Red Sox owner enters $70M deal for Boston Globe

BOSTON (AP) ? Businessman John Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, has entered into an agreement to buy The Boston Globe for $70 million, a massive drop from its record $1.1 billion price two decades ago.

The impending purchase from The New York Times Co. marks Henry's "first foray into the financially unsettled world of the news media," the Globe said early Saturday. The deal will give Henry the 141-year-old newspaper, its websites and affiliated companies, it said.

The Times announced in February it was putting the Globe and related assets up for sale four years after calling off a previous attempt to sell it. The company's CEO said at the time selling the Globe would help the company focus attention on The New York Times brand.

Times spokeswoman Eileen Murphy confirmed the planned sale of the Globe and other media properties to Henry. The Times said the all-cash sale, expected to close in 30 to 60 days, includes BostonGlobe.com, Boston.com, The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, Telegram.com, the direct mail marketing company Globe Direct and the company's 49 percent interest in Metro Boston, a free daily newspaper for commuters.

Henry, in a statement published by the Globe, cited the "essential role that its journalists and employees play in Boston, throughout New England, and beyond."

"The Boston Globe's award-winning journalism as well as its rich history and tradition of excellence have established it as one of the most well respected media companies in the country," Henry said.

Henry said he would reveal details about his plans for the Globe in the next few days.

The Times bought the Globe from the family of former Globe executive Stephen Taylor in 1993 for what it said was the highest price paid for an American newspaper. The Globe and other newspapers have faced difficulties in recent years as advertisers have cut spending on newspapers and moved more ads online. Still, the Globe is a journalistic institution in New England and was lauded for its coverage of the April bombings at the Boston Marathon.

A round of cost-cutting in 2009, which involved pay cuts, helped put the newspaper on better financial footing and prompted the Times to call off a planned sale. In late 2011, the Globe started charging for access to its online version at BostonGlobe.com, which helped to boost circulation revenues.

The Times company doesn't separate Globe revenue from New York Times revenue in its financial statements. But the Globe had an average weekday circulation of 230,351 in the six months through September, up 12 percent from a year ago, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The newspaper's increase in digital subscriptions more than offset declines in print. But the total is still down significantly from the nearly 413,000 it boasted in September 2002.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/red-sox-owner-enters-70m-deal-boston-globe-072420758.html

fisker atlantic social darwinism

The Shatered Lands

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A land shattered by a war of nations .

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?The Shatered Lands?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.

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chrono

Member for 1 years

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/5TG_jtZB_2M/viewtopic.php

Butch Jones

Party in Tunisian ruling coalition demands new government

By Tarek Amara

TUNIS (Reuters) - A secular party in Tunisia's ruling Islamist-led coalition demanded a unity government on Monday to defuse a deepening political crisis, hours after the army sealed a square in the capital where protesters had clashed.

Tensions have been mounting over opposition efforts to oust the government following last week's assassination of a leftist politician, the second such killing in six months.

Soldiers blocked off the central Bardo square in Tunis, declaring it a "closed military zone" after pro- and anti-government protesters threw rocks at each other.

The secular Ettakatol party called for the coalition led by the Islamist Ennahda party to step down.

"We have called for the dissolution of the government in favor of a unity government that would represent the broadest form of consensus," Lobni Jribi, a party leader, told Reuters.

"If Ennahda refuses this proposal, we will withdraw from the government."

The threat by one of its own allies will ratchet up pressure on Ennahda, which has resisted opposition demands for the government's fall, and could encourage further defections.

Education Minister Salem Labyedh, an independent, has offered his resignation to the prime minister, local media said.

Tunisians fear they may be plunging into one of the worst crises in their political transition since autocratic leader Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali was forced to flee by a 2011 uprising that sparked protests across the Arab world.

Security forces sealed Bardo square, located outside the transitional Constituent Assembly, with barbed wire and fencing.

The assembly's head, Mustafa Ben Jaafar, belongs to Ettakatol. He has said it is only weeks away from completing a long-delayed draft constitution to be put to a referendum.

The secular opposition, emboldened by the Egyptian army's ousting of an Islamist president this month, is now rejecting all concessions and reconciliation efforts by the government.

It has called for the 217-member Constituent Assembly to be dissolved. In the last few days, 70 lawmakers have left the body and to set up a sit-in protest outside its headquarters.

In the southern city of Sidi Bouzid, angry protesters tried to storm municipal offices to stop employees from going to work, residents said, sparking clashes with Ennahda supporters.

The army intervened to protect the offices and police fired tear gas, but residents said thousands of demonstrators were gathering in the southern city, the cradle of Tunisia's revolt.

Opposition leaders say they might set up a rival "salvation government", an idea they will discuss later on Monday.

"DESTRUCTION OF THE STATE"

Noureddine Bhiri, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ali Larayedh, said opposition protests were tantamount to calling for "destruction of the state" at a moment when the government was trying to deal with the aftermath of the assassinations.

Bhiri challenged the opposition call for a new government, saying it had offered no vision for running the country.

"What are the alternatives that they want after dissolving the government? There is nothing but violence and destruction. We need to stay united to pass this phase and end terrorism."

Larayedh, who met the president and commanders of national security forces, was to address the nation later in the day.

France, Tunisia's former colonial power, called for restraint and said it was worried by recent events. It urged the Tunisian authorities "to see this transition through to the end, in a spirit of dialogue and respect for the roadmap".

In the fenced-off Bardo square, opposition sources said security forces had beaten one of the lawmakers who had quit the Constituent Assembly. He was taken to hospital.

"The prime minister will be held accountable for any drop of blood spilled in the Bardo sit-in," opposition figure Manji Rahawi said.

Both rival protest groups have vowed to return to Bardo despite the army takeover of the square, local media said.

Tunisia's powerful labor unions also met opposition parties on Monday and were to discuss the option of more strike action. On Friday, a strike to mourn leftist politician, Mohamed Brahmi, who was assassinated last week, paralyzed much of the country.

The government says Brahmi's assailants used the same weapon that killed another secular leader, Chokri Belaid, on February 6.

Its critics say it has not done enough to investigate or stop the attacks it has blamed on hardline Salafist militants.

Many joining the swelling street protests cite anger with the instability in Tunisia as well as economic stagnation.

Others are frustrated that a constitution, promised one year after the 2011 uprising, has yet to be completed and are suspicious of the Islamist-led transitional government.

(Additional reporting by Brian Love in Paris; Writing by Erika Solomon; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tensions-rise-tunisia-rival-protesters-clash-101859824.html

a wrinkle in time

RolePlayGateway?

Parallel

Children have the best imaginations. They can become anyone they want to be. They can be pirates, princesses; good or bad; they can travel the world or go to different worlds! Anything is possible. Then, as they grow older, that life disappears and the real world comes into play. People go to college, or to work and that imagination disappears much after the age of ten. It's like that world they created never existed, like they grew up. Like Neverland in Peter Pan. But what if that world did exist? What if Neverland was someone's apparent imagination and in fact, it went one step further and was a parallel universe of sorts. Or another world, even? What if it was simply when your brain reached a certain developmental stage that everything from the imagination disappeared and though that person had forgotten it, what if it was still there? Better yet, what if everyone's imaginations were unknowingly linked?

And this is where this roleplay comes into play. Five best friends that have grown up with each other. They all live in a small town, Four Oaks, Southern Texas. A place that isn't known to many unless you are close by or have passed through. In Four Oaks, there are a few ranches and farmlands and a few local stores run by the locals. No big malls or any big city folk building crazy ass skyscrapers or anything. It's just a small town where everyone knows everyone. Gossip is high and for the most part, everyone likes everyone (with a few exceptions, of course!)

Now back to the five best friends. They grew up with each other. They played together. They went on different adventures all the time. One time they were pirates down in Mediterranean Sea. The next time they were traveling by foot across a desert on the way to Australia. It was all about adventures. Their families are all good friends and live near by. They went to school together and were even in the same classes, graduating together at the age of 18. But it changed when they went to college. That's when life changed and they all went their separate ways. Some went to college/university, some went traveling, some dropped out of what they were doing and went back home... either way, they separated as life took over and the real world set in.

That was when they were all 18. Seven years later they're 25 and are all coming back for various reasons one Christmas whether to see the family, sort out family affairs, etc. But the point is, they're going to be all together. And being as it's Christmas, they decide to catch up. They all agree on a meeting spot so one of them can pick them up in the car, deciding to head over to the Christmas Party the town has each year on the other side. It's only 20 minutes and they want to do something familiar, that was fun and something that could bring back memories of the great childhood memories they used to have. After all, each year they would go to this party.

Unfortunately none of them make it. The weather is particularly bad and the car has to pass a bridge over a river. There is some black ice along the road and the driver loses control, causing the car to crash into the wall and go into the river. Luckily everyone is saved and taken to hospital but all five of them are in comas.

And this is where the imagination and a parallel world comes in. When the five friends wake up, they're lying in a grassy field. The sun is shining and it's horribly hot. They are still wearing their winter clothes. The last thing they remember was going off the bridge.

---

Welcome to my roleplay. This is the first time I'm GM'ing on this site. I've being roleplaying for ten years so I'm not new to being a GM. Hopefully this will be a success and everyone will enjoy it, if people join, that is.

So, onto OOC business. I'm only going to accept FOUR characters. I'm playing the fifth. As you know, most standard cars have five seats including the drivers. Saying that, if I like more than four other character sheets, I'm sure we could squeeze one more person into the backseat or someone sitting on someone's lap. As for character sheets, I won't be accepting first come, first served. I want to collect the character sheets and see the ones that I like best. There is no limit for when I want the sheets in by as I'm away for the weekend from tomorrow lunch time GMT. I'll be back Sunday night but it might not be until Monday morning that I get back on the internet. So, take your time on your sheets. :)

Onto characters. I think it's safe to say that there is normally one bad guy, so I'm going to play that type of character as I have a great idea for it. Saying that, feel free to bring your character ideas across for good guys turning bad, good guys pretending to be bad, etc etc. Just because I'm saying that I'm taking the main role doesn't mean I'm limiting yours. :)

Now, onto the world. This is going to be hard because I don't want people running around ruining things with godly powers, nor do I want a dragon army battle. I'm welcoming all ideas on developing this world. After all it is the imagination being used so most things can happen. Feel free to throw ideas back and forth. When it comes to magic and powers though, I don't want them listed in the profile you create yet, simply because I do not know if/what powers are going to be used. I WANT my players input here too.

Now to the part everyone surely hates. The rules:

• Please, please, please be able to plot, plan and help develop this story rather than just waiting for the other players to post.
• Because there are only five of us (six at the most) I will be having a posting order so that people don't get carried away with posting.
• If you have a problem with me or another player try sorting it out in PM. If you can't come to me with the problem via PM. Please don't bring OOC problems IC though. It ruins the RP.
• If you are dropping out, tell me so I know and we're not stuck waiting.
• Please be able to use spelling and punctuation. Spelling mistakes and all that are acceptable but no text type.
• Do not God Mod, Metagame, power play etc. If you want to do something check with me and any other players involved. Want to bring in a new adventurous plot, tell us! If you know something through OOC, do not have your character know it IC unless they're supposed to know or have found it out.
• Feel free to discuss adding NPCs! I love NPCs! :)
• Please no cybering. Romance is allowed to happen by all means, but I don't want this overtaken by two players getting smutty.
• Have fun!

And finally, the character sheet!

Code: Select all

[b]Picture:[/b] [Real not cartoon or anime]
[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Age:[/b] [Everyone is 25]
[b]Personality: [A few lines basically describing what your character is like]
[b]Parallel:[/b] [What your character plans to be within this parallel world. A princess; a knight; a pirate - whatever your imagination wants you to be. Do not add powers here yet.]
[b]Talents:[/b] [Any talents your parallel character might have. Not powers. Skills they might have that come with what they've become. These will not be known IC. They will be found out through events that happen IC. Your character, and others, find them out.]
[b]Weaknesses:[/b] [Any weaknessses that your parallel character will have. Must have at least one. And these are not known by any characters IC, these will be found out by your own character and others.]
[b]Fears:[/b] [Anything your parallel character may be scared of, or what the character was scared of before they went into the parallel world]
[b]Bio:[/b] [A few brief sentences of what they did after they split up at 18.]
[b]Other:[/b] [Anything else that doesn't fit in the above categories.]

So, have fun and I look forward to seeing these characters. On a side note, it is possible that there were romances at some stage between characters in the past before they split up and went their different ways. But don't add that in yet as we won't know what five characters are joining if we get more than five applications :)

Any questions please ask me in the OOC. I promise I don't bite! Now the wait begins :)

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

sarah shahi

Halliburton to admit destroying evidence on Deepwater Horizon disaster, Justice Department says

Handout / Reuters

Fire boat response crews battled the blazing remnants of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon, off Louisiana, in April 2010.

Halliburton Energy Services has agreed to plead guilty and pay the maximum fine for destroying evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the company and the Justice Department said Thursday.

Besides agreeing to pay a $200,000 fine, Halliburton accepted three years' probation for its guilty plea to one misdemeanor count related to deletion of records.. In return, the Justice Department stipulated that it won't pursue further charges in the April 2010 explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 rig workers and caused the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

---

Halliburton, which helped run the rig, separately contributed $55 million to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a gift that both sides said was voluntary.

The settlement, which is subject to court approval, was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in New Orleans. It said employees were directed to destroy the results of Halliburton computer reconstructions of the blowout in May and June 2010.

The Justice Department said that in agreeing to plead guilty, Halliburton "has accepted criminal responsibility" for destroying the evidence. In a statement, Halliburton chose to highlight what it called "the company's significant and valuable cooperation" in the investigation.

In November, oil giant BP, which leased the rig from Transocean Ltd. of Switzerland, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and obstruction of Congress in a settlement and agreed to pay $4.5 billion in fines and penalties ? including the largest criminal fine ever, $1.256 billion. It still faces possible damages of up to $17.6 billion in separate proceedings under the Clean Water Act.

Transocean reached a settlement with the Justice Department in January in which it agreed to pay $1.4 billion in fines and penalties.

Related:

This story was originally published on Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:25 PM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663306/s/2f2acc4c/sc/24/l/0Lusnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C250C196837170Ehalliburton0Eto0Eadmit0Edestroying0Eevidence0Eon0Edeepwater0Ehorizon0Edisaster0Ejustice0Edepartment0Esays0Dlite/story01.htm

barbra streisand

You Won't Believe What Happens When You Light These Chemicals on Fire

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you mixed Mercury(II) thiocyanate (Hg(SCN)2) and Ammonium chromate (NH4)2CrO4 together and then lit it on fire? NO?! What's wrong with you? It's unbelievably hellish and impossibly alien combined with one burning force of what the horrifically kraken insane.

Read more...

Source: http://gizmodo.com/you-wont-believe-what-happens-when-you-light-these-che-831852873

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VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP

Dedicated photo printers are niche products by definition, but the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP carves out an even smaller niche than most. It's designed for easy printing from PictBridge cameras and from both Apple and Android smartphones and tablets, but can't print from a computer at all. For many, that will be enough reason to pass it by. If you just want an easy way to print from your camera or mobile device, however, it can be a good fit.

In most ways, the IPWF-P30-VP is essentially identical to the IP-P10-VP, which was the first VuPoint Photo Cube and is still available at this writing. Both are thermal dye printers for 4 by 6 photo printing, both have docks with 30-pin iThing connectors, and both let you connect and print from Android devices by USB cable.

One significant difference between the two is the dock design. The IP-P10-VP dock is recessed, so although you can plug an iPhone directly into the dock, you have to connect iPads by USB cable, the same way you connect Android devices. The dock in the IPWF-P30-VP is flush with the top of the printer and includes a raised rest behind it, so it can take iPads also. Two additional features are PictBridge support and the addition of Wi-Fi as a connection option. Note that even with Wi-Fi you can't print from a computer, however, since there's no driver available for either Windows or OS X.

The most interesting new feature in the IPWF-P30-VP is its ability to print panoramas, thanks to upgrades in the printer itself, upgraded software, and a newly introduced print cartridge, the ACS-IP-P20-VP. The IPWF-P30-VP works with the original ACS-IP-P10-VP cartridge as well, but is limited to 4-by-6 output with that cartridge. With the new cartridge, it can print at up to 4-by-16.

One complication is that VuPoint Solutions has temporarily taken the feature out of the current software at this writing. But more on that later.

Basics and Setup
At 5 by 6 by 7 inches (HWD) and only 3.1 pounds, the IPWF-P30-VP is light enough to carry easily, but it's a lot bigger than the smartphone, tablet, or camera you'll be printing from. It also needs to plug into a power outlet to work, which makes it far less portable than it would be if it could use batteries.

Setup is trivial. The print cartridges include both paper and ink, in the form of a dye roll, with a 10-photo starter cartridge installed in the printer when you buy it. Initial setup consists basically of taking the printer out of the box and plugging it in. Replacing the cartridge is also easy: slide the old cartridge out and the new cartridge in.

According to VuPoint Solutions, the IPWF-P30-VP dock works with iPhone?models 4S, 4, 3GS, and 3G; the iPad, iPad2, and third-generation iPads; and the second- through fourth-generation of iPod touch. The USB connector works with all the same models, plus the iPhone 5, the fourth-generation iPad, the iPad mini, the fifth-generation iPad Touch, and Android smartphones and tablets using version 2.0 and above of the Android OS. In addition, the printer works over Wi-Fi with this full list of models, and it works with PictBridge Cameras.

To print from a camera, you connect by USB cable and print using the camera's PictBridge commands. To print from a mobile device, you first download the appropriate version of the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube Wi-Fi app. Then you can run the app; pick a photo to print; connect to the printer by docking, using a USB cable, or using a Wi-Fi connection; and then print.

One surprising oversight is that there doesn't seem to be a way for the printer to work with a phone that offers Wi-Fi Direct, so the only way to use Wi-Fi is by connecting through a Wi-Fi access point on your network. More precisely, VuPoint Solutions couldn't come up with a way to make the printer work with Wi-Fi Direct, although the company also couldn't definitively confirm that it can't be done.

A more annoying issue is that printing from the phone over a USB connection can be frustrating. Most of the time the USB connection worked as promised in my tests, but occasionally the app couldn't find the printer even though the phone was connected to the printer and charging. Turning both the printer and phone off and then on seemed to solve the problem, but I ran into it several times.

VuPoint Solutions confirmed that this is a known issue. The company also says that the problem is limited to USB connections with phones, which is consistent with my testing. I didn't see the problem with either a Wi-Fi connection or a PictBridge camera.

Speed and Photo Sizes
For my tests, printing from a Samsung Galaxy S3 and a Canon PowerShot S60 camera, print speed for 4 by 6s ranged from 1 minute 12 seconds to 1:34. These results aren't comparable to our standard tests, because we couldn't print from a computer. As a point of reference, however, the Editors' Choice Epson PictureMate Charm took 43 to 52 seconds printing from the same camera.

Panoramas are a special case. What lets the IPWF-P30-VP print different size photos is that the 4-inch wide paper is in a continuous roll. The printer includes a paper cutter that can cut the roll where needed. In addition to printing standard format photos at 4 by 6, the Photo Cube Wi-Fi app lets you print panoramic photos at 4 by 6, 4 by 11, or 4 by 16.

For any of these sizes you can zoom in on the photo to print only part of it or zoom out to print more of the photo, with white space above and below. You can also drag the photo left or right on screen to adjust which part prints. I timed the 4 by 11 prints at 2:22 and the 4 by 16 at 3:30.

Output Quality, and Other Issues
Output quality is not a strong point. Photos in my tests tended to loose details based on shading in both light and dark areas. In addition, despite 300 dot per inch resolution with no dithering, many of the photos had a slightly soft focus, which is often an issue for thermal dye printers. Even so, most photos were acceptable by most people's standards, and best described as snapshot quality overall.

Panoramic photos, which are printed in sections, showed vertical lines between the sections in my tests and, in some cases, an obvious color shift from one section to the next. As I was finishing up this review, VuPoint Solutions noticed the problem independently and addressed it by removing the ability to print panoramic photos from its latest upgrade to Photo Cube Wi-Fi, version 3.59.

The company plans to fix the problem before reintroducing the feature, and at this writing is hoping to do that within several weeks. Until the fix is available, however, the panoramic printing will be confined to letting you create and print panoramic collages of 4 by 6 photos.

Also demanding mention is cost per photo. With the cartridge price of $19.99 street for 36 photos, the cost per 4 by 6 photo is 55.5 cents. You can roughly double that for 4 by 11 panoramas and roughly triple it for 4 by 16 panoramas.

It would be a lot easier to give this printer an enthusiastic recommendation if the quality were just a bit better and the USB-connection worked more reliably. Although the quality isn't suitable if you want professional level output, however, it's good enough for snapshots. More important, the panoramic print feature, once it's available in the software again, will count as a strong plus even with the quality I saw as tested.

This printer would be of interest to a lot more people if it could also print from a computer. But if what you want is easy printing from your phone, tablet, iPod, or PictBridge camera; and you also want a Wi-Fi connection option, the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube IPWF-P30-VP offers enough to at least make it worth considering. Before you buy one, however, you might want to check to make sure that the panoramic print feature has been restored to the app.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/MTQhiYquTVk/0,2817,2421955,00.asp

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3 RTJ Golf courses offer $1 per hole fees this summer

MONTGOMERY, AL (WBRC)- Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail cardholders have a chance to play three sites for just a $1 per hole this summer.

Through the end of August, cardholders can play the discounted price Monday through Thursday at Silver Lakes near Anniston and Gadsden, Highland Oaks in Dothan and Cambrian Ridge in Greenville. The cart fee for this special offer is $11.

To schedule your tee time, contact one of the three courses within seven days of play.

To learn more about the courses, please visit rtjgolf.com.

Copyright 2013 WBRC. All rights reserved.

Source: http://eastal.myfoxal.com/news/news/207373-3-rtj-golf-courses-offer-1-hole-fees-summer

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Diaz-Balart: House GOP will ?take our time? on immigration

A key House Republican on immigration reform rejected pressure from the Senate to adopt a comprehensive bill passed by the upper chamber and said Sunday that the GOP would move slowly to pass their own legislation.?

?In the House, we?re going to do it right. We?re going to do it methodically,? said Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) on CBS?s ?Face the Nation.? ?We?re not going to have to pass it to see what?s in it. We?re going to take our time.??

Diaz-Balart is a member of the Gang of Seven in the House working on a bipartisan immigration compromise.?

But immigration reform faces a tough fight in the House, where many conservative Republicans oppose the pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants included in the Senate bill and want tougher measures on border security.

The Senate bill passed with the support of 14 GOP lawmakers.?

Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) though has said the measure is dead on arrival in the House. He has also vowed not to move legislation without the support of a majority of the GOP conference.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has said he will take a piecemeal approach rather than move a comprehensive bill.?

Diaz-Balart said he believed the Republican leadership was resolved to bring legislation to the floor.?

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) said his GOP colleagues are serious about reforming the nation?s immigration system and could support legalizing some illegal immigrants but preferred to take up provisions one at a time, rather than in a comprehensive package.?

?Is there is a path to citizenship? I think there is. But I think our plan is about breaking it into separate pieces,? he said.?

But Sen. Dick Durbin, a member of the Gang of Eight who crafted the Senate bill, faulted Boehner?s approach.?

?This can?t be done by the Republican caucus in the House,? Durbin argued. ?It should be done on a bipartisan basis.?

---

Source: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/310893-immigration-faces-long-slog-in-the-house-

Joyce Brothers

Your Top Plays for Today

Your Top Plays for Today: AP's Sports Guide

__FROOME BUILDS LEAD IN TOUR

Chris Froome builds an almost unbeatable lead at Tour de France

http://apne.ws/174Ur5u

__A ROD FREE TO MEET WITH MLB INVESTIGATORS

Alex Rodriguez says he'll have a day off from his injury rehab assignment Friday ? leaving him free for a possible meeting with Major League Baseball investigators.

http://apne.ws/14JMylO

__AP SOURCE: BYNUM TO JOIN CAVS

AP Source: Cavs, Andrew Bynum agree to 2-year deal in NBA

http://m.apnews.com/ap/db_268750/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=knTDUnU1

__RASK SIGNS LONGTERM DEAL TO REMAIN WITH BRUINS

Tuukka Rask signs an 8-year contract to stay with the Boston Bruins after a strong showing in NHL playoffs

http://apne.ws/12mUvha

__BOWLERS IN HOT FORM EARLY IN ASHES SERIES

England heads into the second day of the first test with a 140-run lead over Australia after a torrid opening three sessions in which 14 wickets tumbled on Wednesday. Australia resumes at 75-4, already struggling after bowling England out for 215.

http://bit.ly/15hkftP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-plays-today-070246380.html

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Brent Bozell & The Conservative ?Not Me? Game (OliverWillisLikeKryptoniteToStupid)

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

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/318338067?client_source=feed&format=rss

hugh jackman

Who else is afraid of Battleground Texas? (Offthekuff)

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Lupe Ontiveros

Microsoft to sell 256GB Surface Pro in the US, but only through certain resellers (updated)

Did you look on Japan with envy as Microsoft launched a 256GB Surface Pro in the country, leaving other countries with modest storage? If you're American, you won't have to fret any more: Microsoft has confirmed to Engadget that there will be "limited availability" of the 256GB model in the country through its new commercial reseller program. While the company didn't say exactly which stores will carry the Surface Pro, Windows Phone Central has already spotted the new version on sale at CDW for $1,200. New orders will still take a few days to ship, but it could be worth the wait for the ultimate version of Microsoft's official tablet.

Update: Microsoft has clarified its earlier statement in an FAQ -- at least at present, you'll have to be in business, education or the public sector to get the 256GB Surface Pro.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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NKorea likely to get cold shoulder at Asia forum

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Brunei (AP) ? The upcoming regional security summit in this tiny Southeast Asian sultanate is the sort of venue where North Korea has often managed to open up sideline discussions with Seoul and Washington. This time, while there will be plenty of talk about Pyongyang, there is little chance of substantive talk with it.

North Korea has sought negotiations with the U.S. and South Korea but has ignored their demands that it first honor prior commitments to move toward nuclear disarmament. At high-level diplomatic talks beginning this weekend, it can expect the cold shoulder from those countries and others frustrated by Pyongyang's insistence on developing nuclear weapons.

After a December long-range rocket launch, a February nuclear test and weeks of threats to launch nuclear strikes against South Korea and the United States, North Korea earlier this month made a surprise offer for separate talks with its rivals. Government delegates from the two Koreas met and agreed to hold senior-level talks on non-nuclear issues, but the agreement collapsed because of a protocol dispute. The United States responded coolly to Pyongyang's appeal for direct negotiations, which some analysts view as a familiar effort to win aid in return for ratcheting down tensions.

"While it is certainly preferable for North Korea to pursue diplomatic rather than missile or nuclear tests, all of North Korea's neighbors by now are well aware of North Korea's history of diplomatic initiatives as just another tool through which North Korea has sought to consolidate gains following periods in which North Korean brinkmanship has driven political tensions to high levels," Scott Snyder, a Korea specialist at the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, wrote in a blog post.

He added that agreeing to hold talks with the North "and come back to the table as though nothing has changed since the last six-party talks were held in 2008 would imply acceptance" of Pyongyang's rocket launches and nuclear tests.

Whether or not Washington and its allies ignore Pyongyang's diplomats, North Korea's atomic aspirations are on the agenda in talks surrounding the 27-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum, which takes place Tuesday in the Bruneian capital of Bandar Seri Begawan.

A draft of the forum chairman's statement provided to The Associated Press said that those meetings would reaffirm the importance of denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula, and that most participants urged North Korea "to abide by its obligations" under U.N. Security Council resolutions and commitments made in a joint statement following six-party talks in 2005.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his counterparts from South Korea, China and Japan will attend the forum and could hold private meetings that touch on Pyongyang. North Korea is expected to send its longtime foreign minister, 80-year-old Pak Ui Chun, to the meeting, according to South Korea's Foreign Ministry.

Because the ASEAN forum gathers diplomats from all six countries involved in long-stalled nuclear disarmament negotiations ? the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas ? it has previously provided a chance to use informal, sideline talks to break stalemates over the nuclear issue.

In 2011, top nuclear envoys from the two Koreas met on the sidelines of the forum in Bali, Indonesia, and agreed to work toward a resumption of the dormant six-nation talks, though the negotiations remained stalled. The Koreas' foreign ministers held sideline talks in 2000, 2004, 2005 and 2007, and top diplomats from Pyongyang and Washington also met privately in 2004 and 2008.

North Korea will likely seek similar talks in Brunei, but South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Tai-young told reporters Tuesday that officials from Seoul aren't considering meeting the North Korean foreign minister on the sidelines. In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said Monday that he knew of no discussions planned between Kerry and Pak in Brunei, and that such talks would be "fairly unusual."

Analysts said North Korea appeared to be repeating its pattern of following aggressive rhetoric with diplomatic efforts to get outside aid and concessions.

Chang Yong Seok, an analyst at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University, said Pyongyang must do something to show it's refraining from continuing nuclear activities, such as announcing some disarmament steps, if it wants to have talks.

Despite its recent bid for diplomacy, North Korea has raised renewed worries about a nuclear program that outsiders estimate to include a handful of crude nuclear bombs. Pyongyang followed up its February nuclear test, its third since 2006, with an announcement that it planned to restore all of its atomic bomb fuel producing facilities. The February test drew widespread international condemnation and tightened U.N. sanctions, which subsequently led the North to issue a torrent of warlike threats and sharply raise tensions on the divided peninsula.

Recent satellite photos show signs of new tunnel work at North Korea's underground nuclear test site, the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies said in an analysis Tuesday. The analysis said it doesn't appear to indicate another atomic blast is imminent but suggests the country has continued to work on its nuclear weapons program even as tensions eased.

Other issues expected to draw keen media attention in Brunei include South China Sea territorial disputes and relations between the U.S. and China, the world's two biggest economies.

China has territorial disputes with the Philippines, Vietnam, Taiwan, Brunei and Malaysia over the South China Sea and its potentially oil- and gas-rich islands. Several claimants want group discussions in order to create a legally binding "code of conduct" to prevent clashes in the sea, but Beijing has not clearly stated when it will sit down with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc to discuss such a nonaggression pact.

China prefers one-on-one negotiations with each rival claimant to resolve the territorial dispute, something that would give it an advantage because of its sheer size and clout.

Southeast Asian countries believe that "having bilateral negotiations with a strong guy would be a losing game," said Bae Geung-chan, a professor at the state-run Korea National Diplomatic Academy in Seoul.

The regional forum chairman's statement said ministers welcome efforts to work toward a code of conduct, and commended ASEAN nations and China for their work to maintain peace and stability.

Analysts say China and the U.S. probably won't have sensitive talks in Brunei that could change their relations. Their leaders recently held an unusually lengthy informal summit in California, during which both countries expressed optimism that the closer personal ties forged between the leaders could stem the mistrust between the world powers.

During the summit, President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, were in broad agreement over the need for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons, according to U.S. officials.

___

Associated Press writer Jim Gomez in Manila, Philippines, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nkorea-likely-cold-shoulder-asia-forum-095914963.html

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Supreme Court clears way for gay marriage in Calif

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court has cleared the way for same-sex marriage in California by holding that defenders of California's gay marriage ban did not have the right to appeal lower court rulings striking down the ban.

The court's 5-4 vote Wednesday leaves in place the initial trial court declaration that the ban is unconstitutional. California officials probably will rely on that ruling to allow the resumption of same-sex unions in about a month's time.

The high court itself said nothing about the validity of gay marriage bans in California and roughly three dozen other states.

The outcome was not along ideological lines.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion, joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Antonin Scalia.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-clears-way-gay-marriage-calif-143302247.html

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Survivors recall Nazi-led raid on Polish village

CHLANIOW, Poland (AP) ? Henryka Jablonska's eyes well up as she recalls the moment more than six decades ago when a man in a dark uniform aimed a submachine gun at her. He pulled the trigger but the weapon wouldn't fire.

She lived, but 44 fellow villagers were killed when troops of the Nazi SS-led Ukrainian Self Defense Legion marched into this Polish farming community in July 1944 to exact revenge for an attack by resistance fighters that killed their German commander.

An Associated Press investigation revealed a commander of the unit that razed the village has been living in the United States since 1949, and survivors like Jablonska expressed bitterness that Michael Karkoc had a quiet life in Minnesota for all these years.

"What good is it now?" she said of the revelations. "He is 94 and has spent so many years in peace and surrounded by his family."

AP's evidence indicates Karkoc was in the area during the massacre at Chlaniow, and another one in the village of Pidhaitsi, currently in Ukraine ? although no records link him directly to atrocities.

Jablonska's voice wavered as she recounted that day. The soldiers fanned out across the village, she said, shooting villagers, throwing grenades into buildings and torching homes filled with women and children.

A terrified 6-year-old, Jablonska stood in the dirt road with her parents and sister amid burning houses as the man in the dark uniform aimed at her a second time.

Again, the submachine gun did not fire.

She heard others cry out "shoot them" in a foreign language she believes was Ukrainian ? words she understood because it is similar to Polish. She watched, frozen with fear, as the soldier checked his gun and tried to shoot again. Another man in black came up and told his comrade to go away because he wanted to finish off Jablonska and her family himself. He then yelled at her father to follow him ? but told Jablonska's mother to flee with her children. Hours later, her father was found dead in a cornfield with a gaping head wound and a stab wound in his chest. The bodies of two other men were nearby.

"It was something so absolutely terrible," Jablonska told AP at her modest farm house in southeastern Poland.

At his farmstead, Stanislaw Banach, 87, recalled that his father told him and his brother, Kazik, to run into the woods when they saw men in dark uniforms torching farmhouses. Reluctantly, the boys fled and hid under haystacks. Their father was found dead, his throat slit.

Banach holds out little hope that Karkoc will be brought to justice: "He is old and they will most surely say that he is too weak to stand trial," he said.

Prosecutors in Germany and Poland are looking through files to see if they have enough evidence to bring charges against Karkoc and seek his extradition. The AP investigation showed that Karkoc lied to U.S. immigration authorities about his wartime past to enter the country in 1949. Such misrepresentations in immigration applications have been used as grounds by the U.S. to deport dozens of suspected Nazi war criminals.

Poland's National Remembrance Institute, which prosecutes World War II crimes, had been aware of a commander named Karkoc from old records, but until the AP investigation had not known he was alive. Following the AP report, the institute issued a statement quoting a 2005 article by one of its historians, Marcin Majewski, stating that Karkoc was "the commander of the 2nd Company of Ukrainian Self-Defence Legion which participated, along with the entire Legion, in the pacification of Chlaniow and (the neighboring village of) Wladyslawin."

One of Karkoc's subordinates, Teodozy Dak, was handed a 25-year prison term in Poland for his role in the Chlaniow massacre, and died in prison.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/survivors-recall-nazi-led-raid-polish-village-222924760.html

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K-Rod slams door on Braves for Brewers win

Associated Press Sports

updated 8:30 p.m. ET June 22, 2013

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Two months ago, Francisco Rodriguez was out of baseball, hoping for a chance to get back to the major leagues.

Given another opportunity by the Brewers in May, Rodriguez has made it pay off. He converted his sixth straight save Saturday - the 300th of his career - to help Milwaukee beat Atlanta Braves 2-0 for the second straight day.

Rodriguez went 2-7 with a 4.38 ERA during the 2012 season and was released by the Brewers.

"A lot of people thought that I was done, that I had retired," he said. "People forgot that I was just 31- years-old. In my career, just last year was a really bad year. I know what I am capable of doing."

Rodriguez gave up one of the Braves' four hits in becoming the 25th closer to reach the 300-save milestone. He was aided by a barehanded pickup and throw by shortstop Jean Segura to get leadoff hitter Jordan Shafer.

Andrelton Simmons then singled, but Rodriguez got Jason Heyward to line out and Freddie Freeman struck out. After the strikeout, Rodriguez pumped his fist and pointed to the sky.

Rodriguez, who began the season out of baseball, was signed by Milwaukee May 16. He has converted all six of his save opportunities and has not been scored upon in 15 of his 16 appearances.

"It feels great," Rodriguez said. "You have no idea how happy and excited I am. I have to continue working hard and hopefully play for many years to come."

Rodriguez said Segura's play to start the ninth inning was key to his success on Saturday.

"It was huge, especially with the score just 2-0," he said. "Now I can go out there and attack them and put them away. That play definitely changed the whole inning."

Donovan Hand, making his first big league start, allowed only two hits in 4 2-3 innings for Milwaukee. He struck out three and walked one in helping extend Atlanta's scoreless streak to 24 innings.

Brewers manager Ron Roenicke said Hand did a great job for his first start.

"He really mixed his pitches and threw a lot of strikes," Roenicke said.

Hand, whose made eight relief appearances this year, said his goal was to pitch three or four innings.

"I felt great out there," he said. "I kept the ball out of the middle of the plate and gave my team a chance to win."

Burke Badenhop (1-3) entered after Hand walked Dan Uggla and got Chris Johnson to groundout to end the fifth.

Milwaukee has beaten Atlanta eight straight times at Miller Park, outscoring them 31-9.

Tim Hudson (4-7) lost his sixth straight decision, despite giving up just two runs and seven hits in six innings. He allowed RBI singles to Juan Francisco, in the fourth, and Aramis Ramirez, in the fifth inning.

The Braves have scored just 10 runs in Hudson's last nine starts. He has not won in those starts, his worst winless stretch of his career since an eight-start stretch in 2002.

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said the Braves are not swinging the bat well.

"We're getting on base, but when we do hit the ball hard, it's at somebody or somebody makes a good play," he said. "I feel like, at any moment, some of the at-bats that you're seeing, at any moment you're going to turn that around."

Uggla paid tribute to Rodriguez after the game.

"He's got great stuff," he said. "He throws hard, got an awesome curveball and an awesome changeup and he throws strikes. He's done it for a long time."

NOTES: The Braves last run same in the third inning of their 4-3 loss to the New York Mets on Thursday. ... Brewers RHP Marco Estrada will make a rehab start Sunday at Class A Wisconsin. Estrada has been on the disabled list since June 5 with a strained left hamstring. ... Gonzalez said RHP Brandon Beachy would throw a bullpen session next week as he continues to try to come back from Tommy John surgery in June 2012. He felt tenderness in his pitching arm during his fifth minor league start June 13. ... Brewers OF Caleb Gindl's pinch-hit single in the sixth inning was his first major league hit. ... Brewers RHP Alfredo Figaro (1-1) will start in the series finale Sunday against Atlanta (LHP) Paul Maholm (7-6).

? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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CSN Washington: Bryce Harper wants to take his rehab slowly. The Nationals want him to speed things up. Who will win this battle of wits?

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Senate sets Monday vote in key test for immigration bill

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid on Friday set a vote for Monday on a border-security deal that is expected to push a landmark U.S. immigration bill to passage by the end of next week.

The Democratic-controlled Senate is expected to pass the White House-backed bill with broad bipartisan support, sending it to the Republican-led House of Representatives, where it faces more resistance. Reid scheduled the vote after negotiators completed writing the deal into the form of an amendment.

The deal, reached on Thursday in a bid to ease border security concerns and build Republican support, would double the number of federal agents on the U.S.-Mexican border to about 40,000 and provide them more high-tech surveillance equipment, including manned and unmanned aerial vehicles.

Reid hailed the accord, saying it "would put to rest any remaining critical concerns about border security," which had been a major stumbling block.

The bill faces a major challenge in the House, where many Republicans oppose its provisions for a pathway to citizenship for up to 11 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

Critics complain that the pathway amounts to "amnesty" for lawbreakers and would attract more illegal immigrants. Backers disagree, saying it would bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows and integrate them into American society.

House Speaker John Boehner has said he will not bring any immigration bill to the floor of his chamber for consideration unless it has the support of most of his fellow Republicans.

(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro and Richard Cowan; Editing by Will Dunham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senate-sets-monday-vote-key-test-immigration-bill-183757369.html

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Taliban offers to exchange US prisoner as it seeks international support

The Taliban is trying to set itself up as a legitimate party, angering the Afghan government which has put peace talks on hold.

By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / June 21, 2013

The image of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl of Hailey, Idaho, an American soldier missing since 2009, is worn by an audience member as Bergdahl's father Bob, not pictured, speaks at the annual Rolling Thunder rally for POW/MIA awareness, in Washington, May 2012. The Taliban said yesterday it would consider releasing Bergdahl if the US released five members of the group being held at Guant?namo.

Charles Dharapak/AP/File

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? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Skip to next paragraph Ariel Zirulnick

Middle East Editor

Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?

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A Taliban spokesman said yesterday the group would consider releasing Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, an American soldier missing since 2009, if the US released five members of the Taliban being held at Guant?namo.

The swap, the spokesman implied, could be the initial step of larger peace talks that have so far proved elusive but could be nearing as the Taliban makes a bid to lessen its status as an international pariah.

Blocking the release of the five men in exchange for Sgt. Bergdahl, who has been held by militants since 2009, is concern that they could return home to organize new attacks on US troops still in Afghanistan.

The strict security conditions that the Obama administration required to prevent them from fighting again?? releasing the detainees to Qatar and barring them from leaving there ? ?scuttled the last attempt at peace talks in 2011, The New York Times reports.

The Times describes the five men in question:

Two were senior?Taliban?commanders said to be implicated in murdering thousands of Shiites in Afghanistan. When asked about the alleged war crimes by an interrogator, they ?did not express any regret and stated they did what they needed to do in their struggle to establish their ideal state,? according to their interrogators.

There is also a former deputy director of Taliban intelligence, a former senior Taliban official said to have ?strong operational ties? to various extremist militias, and a former Taliban minister accused of having sought help from Iran in attacking American forces.

The men are among the most high level detainees at Guant?namo. Without this deal, they would be among the last prisoners to be removed from the facility if it is closed, The New York Times reports. There are 18 Afghans total remaining at Guant?namo, but the others are not high level enough to be "bargaining chips."

Meanwhile, the possibility of peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government may have evaporated. CBS News reports that a senior envoy of President Hamid Karzai said the Taliban delegation "is still not sending the signals which would allow peace talks" to begin.

During a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Taliban's new office in Doha, Qatar, the group flew a flag representing the "Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan,? the name the group used during its rule over Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.

"In taking the name 'The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,' the Taliban is pretending it is a sovereign power," Ismail Qasimyaar, the government High Peace Council's chief international adviser,? told CBS News. "They are trying to give the impression that the Doha office is an embassy or quasi-diplomatic mission."

The Los Angeles Times reports that the possibility of Taliban talks is causing regional players to pay sincere attention to the group, which has become a more formidable diplomatic foe?as it becomes more politically savvy.

"It's early days, but?India's?watching this very carefully," said Rana Banerji, a New Delhi-based Central Asia expert and former Indian Cabinet Secretariat intelligence official. "The Taliban's moved on, become pretty sophisticated. Their media management is quite good, they're Internet savvy, things have moved on from 1996."?

Although the US pressured the Taliban to take down its provocative flag, "it succeeded in putting Karzai on the defensive with public relations antics and showmanship" and shining the spotlight on itself as it spoke about international cooperation, according to the Los Angeles Times.?

This is part of a broader Taliban image makeover, analysts said. The militants have softened their opposition to secular education and video technologies they once vehemently opposed as un-Islamic and embraced social media, frequently used to exaggerate the effectiveness of their attacks against international and Afghan forces or to take credit for attacks they didn't plan. Their website now issues news releases in five languages, complemented by a Twitter feed with more than 8,000 followers.

At a conference in December with Afghan officials, Taliban representatives expressed a willingness to share power and grant more rights to women, allowing them to choose their husbands, own property, attend school and hold jobs, all rights denied during Taliban rule.

Whether this is heartfelt or mere window dressing in an effort to better appeal to an increasingly educated and worldly Afghan electorate remains to be seen. Also unclear is how representative these initiatives are of different factions and generations in the Taliban.

The Taliban are trying to set themselves up well in the longterm, an analyst in Kabul told the Los Angeles Times. The US withdrawal in 2014 may not be the end of political dealings with the group.

"The Taliban vision is not 2013 or 2014, but beyond 2015," he said. "The Taliban are trying to get rid of the international and especially US sanctions and get their names removed from the black list. And they want political power in Afghanistan."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/9WDyj-LoNiY/Taliban-offers-to-exchange-US-prisoner-as-it-seeks-international-support

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One million march across Brazil in biggest protests yet

By Paulo Prada and Maria Carolina Marcello

RIO DE JANEIRO/BRASILIA (Reuters) - An estimated 1 million people took to the streets in cities across Brazil on Thursday as the country's biggest protests in two decades intensified despite government concessions meant to quell the demonstrations.

Undeterred by the reversal of transport fare hikes that sparked the protests, and promises of better public services, demonstrators marched around two international soccer matches and in locales as diverse as the Amazon capital of Manaus and the prosperous southern city of Florianopolis.

While the protests remained mostly peaceful, the growing number of participants led to occasional outbursts of violence and vandalism in some cities. In central Rio de Janeiro, where 300,000 people marched, police afterwards chased looters and dispersed people crowding into surrounding areas.

"Twenty cents was just the start," read signs held by many converging along the Avenida Paulista, the broad avenue in central S?o Paulo, referring to the bus fare reductions. Police there said 110,000 people lined the avenue.

In the capital, Brasilia, tens of thousands of protesters marched around the landmark modernist buildings that house Congress and the Supreme Court and briefly set fire to the outside of the Foreign Ministry. Police said about 80 of the protesters, some with homemade explosives, made it into the ministry building before they were repelled.

In Ribeir?o Preto, near S?o Paulo, a 20-year-old demonstrator died after a driver plowed a jeep into a crowd. Brazilian media reported hundreds of minor injuries across the country, including a Rio television reporter who recounted being hit by a rubber bullet fired by police.

The swelling tide of protests prompted President Dilma Rousseff to cancel a trip next week to Japan, her office said. The president, whose administration was caught off-guard by the rapid growth of the demonstrations, also planned an emergency meeting for Friday, a government source said.

The targets of the protests, now in their second week, have broadened to include high taxes, inflation, corruption and poor public services ranging from hospitals and schools to roads and police forces.

With an international soccer tournament as a backdrop, demonstrators are also denouncing the more than $26 billion of public money that will be spent on the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, two events meant to showcase a modern, developed Brazil.

"This is fair play," read a banner among the hordes in Brasilia, a twist on the slogan used to promote sportsmanship by FIFA, world soccer's governing body.

MULTIPLE GRIEVANCES

After the concession on transport fares on Wednesday, activist groups differed over what their next priority should be. On Facebook, Twitter and other social media, some Brazilians expressed disgust for the scattered violence and vandalism that marred some of the marches.

The competing demands of demonstrators appeared to add to the intensity of Thursday's protests.

"What am I protesting for?" asked Savina Santos, a 29-year-old civil servant in Sao Paulo. "You should ask what I'm not protesting for! We need political reform, tax reform, an end to corruption, better schools, better transportation. We are not in a position to be hosting the World Cup."

Inside Rio's iconic Maracan? stadium, soccer fans sang protest songs and showed support for the throngs of demonstrators gathering in the city. In Salvador, a northeastern city hosting another game of the soccer tournament that serves as a World Cup test run, protesters pelted a FIFA bus with rocks.

Police in Salvador, Rio, Brasilia and other cities used tear gas, pepper spray and other tools to disperse crowds. They donned riot gear and used horses, trucks and barricades to help channel the crowds and protect buildings.

The unrest comes six months before an election year and just as Brazil, after nearly a decade-long economic boom in which the country's profile soared on the global stage, enters a period of uncertainty. Economic growth of less than 1 percent last year, annual inflation of 6.5 percent and a loss of appetite for Brazilian assets among international investors have clouded what had been a feel-good era for Brazil, a country of nearly 200 million people.

Brazil's currency, the real, dropped to a four-year low on Thursday, trading as weak as 2.275 per U.S. dollar. The country's benchmark stock market index, the Bovespa, also hit a four-year low.

CHANGING POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

The protests have shaken the once solid ground under Rousseff and her ruling Workers' Party, a bloc that grew out of convulsive demonstrations by Brazil's labor movement 30 years ago. Until inflation and other economic woes began eroding her poll numbers in recent weeks, Rousseff enjoyed some of the highest approval ratings of any elected leader worldwide.

The demonstrations have been comprised of mostly middle-class, well-educated voters who do not form the bulk of Rousseff's electoral base. The president and her party have sought to get ahead of the complaints and embrace them as their own - a shift that contrasts sharply with a playbook that long relied on telling Brazilians that they had never had it so good.

With little more than a year to go before presidential and gubernatorial elections, the unrest is forcing incumbents and traditional political parties to reconsider their strategies.

(Additional reporting by Eduardo Sim?es, Caroline Stauffer, Pedro Fonseca and Jeferson Ribeiro; Editing by Todd Benson and Stacey Joyce)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hundreds-thousands-protesters-march-brazil-010615638.html

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Feds Probe Firm That Did Snowden Background Check (WSJ)

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