satisfaction that so far came from Bosnia's war crimes court, but added that Vlahovic was such a monster that even the maximum sentence was not enough for him.
Vlahovic fled to neighboring Serbia and Montenegro after the war. He was jailed in Montenegro for armed robbery but escaped from prison. Spanish police then found him in 2010 living in the town of Altea. He was extradited to Bosnia the same year although he is also wanted in Spain for robbery and assault with a firearm.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bosnia-man-sentenced-45-years-war-crimes-111616575.html
katt williams greg mcelroy new york post bob costas bowl projections Jovan Belcher Charlie Batch
Thursday, March 28, 2013
German migrant program offers cautions for US
BERLIN (AP) ? In gritty backstreets of Berlin and other major German cities, housewives wearing head scarves shop for lamb and grape leaves. Old men pass the time in cafes sipping coffee, chatting in Turkish and reading Turkish newspapers.
More than 3 million people of Turkish origin live in Germany ? the legacy of West Germany's Cold War-era program to recruit temporary foreign labor during the boom years of the 1950s and 1960s when the country rebuilt after World War II.
What started as a temporary program has changed the fabric of German urban life ? from mosques on street corners to countless shops selling widely popular Doener kebab fast food sandwiches.
Germany's experience with "guest workers" offers lessons for the U.S. as it debates immigration reform, including whether to provide a path to citizenship for unskilled foreign laborers, or whether there should be additional temporary-only visas for such workers. President Barack Obama has urged Congress to begin debate in April after lawmakers return from a two-week recess.
Decades after Germany's formal guest worker program ended in the early 1970s, the country is still wrestling with ways to integrate Turks ? the second biggest group among the estimated 15 million-strong immigrant community after ethnic Germans who moved from the former Soviet Union and for Soviet bloc countries ? into German society.
"When you bring people to work, it's quite hard to tell them to go back one day," said Goecken Demiragli, a social worker whose grandmother came to Berlin from Turkey in 1968. "That was the biggest mistake: to think that if you don't need them, they will go."
Initially, the Germans felt they didn't need an integration path.
They foresaw a temporary program of rotating labor, where workers from Turkey, the Balkans and southern Europe would spend a couple of years on an assembly line and then go home to be replaced by others if industry still needed them.
But factory managers grew tired of retraining new workers every couple of years and convinced authorities to allow contract extensions.
Many immigrants, especially young Turkish men who faced grinding unemployment at home, opted to stay in Germany, bringing their families and building lives here despite discrimination in education, housing and employment.
Although immigrants could stay legally with government-issued residence permits, they could not apply for citizenship for 15 years, although the period has been shortened in recent years. Without fluent German, and state-supported language programs, many were unable to pursue good educations and well-paying jobs.
As a result, the Turkish community remains the least integrated immigrant group in Germany, according to the private Berlin Institute for Population and Development.
Immigration critics blame the Turks for refusing to abandon traditions of rural Turkey, failing to learn German and take advantage of educational opportunities. Critics note that more than 90 percent of marriages by ethnic Turks are to other Turks ? in part because of cultural restrictions against marrying outside the Muslim faith.
Over the years, the existence of a parallel society of marginalized people speaking a different language and following different religious and social customs has triggered a backlash in a country which only recently has considered itself a nation that welcomes immigrants.
Neo-Nazis have focused on the Turks in their campaign against immigration. Next month, the surviving member of a small neo-Nazi cell goes on trial in Munich for allegedly killing 10 people ? eight of them Turkish immigrants ? over seven years. The cell allegedly got away with the killings for years because police assumed they were the work of Turkish immigrant gangs.
Thilo Sarrazin, once a top official of Germany's central bank, wrote in a 2010 best-seller that immigrants were dumbing down German society and that Turkish and Arab immigrants were reluctant to integrate. The firestorm that followed forced Sarrazin out of his bank post, but his book sold over 1.5 million copies.
Others fault successive German governments for being slow to recognize the immigration problem and moving only in recent years to put in place programs to combat discrimination, provide German language training and offer a speedier path to full citizenship.
"The West German government should have devised comprehensive integration measures as part of family reunification policies but did not," a 2009 study for the Washington-based Migration Policy Institute. "Consequently, integration problems began to take root in West Germany."
In the meantime, an entire generation grew up feeling estranged, living in urban ghettoes apart from the mainstream and unable to take part in political life. Even well-educated Turks who have assimilated believe that stigma remains alive today.
"There's this categorization ... that you are not the same as the others," said Demiragli, the social worker, who was born in Germany but did not get citizenship until she was 16. "That is a feeling that grows in you if you do not have strong parents who can support you and give you the feeling that you are still special."
Overt discrimination has abated since the 1970s and 1980s when real estate ads in German newspapers contained phrases like "Only for Germans" or "No Foreigners." But Turkish residents say subtle barriers remain.
"Now it's more hidden," said Bekir Yilmaz, head of a Turkish community organization in Berlin. "You look for housing, you make a telephone call, you can speak German well but when you stand in front of the landlord, they say, 'Oh, the apartment is taken.'"
Yilmaz believes the problem has worsened since the 9/11 attacks in the U.S. and the war on terror smeared the image of Muslims.
"The West had its enemy in communism but communism is gone. Now it's the Muslims," Yilmaz said. "The Turks here are no enemy. They have lived here for years, and their children born here. This has nothing to do with reality."
German attitudes toward immigration and citizenship also proved an obstacle to full and rapid integration. Although attitudes are changing, Germany never perceived itself as an immigrant society like the United States. German society values conformity.
Unlike the United States, Germany does not automatically grant citizenship to anyone born on German soil. Even though the naturalization process has been shortened, it still takes years and requires knowledge of the German language and history.
In 2000, a new law granted German citizenship to German-born children of longtime legal residents. By age 23, those children must decide whether to keep German citizenship or their parents' nationality.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's government has refused calls from Turkish and other immigrant communities to allow dual citizenship. Many immigrants are reluctant to apply for German citizenship because they want to hold on to their original nationality.
"I think we should have a dual citizenship here in Germany," said Ayvaz Harra, a German citizen of Turkish origin who sells bread in a Berlin market. "My family has property in Turkey and I would like to inherit it. Right now it's not possible."
But others believe the core problem was the government's failure to foresee the long-term effects of the temporary labor program.
"The problem here is that there is a picture of how Germans should live and if somebody is living differently, it doesn't fit," Demiragli said. "I think that in 20 to 30 years it will be a totally mixed community, especially here in Berlin. If we get over that 20 years, I think it will be a totally different situation."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/german-migrant-program-offers-cautions-us-073113485.html
trayvon martin case affordable care act the line us soccer bobby brown arrested the happening black panthers
Heat start to move on after streak ends
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade reacts as he watches a free throw by Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The Bulls won 101-97, ending the Heat's 27-game winning streak. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Miami Heat guard Dwyane Wade reacts as he watches a free throw by Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng during the second half of an NBA basketball game in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The Bulls won 101-97, ending the Heat's 27-game winning streak. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Miami Heat forward Shane Battier grimaces after he was called for a foul during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The Bulls won 101-97, ending the Heat's 27-game winning streak. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Miami Heat forward LeBron James, center, and guard Mario Chalmers, right, listen to guard Ray Allen during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls in Chicago on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. The Bulls won 101-97, ending the Heat's 27-game winning streak. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Their winning streak finally over, the Miami Heat did on Thursday what they had planned to do all along.
They took the day off.
While the circus atmosphere around the team may slow down now ? until the playoffs start, anyway ? the way the reigning NBA champions go about their business over the final 11 games of the regular season probably will not. Miami's epic, historic, sometimes-mindboggling 27-game winning streak ended with a 101-97 loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night, and Heat guard Dwyane Wade was among those sounding absolutely relieved afterward.
"It really didn't matter to us," Wade said. "If you get it, it's awesome. If you don't, we still won 27 games in a row. That's pretty awesome. So, we really weren't like, 'We've got to get that record.' Not at all. And now that it's over, I'm glad it's over."
Next up: Friday night at New Orleans, where the Heat will try to return to their winning ways.
Miami's quest for NBA history ended with the Heat six games shy of matching the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers for the league's longest winning streak. The Lakers will keep their record, but the biggest Lakers star of this generation offered the Heat plenty of respect when their run was over.
"I think just as a student of the game, as a fan of the game, you appreciate those kind of streaks and you realize how difficult it is to put together that big of a streak," Lakers star Kobe Bryant said after learning of the Heat loss. "Obviously the Lakers winning 33 in a row was phenomenal, but the Heat's one was just as impressive."
Still, the Heat insist they can get better.
When Indiana beat the Heat on Feb. 1, Miami coach Erik Spoelstra's postgame theme was that his club had to get better. Nearly two months later, when the Heat streak ended in Chicago, much of Spoelstra's postgame remarks had the same theme.
Players understood his point.
"At the end of the day, a win is a win in our league," said reigning MVP LeBron James, who averaged exactly 27 points per game during the 27-game winning streak. "We've gotten better throughout the season. Each and every month we've improved. We've started from behind some games, but for the most part we've played some great basketball. We're not a team that builds bad habits. That's not even who we are so we're not worried about that."
No matter how they did it, no matter how many double-digit deficits they erased or fourth-quarter comebacks they pulled off, the bottom line was Miami enjoyed 7? weeks of dominance.
Entering Thursday, 10 NBA teams hadn't won 27 games yet this season.
"Really proud of the grind of the last few weeks from my guys," Miami forward Shane Battier, who was part of a 32-game win streak at Duke, 22 with the Houston Rockets and now 27 with the Heat, wrote on Twitter early Thursday. "The focus and effort (and luck) was phenomenal."
Battier closed that tweet with two hashtagged words ? onward and upwards.
Whether it was because they were revered or reviled, the Heat probably got more eyeballs on NBA regular-season basketball than any team had in some time, with people watching to root for either the streak continuing or the streak ending.
They were must-see TV, as proven by national networks like ESPN and NBA TV scrambling to pick up Heat games as the streak rolled along. ESPN said the overnight rating for Heat-Bulls was the fifth-best of any regular-season game ever shown on the network.
Media coverage was as intense as any time during the Big Three era in Miami. On Monday in Orlando, the visiting locker room was overwhelmed by reporters. And on Wednesday in Chicago, Wade freely said he was ready for the circus to end.
"I don't know who half you people are," Wade said.
For those who still need streaks to follow, there's plenty of options.
Women's basketball is chock-full of them right now, with Baylor (32), Notre Dame (28) and Delaware (27) all taking streaks that at least match the Heat run into NCAA regional games this weekend. The NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins were seeking for a 14th straight win against Winnipeg on Thursday night. In men's college basketball, Louisville takes a 12-game winning streak into its Midwest Regional semifinal against Oregon on Friday night.
As far as the NBA goes, the longest current winning streak now belongs to the New York Knicks ? a mere six games.
What the Heat did obviously won't be exceeded this season, and probably not for a while. If Miami won every game left on its schedule and swept all four playoff series, they would end the year with another 27-game winning streak.
Don't count on that one happening. Bryant may have tipped his cap to the Heat, but not all the Lakers were exactly heartbroken that their franchise will keep the record.
"We kept the streak," Lakers center Pau Gasol said. "And it's about time that Miami lost."
During the streak ? starting from the moment Miami lost in Indiana on Feb. 1 to the final buzzer in Chicago ? every other NBA team lost at least five times. Nearly two-thirds of the league lost at least 10 games. Orlando lost more than anyone else, falling on 23 occasions. Maybe the biggest sign of Miami's dominance was that 12 teams endured more defeats during the streak than the Heat had lost all season.
Starting Friday, they begin another chapter.
"Now that it's over," Wade said, "let's look back on it as something that was great."
___
AP Basketball Writer Jon Krawczynski in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
Associated PressTaken 2 Venezuela Elections Skyfall Chicago Marathon 2012 texas rangers steve jobs meningitis
Physicists Model Mosh Moves
Metal-loving researchers analyzed the collective movement of individuals in mosh pits, which could help explain mass movements in other extreme situations. Sophie Bushwick reports.
More 60-Second Science
Subscribe via iTunes
A heavy metal concert might be a tough place to think about physics, especially in the mosh pit, where some audience members dance violently. But the mosh pit itself is actually an interesting place to find physics in action. And not just force equals mass times acceleration.
Metal-loving Cornell researchers analyzed videos of mosh pits and mapped the motion of participants. They found that the collisions of moshers was similar to the motion of molecules in an ideal gas. Mosh dancers can also form what is called a circle pit, where they run collectively in a ring, creating a vortex pattern.
The scientists not only modeled mosh and circle pits, they also found how one type of motion transitions into the other. The presented their ongoing work at the American Physical Society's March Meeting. [Matthew Bierbaum et al, Mosh pits and Circle pits: Collective motion at heavy metal concerts]
But why bother to look at mosh pits in the first place? The physicists think their research may also apply to other extreme situations, which could help us understand collective human movement in panics and riots. So I say, rock on.
?Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]?
?
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=a8d9f60f886517418eb05da14e96b057
jonathan frid pujols watchmen hitch justin beiber lamar odom perfect game
Audioair Wants To Unlock Audio From Muted TVs Everywhere And Give Your Local Bar A New Way To Advertise
If you've ever been in a sports bar with your friends to watch a big game, you've likely run into the "muting" problem. While the bar may have two dozen TVs, each might be playing a different game, and there's either too much sound or none at all. At most local restaurants, bars, airports and health clubs, you'll find TVs muted for this very reason.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/sIzZccJFbM4/
gabrielle giffords juliette lewis chelsea handler mitch daniels shirataki noodles prince fielder state of the union address 2012
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Mazda6 - 15,000 units recalled over electrical issue
Over in Australia, Mazda has initiated a safety related recall program for 1,531 units of its Mazda6 to rectify a potential quality issue with the vehicle?s electrical system.
The recall will eliminate a potential fault with a component in the DC/DC convertor that is located under the front passenger seat. The DC/DC converter is part of the car?s i-ELOOP brake energy recuperation system, which uses a capacitor to power the vehicle?s electrical components.
The company says that the fault may cause overheating of the unit and in a worst case scenario, a fire may result. Rectification of the issue will see the DC/ DC convertor replaced free of charge.
The i-ELOOP system features a new 12-25V variable voltage alternator, a low-resistance electric double layer capacitor and the aforementioned DC/DC converter. Through kinectic energy from deceleration, the variable voltage alternator generates electricity at up to 25V for maximum efficiency before sending it to the Electric Double Layer Capacitor (EDLC) for storage.
The DC/DC converter then steps down the electricity from 25V to 12V before it is distributed directly to the vehicle?s electrical components. The system also charges the vehicle battery as necessary.
A total of approximately 15,000 Mazda6s globally are subject to the recall, including the Australian examples. The car was officially launched in Malaysia last week; there?s no word of the recall here.
?
Source: http://paultan.org/2013/03/26/mazda6-15000-units-recalled-over-electrical-issue/
Prop 30 Election 2012 Michigan Election Results Missouri Election Results Amendment 64 marijuana huffington post
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
EMC Security Customers- Security Company Scammers are in your ...
Recently, several customers of EMC Security have contacted us to report a salesman going door-to-door in their neighborhood claiming to represent EMC Security.? The most recent customer reported that the salesman represented himself as EMC Security personnel and was there to offer an upgrade to her system.? This person also claimed that Vivint Security was working with EMC Security on upgrading customers? security systems.? This is not true in any way.??? These claims are classic scammer tactics made by other security companies who are misleading and swindling customers into unknowingly signing a contract for their services.? These individuals are usually well dressed and claim that they are offering to upgrade their security system on behalf of their current security company.? They then offer to perform the ?upgrade?? for free.? They will ask the homeowner to sign an authorization to complete the installation, but what the homeowner is actually signing is a 60 month (5 year) non-cancellable contract for monitoring at $45 or more per month.?? The customer will then be locked into paying the high monthly payment for the entire length of the contract with no recourse, or face severe penalty fees to get out of the contract and risk being sued by the alarm company that scammed them.
EMC Security will NEVER send anyone to a customer?s home without their prior knowledge.? Please contact EMC Security if you are approached by these scammers and call 911.? Here are some additional tips on what to do if you are approached by one of these scammers.
1. Always think safety first. If you?re home alone and don?t recognize the person, don?t open the door. If they are a legitimate company, they will leave a brochure or business card.
2. Be aware that because you have a security sign or other type of sign in your yard, you could be a target for this type of unethical selling practices.
3. Always, always check with your own security company, or other company, first. You can also ask the sales representative to wait outside while you do. If they are telling the truth, why would they mind waiting?? EMC Security will never send anyone to a customers home without their prior knowledge.
4. Scare tactics may not work on everyone but they can on our senior citizens and others who have no one to turn to for advice. If you believe this type of business practice is happening in your neighborhood, please call the police and let them know. At least there will be a record on file.
5. Finally, if there will be any offers or changes to your service you will be contacted by EMC Security. You won?t hear this information from someone who knocks at your door, and especially someone who tries to scare you.
Tags: door to door security sales, free security upgrade scam, security company scam, security system scam
erika van pelt pat robertson hunger games trailer hunger games trailer in plain sight hunger games movie review bats
Falcons 'rapidly evolved hunter skill'
For youtube videos, paste embed code directly in the text box
-Members do not need to provide an address
-
 |
 |
Rate Article
Total votes: 0 Select Comment Validation MethodMember
Name/URL (Guest)
FaceBook (Guest) Member Commenting:
Authenticate with Facebook before submitting
OR
Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. Please verify that you are human: Register for LabSpaces Make your LabSpaces comments count. Start earning LabSpaces points by becoming a member! Learn more. 
Please authenticate before trying to post a comment.
If you would like to remain anonymous, please enter a new name and link below
 |
 |
Friends
Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127432/Falcons__rapidly_evolved_hunter_skill_
84th annual academy awards beginners 2012 oscars the shore meryl streep oscar wins sasha baron cohen oscars the artist
Monday, March 25, 2013
2nd Annual Real Estate Mediation Institute ? SCMA | Southern ...
2nd Annual Real Estate Mediation Institute
Date: Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Time: 9:00 a.m. ? 12:00 p.m.
Registration from 9:00-9:30 a.m.
Program from 9:30-12:00 p.m.
Location: Beverly Hills/Greater Los Angeles Association of Realtors
6330 San Vicente Boulevard,
Suite 100, Los Angeles, CA 90048
BHGLAAR & SCMA Members: $35.00
Non-Members: $40.00
Click here to see the flyer?and complete details.
?? BHGLAAR & SCMA Members: $35.00 ?? Non-Members: $40.00Topics for the 2013 Real Estate Mediation Institute:
Divorce Trusts, Short Sales, Landlord/Tenant, and more cutting edge
real estate issues. This presentation is intended for both real estate
professionals and mediators who want to expand their client database
and ensure their clients (divorcing or not) are appropriately advised.
Panelists Include:
- Scott Berman ? Real Estate & Divorce Mediator
- Myles Ross ? Senior Mortgage Advisor
- Julianne Waggoner ? Real Estate Broker, Probate & Trust Specialist
- Terri Breer ? Divorce Attorney & Mediator
- Alexander S. Polsky, Esq. ? Construction Mediator, Arbitrator & Attorney
- Samuel C. Konugres ? Real Estate Attorney & Mediator
Source: http://www.scmediation.org/2nd-annual-real-estate-mediation-institute/
lollapalooza First Day Of Spring 2013 Suki Waterhouse dancing with the stars Bates Motel Michelle Shocked ncaa bracket
Desperate NBC Using Paterno Apologist?s Footage For Sandusky ?Exclusive? Interview (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)
Paralyzed 9 years ago, Iraq vet prepares to die
Tomas Young is "ready to go" as he puts it. After nine years of suffering and with his body quickly deteriorating he has decided to end his struggle.
Young, 33, was paralyzed from the chest down by a sniper's bullet in a battle in Sadr City, Iraq on April 4, 2004, less than a week after he got to the country. He had joined the Army just two days after September 11, 2001 and assumed he would be sent to Afghanistan. Now nine years after that battle he is choosing to end his suffering. He is in hospice care and getting ready to die.
"I just decided that I was tired of seeing my body deteriorate and I want to go before it's too late," Young said in phone interview with ABC News from his home in Kansas City, Mo. "I've been doing this for the past nine years now?and I finally felt helpless every day and a burden to the people who take care of me and that's why I want to go."
Young and his wife Claudia Cuellar are receiving guests for a few more weeks. During that time, Young will say goodbye to friends and family and then will stop receiving medications, nourishment and water. They don't know how long it could be after that time he will die, but they believe it will be one to three weeks, but it could be as long as six weeks.
They don't consider it suicide, just an end to his suffering.
"I'm not the boy who would always think suicide if maybe something goes wrong," Young said. "I put lots of time into this. I considered the facts that people I know who love me and would prefer that I stick around, and my only hope is that they realize that they're being selfish in wanting me to just stick around and endure the pain."
Young and Cuellar have decided to go public with their story. First, in an article in the Kansas City Star because they want to change the perception on death and dying in this country as well as continue to shine a light on the anti-Iraq war activism Young has been focused on since becoming paralyzed. He was the subject of a 2007 documentary "Body of War" produced by Phil Donahue. It showed Young dealing with the excruciating physical effects of his injury including post-traumatic stress, as well as his work against the Iraq war.
Cuellar says since the first story was written about his choice to die last week they have received mixed reactions of people supporting Young's decision as well as people urging him to "hang on" or "fight a little more." She says it's because people can't fathom his daily pain.
In 2008, he suffered a pulmonary embolism and anoxic brain injury which he believes was because he was taken off of blood thinners. It affected his speech as well as impaired the use of his arms. Cuellar and Young met when she saw the documentary and she began visiting him when he was in rehabilitation in Chicago after the embolism. They married last April.
"He was a para[plegic] and he was independent and functioning independently so he rolled the ball up the mountain to learn how to be a paraplegic and then four years later...he has the embolism he gets rolled back all the way down the mountain and he now has to live like a partial quadriplegic," Cuellar said.
Since then, they estimate, he takes between 35 to 45 pills a day. He has mucus, but because of his paralysis cannot cough it up so Cuellar presses it out of him ten to fifteen times a day. He takes more pills for waves of nausea that hit him throughout the day, antibiotics for infections, his vision is fading, and he's had increased nightmares they linked to the increase in pain medications. His colon was removed in November and he now can't eat solid food. Young's speech is also quite blurred so his wife jumps in when needed.
"We've had to increase the pain medication over time quite consistently and incrementally so the increase in pain meds will decrease his faculties somewhat so he is becoming forgetful a little bit. He was always very clear before," Cuellar said.
She also must clean "pressure sores" on his buttocks where Cuellar says she can see the "living bone."
"I hope people understand that we are not just deciding to stop feeding because things are kind of difficult," Cuellar said. "It is an insurmountable challenge every day and I don't know how we get through. We get through with each other."
So, how exactly does this happen in the age of modern medicine and to a man who served his country bravely?
Young says it's been a "long process" since he began experiencing "severe abdominal pain in July of 2009" and he hasn't just been struggling with his deteriorating body, but with the health care system, calling the Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital a "factory." He left in October against medical advice.
"At the VA the doctors seem to think they are so much better than all of their patients and if you try to say, 'Oh what if it's like this?' or 'What if we go down this road?' and they say, 'No, no that won't work,'" Young said. "I said (the VA) was more zoo-like, it's actually more like a factory. Like patients are on an assembly line."
They said the treatment at a private hospital he went to was better, but Cuellar said "there is still this drive towards procedures, surgeries, drugs, procedures, surgeries, drugs."
"When we felt like we had enough of procedures, surgeries, and drugs there isn't a space allowed to begin to talk about transition into hospice or feelings about suffering or death and dying. Even with medical professionals they don't want to talk about it," Cuellar said.
They said when they first approached Young's doctors with his wish to go into hospice they said due to his young age he wasn't the "typical hospice patient."
"This is what happens when a country sends their sons and daughters to war," Cuellar said. "Broken bodies come back and broken bodies deteriorate over time just like a diseased body and just like an aging body and this is the reality. I'm sorry if it doesn't fit your profile of somebody who is 90 years old and about to die going to hospice."
In order to be accepted in a hospice, Young must be "terminally" ill, which he technically is not. They were able to be accepted when he was ruled to have an "inability to thrive." He now has in-home hospice care from Crossroads Hospice.
"All we want to do is go home," Cuellar said, referring to the time before the ruling was made. "We don't want to be in a hospital, we don't want to be in an ER, we don't want to go into a nursing home?we felt like we were like Frankenstein. They just wanted to keep cutting open, stitching up, going in, another pill and this is a dehumanizing process."
Although Young has been involved in protesting the Iraq war for years, his final piece of political activism is an open letter he wrote to former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney accusing them of war crimes.
"You may evade justice, but in our eyes you are each guilty of egregious war crimes, of plunder and, finally, of murder, including the murder of thousands of young Americans--my fellow veterans--whose future you stole," it reads in part.
ABC News' Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz has covered the war in Iraq extensively, writing a book, "The Long Road Home" about the battle in Sadr City in which Young was injured.
She sat down with the man who saved Young and others, Robert Miltenberger several times since the battle. He served as a staff sergeant in Sadr City in 2004.
Miltenberger, who was awarded the silver star for his bravery, told Raddatz in 2005 that he thought about Young and others often, telling her the memories were "haunting." In November 2011, she interviewed him again and he said he had told Young that he apologized to him for what happened right after he was paralyzed.
"I was telling him that I was sorry that I lied to him, that he wasn't paralyzed, that people were lying on his legs and he was just numb from all the weight and stuff," Miltenberger recalled. "He said it was okay. He didn't blame me."
Young's reaction to hearing those words was that "I've never had any hard feelings and I never considered it lying. I was just trying to keep my head above water."
Young said he would like to talk to Miltenberger before his life ends.
Young says he wants the country to learn from his struggle that "war is the last resort" and in future conflicts the American government should try diplomacy and "if they are still not cooperating they should send in a small group of elite trained forces not 125,000 19-year-old kids whose first cultural experience is eating at the Olive Garden or Taco Bell. "
"I want our government to try every possible outlet with the country before invading it, before going to war," Young said.
Young added that if the United States does go to war then "all boxes must be checked."
"Make sure that the soldiers, marines, and sailors have the best body armor, the best armor around their vehicles," Young said before Cuellar added, "And having a healthcare system that will take of you when they get back. I mean, they just can't be abandoned when they sacrifice for their country."
Young's mother Cathy Smith, whom he says has worked as a "pit bull" on his behalf, is also almost always by his side.
He said "she's come around to the conclusion that it would be far more selfish for her to want me to stay alive and be in pain the rest of my life than just let me go."
Also ReadSource: http://news.yahoo.com/wounded-iraq-vet-prepares-die-122209007.html
Dick Van Dyke pro bowl victoria azarenka Royal Rumble 2013 senior bowl norovirus Coachella 2013
Hilary Duff and Luca Shop It Up at Splendid
The actress mama and her little boy head to Splendid Los Angeles to pick out some stylish pieces.
Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/zmrOCTGP7As/
nick santino bruce arians the misfits hook troy miracle andy whitfield
Sunday, March 24, 2013
France confirms death of Al-Qaida chief Abou Zeid
PARIS (AP) ? The death of a top al-Qaida-linked warlord in combat with French-led troops represents a victory in the battle against jihadists who had a stranglehold on northern Mali. But it is far from the defining blow against a wily enemy that can go underground and regroup to renew itself. Even the fearsome Abou Zeid is replaceable.
A top commander of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, Abou Zeid had been in the crosshairs of the French military and their African partners since they moved in to Mali on Jan. 11 to rout radicals seen as a threat to northwest Africa and to Europe. An announcement Saturday by the French president's office that Abou Zeid's death in late February has been "definitively confirmed" ends weeks of speculation about his fate.
Abdelhamid Abou Zeid, an Algerian thought to be 47, was a pillar of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb's southern realm, responsible for the death of at least two European hostages and a leader of the extremist takeover of northern Mali, which followed a coup d'etat a year ago. He joined a succession of radical insurgency movements in Algeria starting in the early 1990s and became known for his brutality and involvement in high-profile hostage-taking.
President Francois Hollande's office said the death of Abou Zeid "marks an important step in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel," the borderlands where the Sahara meets the sub-Saharan jungle, encompassing several nations where radicals are on the rise.
French officials have maintained for weeks that the Abou Zeid was "probably" dead but waited to conduct DNA tests to verify.
But jihadists have shown again and again that they can overcome the death of individual warlords. Even French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has said that eliminating leaders "doesn't solve everything."
"It's the entire structure that has to be put down and not this or that leader," he said in an interview with Le Monde earlier this month.
Al-Qaida rebounded after commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan were killed. Leaders of jihadist movements in Algeria that gave birth to al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, known as AQIM, were killed and seamlessly replaced. The top AQIM leader in Mali, with the title Emir of the Grand Sahara, Nabil Makloufi, was quickly replaced after being killed last fall in a road accident, according to Matthieu Guidere, an expert on radical Islam who monitors AQIM and other jihadist movements. The new top emir, Yahya El-Hammam, could now step into Abou Zeid's warlord role, according to one scenario.
Abou Zeid was killed in operations in the Adrar des Ifoghas mountains in Mali's far north, the French statement said. The area where mountains meet the desert was Abou Zeid's stronghold ? and thought to be where he was keeping four French hostages captured two years ago at a uranium mine in Niger. Their fate is unclear.
The French military says the French-led forces have killed hundreds of extremist fighters in the two-month campaign in Mali, and French officials say they have cornered the al-Qaida-linked groups in a patch of northern mountains.
However, even a clear military success by the French and their African partners in Mali would not guarantee that AQIM will die.
While based in northern Algeria, it has proven extremely mobile, latching on to political instability in the region and arming itself with weapons from Libya. AQIM has seeded ties with other radical Islamic movements like the violent Boko Haram in Nigeria. Last week, AQIM put out a call to jihadists throughout northern Africa to join the fronts in Mali and Algeria ? or to stay home, and wage a war of preaching in countries like Tunisia or Morocco to turn the tide against "secularists," according to the SITE Intel Group which monitors jihadist statements.
Interviews with a series of experts on AQIM and other jihadist groups all suggest that a military victory is not the definitive answer to snuffing out jihadist terror, which can change form, move on to new theaters of operation or reignite if the instability it breeds on is not eliminated, too.
"The problem doesn't go away by eliminating terrorists," Sajjan Gokel of the London-based Asia-Pacific Foundation said in a recent interview. "For every terrorist captured or killed there are at least five other terrorists coming down the assembly line."
One analyst suggested that Abou Zeid's death may lead to greater unity among the various al-Qaida-linked factions.
Jean-Paul Rouiller, director of the Geneva Center for Training and Analysis of Terrorism, describes AQIM's organization as a set of insulated cells under the larger al-Qaida umbrella, which existed independently of each other. The region of Mali ? known in the group's parlance as the "emirate of the Sahara" ? was divided between units loyal to Abou Zeid and those loyal to his arch-rival Moktar Belmoktar, who led an attack on a gas plant in Algeria in January that left dozens of foreign hostages dead.
Rouiller said El-Hammam will likely take over control of Abou Zeid's katibat, or brigade. He said it was Hammam who had acted as the go-between when Abou Zeid wanted to communicate with Belmoktar.
"Especially if Hammam takes over, there could be a chance for a better coordinated relationship with Moktar Belmoktar," said Rouiller. "I would not be surprised if we see a more united Saharan emirate."
Chad's government claimed that Belmoktar was also killed in fighting in northern Mali, but the claim has not been independently verified.
Mystery surrounds the powerful and shadowy figure of Abou Zeid, even regarding his real name. Along with his nom de guerre, Abou Zeid had an alias, Mosab Abdelouadoud, and nicknames, the emir of Timbuktu, the fabled city that became his fief during the 10-month-long occupation of Mali, and the little emir, due to his diminutive size. But the Algerian press has raised questions about his legal identity ? Abid Hamadou or Mohamed Ghedir.
He was viewed as a disciplined radical with close ties to the overall AQIM boss, Abdelmalek Droukdel, who oversees operations from his post in northern Algeria.
Abou Zeid fought with a succession of Islamist insurgency movements trying to topple the Algerian state since 1992. He reportedly joined the brutal, and now defunct, Armed Islamic Group that massacred whole villages in northern Algeria, then joined the Salafist Group for Call and Combat that morphed into al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in 2006 under Droukdel's rule.
An Algerian court tried him in absentia in January 2012, convicting him of belonging to an international terrorist group and sentencing him to life in prison.
Abou Zeid was believed to be the most brutal of the top jihadist leaders in Mali. He held a Frenchman who was executed in July 2010. He's also been linked to the execution of a British hostage in 2009.
In the Sahara, Abou Zeid's reputation for brutality toward hostages outdid that of Belmoktar, who in general allowed the foreigners in his care to receive medicine when needed. Rouiller says that an analysis done by his center of proof-of-life videos released by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb suggests that Hammam and another jihadist commander, Targui, are just as brutal toward hostages as was Abou Zeid.
"Based upon the analysis of the video sequences, I don't think either Hammam or Targui are more humane ? the line will not change."
___
Associated Press writers Greg Keller in Paris and Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar, Senegal, contributed to this report.
Follow Ganley on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/Elaine_Ganley
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-confirms-death-al-qaida-chief-abou-zeid-132129385.html
real life barbie zipper armenian genocide asteroid mining memorial day ivan rodriguez planetary resources
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)