Obama Golfs For First Time Since Sequester Cuts

With the sun shining at the nation's capital, President Obama went golfing Saturday afternoon - his first golf outing since the sequester cuts went into effect on March 1.

The president hit the links with friend and Chicago businessman Marty Nesbitt and White House staffers Michael Brush and Marvin Nicholson, the White House said.

PHOTOS: President Obama's First Term Captured In Photos

The president last golfed in February with golf powerhouse Tiger Woods at a posh golf club, the Floridian, in Palm City, Fla.

Obama's golf game with Woods drew criticism from the White House press corps at the time because they were not given access to the president's golf game.

RELATED: President Obama, Tiger Woods Play Golf Together

Earlier this month, some Republicans attacked the president's penchant for golfing after tours at the White House were cancelled due to the sequester cuts.

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, introduced an amendment to the continuing resolution which would cut funding for the president's transportation to and from golf games until the White House tours resumed, but the measure was not included in the final CR approved by Congress.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich joined in the criticism of the president's golf hobby arguing that the trips require costly Secret Service protection.

RELATED: Obama and Tiger, the Life of Par

"The president will use up more Secret Service time guarding him while he golfs than it would take to keep the White House tours open all year," Gingrich said in an interview with CNN.

But one prominent politician - New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg - rose to the president's defense, saying he should be golfing more to strengthen his relationships.

"I find it fascinating, people criticize him for taking people to dinner - he should be doing that every night. They criticize him for going and playing golf with people who he's got to deal with. He should be doing that every weekend. You always can work better with somebody that you have a chance to build a social relationship with," Bloomberg said on CBS' "Face the Nation" earlier this month.

Since March 1, the president has attended his daughter's basketball games and played hoops at a basketball court close to the White House on the weekends. Last week, he was traveling home from a trip to Israel and Jordan.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-golfs-first-time-since-sequester-cuts-183407081--abc-news-politics.html

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BJP in India could name controversial politician their prime ministerial candidate

On Sunday, India's Bharatiya Janata Party elevated Narendra Modi to the party's top decision-making bodies. Narendra has been accused of ignoring or stoking violence between Hindus and Muslims.

By Associated Press / March 31, 2013

Gujarat state Chief Minister Narendra Modi waves to supporters in Ahmadabad, India in September 2011. On Sunday, the opposition BJP, which has resisted naming a prime ministerial candidate from among its many leaders, began coalescing around Modi, the successful and deeply polarizing politician.

Ajit Solanki/AP/File

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The main opposition Hindu nationalist party on Sunday elevated Narendra Modi, a deeply divisive figure in Indian politics, to the party's top decision-making bodies, with his supporters believing he could become prime minister in national elections next year.

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However, Rajnath Singh, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, did not name Modi as the party's prime ministerial candidate, apparently because of opposition from some allies.

Smriti Irani, a BJP vice president, said the party would make a decision on the issue later. It is not known when the party will announce its candidate. The elections are due in May 2014.

On Sunday, Modi was made a member of the BJP's parliamentary board and the central election committee, which will select candidates and lead the election campaign.

Modi, 62, currently heads the BJP government in western Gujarat state. For more than a decade, he has worked relentlessly to market the idea of Gujarat state as a business-friendly state and become a hero to a generation of businessmen.

Modi says he has transformed his state, bringing it industries, jobs, electricity and water in a country where power outages and joblessness are epidemic.

However, Modi is accused by rights groups and survivors of not doing enough to stop the violence and even stoking it when marauding mobs of Hindus killed and burned their way through Muslim neighborhoods in Gujarat state in 2001, leaving more than 1,100 people dead. He was never charged with a crime.

The riots began in February 2002 when a train filled with Hindu pilgrims was attacked by a Muslim mob in a small Gujarat town. A fire erupted ? it remains unclear whether it was arson ? and 60 Hindus burned to death. In retaliation, Muslims were attacked across the state. Since that bloodletting, Modi has ruled over a state sharply divided along religious lines.

In 2005, the U.S. State Department denied a visa to Modi under the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, which bars people responsible for violations of religious freedom from getting a visa.

The Congress party, which has led India's national government for the past nine years, has seen its position dramatically weakened in recent years, its reputation battered by clumsy political maneuvering, weak leadership and a seemingly endless stream of corruption scandals.

The BJP is expected to pose a strong challenge to the Congress party in the 2014 elections.

Kapil Sibal, a Congress party leader and telecommunications minister, said Sunday that the elevation of a controversial leader would pose a serious challenge to the BJP in the run-up to the elections.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DhJ0VYNm32s/BJP-in-India-could-name-controversial-politician-their-prime-ministerial-candidate

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Deal for Martin to replace Hamlin blows up

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) ? A deal to loan Mark Martin to Joe Gibbs Racing as a replacement driver for injured Denny Hamlin fell apart Friday, when Michael Waltrip Racing said Martin will fulfill his commitment to its team.

When the dust settled for both teams, Brian Vickers wound up as Hamlin's replacement driver for at least four races. He was already scheduled to drive Martin's car for MWR at Martinsville next week and will keep that commitment, with Martin driving Hamlin's car.

Then Martin will go back to MWR, and Vickers will drive Hamlin's car until he's medically cleared to return from a fractured vertebra in his lower back.

The about-face came down from MWR roughly 24 hours after JGR said Martin will take over the No. 11 Toyota until Hamlin returns. He's out at least five races.

"We were a bit premature in determining Mark's status past Martinsville," J.D. Gibbs, president of Joe Gibbs Racing, said in a Friday night statement.

MWR said Martin will return to his regular car after Martinsville and "resume his previously scheduled run of events with MWR" for the rest of the season.

"I think it is great that a driver of Mark's caliber is available to support our fellow Toyota team during this difficult time for them. We wish Denny a speedy recovery" said MWR founder and co-owner Michael Waltrip. "Mark is a big part of our organization and is committed to our sponsors, especially Aaron's and Toyota. We have a lot of goals yet to reach this year and we are very focused on accomplishing them."

It's believed a deal between the teams to swap Martin for Vickers in the Sprint Cup Series races had been completed, but JGR prematurely announced it before MWR sponsor Aaron's had given its approval. No reason has been given why Aaron's didn't approve the swap.

MWR has been eyeing Vickers as a potential replacement for Martin in the No. 55 Toyota, and Vickers is scheduled to run nine races for Martin this year. Because Vickers is seen as an option for that ride, MWR was in favor of loaning Martin to the Gibbs camp to get an extended look at Vickers in its equipment.

Instead, JGR turned to a Plan B, which is Vickers, a day after Gibbs said the team wanted to use just one driver for consistency sake.

Vickers had the commitment to MWR for the first race, and Elliott Sadler, the second driver in JGR's Nationwide Series camp, already has commitments to drive the Cup races at Kansas and Talladega in a fourth car for JGR.

"Obviously, having to find someone to fill in for Denny is not an ideal situation to have to be in, and when you start a process like this you obviously begin to look at the drivers that are not only available but also able to drive for your race team and manufacturer," Gibbs said. "We're real happy to have the opportunity to get Brian in our Cup cars and with him driving Nationwide for us we think we have some continuity there that is beneficial.

"We really appreciate everyone at Michael Waltrip Racing and Toyota for working with us through this process. The good thing for us is that we have drivers the caliber of Mark and Brian to help fill in until Denny comes back."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/deal-martin-replace-hamlin-blows-003814704--spt.html

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Cosmic Easter Eggs: Start Your Spring Galaxy Hunt This Weekend

As the saying goes, "In the spring, a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love."

But if the young man is an astronomer, his fancy will likely also turn to thoughts of galaxies. Spring is truly the best season to hunt down and observe these cosmic Easter eggs of the night sky.

In summer and winter, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, dominates our sky and blocks our views of more distant galaxies. In spring and fall, we are looking outward from the disc of our galaxy and can see many more distant galaxies. Fall is dominated by a couple of large nearby galaxies, the ones in the constellations Andromeda and Triangulum, but in spring, we get a look at a number of more distant galaxies. Although they might be farther away from the Earth, the galaxies are gathered into huge clusters.

Take a look at the chart, which shows the view this coming weekend (March 30) looking to the east. In and around the triangle of first-magnitude (bright) stars Regulus, Arcturus and Spica are a vast number of distant galaxies. [Photo Gallery: 65 All-Time Great Galaxy Hits]

Timing is critical for observing the spring galaxies. Because the nights are getting shorter, there is only a brief window of opportunity before the galaxies are gone and the summer skies are with us.

This week, we have a full moon, but by the weekend, that moon will not be rising until after midnight. This gives us a couple of hours for galaxy hunting. Next weekend will be even better.

If you?re new to deep sky observing, prepare to be challenged. Experienced observers will tell you that the spring skies are crammed with bright and easy galaxies, but beginners will be challenged to find even one of them. That?s because galaxies are about the faintest things your eyes will ever see. The light from the galaxies has been traveling for millions of light years, and there is not very much left by the time it reaches your eyeballs.

The first secret is to search out very dark skies. Any form of light pollution, be it natural moonlight or artificial city lights, will destroy your chances of spotting galaxies. Spring galaxy season makes field trips to dark sky sites a necessity. Your local astronomy club is a wonderful resource. Chances are that they have scouted out the darkest sites in your region, and will be gathering there over the next couple of weekends to hunt down galaxies.

A second trick is to use averted vision when looking for faint objects. Instead of looking directly at the point where you expect the object to be, look slightly to one side. This will put the object on a more sensitive part of your eye?s retina.

Thirdly, give your telescope a light tap. Our eyes are programmed to see moving objects better than still ones, so making the telescope view move a little will often cause a faint object to pop out of the background.

Once you?re at a dark site, you will need a number of tools. I?d recommend a telescope with at least 6 inches (150 mm) aperture; 8 or 10 inches would be better. A wide field eyepiece is best for finding your targets; then switch to a higher magnification, around 100x, to study them in detail.

A pair of 7x50 or 10x50 binoculars used to locate the fields and figure out the best star-hopping routes is as important as a telescope. A good star atlas, like the "Sky & Telescope Pocket Sky Atlas," or a good planetarium program on a laptop computer, will guide you. Finally, a red flashlight, a comfortable seat and warm clothing will round out your kit.

The majority of the galaxies in our skies are concentrated in a rather small area, best placed at this time of year. Looking east around 10 p.m., you will see the Big Dipper on your upper left and three bright stars straight ahead forming a large triangle. Follow the curving handle of the Big Dipper away from the bowl and you first come to Arcturus in the constellation Bo?tes, then to Spica in the constellation Virgo. Above and to the right is Regulus in Leo.

Many of the objects in Charles Messier's catalog are shown in this chart, labeled in white. This 18th-century comet hunter was the first to catalog the many deep sky objects which confused him in his searches for comets. Nowadays, amateur astronomers try to observe the 110 objects in his catalog as the best and brightest deep sky objects in the sky. Nearly half of the objects he cataloged are visible in this single small area of sky in our chart; only the brighter ones are shown here. Of these, almost all are galaxies, with only a few exceptions.

Many of Messier?s objects have distinctive nicknames, but many more are known simply by their catalog numbers. Although baffling to beginners, experienced observers soon become as familiar with the Messier numbers as they are with the streets in their hometown.

The vast majority of Messier?s galaxies are concentrated in the five constellations of Leo, Virgo, Ursa Major, Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici. The first three are bright, well-known constellations; the last two are faint areas of sky with hardly any bright stars. In fact, these constellations contain many more galaxies than they do stars.

Most beginners want to start with Ursa Major, because it contains the famous Big Dipper. Unfortunately, its galaxies are fairly hard to find. This is especially true of the famous Pinwheel Galaxy (M101), which, although bright, is spread over a large area of sky. For that reason, it is actually easier to see with binoculars than with a telescope. The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51), just off the end of the Dipper?s handle, is much easier to spot. Look for its companion NGC5195 close by. In a really dark sky, you can see a faint bridge of stars joining the two.

The galaxies in Leo are much easier targets, especially the pairing of M65 and M66. [Most Extreme Stargazing Objects in the Night Sky]

But it?s Virgo that holds the real treasure trove of galaxies. Messier cataloged 11 galaxies in this constellation, along with eight in neighboring Coma Berenices. This area is so rich in galaxies that the problem lies not in finding them, but in identifying which galaxy is which. This is where a good star atlas or planetarium program comes in handy.

Experienced observers who have seen all the objects in Messier?s catalog should not neglect this area. For every galaxy Messier noted, there are dozens more to be found in the "RASC Finest NGC catalog," the "Herschel 400 catalog" and the "Caldwell catalog."

This article was provided to SPACE.com by Starry Night Education, the leader in space science curriculum solutions. Follow Starry Night on Twitter @StarryNightEdu.

Copyright 2013 SPACE.com, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cosmic-easter-eggs-start-spring-galaxy-hunt-weekend-203053811.html

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Wrestlers Hit the Mat for Breast Cancer | KTXL FOX40

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Source: http://fox40.com/2013/03/29/wrestlers-hit-the-mat-for-breast-cancer/

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Filipino Catholics crucify themselves

SAN PEDRO CUTUD, Philippines (AP) ? Devotees in villages in the northern Philippines took part in a bloody annual ritual to mark Good Friday, a celebration that mixes Roman Catholic devotion and Filipino folk beliefs and sees some reenact the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

The crucified devotees spent several minutes nailed to crosses in Pampanga province while thousands of tourists watched and took photos of the spectacle, which the church discourages. Earlier in the day, hooded male penitents trudged through the province's villages under the blazing sun while flagellating their bleeding backs with makeshift whips. Others carried wooden crosses to dramatize Christ's sacrifice.

Devotees undergo the hardships in the belief that such extreme sacrifices are a way to atone for their sins, attain miracle cures for illnesses or give thanks to God.

Alex Laranang, a 58-year-old vendor who was the first to be nailed to a cross Friday, said he was doing it "for good luck and for my family to be healthy."

It was the 27th crucifixion for sign painter Ruben Enaje, 52, one of the most popular penitents from San Pedro Cutud village. He began his yearly rite after surviving a fall from a building.

Enaje screamed in pain as men dressed as Roman soldiers hammered stainless steel nails into his palms and feet. A wireless microphone carried his voice to loudspeakers for everyone watching to hear.

His cross was raised and he was hanged there for several minutes under the searing afternoon sun before the nails were pulled out and he was taken on a stretcher to a first aid station.

"It's intriguing and fascinating what makes people do something like this, how you can believe so much that you make yourself suffer to that extent," said Dita Tittesass, a tourist from Denmark.

Remigio de la Cruz, the chief of San Pedro Cutud village, explained that the practice began in his village in the 1950s.

Archbishop Jose Palma, president of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, told the church-run Radio Veritas that the practice is "not the desire of Jesus Christ."

"We are aware that this has been practiced long before ... but we still hope that this will not be done any more," he said. "We should all concentrate on prayers."

_____

Associated Press writer Oliver Teves contributed to this from Manila.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/filipino-devotees-reenact-crucifixion-christ-093544016.html

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Razer begins shipping Edge units to those who pre-ordered this month

Back when the Razer Edge pre-orders kicked off, on March 1st, the company wasn't quite clear as to when exactly the device would commence shipping to early adopters, only going as far as saying it would be later that very month. Well, the good news is today Razer took to its own Facebook page to announce that its new-era gaming PC is now on its way to folks who put in a pre-order "from the March batch." Meanwhile, Razer's hoping other gamers will also shell out the hefty amount of $999-plus for its novel piece of hardware, urging potential buyers on the social network to snag a unit (or two) before they go out of stock -- just don't expect to get a keyboard dock with your order, as the previously reported Q3 availability for this add-on remains intact. Above all, however, it's a great thing to see that what was once just a project, is now getting ready to arrive at consumers' doorsteps.

Filed under: Gaming, Tablets

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Amateur Teams from Mexico and United States prepare for third ...

Rubber match of Ryder Cup style event be decided in Puerto Pe?asco, Mexico

PUERTO PENASCO, MEXICO (MARCH 29, 2013) ? ?Vidanta Golf, the largest golf course operator in Mexico and a subsidiary of Grupo Vidanta, will be hosting the 3rd annual Uniting Nations Cup, May 16-19, at the picturesque Mayan Palace golf resort in Puerto Pe?asco. The Uniting Nations Cup (UNC) is a Ryder Cup style competition with 80 top-notch amateur players from Mexico and the United States.

In the event?s first two years, neighboring countries Mexico and the United States have each claimed victory on the Peninsula de Cortez golf course, a Jack Nicklaus and Jack Nicklaus II co-design. The U.S. and Mexico will have 40-man squads with 20 two-man teams facing off in a match-play format over three days of competition.

?We love being part of this tradition in such a beautiful setting, a Jack Nicklaus championship golf course on the Sea of Cortez,? said Jesus Torres, director of Vidanta Golf. ?It?s a unique competition with a format that allows challenges for every player on every shot. Of course, the most important ingredient of this event is the camaraderie that is built up over the week between the competitors.?

The goal of the Uniting Nations Cup (Copa Uniendo Naciones) is to highlight the alliance between the United States and Mexico beyond their commercial and cultural ties, while attempting to one day rival the international acclaim of events such as the Ryder Cup or the Walker Cup, an amateur contest between the U.S. and Great Britain/Ireland. The UNC also aims to promote the expansion of the little-known Mexican port destination of Puerto Pe?asco.

The world-class Nicklaus Design course at Mayan Palace Puerto Pe?asco is in ?spectacular shape,? according to Calvin Nielsen, manager of golf at Peninsula de Cortez. The Peninsula?s 7,100-yard, par 72 layout is one of the most challenging and breathtaking in Mexico and is perennially rated among the country?s elite courses. In typical Nicklaus fashion, golfers will see the good in seven seaside holes, the bad in sloped greens, uneven fairways and thick rough and the ugly in blind shots, pot bunkers and stiff breezes.

Tournament Director Vito Berlingeri said he sees a bright future for the event, which is slated to be held in Puerto Pe?asco through 2016. ?No one else is doing anything like it,? he said. ?When it comes to golf, there are no borders and no language barriers between Mexico and the United States.?

For the second consecutive year, the UNC is being managed by the Arizona Golf Assn. Rules officials Ed Gowan and Lorraine Thies are also provided by the AGA. Sponsors include Antigua, Bacardi, Corona, Coca Cola, Cemex, Vina Chocalan and Zagas.

About Grupo Vidanta

Grupo Vidanta is an award-winning company known worldwide for its leadership in hotels and luxury resorts, championship quality golf courses, and tourism infrastructure, including Mexico?s first privately built international airport at Puerto Pe?asco. The company was founded in 1974 by Daniel Chavez Moran and now boasts an impressive portfolio of resort brands located among the most coveted coastal beach resorts in Mexico. These include Grand Luxxe, The Grand Bliss, The Bliss, The Grand Mayan, Mayan Palace, Ocean Breeze and Sea Garden, with more under development. In addition, Grupo Vidanta?s real estate division, Mayan Island, has built and sold more than 2,000 vacation homes. The company has resort properties operating in Los Cabos, Nuevo Vallarta, Acapulco, Puerto Vallarta, Riviera Maya, Puerto Pe?asco, Riviera Nayarit, and Mazatlan. For more information, please visit www.grupovidanta.com.

Media contact:
Edward M. Yang,
edward@firecrackerpr.com,
1-888-317-4687 ext. 1,
www.firecrackerpr.com

Source: http://www.insidethegate.com/2013/03/amateur-teams-from-mexico-and-united-states-prepare-for-third-uniting-nations-cup/

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Dutch coffee company DEMB in buyout talks

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? D.E. Master Blenders 1753, the Dutch coffee company that was spun off by Sara Lee Corp. last June, says it is in talks to be acquired by a group led by private German investment company Joh. A. Benckiser GmbH for around ?7.6 billion ($9.7 billion).

Benckiser owns stakes in Peet's Coffee & Tea Inc. and Caribou Coffee, among others.

Master Blenders said in a statement Thursday the potential buyers are looking at a price of ?12.75 per share, a 33 percent premium to Wednesday's closing price. But they haven't made a formal offer.

The company's shares soared 26 percent to ?12.14 in Amsterdam trading Thursday.

Master Blenders had a poor start as an independent company, with profits and estimates falling, and accounting irregularities uncovered at its Brazilian arm.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-coffee-company-demb-buyout-talks-105627556--finance.html

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Fosbury Goes Beyond Apple Passbook Pass Creation, Making It Easy To Manage, Distribute & Track Campaigns, Too

Fosbury, a new startup helping companies design iOS Passbook campaigns, is launching its online DIY design and distribution platform today, which is being made available on a pay-as-you go basis. Although quite a few services in this niche have sprung up since the announcement of Apple Passbook's mobile ticketing and couponing app last June, Fosbury's angle is that it offers not just Passbook design tools, but rather an end-to-end platform for creating, managing, distributing and analyzing Passbook campaigns.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HvFvpGmK3UU/

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Historic expulsion vote pending in Nevada Assembly

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) ? Members of the Nevada Assembly are poised for a historic vote on whether to oust one of their own ? something only contemplated once in the early years of Nevada's statehood but never carried out.

A vote on whether to expel troubled Assemblyman Steven Brooks was anticipated Wednesday night, but late in the day, Democratic leadership delayed the matter until Thursday at the earliest.

A vote by the full body will decide the political fate of the North Las Vegas Democrat, who in the past two months has been arrested twice, involuntarily hospitalized for a mental evaluation, fired from his day job and banished from the Legislature Building after public displays of bizarre behavior.

A bipartisan select committee empaneled to look into Brooks' behavior voted 6-1 Tuesday to recommend expulsion.

"I take no pleasure in making this motion," said Assemblyman Lynn Stewart, R-Henderson, who added it was for the good of the Legislature, "and I hope the good of Mr. Brooks."

The lone dissenting vote came from Assemblywoman Dina Neal, D-North Las Vegas, who favored suspension over expulsion.

Much of the evidence that committee members were privy to is confidential ? such as Brooks' medical records ? and will not be shared with all Assembly members or the public.

The secrecy presents an uncomfortable dilemma for some lawmakers as they are asked to judge the fitness of a colleague based largely on public reports and their own observations of and interactions with Brooks.

It weighed on some members of the committee before Tuesday night's meeting was closed.

Mark Ferrario, an independent counsel hired to investigate Brooks for the committee, presented the panel with two reports accompanied by roughly 900 pages of supporting documents.

Assembly Minority Leader Pat Hickey, R-Reno, and Assemblyman Wesley Duncan, R-Las Vegas, questioned why at least some of the investigative findings could not be released.

Hickey acknowledged medical privacy concerns but asked, "What is the rationale for the rest of the report that includes a lot of public documents and testimony of members that may be pertinent to our decision?"

But Ferrario said the information was so intertwined, it could not easily be split into what can or can't be made public.

He added that some of his information was only obtained under confidentiality agreements with state agencies or witnesses who were promised they would not be revealed.

"If you open the door, you open the door all the way," he said.

On Wednesday, Hickey, who voted to recommend Brooks' expulsion, said he hoped for more transparency so the public can weigh how the decision was made.

"I just think, after going through the process as a committee last night, I think that the public might better appreciate the diligence and the wrenching labor that it took to take a vote to decide to expel a person, knowing that history being behind you on this has never been done before," Hickey said.

"It's a very serious vote."

Horne on Wednesday downplayed whether keeping details of the report from all Assembly members would be a factor in the ultimate outcome. He compared it to the U.S. Congress, where members of the House and Senate intelligence committees are allowed to see top secret information, while other lawmakers are not.

"It's an enormous leap sometimes to ask your colleagues to trust you on that, but as I stated last night the members of the (select) committee were chosen for a reason, because of how their colleagues view them," Horne said.

Brooks, a 41-year-old father of four, was re-elected to a second term in November. But his public troubles began two months later, following his arrest Jan. 19 for allegedly voicing threats against Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, a fellow North Las Vegas Democrat. Police said Brooks had a gun and ammunition in his car, but no charges have been filed.

He was arrested again in February after police say he threw punches and grabbed for the gun of an officer who had responded to a domestic dispute at his estranged wife's house. He faces a court hearing in May on one felony and three lesser charges.

Brooks also was hospitalized for a psychiatric evaluation after police were called to a disturbance at this grandmother's home. He posed bare-chested for a newspaper photographer and was sworn in to the Legislature when it convened Feb. 4. He was banished from the building a week later as a possible security risk.

Brooks didn't attend Tuesday's hearing.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/historic-expulsion-vote-pending-nevada-assembly-191909257.html

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Simulations uncover obstacle to harnessing laser-driven fusion

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

A once-promising approach for using next-generation, ultra-intense lasers to help deliver commercially viable fusion energy has been brought into serious question by new experimental results and first-of-a-kind simulations of laser-plasma interaction.

Researchers at The Ohio State University are evaluating a two-stage process in which a pellet of fusion fuel is first crushed by lasers on all sides, shrinking the pellet to dozens of times its original size, followed by an ultra-intense burst of laser light to ignite a chain reaction. This two-stage approach is called Fast Ignition, and there are a few variants on the theme. In a recent paper, the Ohio State research group considered the long-discussed possibility of using a hollow cone to maintain a channel for the ultra-intense "ignitor pulse" to focus laser energy on the compressed pellet core. Drawing on both experimental results from studies at the Titan Laser at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, and massively-parallel computer simulations of the laser-target interaction performed at the Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) in Columbus, Ohio, the research team found compelling evidence that the cone-guided approach to Fast Ignition has a serious flaw.

"In the history of fusion research, two-steps-forward and one-step-back stories are a common theme," said Chris Orban, Ph.D., a researcher of the High Energy Density Physics research group at Ohio State and the lead theorist on the project. "But sometimes progress is about seeing what's not going to work, just as much as it is looking forward to the next big idea."

Since the ultra-intense pulse delivers energy to the fuel through relativistic electrons accelerated by the laser interaction, the Ohio State study focused on the coupling of the laser light to electrons and the propagation of those electrons through the cone target. Rather than investigating how the interaction would work on a high-demand, high-cost facility like the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which is also based at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and one of the largest scientific operations in the world, the researchers considered experiments just across from NIF at the Titan laser, which is much smaller and easily accessible.

Despite its size and despite having lower total energy, for a brief moment the Titan laser is many thousands of times more intense than NIF, which makes it a decent stand-in as a second-stage ignitor pulse. The OSU-led experimental team focused the Titan pulse on hollow cone targets attached at the tip to copper wires and observed the burst of X-ray photons coming from the copper as a measure of the laser energy to relativistic electron conversion efficiency.

The X-ray signal was much lower from the hollow cones with thicker cone walls. "This was strong evidence to the experimental team that the typical approach to cone-guided Fast Ignition wouldn't work, since thicker cones should be more realistic than thin cones," said Orban. "This is because electrons are free to move around in a dense plasma, much like they do in a normal metal, so the thicker cone target is like a thin cone embedded in a dense plasma."

These intuitions were tested in simulations performed at OSC. Whereas earlier efforts to simulate the laser-target interaction were forced to simplify or shrink the target size in order to make the calculations more feasible, Orban used the LSP code to perform the first-ever, full-scale 2D Particle-In-Cell simulations of the entire laser-target interaction using fully realistic laser fields.

These simulations also included a sophisticated model for the pre-heating of the target from stray laser light ahead of the ultra-intense pulse developed by collaborators at the Flash Center for Computational Science at the University of Chicago.

"We were delighted to help Chris use the FLASH code to provide realistic initial conditions for his Particle-In-Cell simulations," said Don Lamb, director of the Flash Center. "This is an outstanding example of how two groups can collaborate to achieve a scientific result that neither could have achieved alone."

To conduct the simulations, the Ohio State researchers accessed OSC's flagship Oakley Cluster supercomputer system. The HP-built system features 8,300+ Intel Xeon cores and 128 NVIDIA Tesla GPUs. Oakley can achieve 88 teraflops, tech-speak for performing 88 trillion calculations per second, or, with acceleration from the NVIDIA GPUs, a total peak performance of 154 teraflops.

"The simulations pointed to the electric fields building up on the edge of the cone as the key to everything," said Orban. "The thicker the cone is, the further away the cone edge is from the laser, and as a result fewer energetic electrons are deflected forward, which is the crucial issue in making cone-guided Fast Ignition a viable approach."

With both the experiment and the simulations telling the same story, the evidence is compelling that the cone-guided route to Fast Ignition is an unlikely one. While other studies have come to similar conclusions, the group was the first to identify the plasma surrounding the cone as a severe hindrance. Thankfully, there are still many other ideas for successfully igniting the fusion pellet with current or soon-to-be-constructed laser facilities. Any future efforts to spark fusion reactions with these lasers using a two-stage fast-ignition approach must be mindful to consider the neutralizing effect of the free electrons in the dense plasma.

"We could not have completed this project without the Oakley Cluster," Orban noted. "It was the perfect combination of speed and RAM and availability for us. And thanks to the profiling I was able to do, the compute time for our production runs went from two weeks in November 2011 to three or four days as of February 2012."

"Energy and the environment is one of the primary focus areas of the center, and this research fits perfectly into that domain," said Brian Guilfoos, the client and technology support manager for OSC. "Many of our systems were designed and software packages selected to best support the type of computing required by investigators working in fields related to our focus areas."

###

The paper describing the study, "Coupling of high-intensity laser light to fast electrons in cone-guided fast ignition," was recently published in Physical Review E, a journal of the American Physical Society.

Ohio Supercomputer Center: http://www.osc.edu

Thanks to Ohio Supercomputer Center for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127477/Simulations_uncover_obstacle_to_harnessing_laser_driven_fusion

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Tiny lookalike lemurs are actually two new species

Courtesy of Peter Kappeler

Caught on camera for the first time, this image shows the newly identified Marohita mouse lemur.

By Stephanie Pappas
LiveScience

Two new species of lemurs look so similar that it's impossible to tell them apart without sequencing their genes.

David Haring of the Duke University Lemur Center

The grey mouse lemur (Microcebus murinus).

The itsy-bitsy primates are both mouse lemurs, which are tiny, nocturnal lemurs that measure less than 11 inches (27 centimeters) from nose to tail. The newly discovered Madagascar natives have gray-brown coats and weigh only 2.5 to 3 ounces (65-85 grams).

Study researcher Rodin Rasoloarison of the University of Antananarivo in Madagascar first captured specimens of the two new species in 2003 and 2007. He weighed the animals, measured them and took small skin samples for later analysis.

It was an analysis of these skin samples that revealed the two nearly identical lemurs are actually two different species. Researchers named one the Anosy mouse lemur (Microcebus tanosi) and the other the Marohita mouse lemur (Microcebus marohita). The Marohita mouse lemur was named after the forest where it was found. According to the researchers, the Marohita lemur is losing that forest and is threatened by that habitat loss. [Image Gallery: Leaping Lemurs!]

In fact, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared the Marohita mouse lemur "endangered" before scientists had even finalized and formalized its name and description. It's a fate shared by many lemurs in Madacasgar, where slash-and-burn agriculture is taking a toll on the forests.

"This species is a prime example of the current state of many other lemur species," said study researcher Peter Kappeler of the German Primate Center in Goettingen. Lemurs are the most endangered mammals on the planet, with 91 percent of known species threatened by extinction.

Researchers want to preserve lemurs not only for their own sake, but for humans' sake as well. As a primate, the mouse lemur is more closely related to humans than rats or mice, which are commonly used in medical research. The grey mouse lemur?(Microcebus murinus) develops a neurological disease much like Alzheimer's, making it an important model for understanding the human brain.

"Before we can say whether a particular genetic variant in mouse lemurs is associated with Alzheimer's, we need to know whether that variant is specific to all mouse lemurs or just select species," said Anne Yoder, the director of the Duke University Lemur Center. "Every new mouse lemur species we sample in the wild will help researchers put the genetic diversity we see in grey mouse lemurs in a broader context."

The researchers reported their findings Tuesday in the International Journal of Primatology.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitter?and Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook?and Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2a030b4d/l/0Lscience0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C260C174727950Etiny0Elookalike0Elemurs0Eare0Eactually0Etwo0Enew0Especies0Dlite/story01.htm

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Bachmann?s presidential campaign probed

The new trailer for Brad Pitt's long-in-the-works zombie flick, World War Z,?features a lot of Brad Pitt?and his flowing mane?trying to figure out how to battle the swarms of nondescript zombies we've seen in earlier trailers. In this refreshed look (watch the full clip below), we see Pitt asking a lot of questions about how to target the creatures and how to get into Russia, while they do things like attack planes (in a scene that Entertainment Weekly?points out will?seem familiar if you've seen some of the newest?Iron Man?trailers). ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/report-ethics-panel-investigates-michelle-bachmann-presidential-campaign-175159553--election.html

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Peter Dinklage drops 'Game of Thrones' spoiler

By Drusilla Moorhouse, TODAY contributor

The third-season premiere of "Game of Thrones" is just five sleeps away, but Peter Dinklage, who plays Tyrion on HBO's epic fantasy series, dropped a major spoiler on "The Daily Show" Monday.

After Jon Stewart jokingly predicted, "not to give anything away, but your family does win and you become king," the Emmy winner teased: "We get a drive-through at Westeros!"

(Chick-fil-A or In-N-Out Burger? Guess we'll have to tune in to find out!)

Just like his sardonic character, Dinklage is a master of deadpan.

When his host asked where they filmed the visually stunning series, he quipped, "Jersey. Occasionally we'll go to a land called Connecticut."

Actually, he admitted most of his scenes take place in Northern Ireland, where, unlike America's obsessed fans -- about whom Dinklage coined the term "nerd glaze" -- the residents "don't care" about the film shoots.

To keep things legit, Dinklage cracked, "We are called to set by a raven. Ca-caw!"

How excited are you to see the return of Tyrion Lannister on Sunday night? Tell us on our Facebook page!

Related content:

More in The Clicker:

Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/26/17474945-peter-dinklage-drops-game-of-thrones-spoiler-on-the-daily-show?lite

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Google Analytics Now Makes It Easier To Track Inbound Links And Stats From Its Social Hub Partners

Google today announced that it has redesigned some of Google Analytics‘ social reports to make it easier for publishers to see when they get inbound links from other sites. The update also makes it easier to track how people are engaging with a publisher’s content through the new Data Hub Activity report. Google Analytics’ Social Data Hub gets this data from partner sites like Reddit, and Digg and through commenting systems like Disqus, Echo and Livefyre, as well as a number of other services. The standalone Data Hub Activity report provides publishers with a “timeline of the number of activities that have occurred in the Social Data Hub and the raw activities in a list below.” The data can also be filtered by specific networks. All of this Social Hub data was already available previously, but it was mostly buried deep inside Google Analytics’ social reports. Now that this data is more visible, integrating with the Analytics Social Data Hub will surely become more interesting for companies that operate social networks and platforms as more Analytics users will now be aware of it and ask for this kind of integration so they can track all of their social engagement data in one place. Stats about trackbacks, too, were already available in Google Analytics, but they are now available in a standalone report. Previously, however, it was hard to see how important a certain inbound link really was. The new report, Google says, now provides more context “for the significance of each of these trackbacks by displaying the number of visits that were driven by each endorsing URL during the reporting period.”

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/bxRocOvle8I/

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Three Fun and Simple Arts and Crafts Projects - Ledyard, CT Patch

?

Looking for some fun and easy arts and craft projects for the kids? Angela Antonelli of CreativeWorks for Children in Avon walks us through three simple craft ideas. Photos of the projects are posted above.

Pipe Cleaner Sculpture

Supplies: Styrofoam base, pipe cleaners, beads, buttons, feathers, etc.

Antonelli said that parents love this easy project for two reasons: it's glue free, and the kids can make as many changes to their sculptures as their little hearts desire!

"I hear back from parents that their kids are constantly changing and manipulating their projects," she said.

To build the sculpture, simply assemble the supplies, either from home or from the bargain bins at the craft stores, hand the kids a styrofoam block and let them "go to town," as Antonelli described it.

The materials are all either inserted into the block or threaded onto the pipe cleaners.

Colorful Tissue Paper Leaf

Supplies: Paper leaf, tissue paper, paint brush, water

This super easy craft is a fun project for kids as young as two years, Antonelli said.

To create the leaves, first either buy paper cut into a leaf shape or make your own. Just make sure that the paper is porous and without a finish.

Second, get the paint brush slightly wet and paint a layer of water on the leaf. Then tear up the tissue paper into little pieces and place them on the leaf.

"Mixing up the colors to create new ones is a neat lesson for the kids," Antonelli said.

Once the design is complete, paint the leaf with water one more time, and then put it in a safe place to dry. Antonelli said that most leaves will take about an hour to dry, depending on how "enthusiastic" the crafters were with the water.

Fairy Garden

Garden supplies: styrofoam base at least an inch and a half thick, potpourri, some fake (or real) leaves and flowers

Fairy supplies: pipe cleaners, fake flowers, embroidery floss, wooden bead with a hole in the middle, tacky glue

To create a magical fairy wonderland, Antonelli encourages families to look around the house for supplies. Packaging material can serve as a styrofoam base, and the materials from potpourri can be used to create the "forest."

Antonelli suggests using cinnamon sticks as the trunks of trees and little potpourri acorns or other fragments to populate the woodland ground.

While the cinnamon sticks, or sticks straight from nature, can be inserted into the styrofoam, kids should use the tacky glue (Antonelli recommends Aleene's) to attach the leaves, flowers, moss and other materials to the forest.

To create the fairies, cut two pieces of pipe cleaner, 3-4 inches long and another about 2 inches long.?

Fold over the longer piece and twist it in the middle. Separate the two lower pieces below the twist to create the legs. (See photo above).

Wrap the second, smaller pipe cleaner around the middle of the longer piece to make arms.

Thread the top of the pipe cleaner through the wooden bead. Antonelli said that the beads are available at craft stores, often with a face painted on them already. If not, kids can draw or paint a face on the bead beforehand.

Fold the tip of the pipe cleaner on the top of the bead, and glue it down. Wait for it to dry, then select some embroidery floss to glue onto the head for hair.

Separate the petals from a fake flower to create a skirt. Either thread the pipe cleaner legs through the hole at the center of the bloom, or glue the petals on.

Wings are created using individual petals or with other material like doilies or tissue paper.

For more information on CreativeWorks, which holds music classes, creative play and birthday parties, visit the business' website and Facebook page.?

And for more how-to tips, check out the craft directions page on the CreativeWorks site.

Source: http://ledyard.patch.com/articles/three-fun-and-simple-arts-and-crafts-projects-e2f189e9

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Fairgrounds receives attention from area health initiatives - WREX.com

A total body fitness work stretches goals to include home health care for underserved children in Rockford's Fairgrounds Housing Complex.

Rockford Health Council, along with the Underserved Pathways Program and the Winnebago County Health Department hosts ACE.

It's the Active Community Engagement program.? Studies show obesity and generally unhealthy behaviors throughout Rockford.? That study showed Fairgrounds held the greatest number of children and families in need of healthy lifestyles.

Source: http://www.wrex.com/story/21780959/2013/03/24/fairgrounds-receives-attention-from-area-health-initiatives

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George Kent - vinyl windows Mississauga contractors

If you're looking for the best roofing contractors Mississauga has to offer, and you want to ensure the best quality of investment is made, contact George Kent Improvements Ltd.

Lemoore, Canada (prHWY.com) March 24, 2013 - George Kent Home Improvements Ltd., is one of the only roofing contractors in Mississauga, Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area which hold GAF Master Elite certification, available only for 2% of Canadian home improvement companies. The best roofing contractors Mississauga can offer are not only roofers, but also very specialized in many other types of home improvement processes, and they're the only ones which offer lifetime warranty, as opposed to a maximum of 5 years warranty for roofs and windows for the competition. Roofs are however the most important part of the house when it comes to protection against the elements.
A good roof has to be strong and made of the most stable materials the market can sell. The roofs protect the people living inside the house from winds, rain, snow and offer protection in general from the other elements. They help keep the whole home clean, because no dust gets inside the house from powerful gushes of wind, and in the seasons, they really make sure that the people in the house can live in comfort. In the spring and autumn, they stop heavy rains, in the winter they stop snow and wind from affecting the people inside, and in the summer they keep the heat out. A good roof does that for a longer period, and a it is only as good as the materials, labor force and quality of the roofing company are. It must have leak barriers, deck protection and insulation to keep the cold outside and the heat inside in the winter, and viceversa in summer. To keep roofs safe for a longer period of time, the company also has to provide annual checkups. These help to see if there are any cracks and leaks in the roof the company built.
If the roof keeps the elements from affecting the people inside, the windows have to keep the elements out and the light coming inside the house. Glass is not as strong and resistant as the materials that roofs are made from, and building a window which helps the people inside feel safe and enjoy daylight is more than a challenge and should be handled only by professionals.
Of all the vinyl windows Mississauga companies, George Kent Home Improvements Ltd., ensures the same quality with windows as with other installations. The vinyl sidings in the windows help prevent moisture from getting inside the house, and by preventing that, they also prevent bacteria, mites and mold from forming in the window siding. The company, which is selected for the Consumers' Choice Award as the best Siding Toronto company, works in improvements from year 1949, and has made over 80 000 home improvements modifications. This makes them one of the only 2% of Canadian home improvements companies part of the GAF Masters Elite program, which ensures that their workforce is not only trained by the manufacturer but also has more than 10 years of work experience. Their installations come with an Energy Star certification, which means that your electricity and gas bills will be significantly lower in the summer and winter, and that's a sure way to increase your comfort.
To learn more about roofing and vinyl windows, click http://www.georgekent.ca/, or use the contacts below:

Contact name: Leslie A. Lopez
Exact address: 333 Half and Half Drive, Lemoore, CA 93245
Phone number: 559-924-8776
E-mail address: LeslieALopez@teleworm.us

###

Source: http://www.prhwy.com/news/129788-george-kent-vinyl-windows-mississauga-contractors.html

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NY Mayor Bloomberg predicts success for expanded gun checks (reuters)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/294263276?client_source=feed&format=rss

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Rihanna drops in on Chicago-area high school

BARRINGTON, Ill. (AP) ? Pop star Rihanna has dropped in on high school students in a northwestern Chicago suburb.

Barrington High School earned Friday's visit as a reward for winning the singer's "Shine Bright Like a Diamond" video contest.

The five-minute, student-produced video highlighted the school's volunteer and community service programs.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports (http://bit.ly/10wxpTC ) that the singer told students she admired their passion and volunteerism.

Rihanna showed up more than five hours late, but some in the crowd said she was worth the wait.

She also posed for photos before heading off to her Friday night concert at Chicago's United Center.

Barrington freshman Nisha Ali says "the fact that she came here and thanked us was a huge deal."

___

Information from: Chicago Sun-Times, http://www.suntimes.com/index

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rihanna-drops-chicago-area-high-school-135926740.html

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Putin foe Berezovsky dead in Britain, circumstances "unexplained"

By Guy Faulconbridge and Maria Golovnina

LONDON (Reuters) - Boris Berezovsky, the Russian oligarch who helped broker Vladimir Putin's rise to the Kremlin's top job only to become his sworn enemy, has been found dead at his home in Britain in unclear circumstances. He was 67.

Police in Britain, where the tycoon fled in 2000 after falling foul of the Kremlin under Putin, said on Saturday the death was unexplained and they had started an investigation.

Associates said the man who personified the ruthless world of post-Soviet politics may have committed suicide or suffered a heart attack following the stress of losing a $6 billion (3.9 billion pounds) court case to Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich.

He was found at his house in Ascot, a commuter town 25 miles (40 km) west of London, by one of his bodyguards, possibly in his Russian sauna.

"I can confirm he died in his home. I've known him for a long, long time, we have spent a lot of time together," Andrei Sidelnikov, a Russian dissident living in London who was a friend of Berezovsky's, told Reuters.

"I am shocked. It is the end of an epoch."

A fast-talking former mathematician who scaled the heights of the ruthless world of post-Soviet business and politics, Berezovsky clashed with Putin soon after his election in 2000 and fled for Britain where he became his most vociferous enemy.

From his base in London, Berezovsky vowed to overthrow Putin whom he cast as a corrupt 'bandit' surrounded by venal ex-KGB spies. Once a supporter, he accused Putin of rolling back the freedoms won after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

Berezovsky's court included some of Putin's most wanted enemies, including a former Chechen rebel, and the former billionaire funded opposition leaders and former spies such as Alexander Litvinenko, who was murdered in London in 2006.

Putin fumed at any mention of Berezovsky and his asylum in Britain strained ties between London and Moscow, which cast Berezovsky as a criminal who should stand trial for massive fraud and tax evasion.

"UNRELIABLE WITNESS"

Once cast as the 'godfather of the Kremlin' by foes and admirers alike, Berezovsky was humiliated in 2012 when he lost a legal battle with former partner Abramovich, over shares in Russia's fourth biggest oil company.

The judge, Elizabeth Gloster, said Berezovsky was an "unimpressive and inherently unreliable witness" who would say "almost anything to support his case".

Some associates said that Berezovsky, once one of Russia's richest billionaires, had grappled with the financial impact of losing the case, which lawyers at the time said could open him up to claims for costs of considerably more than $100 million.

Clearly shaken by the verdict in August, Berezovsky said it appeared to have been written by Putin himself but in the months following he kept a low profile and was rarely seen in public.

Berezovsky had sought as much as $6 billion from Abramovich whom he accused of using the threat of Kremlin retribution to intimidate him into selling out of Russia's fourth biggest oil company at a knockdown price. He also accused Abramovich of selling his shares in RUSAL, the world's top aluminium producer, without his permission.

The judge dismissed all of Berezovsky's claims.

In an effort to recoup some of the losses incurred during case, Berezovsky is said to have auctioned off an Andy Warhol portrait of Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin to raise cash.

He agreed to pay one of Britain's biggest-ever divorce settlements to his former wife Galina in 2011. Local media said the settlement was believed to be more than $100 million.

"My sources say it was heart failure," said Alexei Venediktov, editor of Russia's Ekho Moskvy radio. "After his recent loss in court against Roman Abramovich he was in deep depression, he was being treated, he was treated in Israel."

"I think it was probably his health, including depression, and his age. Boris Abramovich never took it easy - he was a fighter, he led an active lifestyle, and unfortunately he has left life in this way."

Known for his love of cognac, beautiful women and for his ability to talk well into the night, Berezovsky lived the adrenaline-fuelled life of Russia's A-team of oligarchs.

Whatever the circumstances of his final hours, his death marks the end of an era for many Russians for whom Berezovsky epitomised the oligarch of the 1990s: brash, arrogant and dangerous alpha males who made their own rules.

UNLIKELY OLIGARCH

As a mathematician working in an obscure section of the Academy of Sciences, Berezovsky was an unlikely oligarch.

But the collapse of the Soviet Union helped propel him from academia to the pinnacle of one of the most ruthless, corrupt and violent business environments on earth - post Soviet Russia.

As the Soviet empire crumbled and gang wars erupted in Moscow, Berezovsky forged a profitable relationship with AvtoVAZ, Russia's biggest carmaker and producer of the Lada.

With the rouble worth nothing, cars were a tradeable asset, though to protect his fortune, Berezovsky forged ties with the Chechen gangs - some of the most feared in Russia.

The graveyards of Russia attest to the short lifespans of many businessmen in the 1990s and Berezovsky came close: in 1993 he faced a gun battle in central Moscow and a year later the Mercedes he was in was blown up, decapitating his driver.

But with nerves of iron and flush with cash, Berezovsky went for gold: he paid for the publication of President Boris Yeltsin's memoirs, securing him the goodwill of Russia's leader.

His political clout gave him access to Aeroflot, once the Soviet flag carrier, and then to oil.

After meeting on a Caribbean yacht trip organised by fellow tycoon Pyotr Aven, Berezovsky and Abramovich, then a 28-year-old oil trader, came up with a simple idea: merge Russia's best refinery with some of the top oil and gas fields of Siberia.

The result was Sibneft over which they would clash years later in a London courtroom.

"Everything can be bought and everything on earth has a price," he once said. "Politicians are the hired help of entrepreneurs."

But if Kremlin politics under Yeltsin had helped Berezovsky to the top, Kremlin politics under Putin proved his downfall.

'GODFATHER OF THE KREMLIN'

Facing the prospect of a Communist victory in 1996, Berezovsky helped rally the billionaire barons of Siberia to Yeltsin's side. He won. And the oligarchs carved up more of Russia's vast oil and metals sector.

But as Yeltsin's health deteriorated in 1999 and his popularity plummeted, Berezovsky and others began to look for a prot?g? who could rule Russia for its second post-Soviet decade.

The obscure and quiet former KGB spy they found was Putin and Berezovsky helped pitch him when the powerbrokers of Russia met at their country houses, known as dachas, outside Moscow.

"Boris Berezovsky was certainly the political father of Vladimir Putin. He was the person who found Putin," commentator Sergei Parkhomenko said on Ekho Moskvy radio.

While Putin was happy to receive support, he resented the meddling that Berezovsky and oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky felt was their right. Berezovsky could not win. His only option was to flee.

According to Russian journalist Ilya Zhegulev, who spoke to him on Friday, Berezovsky was pining for Russia.

"I should not have left Russia," she quoted him as saying. "He said: I don't know what to do. I am 67 and I don't know."

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told state-run Rossya-24 television that Berezovsky had written to Putin and asked for help in returning to Russia.

Berezovsky did not return.

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths in London and Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kremlin-foe-boris-berezovsky-died-britain-reports-172616352.html

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Holy Spirit, Batman! Superhero Story on Vatican Website Not a Hack

No, this isn't the Catholic Church's way of appealing to comic book fans. On Thursday, the website of the Vatican communications office and Vatican Twitter account ran stories on Batman. While some initially suspected hacking, Vatican officials are instead saying that there was an "internal system failure" caused by a non-native English speaker -- and apparent Batman enthusiast -- who posted the story.

Source: http://ectnews.com.feedsportal.com/c/34520/f/632000/s/29e0858f/l/0L0Stechnewsworld0N0Crsstory0C7760A50Bhtml/story01.htm

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After violence, Egypt groups blame each other

CAIRO (AP) ? Egypt's powerful Muslim Brotherhood says it holds the opposition and "thugs" responsible for the most violent clashes yet outside the Islamist group's headquarters in Cairo.

Meanwhile liberal opposition groups say the president, who hails from the Islamist group, is responsible because his government has failed to stabilize Egypt.

Fighting between opponents and supporters of the Brotherhood on Friday wounded around 175 people. The Brotherhood says six of its offices across the country were also attacked.

Muslim Brotherhood secretary-general Mahmoud Hussein told journalists Saturday that some media are falsely portraying what took place as a fight. He says what happened near the group's headquarters was an attack on Brotherhood members by "thugs."

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei says the violence is due to the regime's failure to address root causes of anger.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/violence-egypt-groups-blame-other-190700133.html

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The Best Way To Store Your Stuff in the Cloud

When it comes to cloud storage, there are a whole bunch of fluffy options up there in the proverbial sky. Maybe you need unlimited storage, or maybe you need it for free. Here's a list of the ones that are the best at what they do. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/hoeYgtrZXMk/the-best-way-to-store-your-stuff-in-the-cloud

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