Timing error gives, then takes away gold from Dutch skater (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZqwhiHicVgYa4_4B3BCaOwVZ2MiwmosbRbmTsDLAIQ8_KHq3VXhCFJdoMkzchLp1XP1QNKRJEGrC1qXJw9FmoSNTAj7HnQyeT-ghiBwaskt3xlgaq4J525MIT866RWMIUrW-JHEJlQ8/s1600/c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEibZqwhiHicVgYa4_4B3BCaOwVZ2MiwmosbRbmTsDLAIQ8_KHq3VXhCFJdoMkzchLp1XP1QNKRJEGrC1qXJw9FmoSNTAj7HnQyeT-ghiBwaskt3xlgaq4J525MIT866RWMIUrW-JHEJlQ8/s1600/c.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3512" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">SOCHI, Russia – For about five seconds on Monday, Jan Smeekens was Olympic champion, hero to a nation, and all that goes with it. Until, gut-wrenchingly, he wasn't.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3522" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">As Smeekens crossed the line at Adler Arena in the men's 500-meter long-track speedskating and glanced up at the clock, it was the fulfillment of all his dreams.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3532" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The scoreboard carried a "1" next to his name, and that was enough for Smeekens, a 26-year-old from the Netherlands, to throw his arms in the air and bellow out a scream of pure delight.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3542" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And then it all changed.</div><div class="yom-figure yom-fig-right" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; width: 310px;"><a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/controversy-at-men-s-500m-short-track-speedskating-event-served-fresh-by-subway-1392057527-slideshow/" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;"><img alt="" class="editorial" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/uh_wG9jsCHJURybTPvM0Rw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201402101029377798045" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: inline; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: visible !important;" title="To see more photos, click above." width="310" /></a><div class="legend" style="background-image: none; color: grey; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; max-width: 100%; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;">To see more photos, click above.</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3552" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In the moment it took for Smeekens to enter the back straight and embrace his coach, the scoreboard shifted, announcing his Dutch teammate Michel Mulder as the Olympic champion instead.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3562" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">A timing error had occurred and almost immediately was corrected. The issue: the scoreboard shows only two decimal points, so when Smeekens crossed the line his combined time read 69.31, same as Mulder's. However, the actual scoring is based on thousandths of a second. Mulder's times (34.634 and 34.678) totaled 69.312 to Smeekens' (34.599 and 34.725) 69.324.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In this sport where thousandths of a second can mean the difference between glory and disaster – Mulder's combined time was 1/100 faster than Smeekens – it was enough to alter the outcome and leave Smeekens crushed.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It is a kick in the gut," Smeekens said, his voice cracking. "I was so ecstatic to have the feeling that you won – and then you don't. It is overwhelming. I can't describe it."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Victory by miniscule distances is nothing new in the Olympics, either in summer or winter. But we have rarely seen something quite like the emotional wrench that befell Smeekens, a serious character compared to his two colleagues on the podium – Mulder's brother Ronald completed the clean sweep with a bronze.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 500m event involves two races separated by about an hour and combines each skater's times from both races. The lowest aggregate time wins. With the counting going down first to hundredths of a second and then thousandths in the case of a tie, it is complicated and, apparently, mistakes can happen.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Except that they shouldn't and usually don't.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">This is the Olympics where the local security surveillance system can check out anyone's text messages and online chats, so coming up with a computer that can add to three decimal points shouldn't be asking too much.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Smeekens appealed the decision but was rebuffed within two minutes by American referee Daniel Immerfall, who told the Dutch skater that he had actually lost by 0.12 of a second over the two races combined, or about three inches.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The brief window of time when Smeekens thought he was the victor will surely torture him forever. He was aghast when the realization hit home, unable to believe the cruelty of the situation.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">From carrying a beaming smile one moment, his head buried in his hands the next. To Smeekens' great credit he went immediately to the Mulder brothers to celebrate with them. They shared a hug and were applauded together by the large and noisy contingent of Dutch fans. But before long Smeekens was inconsolable again, shaking his head and cursing his luck.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"When he crossed the line I thought we were equal on time and then I saw a "1" next to his name," Michel Mulder said. "This kind of closeness is what makes the sport exciting, but it is tough on him."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The Netherlands is apparently a country full of long limbed giants blessed with impossible speed on a pair of skates. This 1-2-3 finish followed another in the men's 10,000 on Saturday, meaning that in those two events alone the Dutch had outstripped the United States' entire haul for the Games in all sports as of Monday night.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For the U.S., Shani Davis came in 24th in a distance unsuited to him, with Tucker Fredericks in 26th and Mitchell Whitmore 27th.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But this was one those nights that rightly or wrongly, will be remembered for the guy who didn't win as much as the one that did.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3707" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"I have never seen something like this in my entire career and I don't think we will ever see it again," Smeekens said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3697" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Let us hope not.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3697" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><br /></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392075848512_3697" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">ABCNews</div>

Timing error gives, then takes away gold from Dutch skater (BLOG)

SOCHI, Russia – For about five seconds on Monday, Jan Smeekens was Olympic champion, hero to a nation, and all that goes with it. Until, gut...

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Judge OKs evidence from accused Colorado gunman's computers, phones (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0uYp0Oy_CbWx3_QqsCCS-C9zlkIuppwYRuDQY_IGgivWOxLwO75h4509QBHtat_1dRaFJncY6hxnhLSwJdl5vLa2r9l9XjELRA2_JhZUXLg8IzhlZN74SjKcfMFpv0ZnZPpPxqaVgqY/s1600/k.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjF0uYp0Oy_CbWx3_QqsCCS-C9zlkIuppwYRuDQY_IGgivWOxLwO75h4509QBHtat_1dRaFJncY6hxnhLSwJdl5vLa2r9l9XjELRA2_JhZUXLg8IzhlZN74SjKcfMFpv0ZnZPpPxqaVgqY/s1600/k.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_15543" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">By Keith Coffman</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_16066" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour denied eight defense motions that sought to suppress the data.DENVER (Reuters) - The judge in the Colorado theater massacre case has ruled that evidence seized from accused gunman James Holmes' computers, cell phone and bank accounts is admissible at trial, court documents made public on Monday show.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_16103" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Public defenders had argued that police lacked sufficient probable cause when they sought search warrants for Holmes' iPad and iPhone, email accounts and banking records, or were "overbroad" in their requests.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_16113" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Holmes, 26, is charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder for opening fire inside an Aurora, Colorado, cinema during a viewing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in July 2012.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The shooting spree killed 12 movie goers and wounded 70 others.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The one-time neuroscience graduate student has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity, and prosecutors said they will seek the death penalty for Holmes if he is convicted.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Public defenders have challenged nearly every piece of evidence amassed against their client and have lost most of those legal battles. They concede Holmes was the lone gunman but have said he was in the midst of a psychotic episode when he went on the rampage.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Among the evidence that the judge ruled jurors will be allowed to see are photographs lifted from Holmes' iPhone that showed him posing with his weapons hours before he launched the attack.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Officers who responded to the crime scene observed Holmes on his phone and therefore "had probable cause to believe that the defendant's iPhone qualified as an instrumentality of those crimes - because it had been used inside the theater during the shooting - and contained evidence related to those crimes," Samour wrote.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Holmes underwent a court-ordered sanity examination last summer after he invoked the insanity defense, but his evaluators' findings have not been made public.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Holmes' trial has been postponed indefinitely while the judge decides whether to grant prosecutors' motion to have the California native undergo a second sanity examination by their experts. At a hearing last month, Samour said he would rule on the prosecution request in coming weeks.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_16215" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Defense lawyers also said in court filings that Holmes should not be executed if he is convicted of murder because he suffers from a chronic mental illness.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_16225" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">(Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Cynthia Osterman)</div>

Judge OKs evidence from accused Colorado gunman's computers, phones (BLOG)

By Keith Coffman Arapahoe County District Court Judge Carlos Samour denied eight defense motions that sought to suppress the data.DENVER (Re...

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SILVER price set to rise toward $100

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>SILVER and GOLD making headlines </b></span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><b>INTERNATIONAL BUYING: </b><br /><b><a href="http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article44366.html" style="color: red;">http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article44366.html</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>China demand: </b><br /><b><a href="http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20140211002532/Article/" style="color: red;">http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20140211002532/Article/</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>CHARTS are forming a base: </b><br /><b><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-08/citi-gold-putting-base?" style="color: red;">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-08/citi-gold-putting-base?</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>$1,400 GOLD and $26 SILVER soon arriving: </b><br /><b><a href="http://seekingalpha.com/article/2006051-are-1400-gold-and-26-silver-about-to-be-seen" style="color: red;">http://seekingalpha.com/article/2006051-are-1400-gold-and-26-silver-about-to-be-seen</a></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzMfPOiMM4EtOJ-2pEtya6-DjvHRTigokgCs0LKeftNTcpDACB_g7nrPBlEUXUGdb1Yf685pfAiGs89WTaYfFk_mdBE2HL6BJyx9tHCf9LEzBsHGvQWjr_jOVwkuxzvZDTuXJpClXcibk/s1600/silver-coin-canadian-maple-leaf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzMfPOiMM4EtOJ-2pEtya6-DjvHRTigokgCs0LKeftNTcpDACB_g7nrPBlEUXUGdb1Yf685pfAiGs89WTaYfFk_mdBE2HL6BJyx9tHCf9LEzBsHGvQWjr_jOVwkuxzvZDTuXJpClXcibk/s1600/silver-coin-canadian-maple-leaf.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2y6Kh-ib8FfhnzXs0yU0vPCBCNpCP7YTn-yPebJNp1sslpPSe9McSKhc-P7FlcRrIA8PQuN7OzQ0_pmbijHcFA9ngRTeRuSdVwbxComOY7Cf7J6fkqo9cS7apnInrKnbCkh6wSPjGA0/s1600/GOLDmapleleafrolls.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjv2y6Kh-ib8FfhnzXs0yU0vPCBCNpCP7YTn-yPebJNp1sslpPSe9McSKhc-P7FlcRrIA8PQuN7OzQ0_pmbijHcFA9ngRTeRuSdVwbxComOY7Cf7J6fkqo9cS7apnInrKnbCkh6wSPjGA0/s1600/GOLDmapleleafrolls.jpg" width="200" /></a></div> <span style="font-size: large;"><b> </b></span><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Demand for SILVER and sales already rising</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatGYnTEj_V4ONq9kaedmNHWuddK_sgKLtJ8rBdQfnkR_AoaAIo24Jv6mhLmd0W9_wbn1ziJfr-ImzeNsNEjU7dCqZVFzJDQMiR1u7M9yfDOR4MCULI-iySFtVFnqkEQCd4j61JIEzQIA/s1600/silver-coins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgatGYnTEj_V4ONq9kaedmNHWuddK_sgKLtJ8rBdQfnkR_AoaAIo24Jv6mhLmd0W9_wbn1ziJfr-ImzeNsNEjU7dCqZVFzJDQMiR1u7M9yfDOR4MCULI-iySFtVFnqkEQCd4j61JIEzQIA/s1600/silver-coins.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOu1ueg1EATf6vel63r5DyCSE2rGQPBz8M-emx9OhovLwbGXD3PBXn3AKUuXFTp4hezSey7oGZiSMuOtVzkDFaKP3dHNhN5Bnzcxw2FdgXh_rS49L9POzuMSNOAL1YZ6YgsI1oI-L9nM/s1600/SILVERcoins.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAOu1ueg1EATf6vel63r5DyCSE2rGQPBz8M-emx9OhovLwbGXD3PBXn3AKUuXFTp4hezSey7oGZiSMuOtVzkDFaKP3dHNhN5Bnzcxw2FdgXh_rS49L9POzuMSNOAL1YZ6YgsI1oI-L9nM/s1600/SILVERcoins.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The U.S. MINT continues to break all time sales records as their published statistics show plainly with their sales of American Silver Eagles.  Other mints both government and private are reporting increased sales and concerns with keeping up with sales demands are rising.  So are the prices rising rapidly as a growing amount of collectible numismatics that have limited mintage often double in value.</b><br /><br /><b>Analysts who specialize in GOLD and SILVER such as the well known and recognized Sprott Asset Management are covering these developments closely and their funds the PHYS, PSLV, and SPPP are starting to show signs of increased investor interest. </b><br /><br /><b>John Embry has calculated that $100 silver is not far away: </b><br /><br /><b><a href="http://sprottglobal.com/thoughts/articles/silver-to-100-dollars-within-reasonable-timeframe-john-embry/" style="color: red;">http://sprottglobal.com/thoughts/articles/silver-to-100-dollars-within-reasonable-timeframe-john-embry/</a></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>WATCH THE CHARTS</b></span></div><br /><b>There's all manner of evidence that something is stirring in the GOLD and SILVER commodities and a sector shift with MINING STOCKS will be noted at any moment.  Already it's been apparent that various funds and stocks are rising such as:  GLD, SLV, IAU, GDX, PHYS, PSLV, NUGT, UGLD, USLV, AUY, NEM, SLW, SWC, and various other mining stocks and related gold and silver funds and futures contracts.  </b><br /><br /><b>NOTICE THE ROUND OUT FORMATION ON THE CHARTS BELOW.  Chart analysts are already showing this as a sign of the bottom in prices:</b><br /><b><a href="http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-08/citi-gold-putting-base?" style="color: red;">http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-02-08/citi-gold-putting-base?</a> </b><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><img height="199" src="http://www.finviz.com/fut_chart.ashx?t=GC&cot=088691&p=h1" width="400" /><br /> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><img height="199" src="http://www.finviz.com/fut_chart.ashx?t=SI&cot=084691&p=h1" width="400" /><br /> </b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">What's really going on with GOLD and SILVER?</span></b></div><br /><b>That's hard to tell for those of us not on the inside as our elected representatives in Congress are, but The News UNIT is monitoring the situation very closely and will be posting time sensitive information critical to investors, traders, and even stackers. </b><br /><br /><b>Some say a MAJOR SHORT SQUEEZE is about to occur in the GOLD and SILVER markets.  There are also reports that large amounts of hoarding metals is occurring in Dubai, various Arab nations, Asia, and the far East.  We are also starting to hear the war drums beating between the U.S.A. and Iran and who knows who else will be included in the coming global conflict.  </b><br /><br /><b>Nevertheless, financial survival will be a very growing concern, especially here in America as our debt ridden nation coupled with the criminal administration, lawless lawmakers, and all manner of oath of office violators wreaks havoc on we the people.  </b><br /><br /><b>It's financial survival time; and probably worse.  Stay informed! </b><br /><br /><b>...developing...</b></div>

SILVER price set to rise toward $100

SILVER and GOLD making headlines INTERNATIONAL BUYING: http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article44366.html China demand: http://www.btimes.com.m...

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Missing Ohio College Student Froze to Death (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF71JYOFIjKNQev822p3cXZiHXTQUgckaUAOjdwhiH0nt48IFeuZMCVGq8fvBYUEtcd4n9kskiFheu6biFfVxHBkEKQc1b6ous-vhxn8Y6M2x4LJJL_Xm56D46JEJGIJaffBgjE_11GY0/s1600/download+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF71JYOFIjKNQev822p3cXZiHXTQUgckaUAOjdwhiH0nt48IFeuZMCVGq8fvBYUEtcd4n9kskiFheu6biFfVxHBkEKQc1b6ous-vhxn8Y6M2x4LJJL_Xm56D46JEJGIJaffBgjE_11GY0/s1600/download+(1).jpg" /></a></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">An official at a central Ohio college says a student who was the subject of intensive search over the weekend apparently died of hypothermia after falling asleep outside.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Denison University student David Hallman III was last seen leaving a downtown Granville restaurant early Saturday. The 21-year-old Erie, Pa., native was found Saturday night outside a garage in a condo complex about a half mile away.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The Columbus Dispatch ( <a href="http://bit.ly/M4Q3ib" style="color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://bit.ly/M4Q3ib</a> ) reports that Laurel Kennedy, vice president for student development, wrote in a memo to the university community that "it appears he had fallen asleep and then succumbed to hypothermia." Police said alcohol may be a factor.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Hallman was a history major who was well-known on the campus of about 2,100 students. He was a former member of the swimming team.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">———</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Information from: The Columbus Dispatch, <a href="http://www.dispatch.com/" style="color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://www.dispatch.com</a></div>

Missing Ohio College Student Froze to Death (BLOG)

An official at a central Ohio college says a student who was the subject of intensive search over the weekend apparently died of hypothermia...

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U.S.A. and IRAN and rumors of WAR

<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">WORLD WAR III? </span></b><br /><br /><b><span style="font-size: large;">LONG RANGE MISSILE THREATS TO U.S.A. </span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Curious developments point to world conflict</span></b></div><br /><b><br /></b><b>The lust for blood is rising among world leaders and the rumors of political conflict leading to war are rising rapidly....</b><br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/xouZpJo9xME?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/HpsrVhSp8Dk?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe>

U.S.A. and IRAN and rumors of WAR

WORLD WAR III?  LONG RANGE MISSILE THREATS TO U.S.A. Curious developments point to world conflict The lust for blood is rising among world l...

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- February 10, 2014

<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/7lG1WkgHP28" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Major Powers to Take Bigger Role in Syria Talks -- Al Pessin, Voice of America</b></span></div><br />LONDON — Senior U.S. and Russian officials are to take a bigger role in the UN-sponsored talks on Syria's future that reconvened in Geneva Monday. The move comes as the Syrian government and opposition delegations remain far apart on how to end the nearly three-year-long civil war. <br /><br />It was a familiar sight as the UN and Arab League mediator Lakhdar Brahimi arrived for another round of talks. The opposition and government delegations held separate sessions with the mediator, who canceled his usual news conference.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.voanews.com/content/major-powers-to-take-bigger-role-in-syria-talks/1848473.html">Read more</a></b> ....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials</b></span></div><br /><a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/middleeast/2014/02/10/syria-the-evacuation-of-homs/">On the Ground in Homs, Syria </a>-- Wall Street Journal<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/02/is-syria-now-a-direct-threat-to-the-united-states/283681/">Is Syria Now a Direct Threat to the United States?</a> -- David Rohde, The Atlantic<br /><br /><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2014/0210/Nurturing-the-impulse-to-save-Syria-s-millions">Nurturing the impulse to save Syria's millions </a>-- Christian Science Monitor editorial<br /><br /><a href="http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2014/02/08/the_war_of_wills_between_us_and_iran_110280.html">The War of Wills Between U.S. and Iran</a> -- Christopher Griffin, Real Clear World<br /><br /><a href="http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/india-china-the-end-cold-peace-9853">India and China: The End of Cold Peace?</a> -- Jeff M. Smith, National Interest<br /><br /><a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/the-weakest-link-how-china-seeks-to-destabilize-the-us-rok-japan-triangle/">How China Seeks to Destabilize the US-ROK-Japan Triangle</a> -- Jin Kai, The Diplomat<br /><br /><a href="http://thediplomat.com/2014/02/chinas-push-into-americas-backyard/">China’s Push Into ‘America’s Backyard’</a> -- Shannon Tiezzi, The Diplomat<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nationalreview.com/article/370692/four-ring-circus-andrew-stuttaford">Four-Ring Circus: The Olympics’ opening ceremony plays fast and loose with Russian history.</a> -- Andrew Stuttaford, NRO<br /><br /><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/snowdens-hypocrisy-on-russia/2014/02/07/23c403c2-8f51-11e3-b227-12a45d109e03_story.html">Edward Snowden’s hypocrisy on Russia</a> -- Gabriel Schoenfeld, Washington Post<br /><br /><a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/analysis-of-swiss-vote-against-mass-migration-a-952531.html">A Land of Money and Fear: The Swiss Vote Against 'Mass Migration'</a> -- David Nauer, Spiegel Online <br /><br /><a href="http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/hard-choices-if-a-greek-tragedy-looms-for-europe-29992760.html">Hard choices if a Greek tragedy looms for Europe</a> -- Dan O'Brien, Independent.ie<br /><br /><a href="http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/how-entrepreneur-stopped-being-a-european-word/article16751736/">How ‘entrepreneur’ stopped being a European word</a> -- Doug Saunders, The Globe and Mail<br /><br /><a href="http://dailycaller.com/2014/02/10/us-debating-whether-to-kill-citizen-suspected-in-terror-plot/">US debating whether to kill citizen suspected in terror plot</a> -- Chris Bing, Daily Caller<br /><br /><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/opinion/sunday/after-war-a-failure-of-the-imagination.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0">After War, a Failure of the Imagination </a>-- Phil Klay, New York Times<br /><br /><a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304680904579365412479185116">America's Power Is Under Threat</a> -- Peggy Noonan, Wall Street Journal

Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials -- February 10, 2014

Major Powers to Take Bigger Role in Syria Talks -- Al Pessin, Voice of America LONDON — Senior U.S. and Russian officials are to take a bigg...

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Norovirus Shuts Down Historic New York State Resort

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCLmWF1FmXrCcVJ3JZSMXexDzTgYX03HozipiDlPLt_NVyISxakc9Kah2ksGp3FEVqN2gt0iIMA6wyXrH2MsQMGsKdIksdsUYaqY1RSZFG5gqmF6WGx1KaJtfYzYg5JZOvqG9Z3J4Hns/s1600/0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsCLmWF1FmXrCcVJ3JZSMXexDzTgYX03HozipiDlPLt_NVyISxakc9Kah2ksGp3FEVqN2gt0iIMA6wyXrH2MsQMGsKdIksdsUYaqY1RSZFG5gqmF6WGx1KaJtfYzYg5JZOvqG9Z3J4Hns/s1600/0.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Cruise ships aren't the only venues in the travel industry susceptible to norovirus.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">A historic New York state resort has elected to shut down temporarily after an outbreak of an intestinal virus infected staff and hotel guests last week, resort officials said today.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">"Mohonk Mountain House has been working closely with the Ulster County and New York State Departments of Health regarding a stomach virus reported by resort guests over the past several days," Katie Martello, a spokesperson for the resort, told ABC News. "To ensure the health and safety of our guests, we have engaged a company that is a global expert in this field to conduct a thorough sanitization of the entire resort, to include all public spaces, guest rooms, offices, staff areas, Conference House, and surrounding buildings."</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Six samples collected from individuals at Mohonk Mountain House by the New York State Department of Health have since been confirmed as norovirus, officials said.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Symptoms of norovirus include nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, and diarrhea. The illness typically lasts for a few days but is not considered serious for the general population, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">"The virus, which is easily spread, is generally passed from person to person by direct contact and/or by touching contaminated surfaces or objects," he said. "Mohonk Mountain House has taken the proactive step to temporarily close their facilities."</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">After receiving multiple reports of illness from both guests and employees of the 145-year-old resort, owners issued a letter to employees on Feb. 7 announcing that they planned to close the property for a week for sanitization. <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local/northern_suburbs&id=9422693" style="color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="external">WABC-TV</a> printed a copy of that internal communication on its website.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The Smiley family, which has operated the resort since its founding in 1869, also released a statement on the Mohonk Mountain House Facebook page to alert guests to the situation.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">"Although it has not been required of us, we have chosen to close for seven days because the health and well-being of our guests and staff are our top priorities," read the post. "We are grateful for the support of you, our Mohonk friends. We will look forward to reopening and welcoming guests again starting Friday, February 14."</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The closure of Mohonk Mountain House is the latest in a series of health snafus in the travel industry. In January, a Royal Caribbean cruise returned to port early after an outbreak caused 630 passengers to get ill. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has since determined that a new Sydney strain of norovirus was responsible for the widespread illness.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">While representatives for Mohonk Mountain House would not share the name of the company they are working with to sanitize the resort, their spokesperson did share that the expert "has conducted successful remediation work on hospitals, schools and libraries, and on projects as large as a 44-acre University campus after Hurricane Katrina."</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Frequent, thorough hand washing and cleaning of potentially contaminated surfaces can also help protect against transmission, according to the state Health Department.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">ABCNews</div>

Norovirus Shuts Down Historic New York State Resort

Cruise ships aren't the only venues in the travel industry susceptible to norovirus. A historic New York state resort has elected to shu...

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Not Again! Bobsledders Tweet They’re Stuck – This Time in Elevator (BLOG)

<div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAL8nrEbMgZJ9pbH4O5wjQJVp5fi-eJefTFu9q-1sBaCHcV1MbcjDa3a_libQR1cPmkKmbn0JBE5bK9SD2CKE2xhD9bXhsYCuYVfYIdzPEdIZ7yTJ7CGWz8at1ZLzf_42Zx_akG2I7yYc/s1600/111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAL8nrEbMgZJ9pbH4O5wjQJVp5fi-eJefTFu9q-1sBaCHcV1MbcjDa3a_libQR1cPmkKmbn0JBE5bK9SD2CKE2xhD9bXhsYCuYVfYIdzPEdIZ7yTJ7CGWz8at1ZLzf_42Zx_akG2I7yYc/s1600/111.jpg" /></a>Olympic bobsledders trapped in tight spaces seems like it’s becoming a daily thing in Sochi.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In today’s edition, Team USA bobsledders Johnny Quinn and Nick Cunningham tweeted that they were stuck in a broken elevator.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Cunningham tweeted to ABCNews.com that he and Quinn weren’t trapped for too long.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Quinn became an internet sensation over the weekend after he posted a photo of his Hulk-like smash through a Sochi bathroom door after it jammed.</div><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Quinn told “Good Morning America” he was so happy to escape the bathroom but after he saw the gaping hole, he thought he would get in trouble.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“At that time I was so mad and frustrated I didn’t even have a towel in there. I was just excited to finally get out of there. Once I got out of there and put a towel on, I looked back at the door and said ‘Oh man there’s a giant hole in there. I might get in trouble for this,’” Quinn said.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Quinn said his teammates and neighbors didn’t hear his loud bangs on the wall for help, prompting the 6-foot, 220-pound athlete to use his bobsled training to finally bust down the door.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On Sunday, British bobsledder <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/winter-olympics-2014-bobsledder-nearly-walks-into-open-elevator-shaft-in-sochi/" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgb(255, 94, 153); color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;">Rebekah Wilson</a> tweeted that she had a near-miss with an open elevator shaft in Sochi.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, Georgia; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20px; padding: 15px 0px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It sure is dangerous in Sochi for a bobsledder, and their event hasn’t even started.</div>

Not Again! Bobsledders Tweet They’re Stuck – This Time in Elevator (BLOG)

Olympic bobsledders trapped in tight spaces seems like it’s becoming a daily thing in Sochi. In today’s edition, Team USA bobsledders Johnny...

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Iraq: 21 Die as Militants Accidentally Blow Themselves Up (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVq06t_LSwaOimRWEzFQY-IypsNE8LgxWJbEAr1EsccfbFXD8PBm0T-2JnIzKnt2LgZ8mbxpYjU0mT_GeeBiLpyrWtL_W1hNUJdTUy0dgMXMgxQO7c7TABvzBvs1FOk9KzKtUjdyAvQsw/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVq06t_LSwaOimRWEzFQY-IypsNE8LgxWJbEAr1EsccfbFXD8PBm0T-2JnIzKnt2LgZ8mbxpYjU0mT_GeeBiLpyrWtL_W1hNUJdTUy0dgMXMgxQO7c7TABvzBvs1FOk9KzKtUjdyAvQsw/s1600/11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">An instructor teaching his militant recruits how to make car bombs accidentally set off explosives in his demonstration Monday, killing 21 of them in a huge blast that alerted authorities to the existence of the rural training camp in an orchard north of Baghdad. Nearly two dozen people were arrested, including wounded insurgents trying to hobble away from the scene.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The fatal goof by the al-Qaida breakaway group that dominates the Sunni insurgency in Iraq happened on the same day that the speaker of the Iraqi parliament, a prominent Sunni whom the militants consider a traitor, escaped unhurt from a roadside bomb attack on his motorcade in the northern city of Mosul.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Nevertheless, the events underscored the determination of the insurgents to rebuild and regain the strength they enjoyed in Iraq at the height of the war until U.S.-backed Sunni tribesmen turned against them. The militants are currently battling for control of mainly Sunni areas of western Iraq in a key test of the Shiite-led government's ability to maintain security more than two years after the withdrawal of U.S. troops.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">While the Iraqi army has been attacking insurgent training camps in the vast desert of western Anbar province near the Syrian border, it is unusual to find such a camp in the center of the country, just 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of the capital.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The discovery shows that "the terrorist groups have made a strong comeback in Iraq and that the security problems are far from over, and things are heading from bad to worse," said Hamid al-Mutlaq, a member of the parliament's security and defense committee.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The militants belonged to a network now known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, an extremist group that recently broke with al-Qaida. The ISIL, emboldened by fellow fighters' gains in the Syrian civil war, has tried to position itself as the champion of Iraqi Sunnis angry at the government over what they see as efforts to marginalize them.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Car bombs are one of the deadliest weapons used by this group, with coordinated waves of explosions regularly leaving scores dead in Baghdad and elsewhere across the country. The bombs are sometimes assembled in farm compounds where militants can gather without being spotted, or in car workshops in industrial areas.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The explosion Monday took place at a camp tucked away in an orchard in the village of al-Jalam, a farming area that has been a stronghold of al-Qaida close to the Sunni city of Samarra. According to a police officer, an army official and a hospital official, all of whom spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons, the events unfolded as follows.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">The militants were attending a lesson on making car bombs and explosive belts when a glitch set off one of the devices during the car bomb part of the demonstration. Security forces rushed to the area after hearing the thunderous blast and arrested 12 wounded militants along with another 10 trying to flee.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Authorities searched two houses and a garage in the orchard, finding seven car bombs as well as several explosive belts and roadside bombs. The cars did not have license plates. Bomb experts then started the work of defusing the devices.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Later Monday, a bomb exploded near a cafe in western Baghdad shortly after nightfall, killing three people and wounding 11 others, according to police and medical officials who all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.</div>

Iraq: 21 Die as Militants Accidentally Blow Themselves Up (BLOG)

An instructor teaching his militant recruits how to make car bombs accidentally set off explosives in his demonstration Monday, killing 21 o...

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Sochi 2014: Canada Dominates Freestyle Skiing ( BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbb0LkPT13Uu8_n5I_XnhmAbfXtlljshL9IIasi1N4gpfncujVRAVFs0THSelezQAi3XGWQ6oQWl4MRxurQqh7wWxbgWoHTWLtYfw1lc2e62be65JImupbGjYf7eRHgUfSbxaTVLvd7U/s1600/ss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhbb0LkPT13Uu8_n5I_XnhmAbfXtlljshL9IIasi1N4gpfncujVRAVFs0THSelezQAi3XGWQ6oQWl4MRxurQqh7wWxbgWoHTWLtYfw1lc2e62be65JImupbGjYf7eRHgUfSbxaTVLvd7U/s1600/ss.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Two Canadian athletes captured the top two spots in the men's mogul freestyle skiing event today at the <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/topics/news/winter-olympics.htm" style="color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="internal">Winter Olympics</a>. Alex Bilondeau took the gold medal while his teammate, Mikael Kingsbury, took the silver.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Canada also dominated the women's mogul event, though it was much more of a family affair. Sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/winter-olympics-2014-canadian-sisters-justine-chloe-dufour/story?id=22432080" style="color: #2e538f; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none;" target="internal">took gold and silver respectively</a> at that event, held on Feb. 8.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Bilondeau was not the fastest down the slope in an event where speed matters. However, the judges saved their best scores for Bilondeau's ability to navigate the bumpy slope, as well as executing complicated tricks on the slope's two jumping points.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Alexandr Smyshlyaev from Russia rounded out the winners, taking the bronze. American skier Patrick Deneen made it to the last round of finals, finishing in sixth place.</div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;"><br /></div><div itemprop="articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 22px; padding: 0px;">Yahoo</div>

Sochi 2014: Canada Dominates Freestyle Skiing ( BLOG)

Two Canadian athletes captured the top two spots in the men's mogul freestyle skiing event today at the  Winter Olympics . Alex Bilondea...

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Smoke Found on PATCO Subway (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXg7l5_iv4Ab-r3QeQpa87kWiRqfZAZV7voXzWeJNDh3sZ7kPPG6yBYYR1g-hIxgV9EOAOYcjcL2wU0qbGwo1zucVeCTSMckJAyOUC032tvcuFWHIwxl9FTSD3pUm9tTUG_sZiTaMiBU/s1600/patco_5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVXg7l5_iv4Ab-r3QeQpa87kWiRqfZAZV7voXzWeJNDh3sZ7kPPG6yBYYR1g-hIxgV9EOAOYcjcL2wU0qbGwo1zucVeCTSMckJAyOUC032tvcuFWHIwxl9FTSD3pUm9tTUG_sZiTaMiBU/s1600/patco_5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="paragraph1" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Passengers are being evacuated after smoke was found on a PATCO subway heading to New Jersey from Philadelphia. The smoke was spotted on the subway at the base of the Ben Franklin Bridge near 7th and Race streets, according to officials.</div><div id="paragraph2" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“At 5:16 p.m., a motor shorted-out on a six-car train headed eastbound onto the Benjamin Franklin Bridge,” said PATCO spokesman Tim Ireland. “The first two cars are filling with smoke and passengers are being evacuated."</div><div id="paragraph3" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Douglas Robbins, a passenger on the train, tweeted updates on the evacuation to NBC10.</div><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px;"></span><br /><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><div id="paragraph12" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Robbins also sent NBC10 a picture of the inside of one of the train cars.</div><div id="paragraph13" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Officials say 50 passengers were on the train and only two passengers have been evacuated so far. Officials say another train is traveling to the scene to move the remaining passengers out.</div><div id="paragraph14" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">No injuries have been reported so far. Officials say PATCO is experiencing a 20 minute delay in both Wast and Westbound service.<img align="left" alt="" height="253" src="http://media.nbcbayarea.com/images/PATCO+Fire.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="338" /></div><div id="paragraph15" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #333333; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 22px; margin-bottom: 15px; margin-top: 15px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Stay with NBC10.com for more details on this developing story.</div>

Smoke Found on PATCO Subway (BLOG)

Passengers are being evacuated after smoke was found on a PATCO subway heading to New Jersey from Philadelphia. The smoke was spotted on the...

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World News Briefs -- February 10, 2014 (Evening Edition)

<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ggH91Ygn0NM" width="560"></iframe><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Syrian Peace Talks Resume Acrimoniously As Assad Regime Alleges Massacre In Hama -- Washington Post</b></span></div><br />BEIRUT — A second round of Syrian peace talks started acrimoniously on Monday as the two sides traded accusations over disruptions to humanitarian operations in the city of Homs and the Syrian government alleged mass killings in nearby Hama.<br /><br />The government accused Islamist rebel battalions of a “massacre” in a village in central Hama province, making for a tense beginning to negotiations in Geneva.<br /><br />Meanwhile, aid operations in Homs, planned as a confidence-building measure between the government and opposition in initial talks last month, have been plagued by violence, with both sides blaming each other for violations in a supposed cease-fire.<br /><br /><b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/syrian-peace-talks-resume-acrimoniously-as-assad-regime-alleges-hama-massacre/2014/02/10/c571aa84-927c-11e3-b3f7-f5107432ca45_story.html">Read more</a></b> ....<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>MIDDLE EAST</b></span></div><br />UN says Homs operation extended<b><a href="http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2014/Feb-10/246913-humanitarian-pause-for-syrias-homs-extended-for-3-days-un.ashx#axzz2sxRrfc9B"> until Wednesday night</a></b>.<br /><br />Syrian talks resume as <b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/02/syria-talks-resume-as-homs-aid-runs-continue-201421092245133797.html">Homs mission continues</a></b>. Second round of Syria talks <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-syria-crisis-idUSBREA1912Z20140210">makes faltering start</a></b>. Syrian regime and opposition begin <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/10/syrian-regime-and-opposition-begin-new-round-of-talks-in-geneva">new round of talks in Geneva</a></b>.<br /><br />Six hundred Syrians flee besieged<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-syria-crisis-homs-idUSBREA170S120140210"> Old Homs in aid convoy</a></b>.<br /><br />Rebel attack on <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/rebel-attack-syrian-alawite-village-kills-40-085123549.html">Syrian Alawite village kills 40</a></b>.<br /><br />Netanyahu to talk curbs on Iran with <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-israel-usa-netanyahu-idUSBREA1914U20140210">Obama in Washington in March</a></b>.<br /><br />Turkey and Israel <b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/02/turkey-israel-close-reviving-ties-201421019715799747.html">'close to reviving ties'.</a></b><br /><br />Iraq speaker <b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/02/iraq-speaker-escapes-assassination-attempt-2014210142135531229.html">escapes assassination attempt</a></b>. Iraq speaker targeted in blast <b><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jI_Topy3079OPGnrNFXsCn3OkmdA?docId=533a21ed-9537-4c4f-b432-9bd00341c738">as 21 militants killed</a></b>. Iraq: Militants set off own car bomb, <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/iraq-militants-set-off-own-car-bomb-21-140753442.html">21 dead.</a></b><br /><br />Iran sets 'red lines' <b><a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gk68IRFFhxxCZJCkFSiGKKOd7MAg?docId=4bbe6c22-4b76-4838-bf4f-6b9fc8a6b989">ahead of fresh nuclear talks</a></b>.<br /><br />Weekend violence<b><a href="http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/24424/Default.aspx?hp=readmore"> rocks Israel.</a></b><br /><br />Yemen to become <b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/02/yemen-become-six-region-federation-2014210124731726931.html">six-region federation</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>ASIA</b></span></div><br />Bomb kills two American contractors <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-afghanistan-attack-idUSBREA190Y620140210">in Afghan capital Kabul</a></b>.<br /><br />Afghan bomb targets <b><a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2014/02/afghan-bomb-targets-nato-prison-convoy-2014210113155516497.html">NATO prison convoy</a></b>.<br /><br />Pakistani separatist militants <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-pakistan-pipelines-bombing-idUSBREA1903T20140210">blow up three gas pipelines</a></b>.<br /><br />Kenneth Bae worried about his health <b><a href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/10/world/asia/north-korea-kenneth-bae/">in North Korean camp</a></b>.<br /><br />South Korea-US exercises announced as <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-26080072">Kenneth Bae visit blocked</a></b>.<br /><br />Abe, Aquino views on China unhelpful,<b><a href="http://www.stripes.com/news/us/abe-aquino-views-on-china-unhelpful-u-s-general-says-1.266737"> U.S. general says</a></b>.<br /><br />China export growth seen slowing,<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-china-economy-idUSBREA190AK20140210"> loans surging in January</a></b>.<br /><br />Spain orders arrest of <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/spain-orders-arrest-former-chinese-president-others-over-143941453.html">former Chinese president, others over Tibet</a></b>.<br /><br />Nepal's new PM pledges new constitution <b><a href="http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2014-02/10/c_133104390.htm">within one year</a></b>. Nepal's new prime minister raises hopes <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/nepal-39-prime-minister-raises-hopes-democratic-momentum-133731964.html">of democratic momentum.</a></b><br /><br />Italy tells India handling of marines case <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/italy-tells-india-handling-marines-case-could-hurt-141153020--finance.html">could hurt EU ties</a></b>.<br /><br />Asylum seekers accuse Australia navy of abuse as <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-australia-indonesia-asylum-idUSBREA1903F20140210">boat towed to Indonesia</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>AFRICA</b></span></div><br />South Sudan rebels say they will <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-southsudan-unrest-talks-idUSBREA191G320140210">boycott latest peace talks</a></b>.<br /><br />Nigerian president <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-nigeria-politics-idUSBREA191F220140210">sacks chief of staff: sources.</a></b><br /><br />France rules out <b><a href="http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/africa/2014/02/10/France-rules-out-Libya-military-intervention-.html">Libya military intervention</a></b>.<br /><br />Lynching of Christian man by Muslims is sign of chaos <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/lynching-of-christian-man-by-muslims-is-sign-of-chaos-in-central-african-republic/2014/02/09/ecd02e54-91d5-11e3-b3f7-f5107432ca45_story.html">in Central African Republic</a></b>.<br /><br />Lynchings and religious violence increase in <b><a href="http://www.euronews.com/2014/02/10/lynchings-and-religious-violence-increase-in-violence-torn-central-african-/">conflict-torn Central African Republic</a></b>.<br /><br />Egyptian authorities accuse Islamist group of <b><a href="http://world.time.com/2014/02/09/egypt-muslim-brotherhood-military/">forming ‘military wing’</a></b>.<br /><br />Mali says MUJWA Islamist group responsible<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/09/us-mali-islamists-idUSBREA180YN20140209"> for killing 31 Tuaregs</a></b>.<br /><br />Congo warlord Bosco Ntaganda faces <b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/10/congo-warlord-bosco-ntaganda-war-crimes-hague">war crimes charges at The Hague.</a></b><br /><br />Two car bombs explode in Somali capital,<b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/two-car-bombs-explode-somali-capital-least-five-144818264.html"> at least five wounded</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>EUROPE</b></span></div><br />Sochi 2014: <b><a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/live/winter-olympics/25886331">Day three: Live</a></b><br /><br />Bosnians ratchet up demands on<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-bosnia-protest-idUSBREA1917120140210"> sixth day of protests.</a></b><br /><br />EU must be ready to impose sanctions <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/eu-must-ready-impose-sanctions-ukraine-czech-minister-210101319.html">on Ukraine: Czech minister.</a></b><br /><br />Huge crowds gather for 10th weekly <b><a href="http://rt.com/news/ukraine-protest-kiev-opposition-299/">anti-govt rally in central Kiev</a></b>.<br /><br />Worse than Greece: Fitch says <b><a href="http://rt.com/business/ukraine-default-fitch-downgrade-386/">Ukraine's default risk high</a></b>.<br /><br />EU neighbours regret Swiss vote <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26116648">for immigration quotas</a></b>. Europe warns Swiss of consequences<b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/europe-warns-swiss-consequences-immigration-vote-143556240--sector.html"> after immigration vote</a></b>.<br /><br />François Hollande expected to get 'super red-carpet'<b><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/09/francois-hollande-us-state-visit-french-president"> treatment in US</a></b>.<br /><br />NSA flap strains <b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303874504579372832399168684?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702303874504579372832399168684.html">ties with Europe</a></b>.<br /><br />UK floods: Swollen Thames <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26111598">threatens thousands of homes</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>AMERICAS</b></span></div><br />White House delays health insurance mandate for <b><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/white-house-delays-health-insurance-mandate-for-medium-sized-employers-until-2016/2014/02/10/ade6b344-9279-11e3-84e1-27626c5ef5fb_story.html">medium-sized employers until 2016</a></b>.<br /><br />UK minister's visit to contested Falklands <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-britain-argentina-falklands-idUSBREA191JR20140210">angers Argentina.</a></b><br /><br />U.S. Embassy warns of <b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2014/02/09/possible-guyana-threat/5349989/">possible Guyana threat</a></b>.<br /><br />Ex-Guatemalan army officer tied to massacre <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-usa-guatemala-massacre-idUSBREA1920H20140210">sentenced to U.S. prison</a></b>.<br /><br />Hollande and Obama make joint <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26117455">call for climate accord</a></b>.<br /><br />Threat of more snow and ice in U.S. South <b><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/threat-more-snow-ice-u-south-puts-officials-145406859--finance.html">puts officials on alert</a></b>.<br /><br />Mexico vigilantes enter <b><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-26103464">Knights Templar cartel stronghold</a></b>.<br /><br />Toyota to<b><a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/02/09/toyota-leave-venezuela"> leave Venezuela</a></b>. Venezuela's currency squeeze <b><a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304626804579361430760853514">threatens nation's newspapers</a></b>.<br /><br />As inflation and crime soar in Venezuela, <b><a href="http://www.miamiherald.com/2014/02/07/3920606/as-inflation-and-crime-soar-in.html">those who can head abroad</a></b>.<br /><br />Argentina falling again, but no longer drags down <b><a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2014/02/10/argentina-falls-but-no-longer-drags-down-brazil?s_cid=rss:argentina-falls-but-no-longer-drags-down-brazil">neighboring Brazil like in past crises</a></b>.<br /><br />Vancouver home to Canada's first <b><a href="http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/vancouver-home-to-canada-s-first-crackpipe-vending-machines-1.1677066#ixzz2spaXdqtr">crackpipe vending machines</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>TERRORISM/THE LONG WAR</b></span></div><br />Boston bombing suspect <b><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/10/boston-bombing-suspect-wants-trial/5371973/">wants trial next year</a></b>.<br /><br />US suspect possibly targeted <b><a href="http://www.breitbart.com/system/wire/ap_ca2280e951cf462fbf8e308fd52b7a9b">for drone attack</a></b>.<br /><br />Al Qaeda splinter group withdraws <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-syria-crisis-rebels-idUSBREA1909V20140210">from oil-rich Syrian province</a></b>.<br /><br />Al Qaeda won't execute kidnapped South African, <b><a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/al-qaeda-won-behead-kidnapped-south-african-article-1.1606954">despite ransom deadline</a></b>.<br /><br />Intelligence chair: ‘Guards, gates and guns’ <b><a href="http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/feb/9/house-intel-chair-concern-about-possible-attack-ou/">mitigate Olympics threats</a></b>.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>ECONOMY/FINANCE/BUSINESS</b></span></div><br />Bitcoin plunges after major platform <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-investing-bitcoin-idUSBREA191Y220140210">indefinitely halts withdrawals</a></b>.<br /><br />Exclusive: Regulator plans purge of<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-finra-arbitration-idUSBREA191SI20140210"> Wall Street arbitrators</a></b>.<br /><br />Boeing sees Asia-Pacific fleet <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-airshow-forecast-boeing-idUSBREA190PR20140210">nearly tripling over 20 years</a></b>.<br /><br />Icahn drops <b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-apple-icahn-idUSBREA1913T20140210">Apple buyback demand</a></b>.<br /><br />Google passes Exxon <b><a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Google-passes-Exxon-to-be-No-2-US-company-5220775.php">to be No. 2 US company</a></b>.<br /><br />Europe, China help McDonald's<b><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/10/us-mcdonalds-sales-idUSBREA190U620140210"> offset soft U.S. sales in January</a></b>.

World News Briefs -- February 10, 2014 (Evening Edition)

Syrian Peace Talks Resume Acrimoniously As Assad Regime Alleges Massacre In Hama -- Washington Post BEIRUT — A second round of Syrian peace ...

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Detroit: What it's like to live in the most famous bankrupt city in America (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_T5lf6ueUxANo2Kd6HBKaG9I2I9wGaAx2WxZ-D-7YE5ZlBLGwMp8FKA5yWpO5xQ0IwslCzhx6pCLMVwgZyoSbyair-Neu30RkBXmTsipmO4gfXq3HTRQ_3k01tsMfITU3tf6y3DLDkA/s1600/1111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_T5lf6ueUxANo2Kd6HBKaG9I2I9wGaAx2WxZ-D-7YE5ZlBLGwMp8FKA5yWpO5xQ0IwslCzhx6pCLMVwgZyoSbyair-Neu30RkBXmTsipmO4gfXq3HTRQ_3k01tsMfITU3tf6y3DLDkA/s1600/1111.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3107" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">DETROIT — Ora Williams has lived in her home in the Brightmoor section of Detroit for more than 35 years, and over those decades, she’s seen what was once a thriving middle class neighborhood sink into what many regard as the wasteland of the city.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3125" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Crime and economic turmoil drove many residents away. Their homes, left to decay, became epicenters for murders and drug deals. The overgrown trees and brush became illegal dumping grounds for everything from old boats to dead bodies. Neighbors pleaded with city officials to do something, anything, but the government, broke and famously dysfunctional, offered little help.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3135" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But Williams, a retired caseworker for the state Department of Human Services, refused to give up on Brightmoor — even as many around her packed their bags and looked for more stable ground. Her endurance is slowly paying off.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3145" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Over the past two years, private foundations have come in to help Brightmoor, setting up a community action group to help revitalize and rebuild. The Detroit Blight Authority, a nonprofit that demolishes abandoned homes and cleans up empty lots, cleared out 14 blocks of decay in the neighborhood last summer and plans to tackle another 35 blocks this year.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But the initial work has already transformed the neighborhood — making the streets a little safer and energizing residents who had never given up on the idea that Brightmoor could bounce back, even if it’s getting little help from the city government.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Williams is the first to acknowledge that Brightmoor has a long way to go, and she admits the transformation will be arduous and could take many, many years. But she refuses to walk away, even if it would be easier to live someplace else.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“This is my home,” Williams said. “This is where I raised my kids. … Besides, if everybody decides to run, you don’t have a community anymore. They beat you at your own game. It’s about stick and stay, and believing in what can be.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Williams is not alone in her hopefulness and her resilience. Her words could be a mantra for the other estimated 700,000 residents of Detroit who are a testament for survival and strength in a city that has struggled for decades and is now in the midst of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But what is it really like to live and work in the most famous bankrupt city in America?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The headlines about Detroit are constantly doom and gloom — and for good reason. The city has major problems. Its long-term debts are at least $18 billion and growing. The infant mortality rate <a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140130/LIFESTYLE03/301300005" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">rivals that in developing countries.</a> Unemployment is at 11 percent. City Hall, long mired in corruption scandals, is now under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. Municipal services, which had already been lacking for years, have been cut to the bone. Retired city workers are worried about losing their pensions. Half of the city’s 88,000 streetlights don’t work. Roads go largely unplowed during snowstorms. The police reportedly take in upwards of an hour to respond to even the most serious of crimes. And the list goes on and on.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Today, Detroit’s iconic image is almost always a picture of one of its estimated 78,000 empty buildings, which have become an odd tourist attraction. The “ruins,” as they are described, are a striking monument to what the Motor City used to be.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But just as there is blight in virtually every corner of the city, there is also hope and glimmers of new life. It’s an odd dichotomy for a city that many have written off as dead.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Midtown, just blocks from the boarded up mansions of historic Brush Park, there is a new Whole Foods store — the first new grocery store to open in the inner city in decades. A few miles away in downtown, all the tables at Roast, a restaurant owned by Food Network chef Michael Symon inside the renovated Westin Book Cadillac hotel, are perpetually booked and not just by visitors to the city.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At the bar on a recent Wednesday, a frantic server paused and laughed. “What bankruptcy?” he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And that’s what locals say the world doesn’t get about Detroit: that life here goes on, fueled in part by the strength of residents who believe very strongly that the city will come back. And many are working to make it happen in both big and little ways.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In downtown Detroit, Dan Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, has purchased several buildings and relocated his 10,000 employees into what was vacant office space in hopes of reviving the city’s urban core. He’s hoping to create a Silicon Valley of the Midwest by helping lure startups to Detroit with grants and other assistance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And all over town, small businesses are starting to pop up, founded by a younger generation of entrepreneurs who have descended on the city to take advantage of what locals say is an atmosphere friendly to people who want to test out business ideas with nothing to lose.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“Things are sparking here in spite of the financial challenges of the municipality itself,” said Sandy K. Unruh, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber, who is pitching the city as a comeback story in hopes of wooing potential investors.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Over the last year, companies that make bicycles, handmade jeans and luxury watches have launched in Detroit. At the same time, the city’s bar and restaurant scene is booming — aided largely by Detroit natives who came back to the city because they wanted to build something in their hometown.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“If you are someone who wants to build something, to do something of your own, Detroit is really cool because you can do that right now,” said Amanda Brewington, who opened Always Brewing Detroit, a coffee shop and community space last year.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Brewington, a native of the Detroit suburbs, had been working as a music supervisor in Lansing, but she had dreamed of opening a business in Detroit for years — in spite of the city’s struggles. “This place has always been magical to me,” she said. “People are different here. There is a lot of pride in the city and a ‘do it yourself’ mentality that you don’t find in other places.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Her parents were supportive but worried. “Detroit? Are you sure you want to do this?” her mother asked.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Brewington, who is 28, scouted locations all over the city and settled on a spot along a gritty stretch on Grand River Avenue in the Rosedale neighborhood of Northwest Detroit — not far from Brightmoor — because she wanted to be a part of a community of people willing to stay and live in Detroit even in the tough times.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“They don’t show them on the news or talk about them when they mention the bankruptcy, but there are people who live here, who work and have a house and have kids and dog and are normal people who are making it,” Brewington said. “Sometimes I think it takes a tougher person to do that because why would you choose to live in a place that isn’t exactly easy or workable to live in? But that’s the thing about Detroiters. They are the people who make it work and help each other and do what needs to be done.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Many Detroiters liken that resilient mentality to the psychology passed down from auto workers who toiled on the assembly lines to build fleets of cars — a technology that was invented in Detroit back in 1913 during the city’s industrial boom.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The auto industry really shaped the consciousness that we are all in this together,” said Mary Byrnes, a Detroit native who is a sociology professor at Marygrove College. “Everyone has to work at the same pace, and we are all interdependent with one another. That hasn’t gone away. We depend on each other.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In her neighborhood in Southwest Detroit, there is little indication of a city under financial duress. The local pub is packed, and new businesses are opening. But she acknowledged that as tough as Detroiters are, there is underlying concern about what the future holds for the city as it tries to navigate its way through bankruptcy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“On a day to day basis, you don’t feel it. Nothing has changed,” Byrnes said. “But I think people would be lying if they said they weren’t worried about what is happening to our city and the things we love and cherish.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3154" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But, she added, “I am not only worried for us in Detroit, I am worried for other cities because we are the blueprint for how this is going to go down in other cities. We aren’t the only ones who have problems.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3169" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But like Williams and others, she wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“We know what bad times are like, and we push through them,” Brynes said. “That’s the strength of Detroit.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><br /></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Yahoo</div>

Detroit: What it's like to live in the most famous bankrupt city in America (BLOG)

DETROIT — Ora Williams has lived in her home in the Brightmoor section of Detroit for more than 35 years, and over those decades, she’s seen...

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Bringing up baby: A tour of baby panda Bao Bao’s crib at the National Zoo (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSM6uFhASa7qA1VqcMy7UIlZN4FrMRw8BcNY3fWMKWYvGf93wdSAy1l8L9IRniJ-n-dzfkW9PUozYikwfsid9GEE9i3FUfbY_vZka3BG9318vB-aRJx0izhMWoGJIvgSZQ8Wvj9OGYmc/s1600/00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSM6uFhASa7qA1VqcMy7UIlZN4FrMRw8BcNY3fWMKWYvGf93wdSAy1l8L9IRniJ-n-dzfkW9PUozYikwfsid9GEE9i3FUfbY_vZka3BG9318vB-aRJx0izhMWoGJIvgSZQ8Wvj9OGYmc/s1600/00.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9198" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It’s “panda-monium” at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where a baby giant panda, Bao Bao, has recently made her debut to the ooh’s and aah’s of the admiring public.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9210" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And in this special episode of “Power Players,” we go behind the scenes at the zoo for an exclusive play date with Bao Bao, a furry 5-month-old cub. Bao Bao’s keepers, Marty Dearie and Juan Rodriguez, led the cub in her daily training session, called “targeting,” during which they reward her for completing certain desired behaviors, such as touching her nose to a ball.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9220" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The purpose of the targeting is to start building new behaviors,” Dearie said. “So think about it, if you get her to touch her nose to a ball, well what if I want her to stand up? Well now I just move the target up a little higher, she has to stand up to it, and eventually you can take the target out and you can get her to stand up on her own without using it.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Though Bao Bao currently has a limited grasp of the targeted skills – choosing to wander off to explore rather than obey on most occasions—Dearie and Rodriguez said her performance will improve in the coming months as she is weaned from her mother’s milk.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“By the time she starts kind of consuming more solids, then we can start building a lot more behaviors,” said Dearie, explaining that adult pandas are very responsive to food-based rewards, such as pear pieces, cooked sweet potato and apples.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Bao Bao’s learning will also hasten once she becomes more active, Dearie said. The cub currently sleeps for at least 20 hours out of the day.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“Most of the energy she's taking from mom's milk is going to make her get bigger,” he said. “She was born at 4.8 ounces. Now, she weighs over 20 pounds.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The animal keepers also introduced us to Bao Bao’s dad, Tian Tian, to demonstrate the progress that Bao Bao is expected to make in the coming months and years over the course of her training. Tian Tian willingly comes into a cage where he places his arm on a platform to have blood drawn and lies on his side when commanded. Tian Tian is promptly rewarded with honey water and fruit pieces upon performing the action.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Tian Tian also lies down on command and will scoot left or right. It looks sweet, amazing even, but Dearie and Rodriguez say the point of the training isn't to enable the bears to perform. All of these behaviors, the same ones they are starting to nurture in Bao Bao, are critical for the bears comfort. Although the bears don't know it, they are working hard to help save their species. They are treated by doctors and examined by experts regularly. And they are comfortable around humans, moving into the right position upon command.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Despite the comfort level between the pandas and their human care takers, these bears are not pets – something Rodriguez said he has to tell himself during those “excruciatingly hard” moments when he wants to cuddle with the baby Bao Bao.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The main thing you have to keep reminding yourself is these guys are a critically endangered species and as much as you want to cuddle with them, you have to sort of respect the fact that they are endangered and we don't want to make them into pets,” Rodriguez said. “You want to keep their wild instincts intact as much as possible.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Once Bao Bao is fully grown and fully weaned from her mother, Mei Xiang, at the age of four, she will leave the U.S. for China to be part of a breeding program. Dr. Brandie Smith, the senior curator of giant pandas at the National Zoo, said that while Bao Bao will be missed once she’s relocated, it’s for a good cause.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“It is hard, but we know that we're sending her back to be part of the breeding program and to make more baby pandas,” Smith said. “So, I think a lot parents can relate, from the moment our kids are born we train them to go off and succeed on their own. So, that's what we're doing for Bao Bao.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For more about the raising of baby pandas, and to get an up close look at Bao Bao for yourself, check out this episode of “Power Players.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9282" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9291">ABC News’ Ben Krolowitz, Betsy Klein, Gary Westphalen, Tom D’Annibale, Danny O’Shea, and Gary Rosenberg contributed to this episode.</em></div>

Bringing up baby: A tour of baby panda Bao Bao’s crib at the National Zoo (BLOG)

It’s “panda-monium” at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where a baby giant panda, Bao Bao, has recently made her debut to...

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Amusingly "Cool" Map of the Day

<b>January 30, 2014</b><br /><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/map-how-much-snow-it-typically-takes-to-cancel-school-in-the-us/283470/">Map: 'How Much Snow It Typically Takes to Cancel School in the U.S.'</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>Using data "taken from hundreds of various points from user responses...interpolated using NOAA's average annual snowfall days map," Trubetskoy made a map showing how much snow it typically takes to close schools in the U.S. and Canada.</i></div>

Amusingly "Cool" Map of the Day

January 30, 2014 Map: 'How Much Snow It Typically Takes to Cancel School in the U.S.' Using data "taken from hundreds of variou...

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Allure of Rebel Dirt Bike Pack Explored in ’12 O’Clock Boys’ (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tWBaNEKSrsSzI3YpYOkNO_qF7RY44DLUtl2eZH1Kw5zjZ1yJ9iXrHKJgq3-k0R0rjEdqmxU6san9o2E5M6tvA5I4OVZKL-6hDun49W0zSeUih7u3WtGC161de_OqBOXFGXUm4uezHys/s1600/HT_12_oclock_boys_film_sk_140205_16x9_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tWBaNEKSrsSzI3YpYOkNO_qF7RY44DLUtl2eZH1Kw5zjZ1yJ9iXrHKJgq3-k0R0rjEdqmxU6san9o2E5M6tvA5I4OVZKL-6hDun49W0zSeUih7u3WtGC161de_OqBOXFGXUm4uezHys/s1600/HT_12_oclock_boys_film_sk_140205_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4574" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In the blighted neighborhoods of inner city Baltimore, lined with abandoned buildings and broken down cars, the loud, rhythmic, menacing choir of dirt bikes and four-wheelers can be heard cutting through the silence.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4559" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Ranging in age from teenage boys to men in their 30s, the large pack of illegal dirt bike riders race, weave and perform acrobatics at high speeds through the streets with almost celebrity stature. They are known as the 12 O'Clock Boys and people line the sidewalks with their smartphones and iPads to take in their spectacle.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4375" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To some, the ride together is a street sermon of sorts, a Sunday ritual.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4610" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To the Baltimore police and to many city residents, the bikers are a public safety hazard, who can seem intimidating as they perform stunts in traffic.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4620" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But to a 12-year-old boy, who calls West Baltimore home, being a part of this urban dirt-biker pack would be a dream come true. Born Taekwon Ford, friends and family call him “Pug.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"When I ride, I feel powerful. I feel like a super hero," Pug said. "It feels like, you know, on top of the world."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O'Clock Boys' name comes from the group's trademark maneuver: speeding down the street with the front wheel of their bike pointing straight up, like the hands on the clock.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O'Clock Boys are the subject of a new controversial film by the same name that came out last month. The film explores the attraction and motivation behind the urban dirt biker group through the eyes of Pug and a few older members.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The film follows Pug for three years, from a precocious 12-year-old on the shy side of puberty to an edgy, often angry, teenager, hardened by circumstance. It details Pug's primary aspiration in life, which is to become a 12 O'Clock Boy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">When asked why, he told "Nightline," "It's fun."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"You're seeing people's faces, they be so excited to see you," he said. "It just be amazing."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The film's director Lotfy Nathan was a college student from Great Britain studying at an art school in Baltimore when he started following the Baltimore dirt biker group as a class project.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O’Clock Boys have been described as many things -- a fearless pack, a gang, a menace, troublemakers –- but according to Nathan, they are not only “rebels,” but also “mentors” and “children.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4528" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Right outside of [Pug's] door in West Baltimore, there was drug dealers, there's violence all the time. He would see these dealers waving cash in front of them and they seemed like the most successful people on the block," Nathan said. "It's seductive from a young age. So that's why I kind of shy away from calling [the 12 O'Clock Boys] a gang, from calling them menaces. As problematic as it is, it's still kind of lesser of evils."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Nathan said he understands the conflict between the 12 O’Clock Boys and the rest of the city, but he sees how the group can have a positive impact on someone like Pug.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's not necessarily the right kind of out, but it is an out for a lot of kids in Baltimore," Nathan said. "It's actually a kind of edification for a lot of kids in Baltimore. It's kind of like Boy Scouts or something in the context of what gangs can really be in Baltimore and what violence can really be and what can be."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For its size -- Baltimore City as a population of roughly 621,000 -- Baltimore is one of the most violent crime and drug ridden cities in the country. There have been 28 homicides so far this year.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4625" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Pug said he has gotten used to seeing people walking around with guns, and has seen people get shot and stabbed on the street, but he doesn't pay attention to violent gangs.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"You gotta be careful out there, people get shot, sometimes for no reason, just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time," Pug said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4520" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To him, the 12 O'Clock Boys are his role models and mentors.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4510" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"They taught me to stay in school, do all my work, pass my classes. They just taught me to focus on school, don't worry about bikes all the time," he said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4500" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Pug said he wants to be a veterinarian when he grows up. He is bright and ambitious enough, but the road out of these rough Baltimore streets is lined with more obstacles that even the most skilled 12 O'Clock Boy could maneuver.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4490" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"He's a really smart kid, and I think he's pretty resourceful too, so I would hope that he would put it all into school, if he can. That's what I always tried to tell him," Nathan said. But "there's no easy out."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4490" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">VIDEO: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/nightline-fix-abc-news/allure-rebel-dirt-bike-pack-explored-12-o-145430670.html</span></span></div>

Allure of Rebel Dirt Bike Pack Explored in ’12 O’Clock Boys’ (BLOG)

In the blighted neighborhoods of inner city Baltimore, lined with abandoned buildings and broken down cars, the loud, rhythmic, menacing cho...

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