Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/315331185?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
Dog buries puppy in Iraq: Why is this video so popular?
Dog buries puppy: A video of a dog compassionately burying a puppy in Iraq has gone viral. Why?
A video of a dog compassionately burying a dead puppy has gone viral. That the video garners such attention among humans is perhaps a reflection on how we see the world ? as much as the how a canine in mourning behaves.
Skip to next paragraph Elizabeth BarberIntern
Elizabeth Barber is an intern on The Christian Science Monitor?s Web desk. She holds a master?s degree from Columbia Journalism School and a bachelor?s degree in International Relations and English from SUNY Geneseo. Before coming to the Monitor, she was a freelance reporter at DNAinfo, a New York City breaking news site. She has also been an intern at The Cambodia Daily, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, and at Washington D.C.?s The Middle East Journal.
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In the video, whose title translates from Arabic to ?dog buries his son in Iraq,? a dog gently sniffs the puppy ? found in a ditch with empty water bottles ? then proceeds to tenderly bury it, nudging with his nose the sand and dirt over the little body. In the background, three men talk inaudibly in Arabic while the dog works and then call out, in English, ?thank you very much? as the dog finishes and leaves.?
The video does not give any other information about the scene, such as where exactly it was shot, who took the video, the relationship between the two dogs, or how the puppy died.
The video, posted last week to YouTube, has since gone viral. There?s nothing that web audiences like more than animals behaving like people, especially when that animal is replicating our kindest, most selfless practices. Last month, an Oklahoma zoo captured a lion and a puppy "kissing."? Last year, a video of a dog assuming maternal duties for an abandoned kitten also went viral, as did another video of a dog trying to push a dog that a car had just hit and killed out of a road. Other videos of dogs standing sentry at the graves of their owners or crying for deceased animal friends have also made the Internet rounds.
Humans have a tendency to anthropomorphize the animal kingdom. But these videos arguably offer a portrait of a moral animal who embodies the best in human behavior.
"Grief is one of the basic emotions dogs experience, just like people, Dr. Sophia Yin, a San Francisco-based veterinarian and applied animal behaviorist, told HealthDay.com. Dogs also feel fear, happiness, sadness, anger, as well as possessiveness.
While dogs do experience emotion, the recognizable behavior through which dogs express that emotion is probably learned from humans, say some scientists. Studies have found that dogs have an extraordinary capacity to learn and mimic human behavior.?Two years ago,?researchers found?that dogs learn from their owner?s facial cues to perform good behavior when their owner is watching and to save the misbehavior until their owner?s back is turned, like a wised-up child pilfering from the cookie jar.
Does that mean this dog in Iraq learned from its owners how to mourn the loss of a child? We don't know. Certainly, Iraq has been a venue for some of the worst in human behavior in recent years. But the fact that "even dogs" can express compassion is perhaps why we respond so well to such videos: They are encouraging, hopeful reminders that such actions are natural to all beings, including humans.
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Found! 3 Super-Earth Planets That Could Support Alien Life
The habitable zone of a nearby star is filled to the brim with planets that could support alien life, scientists announced today (June 25).
An international team of scientists found three potentially habitable planets around the star Gliese 667C, a star 22 light-years from Earth that is orbited by at least six planets, and possibly as many as seven, researchers said. The three planet contenders for alien life are in the star's "habitable zone" ? the temperature region around the star where liquid water could exist. Gliese 667C is part of a three-star system, so the planets could see three suns in their daytime skies.
The three potentially rocky planets in Gliese 667C's habitable zone are known as super-Earths ? exoplanets that are?less massive than Neptune but more massive than Earth. Their orbits make them possible candidates for hosting life, officials from the?European Southern Observatory?said in a statement. [9 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]
"We knew that the star had three planets from previous studies, so we wanted to see whether there were any more," co-leader of the study Mikko Tuomi of the University of Hertfordshire, U.K. said in a statement. "By adding some new observations and revisiting existing data we were able to confirm these three and confidently reveal several more. Finding three low-mass planets in the star's habitable zone is very exciting!"
This is the first time three low-mass planets have been spotted in the habitable zone of the same star system, and it's unlikely that astronomers will find any more around Gliese 667C. The star's habitable zone is packed full, making it impossible for another planet to orbit stably within the zone, the researchers said.
"The number of potentially habitable planets in our galaxy is much greater if we can expect to find several of them around each low-mass star ? instead of looking at 10 stars to look for a single potentially habitable planet, we now know we can look at just one star and find several of them," team member Rory Barnes of the University of Washington said in a statement.
Gliese 667C is the faintest star in the three-star system. From the surface of the planets in orbit around Gliese 667C, the two brighter stars would be as bright as the full moon by night and shine visibly during the day, ESO scientists said. ?
Gliese 667C is?cooler and dimmer than the sun, making it possible for planets that have very close-in orbits to remain habitable. This star's habitable zone lies within an orbit the size of Mercury's around the sun, ESO officials said.
Follow Miriam Kramer on?Twitter?and?Google+. Follow us on?Twitter,?Facebook?and?Google+. Original article on?SPACE.com.
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/found-3-super-earth-planets-could-support-alien-144926352.html
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Chinese astronauts land safely after "perfect" space mission
BEIJING (Reuters) - Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday, touching down in north China's Inner Mongolia after a successful 15-day mission in which they docked with an experimental manned space laboratory.
The Shenzhou 10 spacecraft, China's fifth manned space mission since 2003, completed the final trial docking with the Tiangong (Heavenly Palace) 1, critical in Beijing's quest to build a working space station by 2020.
China Central Television showed the re-entry of the capsule, dangling from an orange parachute, and its landing on flat grasslands shortly after 8 a.m. China time.
China successfully carried out its first manned docking exercise with Tiangong 1 last June, a milestone in an effort to acquire the technological and logistical skills to run a full space station that can house people for long periods.
The Shenzhou 10 was commanded by Nie Haisheng, with Zhang Xiaoguang and female astronaut Wang Yaping also on board.
The astronauts began emerging about 90 minutes after landing, helped out of the nose of the capsule by workers in white jumpsuits and into waiting chairs, smiling and waving to the TV camera.
"It's good to be home," Nie told CCTV. "Space is our dream. The motherland is always our home."
Wang gave a 50-minute televised physics lecture last week on the effects of weightlessness, widely viewed by middle school students around the country.
"This mission made me realize two dreams: my dream of flying to outer space, and my dream of being a teacher," she told CCTV. "If you have a dream, you can succeed."
The Global Times, a tabloid published by the same company that puts out the official Communist Party newspaper the People's Daily, echoed some criticism among the public about the expense of China's space programme.
"Currently, China's passion to develop space technology mainly lingers at the government level. Some even blame the government for political vanity and question whether the money couldn't be spent improving people's livelihoods," the paper said in an editorial, published before the landing.
The mission went "perfectly", Wang Zhaoyao, director of China's manned space programme, said at a news conference in Beijing.
China is still far from catching up with the established space superpowers, the United States and Russia, which decades ago learned the docking techniques carried out by the Shenzhou 10.
China must still master launching cargo and fuel via space freighters and recycling air and water for extended manned missions, state media have said. Plans call for a working space lab, the Tiangong 2, to be put into orbit in two years.
Beijing insists its space programme is for peaceful purposes, but the U.S. Defense Department has highlighted China's increasing space capabilities and said Beijing is pursuing a variety of activities aimed at preventing its adversaries from using space-based assets during a crisis.
(Reporting and writing by Terril Yue Jones and Michael Martina.; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinas-latest-manned-spacecraft-lands-safely-mission-xinhua-002211086.html
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Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Excited, but cold: Scientists unveil the secret of a reaction for prebiotic synthesis of organic matter
June 24, 2013 ? How is it that a complex organism evolves from a pile of dead matter? How can lifeless materials become organic molecules that are the bricks of animals and plants? Scientists have been trying to answer these questions for ages. Researchers at the Max Planck Institut f?r Kohlenforschung have now disclosed the secret of a reaction that has to do with the synthesis of complex organic matter before the origin of life.
Since the 1960's it has been well known that when concentrated hydrogen cyanide (HCN) is irradiated by UV light, it forms an imidazole intermediate that is a key substance for synthesis of nucleobases and nucleotides in abiotic environment. The way how UV radiation acts in this reaction to produce complex organic matter was, however, never clarified. Dr. Mario Barbatti and his colleagues in Germany, India and Czech Republic have now shown how this process occurs via computer simulations.
Using diverse computational-chemistry methods, the team has arrived at astonishing conclusions: For example that the reaction does not take place in the hot spot created by the solar radiation. "This has nothing to do with heat, but with electrons," says Mario Barbatti.
The reaction proceeds through a series of electronically excited intermediates. The molecules get into the "electronic excited state" because of the UV radiation, which means that their electrons are distributed in a much different way than the usual. That changes the molecule's attitudes. "But this takes some time," says Mario Barbatti. They showed that the radiation energy is dissipated too fast, and because of that each reactant molecule absorbs hundreds of UV photons before it finally gets converted into the imidazole intermediate.
"This is very inefficient -- and quite extraordinary," says Mario Barbatti. That is why it was quite challenging to comprehend the reaction, explains the physicist from Brazil. He and his colleagues have calculated a lot of possible intermediates, tried -- and discarded most of them. Finally they found out that there is only one single pathway that is consistent with the fast energy dissipation and previous experimental observations.
But why did they work on the computer? Isn't it the case that chemical reactions are worked on in laboratories? "Some intermediates are too elusive to analyze them in the laboratory -- they disappear before we may see them," Barbatti explains. Computational Chemistry allows the scientists to comprehend the reactions in a theoretical way.
"As I said before, this reaction has nothing to do with heat," says Barbatti. The transformation works in a cold environment, as in comets and in terrestrial ices, where spontaneous HCN polymerization is most expected to occur.
The team has published their results, which help to understand the role of solar radiation on the origin of life, in the recent issue of Angewandte Chemie.
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Monday, June 24, 2013
iOS 7's (AAPL) support for physical game... - Seeking Alpha
Absolutely agree with the bulk of replies and throughly disagree with the opening quote. If you intend to make such a sweeping statement that carries impact on share price you need to have a clue about the subject at hand. It is clear you don't.
As many of the replies here state:
1. Apple is massively overpriced in its own market against many superior smart phones and has lost its marketing edge. That in itself is damaging to Apple stock value. The "new gimmick" moniker is long gone and the "new improved" devices are just reshaped and slightly polished versions at full price. There will always be a die hard following for Apple products. I-sheep will always need to be told when to buy. The more discerning consumer will realise the power, and usability of the competition and start to deviate.
2. Litigation - mulitple lawsuits were begun and I just assume Apple figured these big companies they have accused of stealing designs would just bend over and take it. Highly likely to drag out even more delaying many possible new technologies on the Apple range. Especially when crossing into the gaming arena. For every case Apple sing about winning, they seem to lose another somewhere.
3. The console industry is based on real games players who expect power and gfx capabilities. The processing power is too weak and there is no serious gfx on any Apple product. So unless we are about to get our 1986 on, there is a long long way to go before Apple could even make a dent. Even our small children expect more from a games console. Can any of you imagine needing a controller to play any of these current apps? Pointless.
4. Most games consoles are now moving AWAY from hand held controllers and indeed Razer has already produced a hand held fully incorporated games device WITH all of the above built-in. So with the technology in place already, Apple come late to the table to find one company eating all the leftovers and everyone else has already gone for cigars and drinks.
5. Finally, Apple need to come up with something so epic and niche that major players; Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony and I guess even PC gamers are rocked. I don't see that happening with all the years of experience and research Apple don't have a prayer to me.
4.
Source: http://seekingalpha.com/currents/post/1100592
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Ween: Where'd the Cheese Go?
Earlier today I found myself searching for my keys and?lo and behold?a certain song popped into my head. And what a wonderful tune it is. Both versions.
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/9i_0hiOtNhY/ween-whered-the-cheese-go-543936107
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Use The Power Of The Internet To Market Your Business Using ...
Saturday, June 22nd, 2013 at 7:38 pm ?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
TIP! If you plan on having a flashy website then you need to make sure that it is easy to navigate as well. Remember, you have just a few seconds to grab a visitor?s interest when they arrive at your site, so making a good first impression is key.
Some business ventures go on to develop into huge corporations, while others remain on a smaller scale. Unfortunately, most businesses will fail. Online businesses often fold after just a small amount of time. Read on to discover how to avoid a failing business, and implement some Website marketing tips.
TIP! Long before site ranking becomes a concern for you, you need to build yourself an outstanding website. This is the first thing a online business owner should know.
Deals and sales can help boost the ranking of your site. PageRank can be bought if it?s a good deal because consumer news sites will want to link to you. This is just like stores marking down items that do not sell well at full price.
TIP! An image linking directly to your product page is a discreet type of ad that people may be more likely to click. The text should coordinate with the main font used in your article and should be positioned near the end of the article.
Put a link to your website in every signature area you can. If you post to a forum, add your link to your signature so that it will be seen every time one of your posts is read. Make sure you link your website to your email. Signatures are a great way to spread the word about your site as well as increasing its page rank in search engines. Don?t just include a link, instead start with a sentence which is enticing enough that the reader will want to click through to your website.
TIP! If you have images on your website, be sure to include captions. Like the text in the main body of a web page, image captions are also scanned for keywords by the search engines when they determine relevance and rank pages.
Ultimately, website marketing is about recognizing a problem and fixing it. Try to anticipate what questions you can provide answers to or problems you can solve. If you are helping someone out with their issues they will buy a product and tell people about your business.
TIP! Never resort to spamming your prospective and existing customers in the hopes of making a sale. Posting hundreds of links on random sites and blogs will not draw any traffic.
A website?s tag is one of its most important features. It tells the world who you are. Located in the browser window, this tag is crucial to how people identify what your site is about. There stands a chance of losing potential consumers when they become too confused or unsettled by the things you?ve written.
TIP! Have some specific goals in mind with your marketing and keep to it. Take the time to learn what sort of articles will be most effective and which are the best directories to submit them to.
Learning about basic elements of good web page design will be time well spent. There are plenty of guides online that will teach you almost everything you need to know about HTML and CSS to get your web design training off on the right foot. It is good to use thirty minutes a day to improve your webpage.
TIP! Make use of emphasis coding on your website. Augment the power of a term or phrase by changing it to italics, underlined, or bold text.
Many businesses have a place on their website called a ?squeeze page.? Its purpose is to solicit email addresses from potential customers. You should offer them a promo item as an exchange for the email address. This way, they get a nice gift and you, in return, get to put them on your contact list.
TIP! Being listed with Google is vital to achieve successful internet marketing. You can take the time to register your website yourself, or you can pay for someone else to do it for you.
Make effective use of email in your business. You should design your newsletters to draw in and excite your customers. You want the customer to feel like the email is fun to read, and not spam. These emails will let your customers know that you appreciate their business.
TIP! Don?t spend too much for advertising. If it will not work for you, do not spend money on it.
When making your website, try to make it visibly appealing with as much interesting content as possible. You want to focus on giving new information to your customers in a short time period to ensure that they are fully aware about what have purchased. Avoid redundancy and meaningless data which will not help with your customer?s decision.
TIP! The look and feel of your site, as well as the ease of use, are important factors in making your customers feel like they are shopping in a store. Always keep testing graphics, ads, links and your checkout system for things that may create problems for your customers.
Make your site smaller to start out with and grow it from there. This way you can focus on making it of really high-quality. Search engines with less indexed pages will be more apt to list your site, rather than the SEO?s that have a million or so indexed pages.
TIP! Copying others will get you nowhere in marketing. Search engines are very good at identifying duplicate content, so copying will just hurt you in the long run.
The first strategy worth looking into when it comes to internet promotion is to scrutinize your competition. Peruse your competitors? websites, noting what they could be doing better. Differentiate your website by highlighting products or services that are not available on others.
TIP! An important tip regarding Internet marketing is to give rewards to those that either frequent your site often or purchase from you often. The goal is to keep the customers you have while gaining new ones.
Always focus on a goal when you are creating a website. Know what you intend to write and where it will be posted. Make sure this content is adapted to your audience, and encourage people to share these articles with their friends. Focus on these requirements as you write, and your submissions will be on target.
TIP! Take a hard look at how attractive your service or product actually is to people. If your product is sub-par, no amount of Internet marketing will change that.
The one and only advantage to the failure of many online businesses is that it gives your business a chance to succeed. Utilize the tactics outlined above and you may just find yourself becoming an upcoming Internet success story.
To learn more about how to do Network Marketing the right way using internet, visit www.askajumaataguba.com
Tagged with: indexed pages ? online businesses ? search engines ? website marketing
Filed under: Online Marketing
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PFT: Jaguars ink No. 2 overall pick Joeckel
Getty ImagesReggie Williams, the Jaguars? first-round pick in 2004, was among the final cuts of the CFL?s Toronto Argonauts on Saturday.
Williams, 30, signed with the Argonauts on May 29. According to the Canadian QMI Agency wire service, Williams had a one-handed TD catch in the Argonauts? final preseason game Thursday vs. Montreal.
While Reggie Williams? stint in Toronto has ended, another former Jaguars receiver is very much a key part of the Argonauts? 2013 plans.
In fact, this ex-Jaguar is the CFL?s top best player in the estimation of TSN and sportswriters across Canada.
Chad Owens, a sixth-round pick of Jacksonville in 2005, was voted the CFL?s best player?on Friday.
Owens, 31, was the CFL?s Most Outstanding Player in 2012 after catching 94 passes for 1,328 yards and six TDs for the Grey Cup-champion Argos. Moreover, he set a league record for all-purpose yards.
Owens could never quite stick with the Jaguars, who released him in January 2008. But he stuck with professional football. He played Arena ball for a year, then landed on the Montreal Alouettes? practice roster for much of 2009. The next year, the Als traded him to Toronto, and he has been a key contributor since.
For former NFL players, making a?CFL roster is easier said than done. There are just eight CFL teams, and the Canadian game is different than the NFL game, with the wider field one example.
Given that Reggie Williams hasn?t been on an NFL roster since 2010, lasting until Toronto?s final cuts may signal he?s retained some professional-caliber skill. That?s one silver lining. Another may well be the success of his former Jaguars teammate, who?s authored quite the impressive career revival in Canada.
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Alt-week 6.22.13: The LRO's fourth moon-year, a 3D brain and alien telegrams (video)
The moon is far from old hat. In fact, after exactly four years on the job, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) is just scratching its jagged surface. The dearth of info on our celestial neighbor isn't stopping us from trying to send personal space messages to a far-flung star system, though. Why? Blame it on our huge brains, which we've now mapped in detailed 3D. Yes, this is alt-week.
Filed under: Science
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ZXWYUbO-h-I/
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Sunday, June 23, 2013
A look into Google's visual design guidelines
A treasure trove of cohesive design principles for developers and designers everywhere
As Google's Android matures, we all can see the shift in focus to great design. Google has long been at the forefront of the technology, offering services and features that most of us use every day, but it's clear that Mountain View now cares as much how their products look as they do how they work.
Getting a glimpse into Google's design language for Android usually means looking at the apps while you're using them, or opening up the files and studying the assets themselves. While Google offers some rudimentary suggestions at the Android developer site, that's only part of the picture. Developers and designers need to know how it all fits together. Apps, the web, and all the services under Google's umbrella.
Source: Behance (part 1), (part 2)
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/9mRWjDSoHuY/story01.htm
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
NKorea demands dissolution of UN command in SKorea
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? North Korea's U.N. envoy demanded the dissolution of the United Nations command in South Korea on Friday, accusing the United States of using the force to prepare for war against the North and build an Asian version of NATO to realize President Barack Obama's pivot to Asia.
Ambassador Sin Son Ho told reporters at a rare news conference that the most pressing issue in northeast Asia today is the hostile relations between North Korea and the United States "which can lead to a new war at any moment."
He reiterated North Korea's surprise offer last Saturday of wide-ranging senior-level talks with the United States "to defuse tension on the Korean peninsula and ensure peace and security in the region."
The proposed talks followed months of rising tensions and anti-American rhetoric by North Korea and the collapse earlier this month of proposed high-level talks between North and South Korea, amid bickering over who would lead the two delegations.
Sin stressed that the deteriorating situation on the Korean peninsula "is not caused by the DPRK," the initials of the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
"All deteriorations and intensified situations (are) entirely caused by the United States of America," he insisted on several occasions.
Sin said U.S.-North Korea talks should include replacing the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War ? and one of the "prerequisite requirements" for establishing "a peace mechanism" to replace the armistice is the dissolution of the U.S.-led U.N. Command.
The ambassador said the talks can include "a world without nuclear weapons," which the United States has already proposed.
But he warned that North Korea will not give up its nuclear "self-defense deterrent" unless the United States "fundamentally and irreversibly abandons its hostile policy and nuclear threat" toward the North and dissolves the U.N. Command, and as long as there are nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.
The Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, and left the Korean Peninsula divided by a heavily fortified border monitored by the U.N. Command. Washington also stations 28,500 American troops in South Korea to protect its ally against North Korean aggression.
In a lengthy statement, Sin claimed the U.N. Command "was a tool of war for aggression which was organized by the U.S." and "has nothing to do with the U.N."
"The U.N. Command is the U.S. command in essence," he said, and if necessary the DPRK will submit the issue to the U.N. General Assembly to dissolve it.
Sin said all the facts show that the U.S. is gradually transforming the U.N. command into a multinational military alliance "which would serve as a matrix of the Asian version of NATO" and "a stepping stone for the U.S. armed forces for aggression toward the DPRK and the realization of ... America's pivot to Asia strategy."
The U.S. aim, he said, is to make South Korea "a forward base for domination of (the) Asia Pacific region and hold fast to it as a cannon fodder for an aggressive war."
As a result, he said, "the situation on the Korean peninsula this year has reached to the full-scale nuclear showdown and to the brink of war between the DPRK and the U.S."
___
Associated Press Writer Maria Sanminiatelli contributed to this report from the United Nations
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-demands-dissolution-un-command-skorea-160628448.html
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Japan's finance minister Aso: Capex tax cuts will help frims more ...
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Friday, June 21, 2013
U.S.-Taliban talks in Qatar not expected Thursday: source
DOHA (Reuters) - Preliminary Afghan peace talks in Qatar between U.S. and Taliban officials are unlikely to take place on Thursday as had been expected, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Asked if the meeting would happen on Thursday, the source replied: "There is nothing scheduled that I am aware of." Asked if that meant they would not happen today, the source added: "Yes that's correct."
A senior U.S. official said on Wednesday that talks with the Taliban were likely to be held within the next few days in Qatar after delays caused by tensions over the naming of a new Taliban office in the capital, Doha.
Senior Afghan officials had accused Washington on Wednesday of breaking assurances to Kabul that the new office would not be used as a de facto mission.
Specifically, they objected to the ceremonial opening of the office - which included a prominent Taliban flag and a banner with the insurgent group's state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan - giving the impression that the Taliban had achieved some level of international political recognition.
A statement on Qatar's foreign ministry website late on Wednesday clarified that the office which opened was called the "Political Bureau for Afghan Taliban in Doha" and not the "Political Bureau for the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan".
The source in Doha told Reuters on Thursday there were no dates set for the talks and that there was no decision from the Afghan government on whether they would take part in the talks.
(Reporting by Amena Bakr, Writing by William Maclean and Yara Bayoumy; editing by Elizabeth Piper)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-taliban-talks-qatar-not-expected-thursday-source-063921843.html
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House votes due on crop subsidies, food stamps
FILE - This Feb. 11, 2009 file photo shows a shopper looking over the milk aisle at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier, Vt. Approval of a massive farm bill _ and the cost of a gallon of milk _ could hinge on a proposed new dairy program the House is expected to vote on this week. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
FILE - This Feb. 11, 2009 file photo shows a shopper looking over the milk aisle at the Hunger Mountain Co-op in Montpelier, Vt. Approval of a massive farm bill _ and the cost of a gallon of milk _ could hinge on a proposed new dairy program the House is expected to vote on this week. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The House is expected to vote Thursday on cuts to government farm subsidies and food stamps as lawmakers move toward passage of a five-year, half trillion-dollar farm bill.
Republican leaders have said they want to finish voting on the bill Thursday. Supporters have been working this week to shore up support for the measure as members of both parties have signaled opposition to the legislation's $2 billion cut in food stamps.
Many Republicans say the cut is not enough; the food stamp program has doubled in cost over the last five years to almost $80 billion a year and now helps to feed 1 in 7 Americans. Liberals oppose any reductions in food stamps, contending that the House plan could remove as many as 2 million needy recipients from the rolls.
The chamber rejected an attempt by Democrats Wednesday to eliminate the $2 billion in cuts and instead slash subsidy payments to farmers. Republican attempts to make the cuts even deeper are expected Thursday, along with other amendments that would overhaul sugar and dairy subsidies and cut federally-subsidized crop insurance.
The outcome of those votes could affect the vote on final passage of the bill, which is expected to come Thursday.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., sped the chamber through consideration of almost all of lawmakers' 103 amendments to the legislation Wednesday night. The House at one point adopted 35 amendments at once in a single vote.
The House debated an amendment Wednesday by Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., to limit government help for crop insurance paid to wealthy farmers and limit the subsidies the government gives to crop insurance companies. The vote on that amendment was postponed until Thursday.
The House bill, which would cut around $4 billion a year in overall spending on farm and nutrition programs, expands crop insurance programs and creates a new kind of crop insurance that kicks in before farmers' paid policies do.
But Kind and other Democrats say the bill should cut more from farm subsidies like crop insurance and less from food stamps.
Opposition to farm subsidies has been growing among Republicans, some of whom are expected to vote for the Kind amendment. Conservative groups have been lobbying aggressively against the bill.
Conservatives have also proposed the amendments that would reduce sugar supports and overhaul the dairy subsidies, both of which could turn lawmakers from certain regions of the country against the bill, threatening its passage.
The House is also scheduled to vote on an amendment to reduce food stamp benefits if Congress fails to pass a farm bill. Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said he offered the amendment to create more of a sense of urgency among Democrats.
"Right now, they're on the take side, and they're not part of the process," Conaway said. Conaway and other members of the House Agriculture Committee have been scrambling to find enough votes for the bill, which could falter without Democratic support in the Republican-controlled House.
For several decades, farm bills have combined farm subsidies and food stamps in an effort by sponsors to attract urban votes for a mostly rural bill. But that coalition is now shaky, as conservatives have insisted on cuts to food stamps.
Other amendments adopted by voice vote late Wednesday chipped away at food stamps. The House adopted an amendment to require drug tests for food stamp recipients, angering Democrats who said the tests would be demeaning to applicants. Lawmakers also adopted an amendment that would end a 2004 U.S.-Mexico agreement to educate Mexican-Americans about food stamps. More amendments to scale back the program are expected.
Also Wednesday, the House voted to delay sweeping food safety rules proposed by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this year.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, has said he has concerns about the overall legislation but wants to get the farm bill to House and Senate negotiators for a potential deal. He said he will vote for it, saying the change in policy is better than doing nothing.
House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., says the bill is necessary to avoid farm crises and that it has some of the biggest reforms in decades. It would eliminate $5 billion a year in direct payments, subsidies that are paid to farmers whether they grow crops or not. The measure would also expand crop insurance and make it easier for rice and peanut farmers to collect subsidies.
The Senate passed its version of the farm bill last week, with about $2.4 billion a year in overall cuts and a $400 million annual decrease in food stamps ? one-fifth of the House bill's food stamp cuts.
___
Follow Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick
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Questions of Environmental Health and Justice Growing with the Petcoke Piles in Detroit
Before you read this blog post, navigate to your favorite search engine, type in "Detroit petroleum coke," and peruse the results for a moment (don't forget to come back and keep reading).
If you're new to this issue, you might be able to quickly piece together a story about a "...three-story pile of toxic by-product..." that has helped "...Detroit's riverfront gain national attention" amidst "growing outrage, and calls for action..." from "worried residents." You may see that even with "...study results released..., concerns linger" and "...unanswered questions..." remain as to the ecological and human health risks posed by the growing pile of oil refinery waste on the banks of the Detroit River. On the other hand, you could be left thinking the headlines are making a big deal out of something that is "...not hazardous..." or even "...not that much of a problem at all". And maybe the bright side of the issue is that it "...helps a struggling coal plant stay in business." If you dig in beyond the headlines, you get the full story (or at least what journalists, activists, and politicians know at this point): The Marathon oil refinery in southwest Detroit started refining petroleum from the Alberta oil sands last fall. That refining process creates petroleum coke as a waste product--petcoke, if you will. Residents don't think it looks as cute as it sounds, however, especially when it's piled three stories high on the banks of the Detroit River. While a black mountain of Canadian oil waste waves its welcome to travelers crossing into the U.S. over the bridge from Windsor, Ontario, residents on both sides of the border are waving their fingers at Koch Carbon, Detroit Bulk Storage, and Marathon for their roles in creating an eyesore and potential public health problem. Samples have been collected and tested, public meetings have been held, bills have been introduced, articles have been written, and some of the petcoke has begun meandering back to Canada to be burned in a Nova Scotia powerplant. It's kind of a mess. An environmental, political, economic, and social mess that is, unfortunately, all too familiar to Detroit residents. Since the headlines first appeared this spring, I've been following the fate of the petcoke from my home 40 miles away in Ann Arbor. So, I know which questions have been raised and investigated publicly--where it came from, who owns it, and where it's going--but how many of those answers were reaching local residents? I went down to Riverside Park, nestled between the two piles of petcoke on the bank of the Detroit River, to find out. When I asked fishermen, -women, and -kids lined up along river what they had heard about the petroleum coke pile around the corner, answers ranged from "...petroleum what...?" to "...illegal dumping... and it might hurt the water..." (to which another resident replied, "It better not hurt my fish!"). Longtime southwest Detroit resident and frequent Riverside Park patron, Jos? Luis Barrera, has seen and heard about the piles, and he's still waiting for answers to two questions: (1) is it hazardous, and (2) why is it here? Well, Jos? Luis, you couldn't have chosen more pertinent or more perplexing questions. Is it hazardous? Short answer: it depends. The long answer is past the scope of this blog post, but let's at least try to scratch the surface here. Is it technically classified as a hazardous material? Not according to the EPA (Canada hasn't thought about it yet). Marathon's own Material Data Safety Sheet explains that petcoke itself is not classified as a hazardous waste by the EPA, but it could be when "discarded, spilled, or disposed of." Stephen Boyle, an activist with Detroit Coalition Against Tar Sands (D-CATS) interprets the EPA's language to mean that this particular pile of petcoke is indeed hazardous waste because it's being stored on land while it waits for the next step in its lifecycle (check out Section 261.4.12(i) to try your own interpretation). Is it a hazard, though? As in, could it possibly do harm? Yes. It's a big pile of carbon-sulfur-selenium-vanadium chunks sitting next to a river. Use your imagination to consider what kind of harm could be done through an action of your choice (everything from coke-eating birds to kids playing King or Queen of the Mountain is acceptable here). So, maybe the more relevant question is how much of a risk it poses for the citizens and creatures of Detroit and Windsor. What is the probability of harm actually being done? Answering that question means looking more closely at that pile of petcoke and tracing where the pieces and particles go, how they get there, and what effect they have along the way and at their final destination (be it a person, plant, animal, or powerplant plume miles away). My own search through the literature didn't reveal any studies on the environmental exposures and outcomes of a petcoke pile exactly like this, but a recent study coming out of the oil sands area of Alberta saw trace metal uptake in algae and aquatic invertebrates when petcoke was used in constructed wetlands. But that's a story for another day. Why is it here? Short answer: Detroit Bulk Storage put it there. The long answer here is worth digging into. This deeper question has been at the center of countless environmental justice debates over the years, and it still pops up despite recent strides in bringing environmental justice considerations into planning and policy. While it has grown from being focused on the disproportionate amount of toxic waste stored or dumped near minority and low-income communities to taking a more holistic approach to environmental health and community well-being, environmental justice developed its roots while answering this question across the U.S. Dr. Dorceta Taylor, leading environmental justice scholar and advocate at the University of Michigan, points her students towards five main arguments for why hazardous material so often shows up in the backyards of people of color:- Deliberate discrimination: Minority and low income communities are deliberately targeted to host such lovely amenities as PBC dumpsites and incinerators.
- Just plain economic common sense: If a company has the choice between cheap land with easy access to transportation and more expensive land that may be far from transportation and workers, which do you think it will choose?
- Path of least resistance: A 1984 report on resistance to waste-incinerators in California identified characteristics of communities that were least likely to put up a fight. Among those characteristics were low income, low education, and lack of civic involvement. While the report did not explicitly encourage companies to seek out these neighborhoods for all their waste-dumping needs, the implications were clear for many industries.
- The old chicken-or-egg question: Which came first--the polluting industry or the people? Maybe residents choose to move close to hazardous facilities for jobs or cheap rent. That may happen, but studies have revealed more complexity than that, with neighborhood dynamics changing in response to the new facilities moving to town.
- Zoning and residential segregation: Historical housing discrimination has set up a system in some cities that puts low-income residential areas near industrial districts or has placed barriers to residency in non-industrial neighborhoods by stipulating lot sizes, excluding multi-family dwellings, or enforcing owner-occupancy rules.
- An oil refinery, a steel plant, a major international shipping route and bridge crossing, freight infrastructure, cheap vacant land, and Michigan's most polluted zipcode;
- A largely Black and Hispanic population that saw more hospitalizations from asthma between 2007-2009 than the average combined rate for the tri-county area;
- A housing and zoning structure based on historical discriminatory practices;
- A network of community organizers, activists, concerned citizens, and representatives at all levels of government that is actively working to understand the situation, educate each other, and create change.
? 2013 ScientificAmerican.com. All rights reserved.
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100,000 Morsi backers stage show of force in Egypt
Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's president Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend Friday noon prayer before a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi attend a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
Supporters of Egypt's President Mohammed Morsi chant slogans during a rally in Nasser City in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, June 21, 2013. Tens of thousands of Islamists supporting Egypt's president staged a show of force ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil. Adding to the combustible mix, the U.S. ambassador in Egypt gets drawn into Egypt's treacherous politics when comments interpreted as critical of the opposition spark outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business." (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
CAIRO (AP) ? More than 100,000 supporters of Egypt's Islamist president staged a show of force Friday ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting "Islamic revolution!" and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil.
Adding to the combustible mix, comments by the U.S. ambassador that were interpreted as critical of the opposition's planned protests sparked outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to "shut up and mind your own business."
Friday's mass gathering was ostensibly called by Islamists to denounce violence, but it took on the appearance of a war rally instead. Participants, many of them bearded and wearing robes or green bandanas, vowed in chants to protect Morsi against his opponents. Some who addressed the crowd spoke of smashing opposition protesters on June 30, the anniversary of Morsi's assumption of power.
"We want to stress that we will protect the legitimacy with our blood and souls," declared Mohammed el-Beltagi, a senior leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic group from which Morsi hails.
Most participants were bused in from elsewhere in the Egyptian capital or from far-flung provinces. They waved Egypt's red, white and black flag as well as the green banner of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and posters of the president. Many raised their fists in the air.
Brotherhood members in red helmets and carrying white plastic sticks manned makeshift checkpoints, searching bags and checking IDs as demonstrators streamed into the venue.
Friday's rally was the latest evidence of the schism that has torn Egypt apart in the two years since autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising. That division has descended the country into deadly street battles and taken on a clear religious character after Morsi took office a year ago as the nation's first freely elected leader. In the year since, Egypt has been divided into two camps, with the president and his Islamist backers in one, and secular, liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, women and minority Christians in the other.
The past year has also been marred by constant political unrest and a sinking economy. Morsi's opponents charge that he and his Brotherhood have been systematically amassing power, excluding liberals, secular groups and even ultraconservative Salafi Muslims. A persistent security vacuum and political turmoil have scared away foreign investors and tourists. Egypt's already battered economy has continued to slide, draining foreign currency reserves and resulting in worsening fuel shortages and electricity cuts, along with increasing unemployment.
The president's supporters charge that the opposition, having lost elections, is trying to impose its will through street protests.
"They threaten us with June 30. We promise them they will be smashed that day," warned hard-line Islamist Tareq el-Zommor, who spent more than two decades in jail for his part in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat.
"June 30 is Islamic," he said as the crowd chanted behind him.
"Our battle is an identity battle, against communism and secularism," read one banner carried by protesters. "The people want to implement Islamic Shariah law," declared another.
"I am here to support the legitimacy of an elected president who was chosen by the people through the ballot box," said Saad Ismail, a 43-year-old teacher from the Nile Delta province of Beheira.
Assem Abdel-Maged, a hard-line Islamist leader addressing the crowd, threatened that any attempt to oust Morsi would be met with an Islamic revolution. On Thursday, he told a gathering in the southern city of Minya that those conspiring against Morsi include Coptic Christian extremists, communists and remnants of Mubarak's regime.
"Our dead will be in heaven, and their dead will be in hell," he said.
The main boulevard where the rally was held, along with several side streets were packed as protesters streamed in for hours and the crowd grew to more than 100,000.
Opposition leaders were not impressed by the turnout.
"Those 100,000 are not going to scare the people. We have collected petitions of 15 million people," said Mahmoud Badr, one of the main organizers of the June 30 protests. "They brought people from the provinces that stretch from Cairo to (the southern city of) Aswan. This is their top capacity."
After a months-long petition drive, opposition organizers announced on Thursday that they had collected up to 15 million signatures supporting Morsi's ouster and an early presidential election.
Meanwhile, U.S. Ambassador Anne Patterson, who has repeatedly been accused by the opposition of bias in favor of Morsi, caused outrage this week when she said she was "deeply skeptical" the protests will be fruitful and defended U.S. relations with Morsi and his Brotherhood as necessary because the group is part of the democratically elected Egyptian government.
"Some say that street action will produce better results than elections. To be honest, my government and I are deeply skeptical," she said at a seminar Tuesday organized by a Cairo research center. "Egypt needs stability to get its economic house in order, and more violence on the streets will do little more than add new names to the lists of martyrs."
Her unusually frank comments were widely interpreted as referring to the June 30 demonstrations.
Leading opposition activist Shady el-Ghazali Harb said Patterson showed "blatant bias" in favor of Morsi and the Brotherhood and her remarks had earned the U.S. administration "the enmity of the Egyptian people."
"The Muslim Brotherhood is ready to offer Egypt on a golden platter to the United States in exchange for Washington's support. It is no surprise that she would say that," he said.
Another prominent opposition activist, George Ishaq, counseled Patterson in a television interview to "shut up and mind your own business." Christian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris posted a message on his Twitter account addressed to the ambassador saying, "Bless us with your silence."
The United States has had its own frustrations with the mainly liberal and secular opposition, which has been beset by divisions. During a visit by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to Egypt in March, he pressed the main opposition grouping, the National Salvation Front, to reverse its decision to boycott parliamentary elections expected later this year or early in 2014.
Washington, Egypt's longtime economic and military backer, has maintained relatively warm ties with Morsi. The Obama administration has praised him for mediating a truce late last year between Israel and Hamas, the Islamic militant rulers of the Gaza Strip, and for maintaining Egypt's peace treaty with Israel.
"This is the government that you and your fellow citizens elected. Even if you voted for others, I don't think the elected nature of this government is seriously in doubt," Patterson said. "Throughout Egypt's post-revolution series of elections, the United States took the position that we would work with whoever won elections that met international standards, and this is what we have done."
Meanwhile, privately owned TV network ONTV aired footage of what it said was Patterson's convoy of black SUVs in a visit to Khairat el-Shater, a powerful figure in the Muslim Brotherhood who is widely suspected to exercise vast influence over Morsi.
The visit drew criticism from the opposition. The U.S. Embassy declined comment.
"Is this democracy that she visits a man who holds no post in the Egyptian state," Harb said.
Morad Ali, spokesman for the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice party, confirmed the meeting but said he was not authorized to disclose details.
"It was not a secret meeting. The ambassador meets with all political parties and this is the deputy leader of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why is this considered interference in Egypt's domestic affairs?" he said.
___
Associated Press reporter Tony G. Gabriel contributed to this report.
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