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Thursday, August 4, 2011

Somalia’s famine is spreading, UN warns

NAIROBI - The United Nations declared three new regions in Somalia famine zones yesterday, expanding the area where the highest rates of malnutrition and mortality are taking place, including the refugee camps in the capital of Mogadishu.

The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization said that famine is likely to spread across all regions of Somalia's south in the next four to six weeks and may persist until December.

In Somalia, 3.7 million people are in crisis, the UN said, out of a population of 7.5 million. The UN said 3.2 million need immediate, lifesaving assistance.

The UN said the prevalence of acute malnutrition and rates of crude mortality surpassed the famine thresholds in Middle Shabelle, the Afgoye corridor refugee settlement, and internally displaced communities in Mogadishu. The UN said last month that two other regions in Somalia were suffering from famine.

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Norway: Special police unit to probe massacre case

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Police in Oslo are setting up a special unit to investigate the twin attacks that killed 77 people.

Anders Behring Breivik has confessed to setting off a bomb in the capital and to a massacre at an island youth camp. But, many unanswered questions remain, including how Breivik financed the attacks and with whom he was in contact.

Breivik has claimed to belong to a shadowy group of modern-day crusaders against Islam, with cells all over Europe.

Police attorney Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby said Wednesday that police are particularly interested in any bank accounts Breivik may have opened.

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Oklahoma woman says uncle was notorious 1971 hijacker

OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- When an FBI agent pleaded several years ago for help in finding notorious skyjacker D.B. Cooper, he wondered, off-handedly, if someone's "odd uncle" might be their guy.

Marla Cooper of Oklahoma says she thinks her late uncle Lynn Doyle Cooper was that guy. She says she is convinced he hijacked a plane in 1971 and parachuted away with $200,000 in ransom money over the Pacific Northwest.

"I was 8 years old, so I can't tell you exactly what he said, but I do remember the words: 'Our money problems are over. We just need to go back and get the money,' " she told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

The FBI isn't convinced D.B. Cooper survived the jump, but has chased more than 1,000 leads in the nation's only unsolved hijacking. D.B. Cooper, meanwhile, maintains a prominent place in folklore.

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Officials mixed on Lebanon stance at U.N. on Syria

BEIRUT: Lawmakers from Lebanon's rival political camps voiced mixed reactions Thursday to their country's disassociation with the U.N. Security Council statement condemning the violence in Syria.

Whereas members of the country's opposition said Lebanon had failed to reflect the country's anger at Damascus and its sympathies with Syrian protesters, March 8 coalition members said Beirut had taken the right decision of not interfering with its Arab neighbor.

"The opposition had hoped that Lebanon would come out with a position that expresses the desires and aspirations of the majority of both the Lebanese and Syrian peoples as well as Syrian people's right to reject violence, oppression and injustice in order to live in dignity, freedom and democracy," Future Movement MP Mohammad Hajjar said.

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Saudi ambassador: We didn't demand amnesty for Mubarak

Saudi ambassador to Egypt Ahmed al-Qattan said Wednesday that his country has not demanded amnesty for former President Hosni Mubarak, who is currently standing trial in Cairo, accused of killing protesters during the 25 January revolution.

Qattan told the privately-owned satellite channel Al-Hayat that Saudi Arabia is not bothered by Mubarak's trial, adding that meetings held between Saudi and Egyptian officials have not discussed amnesty for the ousted president.

"Saudi Arabia is a stable country and fears no threats," he emphasized.

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Trial of Mubarak's security chief resumes in Cairo

CAIRO (AP) — A day after the start of Hosni Mubarak's historic trial, seven of his co-defendants are back in the courtroom on charges of ordering the killing of protesters during the uprising that toppled Egypt's longtime president.

Thursday's hearing of former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly and six top police officials is being broadcast live on Egyptian state televisions.

The seven appeared in court first on Wednesday in the same defendants' cage with Mubarak and his two sons — one-time heir apparent Gamal and businessman Alaa — in a related case that is tried by the same judge. The Mubaraks' trial resumes Aug. 15.

Mubarak, el-Adly and the six police officials face the death penalty if convicted over the protesters' deaths.

The three Mubaraks separately face corruption charges.

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Samsung eyes InterDigital patent portfolio for mobile technology

Summary: The race is on as several Silicon Valley giants race to buy up more patents for mobile technology.

Samsung is reportedly interested in acquiring InterDigital Inc.'s patent portfolio, which retains a catalog of patents related to mobile technologies used to transfer information.

However, Samsung isn't the only one interested in making this deal. Both Apple and Google are potential bidders as well.

Lee Seung Woo, a Seoul-based analyst at Shinyoung Securities Co., told Bloomberg about just how serious this acquisition could be.

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Uganda's first white politician plans progress - but reminds locals of a bitter past

It was Uganda's ubiquitous potholes that first made Ian Clarke want to stand to become the country's first ever elected white politician.

Now, after winning a landslide victory to become the mayor of one of the capital city's five sprawling districts, they are the first thing that the Irish doctor is planning to fix.

"The potholes are a metaphor for Uganda and for the state of Kampala," Clarke said, pointing at a group of labourers that had started work filling in one of the city's rutted roads.

"If we can demonstrate that we can overcome the potholes and keep our streets clean then we can show that things can change," he added.

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Jerry Lewis no longer MDA's national chairman

TUCSON, Ariz. — Comedian Jerry Lewis is no longer serving as the Muscular Dystrophy Association's national chairman and won't be appearing on this year's Labor Day telethon, the nonprofit agency announced Wednesday night.

Lewis, 85, has been the MDA's national chairman since the early 1950s and has hosted the Labor Day Muscular Dystrophy Association telethon since 1966.

He announced in May that he was retiring as host of the telethon that has become synonymous with his name. But Lewis added that he planned to make his final appearance on this year's Sept. 4, show and planned on continuing to serve as MDA's national chairman.

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CBS hypes ‘mystery’ of Charlie Sheen character’s fate

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — How will "Two and a Half Men" explain the disappearance of Charlie Sheen in the show's ninth-season premiere Sept. 19? Will the sitcom that fired the hard-partying actor kill off Sheen's character Charlie Harper as rumored?

Nina Tassler, president of CBS Entertainment, declined to say during the Television Critics Association press tour here yesterday.

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Remembering Bubba Smith, the Football Player

A few thoughts about Bubba Smith, who died yesterday at 66. He may be best remembered today as an actor and television pitchman. But he made his name on the football field, first at Michigan State, then as a Baltimore Colt. Andy Barall writes about pro football history for The Fifth Down.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, there wasn't a more imposing sight in football than Charles Aaron Smith, better known as Bubba. Before a terrible knee injury in 1972, Smith was one of the N.F.L.'s best all-around 4-3 defensive ends. When he wanted to, he could dominate.

Smith was a two-time all-American for the powerhouse Michigan State teams of the mid-60s. The Baltimore Colts, with a pick acquired in a trade with the expansion New Orleans Saints, made him the first overall selection of the 1967 draft. Three of his college teammates, Clint Jones, George Webster and Gene Washington, were also among the first eight picks that year.

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Stocks snap losing streak

NECN: Peter Howe, Boston, Mass.) -- Just a 0.25 percent turn in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Wednesday, and the headline would have been: Worst streak for stocks since 1978.

But as it turned out, stocks edged narrowly higher Wednesday after initial deep losses, snapping an eight-day streak of losses for the Dow. Still, the damage has been done: Stocks have essentially given up all their gains for 2011, and with the debt-ceiling drama behind them for now, investors have been focusing more intently on an economy that looks weak and discouraging.

"There's an underlying fear that the probability of a double-dip or second recession has increased over the last several weeks,'' said Robert G. Ix, managing partner of Crestwood Advisors, a Boston money-management firm with $750 million in assets under management. Relieved to have an up day for the first time in over a week and a half, Ix said he's now looking anxiously to Friday's government report on how many jobs the U.S. economy created in July.

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Monkey shines: ‘Apes’ reboot rises above pack

Paging Dr. Franco-stein. In "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," the ubiquitous James Franco is Dr. Will Rodman, ambitious San Francisco research scientist. A newly-minted knockoff of Mary Shelley's mad scientist, Will is searching for a cure for Alzheimer's, even if it means offending Mother Nature.

It turns out this new "Apes" entry is a lot better than Tim Burton's 2001 remake and a more-than-serviceable prequel to the series that began with the 1968 science-fiction classic "Planet of the Apes."

The new film, directed by Englishman Rupert Wyatt ("The Escapist") and written by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver of the 1997 B-movie "The Relic," has some aces up its furry sleeve, most of all an eerie, motion-capture performance by Andy Serkis (the screen's immortal Gollum) as Caesar, this film's rebel ape leader.

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Bubba Smith dies at 66; NFL player turned Miller Lite pitchman

Bubba Smith, a former All-Pro football player turned actor and commercial pitchman who delighted TV viewers by wrenching off the tops of "easy-opening cans" of beer, was found dead Wednesday at his Los Angeles home. He was 66.

The cause of death has not been determined, the L.A. County coroner's office said.

A caretaker found Smith at his Baldwin Hills home, police said.

A 6-foot-7, 280-pound defensive end, Smith was the No. 1 NFL draft pick from Michigan State University when he joined the Baltimore Colts in 1967.

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Homeless man's death after arrest outrages father

FULLERTON, Calif.—In the nearly two decades since his son descended into madness, Ron Thomas has worried every day that the schizophrenic 37-year-old would die of exposure or illness on the streets. He never imagined the end would come in a violent confrontation with police.

The death last month was the end of a trajectory that began when Kelly Thomas was in his early 20s and started showing the first signs of what would later be diagnosed as schizophrenia: he shuttled between addresses, preferred to sleep on the floor and stopped showering.

In treatment, Thomas did well and was able to hold down a job—but when he stopped taking his pills, he disappeared onto the streets. He racked up an array of charges, from public urination to assault with a deadly weapon, and alarmed his parents with his bizarre behavior.

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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Representing Uganda abroad:

As a child, she dreamt of a career in medicine, but ended up as an arts and media guru on the continent. Leslie Nabunya Kasumba initially wanted to be a doctor because her father, who she looked up to, was a practising medical doctor.

Born to Sam Kasumba and Mera Nsibirwa 31 years ago in Kampala, her family moved to Kenya, then Zimbabwe and finally settled in Bophuthatswana, Mafikeng province in South Africa.

A shift to the arts and media
Kasumba, who attained all her education in South Africa, picked interest in creative arts and media during her last years at high school.

This marked her long journey into the world of continental media. She enrolled at the University of Witwatersrand, where she did a degree in dramatic arts. Then she joined the radio industry as a presenter.

Kasumba worked with leading South African radio station Y FM and later its sister magazine Y Magazine as a writer and later an editor.

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Market fires might end up burning the entire country

For the second time in as many years, the sprawling Park Yard Market in downtown Kampala has been reduced to ashes. The origin of the Sunday morning fire remains mysterious and controversial.

Judging from previous devastating fires in the last quarter of a century, it is unlikely that we shall get any further helpful information beyond speculation, conjecture and innuendo.

Looking back in this period, the list of 'famous fires' is long. One of the earliest known fires in this epoch of Uganda's history was the fire in the late 80s at Bulange (Republic House) which was by then the headquarters of the National Resistance Army (NRA). It was purportedly to destroy evidence of ghost soldiers in the records department. Then the burning of people in the 'Burchoro pit incident' in Acholi land allegedly by the NRA around the same period.

We had the fires of the Kibwetere cult in 2000, the burning of the students in Kichwamba in 2001 blamed on the Allied Democratic Forces rebel group and arson on several villages in Northern Uganda, including Atiak, whose liability was supposedly on the shoulders of the LRA.

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Norway attacks: What happens if Breivik is deemed insane?

Oslo

Two Norwegian forensic psychiatrists are scheduled this week to start evaluating admitted Osloattacker Anders Behring Breivik to determine if he is in fact insane.

A confirmation of insanity by the experts Torgeir Husby and Synne Sørheim could send the case against Mr. Breivik in an entirely new direction. They have until Nov. 1 to complete their evaluation. If they deem him insane, and the judge concurs – he does not have to – Breivik would be sent to a medical institution. He would remain there until he is considered to no longer pose a threat to society.

Breivik's defense attorney has suggested his client is insane. But legal experts who have examined the case doubt that Breivik, a Norwegian from a middle-class Oslo neighborhood who shocked his nation by bombing government buildings and carrying out a shooting spree that killed 77 people on July 22, will be deemed mentally unsound.

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Bomb 'strapped' to girl in Sydney

Australian police are attempting to assist an 18-year-old girl who has allegedly had an explosive device strapped to her neck.

A ransom note was found with the device which was reportedly attached to the girl when a man wearing a balaclava entered a house in the upmarket Mosman area of Sydney.

Police and an army bomb disposal team have surrounded the house on Burrawong Avenue and are treating the device as live until they know otherwise.

A bomb disposal team has entered the house to offer support to the teenager and examine the device. "The process demands a high level of skill and must be meticulous," a police spokesman said.

He would not confirm if the device had been strapped to the woman by someone she did not know but said the incident was "not being treated as self-harm".

The incident began when the girl, who was home alone when the man entered the house, phoned police about 2.30pm (5.30am Irish time).

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Trip over Dominican likely will weaken Emily

Tropical Storm Emily, the fifth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, will weaken when it makes landfall today on Hispaniola and passes over the Caribbean island's mountains, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The storm is about 180 miles southeast of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, which along with Haiti comprises Hispaniola, according to an NHC advisory published at 5:00 a.m. in Miami. The storm's wind speeds are 50 miles per hour and it is moving west-northwest at 14 mph.

A storm warning was in effect for Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Haiti, the southeast Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands, the center said. It warned that high winds and up to 10 inches of rain could trigger life-threatening flash floods and mud slides in mountainous areas. "Large and dangerous waves" would affect these areas, the NHC said.

Emily may strengthen after passing Hispaniola, the NHC said. The storm is projected to move toward the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos Islands tomorrow and Florida on Aug. 5. Storm- force winds extend for as far as 115 miles from the core.

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Serbian officials call for “restraint in Kosovo”

Bogdanović told B92 that talks with KFOR Commander Erhard Buhler could be continued during the day and that the Serbian side would present concrete proposals.

"Talks with KFOR Commander Erhard Buhler were constructive and Serbian government's delegation presented clear positions for solving the crisis in northern Kosovo," said Stefanović.

The minister for Kosovo pointed out that the main message of the meeting was that the situation needed to be solved peacefully.

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Malik hints at grand operation in Karachi

Meanwhile, the death toll from target killings reached 36 in two days. Talking to reporters after arriving in the city on the orders of President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, he said peace would be restored to the city within two days. He urged citizens of the provincial metropolis to remain calm, saying the government would not disappoint them. He said the government had decided to take strict action against the troublemakers on the information of intelligence agencies.

"The government will no longer tolerate any violence in Karachi. I promise to restore peace and control the worsening law and order in Karachi within two days," Rehman Malik said. Later, Interior Minister Rehman Malik called on Sindh Governor Dr Ishratul Ebad Khan at the Governor's House. They discussed the overall law and order in the city, and agreed to take indiscriminate strict action against the elements involved in incidents of target killings.

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Escaping from Somalia's Famine into a Perilous Refuge

Somali refugees wait at a registration center at the Dagahaley refugee site within the sprawling Dadaab complex in Kenya on Aug. 2, 2011

We have been driving around the world's largest refugee complex, late for an appointment with an NGO, as we are lost amid seemingly endless rows of ramshackle huts built of sticks and discarded packaging from aid organizations. The driver is making me nervous as he steers recklessly through women in hijabs, children with bare feet and men with donkey carts, moving through the narrow roads of desert sand. The hired guard, a moonlighting soldier, seems at ease, chatting loudly on his mobile phone as he cradles his machine gun in the other hand.

Realizing that we are lost, we park near a dried-out tree on the edge of the Hagadera refugee camp, one of the three in the Dadaab complex in eastern Kenya, when a man runs toward me shouting, urgently asking for help. What happens next seems to be a metaphor for the crisis that has overtaken this portion of the country, now the safe haven for the tens of thousands of people fleeing the world's worst hunger crisis, a famine that has gripped war-torn Somalia, the result of the worst drought in the region in 60 years.

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Making an Enemy of Iran

Barack Obama has thrown in the towel regarding negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and yielded to his advisors' policy of relentlessly demonising Iran, notes Patrick Seale.

Middle East Online

It is now widely accepted -- and lamented -- that US President Barack Obama failed dismally in attempting to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians. Defeated by Israel's hard-line Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, and by Israel's friends in the United States -- lobbyists, Congressmen and women, neo-conservatives, Christian Zionists, and assorted Arab-haters both inside and outside the Administration -- the President threw in the towel.

What is less well understood is that Obama was also defeated in another major area of foreign policy -- relations with Iran. When he came to office he vowed to 'engage' with the Islamic Republic, but this admirable objective was soon supplanted by a policy of threats, sanctions and intimidation aimed at isolating Iran, subverting its economy and overthrowing its regime.

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‘Who would do that to Celina Cass?’

STEWARTSTOWN, N.H. — After an autopsy failed to immediately reveal last night how 11-year-old Celina Cass ended up dead in the Connecticut River, residents of this tranquil village near the Canadian border grappled with the jarring possibility of a killer in their midst.

"Whoever did this might be living here," said Carole Rodrigue, whose grandson went to school with Celina. "I just hope they get the person and he pays for what he did, because she was just an innocent little girl."

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Debt-Ceiling Deal Does Little For Global Economic Ills

With the fight over the U.S. debt ceiling finally over, investors are free again to focus on all the economic challenges that lie ahead, but they are finding little reason to celebrate. Stock markets around the world fell sharply on Tuesday, skipping the "relief rally" that customarily follows the resolution of a crisis.

In the United States, signs of a serious economic slowdown had been building up, though with attention focused on the debt-ceiling debate, the news had apparently not yet sunk in.

The U.S. economy, as measured by gross domestic product, barely grew in the first two quarters, manufacturing slumped and consumer spending fell in June for the first time in nearly two years. The stalemate over the debt ceiling only aggravated what was already a bad situation.

"Our economy didn't need Washington to come along with a manufactured crisis to make things worse," said President Obama, commenting on the approval of a new debt ceiling. He offered little hope for a quick recovery.

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Iraq, U.S. to discuss extended stay for troops

Baghdad's decision comes on the same day Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, visits Iraq and warns that the U.S. needs to know whether a training mission will proceed.

The Iraqi government agreed late Tuesday to start negotiations with U.S. officials on whether to authorize theU.S. military to remain in Iraq on a mission training Iraq's security forces after 2011.

The announcement came the same day that Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited the country and warned that Washington needed a clear signal from Iraq about whether it would ask the American military stay on.

Senior Pentagon officials have been imploring Iraq's government for months to make a decision on a continued U.S. military presence, and last month, on a visit to Baghdad, Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta expressed that frustration by saying, "Damn it, make a decision," referring to the Iraqis.

As a candidate, President Obama promised to end the Iraq war, so the White House has been reluctant to call openly for U.S. troops to remain.

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Will Watch The Throne Dispel The Album Leak Curse?

Traditionally Hip Hop fans look towards every Tuesday with hope and anticipation as new albums are released from their favorite artists after months of tireless promotion and hype. With the advent of pirating, record label snafus and most notably the Internet, it has become harder to keep rabid fans at bay as some have come to expect albums to drop early – sometimes several weeks before their slated release date.

With Kanye West and Jay-Z's –known collectively as "The Throne" – upcoming Watch The Throne album set to be released digitally on August 8, Web savvy fans searching for the new album have no doubt scoured blogs, message boards and quite possibly manufacturing plants where albums are shipped from labels to be stocked in your local Best Buy in hopes of an early copy and have so far come up empty. In a time when leaked albums are commonplace, many are wondering how Watch the Throne has managed to beat the odds thus far.

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AT&T doubles down on BlackBerry with three OS 7 devices

Though you can't shake a smartphone this summer without hitting someone writing a BlackBerry obituary, AT&T is not even close to attending a funeral. Today, the carrier announced that it was adding three new BlackBerry devices to its roster, starting with the BlackBerry Torch 9810 later this month. It's all very good news for worried BlackBerry fans, who could see seven new handsetsfrom the manufacturer through the end of 2011.

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Investors fear new economic downturn

Two years after the last recession ended, Wall Street is showing rising fear that the U.S. economy could be headed for a new downturn.

Stock prices plummeted in the U.S. and Europe on Tuesday, driving the Dow Jones industrial average to its lowest level since March and to its longest losing streak — eight straight sessions — since the October 2008 financial system meltdown.

Deepening investor pessimism about the world economy is posing a serious threat to already fragile business and consumer confidence at a time when policymakers appear out of fixes.

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Woods back in swing

Tiger Woods was on the practice range just as the sun began to rise yesterday over Firestone, his first time on a PGA Tour golf course in nearly three months.

Even as the season heads toward a conclusion, Woods can't wait to get started.

"I'm excited to compete, to play,'' Woods said. "And hopefully, to win the tournament.''

That part about Woods hasn't changed.

It's everything else in the world of golf he once ruled that is so much different. Woods showed up at the Bridgestone Invitational in Akron, Ohio, at No. 28, his lowest world ranking since the start of his first full season on the PGA Tour. He has a new caddie - at least temporarily - in Bryon Bell, a childhood friend who now heads up a design business that is not getting much work these days with a downturn in the industry.

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Mubarak Goes on Trial in Egypt

CAIRO—Egypt's deposed President Hosni Mubarak arrived in court Wednesday to stand trial on charges of ordering the killing of revolutionary protesters, in a prosecution that is without precedent in the Middle East's modern history and that has divided the nation's public opinion.

The first Arab leader overthrown by his own people to face justice, Mr. Mubarak, 83 years old, was ferried by military aircraft from his hospital bed in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el Sheikh. A white ambulance helicopter Wednesday morning deposited the former president at the trial's venue, the Police Academy in Cairo's outskirts. There, he was wheeled on a stretcher into a specially constructed metal cage for defendants.

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Watch Will Smith's Cali Mansion

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Tuesday, August 2, 2011

N.H. girl’s body found in river

WASHINGTON - The FBI investigated more threats against the life of the late Edward M. Kennedy than previously revealed, according to records released yesterday that vividly chronicle how the longtime Massachusetts senator became a magnet for the anger of disgruntled people around the world.

None of the half-dozen or so newly revealed threats, from the overheard mutterings of a purported mobster to a mysterious call detailing a supposed plot by Cuban communists, were substantiated. But they show how protecting Kennedy became a full-time job for FBI and Secret Service agents.

The batch of records released yesterday - covering from the mid-1960s through 2001 - was the second since the Federal Bureau of Investigation last year declassified portions of its voluminous file on Kennedy.

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Newton discusses credit rating with Moody's

Moody's Investors Service will review Newton's AAA bond rating in the next 90 days because of the potential national default facing the country, Mayor Setti Warren said tonight after a conference call with Moody's.

"Moody's informed us that as a result of what's happening in Washington -- the fact that there is not a deal in place to raise the debt ceiling at this point — the credit rating of the United State's government could be in jeopardy, therefore communities with a AAA bond rating will be under review in the next 90 days," said Warren.

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U.S. leaders reach debt compromise Deal expected to pass Senate before tonight's midnight deadline

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan bill to increase the U.S. debt limit and cut as much as $2.4 trillion in government spending passed the House of Representatives Monday evening, overcoming the key hurdle on the road to averting an unprecedented federal default.

The legislation, which passed with a relatively comfortable 269-161 margin, came after a weekend of tense meetings, staff discussions and, in the end, a compromise worked out at the highest levels of government. If passed by the Senate today, as widely expected, it will end a months-long standoff between a new Republican House majority, which refused to pass an increase without a deficit-reduction package, and the Democratic majority in the Senate and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The deal came together over the weekend when it was clear Congress no longer had time to spare. Even in the last moments before it was publicly announced, White House aides, who had watched several previous deals collapse, were so fearful of another failure they were preparing a statement to calm worried markets.

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Group: 24 killed in Syria as Ramadan starts

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian troops advanced in the central city of Hama on Tuesday, taking up new positions a day after government forces killed 24 people on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, activists said.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said most of Monday's 24 deaths were in Hama, which has been the target of a heavy military operation since Sunday.

The current crackdown appears aimed at preventing protests from swelling during Ramadan, when Muslims throng mosques for the special nightly prayers after breaking their dawn-to-dusk fast. The gatherings could then turn into large protests throughout the country.

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Somalis Waste Away as Insurgents Block Escape From Famine

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The Shabab Islamist insurgent group, which controls much of southern Somalia, is blocking starving people from fleeing the country and setting up a cantonment camp where it is imprisoning displaced people who were trying to escape Shabab territory.

The group is widely blamed for causing a famine in Somalia by forcing out many Western aid organizations, depriving drought victims of desperately needed food. The situation is growing bleaker by the day, with tens of thousands of Somalis already dead and more than 500,000 children on the brink of starvation.

Every morning, emaciated parents with emaciated children stagger into Banadir Hospital, a shell of a building with floors that stink of diesel fuel because that is all the nurses have to fight off the flies. Babies are dying because of the lack of equipment and medicine. Some get hooked up to adult-size intravenous drips — pediatric versions are hard to find — and their compromised bodies cannot handle the volume of fluid.

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'The Bachelorette' season finale recap: The Bitter End

And lo, our "journey" has come to an end, dear rose lovers! Wow, ~~those were the longest eleven weeks of my life~~ time flies, doesn't it? We've got a lot to cover, so let's get to it.

"I'm so excited to get engaged in the South Pacific," gushes Ashley, as she packs up and boards a puddle jumper to another island, where her family is waiting to hear her say things like, "Fiji is the perfect place to write the last chapter of my love story." But first they have to get the hugging and squealing out of the way, the latter noise coming primarily from Ashley's sister Chrystie (who no doubt could have saved ABC a buttload of money on their trip to Fiji had they only asked to borrow hercoupon binder). The Bachelorette wastes no time and proceeds to data dump the details of her "journey" onto her family: Everything's been "awesome," she has a "burning passion" for JP, and "the other guy" Ben is "goofy"

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Deal expected to pass Senate before tonight's midnight deadline

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan bill to increase the U.S. debt limit and cut as much as $2.4 trillion in government spending passed the House of Representatives Monday evening, overcoming the key hurdle on the road to averting an unprecedented federal default.

The legislation, which passed with a relatively comfortable 269-161 margin, came after a weekend of tense meetings, staff discussions and, in the end, a compromise worked out at the highest levels of government. If passed by the Senate today, as widely expected, it will end a months-long standoff between a new Republican House majority, which refused to pass an increase without a deficit-reduction package, and the Democratic majority in the Senate and U.S. President Barack Obama.

The deal came together over the weekend when it was clear Congress no longer had time to spare. Even in the last moments before it was publicly announced, White House aides, who had watched several previous deals collapse, were so fearful of another failure they were preparing a statement to calm worried markets.

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Are Kings of Leon Breaking Up?

Fights. Broken limbs. Storming offstage. A canceled tour. America's biggest rock band has a history of infighting. Are the Followill brothers and cousin headed for a split? Marlow Stern reports.

Four songs into Kings of Leon's set at the Gexa Energy Pavilion in Dallas last Friday, singer Caleb Followill lost it. Standing in front of 15,000 screaming fans, he declared, "My voice is 100 percent completely gone," before unleashing a muddled rant about how he had "no idea what [he was] doing" and that he loved his wife dearly. He concluded his barely intelligible ramble by saying, "I'm gonna go backstage and I'm gonna vomit. I'm gonna drink a beer and I'm gonna come back out and play three more songs." He never returned.
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Kings Of Leon Cancelling Entire U.S. Tour!

As we told you lthis weekend, there was some drama going on withKings of Leon and their Texan concerts.

After complaining of heat exhaustion, frontman Caleb Followill walked off stage and never came back. His brother, Jared Followill, apologized to the fans, admitting it wasn't just the heat getting to the band. In some interesting tweets, he aired their dirty laundry.

Then we learned the rest of the shows in Texas would be cancelled. But now ALL of the shows are being cancelled.

Well, at least in America.

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Monday, August 1, 2011

Microsoft's Gmail Man Spoof Gets It Right

"Gmail Man" is the single greatest Microsoft ad ever made, but it isn't even an ad. Instead, it's a humorous internal video, aimed at Microsoft's own sales people, that positions its Office 365 service as a better alternative to Google's Gmail. The rationale is simple: Google reads every single email message that passes through Gmail and then generates context-sensitive ads that appear in the Gmail web client. This policy is at best suspicious, the Microsoft video implies, and with great humor.

"He's everywhere and nowhere at the same time," the video says in a sing-song fashion as a humorous looking character, "Gmail Man," appears onscreen in an outfit reminiscent of a postal worker. "He peeks at every subject in un-real time. Probing every sentence and all your punctuation. Got his nose in every colon and every situation. He's the Gmail Man!"

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