Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Dubai fines British widower after bride's death

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? A Dubai court has fined a grieving British widower who allegedly arrived drunk to sign police paperwork to release the body of his wife. She had died in a balcony fall on their honeymoon.

Police claim Sean Nicholas Emmett, a former motorcycle racer, arrived intoxicated at a police station in late February to claim the body of his 27-year-old wife, Abbie.

She died the previous week in an apparently accidental fall from a Dubai high-rise hotel during their honeymoon. Emmett left Dubai last month.

The fine of nearly $500 for drinking alcohol without a license was imposed on Tuesday in absentia.

Alcohol is widely available in Dubai resorts and hotels, but a local permit is required for drinking in homes and other places ? although the rule is often ignored.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dubai-fines-british-widower-brides-death-114857860.html

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Pyongyang glitters, but rest of North Korea still dark

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) ? The heart of this city, once famous for its Dickensian darkness, now pulsates with neon.

Glossy construction downtown has altered the Pyongyang skyline. Inside supermarkets where shopgirls wear French designer labels, people with money can buy Italian wine, Swiss chocolates, kiwifruit imported from New Zealand and fresh-baked croissants. They can get facials, lie in tanning booths, play a round of mini golf or sip cappuccinos and cocktails while listening to classical music.

More than a million people are using cell phones. Computer shops can't keep up with demand for North Korea's locally distributed tablet computer, popularly known here as "iPads." A shiny new cancer institute features a $900,000 X-ray machine imported from Europe.

Pyongyang has long been a city apart from the rest of North Korea, a showcase capital dubbed a "socialist fairyland" by state media.

A year after leader Kim Jong Un promised in a speech to bring an end to the "era of belt-tightening" and economic hardship in North Korea, the gap between the haves and have-nots has only grown with Pyongyang's transformation.

Beyond the main streets of the capital and in the towns and villages beyond, life is grindingly tough. Food is rationed, electricity is a precious commodity and people get around by walking, cycling or hopping into the backs of trucks. Most homes lack running water or plumbing. Health care is free, but aid workers say medicine is in short supply.

And while the differences between the showcase capital and the hardscrabble countryside grow starker, North Koreans feel the effects of authoritarian rule no matter where they live.

It's illegal for them to interact with foreigners without permission. Very few have access to the Internet. They calibrate their words. Most parrot phrases they've heard in state media, still the safest way to answer questions in a country where state security remains tight and terrifying.

___

For decades, North Korea seemed a country trapped in time. Rickety streetcars shuddered past concrete-block apartment buildings with broken window panes and chipped front steps.

But in 2010 and throughout 2011, as then-leader Kim Jong Il was grooming son Kim Jong Un to succeed him, Pyongyang was a city under construction. Scaffolding covered the fronts of buildings across the city. Red banners painted with slogan "At a breath" ? implying breakneck work at a breathless pace ? fluttered from the skeletons of skyscrapers built by soldiers.

Often, the soldiers were scrawny conscripts in thin canvas sneakers, piling bricks onto stretchers or hauling them by hand. In 2011, soldiers working on the Mansudae District complex set up temporary camps along the Taedong River, makeshift shantytowns decorated by red flags. After tearing down the tents, the soldiers built a playground for children where their encampment once stood.

Their work was focused downtown, on Changjon Street, where ramshackle cottages were torn down to make way for department stores, restaurants and high-rise apartments.

Today, the street would not look out of place in Seoul, Shanghai or Singapore. Indeed, many of the goods ? Hershey's Kisses, Coca-Cola and Doritos ? on sale at the new supermarket were imported from China and Singapore.

Changjon Street reflects a change of thinking in North Korea. For years, foreign goods and customs were regarded with suspicion, even as they were secretly coveted, especially by those who had traveled abroad or had family in Japan or China.

Kim Jong Un has addressed their curiosity by importing goods and by quoting his father in saying North Korea is "looking out onto the world" ? a country that must become familiar with international customs even if it continues to prefer its own.

"What is a 'delicatessen'?" one North Korean at the new supermarket asked as a butcher in a white chef's hat sliced tuna for takeaway sashimi beneath a deli sign written in English. Upstairs, baristas were serving Italian espressos and bakers churned out baguettes and white wedding cakes.

English, language of the North's archenemy, is outstripping Russian and Chinese as the foreign language of choice. Over the past six months, a new TV channel, Ryongnamsan, has aired "Finding Nemo," ''The Lion King" and "Madagascar" in English ? the first broadcasts of American cartoons on North Korean state TV.

Kim has not made it significantly easier for North Koreans to travel, channel surf or read travelogues posted online, but he is arranging to bring the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben to them in the form of a miniature world park slated to open later this year.

And Pyongyang now has a parade of fashionistas in eye-popping belted jackets, sparkly barrettes clipped to their hair, fingernails painted with a clear gloss.

At one beauty salon, the rage is for short cuts made popular by singers from the all-girl Moranbong band who have jazzed up North Korea's staid performance scene with their bobbed hair, little black dresses and electric guitars.

"There are so many young women asking to get their hair done like them," hairstylist Chae Cho Yong said.

Around her, a cavernous barber shop was empty. An employee explained that most North Koreans are at weekly propaganda study sessions on Saturdays, the only day of the week foreigners are allowed inside.

___

The most coveted housing in North Korea, where homes and jobs are doled out by the state or the powerful Workers' Party, is an apartment on Changjon Street.

One new resident, Mun Kang Sun, gave The Associated Press a tour of the apartment she and her husband were given in recognition for her work at the Kim Jong Suk Textile Factory.

A framed wedding portrait hangs on the wall above their Western-style bed. There's a washing machine in the bathroom, an IBM computer in the study and a 42-inch widescreen TV.

Mun said she was an orphan who began working in factories at age 16. She earned the title "hero of the republic" after exceeding her work quota by 200 percent for 13 years. She says she accomplished that by dashing around the factory floor operating four or five machines at once.

"When we heard the news that we'd get a nest where we can rest, and we got the key for our apartment and took a look around, we were totally shocked because the house is so nice," her husband, Kim Hyok, told AP. "It's still hard to believe this is my home; it still feels like we're living in a hotel."

Though the apartment has faucets, old habits die hard. The bathtub was still filled with water, a bucket bobbing in the tub, as in countless homes across the country where water is pumped from a well, carried in by hand and used sparingly.

One by one, North Korean buildings are getting upgraded but most are still drafty, the walls poorly insulated. Elevators and heat are rare. North Koreans are accustomed to wearing winter jackets and thermal underwear indoors from October to April.

Power cuts have been less frequent in Pyongyang as electricity-generating capacity has grown, but it's still common for the lights to go out in the middle of dinner. Most people just carry on drinking and eating.

___

Outside Pyongyang, the power grid offers little relief from the darkness. West of the capital in the town of Ryonggang, lights were out as soon as the sun set. At one inn, two women stood chatting quietly in a lobby lit with a candle as a shrill voice from a radio broadcast chortled from loudspeakers nearby.

Even North Korea's second-largest city, Hamhung, has little of the capital's urban feel.

Few private cars ply the streets in the city, which is the industrial heart of the country. Hamhung's bus line is largely limited to one main route through town. Soldiers cram into the backs of trucks powered by wood-burning stoves that send smoke billowing behind them.

Some people live in relative comfort. Kim Jong Jin's farmhouse in Hamhung is simple but spotless, the papered floors clean enough to eat from. Water is piped into a well in the kitchen. Heat comes from the traditional Korean "ondol" system of feeding an underground furnace with wood. Waste is turned into methane gas for cooking.

Electric service is spotty, but the family has a generator, so they're able to watch movies at night on the TV they carefully cover with a frilly lace veil.

That is luxurious living compared to the poverty that is evident in the countryside.

A mother huddles over a child as she sits shivering by the side of the road. Barefoot boys in a village destroyed by summer flooding are dressed in little more than underwear, the splotchy faces and gaunt frames of young soldiers who do not get enough to eat.

Bicycles are piled high with bundles of firewood, sometimes even a dead pig. Old men sit crouched by the side of the road with bike pumps, offering to fix flats. Oxen plod past pulling carts.

Paved highways pocked with potholes radiate from Pyongyang. But beyond these roads in dire need of repair, there are no roads between the denuded mountains, just dirt paths that become dangerously muddy with rainfall and treacherously slippery in winter. Villagers struggle to clear snow with makeshift shovels crafted out of planks of wood.

___

Life in the North Korean countryside would be familiar to South Koreans old enough to recall the poverty in their nation just after the Korean War. Indeed, into the 1970s, North Korea was the richer of the two Koreas.

Now, more than a quarter of North Korean children are stunted from chronic malnutrition, the World Food Program reported last month.

North Korea blames its growing international economic isolation on the U.S., which has led efforts to punish it for developing its nuclear weapons program. But in the capital, the effects of that isolation are less apparent, thanks largely to goods from China, the North's most important ally, and other countries such as Singapore and Indonesia. Shelves are stocked with goods, computer labs filled with PCs, streets crowded with VWs.

While millions can't afford meat or fish, and subsist on a few potatoes or a bowl of cornmeal noodles each day, the well-to-do in Pyongyang with extra sources of income can buy beef, pomegranates and vine-ripened tomatoes.

There's even a growing cosmopolitan vibe. At one European-style restaurant Friday, a young couple on a date sipped cocktails topped off with Maraschino cherries and feasted on pizza, their cellphones rattling beside them from time to time.

___

Follow AP's bureau chief for Pyongyang and Seoul at www.twitter.com/newsjean.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pyongyang-glitters-rest-nkorea-still-dark-014946168.html

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Matthew McConaughey Might Get Dirty In 'Mike' Sequel After Playing In 'Mud'

In an exclusive MTV News Q&A, the actor talks about his current and upcoming projects... and shirtless Justin Bieber.
By Josh Horowitz

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706426/matthew-mcconaughey-mud-magic-mike-sequel.jhtml

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What's The Biggest Internet Shopping Risk You've Ever Taken?

There are some things you should really see/inspect/measure before you buy, but in the age of item reviews and free return shipping laziness often dictates that we just take a best guess and see how things play out.

Recently I ordered a wetsuit even though I know nothing about wetsuits. Return shipping was $12 so I felt like the stakes were pretty high, and yet I couldn't bring myself to go to a sporting goods store and either showroom or just buy one there. Both options would have been a great way to guarantee success. Instead I read a sizing guide, ignored the minority of commenters who said my selection ran small in favor of the majority that urged me to size down, searched my feelings and clicked "confirm order." And you know what? That wetsuit fits like a frickin glove.

Of course I had to return the bathmat that was too big for my bathroom, the replacement mug that didn't actually match my other mugs and the piece that was supposed to hold my bike seat in place, but boy does that wetsuit fit. Give me your best guess below.

Image credit: Shutterstock/Oleksiy Mark

Source: http://gizmodo.com/5995486/whats-the-biggest-internet-shopping-risk-youve-ever-taken

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Sunday, April 7, 2013

Only weeks after amputation, combat vet swoops slopes with Sochi dreams

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

Carlos Figueroa monoskis in Aspen Snowmass on Thursday as part of a VA sports clinic for disabled veterans.

By Bill Briggs, NBC News contributor

An Iraq war veteran who yearns to snowboard next March at the Sochi Paralympics recently told a priest he would give his left leg to compete for his country. And then, he did.

Six weeks ago, retired Army Sgt. Carlos Figueroa allowed a surgeon to amputate below his left knee ? 10 years after an IED blast rendered the limb nearly useless. The decision was surprisingly simple, he said, because it sliced away a decade of mounting pain. Yet he also acknowledged: ?I did give it up because I want to get into the Paralympics.?

?When I went in, my doctor asked me: ?What?s your biggest goal?? I told him: ?Be on my board within three months.? He just said, ?Dude, most people aren?t walking within three months,? ? Figueroa recalled.?

Walking will come. What he can do ? already ? is carve down a mountain, the lone place Figueroa, 34, feels at peace: ?Up there, I?m no different from anybody. No PTSD. I?m at my happiest.? On Thursday, Figueroa beamed while manhandling an Aspen, Colo., slope atop a monoski at a sports clinic for disabled veterans. As a familiar, cool breeze brushed his face, he also dreamed?about racing in Russia.


?My love for snowboarding is about loss, the loss of what I had in the military, where you?re used to being on the move, on patrols, on raids. That?s how I treat my races. The moment that gate drops, it?s like the door opening on a raid. I go full blast. I?m able to get something back that I felt was taken away. That rush. I love it.?

U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs

"Up there, I'm no different from anybody. No PTSD. I'm at my happiest," said Carlos Figueroa of the feeling of carving down slopes.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have borne a bittersweet byproduct: scores of American Paralympic hopefuls. The Sochi Paralympics, to be held just after the 2014 Winter Games in that city, marks the inaugural Paralympic snowboarding event for disabled athletes. The U.S. men?s Paralympic snowboarding squad will consist of five members.

'Slim chance'
Figueroa (and those close to him) knows he?s the longest of long shots. His own coach, Mike Shea, estimates he took two years to, literally, make the leap from his own leg amputation to landing jumps. The raw nerve endings in an amputated limb must become desensitized to the harsh pounding. When the board hits the snow, the stump pushes into the prosthetic leg, ?sending chills up your spine,? Shea said. ?It doesn?t feel good.?

Then there?s the calendar. If Figueroa is indeed back on his board by autumn, he?ll have a limited number of sanctioned races ? beginning in January 2014 ? to rack up enough points to rank among the top five American men. And the U.S. Paralympic snowboarders, including Shea, compose the world?s deepest talent pool in that sport. The roster likely will be named in February.

?It?s a slim chance, a super, super small window,? Figueroa said, ?but we?re still going to push.?

He needs only a sliver of possibility to kindle his hope ? or better yet, someone telling him he can?t. He certainly doesn?t need two legs.

The Feb. 15 amputation came 10 years after a bomb detonated beneath his armored vehicle, ejecting him through an open roof hatch. A decade spent lugging a useless left limb (with no heel), suffering increasing back and knee pain, instantly convinced him to say ?Let?s do it,? when an orthopedic surgeon in San Diego suggested, ?Let?s cut.? He was done, he said, wasting another day ?in a bubble? due to his injury, calling the operation ?liberating.?

'Go fast and have fun'
Nobody who has heard that account is betting against Figueroa.

?With any military athlete, you can definitely see that sense of pride and determination above and beyond what you see with other athletes. Part of it is just a chance to represent their county again,? said Kevin Jardine, high performance director of Parlaympic alpine skiing and snowboarding for the U.S. Olympic Committee. ?They?re willing to sacrifice a lot.?

Added Shea, who lost his leg in a 2002 wake-boarding accident: ?Anything you tell Carlos, he?ll get it done. He always seems to find a way. He has no fear up there. He has passion. And I?ve learned from him the smiling gets you a long way in life.?

This week at the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Aspen, organized by the Department of Veterans Affairs, Figueroa has been tempted to grab a board and shred. This is his fourth year attending. As a testament to his disregard for other people?s timelines, he couldn?t even stand on a snowboard four years ago due to his injury, yet he competed in a World Cup event for disabled snowboarders not long after that.

Until his prosthetic leg arrives, he?ll stick to monoskiing, during which he sits in a ?bucket? atop one ski, using his arms to hold smaller, balancing skis.

?The first run, I took it slow. After that, I opened it up,? Figueroa said. ?I just want to go fast and have fun.?

When the instructor noticed his raw speed, he warned Figueroa: ?You do realize if you go down, you may peel off half your face.?

Figueroa simply grinned: ?That?s alright.?

On the 10th anniversary of the war in Iraq, a special group of people in Vail, Colo., are also marking the tenth anniversary of their unique program designed to help war amputees regain independence through skiing. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.

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South Africa: Mandela discharged from the hospital

FILE - In this June 17, 2010 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela leaves the chapel after attending the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African presidency says Mandela has been discharged, Saturday, April 6, 2013, from a hospital after an improvement in his condition. Officials say he was treated for pneumonia. (AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool, File)

FILE - In this June 17, 2010 file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela leaves the chapel after attending the funeral of his great-granddaughter Zenani Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa. The South African presidency says Mandela has been discharged, Saturday, April 6, 2013, from a hospital after an improvement in his condition. Officials say he was treated for pneumonia. (AP Photo/Siphiwe Sibeko, Pool, File)

An ambulance believed to be transporting former president Nelson Mandela arrives at the home of Mandela in Johannesburg, Saturday, April 6, 2013. The South African Presidency has confirmed that Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital in Pretoria. Spokesman Mac Maharaj says the elder statesman was discharged, ?following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition,? and thanked all South Africans and people around the world for their support. He says Mandela will now receive home based high care. Mandela was admitted to hospital on March 27 with pneumonia. Since then the 94-year-old former statesman has had fluid drained from his lungs to ease his breathing. (AP Photo)

An ambulance believed to be transporting former president Nelson Mandela arrives at the home of Mandela in Johannesburg, Saturday, April 6, 2013. The South African Presidency has confirmed that Mandela has been discharged after spending nine days in hospital in Pretoria. Spokesman Mac Maharaj says the elder statesman was discharged, ?following a sustained and gradual improvement in his general condition,? and thanked all South Africans and people around the world for their support. He says Mandela will now receive home based high care. Mandela was admitted to hospital on March 27 with pneumonia. Since then the 94-year-old former statesman has had fluid drained from his lungs to ease his breathing. (AP Photo)

Visitors to Nelson Mandela Square in Johannesburg beneath a giant statue of the former president Monday, April 1, 2013. The presidential spokesman says former president Mandela spent Monday with family members in the hospital where he is being treated for a fifth day for a recurring lung infection that developed into pneumonia. The 94-year-old who helped free South Africa from white minority rule has had weak lungs ever since he quarried stone on Robben Island during some of his 27 years of imprisonment. He contracted tuberculosis there. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

Children play ball in front of a giant portrait of former president Nelson Mandela in a park in Soweto, South Africa, Sunday, March 31, 2013. Mandela remains in a hospital while he receives treatment for a recurrence of pneumonia. Presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj says there are no updates on 94 year old Mandela since an official statement Saturday on his condition. That statement reported the anti-apartheid leader was breathing without difficulty after having a procedure to clear fluid in his lung area. (AP Photo/Denis Farrell)

(AP) ? Former President Nelson Mandela was discharged from a hospital on Saturday following treatment for pneumonia, the presidency said in news that cheered South Africans who had waited tensely for health updates on a beloved national figure.

Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who spent 27 years in prison for opposing white racist rule, was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him. In recent years, however, 94-year-old Mandela became more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn't deliver an address and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans.

South Africans hold the former leader dear as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation stemming from his pivotal role in steering South Africa from the apartheid era and into democratic elections in 1994, at a time of great hope but also tension and uncertainty. The new South Africa, beset by economic inequality, crime and corruption, has not lived up to the soaring expectations of its people, but they still see hope through their icon, Mandela.

Primrose Mashoma, a South African, said she wished that Mandela would live, basically, forever.

"I wish him to stay maybe a hundred more years," she said.

A statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma said there had been "a sustained and gradual improvement" in the condition of Mandela, who was admitted to a hospital on the night of March 27.

"The former President will now receive home-based high care," the statement said.

Mandela had received similar treatment at his home in Johannesburg after a stay at a hospital in nearby Pretoria in December, when he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones. Earlier in March, the anti-apartheid leader was hospitalized overnight for what authorities said was a successful scheduled medical test.

During Mandela's latest hospitalization, doctors drained fluid from his lung area, making it easier for him to breathe.

On Saturday afternoon, shortly after the presidential statement on Mandela's discharge, a military ambulance was seen entering his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton. In recent years, Mandela had been spending more time in Qunu, the rural area in Eastern Cape province where he grew up. But his delicate condition required that he be moved to South Africa's biggest city.

Many South Africans refer affectionately to Mandela by his clan name, Madiba. Buildings, squares, and other places have been named after him, and his image adorns statues and artwork around the country. The central bank issued new banknotes last year that show his smiling face.

"I'm really happy about Madiba coming out," said student Anele Gcolotela, using Mandela's clan name, a term of affection. "I think it's been too long now."

After Mandela's release from prison in 1990, he was widely credited with averting even greater bloodshed by helping the country in the transition to democratic rule, negotiating with the guardians of the same system that had deprived him of freedom for decades. He became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after elections were held, bringing an end to apartheid.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid. Most of those years were spent on Robben Island, a forbidding outpost off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela and other prisoners spent part of the time toiling in a stone quarry.

The elderly are especially vulnerable to pneumonia, which can be fatal. Its symptoms include fever, chills, a cough, chest pain and shortness of breath. Many germs cause pneumonia.

South African officials have said doctors were acting with extreme caution because of Mandela's advanced age.

In Saturday's statement, Zuma thanked the medical team and hospital staff that looked after Mandela and expressed gratitude for South Africans and people around the world who had shown support for Mandela. The South African government has sought to balance efforts to satisfy wide public interest in Mandela's condition with an intense campaign to preserve the privacy of an ailing figure who already has his place in history.

The African National Congress, the ruling party that led the struggle against apartheid and has held power since its demise, expressed its "happiness" at the discharge of its former leader from the hospital.

"We acknowledge the important role played by President Zuma and his office to keep the nation, the continent and the world informed about progress made on his treatment on a regular basis," the party said in a statement.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-04-06-South%20Africa-Mandela/id-334cb3650af9481db256e44182a63ee9

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AP source: Video shows Miss. suspect shoot detective, self

Authorities identify officer killed by suspect at police headquarters in Jackson, Mississippi. WLBT's Joe Barnes reports.

By Holbrook Mohr, Associated Press

Authorities have a video from a police interrogation room that shows a murder suspect shooting a detective to death before killing himself with the officer's gun, a person with knowledge of the investigation said Saturday.

The suspect, Jeremy Powell, was not handcuffed during questioning at the Jackson Police Department on Thursday, the person said on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the ongoing investigation.

Powell overpowered Det. Eric Smith and took his gun, shooting the veteran detective four times before shooting himself in the head inside a third-floor room of the department's headquarters, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation said. Other officers heard the shots ring out and rushed to the interview room, but both men were dead.

The AP has asked for the video to be released under open records laws, but authorities have not responded to the request.

Powell, 23, was being questioned about the stabbing death of a man whose body was found Monday near a Jackson street.

Ken Winter, executive director of the Mississippi Association of Chiefs of Police, said it's not unusual for a suspect to be unrestrained during questioning.

"It depends on the demeanor of the individual at the time. I would assume that the detective had no reason to believe this guy was aggressive or he wouldn't have been interviewing him in the first place," said Winter, who spent 36 years in law enforcement as a police chief, a detective and as director of the state crime lab.

Winter also said it's not uncommon for an officer to be armed during an interrogation.

"I don't think this detective was doing anything out of the ordinary. Sometimes you can do everything right and it still turn out bad," Winter said.

Smith, 40, is survived by his wife, Eneke, a sergeant with the Jackson Police Department, and two sons.

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? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Fannie Mae record profit: How long until it pays back bailout money?

Fannie Mae, the mortgage giant, made a record $17.2 billion in 2012. So far, it has paid back $36 billion of the $116 billion it received in a US bailout.

By Mark Trumbull,?Staff writer / April 2, 2013

Fannie Mae (headquarters seen here) earned $17.2 billion in 2012, the biggest annual profit in the US mortgage giant's history, helped by a record fourth quarter.

Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/File

Enlarge

The mortgage giant Fannie Mae said it racked up its highest profit ever during the 2012 calendar year ? a signal of housing-market recovery that raises hopes that US taxpayers will recover billions of dollars in bailout funds from the company.

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Fannie Mae on Tuesday reported earnings of $17.2 billion for the year.

The firm, along with a sibling corporation named Freddie Mac, is at the heart of a US mortgage market that imploded during the financial crisis. The two firms received some of the biggest taxpayer bailouts in 2008.

But now, as housing markets are recovering, so are their fortunes.

Fannie Mae has drawn some $116 billion in financial support from the US Treasury since the firm was taken over in a federal conservatorship in 2008. Some $35.6 billion of that has, in effect, been paid back through dividend payments to the Treasury since 2009.

The company has paid a $4.2 billion dividend to the Treasury in the first quarter of 2013.

?We expect to remain profitable for the foreseeable future and return significant value to taxpayers,? said Susan McFarland, the firm?s chief financial officer, in releasing the new profit numbers.

In February, Freddie Mac gave a similar progress report of its own, banking $11 billion in net income for 2012. The firm has paid dividends totaling some $23.8 billion to the Treasury ? or 33 percent of the company?s cumulative bailout draw ? since conservatorship.

Paying back the full bailout funds is still a long way off for both firms.

And even if they achieve that goal, that doesn?t mean the bailouts would be cost-free. For one thing, economists say the rescues come with ?moral hazard? attached. That term refers to the risk that the behavior of large financial firms will be guided somewhat that they can expect bailouts in future crises.

Still, the rescue of Fannie and Freddie symbolize policies that worked, in the view of many economists, to quell a spreading panic in financial markets that could have made the recession much deeper.

And, in the housing market in particular, Fannie and Freddie (along with the Federal Housing Administration) have acted as bulwarks of mortgage underwriting during the past five years, when other sources of credit had largely dried up.

Fannie and Freddie provide mortgage guarantees to private lenders, or purchase loans, when the loans conform to their standards.

The goal of helping to ensure a reliable flow of mortgage credit, even during hard times, is the reason Fannie and Freddie were created in the first place. Until the conservatorship, they operated with an unusual hybrid identity as investor-owned companies serving a Congress-created purpose.

Their futures remain in doubt. Congress must consider what role the government should play in providing Fannie- and Freddie-style loan guarantees in the future.

With the example of the bailouts in mind, many argue for downsizing any implicit taxpayer underwriting of the risk that home loans will go bad, as occurred in dramatic fashion in recent years. At the same time, other lawmakers say the market for home loans shouldn?t be left completely to soar and plunge on its own.

For their part, executives at Fannie and Freddie are touting the role they?ve played in buoying the housing market since the recession ended.

?Actions [by the company] have helped ? to support the housing recovery by enabling families to buy, refinance, or rent a home even during the housing crisis,? ?Timothy Mayopoulos, Fannie?s chief executive officer, said in the company?s statement Tuesday.

Fannie Mae was involved in some 4 million new or refinanced mortgages in 2012, and Freddie Mac accounted for another 2 million.

With the housing market stabilizing and starting to recover since 2010, the share of Fannie-backed loans where borrowers are seriously delinquent on payments has been declining.

Some 3.3 percent of its single-family loans were in serious delinquency as of December, down from 5.5 percent in March 2010. The improvement stems partly from completing foreclosures, and partly from preventing foreclosures.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/iSC6N7rUDU0/Fannie-Mae-record-profit-How-long-until-it-pays-back-bailout-money

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Gmail Search's Autocomplete Gets Smarter Predictions, Using Past Searches To Help You Find Things

3276730958_eb24f1c1c5_zThe Gmail team announced some improvements for search within its product today, calling out better predictions for autocomplete based on who you contact the most and what you’ve searched for. Given that Google is the king of search, this is a welcome and obvious improvement. Additionally, Gmail users and Google Apps for Business users will start getting some features that they didn’t have previously, including thumbnails from contacts. Autocomplete and suggestions have been a huge part of Google’s main search product for a while now, and it’s pretty accurate based on trends that are going on in the world along with what you’ve searched for in the past. Here’s what the Gmail team had to say about the improvements today: If you’ve searched your email for “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” or other lengthy phrases, it just got easier to find what you’re looking for. Autocomplete predictions in Gmail may now include your past Gmail searches. Past searches as well as the new contact thumbnails shown below are rolling out to all Gmail users globally, including Google Apps for Business customers, over the next few days. A good example of why this might be useful is if you search for emails from a specific person, like your boss, or if you’re someone who travels a lot and does searches for flight itineraries. It’s no Gmail Blue, but it will definitely save you time and effort. Since Gmail’s goal is to collect all of your email communication without you having to worry about what to delete, with its archive feature, search is a key component that makes its service attractive. Globally, Gmail is the leading web-based email service, so it’s trying to roll out tweaks and new features like the refactored compose screen to help you get more done. The company is putting more weight behind giving the service a better mobile experience as well, launching version 2.0 of its iOS client last December to mostly decent reviews. In essence, Gmail has been in beta since it launched nine years ago, completely recreating the email experience that we were all accustomed to until 2004. With things like search, archive and threaded conversations, Google hopes to continue to make email faster and more responsive?so that your inbox doesn’t become bloated with things that you’ll never read. And when you do need to read something, you can just search for it.

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

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Treatment Plant for Waste in Nuclear Cleanup Has Design Flaws, Panel Says

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The plant, at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington State, has problems that could lead to chemical explosions, inadvertent nuclear reactions and mechanical breakdowns, a panel said.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/03/science/earth/treatment-plant-for-waste-in-nuclear-cleanup-has-design-flaws-panel-says.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Potential therapy for human prion disease

Apr. 3, 2013 ? Human diseases caused by misfolded proteins known as prions are some of most rare yet terrifying on the planet -- incurable with disturbing symptoms that include dementia, personality shifts, hallucinations and coordination problems. The most well-known of these is Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which can be described as the naturally occurring human equivalent of mad cow disease.

Now, scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have for the first time identified a pair of drugs already approved for human use that show anti-prion activity and, for one of them, great promise in treating these universally fatal disorders.

The study, led by TSRI Professor Corinne Lasm?zas and performed in collaboration with TSRI Professor Emeritus Charles Weissmann and Director of Lead Identification Peter Hodder, was published this week online ahead of print by the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The new study used an innovative high-throughput screening technique to uncover compounds that decrease the amount of the normal form of the prion protein (PrP, which becomes distorted by the disease) at the cell surface. The scientists found two compounds that reduced PrP on cell surfaces by approximately 70 percent in the screening and follow up tests.

The two compounds are already marketed as the drugs tacrolimus and astemizole. Tacrolimus is an immune suppressant widely used in organ transplantation. Tacrolimus could prove problematic as an anti-prion drug, however, because of issues including possible neurotoxicity.

However, astemizole is an antihistamine that has potential for use as an anti-prion drug. While withdrawn voluntarily from the U.S. over-the-counter market in 1999 because of rare cardiac arrhythmias when used in high doses, it has been available in generic form in more than 30 countries and has a well-established safety profile. Astemizole not only crosses the blood-brain barrier, but works effectively at a relatively low concentration.

Lasm?zas noted that astemizole appears to stimulate autophagy, the process by which cells eliminate unwanted components. "Autophagy is involved in several protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's diseases," she said. "So future studies on the mode of action of astemizole may uncover potentially new therapeutic targets for prion diseases and similar disorders."

The study noted that eliminating cell surface PrP expression could also be a potentially new approach to treat Alzheimer's disease, which is characterized by the build-up of amyloid ? plaque in the brain. PrP is a cell surface receptor for A? peptides and helps mediate a number of critical deleterious processes in animal models of the disease.

The first author of the study, "Unique Drug Screening Approach for Prion Diseases Identifies Tacrolimus and Astemizole as Antiprion Agents," is Yervand Eduard Karapetyan of The Scripps Research Institute. Other authors include Gian Franco Sferrazza, Minghai Zhou, Gregory Ottenberg, Timothy Spicer, Peter Chase, Mohammad Fallahi, Peter Hodder and Charles Weissmann of The Scripps Research Institute.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Scripps Research Institute.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Y. E. Karapetyan, G. F. Sferrazza, M. Zhou, G. Ottenberg, T. Spicer, P. Chase, M. Fallahi, P. Hodder, C. Weissmann, C. I. Lasmezas. Unique drug screening approach for prion diseases identifies tacrolimus and astemizole as antiprion agents. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2013; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1303510110

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/D8wf0tOnTHw/130403154305.htm

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Quantum cryptography: On wings of light

Apr. 3, 2013 ? Physicists from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich have, for the first time, successfully transmitted a secure quantum code through the atmosphere from an aircraft to a ground station.

Can worldwide communication ever be fully secure? Quantum physicists believe they can provide secret keys using quantum cryptography via satellite. Unlike communication based on classical bits, quantum cryptography employs the quantum states of single light quanta (photons) for the exchange of data. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle limits the precision with which the position and momentum of a quantum particle can be determined simultaneously, but can also be exploited for secure information transfer. Like its classical counterpart, quantum cryptography requires a shared key with which the parties encode and decode messages. However, quantum mechanical phenomena guarantee the security of quantum key distribution. Because quantum states are fragile, interception of the key by an eavesdropper will alter the behavior properties of the particles, and thus becomes detectable.

This encrypting strategy is already being used by some government agencies and banks. Data are sent either along glass-fiber cables or through the atmosphere. However, optical key distribution via these channels is limited to distances of less than 200 km, due to signal losses along the way. In 2007, LMU physicist Harald Weinfurter and his group successfully transmitted a key over 144 km of free space between ground stations on the islands of Tenerife and La Palma. Distribution of such keys via satellite networks would make secure data transmission possible on a global scale.

Optical data from a mobile transmitter

A team led by Weinfurter and Sebastian Nauerth at the Physics Faculty at LMU Munich, in collaboration with the German Center for Aeronautics and Space Research (DLR), has now succeeded in optically transmitting quantum information between a ground station and a plane in flight. This is the first time that quantum cryptography has been used for communication with a mobile transmitter.

The quantum channel was integrated into DLR's laser-based, wireless communications system, allowing DLR's expertise and experience with the system to be utilized in the realization of the experiment.

"This demonstrates that quantum cryptography can be implemented as an extension to existing systems," says LMU's Sebastian Nauerth. In the experiment, single photons were sent from the aircraft to the receiver on the ground. The challenge was to ensure that the photons could be precisely directed at the telescope on the ground in spite of the impact of mechanical vibrations and air turbulence. "With the aid of rapidly movable mirrors, a targeting precision of less than 3 m over a distance of 20 km was achieved," reports Florian Moll, project leader at the DLR's Institute for Communication and Navigation. With this level of accuracy, William Tell could have hit the apple on his son's head even from a distance of 500 m.

With respect to the rate of signal loss and the effects of air turbulence, the conditions encountered during the experiment were comparable to those expected for transmission via satellite. The same holds for the angular velocity of the aircraft. The success of the experiment therefore represents an important step towards secure satellite-based global communication.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (LMU).

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.


Journal Reference:

  1. Sebastian Nauerth, Florian Moll, Markus Rau, Christian Fuchs, Joachim Horwath, Stefan Frick, Harald Weinfurter. Air-to-ground quantum communication. Nature Photonics, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/nphoton.2013.46

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/r6SO1PxT03c/130403071950.htm

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Why do some handle stress better than others


For some students, just going to school can be very stressful.? Add standardized tests to the mix, and even a gifted student can be unnerved.? ?

Performing well on high school competency exams opens the door to a student?s academic future like never before.? In some cases, the pressure has even filtered down to elementary school?where competition for collegiate scholarships has found a surprising new starting place.

In this Just Explain It, we?ll break down the science behind why some students perform well under pressure, while others don?t.? We?ll also look into what can be done to help students perform better in stressful situations.

Researchers have found that the success of some students can be linked to how fast dopamine is cleared from their brain.

Dopamine is a chemical messenger that helps transmit signals between nerve cells of the brain.? The chemical has many functions, playing important roles in behavior and cognition, attention, working memory and learning. Our brains work best when there?s not too much or too little dopamine.

That?s where what?s known as the COMT gene comes into play - and it comes in the form of two variants. The fast variant removes dopamine quickly and the slow variant removes the chemical gradually.

Studies of people in two environments were conducted?one under normal conditions, the other under stressful conditions.? It was found that under normal conditions, people with the slow-acting COMT gene excelled when performing mental tasks.?? Under those conditions, people with the fast-acting gene didn?t perform as well.

The outcome was reversed when people were subjected to a great deal of stress.? That?s because dopamine overloads the brains of people with the slow-acting gene? ? hampering their ability.? You see, dopamine rises in stressful situations.? So in this circumstance, the fast-acting gene keeps the brain?s dopamine at normal levels.

The COMT gene variants have also been shown to actually predict the activity of regions of the brain involved in cognition and emotional responses, said David Goldman, a National Institutes of Health scientist and author of ?Our Genes Our Choices.? This gene is an example of the genetic reasons why people?s brains work a little differently, and how the expression of these differences is altered by the contexts in which people find themselves, and choose.

How this all works has been studied in real life situations.? Researchers in Taiwan followed 779 students who took the national competency exam.? Under more stress than usual, students with the slow-acting enzymes scored eight percent lower on average than those with the fast-acting ones.? ?

There?s no need to worry though, it?s not either/or for most people.?? About 50 percent of all people inherit one of each gene variation from their parents.? So that means most people have medium acting enzymes. The other half is split between fast and slow acting genes.

Researchers also found that experience leveled the playing field.? The more practice someone had at performing tasks, the less likely they were to melt under pressure.

We know that practice makes perfect, but here are some other things that can help students reduce stress. ?

1.? Eat healthy.? Meals should include fruits and vegetables.
2.? Exercise regularly.
3.? Do things you enjoy often like, hobbies, sports and reading.
4.? Make sure you get enough sleep.
5.? Learn relaxation techniques like, meditation and deep breathing.

Research from the University of Missouri shows that being involved in school activities like, chess, spelling bees or science fairs gives students a chance to perform.? Some of these moments might be very stressful, but there?s a chance they could payoff in the end. ?

Did you learn something? Do you have a topic you?d like explained?? Give us your feedback in the comments below or on Twitter using #JustExplainIt.?

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/just-explain-it--students---stress-140418857.html

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