Rolling Stones aim to give crowd satisfaction at Glastonbury

By Belinda Goldsmith

PILTON, England (Reuters) - It might only be rock'n'roll but, 50 years on, Mick Jagger still likes it - and insists he will keep going as long as fans want to see the Rolling Stones, set to headline the Glastonbury festival on Saturday.

Jagger, who turns 70 next month, said the once-controversial band still had comment to make on what was going on in the world, even if its voice seemed tamer than it once did.

He said the Rolling Stones actually never set out to make waves in the 1960s, when their drug use, love tangles and rebellious stage attitude shocked audiences and the band was blamed for fuelling social unrest and falling moral standards.

"We just set out to be a blues band and just behaved as we always had and like kids always behave," Jagger told BBC's Radio 4 Today show on Saturday, ahead of the Stones' debut performance at Glastonbury.

"We were sort of sidetracked into this social thing by the mood of the times and of the times themselves, which were galloping on," he said.

"The last song that I wrote, that I put out, called 'Doom and Gloom' is actually mostly social comment. It's very tongue-in-cheek social comment but it's still social comment," he said.

The Rolling Stones's appearance at Glastonbury, the world's largest greenfield music festival, comes as the band celebrates 50 years in the music business, which involved a North American tour this year and some sell-out dates in the UK this summer.

Festival founder Michael Eavis, who started Glastonbury as a gathering of about 1,500 hippies on his farm in 1970, has publicly delighted in finally persuading the band to play the festival that now attracts 135,000 fans or more.

As the headline act on Saturday, the Rolling Stones will top a day that also includes performances by Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello, Primal Scream and Noah and the Whale.

Glastonbury is known for megastars but also for variety, with 2,000 acts on 58 stages over the three days.

Some of the more surprising acts this year include U.S. country music star Kenny Rogers, octogenarian British TV presenter Bruce Forsyth and a group of chanting Tibetan monks.

In the lead-up to the festival, Jagger tweeted that he would be staying in a yurt, a Mongolian-style tent, at Glastonbury, where a working farm turns into a tent city for five days, but his location remained a secret ahead of the band's performance.

Asked if his hyperactive stage performance tired him now that he is knocking 70, Jagger admitted, "occasionally", but said he had no plans to quit and would go on as long as people wanted.

But while still enjoying his career, Jagger said he had wondered in the past about doing something else, such as dancing, being a teacher or even a journalist.

"I don't feel frustrated ... but obviously, you would have liked to have done, everyone wants to have done, more things in their lives," Jagger said.

"But it's a slightly intellectually undemanding thing to do, being a rock singer but, you know, you make the best of it."

(Additional reporting by Isla Binnie; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rolling-stones-aim-crowd-satisfaction-glastonbury-001312140.html

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Ritalin for Cocaine Addiction? | Psych Central News

By Rick Nauert PhD Senior News Editor
Reviewed by John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on June 28, 2013

New research suggests a single dose of methylphenidate (brand name Ritalin) can help to improve brain function in cocaine addiction, which ultimately could make it an add-on treatment for such addictions.

Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York performed imaging studies to develop their hypothesis. They found that the drug modified connectivity in certain brain circuits that underlie self-control and craving among cocaine-addicted individuals.

The research is published in the current issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

Previous research has shown that oral methylphenidate improved brain function in cocaine users performing specific cognitive tasks such as ignoring emotionally distracting words and resolving a cognitive conflict.

Similar to cocaine, methylphenidate increases dopamine (and norepinephrine) activity in the brain, but, administered orally, takes longer to reach peak effect, giving it a lower potential for abuse.

By extending dopamine?s action, the drug enhances signaling to improve several cognitive functions, including information processing and attention.

?Orally administered methylphenidate increases dopamine in the brain, similar to cocaine, but without the strong addictive properties,? said Rita Goldstein, Ph.D., who led the research while at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in New York.

?We wanted to determine whether such substitutive properties, which are helpful in other replacement therapies such as using nicotine gum instead of smoking cigarettes or methadone instead of heroin, would play a role in enhancing brain connectivity between regions of potential importance for intervention in cocaine addiction.?

Anna Konova, a doctoral candidate at Stony Brook University, who was first author on this manuscript, added, ?Using fMRI, we found that methylphenidate did indeed have a beneficial impact on the connectivity between several brain centers associated with addiction.?

For the study,?Goldstein and her team recruited 18 cocaine-addicted individuals. Participants were then randomized to receive an oral dose of methylphenidate or placebo.

The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to measure the strength of connectivity in particular brain circuits known to play a role in addiction before and during peak drug effects. They also assessed each subject?s severity of addiction to see if this had any bearing on the results.

Methylphenidate decreased connectivity between areas of the brain that have been strongly implicated in the formation of habits, including compulsive drug seeking and craving.

The scans also showed that methylphenidate strengthened connectivity between several brain regions involved in regulating emotions and exerting control over behaviors?connections previously reported to be disrupted in cocaine addiction.

?The benefits of methylphenidate were present after only one dose, indicating that this drug has significant potential as a treatment add-on for addiction to cocaine and possibly other stimulants,? said?Goldstein.

?This is a preliminary study, but the findings are exciting and warrant further exploration, particularly in conjunction with cognitive behavioral therapy or cognitive remediation.?

Source: The Mount Sinai Hospital / Mount Sinai School of Medicine

APA Reference
Nauert PhD, R. (2013). Ritalin for Cocaine Addiction?. Psych Central. Retrieved on June 28, 2013, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06/28/ritalin-for-cocaine-addiction/56583.html

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Source: http://psychcentral.com/news/2013/06/28/ritalin-for-cocaine-addiction/56583.html

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Eminem Gets 'Open And Forthcoming' About Addiction In 'How To Make Money Selling Drugs'

Director tells MTV News about Eminem's "arresting" interview in "Drugs" doc.
By James Montgomery

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709793/eminem-how-to-make-money-selling-drugs-director.jhtml

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INSIGHT: From remote Mauritania, hacker fights for Islam worldwide

By Elise Knutsen

DAKAR (Reuters) - In Nouakchott, a dusty city wedged between the Atlantic ocean and western dunes of the Sahara, a young hip-hop fan coordinates a diverse group of hackers targeting websites worldwide in the name of Islam.

Logging on to his computer, he greets his Facebook followers with a "good morning all" in English before posting links to 746 websites they have hacked in the last 48 hours along with his digital calling card: a half-skull, half-cyborg Guy Fawkes mask.

He calls himself Mauritania Attacker, after the remote Islamic republic in west Africa from which he leads a youthful group scattered across the Maghreb, southeast Asia and the West.

As jihadists battle regional governments from the deserts of southern Algeria to the scrubland of north Nigeria, Mauritania Attacker says the hacking collective which he founded, AnonGhost, is fighting for Islam using peaceful means.

"We're not extremists," he said, via a Facebook account which a cyber security expert identified as his. "AnonGhost is a team that hacks for a cause. We defend the dignity of Muslims."

During a series of conversations via Facebook, the 23-year-old spoke of his love of house music and hip hop, and the aims of his collective, whose targets have included U.S. and British small businesses and the oil industry.

He represents a new generation of Western-style Islamists who promote religious conservatism and traditional values, and oppose those they see as backing Zionism and Western hegemony.

In April, AnonGhost launched a cyber attack dubbed OpIsrael that disrupted access to several Israeli government websites, attracting the attention of security experts worldwide.

"AnonGhost is considered one of the most active groups of hacktivists of the first quarter of 2013," said Pierluigi Paganini, security analyst and editor of Cyber Defense magazine.

An online archive of hacked Web sites, Hack DB, lists more than 10,400 domains AnonGhost defaced in the past seven months.

Mauritania, a poor desert nation straddling the Arab Maghreb and black sub-Saharan Africa, is an unlikely hacker base. It has 3.5 million inhabitants spread across an area the size of France and Germany, and only 3 percent of them have Internet access.

Much of the population lives in the capital Nouakchott, which has boomed from a town of less than 10,000 people 40 years ago to a sprawling, ramshackle city of a million inhabitants. In its suburbs, tin and cinderblock shanties battle the Sahara's encroaching dunes and desert nomads stop to water their camels.

In the past six months experts have noted an increase in hacking activity from Mauritania and neighbouring countries. In part, that reflects Mauritania Attacker's role in connecting pockets of hackers, said Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware.

"This one figure, Mauritania Attacker, is kind a figure who brings many of these groups together," Herberger told Reuters.

MODERN TECHNOLOGY, ANCIENT MISSION

Mauritania Attacker says his activities are split between cyber cafes and his home, punctuated by the five daily Muslim prayers.

Well-educated, he speaks French and Arabic among other languages and updates his social media accounts regularly with details of the latest defacements and email hacks. He would not say how he made a living.

His cyber threats are often accented with smiley faces and programmer slang, and he posts links to dancefloor hits and amusing Youtube videos. But his message is a centuries-old Islamist call for return to religious purity.

"Today Islam is divisive and corrupt," he said in an online exchange. "We have abandoned the Koran."

Mauritanian Attacker aims to promote "correct Islam" by striking at servers hosted by countries they see as hostile to sharia law. "There is no Islam without sharia," he said.

Mauritania is renowned for its strict Islamic law. The sale of alcohol is forbidden and it is one of only a handful of states where homosexuality and atheism are punished by death.

The quality of Mauritania's religious scholars and koranic schools, or madrassas, attract students from around the world. Mauritanians have risen to prominent positions in regional jihadist groups, including al Qaeda's north African branch AQIM.

As hackers from the region organise into groups, the Maghreb is emerging as a haven for hacktivism as it lacks the laws and means to prosecute cyber criminals, Herberger said.

"There's a great degree of anonymity and there's a great degree of implied impunity," he said.

Security sources in Nouakchott said they were not aware of the activities of Mauritania Attacker.

He says he supports Islamists in Mauritania but opposes his government's support for the West, which sees the country as one of its main allies in its fight against al Qaeda in the region.

With tech-savy young Muslims in the Maghreb chafing under repressive regimes, analysts anticipate a rise in hacktivism.

Hacking is a way for young people to express religious and political views without being censored, says Aaron Zelin, fellow at the Washington Institute.

"These societies are relatively closed in terms of people's ability to openly discuss topics that are taboo," he said.

For disillusioned youth in countries like Mauritania, where General Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz seized power in a 2008 coup before winning elections the next year, hacking has become "a way of expressing their distaste with status quo," Zelin said.

JURY OUT ON GROUP'S REACH

AnonGhost's global reach is its greatest weapon, but it has yet to stage a major attack on a Western economic target.

Most of AnonGhost's campaigns have simply defaced Web sites, ranging from kosher dieting sites to American weapon aficionado blogs, with messages about Islam and anti-Zionism.

It has attacked servers, often hosting small business websites, located in the United States, Brazil, France, Israel and Germany among others.

Mauritania Attacker and the AnonGhost crew say these countries have "betrayed Muslims" by supporting Israel and by participating in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"We are the new generation of Muslims and we are not stupid," read a message posted on the Web site of a party supply business in Italy. "We represent Islam. We fight together. We stand together. We die together."

The team has also leaked email credentials, some belonging to government workers from the United States and elsewhere.

As part of a June 20 operation against the oil industry, carried out alongside the international hacking network Anonymous, Mauritania Attacker released what he said were the email addresses and passwords for employees of Total.

A spokesperson for the French oil major did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

One security expert said AnonGhost's attacks exploited "well-known vulnerabilities in configurations of servers" in target countries rather than going after high-profile companies.

Carl Herberger, vice president of security solutions at Radware, remains unconvinced AnonGhost has the technical skills to wage full-scale cyber terrorism by harming operational capabilities of companies or government agencies.

"The jury is still out," he said, but cautioned against underestimating the emerging group. "You're never quite sure what they're going to do on the offensive, so they have to be right only once and you have to be right always."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/insight-remote-mauritania-hacker-fights-islam-worldwide-114622150.html

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5 ways students changed in the last 40 years ? Schools of Thought ...

By Jamie Gumbrecht, CNN

(CNN) ? Every couple of years, the National Assessment of Educational Progress releases a short-term snapshot of how students fare in science, civics or other subjects.

But it doesn't ?quite answer the big question: How are students really doing?

That's the job of a report released Thursday, "The Nation's Report Card: Trends in Academic Progress 2012." It's an assessment released every four years that tracks U.S. students' performance in reading and math since the 1970s. The 2012 assessment included more than 50,000 students from public and private schools. It tracks them at ages 9, 13 and 17, regardless of grade level, and compares their performance using tests that take about an hour and features mostly multiple-choice questions.

Here are five things to know about academic progress since the 1970s, according to the 2012 report.

9-year-olds and 13-year-olds outscore 1970s counterparts
Indeed, those kids scored higher in reading and math. In reading, 9-year-olds and 13-year-olds improved at every level, so even the lowest-performing kids now are ahead of the lowest-performing kids then. In fact, kids in the low and middle range showed the greatest gains.

17-year-olds? Not so much
Seventeen-year-old students aren't scoring better in reading and math, but their scores aren't falling, either. In reading, the lowest-performing 17-year-olds made gains since the 1970s, as did lower- and middle-performing 17-year-olds in math. But scores overall are about the same as in the early 1970s ? and that might not be all bad. In a conference call with reporters, Peggy Carr, associate commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics' assessment division, pointed out that there are far fewer dropouts than in the 1970s, but even with more kids in school, performance has remained steady.

Gender gaps are shrinking
Just as in the 1970s, girls perform better in reading, and boys perform better in math.

But female students are narrowing the math gap, or even eliminating it. "In 2012, there were no significant gender gaps in mathematics at age 9 and 13," the report says. "At age 17, male students scored higher in mathematics than female students. The gender gap in 2012 at age 17, however, was narrower than in 1973 due to the increase in the average score for female students."

Meanwhile, male students are squeezing the gap in reading by showing significant improvement at age 9.

Black and Hispanic students are making gains
Consider just how much students' demographics have changed: In 1978, 80% of U.S. students were white, 13% were black, 6% were Hispanic and 1% were Asian. In 2012, 56% of students were white, 15% were black, 21% were Hispanic and 6% were Asian.

White students still perform better than black and Hispanic students in reading, but the gaps between white and black and white and Hispanic are narrower for all ages. It's particularly noticeable among 9-year-olds: "The average score for black students was 36 points higher in 2012 than in 1971 ... and the score for white students was 15 points higher," the report says. "The average score for Hispanic students increased 25 points from 1975, and the score for white students increased 12 points."

In math, white students performed better overall, but black and Hispanic students made larger gains than white students since 1973.

Take another look at that summer reading list
At age 9, 53% of students say they read for fun at home almost every day. By age 13, it's 27%. At 17, it's down to 19%. The percentages for 9-year-olds have remained the same since 1984, when the question was first asked, but it has decreased over time for 13- and 17-year-olds. Why does it matter?

"At all three ages, students who reported reading for fun almost daily or once or twice a week scored higher than did students who reported reading for fun a few times a year or less," the report says.

Follow us on Twitter @CNNschools!

Source: http://schoolsofthought.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/27/5-ways-students-changed-in-the-last-40-years/

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LinkedIn Celebrates 3 Million Company Pages ... - Marketing Pilgrim

LinkedIn started out as a place for career-minded individuals to network with other individuals but over the years it?s turned into the world?s biggest social network for everything business. They?ve added forums, mentor blogs, the ability to share videos and presentations. They also moved from the individual to the company with Company Pages.

According to their celebratory infographic, LinkedIn now has more than 3 million Company Pages, 500,000 of which were created in the past 12 months. Those pages represent 148 different industries and they range from think tanks to railroad companies and everything in between, beside, above and below. Dig around on LinkedIn and you can find The League of Paranormal Investigators, Inc, The Flipside Circus, and Tiny Paper Cranes ? a non-profit that makes origami birds for charity.

When LinkedIn says they have something for everyone, they?re not kidding.

Here?s my favorite slice from the infographic ? Ninja Style!

This slice makes me wonder about how much a company name effects business. Are you more likely to hire a company with the word Ninja or Samurai in the name or less likely? What about Pirate? How do you feel about weird names or unpronounceable names? You can say it?s all about results, but come on. . . when you?re scanning LinkedIn or Google you can?t help but be drawn in or put off by a company name.

Let?s look at one more slice:

I?m going to go out on a limb and say that you?re not using LinkedIn Company Pages to their fullest extent. Why am I saying this? Because there aren?t enough hours in the day to keep up every social media account you own. I get that. So here?s where you need to make a decision. If you?re a business to business company, spend more time on LinkedIn this week and less on Facebook. Post an interview with someone in your company. Add a video. Add a slide presentation.

Need inspiration? Mashable has the most engaged company page on LinkedIn. They?re a content site, so it?s easier for them to upload articles on a regular basis but I?d bet you have content on your hard-drive that you can use, too.? Look through your files and pick out two pieces of content that would be of interest to someone in your industry and post them.

With social media, what you get out of it is only as good as what you put in so make it a point to put in more on LinkedIn this week. It might help you find that one connection you need to take your business to the next level.

?

Source: http://www.marketingpilgrim.com/2013/06/linkedin-celebrates-3-million-company-pages-infographic.html

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Aerial mosquito spraying study finds no immediate public health risks

June 27, 2013 ? In what researchers say is the first public health study of the aerial mosquito spraying method to prevent West Nile virus, a UC Davis study analyzed emergency department records from Sacramento area hospitals during and immediately after aerial sprayings in the summer of 2005. Physicians and scientists from the university and from the California Department of Public Health found no increase in specific diagnoses that are considered most likely to be associated with pesticide exposure, including respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin, eye and neurological conditions.

The study appears in the May-June 2013 issue of Public Health Reports.

This week, mosquito control officials said the region's recent rainstorms and warming temperatures have increased stagnant water and favorable conditions for mosquitoes, which will likely magnify the incidence West Nile virus and the risks of human transmission. The mosquito-borne disease first appeared in the state about 10 years ago. It already has been detected in dead birds and mosquitoes in at least 10 counties in recent weeks, including Sacramento and Yolo. However, the adult mosquito population has yet to increase to levels that require aerial spraying over heavily urbanized areas as was done in the Sacramento region in previous years.

"Unfortunately, West Nile virus is endemic in California and the United States, and the controversy of mosquito management will likely arise every summer," said Estella Geraghty, associate professor of clinical internal medicine at UC Davis and lead author of the study. "Findings from studies such as this one help public health and mosquito control agencies better understand the risks and benefits of their practices."

West Nile virus has become an increasingly serious problem throughout the United States and may become more of a threat as the climate warms. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, West Nile virus is the leading cause of viral encephalitis in the United States. The virus is transmitted to humans and animals through the bite of an infected mosquito. Mosquitoes become infected with the virus when they feed on infected birds.

In California around the time of the study ? 2004 and 2005 ? hundreds of people were sickened by West Nile virus and 48 died. Most people exposed to the disease do not have symptoms, but in about 1-in-150 people it can be fatal or result in permanent neurological effects.

The study evaluated emergency room visits in Sacramento County hospitals on days that pesticides were sprayed as well as the three days following spraying. Spraying was done in north Sacramento over three nights, and in south Sacramento over four nights in August 2005. Data were compared with emergency room visits on other days during the same period as well as from nearby areas that were not exposed to aerial spraying.

Emergency room visits were classified by specific diagnostic categories, including respiratory, gastrointestinal, skin, eye and neurologic diseases. Importantly, they found that exposure to aerial spraying was not associated with increased rates of emergency department visits for any of these conditions.

More than 250,000 emergency room visits were analyzed and stratified by 785 diagnostic codes. According to Geraghty, because there were so many data points, statisticians predicted that by chance alone, two conditions would appear to have occurred too frequently or too infrequently. In fact, a type of abdominal hernia was found to occur more often than the background rate during the time of spraying, and death and disease due to unusual causes was found to occur less frequently. The authors concluded that because these conditions have no known plausible biological connection with aerial spraying, the results related to these conditions are indeed likely to have occurred by chance.

Integrated mosquito management ? a method to control mosquitoes through targeted interventions based on mosquito biology that includes surveillance of mosquito activity, reducing breeding sites such as neglected swimming pools, and the killing of larval and adult mosquitoes ? are all used in California to control the spread of mosquito-borne diseases such as West Nile virus. When local methods prove inadequate, aerial spraying is used to rapidly reduce large, adult mosquito populations.

During the time of the study, ultra-low volume of pyrethrin insecticide was used for spraying; the chemical is derived from an African chrysanthemumand acts by blocking chemical signals at nerve junctions in insects. It is the same pesticide used to treat head lice in children and to kill fleas and ticks in pets.

Exposure to the pesticide has been reported to pose risks to human health, including skin and eye irritation, respiratory and gastrointestinal disturbances, lethargy, fatigue and dizziness. According to the UC Davis researchers, the exposure to pyrethrin during the urban aerial sprayings in 2005 was minimal due to the use of ultra low volume technology. Coverage required only about three-quarters of an ounce or less of the chemical per acre.

Geraghty cautioned that potential long-term effects of aerial spraying were not addressed in the study and would be extremely difficult to investigate on human populations. She said it would be worthwhile to reproduce the study for other pesticides and spraying techniques.

The article is titled "Correlation between aerial insecticide spraying to interrupt West Nile virus transmission and emergency department visits in Sacramento County, California." Other authors are Peter Franks and Helene Margolis of the UC Davis Center for Healthcare Policy and Research, Anne Kjemtrup of the California Department of Public Health, William Reisen of the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

The study was supported in part by a UC Davis, Clinical and Translational Science Center K12 Career Development Award (grant #UL1 RR024146) from the NationalCenter for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health to the lead author, Geraghty.

The Sacramento-Yolo Mosquito and Vector Control District provided the aerial spraying data.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/QyKDGXuf60k/130627142559.htm

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Singer Melissa Etheridge to wed after gay marriage ruling

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. rock singer Melissa Etheridge on Wednesday announced plans to marry partner Linda Wallem after the U.S. Supreme Court's rulings paved the way for gay marriage in California, the couple's home state.

Etheridge, 52, came out in 1993 and was an early and prominent gay rights advocate in the entertainment industry.

"I look forward to exercising my American civil liberties and getting fully, completely and legally married this year to my true love of over three years, Linda Wallem," Etheridge said in a statement.

"Once again our constitution stands strong," the "Come to My Window" singer added. "All men, and women, and everything in between are created equal."

Wallem, 52, is a creator and executive producer on the cable television series "Nurse Jackie."

The Supreme Court affirmed on Wednesday a lower court ruling that struck down California's voter-approved ban on gay marriage. The state would become the United States' 13th state to legalize same-sex marriage.

The country's highest court also struck down a key part of a the federal law, Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), that denied benefits to same-sex married couples.

The Supreme Court's rulings reverberated in Hollywood, where some of the entertainment industry's most prominent personalities advocate gay rights.

Hollywood power couple Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have said in the past that they would not get married until gay couples could as well.

Comedienne and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, an early gay rights advocate, tweeted after the ruling on Wednesday, "It's a supremely wonderful day for equality. Prop 8 is over, and so is DOMA. Congratulations everyone. And I mean everyone."

Like Etheridge, DeGeneres was one of the first stars to publicly say she was a lesbian, exploring the topic on her TV comedy series "Ellen" in the late 1990s. She is married to actress Portia de Rossi.

"We stand tall today. #DomaStruckDown So many fought for so long. Be proud, the prejudice are now the minority," singer and prominent gay rights supporter Lady Gaga wrote to her more than 38 million Twitter followers.

"Big news from the Supreme Court. Goodbye #DOMA #Prop8. Hello #equality," tweeted Ben Affleck, the director and star of Oscar-winning film "Argo," while actor Leonardo DiCaprio tweeted the decision was a "historic day."

Singer Cyndi Lauper, whose True Colors Fund promotes gay rights and addresses homelessness in the gay and lesbian community, said, "Both of these decisions not only impact the lives of gay couples, but of gay and transgender youth who struggle to find acceptance from their family and friends."

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/singer-melissa-etheridge-wed-gay-marriage-ruling-182905794.html

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Luxoft surges in 1st day of trading on the NYSE

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Luxoft, which develops and maintains software for businesses and other enterprises, surged in their first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

The stock gained $3.38, or about 20 percent, to close at $20.38 on Wednesday, having risen as high as $21.70 during the session.

Luxoft Holding Inc., based in Zug, Switzerland, said that the offering of about 4.1 million shares was priced at $17 per share, the midpoint of the expected range of $16 to $18 per share. The IPO raised almost $69.7 million.

Both Luxoft and its parent company, IBS Group Holding Ltd., offered 2.05 million shares each. IBS is a software development and information technology services provider in Eastern Europe. Luxoft won't receive any proceeds from the shares sold by IBS.

Luxoft said in a regulatory filing that it anticipates net proceeds of about $31.1 million, which it plans to use for working capital and other general corporate purposes. The underwriters are being given a 30-day option to buy up to an additional 613,810 shares to cover any excess demand. If fully sold, that would boost Luxoft's total net take to about $35.9 million.

For the year ended March 31, Luxoft had net income of $37.5 million on revenue of $314.6 million.

The stock is trading under the "LXFT" ticker symbol.

The offering is expected to close on July 1.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/luxoft-surges-1st-day-trading-143549692.html

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Putin: Snowden, still in Moscow airport, is a 'free man'

The mystery over intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's wherabouts was cleared up today when Russian President Vladimir Putin said he is still holed up in the transit zone of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport ? not technically Russian territory ? where he has been since arriving on an Aeroflot flight from Hong Kong two days ago.

Mr. Putin, who was on a visit to Finland, told journalists that Russia will not extradite the fugitive whistleblower to the US. Mr. Snowden is "a free man" who may choose his own final destination," he said, calling any suggestions that Russia may have played a role in Snowden's flight from Asia, "nonsense and rubbish."

But in a hint that US diplomatic pressure over the case may be getting to the Kremlin, Putin added that Snowden should hurry up and finalize his travel plans.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov earlier insisted that Russia has no connection to Snowden ? whom, he said in carefully chosen words, "has not crossed the Russian border" ? but at the same time sees no reason to cooperate with the US in capturing him.

"We are in no way involved with either Mr. Snowden, his relations with US justice, nor to his movements around the world," Mr. Lavrov said. "He chose his itinerary on his own. We learnt about it from the media. He has not crossed the Russian border? We consider the attempts to accuse the Russian side of violating US laws, and practically of involvement in a plot, to be absolutely groundless and unacceptable," he added.

RECOMMENDED: Six countries where Edward Snowden could get asylum

The US has demanded "a series of governments" to assist in apprehending Snowden and turning him over to US justice. Analysts say the US and Russia have been engaged in tense dialogue over the past three days as Washington tries to find a recipe for convincing the Kremlin, which sees few reasons to cooperate amid generally deteriorating relations with the US, that it would be in its interests to turn the fugitive whistleblower over.

"We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told journalists yesterday.

Ecuador has said it's considering an asylum request from Snowden. But other countries that have been suggested as possible refuges for him include Iceland, Venezuela, and even Russia. Yesterday Snowden was booked on an Aeroflot flight to Cuba, but he failed to show up, leaving about 30 journalists stranded aboard a 12-hour flight to Havana.

Some analysts say he may have been delayed by Russian special services, who would have an obvious interest in interviewing him and examining the contents of the three laptop computers he reportedly carries with him.

But Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, whose organization appears to be sponsoring Snowden's flight to a safe haven, told reporters yesterday that Snowden is "healthy and safe." On his movements, Mr. Assange would only say: "In relation to the travel out of Hong Kong, that is a fascinating story that I'm sure will one day be told ? but today is not the day."

And in what may be part of a coordinated US effort to bring the Russians around, former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden granted a lengthy interview to the Kremlin's English-language satellite TV network Russia Today, or RT, in which he responded cheerfully to searching questions from host Sophie Shevardnadze about US intelligence-gathering intentions and methods.

"I think Hayden's appearance on RT, which is quite an unusual kind of event, was a sign of some kind of outreach to Russia. He was making the case that we all have the same kind of problems, should understand each other, work together," says Andrei Soldatov, an expert on the secret services and editor of the online security journal Agentura.ru.

"That's an interesting development, but I don't think the Kremlin would find it practical to cooperate on Snowden. This formula that 'we have nothing to do with it' is a fairly standard Putin way of saying 'no'," he adds.

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/putin-snowden-still-moscow-airport-free-man-161200087.html

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Obamacare Effect: Doctors Switching To No-Insurance Model ...

BY: Washington Free Beacon Staff
June 25, 2013 10:51 am

On Tuesday, Dr. Michael Ciampi of Newton, Massachusetts appeared on Fox & Friends to discuss the effects of Affordable Care Act on his practice. He notes many doctors have stopped accepting health insurance, and have adopted a ?pay as you go? method.

The Weekly Standard?s Tony Mecia recently wrote on this growing trend in the age of Obamacare:

There?s little doubt that the new health care law is causing concern among doctors. And the frustration runs deeper than just occasional anecdotes, such as the Orlando urologist who posted a flier on his door in late March that read: ?If you voted for Obama .??.??. seek urologic care elsewhere. Changes to your health care begin right now, not in four years.? The doctor?s story was linked on the Drudge Report, he appeared on Fox News, and a Facebook page devoted to him has more than 3,000 fans.

While those stories are interesting, more troubling is a survey reported in March in the New England Journal of Medicine that found that 29 percent of the nearly 1,200 doctors interviewed said they would quit the profession or retire early if the health care reform bill passed. Add to that a reported shortage of doctors, retiring Baby Boomers, and 30 million new patients who formerly lacked insurance, and the result could be disastrous.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/obamacare-effect-doctors-switching-to-no-insurance-model/

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Supreme Court rule for couple over baby girl's adoption

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday threw out a lower court order requiring a South Carolina couple to turn over a young girl they had raised since birth to her biological father simply because he was an American Indian.

By a 5-4 vote, the court ruled in favor of Matt and Melanie Capobianco, who had been caring for the girl they named Veronica until a family court ordered them to turn her over to her biological father Dusten Brown, a member of the Cherokee Nation.

Brown had argued that the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978, intended to curb practices that caused many Native American children to be separated from their families, entitled him to custody of the girl, who was 3/256th Cherokee.

He took custody at the end of 2011 when the girl was just over 2 years old, and South Carolina's highest court later upheld his custody.

But conservative Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the Supreme Court majority, concluded that the law did not bar the termination of Brown's parental rights.

"Under the State Supreme Court's reading," Alito wrote, "a biological Indian father could abandon his child in utero and refuse any support for the birth mother ... and then could play his ICWA trump card at the eleventh hour to override the mother's decision and the child's best interests," Alito wrote. "If this were possible, many prospective adoptive parents would surely pause before adopting any child who might possibly qualify as an Indian under the ICWA."

The Supreme Court did not grant the couple an adoption, but threw out the South Carolina court decisions awarding custody to the father.

The court returned the case to the South Carolina state courts for further proceedings.

The case is Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl et al, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-399.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Howard Goller)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/supreme-court-rule-couple-over-baby-girls-adoption-145338690.html

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Kanye West's 'I Am A God' Disses Designer With 'Blasphemous' Request

'Nobody can tell me where I can and can't go,' 'Ye tells W of being snubbed by fashion designer.
By Nadeska Alexis

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1709513/kanye-west-yeezus-i-am-god-fashion-designer.jhtml

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'70s Show' star parks on freeway, is arrested

Celebs

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

2 hours ago

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Lisa Robin Kelly is shown in the mug shot from her November 2012 assault arrest.

Sometimes cars must stand still on the freeway -- but only when traffic forces the issue. In the case of former "That '70s Show" star Lisa Robin Kelly, it was purposeful parking in a lane of Interstate 5 near Burbank, Calif., that caused problems.

The actress, who played Eric's older sister, Laurie, on the sitcom, was arrested after apparently parking on the freeway Saturday night, E! has confirmed.

The California Highway Patrol responded to calls about Kelly's car blocking the lane. She reportedly failed a field sobriety test and was arrested for driving under the influence.

Kelly, 43, has been in trouble with the law several times recently. She pled guilty to DUI in 2010 in North Carolina. In March of 2012, she was arrested on a felony charge of corporal injury upon a spouse and released on bail. The L.A. County district attorney declined to file charges in that case.

In November 2012, Kelly and her husband were both arrested for assault after a disturbance at their North Carolina home. They were later released on bond.

After the 2010 DUI arrest, which included the release of a wild-haired mug shot of Kelly, the actress said she was embarrassed, but was not abusing drugs or alcohol at the time. "My poor mother has to look at that picture of me," she told ABC News in 2012. "That doesn't look like me. That's not me."

Kelly left her regular role on the sitcom in 2003, made a few appearances later, and was eventually replaced. She told ABC News that she lost a baby during her time on the show and as a result, " I lost everything and I was abusing alcohol."

She also said she hoped for an acting comeback.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/70s-show-star-arrested-after-parking-l-freeway-6C10424016

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Leap Motion Opens Up Beta Access To Developers In Preparation For Its July 22 Launch

Leap Motion is about a month away from shipping its 3-D gesture controller to consumers, and it wants to make sure there are plenty of apps for users to play with. With that in mind, the company is opening up access to its Airspace app store for any developers who are already testing out the device, and it will further open its developer portal to those who don't already have access to it.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/fYaGZoFf5fM/

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Coroner: Police kill gunman at Mississippi church

LEXINGTON, Miss. (AP) ? A coroner says police fatally shot a Mississippi man after they were called to a church because of a dispute over the firing of a pastor.

Holmes County Coroner Dexter Howard says 26-year-old Cacedrick White died Sunday afternoon at a hospital after being shot by police in Lexington, which is about 55 miles north of Jackson.

WLBT-TV (http://bit.ly/14RM65N ) reports police were called to Asia Missionary Baptist Church to escort the pastor from the property.

Holmes County Sheriff's Office Capt. Sam Chambers tells WAPT-TV (http://bit.ly/189d6kt ) White got out of a vehicle with a gun and started walking toward officers in the church doorway. Police say he refused a command to set down the gun.

Howard says White was the son of a deacon at the church.

Associated Press

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US factory boss held hostage by workers in Beijing

BEIJING (AP) ? An American executive said Monday he has been held hostage for four days at his medical supply plant in Beijing by scores of workers demanding severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department.

Chip Starnes, 42, a co-owner of Coral Springs, Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said local officials had visited the 10-year-old plant on the capital's outskirts and coerced him into signing agreements Saturday to meet the workers' demands even though he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers weren't being laid off.

The workers were expecting wire transfers by Tuesday, he said, adding that about 80 of them had been blocking every exit around the clock and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office. He declined to clarify the amount, saying he wanted to keep it confidential.

"I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window's bars. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen."

Workers inside the compound, a pair of two-story buildings behind gates and hedges in the Huairou district of the northeastern Beijing suburbs, repeatedly declined requests for comment, saying they did not want to talk to foreign media.

It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, often from their Chinese owners, though occasionally also involving foreign bosses.

The labor action reflects growing uneasiness among workers about their jobs amid China's slowing economic growth and the sense that growing labor costs make the country less attractive for some foreign-owned factories. The account about local officials coercing Starnes to meet workers' demands ? if true ? reflects how officials typically consider stifling unrest to be a priority.

Huairou district and Qiaozi township governments declined to comment.

A local police spokesman said police were at the scene to maintain order. Four uniformed police and about a dozen other men who declined to identify themselves were standing across the road from the plant.

"As far as I know, there was a labor dispute between the workers and the company management and the dispute is being solved," said spokesman Zhao Lu of the Huairou Public Security Bureau. " I am not sure about the details of the solution, but I can guarantee the personal safety of the manager."

Representatives from the U.S. Embassy stood outside the gate much of the day, and eventually were let in. U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said the two sides were on the verge of an agreement and that Starnes would have access to his attorneys. It was unclear what agreement might be reached, and subsequent attempts to contact Starnes were not immediately successful.

Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division, planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing last Tuesday to lay off the last 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were "pretty nice," he said.

Some of the workers in the other divisions got wind of this, and, coupled with rumors that the whole plant was moving to India, started demanding similar severance packages on Friday.

Christian Murck, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, said he wasn't familiar with Starnes' case, but that such hostage-taking was "not a major problem" for the foreign business community.

"It happened more often say 15 years ago than today, but it still happens from time to time," he said. "It rarely leads to personal harm to the managers involved, but there are cases when it has in years past."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-factory-boss-held-hostage-workers-beijing-074855847.html

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Samsung launches Magna Carta app, users will get Jay-Z album early and for free on July 4th

Samsung has launched the Magna Carta app, the vehicle through which one million Galaxy S 4, S III and Note II owners will be able to download Jay-Z's latest opus for free. Download it today, and Mr. Carter (Carter / Carta, geddit?) album will arrive on your handset on July 4th, three days ahead of the CD's global release. Users will also get behind-the-scenes footage, lyrics and track sharing options. It's available for free at the Play store, with the obvious caveat that it'll only work on the aforementioned trio of phones. After all, if you're having phone problems, he feels bad for you son, he's got 99 problems, but Samsung's patronage ain't one.

Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio/Video, Software, Samsung, Google

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Police again search home of Patriots' Hernandez

NORTH ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) ? State police officers and dogs are searching the home of New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez as they investigate the killing of a semi-pro football player whose body was found nearby.

Saturday's search of Hernandez's sprawling home in North Attleboro involved several officers.

Police have previously searched in and around the home as they try to figure out who killed Odin Lloyd, whose body was found about a mile from Hernandez's home.

Lloyd's family says the two men were friends and together the night he died. Authorities have ruled Lloyd's death a homicide.

A spokeswoman for the Bristol District Attorney's office declined to comment on the investigation Saturday.

An attorney for Hernandez has said he would not comment on the searches.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/police-again-search-home-patriots-hernandez-205013835.html

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Square roots? Scientists say plants are good at math

LONDON (Reuters) - Plants do complex arithmetic calculations to make sure they have enough food to get them through the night, new research published in journal eLife shows.

Scientists at Britain's John Innes Centre said plants adjust their rate of starch consumption to prevent starvation during the night when they are unable to feed themselves with energy from the sun.

They can even compensate for an unexpected early night.

"This is the first concrete example in a fundamental biological process of such a sophisticated arithmetic calculation," mathematical modeler Martin Howard of John Innes Centre (JIC) said.

During the night, mechanisms inside the leaf measure the size of the starch store and estimate the length of time until dawn. Information about time comes from an internal clock, similar to the human body clock.

"The capacity to perform arithmetic calculation is vital for plant growth and productivity," JIC metabolic biologist Alison Smith said.

"Understanding how plants continue to grow in the dark could help unlock new ways to boost crop yield."

(Reporting by Nigel Hunt; editing by Keiron Henderson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/square-roots-scientists-plants-good-math-040924317.html

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AP Source: NSA leaker Snowden's passport revoked

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed a highly classified surveillance program has had his U.S. passport revoked, an official said Sunday.

Edward Snowden's passport was annulled before he left Hong Kong for Russia and while that could complicate his travel plans, the lack of a passport alone could not thwart his plans, the U.S. official said. If a senior official in another country or with an airline orders it, a country could overlook the withdrawn passport, the official said.

The U.S. official would only discuss the passport on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the matter.

Snowden's allies said he was heading toward Ecuador, where the foreign minister said the government had received a request for asylum.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki refused to comment on Snowden's passport specifically but said individuals facing arrest warrants could have their passport withdrawn.

"Such a revocation does not affect citizenship status. Persons wanted on felony charges, such as Mr. Snowden, should not be allowed to proceed in any further international travel other than is necessary to return him to the United States," Psaki said in a statement.

The State Department said the United States was in touch, through diplomatic and law enforcement channels, with countries that Snowden might travel through or to.

Snowden, a CIA technician and former NSA contractor, helped The Guardian and The Washington Post to disclose surveillance programs that collects vast amounts of online data and email, sometimes sweeping up information on ordinary American citizens. Officials have the ability to collect phone and Internet information broadly but need a warrant to examine specific cases where they believe terrorism is involved.

Since news organizations began publishing reports based on Snowden's disclosures, he had been in hiding in Hong Kong, a former British colony with a high degree of autonomy from mainland China. The United States formally sought Snowden's extradition from Hong Kong but was rebuffed; Hong Kong officials said the U.S. request did not fully comply with their laws.

Snowden was said to have landed in Moscow on Sunday but was not seen leaving the airport.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-source-nsa-leaker-snowdens-passport-revoked-174449436.html

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Starbucks raising some U.S. cafe drink prices

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp will increase the price of some of its beverages in U.S. company-operated cafes by as much as 10 cents, the first price change in up to two years, a spokeswoman said on Friday.

The price hike will be effective June 25, Starbucks spokeswoman Lisa Passe said.

"Less than a third of beverages will be affected by the price increases," Passe said. "In most stores, the price of a Grande or Venti brewed coffee, as well as Frappuccino and Refreshers, will remain the same."

Nationally, the average beverage purchase price increase will be about 1 percent, she said.

The most a tall brewed coffee will increase by is 10 cents, while some markets will not see any increase in brewed coffee, she said.

Green arabica coffee prices dropped to a four-year low on the ICE Futures U.S. market at $1.1710 per lb on Thursday.

Coffee commodity costs make up less than 10 percent of Starbucks' overall store operating and occupancy expenses, Passe said.

(Reporting by Marcy Nicholson; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/starbucks-raising-u-cafe-drink-prices-212307929.html

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Brazil President Holds Cabinet Meeting on Protests (Voice Of America)

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

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Beagle-boxer-basset wins World's Ugliest Dog

Walle poses for a portrait while competing in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. The 4-year-old beagle, boxer and bassett hound mix went on to win top honors. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Walle poses for a portrait while competing in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. The 4-year-old beagle, boxer and bassett hound mix went on to win top honors. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Walle, 4-year-old mix of beagle, boxer and basset hound, celebrates after winning top honors in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Penny poses for a portrait while competing in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Rascal poses for a portrait while competing in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Roman poses for a portrait while competing in the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fair on Friday, June 21, 2013, in Petaluma, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

PETALUMA, Calif. (AP) ? A huge-headed, duck-footed mix of beagle, boxer and basset hound was the upset winner at the 25th annual World's Ugliest Dog Contest.

Walle (WAHL-ee), a 4-year-old mutt from Chico, Calif., who was entered at the last minute, was judged Friday as the most unsightly of 30 dogs at the Northern California competition.

"This dog looked like he's been photo-shopped with pieces from various dogs and maybe a few other animals," judge Brian Sobel said.

Walle overcame the dominance in recent years by nearly hairless Chihuahuas, Chinese cresteds, or combinations of the two.

Owner Tammie Barbee got the dog when he was three months old.

"People come up to me and say that dog is not right," Barbee said, "but I love him."

Judges said they were especially impressed by Walle's bizarre waddle of a walk.

Walle wins $1,500 and will make several network TV appearances next week, including NBC's "Today" show and ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live."

The contest at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds gets worldwide attention, with media from around the world traveling to Petaluma, about 40 miles north of San Francisco.

Organizers say the dogs are judged for their "natural ugliness in both pedigree and mutt classes."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-06-22-Ugliest%20Dog%20Contest/id-2fde17ad3b6d4001b426917d72f0786c

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Japanese bank to pay NY $250M in laundering case

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- The Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi-UFJ Ltd. will pay $250 million to the state of New York for laundering billions of dollars in transactions that violated economic sanctions against countries including Iran, Sudan, and Myanmar, New York financial regulators said Thursday.

The state's Department of Financial Services said the bank agreed to the fine and a year of special monitoring for handling the 28,000 U.S. dollar transactions totaling about $100 billion through its New York operation between 2002 and 2007.

BTMU employees routinely removed information from wire transfer messages that could have identified the government and business entities involved as targets of sanctions, the department said.

BTMU said Thursday it reported the violations to its regulators and stopped the practice in 2007.

"Since 2007, BTMU has significantly improved its compliance policies and procedures," the bank said. "BTMU is committed to conducting business with the highest levels of integrity and regulatory compliance, and to continually improving its policies and procedures."

It said it will continue to cooperate with regulators.

BTMU is Japan's largest bank when ranked by assets, according to SNL Financial.

As part of the agreement with New York, an independent consultant will monitor compliance with sanctions and measures taken to correct the problems at BTMU's New York branch. That monitor will report to state regulators.

That consultant will operate under new standards the state DFS announced this week to ensure their objectivity and independence from the institutions they are monitoring.

BTMU will also give the DFS a plan to improve its compliance with bank secrecy and anti-money laundering rules. That plan is subject to approval by the department.

"BTMU took an important step today toward addressing these serious transgressions. It is vital that companies continue to self-report violations and those that do not run the risk of even more severe consequences," Benjamin Lawsky, the state superintendent of financial services, said Thursday.

Last year, Britain's Standard Chartered Bank agreed to pay $340 million to settle New York allegations it violated sanctions by processing billions of U.S. dollar transactions for Iranian interests.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/japanese-bank-pay-ny-250m-161323203.html

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Obamacare behind schedule as Oct. 1 rollout nears

Two government reports cite delays in setting up health-insurance exchanges as the Oct. 1 deadline looms.The public is still more negative than positive about reform, but promotion is just starting.?

By Linda Feldmann,?Staff writer / June 19, 2013

Senate clerks arrange 95 proposed amendments to the health insurance exchange bill at the statehouse in St. Paul, Minn., earlier this year. Minnesota will set up its own health insurance exchange to comply with Obamacare, but the federal government will do it on behalf of 34 other states.

Glen Stubbe/The Star Tribune/AP/File

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The central feature of Obamacare ? getting the uninsured to sign up for health insurance ? is due to start on Oct. 1, less than four months away. But both the federal and state governments are behind in their preparations.

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That?s the conclusion of two reports issued Wednesday by the congressional Government Accountability Office (GAO) looking at the status of government efforts to set up online ?exchanges,? or marketplaces, for both individuals and small businesses.

?Much progress has been made, but much remains to be accomplished within a relatively short amount of time,? said the GAO report on the establishment of ?federally facilitated? health-insurance exchanges for individuals. Those are the exchanges being set up for the 34 states that opted not to set them up themselves.

For example, the report cites a two-month delay in funding awards for ?a key consumer assistance program? known as Navigators, causing delays in training. The report also says that the federally created exchanges rely on the states to implement certain functions, and some are behind schedule.

Passing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, remains the signature accomplishment of the Obama presidency, and the law?s success is crucial to President Obama?s legacy. One year ago, most of the law survived the scrutiny of the US Supreme Court, but fierce resistance from Republican governors and members of Congress has put a drag on implementation.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which is overseeing implementation, says the new marketplaces will open on time. People who sign up will be covered as of Jan. 1, 2014.

Polls show that a high percentage of Americans ? upwards of 50 percent ? are not aware that the ACA is the law of the land, that it contains a mandate to buy insurance, and that subsidies will be available.

Last month, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius encountered controversy when it was revealed that she had solicited private money for groups that are working to spread public awareness about Obamacare, including information about the new exchanges that will offer federal subsidies to those who qualify.?

At a congressional hearing earlier this month, Secretary Sebelius defended her fundraising calls on behalf of an outside group that is promoting Obamacare. She said she asked the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the tax preparation company H&R Block to donate to the group Enroll America, and contacted three other entities just to describe the group. All of her actions, she said, were legal, noting that previous HHS secretaries took similar action to help with implementation of new programs providing health insurance to children and prescription drugs for seniors.

On Tuesday, Enroll America launched a grass-roots campaign to spread the word about Obamacare, and get people to sign up. The group is closely aligned with the Obama administration and run by Anne Filipic, former deputy director of the White House Office of Public Engagement. ?

Under Obamacare, insurance companies can no longer turn away people with preexisting conditions. And so a crucial aspect of implementation is getting enough young, healthy people to enroll to offset the cost of insuring older, less-healthy enrollees. The Congressional Budget Office expects some 7 million people to sign up when the exchanges open on Oct. 1, eventually reaching 22 million.

But Republicans are jumping on the GAO warnings as evidence that Obamacare isn?t ready for prime time.

?GAO report confirms our suspicions about implementation of health care law #TrainWreck,? Rep. Sam Graves (R) of Missouri, chairman of the House Committee on Small Business, tweeted on Wednesday.

A new poll out Wednesday on health-care reform by the Kaiser Family Foundation demonstrates the Obama administration?s continuing challenges.? Negative views of the law still outweigh the positive, 43 to 35 percent. Though Kaiser points out that the negative views are a mix of people who think the law goes too far in changing the health-care system (33 percent) and those who think it doesn?t go far enough (8 percent).?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/xrSljlzWFEE/Obamacare-behind-schedule-as-Oct.-1-rollout-nears

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Artists Are 3D-Printing a Room That Looks Like An Alien Cathedral

Who cares about plastic 3D-printed models of your head when an amazing, ornate room is being 3D printed out of sandstone? Digital Grotesque, as the project is called, looks like it was ripped from the frames of a sci-fi film.

Designers Benjamin Dillenburger and Michael Hansmeyer recently previewed a 1:3 scale model of the room at Materializing Exhibition in Tokyo, and before that at the Swiss Art Awards in Basel, Switzerland. The entire room will be unveiled on July 22.

The oddly-detailed room looks like a cross between an alien skeletal system and a cathedral on another planet. Which makes sense, because it's being created using an algorithm that divides and repeats forms seen in the work of Swiss surrealist artist H.R. Giger to create crazy patterns. For a little background, Giger won an Oscar for his work on the visual effects team of the movie Alien. This is what Dillenburger and Hansmeyer had to see about the piece:

Inspired by the natural process of cell division, we develop an algorithm that iteratively divides and transforms the initial geometry of a simple cube. Despite simple rules, a complex world of forms arises at multiple scales: between ornament and structure, between order and chaos, foreign and yet familiar: a digital grotesque.

Check out some pictures of the process below, but otherwise you'll have to wait another month to see the whole thing. Sigourney Weaver alien baby not included. [Creators Project]

Source: http://gizmodo.com/artists-are-3d-printing-a-room-that-looks-like-an-alien-514012239

Kirk Urso London 2012 Javelin roger federer Olga Korbut Usain Bolt 2012 Olympics Katie Ledecky Aaron Ross