sarah shahi george clooney rutgers dharun ravi george clooney arrested ravi leigh
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
New Flashback Trojan Variant Doesn't Need A Password to Infect Your Mac [Trojans]
Monday, April 2, 2012
Dance Review: Kabuki With Bando Kotoji at Japan Society
[unable to retrieve full-text content]
Source: www.nytimes.com --- Sunday, April 01, 2012
A Kabuki performance with dance and music, featuring Bando Kotoji, was staged at Japan Society. ...
school closings top chef texas rail gun harrisburg great pacific garbage patch ben affleck and jennifer garner google privacy changes
?Published? Tumblr Posts Can Now Be Auto-Featured On Facebook Timeline, But ?Read? Stays Private
When you publish on Tumblr, you can now auto-share your post to the Facebook News Feed and feature it prominently on your Timeline. More Facebook referral traffic will be the result of these improvements as well as Ticker and Timeline sharing of your Likes and replies that were announced today. Importantly, though, the posts you read won't be auto-shared. By giving Tumblr posts their own structured, Open Graph data type rather than classifying them as standard links, your Tumbl'd cat memes, hipster photos, and random thoughts will stay visible even after you post Facebook status updates and other content.christopher plummer viola davis school shooting in ohio shooting at chardon high school sasha baron cohen ryan seacrest stacy keibler
Wealth-building Secrets As Practiced By The World's Richest People ...
Your Dept Can Make You Rich - True?
Wealth-building Secrets As Practiced By The World's Richest People: What The Kuwaitis Can Teach You About Getting Rich -- And Staying Rich
Do the Kuwaitis have a magic formula for getting rich - besides striking oil? No, but they do have four easy-to-follow secrets that have helped them amass fortunes for centuries - long before oil was discovered. And their secrets will work for you. Guaranteed. List Price: $ 18.00 Price: $ 34.72 Lower Your Taxes-Big Time!: Wealth-Building, Tax Reduction Secrets from an...
Lower Your Taxes - Big Time! 2011-2012: Wealth-building, Tax Reduction Secret...hgtv dream home patriots vs broncos contraband denver vs new england denver broncos vs new england patriots cruise ship sinking vernon davis
Human sacrifices suspected along Mexico border
NACOZARI, Mexico?? It was a family people took pity on, one the government and church helped with free food, used clothes, and farm animals. The men were known as trash pickers. Some of the women were suspected of prostitution.
Mexican prosecutors are investigating the poor family living in shacks outside a small town near the U.S. border as alleged members of a cult that sacrificed two 10-year-old boys and a 55-year-old woman to Santa Muerte, or Saint Death, a figure adored mostly by outlaws but whose popularity is growing across Mexico and among Hispanics in the United States.
The killings have shocked the copper mining village of Nacozari, on the edge of the Sierra Madre, and may be the first ritual sacrifices linked to the popular saint condemned by the Roman Catholic Church.
Authorities say the throats and the wrists of the victims were cut with knives and axes, and their blood was spread on a Santa Muerte altar. Their bodies were then buried near the shacks where the alleged cult members lived.
"We never knew they were part of a Santa Muerte cult," said Jorge Sanchez Castillo, a 54-year-old hotel owner who has a corn field next to the house of the woman believed to lead the group. "This has been tragic for all of us."
Nacozari has been spared the grisly violence of drug cartels fighting for lucrative corridors along the U.S.-Mexico border, said police chief Jose Miguel Espinoza.
"It was a peaceful town. We'd never seen such violence," he said.
When a 10-year-old boy went missing in July 2010, his mother and her boyfriend told police that acquaintances had seen him begging in the streets of nearby Agua Prieta across the border from Douglas, Arizona, and that they would go find him, said Espinoza.
"We had no reason to suspect it was a homicide," he said.
A second 10-year-old boy went missing in early March, prompting Sonora state's missing persons unit to send agents to Nacozari, said the police chief. That boy's mother and her boyfriend reported it to state authorities, who discovered weeks later that the two boys knew people in common.
The missing boy Martin Rios was the son of the ex-girlfriend of a man named Eduardo Sanchez. The second boy, Jesus Martinez, was the step-grandson of Eduardo Sanchez's new girlfriend Silvia Meraz.
-
Only on msnbc.com
- Audio experts: Screams were not Zimmerman's
- Santorum slams Romney, Romney raps Obama
- Forget the house, buy the entire town
- Was 15-year-old's death a result of bullying?
- About-face for Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt election
- Egypt: Inside the pharaoh's secret tunnels
- New twists emerge in Powell case
The police chief said both boys would often visit Meraz's home in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of the town of 11,500.
Espinoza said his officers suspected the house was being used for prostitution after seeing different men from out of town visiting, but never gathered enough evidence to arrest anyone.
Agents on Wednesday unearthed the body of the boy Jesus Martinez buried in the dirt floor in the bedroom of one of the Meraz daughters. They then began arresting family members, who led them to what agents believe are the remains of the other boy, as well as the grave of 55-year-old Cleotilde Romero, a close friend of Meraz who disappeared in 2009.
Jose Larrinaga, spokesman for the Sonora Attorney General's Office, said the 44-year-old Meraz, who police suspect was the cult leader, and seven people related to her, were detained pending further investigation: her boyfriend Eduardo Sanchez, father, son, three daughters and a daughter-in-law. No formal charges have been filed pending further investigation.
"They thought that by offering the blood, they would be protected for some time," Larrinaga said. "According to them, Santa Muerte was going to tell them where the money was. They all identify themselves as fanatic followers of Santa Muerte."
R. Andrew Chesnut, chairman of Catholic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University and author of the book "Devoted to Death: Santa Muerte, the Skeleton Saint," said there have only been unconfirmed reports of human sacrifices related to the figure in Mexico in recent years.
Chesnut said the 2007 shooting deaths of three men appeared to be related to Santa Muerte because the bodies were abandoned at a shrine to the figure outside the border city of Nuevo Laredo. But they showed no signs of being sacrificial killings.
He said that although most Santa Muerte devotees consider killing a "Satanic aberration of devotion," and that books about the Santa Muerte don't mention human sacrifice, some followers are extreme.
"With no clerical authority to stop them, some practitioners engage in aberrant and even abhorrent rituals," Chesnut said.
Police paraded the eight people arrested in the case of the cult killings into the prosecutor's offices in the state capital of Hermosillo on Friday to allow journalists to view and question them, a typical practice in Mexico.
Meraz told reporters she has believed in Santa Muerte for more than two years.
"Santa Muerte was going to offer us money," Meraz said.
Asked if she thought she had received anything, she answered with a profanity, her voice breaking: "What can she give you? Nothing."
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
school closings top chef texas rail gun harrisburg great pacific garbage patch ben affleck and jennifer garner google privacy changes
Sunday, April 1, 2012
FDA decides not to ban BPA in food packaging
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it would not ban the use of bisphenol A, also known as BPA, in food packaging but said it would continue research on the health effects of the widely used chemical.
Although it rejected a petition by an environmental group to outlaw the compound in food and beverage containers, the agency did not close the door on future regulation. "This is not a final safety determination on BPA," FDA spokesman Douglas Karas said. "There is a commitment to doing a thorough evaluation of the risk of BPA."
Scientists are still working to determine what effects BPA, which mimics estrogen in the body, has on human health once ingested.
They know that it is metabolized quickly and that it has been shown to have negative effects in mice, including developmental and reproductive abnormalities, precancerous changes in the prostate and breasts, and other health problems. In epidemiological studies, researchers have reported correlations between BPA levels in people and higher risk of ailments including cardiovascular disease, diabetes and liver problems.
The FDA said the scientific evidence presented in the Natural Resources Defense Council's 2008 petition "was not sufficient to persuade" the agency to prohibit BPA in food packaging. Dosing methods in some research studies, for example, did not reflect how a person would ingest the chemical, the agency said. It also took issue with sample sizes, which it said were not large enough to provide confidence in results.
"FDA is performing, monitoring and reviewing new studies and data as they become available, and depending on the results, any of these studies or data could influence FDA's assessment and future regulatory decisions about BPA," wrote David Dorsey, the agency's acting associate commissioner for policy and planning.
Dr. Sarah Janssen, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said, "We always support more research but we also wonder, when is enough enough?.... What the FDA is saying is: We're going to keep studying it and in the meantime you're going to still eat it and then maybe later we'll tell you it's not safe."
Steven Hentges of the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents manufacturers, said in a statement that the FDA decision "again confirms that BPA is safe for use in food-contact materials, as it has been approved and used safely for four decades."
First made more than a century ago, BPA is used to manufacture polycarbonate plastic for shatter-resistant food containers, sports safety equipment, eyewear and other products. It is used in epoxy resin as a protective coating for food and beverage packaging to prevent it from reacting with the contents. And it is present on many types of sales receipts, from which it rubs onto people's hands.
Residual BPA can migrate from containers into food, and the FDA agreed with the defense council "that most infants, children and adults are exposed to low levels of BPA through the diet."
Manufacturers have stopped using BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups sold in the U.S. because of customer concerns and bans in some states. The chemistry council has petitioned the FDA to prohibit use of the chemical in those products to create a national standard, Hentges said.
Linda S. Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, said that the agency was funding experiments to address lingering doubts about BPA.
"Our grantees have published nearly 100 papers since January 2010. Nothing has been published that says there isn't any problem here," she said. "On the other hand, there are still a lot of outstanding questions."
For instance, she said, "We want to have some surety that if BPA is removed from products, that what is put in its place is not a problem as well."
bettina.boxall@latimes.com
eryn.brown@latimes.com
dallas clark litter marinol flight attendant robert griffin iii pau gasol trade michael madsen
Syria conference: Gulf countries to fund rebels
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, second right, meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, fourth from front on left side, during a bilateral meeting at a hotel Saturday, March 31, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. Clinton is in Turkey to attend the second meeting of the "Friends of the Syrian People." (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, second right, meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, fourth from front on left side, during a bilateral meeting at a hotel Saturday, March 31, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. Clinton is in Turkey to attend the second meeting of the "Friends of the Syrian People." (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, meets with members of opposition Syrian National Council, SNC, in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 31, 2012. Foreign ministers from about 60 countries, including U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are expected to gather for the "Friends of the Syrian People" meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, April 1, 2012.(AP Photo/Murad Sezer, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, second left, and Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu shake hands before a bilateral meeting at a hotel Saturday, March 31, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. Clinton is in Turkey to attend the second meeting of the "Friends of the Syrian People." (AP Photo/Brendan Smialowski, Pool)
Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, meets with members of opposition Syrian National Council, SNC, in Istanbul, Turkey, Saturday, March 31, 2012. Foreign ministers from about 60 countries, including U. S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, are expected to gather for the "Friends of the Syrian People" meeting in Istanbul on Sunday, April 1, 2012.(AP Photo/Murad Sezer, Pool)
People listen while Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Prime Minister of Turkey, speaks during a meeting of the "Group of Friends of the Syrian People" at the Istanbul Congress Center Sunday April 1, 2012 in Istanbul, Turkey. US Secretary Clinton is in Turkey to attend the second meeting of the "Group of Friends of the Syrian People" a collection of 60 nations attempting to end the violence by the Assad regime towards its citizens in Syria. (AP Photo/ Brendan Smialowski, pool)
ISTANBUL (AP) ? An international coalition said Sunday that it will provide funding and communications equipment to Syrian rebels and opposition activists, reflecting a shift toward military options that might oust Syrian President Bashar Assad after a year of failed diplomacy aimed at stopping his crackdown on dissent.
Participants at a meeting on Syria, held in Istanbul, said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a multimillion-dollar fund to pay members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime and join opposition ranks. One delegate described the fund as a "pot of gold" to undermine Assad's army.
In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States is providing communications equipment to help opposition members in Syria organize, remain in contact with the outside world and evade regime attacks.
"We are discussing with our international partners how best to expand this support," Clinton said.
The large-scale plan by Gulf countries to help Syria's badly overmatched rebels offers a solution to the international divide over whether to arm the rebels or support them through only non-lethal or humanitarian means. It also reflects frustration with appeals to Assad to stop his crackdown on dissent, as well as hopes of forcing his ouster by shifting the military balance on the ground.
Conference participants confirmed the Gulf plan on condition of anonymity because details were still being worked out. It was unclear how the fund would be set up and monitored, or how the money, allegedly earmarked for salaries, would be guaranteed. A participant said the fund would involve millions of dollars every month.
The Saudis and other Arab Gulf states have proposed giving weapons to the rebels, while the U.S. and other allies, including Turkey, have balked out of fear of fueling an all-out civil war. Washington hasn't taken any public position on the fund, but it appears that it has given tacit support to its Arab allies.
The salaries would aim to entice reluctant servicemen in Assad's military to break ranks and join the insurgency. With Syria's economy in a spiral, the Syrian opposition and U.S. and Arab officials hope soldiers will desert in large numbers and accelerate the downfall of the Assad regime.
At the meeting in Istanbul, delegates from dozens of countries also sought to increase pressure on Assad by pushing for tighter sanctions and increased diplomatic pressure, while urging the opposition to offer a democratic alternative to his regime.
Yet the show of solidarity at the "Friends of the Syrian People" conference was marred by the absence of China, Russia and Iran ? key supporters of Assad who disagree with Western and Arab allies over how to stop the bloodshed. A peace plan by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has so far failed to take hold amid fresh reports of deadly violence.
"The Syrian regime should not be allowed at any cost to manipulate this plan to gain time," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an opening address.
Erdogan also indicated military options might have to be considered, if Syria does not cooperate with Annan's plan and the U.N. Security Council fails to unite in opposition to Assad. He referred to the vetoes of U.N. censure of Assad by Russia and China, which fear the measures could lead to foreign military intervention.
"If the U.N. Security Council fails once again to bring about its historic responsibility, there will be no other choice than to support the Syrian people's right to self-defense," Erdogan said.
Clinton also expressed skepticism that the Syrian government would observe Annan's plans, which call for an immediate cease-fire and a Syrian-led negotiation process.
"Nearly a week has gone by, and we have to conclude that the regime is adding to its long list of broken promises," Clinton said. "The world must judge Assad by what he does, not by what he says. And we cannot sit back and wait any longer."
Clinton urged unity behind a plan that includes more sanctions, humanitarian aid, support for the opposition and the promise of justice one day for regime figures involved in atrocities.
Burhan Ghalioun, leader of the opposition Syrian National Council, called for the strengthening of Syrian rebel forces as well as "security corridors" inside Syria, a reference to internationally protected zones on Syrian territory that would allow the delivery of aid to civilians. However, the nations meeting in Istanbul have so far failed to agree on such an intervention, which could involve the risky deployment of foreign security forces.
"No one should allow this regime to feel at ease or to feel stronger by giving them a longer maneuvering area," he said, reflecting fears that Assad would try to use the Annan plan to prolong his tenure. "It's enough that the international community has flirted with the regime in Syria. Something has to change."
In a statement, the Syrian National Council said weapons supplies to the opposition were not "our preferred option" because of the risk they could escalate the killing of civilians, but it appealed for technical equipment to help rebels coordinate.
"For these supplies to be sent, neighboring countries need to allow for the transfer via their sea ports and across borders," the council said.
The one-day meeting followed an inaugural forum in Tunisia in February. Since then, Syrian opposition figures have tried to convince international sponsors that they can overcome their differences and shape the future of a country whose autocratic regime has long denied the free exchange of ideas.
Syria blasted the conference, calling it part of an international conspiracy to kill Syrians and weaken the country.
A front-page editorial in the official Al-Baath newspaper called it a "regional and international scramble to search for ways to kill more Syrians, sabotage their society and state, and move toward the broad objective of weakening Syria."
In Istanbul, police used tear gas and batons to disperse a group of about 40 Assad supporters who tried to approach the conference building. Many held portraits of the Syrian leader. One man waved Chinese and Russian flags.
The delivery of humanitarian aid to Syria's beleaguered civilians is a key provision of Annan's plan. Clinton announced $12 million in additional aid for Syria's people ? doubling the total American assistance so far. Germany, whose foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, attended the Istanbul meeting, said it was nearly doubling its humanitarian contributions to ?5.7 million ($7.6 million).
But a comprehensive solution did not appear imminent without the cooperation of the Syrian government, whose military assaults on towns and cities have forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. Syrian rebels, including army defectors, are fighting regime forces, but have been unable to consolidate their hold on territory because they are heavily outgunned.
Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees have fled to neighboring Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan, and Turkey has floated the idea of establishing a buffer zone inside Syria, if the flow of displaced people onto its territory becomes overwhelming. There are concerns that foreign intervention, even if it has a humanitarian goal, could widen the conflict by dragging in other countries and triggering a surge in sectarian tensions.
The United Nations estimates more than 9,000 people have been killed since the uprising to oust Assad began a year ago.
Associated Presssmokin joe conrad murray verdict tappan zee bridge jessica chastain jessica chastain nook tablet eagles
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)