Penguins' Bylsma to coach US Olympic team in Sochi

NEW YORK (AP) ? USA Hockey has tabbed Pittsburgh Penguins head coach Dan Bylsma as the coach for the U.S. Olympic men's hockey team at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.

USA Hockey president Ron DeGregorio made the announcement Saturday.

The 42-year-old Bylsma is 201-92-25 in four-plus seasons with Pittsburgh and led the Penguins to the 2009 Stanley Cup. The Michigan native won the Jack Adams Award as the NHL Coach of the Year in 2011. The Penguins posted the best record in the Eastern Conference this spring and advanced to the conference finals before being swept by the Boston Bruins.

The U.S. won the silver medal at the Vancouver Olympics three years ago, losing the gold medal game to Canada 3-2 in overtime.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/penguins-bylsma-coach-us-olympic-team-sochi-151014508.html

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barbryallen: Lucero - Texas & TennesseeYou don?t have to...

barbryallen:

Lucero - Texas & Tennessee

You don?t have to tell me how it feels not to be in love
You see that was my oldest game, darlin, it was my claim to fame
And I knew that when I met you, all that you would need is more than what I got
Oh so baby please just stop

Swoon.

Source: http://itsthebrooke.tumblr.com/post/54217018764

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Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 now official

It came out of nowhere, and after months of waiting ? it?s finally out. The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 is the company?s next flagship phone, and it features a combination of all the things that you would actually look for in a phone.

Earlier this morning, the company?s CEPNATSOC (Chief Executive in Product Design, Naming and All Things Samsung Of Course), Samson Sung, was asked in an interview on why they would release such a product. Here is his reply:

?We already have a lot of great products out in the market already ? and yet, people are complaining; why can?t we just produce a device that had it all? And so we made the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3.?

Originally, the display of the device should have been at 8-inches, however they thought of adding the Mini moniker to it, so they had to make it the same size as the Mega 6.3 instead ? 6.3-inches.

In addition to that insanely small form factor, Samsung puts the sensor found on the S4 Zoom and adds it to the device, calling it larger than life. Also, as inspired by the S4 Active, the phone is waterproof and dustproof.

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will come in Exynos Quad, Exynos Octa, Snapdragon 600, 800 & Tegra 4 variants ? which will be released in different time frames for your convenience. When they were asked on which ones will receive software updates faster, all they said was ?it will arrive someday?.

A part of the interview as well, Sung also mentioned that they didn?t want to keep it all for the Galaxy S5; they wanted to produce as much S4 devices so that everyone will have an S4.?This is the most perfect strategy ever since customers will now be extremely satisfied, and this is expected to save the company from its falling shares of stocks and slowing down S4 sales.

The Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Plus 6.3 will be available this month for a price of Php39,990 (not to be confused with the Galaxy S4 Active Zoom Mini Note that is in the works ? will be released next month).

Editor?s Note: Just in case it was not clear, this is a satire.

Source: http://www.yugatech.com/curious/satire-samsung-galaxy-s4-active-zoom-mini-plus-6-3-now-official/

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Large-scale quantum chip validated: Prototype quantum optimization chip operates as hoped

June 28, 2013 ? A team of scientists at USC has verified that quantum effects are indeed at play in the first commercial quantum optimization processor.

The team demonstrated that the D-Wave processor housed at the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computing Center behaves in a manner that indicates that quantum mechanics plays a functional role in the way it works. The demonstration involved a small subset of the chip's 128 qubits.

This means that the device appears to be operating as a quantum processor -- something that scientists had hoped for but have needed extensive testing to verify.

The quantum processor was purchased from Canadian manufacturer D-Wave nearly two years ago by Lockheed Martin and housed at the USC Viterbi Information Sciences Institute (ISI). As the first of its kind, the task for scientists putting it through its paces was to determine whether the quantum computer was operating as hoped.

"Using a specific test problem involving eight qubits we have verified that the D-Wave processor performs optimization calculations (that is, finds lowest energy solutions) using a procedure that is consistent with quantum annealing and is inconsistent with the predictions of classical annealing," said Daniel Lidar, scientific director of the Quantum Computing Center and one of the researchers on the team, who holds joint appointments with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Quantum annealing is a method of solving optimization problems using quantum mechanics -- at a large enough scale, potentially much faster than a traditional processor can.

Research institutions throughout the world build and use quantum processors, but most only have a few quantum bits, or "qubits."

Qubits have the capability of encoding the two digits of one and zero at the same time -- as opposed to traditional bits, which can encode distinctly either a one or a zero. This property, called "superposition," along with the ability of quantum states to "tunnel" through energy barriers, are hoped to play a role in helping future generations of the D-Wave processor to ultimately perform optimization calculations much faster than traditional processors.

With 108 functional qubits, the D-Wave processor at USC inspired hopes for a significant advance in the field of quantum computing when it was installed in October 2011 -- provided it worked as a quantum information processor. Quantum processors can fall victim to a phenomenon called "decoherence," which stifles their ability to behave in a quantum fashion.

The USC team's research shows that the chip, in fact, performed largely as hoped, demonstrating the potential for quantum optimization on a larger-than-ever scale.

"Our work seems to show that, from a purely physical point of view, quantum effects play a functional role in information processing in the D-Wave processor," said Sergio Boixo, first author of the research paper, who conducted the research while he was a computer scientist at ISI and research assistant professor at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Boixo and Lidar collaborated with Tameem Albash, postdoctoral research associate in physics at USC Dornsife; Federico M. Spedalieri, computer scientist at ISI; and Nicholas Chancellor, a recent physics graduate at USC Dornsife. Their findings will be published in Nature Communications on June 28.

The news comes just two months after the Quantum Computing Center's original D-Wave processor -- known commercially as the "Rainier" chip -- was upgraded to a new 512-qubit "Vesuvius" chip. The Quantum Computing Center, which includes a magnetically shielded box that is kept frigid (near absolute zero) to protect the computer against decoherence, was designed to be upgradable to keep up with the latest developments in the field.

The new Vesuvius chip at USC is currently the only one in operation outside of D-Wave. A second such chip, owned by Google and housed at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, is expected to become operational later this year.

Next, the USC team will take the Vesuvius chip for a test drive, putting it through the same paces as the Rainier chip.

This research was supported by the Lockheed Martin Corporation; U.S. Army Research Office grant number W911NF-12-1-0523; National Science Foundation grant number CHM-1037992, ARO Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative grant W911NF-11-1-026.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/4cI-LVzkB_4/130628131027.htm

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Endorsement watch: The firefighters still don?t like the Mayor (Offthekuff)

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

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Egypt group: 22 million signatures against Morsi

CAIRO (AP) ? More than 22 million Egyptians have signed a petition calling for the country's Islamist president to step down, the youth group leading the signature campaign said Saturday on the eve of planned mass protests aimed at forcing Mohammed Morsi from office.

The planned demonstrations, which could plunge Egypt once again into a dangerous round of civil unrest, reflect the growing polarization of the nation since Morsi took power, with the president and his Islamist allies in one camp and seculars, liberals, moderate Muslims and Christians on the other.

Already, clashes across a string of cities north of Cairo over the past week have left at least seven people dead, including an American, and hundreds injured, and there are deep-rooted fears in the country that Sunday's protests will turn violent and quickly spiral out of control.

The Tamarod, or Rebel, movement says its petition is evidence of the widespread dissatisfaction with Morsi's administration, and has used the signature drive as the focal point of its call for millions of people to take to the streets Sunday to demand the president's ouster.

Mahmoud Badr, a Tamarod leader, told reporters Saturday a total of 22,134,460 Egyptians have signed the petition. He did not say whether there had been an independent audit of the signatures.

Morsi's supporters, who have long doubted the validity and authenticity of the collected signatures, expressed skepticism about the final count.

"How do we trust the petitions?" asked Brotherhood member Ahmed Seif Islam Hassan al-Banna. "Who guarantees that those who signed were not paid to sign?"

If authenticated, the collection of so many signatures would deal a symbolic blow to Morsi's mandate and put in stark terms the popular frustrations with an administration perceived to have failed to effectively deal with the country's pressing problems, from tenuous security and inflation and power cuts to traffic congestion and high unemployment.

Tamarod, which began its campaign with the goal of collecting more signatures than the 13 million votes Morsi garnered in his 2012 election victory, announced its final tally the day before protests that organizers vow will bring millions into the streets to push the president from power.

Morsi, meanwhile, sought to project a business-as-usual image Saturday, meeting with the defense and interior ministers to review preparations to protect the protesters and vital state facilities during Sunday's demonstrations.

Egypt has been roiled by political unrest in the two years since the uprising that ousted autocrat Hosni Mubarak, but the round of protests set to kick off Sunday promises to be the largest and holds the potential to be the bloodiest yet.

In the past week alone, at least seven people have been killed in clashes between the president's supporters and opponents in cities in the Nile Delta, while on Friday protesters ransacked and torched as least five Brotherhood offices across the country.

Adding to the tension, eight lawmakers from the country's interim legislature announced their resignation Saturday to protest Morsi's policies. The 270-seat chamber was elected early last year by less than 10 percent of Egypt's eligible voters, and is dominated by Islamists who support Morsi.

With a sense of doom hanging over the country, Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi last Sunday gave the president and his opponents a week to reach a compromise and warned that the military would intervene to prevent the nation from entering a "dark tunnel." It was the strongest expression of the military's discontent with conditions in the nation since Morsi took office a year ago.

In South Africa, President Barack Obama said the U.S. supports freedom of speech in Egypt and the right of protesters to peacefully assemble, and called on called on both sides in Egypt to avoid violence.

"We would urge all parties to make sure they're not engaging in violence (and) police and military are showing appropriate restraint," he said.

The opposition, feeling that Morsi may be on the ropes and frustrated by past offers of dialogue that proved to be mostly symbolic, has shown no inclination to compromise, and Morsi offered no concessions to his opponents when he addressed the nation for 2 ? hours on Wednesday.

The focus of Sunday's protests is Morsi's Ittihadiya palace in Cairo. As a precaution, the president and his family are reported to have moved into the Cairo headquarters of the Republican Guard, the branch of the army tasked with protecting the president and presidential palaces.

As the country waits to see what transpires Sunday, thousands of supporters and opponents of the embattled president held rival sit-ins Saturday in separate parts of the capital.

With expectations of violence running high, the military has dispatched troops backed by armored personnel carriers to reinforce military bases on the outskirts of cities expected to be flashpoints.

In Cairo, the additional forces were deployed to military facilities in the suburbs and outlying districts. Army troops are also moving to reinforce police guarding the city's prisons to prevent a repeat of the nearly half dozen jail breaks during the chaos of the 2011 uprising.

The opposition is demanding Morsi's ouster, saying he has lost his legitimacy through a series of missteps and authoritarian policies. They say early presidential elections should be held within six months of his ouster.

Hard-line Islamists loyal to Morsi have repeatedly vowed to "smash" the protesters, arguing that they were a front for loyalists of Hosni Mubarak, the autocrat ousted in Egypt's 2011 revolt, determined to undermine Morsi's rule. They also say that Morsi is a freely elected president who must serve out his four-year term before he can be replaced in an election.

Many Egyptians fear the new round of unrest could trigger a collapse in law and order similar to the one that occurred during the 2011 revolt. Already, residents in some of the residential compounds and neighborhoods to the west of the city are reporting gunmen showing up to demand protection money or risk being robbed.

The police, who have yet to fully take back the streets after they disappeared in unclear circumstances in 2011, have stepped up patrols on the outskirts of the city, ostensibly to prevent weapons and ammunition from coming into the city to be used in the case of an outbreak of violence. The army is advertising hotlines for civilians to call if they run into trouble.

In the latest reminder of the near lawlessness that has plagued the Sinai Peninsula bordering Gaza and Israel since the 2011 revolt, a senior security official officer was assassinated Saturday in the coastal city of el-Arish as he arrived home from work. Police Brig. Mohammed Tolbah was instantly killed and his driver seriously injured.

___

Associated Press writer Maggie Michael contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-group-22-million-signatures-against-morsi-125919145.html

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Gay marriage: In states, a hodgepodge lies ahead

Across the country, this week's landmark Supreme Court rulings on same-sex marriage have energized activists and politicians on both sides of the debate. Efforts to impose bans ? and to repeal them ? have taken on new intensity, as have lawsuits by gays demanding the right to marry.

The high court, in two 5-4 decisions Wednesday, opened the way for California to become the 13th state to legalize gay marriage, and it directed the federal government to recognize legally married same-sex couples.

But the rulings, while hailed by gay-rights activists, did not declare a nationwide right for gays to marry. Instead, they set the stage for state-by-state battles over one of America's most contentious social issues. Already, some of those battles are heating up.

In Pennsylvania, the only Northeast state that doesn't legally recognize same-sex couples, gay state Rep. Brian Sims, a Philadelphia Democrat, says he will introduce a bill to allow same-sex marriages. The bill may flounder in the GOP-led Legislature, but the issue is likely to be volatile in next year's gubernatorial race, pitting GOP Gov. Tom Corbett, an opponent of gay marriage, against any of three Democrats who favor it.

In Arizona, gay-rights supporters have begun circulating petitions aimed at repealing the state's 2008 ban on same-sex marriage by way of a ballot measure next year. With California's ban in the process of being quashed, Arizona is now among 29 states with constitutional amendments that limit marriage to one-man, one-woman unions.

Gay-rights activists and Democratic politicians in several other states also hope to repeal the bans in their states ? in Oregon, Ohio and Arkansas with possible ballot measures next year, and in Nevada and Michigan with referendums in 2016.

Ohio activist Ian James of FreedomOhio said his group's resolve to collect signatures "has been doubled" as a result of the Supreme Court decisions. And Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, a Democrat who favors repealing his state's ban, said the court action "underscores the urgency of extending the freedom to marry to all our citizens."

"Oregon has not yet lived up to the ideal of equal rights for all," Kitzhaber said.

In Indiana and West Virginia, some Republican politicians want to move in the other direction, joining the ranks of states with constitutional bans. Both states have laws that bar gays from marrying, but constitutional amendments are viewed as more durable measures that resist being overturned by litigation.

The leaders of Indiana's Republican-controlled Legislature had deferred action on an amendment during this year's session, opting to wait for the Supreme Court rulings. Now, with the backing of GOP Gov. Mike Pence, they say the Legislature will consider the ban in the session starting in January, possibly putting the question to voters later next year.

Micah Clark, executive director of the conservative American Family Association of Indiana, was pleased by that prospect.

"The future of marriage matters," he said. "And it belongs in the hands of Hoosier voters, not the courts, not Hollywood, and not the activists seeking to change it from what it is and always has been."

West Virginia, like Indiana, has a state law prohibiting gay marriages. Until now, though, it has not joined the parade of states taking a further step with a constitutional amendment. After the Supreme Court rulings, the leader of the large Republican minority in the House of Delegates suggested there is now an urgent need for an amendment,

"We don't know when someone might file a lawsuit or have some other issue come up where a judge can review that," said Tim Armstead. "We need to go to the next step."

Democratic Delegate Stephen Skinner, West Virginia's first openly gay lawmaker, disagreed. "There's really not much reason for a constitutional amendment, except to promote discrimination and promote homophobia," he said.

National gay-rights leaders expect that lawsuits seeking to expand gay marriage rights will eventually bring the issue back to the Supreme Court in a quest for a ruling that would establish a 50-state policy.

Lawsuits already are pending in a number of states. Some of those involved were heartened by the past week's rulings.

"What this does is establish very, very powerful precedents that we will be able to use in our case," said Mark Lawrence of Restore Our Humanity, which is backing a legal challenge by three same-sex couples to a ban approved by Utah voters in 2004.

Michigan's constitutional ban, also approved in 2004, is the target of a pending lawsuit by Detroit-area nurses April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse seeking a right to jointly adopt each other's children. The federal judge hearing the case had been waiting for the Supreme Court before issuing a judgment.

In New Mexico, two gay men from Santa Fe asked the state Supreme Court on Thursday to decide whether same-sex marriage is legal. The lawsuit contends that denying marriage licenses to same-sex couples violates the state constitution, including provisions prohibiting gender-based discrimination and guaranteeing equal protection under the law.

New Mexico is one of only five states ? along with West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Indiana ? that has neither extended legal recognition to gay couples nor enacted a ban-gay-marriage constitutional amendment. There also is litigation in three states offering civil unions to gay couples, providing the rights and responsibilities of marriage but not extending that title.

In New Jersey, one lawsuit contends that civil unions do not fulfill a state Supreme Court mandate from 2006 that gay couples receive equal treatment to married heterosexual couples. The plaintiffs say they will soon file a motion arguing that, in light of the Supreme Court ruling, the only thing that is keeping the couples from equal treatment is the state law.

New Jersey's Democratic-majority Legislature passed a bill last year to legalize gay marriage, but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie. He says the matter should be decided in a referendum.

"There is no longer any excuse to delay," said Troy Stevenson of the gay-rights group Garden State Equality. "It is as immoral as it is impractical to force any New Jersey family to be stripped of critical economic and legal protections every time they cross the Hudson or Delaware Rivers."

Hawaii's civil union law, adopted in 2011, is being challenged in federal court by two women who want to marry rather than enter into a civil union. Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who supports a right to same-sex marriage, says the Supreme Court ruling on federal benefits for same-sex couples bolsters his argument.

Illinois also allowed civil unions in 2011, but efforts to legalize same-sex marriage in the recently ended legislative session fell short. The sponsor of the measure, Democratic Rep. Greg Harris, said the Supreme Court rulings should bolster efforts to revive the bill in the fall session.

Meanwhile, gay-rights lawyers are pressing ahead with a lawsuit on behalf of more than two dozen same-sex couples who were denied marriage licenses in Cook County. The suit also challenges an Illinois law that defines marriage as between a man and woman.

Gay-rights activists in some conservative states say there is no near-term prospect for softening their states' gay-marriage bans, and they're looking toward a more incremental approach.

In states such as Georgia, Idaho and Louisiana, these efforts include lobbying for local and statewide anti-discrimination laws that would extend protections to gays and lesbians.

In Wisconsin, a state that has tilted Democratic in national elections, Republicans now hold power at the Statehouse, and there's little discussion by gay-rights supporters of mounting an effort to repeal the gay-marriage ban approved by voters in 2006.

Instead, gay-rights activists there are trying to defeat a conservative group's lawsuit challenging a 2009 domestic partnership law that ended some legal rights to same-sex couples.

Wyoming has no constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, but proposals to permit civil unions and to ban discrimination against gays died in the latest legislative session.

State Rep. Cathy Connolly, the openly lesbian Democrat who sponsored those bills, says Wyoming's strong libertarian streak might be conducive to a legalization of same-sex marriage at some point in the future.

___

Cristina Silva in Phoenix, Tom LoBianco in Indianapolis, Nigel Duara in Portland, Ore., Matt Moore in Philadelphia, Larry Messina in Charleston, W.Va., and other AP reporters nationwide contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gay-marriage-states-hodgepodge-lies-ahead-201327666.html

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Republicans Answer Obama With Drilling Bill

Just one day after President Obama unveiled his plan to bypass Congress and combat climate change using executive-branch regulations, House Republican leaders touted their proposal to vote Friday on legislation to expand offshore oil and natural-gas drilling.

The bill, sponsored by House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., would require the Obama administration to implement a five-year leasing plan that moves forward with oil and gas drilling off the coasts of California, the Eastern states, and the Gulf of Mexico.

The bill is dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate, and the White House has threatened a veto. But the move is one more piece of evidence of the great distance between Obama and Republican leaders on combating climate change.

As long as both sides are talking past each other and pushing radically different policies, a bipartisan solution to climate change will remain elusive.

?Contrast [the bill] with the president?s policies,? Hastings said in the briefing Wednesday. ?Yesterday he made it pretty clear his energy policy essentially is a tax on energy.?

When asked about Obama?s climate-change plan, congressional Republicans focus almost exclusively on what they say would be its detrimental economic effects, and they ignore the scientific consensus that finds that human consumption of fossil fuels causes the Earth?s temperature to rise.

?Our argument with the president right now is, he?s picking winners and losers,? said House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who refused to even use the word ?science? when asked whether Republicans think the science of climate change is settled.

In his speech at Georgetown University on Tuesday, Obama argued that the science behind global warming compels urgent action. ?I don?t have much patience for anyone who denies that this challenge is real,? Obama said. ?We don?t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society. Sticking your head in the sand might make you feel safer, but it?s not going to protect you from the coming storm.?

Asked whether he thinks climate-change science is as convincing as Obama says it is, Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., retorted: ?He talked about the Flat Earth Society. We have a very flat economy.?

?You used the word compelling,? Barrasso told a reporter. ?And I don?t think so. I think you have to focus on the American economy. The costs of the regulations are real. And the benefits are unknown.?

Meanwhile, some advocates of climate change are encouraging a focus on science and the health effects over economics. A talking-points memo sent Monday night ahead of Obama?s speech told the president?s supporters to downplay economic arguments and words like ?regulations.?

The memo includes a ?do?s and don?t?s? list of phrases to use when advocating for action on climate change. ?Do discuss modernizing and retooling power plants and innovation that will create green jobs,? reads one part of the 14-page memo. ?Don?t try to suggest net job increases.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/republicans-answer-obama-drilling-bill-215902075.html

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New York City Passes Paid Sick Time Law

NEW YORK ? New York City is becoming the most populous place in the United States to make businesses provide workers with paid sick time, after lawmakers overrode a mayoral veto early Thursday to pass a law expected to affect more than 1 million workers.

With the vote, the city joined Portland, Ore.; San Francisco; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and the state of Connecticut in requiring the benefit for at least some workers. Similar measures have failed in some other places, including Milwaukee, Denver and Philadelphia.

Supporters see the New York measure as a pace-setter, although it has some significant limits and conditions, and they envision such laws becoming a national norm in coming years.

"The catalyst will have been the successful struggle we waged here in New York City," said Dan Cantor, the national executive director of the Working Families Party, which is among groups pushing the cause in Maryland, Oregon, Vermont and Washington states, among others.

Advocates say workers shouldn't have to choose between their physical and financial health. And customers and colleagues shouldn't have to be exposed to employees who come to work sick, supporters add.

Camilo Montes is diabetic and has felt ill at times during his six years working at a Queens car wash, but he has stuck it out instead of going home because he doesn't get paid sick days, he said.

Because he's supporting himself and his mother in Veracruz, Mexico, "I can't afford to lose a day's salary," Montes, 46, said through a Spanish interpreter after paid sick leave supporters rallied outside City Hall Wednesday.

But critics say that the government should leave sick day arrangements to workers and bosses and that the requirement will burden small businesses.

"Faced with this increase in costs, employers will seek to offset them in any number of ways, including reducing other benefits employees receive," entrepreneur-turned-politician Mayor Michael Bloomberg wrote in vetoing the measure earlier this month. "... It will harm the very people it seeks to help."

The huge financial information firm he founded, Bloomberg LP, does offer paid sick time, he has noted. But small companies can't afford it, he says.

Under the new law steered by Councilwoman Gale Brewer, employees of businesses with 20 or more workers would get up to five paid sick days a year beginning in April 2014; the benefit would kick in by October 2015 at enterprises with 15 to 19 workers. All others would have to provide five unpaid sick days per year, meaning that workers couldn't get fired for using those days.

The requirements could be postponed if the city's economy takes a major dive.

Employees could choose to work extra hours instead of taking sick time, a provision aimed at those who would rather swap shifts than stay home sick. That provision could be attractive to restaurant servers, for example, since the paid sick time wouldn't include tips.

Manufacturing companies would be exempt from the paid sick time requirement ? the rationale is that they're struggling, Council Speaker Christine Quinn has said ? though workers would still be protected from firing for taking unpaid sick days.

Besides paid sick leave, city council Thursday voted to create an outside watchdog and make it easier to bring racial profiling claims against the New York Police Department, the nation's largest police force. Both measures passed with enough votes to override expected mayoral vetoes.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/27/nyc-paid-sick-time_n_3507814.html

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Couple lets coffee drinkers choose baby name

WEST HAVEN, Conn. (AP) ? A Connecticut couple has named its baby with help from customers at a Starbucks coffee shop.

Twenty-five-year-old Jennifer James and 24-year-old Mark Dixon of West Haven told the New Haven Register (http://bit.ly/1adT5d6 ) they had been struggling between two names for the boy they are expecting in September, so they decided to put it to a vote.

They placed signs at the Starbucks on the New Haven Green, where they are regulars, asking people to vote for either the name Jackson or Logan.

The couple said it got the idea for the voting based on a system used by that Starbucks location, where customers cast votes for the store's employee of the month.

"We saw that and thought we might as well see how it works," Dixon said.

They received about 1,800 votes in the coffee cup serving as a ballot box. The couple said voters did not limit themselves to the two choices they were given.

"We've gotten Obama, Jebediah, Lincoln. Someone put (a) write-in, Webster," James said.

James said that when she realized Dixon would sound similar to Jackson, she began pulling for the name Logan.

"I don't know why I didn't realize the 'Jackson Dixon' thing, but I think once I realized that, he was going to be Logan no matter what," she said.

The name Logan also was favored by the customers, but ultimately both names won.

The couple said it will name the baby Logan Jackson Dixon.

___

Information from: New Haven Register, http://www.nhregister.com

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-06-26-US-ODD-Baby-Name-Vote/id-e53fe64ccba044428bddae1cc8a72518

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Solar power heads in a new direction: Thinner

June 26, 2013 ? Most efforts at improving solar cells have focused on increasing the efficiency of their energy conversion, or on lowering the cost of manufacturing. But now MIT researchers are opening another avenue for improvement, aiming to produce the thinnest and most lightweight solar panels possible.

Such panels, which have the potential to surpass any substance other than reactor-grade uranium in terms of energy produced per pound of material, could be made from stacked sheets of one-molecule-thick materials such as graphene or molybdenum disulfide.

Jeffrey Grossman, the Carl Richard Soderberg Associate Professor of Power Engineering at MIT, says the new approach "pushes towards the ultimate power conversion possible from a material" for solar power. Grossman is the senior author of a new paper describing this approach, published in the journal Nano Letters.

Although scientists have devoted considerable attention in recent years to the potential of two-dimensional materials such as graphene, Grossman says, there has been little study of their potential for solar applications. It turns out, he says, "they're not only OK, but it's amazing how well they do."

Using two layers of such atom-thick materials, Grossman says, his team has predicted solar cells with 1 to 2 percent efficiency in converting sunlight to electricity, That's low compared to the 15 to 20 percent efficiency of standard silicon solar cells, he says, but it's achieved using material that is thousands of times thinner and lighter than tissue paper. The two-layer solar cell is only 1 nanometer thick, while typical silicon solar cells can be hundreds of thousands of times that. The stacking of several of these two-dimensional layers could boost the efficiency significantly.

"Stacking a few layers could allow for higher efficiency, one that competes with other well-established solar cell technologies," says Marco Bernardi, a postdoc in MIT's Department of Materials Science who was the lead author of the paper. Maurizia Palummo, a senior researcher at the University of Rome visiting MIT through the MISTI Italy program, was also a co-author.

For applications where weight is a crucial factor -- such as in spacecraft, aviation or for use in remote areas of the developing world where transportation costs are significant -- such lightweight cells could already have great potential, Bernardi says.

Pound for pound, he says, the new solar cells produce up to 1,000 times more power than conventional photovoltaics. At about one nanometer (billionth of a meter) in thickness, "It's 20 to 50 times thinner than the thinnest solar cell that can be made today," Grossman adds. "You couldn't make a solar cell any thinner."

This slenderness is not only advantageous in shipping, but also in ease of mounting solar panels. About half the cost of today's panels is in support structures, installation, wiring and control systems, expenses that could be reduced through the use of lighter structures.

In addition, the material itself is much less expensive than the highly purified silicon used for standard solar cells -- and because the sheets are so thin, they require only minuscule amounts of the raw materials.

John Hart, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and art and design at the University of Michigan, says, "This is an exciting new approach to designing solar cells, and moreover an impressive example of how complementary nanostructured materials can be engineered to create new energy devices." Hart, who will be joining the MIT faculty this summer but had no involvement in this research, adds that, "I expect the mechanical flexibility and robustness of these thin layers would also be attractive."

The MIT team's work so far to demonstrate the potential of atom-thick materials for solar generation is "just the start," Grossman says. For one thing, molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum diselenide, the materials used in this work, are just two of many 2-D materials whose potential could be studied, to say nothing of different combinations of materials sandwiched together. "There's a whole zoo of these materials that can be explored," Grossman says. "My hope is that this work sets the stage for people to think about these materials in a new way."

While no large-scale methods of producing molybdenum disulfide and molybdenum diselenide exist at this point, this is an active area of research. Manufacturability is "an essential question," Grossman says, "but I think it's a solvable problem."

An additional advantage of such materials is their long-term stability, even in open air; other solar-cell materials must be protected under heavy and expensive layers of glass. "It's essentially stable in air, under ultraviolet light, and in moisture," Grossman says. "It's very robust."

The work so far has been based on computer modeling of the materials, Grossman says, adding that his group is now trying to produce such devices. "I think this is the tip of the iceberg in terms of utilizing 2-D materials for clean energy" he says.

This work was supported by the MIT Energy Initiative.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/8FVH4mhCcNE/130626153926.htm

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AT&T to open Foundries in Atlanta and Dallas that focus on home automation, device-to-device tech

AT&T launched its first Foundries primarily as mobile app incubators, but the carrier is switching focus tonight: it just unveiled plans to open more hardware-oriented Foundries in Atlanta and Dallas. Most Atlanta-based projects will expand AT&T's Digital Life home automation service, with connected cars and U-verse also receiving a boost. The Dallas Foundry complements an existing presence in the city, but will pay attention to the internet of things and other forms of machine-to-machine chatter. In either circumstance, collaboration will be key. The Atlanta location will sit right next to Georgia Tech, while hardware makers at the new Dallas office can get software help at the original Foundry one floor down. The two new locations won't open until a few months from now, but the Foundry program's healthy track record suggests that patience will be a virtue for interested developers.

Filed under: Wireless, Networking, AT&T

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Source: AT&T

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2_T_cF258Zk/

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Mobile Advertising Ecosystem Infographic - Business Insider

We are in the post-PC era, and soon billions of consumers will be carrying around Internet-connected mobile devices for up to 16 hours a day.?Mobile audiences have exploded as a result.

So, mobile advertising should be a bonanza, right? Not exactly. It has been a bit slow off the ground, and its growth trajectory is not clear cut. Part of the reason is that the mobile ad ecosystem is not as strictly delineated as the desktop ecosystem.?In mobile advertising, the rules of the road change with different combinations of device, wireless operator, and operating system.

In a recent report from?BI?Intelligence?on, we?explain the complexities and fractures of the ecosystem. We specifically examine the central and dynamic roles played by mobile ad networks, demand side platforms, mobile ad exchanges, real-time bidding, agencies, brands, and new companies hoping to upend the traditional banner ad.

Access The Full Report And Data By Signing Up For A Free Trial Today >>

Take look at this infographic from our report:
?

Mobile lacks the technical consensus that enables ad targeting, delivery, and measurement to work fairly seamlessly across the desktop world.?As the mobile ad industry matures it will likely become more streamlined and simple, but for now there are innumerable actors interacting with one another and attempting to find a niche.

Here's an overview of some of the major players in the ecosystem:

To access BI Intelligence's full report on The Mobile Advertising Ecosystem, sign up for a free trial subscription here.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-advertising-ecosystem-infographic-2013-6

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Simple Online Marketing Advice To Help You Beat Your Competition

Have you formed any opinions about Internet promotion? Learn as much as you can about what you are working with and use it to promote your company. Magazines, books and videos are just a few of the resource materials available to help you learn more about online marketing. What are you going to do to start out? It is probably best to use some of the easier and more economical online advertising strategies at first.

Make sure that you implement all sorts of different software to make your Web marketing strategy as successful as possible. When your company stops updating itself, your clients may start trusting you less. On the other hand, if you demonstrate a willingness to take risks and employ cutting-edge business tactics, customers will respect your innovative practices.

In order to get into eCommerce, you will have to first build a website. This needs to be the first thing anyone does in online business. Creating a highly functional and professional site now means less maintenance and fewer headaches later.

Get feedback at every stage. This can be crucial to your success because your perception of how your site looks or how your pricing is may not be the perception of others. Ask peers, family or potential clients for feedback. Take all feedback under advisement and make any changes that you see fit.

To trick people into clicking on ads, create a discreet image that links to a page describing the product you are selling. It is possible to utilize text that is similar to that used in your articles and insert the image toward the end of your articles. Most people won?t have any suspicion that this is an ad.

You need to be willing to put in a bit of time to learn the basics of website design. You can look up a lot of information online about learning HTML, CSS or other things that go into web design. Even if you can only spend a little bit of time on it each day you should.

Creating an effective user interface where customers can view your products is important for variety and overall success. It is important to incorporate variety while still maintaining a structured page format.

Get ready to start experimentation with your newly learned Internet promotion ideas. Apply what you just read to your own business. You can begin changing your plan to serve your purposes. After taking these steps, you can be successful.

Source: http://internetmarketingforums.net/?p=173

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Carole Brody Fleet: The Changing Face Of The Widowed: What DO Widowed Really Look Like?

When someone says the word "widowed" to you, what is the first image that enters your mind? If referring to a widowed woman, chances are the image is of someone in her golden years who is perennially dressed in black. Similarly, a widower is also thought of as one who is somewhat older and likely looking for a new wife approximately 20 minutes after his beloved has passed away.

Even though stereotypes exist because on some level they are based in fact, the reality is that the image of the widowed must be broadened and it must be broadened dramatically. How do I know? Because I, along with millions of others in the widowed community have heard the following phrases too many times to count:

**"You're too young to be a widow".
**"How can you be widowed?"
**"You're a widow? REALLY? Stay away from me!" (usually said while making a cross with two fingers)
**"You're widowed? You sure don't look like it".

Phrases like these (and many more like them) made me ask at long last:

What do widowed really look like to the world at large?

In my continuing quest to break the stereotype of how the widowed are viewed, allow me to introduce you to this wonderful community as entirely and as all-inclusively as is possible:

We are not the image of widowed that the world purports us to be.
No widowed look exactly the same.
No widowhood looks exactly the same.
Therefore, no healing journey or healing timeline is exactly the same.

There is no "minimum age requirement" involved with widowhood.
Widowhood does not discriminate and is arbitrary in its attack.
Our beloveds were lost suddenly.
Our beloveds died after the ravages of long-term illness or infirmity.
Yes, we have many older widowed sisters and brothers in our community...
But not all widowed were married for many decades.
Not all widowed see twilight years with their spouses.

We come from both genders, in all age groups and from all walks.
We are opposite-sex spouses and we are same-sex spouses.
We were engaged and death stole our beloved away before we had the opportunity to walk down an aisle.
We were in long-term relationships that people around us easily dismiss; stating that it should be "easier" for us to get over the death of our beloveds because we "weren't really a couple".

We have adult children.
We have young children.
We were left pregnant.
We never had the chance to have children at all.

We are retired from the workplace
We are still in the workplace and must return to work while still in the midst of grieving.
We are faced with returning to the workplace after staying at home with our children and are unsure of our place in a professional world.

We are faced with a life that we aren't sure how to live.
We likely know no one to talk to that really understands.
We have questions about this new life that we have been handed; questions that we want to ask so badly, but are afraid to because of what other people may say or think.

We wear black because it is a fashion statement; not because we are in perpetual mourning.
We celebrate when we accomplish something new; whether it is fixing something in the house or going out for a meal on our own.
We wish you would call.
We wish you would mention their name.
We cry when no one is looking.
We also laugh because it feels good to do so once again - but laughing again does not mean that we have forgotten who and what we have lost.

We take baby steps into a life that we did not sign up for; yet are left behind to live.
We want to live fully again and are not sure how to go about doing so.
We are derided (and worse) by those whom we once trusted and thought would always be a source of support for us and for our children.
We are also loved and supported by incredibly special people in our lives without whom we would be lost and our Healing Journeys would be impossibly empty.

We do not want to be looked at peculiarly.
We do not want to be treated as though we carry a contagious disease called Death.
We do not want pity.
We simply want help without reproach.
We want education without lecture.
We want support without condition or negative opinion.
We need our community of peers who understand without question.
Because...we're still here.
And we matter too.

How does a stereotype fade into oblivion and take its place in the Land of the Obsolete? It starts with those who surround the widowed community; those in a position of providing consolation and comfort. The next time you meet a widowed person, resist the temptation to make remarks about how they don't look like a "typical widow/er" or reminding them how many decades that had with their beloved prior to their death and how "lucky" they should feel. Instead, simply take them by the hand, look into their eyes and say, "I'm so very sorry -- I cannot imagine the pain that you are in right now". It will help more than you will ever know.

Carole's latest book, "Happily Even After..." has won the prestigious Books for a Better Life Award. For more information about Carole Brody Fleet and Widows Wear Stilettos, please visit www.widowswearstilettos.com

Follow on Facebook at Widows Wear Stilettos
Follow on Twitter: @WidowsStilettos

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-brody-fleet/widowed-changing-face_b_3482374.html

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Apple has released beta 2 of iOS 7 for developers.

Apple has released beta 2 of iOS 7 for developers. There doesn't seem to be anything specific or new other than bug fixes and improvements. Download at your leisure. [Apple]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/like-clockwork-apple-has-released-beta-2-of-ios-7-for-559863719

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Kathryn Fiore Released from the Hospital

The Wedding Band actress and her husband Gabriel Tigerman welcomed their first child together on Tuesday, May 28, the couple confirm.

Source: http://feeds.celebritybabies.com/~r/celebrity-babies/~3/jYDEPtAZ6VU/

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Apple?s iOS 7 beta 2 to be released today

DEAR ABBY: I was taken away from my parents at 13 and placed into foster care, where I stayed until I aged out at 21. My biological mother is a drug addict who abandoned me to my father when I was 11. She never tried to contact me while I was in care.I am now 24 and she won't leave me alone. She sends Facebook messages that alternate between begging me to let her get to know me, and condemning me for being vindictive and not having forgiveness in my heart. Abby, this woman exposed me to drugs and all manner of seedy people and situations. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/apple-ios-7-beta-2-released-today-144521692.html

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National Electric Mobility Mission Plan - IAS OUR DREAM

The principal end objectives of the National Mission for Electric Mobility (NMEM) are?

• National energy security,?
• mitigation of the adverse impact of vehicles on the environment and?
• growth of domestic manufacturing capabilities.?

The NEMMP 2020, the mission document for the NMEM that was approved by the National Council for Electric Mobility (NCEM) on 29th August, 2012, sets the vision, lays the targets and provides the joint Government ? industry vision for realizing the huge potential that exists for full range of efficient and environmentally friendly electric vehicle (including hybrids) technologies by 2020.?

The NEMMP 2020 is a well researched document and relies on in-depth primary data based study conducted jointly by the Government and the Industry which indicates that high latent demand for environmentally friendly electric vehicle technologies exists in the country. As per these projections, 6-7 million units of new vehicle sales of the full range of electric vehicles, along with resultant liquid fuel savings of 2.2 ? 2.5 million tonnes can be achieved in 2020. This will also result in substantial lowering of vehicular emissions and decrease in carbon di-oxide emissions by 1.3% to 1.5% in 2020 as compared to a status quo scenario.?

However, in view of the significant barriers that exist today for these frontier technologies, the global experience indicates that this is an area where Governments need to focus their efforts and provide support that is necessary for creation of the eco system and viable self sustaining business in the near future. This includes providing initial impetus through demand support measures that facilitate faster consumer acceptance of these expensive newer technologies. In addition, Government will also need to facilitate automotive R&D and put in place charging infrastructure. It is estimated that the Government will need to provide support to the tune of Rs 13000 ? Rs 14000 Crore over the next 5-6 years. The industry will also need to match this with a much larger investment for developing the products and creating the manufacturing eco-system.?

The NEMMP 2020 projections also indicate that the savings from the decrease in liquid fossil fuel consumption as a result of shift to electric mobility alone will far exceed the support provided thereby making this a highly economically viable proposition. Therefore on all counts encouraging the faster adoption of hybrid & electric vehicles and their manufacture in India is a wise investment for our future generations.?

NMEM is amongst the most significant interventions of the Government that promises to transform the automotive paradigm of the future by lessening the dependence on fossil fuels, increasing energy efficiency of vehicles and by providing the means to achieve ultimate objective of cleaner transportation that is compatible with sustainable renewable energy generation. This Intervention will also help encourage the Indian Automotive Industry to shift to newer, cleaner technologies so that it builds its future competitive advantage around environmentally sustainable products, high end technologies, innovation and knowledge.?

The implementation and roll out of the NEMMP 2020 will be done through various specific schemes, interventions, policies that are currently under formulation and will be considered by the Government in the near future.?

Source: http://swapsushias.blogspot.com/2013/06/national-electric-mobility-mission-plan.html

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Week in review: Apple TV update, RSS after Google Reader, Insta-vine and more!

Things have started to settle back into some kind of normality following the intensity of WWDC week, but there has still been plenty going on to keep us all busy. This week we saw an Apple TV update that brought some additional channels to the set-top box, the RSS feed market opens up a little more just a week out from Google Reader's shutdown, and Instagram does Vine, and adds video (with filters) to their massive social photo sharing network. This is the week that was.

Facebook had a press event scheduled for this week -- just an hour before Samsung held their big Premiere 2013 event in London -- and for a while it was shrouded in mystery. The invites went out by regular 'snail mail' and didn't seem to hint at much. Then, right at the start of the week it was rumored that Instagram might be trying to out-do Vine by adding video. Come Thursday, that's just what we got. 15 second video clips, filters, and Instagram's massive network to share it on. Thankfully, the updated app also comes with a way to shut off auto-play.

• Instagram adds video including stabilization and...filters!
• How to disable video auto-play in Instagram for iPhone

Apple TV received a software update this week that added a selection of new channels, including ESPN and HBO:GO. Qello, Crunchyroll and Sky News rounded out the new channels, but what was received still comes as a disappointment to some. You have to be a HBO or ESPN subscriber to use their channels, Qello is also a subscription service, and in the UK at least, Sky News is a free-to-view television channel. But, any love for the Apple TV is better than no love at all.

Our own Peter Cohen also weighed in with some good thoughts on the state of the Apple TV following this latest update.

• Apple TV update adds HBO Go, WatchESPN, and more
• Apple TV keeps users from cutting the cable TV cord

We're little over a week out from Google's scheduled shutdown of their Reader RSS service, and the race to to replace continues. This week saw the early favorite Feedly take the next step towards becoming an all out replacement service by launching Feedly Cloud, with Newsify becoming the first third-party app on iOS to use their API. AOL also quietly emerged as the latest contender in the space, with the news emerging that they will begin accepting invites for their own Reader service from Monday June 24.

• Feedly launches 'Feedly Cloud,' Newsify updated to support new Google Reader replacement
• AOL Reader ready to step into the light following Google's departure

We had a couple of big name game releases for iOS and Mac this week. First up XCOM: Energy Unknown saw it's iPad debut promising a full console port designed for the mobile environment. It isn't cheap, but it's definitely a premium title that we're excited to have on iOS.

Also this week Rockstar Games announced that Max Payne 3 would finally be coming to the Mac. Not a particularly new title, it's a case of better late than never for Max Payne 3 but is still a welcome addition to the Mac gaming stable.

• XCOM: Enemy Unknown now available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad
• Rockstar Games releasing Max Payne 3 for Mac on June 20

Now we're clear of WWDC, the iMore team has begun dissecting all that we saw unveiled, starting with iOS 7. If you missed them the first time around, be sure to drop by and give the posts below a read.

• iOS 7 and a second coat of paint
• iOS 7 and the state of the jailbreak: Is there still a need?

And of course, this week was Apps week on Talk Mobile 2013. Some really great discussions came about from all the great readers across Mobile Nations, but if you missed any of it hit the Talk Mobile link at the top of any of the sites to recap on all the weeks great content.

That's it for another seven days. This was just a taster of the last weeks news, but be sure to drop into the comments and let us know what stood out for you!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/8AmSMUmmB_A/story01.htm

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Taliban kill 10 foreign climbers, Pakistani guide

Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

FILE - In this May 4, 2004 file photo, Nanga Parbat, the ninth highest mountain in the world, is seen from Karakorum Highway leading to neighboring China in Pakistan's northern area. Gunmen wearing police uniforms killed 11 foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn Sunday, June 23, 2013 as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan, officials said. (AP Photo/Musaf Zaman Kazmi, File)

Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist, who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death nine foreign tourists and one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

Pakistani rescue workers unload the casket of a foreign tourist who was killed by Islamic militants, from an ambulance to shift in a morgue of local hospital in Islamabad, Pakistan, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Islamic militants wearing police uniforms shot to death foreign tourists and at least one Pakistani before dawn as they were visiting one of the world?s highest mountains in a remote area of northern Pakistan that has been largely peaceful, officials said. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed)

ISLAMABAD (AP) ? Islamic militants disguised as policemen killed 10 foreign climbers and a Pakistani guide in a brazen overnight raid against their campsite at the base of one of the world's tallest mountains in northern Pakistan, officials said.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed it carried out the attack at Nanga Parbat to avenge the death of their deputy leader in a U.S. drone strike last month.

The area has largely been peaceful, hundreds of kilometers (miles) from the Taliban's major sanctuaries along the Afghan border. But the militant group, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government for years, has shown it has the ability to strike almost anywhere in the country.

The Taliban began their attack by abducting two local guides to take them to the remote base camp in Gilgit-Baltisan, said Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. One guide was killed, and the other has been detained for questioning. The attackers disguised themselves by wearing uniforms used by the Gilgit Scounts, a paramilitary force that patrols the area, Khan said.

Around 15 gunmen attacked the camp at around 11 p.m. Saturday, said the Alpine Club of Pakistan, which spoke with the surviving guide, Sawal Faqir. They began by beating the mountaineers and taking away any mobile and satellite phones they could find, as well as everyone's money, said the club in a statement.

Some climbers and guides were able to run away, but those that weren't were shot dead, said the club. Faqir was able to hide a satellite phone and eventually used it to notify authorities of the attack.

Attaur Rehman, the home secretary in Gilgit-Baltistan, said 10 foreigners and one Pakistani were killed in the attack. The dead foreigners included three Ukrainians, two Slovakians, two Chinese, one Lithuanian, one Nepalese and one Chinese-American, according to Rehman and tour operators who were working with the climbers. Matt Boland, the acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, confirmed that an American citizen was among the dead, but could not say whether it was a dual Chinese national.

The shooting ? one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in recent years ? occurred in a stunning part of the country that has seen little violence against tourists, although it has experienced attacks by radical Sunni Muslims on minority Shiites in recent years.

Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan claimed responsibility for the attack, saying their Jundul Hafsa faction carried out the shooting as retaliation for the death of the Taliban's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman, in a U.S. drone attack on May 29.

"By killing foreigners, we wanted to give a message to the world to play their role in bringing an end to the drone attacks," Ahsan told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.

The U.S. insists the CIA strikes primarily kill al-Qaida and other militants who threaten the West as well as efforts to stabilize neighboring Afghanistan. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama outlined tighter restrictions on the highly secretive program.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who wants to pursue peace talks with militants threatening his country, has insisted the U.S. stop the drone strikes, saying they violate Pakistan's sovereignty and are counterproductive because they often kill innocent civilians and stoke anti-U.S. sentiment in this nation of 180 million people.

Sharif responded to the attack on the camp by vowing "such acts of cruelty and inhumanity would not be tolerated and every effort would be made to make Pakistan a safe place for tourists."

Officials expressed fear the attack would deal a serious blow to Pakistan's tourism industry, already struggling because of the high level of violence in the country.

The interior minister promised to take all measures to ensure the safety of tourists as he addressed the National Assembly, which passed a resolution condemning the attack.

"A lot of tourists come to this area in the summer, and our local people work to earn money from these people," said Syed Mehdi Shah, the chief minister of Gilgit-Baltistan. "This will not only affect our area, but will adversely affect all of Pakistan."

He said the base camp was cordoned off by police and paramilitary soldiers after the attack, and a military helicopter searched the area.

Volodymyr Lakomov, the Ukrainian ambassador to Pakistan, also condemned the attack and said, "We hope Pakistani authorities will do their best to find the culprits of this crime."

Many foreign tourists stay away from Pakistan because of the country's reputation as being a dangerous place. But a relatively small number of intrepid foreigners visit Gilgit-Baltistan during the summer to marvel at the towering peaks in the Himalayan and Karakoram ranges, including K2, the second-highest mountain in the world.

A few try to climb them. The world's ninth-highest mountain, Nanga Parbat is 8,126 meters (26,660 feet) tall and is notoriously difficult to summit. It is known as the "killer mountain" because of numerous mountaineering deaths in the past.

Pakistan has very close ties with neighboring China and is sensitive to any issue that could harm the relationship. Pakistani officials have reached out to representatives from China and Ukraine to convey their sympathies, the Foreign Ministry said.

The government suspended the chief secretary and top police chief in Gilgit-Baltistan following the attack and ordered an inquiry into the incident, said Khan, the interior minister.

The shooting was one of the worst attacks on foreigners in Pakistan in the last decade. A suicide attack outside a hotel in the southern city of Karachi killed 11 French engineers in 2002. In 2009, gunmen attacked the Sri Lankan cricket team in the eastern city of Lahore, killing six Pakistani policemen, a driver and wounding several players.

___

Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar contributed to this report from Peshawar, Pakistan.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-23-Pakistan/id-f39f3ce044d34377b0e54e3ccd7183fc

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By taking in Snowden, Ecuador would defy US again

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) ? President Rafael Correa of Ecuador embraces his role as a thorn in Washington's side, railing against U.S. imperialism in speeches and giving WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange refuge in his nation's embassy in London.

But nothing Correa has done to rankle the United States is likely to infuriate as much as granting the asylum being sought by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who faces espionage charges back home after revealing details of two highly secret surveillance programs.

WikiLeaks, which has been assisting Snowden, said Sunday that he formally requested asylum from Ecuador. Ecuador's foreign minister confirmed receiving the request, and analysts said the precedent set by Assange's case suggested Correa would honor it.

Snowden flew from Hong Kong to Moscow on Sunday, and Aeroflot confirmed that he was booked to fly to Cuba on Monday. The reports said he was then booked on a flight to Venezuela, another South American country whose government has touchy relations with Washington.

Both Cuba and Venezuela previously had been rumored as possible destinations for Snowden, although they now appeared more likely to be only transit points on the way to Ecuador.

"Correa may find it hard to resist the temptation to get increased attention and seize this opportunity to provoke and defy the U.S.," said Michael Shifter, president of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. "Correa is confrontational and relishes fights. Should he ultimately grant Snowden asylum, one hopes that Correa has thought through the likely consequences of such a decision."

Taking in Snowden certainly would increase Correa's popularity among those who see him as a champion of open information, help him counter criticism of a new media law that some call an assault on freedom of speech in Ecuador and cement his name as a leading voice of opposition to U.S. foreign policy.

But it could threaten preferential access to U.S. markets for Ecuadorean goods under the U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act, and strain already shaky ties between two nations that only last year re-established full diplomatic relations at the ambassadorial level.

Some 45 percent of Ecuadorean exports went to the United States last year, accounting for about 400,000 jobs in the small nation.

Giving Snowden asylum for leaking secret information would be "irresponsible," former Ecuadorean diplomat Mauricio Gandara said.

"It would be an illegal act, because what he has done is a crime in both the United States and Ecuador," said Gandara, who was Ecuador's ambassador in London. "It is a confrontation with the people and government of the United States and both (political) parties. It is an unnecessary conflict."

Ecuadorean analyst Grace Jaramillo said Washington takes the Snowden case more seriously than Assange's because it involves an internal leak of intelligence activities that otherwise operate in total secrecy.

"The United States will keep pushing until the end for Snowden to be handed over, and could even resort to commercial sanctions or direct intervention if the case becomes difficult," Jaramillo said.

Yet, granting him safe passage and refuge has appeal for Ecuador as well as Cuba and Venezuela, which have all been criticized for rules limiting independent media.

"This is a case in which I think the U.S. does not look all that good," said David Smilde, a Venezuela expert at the University of Georgia.

"I think it's quite useful for either Venezuela or Ecuador to grant a person like this asylum, because it allows them to sort of deflect attention towards the United States and the United States' own shortcomings," Smilde said.

The Cuban state controls all TV, radio and newspapers. Venezuela has done things like forcing TV stations off the air by not renewing licenses and detaining people for tweets deemed destabilizing. Ecuador's media law, approved last week, establishes official media overseers, imposes sanctions for besmirching personal reputations and limits private ownership to a third of radio and TV licenses.

But Cuba and Venezuela are both in the midst of quiet thaws in long-chilly ties with the United States, and taking in Snowden would likely damage those efforts.

Last week, Cuba and the United States held talks on restarting direct mail service, and announced that a separate sit-down to discuss immigration issues will be held in Washington on July 17.

Diplomats and officials from both countries also report far greater cooperation in behind-the-scenes dealings, including during a brief incident involving a Florida couple who sought asylum in Cuba after kidnapping their own children. Cuba worked with U.S. officials to quickly send the couple back to face justice.

Philip Peters, a longtime Cuba analyst, said allowing Snowden to pass through Cuban territory would not necessarily doom rapprochement, though he acknowledged the fallout would be unpredictable.

"My guess is that it would be a blip, because Cuba, by allowing him to pass through Cuban territory, is hardly embracing his actions, or sheltering him or giving him asylum," Peters said.

It's the same story for Venezuela, which earlier this month agreed to high-level negotiations on restoring ambassadorial relations and easing more than a decade of sour ties. That announcement came after a meeting in Guatemala between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua.

Caracas has huge commercial dealings with the United States, which remains the No. 1 buyer of Venezuela's oil.

"It's much better for President Nicolas Maduro that (Snowden) is not going to Venezuela," said Gregory Weeks, a political scientist specializing in Latin America at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. "It's something that Maduro really doesn't want to have to deal with, whereas Correa, he's already in it (by giving Assange asylum). So of all the places to go, Ecuador is logical."

Being placed on the international stage by Snowden's asylum bid drew mixed reactions from Ecuadoreans.

"People who steal information or any other thing should face the consequences, and Ecuador shouldn't get involved," said Maria Jimenez, a 42-year-old homemaker.

Jorge Rojas Cruzatti, a 34-year-old web designer, disagreed.

"I'm proud of my country ... and more than pride, I'm glad that human rights are being protected," he said. "Other countries wouldn't dare grant this type of support to citizens who are helping protect freedom of expression."

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Associated Press writers Gonzalo Solano in Quito, Ecuador; Paul Haven in Havana; Vivian Sequera in Bogota, Colombia; and Luis Andres Henao in Santiago, Chile, contributed to this report.

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Peter Orsi on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Peter_Orsi

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taking-snowden-ecuador-defy-us-again-090726069.html

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