Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/314631145?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Monday, June 24, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Afghanistan seeks explanation for Taliban office
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Afghanistan's government reaffirmed support Sunday for possible talks with its Taliban foes, but demanded full explanations on how the group was allowed to raise its flag in Qatar and display other symbols that have stalled the U.S.-led effort.
The ongoing dispute over the Taliban compound in Doha ? which the Afghan government said appeared as something akin to an embassy in exile instead of just a political outpost when it opened ? underscore the extreme difficulties in just trying to launch dialogue after nearly 12 years of war in Afghanistan.
The Afghan peace process, which has made little headway since it began several years ago, is hobbled by distrust among the major players, with the Taliban steadfastly refusing to talk to the Afghan government. While talks with the Taliban remained stalled, there are signs of increasing efforts to get them back on track. U.S.-backed talks broke down nearly two years ago in a dispute over the release of five Taliban detainees held in U.S. custody at a military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
With Afghan presidential elections and the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops looming in 2014, the long-stalled Afghan peace process has taken on added urgency. The Taliban have refused to negotiate with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, saying the U.S. holds effective control in Afghanistan, but the Americans are hoping to pave the way for talks between the two sides to begin before pulling out most of its forces.
The Obama administration said last week that the talks would begin with bilateral meetings between the Americans and Taliban representatives 'in a few days,' then eventually extend to include the Afghan government.
However, the Taliban's use of its old flag and a sign bearing the name of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which the movement used during its five-year rule that ended in 2001 with the U.S.-led invasion, at Tuesday's office opening in the Qatari capital brought sharp complaints across all party lines in Afghanistan.
Kerry used a stop in Qatar on Saturday to urge the Taliban to make good faith efforts to open talks and begin what he called the "difficult" road ahead. He also warned the Taliban may have to close their office if they don't negotiate in good faith.
Under pressure from Qatar, the Taliban lowered the flag and removed the sign.
The Taliban say they have made no concessions after Kerry's warnings. A spokesman in Doha, Shaheen Suhail, has urged all sides to press forward with the process in comments made hours before Kerry arrived in Doha. He said members of the Islamic movement are still having an internal discussion over whether to comply.
Security was boosted at the office on Sunday, but there were no apparent signs of meetings or other diplomatic activity, and no flag was visible from the street.
The main U.S. envoy trying to spearhead the talks, James Dobbins, met with Qatari officials in Doha and planned to travel to Kabul on Monday in apparent bids at shuttle diplomacy.
Suhail said in a telephone call on Sunday that the Taliban had been ready for talks with the United States followed by a dialogue involving all Afghan groups. He did not say what the Taliban thinking was as a result of the latest flap. However he made it clear that the Taliban have not changed their position on the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan nor have they offered to allow foreign troops after 2014.
"Any side in the negotiations can bring their items to the table. Once talks start the Americans are free to bring their items to be discussed and we are free to bring our items to be discussed," said Suhail. "We have not said anything about foreign troops. Everyone, the American and Taliban side, are free to bring to the table whatever negotiation points they want."
Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said Sunday that Karzai's government remains willing to send a peace delegation to Doha to negotiate with the Taliban ? but only after it receives explanations over the office opening and assurances that the site does not suggest a diplomatic revival by the Taliban.
"The Afghan government remains fully committed to pursuing a process of peace negotiations with the armed opposition, including the Taliban, but within the confines of the conditions and the principles and the assurances that we have established," Mosazai told reporters in Kabul.
Karzai also suspended negotiations with the U.S. over a security agreement that would allow U.S. forces to stay in Afghanistan after 2014 as he demanded that the offending sign and flag be removed.
Both the U.S. and the Qataris said the Taliban had agreed on the pre-approved name but violated the pact at the ribbon cutting ceremony.
In an emailed statement Sunday, however, Taliban spokesman Muhammad Naeem said the use of the flag and name was "done with the agreement of the Qatari government."
"The statement which states that by using the name and raising the flag, the Islamic Emirate somehow violated an agreement... is completely false," Naeem said in an English-language statement.
The Qatari government had no immediate response.
The Afghan spokesman Mosazai said, however, that Afghanistan is still waiting for a full explanation from Washington and guarantees the Taliban will not attempt to revert to its formal name again.
He also suggested that after "initial contacts" between the Taliban and the United States, the Afghan government expects to lead official peace talks and would push to move them to Afghanistan.
In Tehran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi dismissed the U.S. role in peace talks, saying only negotiations among Afghan factions can help stabilize the country.
"Talks with a role by foreigners will not bear any fruit," he said.
Iran once considered the Taliban an enemy, but relations have improved as Tehran expanded its influence in Afghanistan over the past decade.
___
Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran and Kathy Gannon in Islamabad, Pakistan contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-seeks-explanation-taliban-office-084409596.html
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Switched On: Touchy subjects
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology.
In 2002, the first LCD-based iMac succeeded the translucent PowerPC G3-based models that the original Bondi Blue iMac begat. The new generation was much more striking than the one that had placed Apple on the comeback trail. The iMac G4 mounted the display on a balanced arm similar to a Luxo lamp while the motherboard resided in a hemispherical base. This allowed the display to be adjusted to a wide range of heights and angles and each of the two main sections to be "true to itself."
Alas, the design had its limits. It's difficult to imagine today's ample 27-inch iMac displays balancing off such a mount. Furthermore, after the switch to Intel, processor thermals improved to help enable the slim iMac of today. The idea of efforts being true to themselves (at least until nearly compromise-free convergence is possible), however, has stayed a hallmark of Apple. For example, the company would resist adding video to the iPod for years after competitors had the feature.
Filed under: Handhelds, Tablets, Software, Apple, Microsoft
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Saturday, June 22, 2013
Obama Catholic schools flap: Did he really call for end of religious schools?
Some critics say that remarks President Obama made on a visit to Northern Ireland this week amount to an assault on schools run by religious sects.?But Obama also has defenders on this one ? including some within the Roman Catholic Church.
President Barack Obama speaks at the Belfast Waterfront on Monday, June 17, 2013, in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Obama was attending the G-8 summit in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
Evan Vucci/AP
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Some critics say that remarks made by Mr. Obama on a visit to Northern Ireland this week amount to an assault on schools run by religious sects ? including the Catholic schools that are prominent in the US as well as in Northern Ireland.
But, at a time when the president is under fire on multiple fronts, he also has defenders on this one ? including some within the Roman Catholic Church.
Here?s what Obama said in remarks about building and maintaining peace across sectarian lines:
?There are still wounds [in Northern Ireland] that haven?t healed, and communities where tensions and mistrust hangs in the air.? A little later he added: ?If towns remain divided ??if Catholics have their schools and buildings, and Protestants have theirs???if we can?t see ourselves in one another, if fear or resentment are allowed to harden, that encourages division. It discourages cooperation.?
Since he uttered those words in Belfast on June 17, they?ve spawned resentment and opposition in some quarters ? including among some US conservatives and Catholics.
?Catholic education is not the source of ?division? in Northern Ireland, nor are they a source of division anywhere in the world,? wrote Brian Burch, president of the group Catholic Vote. ?Catholic schools educate children without regard for race, class, sex, origin, or even religious faith. The work of Catholic education is a response to the Gospel call to serve, not divide.?
The tiff over Obama?s words comes as the president has been struggling in public-opinion polls lately against a succession of problems, from controversies involving the Internal Revenue Service and citizen privacy to questions about his leadership on issues like health care reform and the conflict in Syria.
Mr. Burch has called on Catholics to sign a petition seeking an apology from Obama. The petition also refers to a ?growing pattern of hostility on the part of this administration toward Catholics,? mentioning as examples aspects of the president?s health care reform law and a Justice Department argument to the Supreme Court against a religious exemption to employment discrimination laws.
But Bill Donahue, president of the Catholic League, has a different take on Obama?s remarks. He says critics have taken the words wildly out of context ? if they?ve paid attention to the words at all.
?There are plenty of reasons to be critical of President Obama?s policies as they relate to the Catholic Church, and I have not been shy in stating them. But the reaction on the part of conservatives, many of whom are Catholic, over his speech in Ireland, is simply insane,? Mr. Donahue said in a Friday blog post.
?Obama was not condemning Catholic schools ??he was condemning segregation,? Donahue wrote. ?He was calling attention to the fact that where social divisions exist, the prospects for social harmony are dimmed. How can anyone reasonable disagree with this observation??
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G-rated films are a tough sell in superhero era
Movies 
12 hours ago
Two family-aimed films are hitting theaters in the next two weeks. "Monsters University" is an animated 3-D movie about zany, friendly monsters -- one with just one eyeball -- and how they interact with humans. (Spoiler: They scare them.) "Despicable Me 2" is also an animated 3-D movie about zany, friendly monsters -- some with just one eyeball -- and how they interact with humans. (Spoiler: They work for them.)
Disney, Universal
That's Mike from "Monsters University" on the left, and a minion from "Despicable Me 2" on the right. Can you tell which movie is rated G and which PG?
From that description, is it immediately clear which film is rated G, for General Audiences, and which one PG, meaning Parental Guidance suggested?
If it's not clear to you ("Monsters University" gets the G), you're not alone.
"I do think there is less of a clear line between G and PG than there is between PG-13 and R," said Vincent Bruzzese, chief executive officer of the Worldwide Motion Picture Group, a consultancy serving the entertainment industry. "It's very clear what makes something an R. If you say the F-word X number of times, it's an R. But why are 'Cars 2' and 'Rio' G, and yet 'Madagascar' or 'The Lorax' PG? What is the difference there? I'm not sure."
The Motion Picture Association of America, which determines movie ratings, did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
Bruzzese's company's research shows that not only do many parents not understand what makes a movie a G, to some of them, that family-friendly rating might even be a deterrent, especially if they have older children.
"We actually see that parents have no problem taking (5- or 6-year-olds) to a PG movie," Bruzzese said. "But they'll have trouble getting their 10- or 12-year-old to go to a G movie."
And if parents do want to seek out a G movie, good luck. Many movies that sound like they should be rated G tend to get the older rating. May's animated "Epic," about a girl who's shrunk to the size of a bug and helps a race known as the Leaf Men, was rated PG for "mild action, some scary images and brief rude language." July release "Turbo," about a garden snail who dreams of winning the Indy 500, is rated PG. (Does the snail swear?) August sequel "The Smurfs 2" isn't yet rated, but it'll almost certainly be PG like the 2011 original.
"The G rating has all but disappeared from theatrical releases other than one or two animated films each year," said Nell Minow, who advises parents about movies as The Movie Mom. "It's all about money. School-age kids think that G-rated movies are 'babyish,' so only Disney can get away with it."
With so much movie information available online, today's parents today don't need to rely only on the MPAA ratings. "(Parents) do their own investigation of films," Bruzzese said. "They're able to go online and look up -- whether it's user comments or more about the plot, more scenes -- they're able to find enough information to give them that (knowledge)."
Ben Boychuk of Rialto, Calif., is one of those parents. "I don't have a hard-and-fast rule about MPAA ratings," said Boychuk, who has an 11-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. "I'll make a judgment based on whether I've seen the movie or barring that, by researching reviews and audience comments. IMDb is an invaluable resource -- what the Internet was meant for."
Wondering what has shifted since the days when kids saw only G-rated films? Experts point to many changes, including the addition of the PG-13 rating in 1984, the availability of movies of all ratings on home video and cable television, and the emergence of a generation of parents who grew up with such kid-tempting action films as 1977's "Star Wars." But a web-slinging, wall-crawling hero in tights might have something to do with it too.
"The family audience clearly has evolved in that it really, really started way back with the original 'Spider-Man' with Tobey Maguire," said Bruzzese. The 2002 PG-13-rated blockbuster "brought in a family audience to what would traditionally have been an older-skewing movie," he said.
Now, he said, "Today's 10-year-old is seeing what a 15-year-old would have seen 10 or 15 years ago."
Boychuk's family is a perfect example. Son Benjamin saw Maguire's "Spider-Man" on DVD at age 4 or 5. "He watched it at least a dozen times," Boychuk said. "The Green Goblin frightened him at first, but he wanted to see the movie again as soon as it was over."
But Boychuk notes that parents need to know their own children, who may be ready for different films at different ages. "My son was always great in movie theaters," he said. "My daughter (Isabella) is a different story. She can't handle most scary stuff, though she loves the classic Disney movies. ... I tend to be more vigilant with what we let her watch."
And the MPAA rating might not be the ultimate determining factor in how frightening a movie really is. In 2011, when TODAY.com asked readers to name the scariest scene in children's films, a scene from G-rated "Toy Story 3" repeatedly popped up. In it, Woody, Buzz Lightyear and the other toys are on what seems like an unstoppable moving ramp pushing them into a giant incinerator, with flames leaping high.
"As I think about it now, Bella was freaked out by the incinerator scene -- and so was I!" Boychuk said. "But Benjamin wasn't bothered too much."
The G rating will almost certainly continue to shift in meaning and usage, Bruzzese believes.
"If you look at the last 10 G-rated movies, half are either concerts or documentaries," he said. "More and more, as that becomes prevalent, the G rating will stand for not just the 'Winnie the Poohs' of the world, but will stand for things like (Disneynature 2012 documentary) 'Chimpanzee' or IMAX or a concert show. The G might start standing for non-traditional movie entertainment that's not offensive to any age group, whereas PG becomes the new G."
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/entertainment/g-rated-films-are-tough-sell-superhero-era-6C10393646
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Soldiers work to move stranded in India mountains
Indian army soldiers make a stranded pilgrim to cross over a river with the help of a rope near Hemkunsaheb, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo)
Indian army soldiers make a stranded pilgrim to cross over a river with the help of a rope near Hemkunsaheb, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo)
Vehicles, top, are parked near buildings damaged by floods and landslides in Govindghat, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
A stranded woman holds her child on her back as she walks down a hill after she was evacuated by Indian army soldiers in Govindghat, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Indian army soldiers evacuate a stranded pilgrim in Govindghat, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
Workers stand next to a road damaged by floods and landslides in Govindghat, India, Saturday, June 22, 2013. Soldiers were working to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded Saturday in northern India where nearly 600 people have been killed in monsoon flooding and landslides. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
GOVINDGHAT, India (AP) ? Soldiers worked on rocky gorges and rugged riverbanks Saturday trying to evacuate tens of thousands of people still stranded by monsoon flooding and landslides that killed nearly 600 people in northern India's Himalayas.
With bad weather and heavy rainfall predicted over the next two days, there was an added urgency to reach the approximately 22,000 people still stranded in the flood-hit Uttarakhand state, federal Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said.
Since helicopters could rescue only small groups of people at a time, army troops Saturday opened up another road route to the Hindu temple town of Kedarnath, worst affected by the floods that hit the mountainous region nearly a week ago.
Soldiers created rudimentary bridges by stringing rope across rocky riverbanks and gouged earth, enabling safe passage for civilians in areas where bridges and roads were swept away by the floods or blocked by debris and boulders.
Shinde said air force helicopters were dropping food and drinking water to those stranded in inaccessible areas.
Uttarakhand state spokesman Amit Chandola said late Saturday that more than 80,000 people have been rescued from the worst-hit districts by air and road since the rescue operations began.
At least 7,000 people were air-lifted by air force and privately-owned helicopters and transported to Uttarakhand's capital, Dehradun, on Saturday, he said.
Food, water and medicines were being supplied to the numerous relief camps that had been set up for the people rescued from the mountains until arrangements were made for the tourists to return home. Officials were also drawing up lists of local residents whose homes have been flattened to arrange compensation.
Officials say the death toll was expected to rise as troops reach remote hillside villages where flash floods washed away homes and boulders hurtled down on the fleeing villagers.
Around 10,000 army and paramilitary troops, members of India's disaster management agency and volunteers were involved in the rescue and relief efforts, Shinde said.
Uttarakhand state Chief Minister Vijay Bahuguna said Friday that 556 bodies were buried deep in slush caused by the landslides. Another 40 were found floating in the Ganges River.
Thousands of homes have been washed away or damaged in the state.
People across India are collecting clothes, blankets and tarpaulins and contributing money to help those left homeless in Uttarakhand.
Army engineers were rebuilding bridges and clearing roads to enable thousands of people to leave the region.
Uttarakhand is a popular summer vacation destination for hundreds of thousands of tourists seeking to escape the torrid heat of the plains. It is also a religious pilgrimage site with four temple towns located in the Garhwal Himalayan range.
The tourists usually head down to the plains before the monsoon breaks in July. But this year, early rains caught hundreds of thousands of tourists, pilgrims and local residents unaware.
Meteorological officials said the rains in Uttarakhand were the heaviest in nearly 80 years.
Google has launched an application, Person Finder, to help trace missing people in Uttarakhand. The version is available in both Hindi and English languages, according to a Google India blog.
Meanwhile, opposition parties and angry relatives in Uttarakhand accused the government of not doing enough to rescue people stranded in the temple towns.
Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi of the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party accused the government of callousness toward those affected by the flooding.
"It is very unfortunate that the government cannot coordinate the rescue efforts and provide timely help to the survivors of this calamity," Naqvi told repoters.
Earlier Saturday, Shinde admitted that there had been gaps in the government's rescue and relief efforts due to a lack of coordination between several disaster and welfare agencies in Uttarakhand.
Sri Devi, a tourist from neighboring Nepal, said she and her companions took shelter in a building in Govindghat, a small town on the road to the Sikh holy site of Hemkund, after their car was washed away. The 60-year-old woman was among a group of stranded tourists rescued from the town.
"It was raining boulders down the mountain and then a flood of water swept away everything. The road was washed away and we were stuck for four days without any food," Devi said.
Monsoon flooding is an annual occurrence in India, causing enormous loss of life and property, and hundreds of people were missing and feared washed away in this week's torrential monsoon downpours and flash floods in the tributaries of the Ganges River.
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Potentially life-saving cooling treatment rarely used for in-hospital cardiac arrests
June 21, 2013 ? The brain-preserving cooling treatment known as therapeutic hypothermia is rarely being used in patients who suffer cardiac arrest while in the hospital, despite its proven potential to improve survival and neurological function, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania report in the June issue of Critical Care Medicine. The authors suggest that scarce data about in-hospital cardiac arrest patients and guidelines that only call for health care providers to consider use of therapeutic hypothermia, rather than explicitly recommending it, may explain the study's results.
In a prospective study between 2003 and 2009 of over 530 hospitals in the United States, the Penn team found that 98 percent of over 67,000 patients who went into cardiac arrest in the hospital received only conventional post-resuscitation care--leaving just 2 percent who received therapeutic hypothermia, which has been credited with saving the lives of a growing number of patients who arrest outside hospitals.
"We know it's being used in patients who went into cardiac arrest in their homes, at work, or anywhere else outside of a hospital, but little was known about how often it's used in patients who arrest in the hospital," said Mark E. Mikkelsen, MD, MSCE, assistant professor in the division of Pulmonology, Critical Care and Allergy at Penn Medicine. "We found that even though most hospitals have the capability to treat these patients with therapeutic hypothermia, it's not being used. And even when it was used, in nearly half the cases, the correct target temperature was not being achieved.
"Several factors could explain this: there is little data, which is often conflicting, to support its use for patients in the hospital, and we have national guidelines that only have clinicians considering its use, which may lead to hesitation and lack of institutional protocol."
Cooling the body down to about 89.6 degrees after cardiac arrest protects it against neurological damage initiated by the lack of blood flow and oxygenation, several studies of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients have shown. It has also been shown to improve survival--a welcome development, since cardiac arrest survival statistics remain grim, with less than 10 percent of patients surviving in most cities across the U.S.
More than 300,000 people who go into cardiac arrest out of the hospital die each people each year in the United States; thousands of others are left neurologically devastated.
About 210,000 patients a year go into cardiac arrest while in the hospital--many of those patients may have other conditions that point to a poor prognosis, and a substantial portion may be terminally ill patients who are not candidates for hypothermia.
National recommendations established in 2005 call for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients to be treated with hypothermia when they remain comatose after resuscitation. In-hospital recommendations, however, are less direct. The International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation guidelines recommend providers to "consider its use," while the American Heart Association recommends that therapeutic hypothermia "may be considered" for a patient who goes into cardiac arrest caused by non-shockable rhythms.
For the study, the team analyzed treatments of 67,498 patients at 538 hospitals participating in the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation database from 2003 to 2009. Of those patients, 1,367 patients were given therapeutic hypothermia. The use of therapeutic hypothermia increased slightly, from 0.7 percent in 2003 to 3.3 percent in 2009.
Younger patients and patients who were treated in a non-ICU location and a teaching hospital were more likely to get therapeutic hypothermia. Even when it was used, however, target temperature (32-34o Celsius, or 89.6-93.2 degrees Fahrenheit ) was not achieved in 44.3 percent of the patients within 24 hours, and 17.6 percent were overcooled.
"These rates are particularly important to examine, given that the incidence of in hospital events appears to be increasing," said Dr. Mikkelsen. "I believe there is potential for therapeutic hypothermia to benefit this population, but traction can only be made after clinical trials investigating safety and effectiveness are initiated-which are certainly warranted. Results of those studies could strengthen the case for stronger recommendations and increase use."
Other Penn Medicine authors of the study include Jason D. Christie, MD, MSCE, Benjamin S. Abella, MD MPhil, Meeta Prasad Kerlin, MD, MSCE, Barry D. Fuchs, MD, William D. Schweickert, MD, Frances S. Shofer, PhD, and David F. Gaieski, MD.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/PHRoqi4T8FI/130621104404.htm
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