শুক্রবার, ৩১ মে, ২০১৩

Hulk's Next Fight: Inside Mark Ruffalo's Crazy 'See Me' Brawl

'Now You See Me' actor tells MTV News how he got bloodied by matzo while filming.
By Tami Katzoff

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1708255/mark-ruffalo-now-you-see-me.jhtml

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91% Frances Ha

All Critics (74) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (7)

The dialogue and editing are zippy and generally charming, combining with the tart observations of 20-something culture to create a nice frisson.

A black-and-white salute to the French New Wave (the score is borrowed from Georges Delerue, composer of many a Truffaut and Godard film) that manages to be very much of this moment ...

The movie's a love letter to an actress and her character, but by the end you may feel like an intervention is more in order.

The obvious love of New York City echoes Woody Allen at his best. But "Frances Ha" is very much its own film, a story of life and love and messy rooms.

Baumbach ... makes the film a celebration of Gerwig's coltish, goofball appeal.

Late-blooming 20-somethings have never been so perfectly captured -- and Gerwig has never been more appealing -- than in this funny, tender, life-affirming movie.

One of the most appealing films of the year to date -- and it may well end up being the most appealing indie release of the entire year

This is a tough one, but I must recommend it, if you are at all inclined to witness creativity at its unconventional best.

"Frances Ha"? More like Frances Bah!

Gerwig dances the Millennial Limbo

...caters to the Gerwig persona while also sanding off the edges of Baumbach's usual bitterness.

"Frances Ha" is about the inevitability of adulthood; it can be postponed, but it can't be avoided.

[a] fresh-faced and spirited black and white comedy...

If Frances has a chance, there's hope for us all.

The near-incomparable Greta Gerwig gives Frances a fire, an exuberance, and a three-dimensional uniqueness that ensures the viewer never sways from her side.

It gives you two choices: find it delightful or don't: there is no unique, self-guided option. As frustrating as that conundrum may be, it's still hard not to take option one.

Without Gerwig, this story of a hopeful young woman making her way in New York would have been just like all the rest. Instead, it's a work of art.

But there's just something so relentlessly likable about put-upon, impoverished Frances (Greta Gerwig) that it almost doesn't matter that her New York is just one big Williamsburg.

Improbable yet engaging, this arrested development serio-comedy should be particularly endearing to those who can't quite get their lives together.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/frances_ha_2013/

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Dzhokhar Tsarnaev calls mom: ?Be patient. Everything will be fine?

Tsarnaeva, Tsarnaev (Getty Images/FBI)

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, says she has spoken with her son for the first time since his arrest.

?I couldn?t stop myself from crying,? Tsarnaeva said in an phone interview with Bloomberg News late Monday from her home in Dagestan, Russia. ?He said: ?I am absolutely fine; my wounds are healing. Everything is in God?s hands. Be patient. Everything will be fine.??

Tsarnaev, 19, is accused of carrying out the April 15 terror attack with his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, who died in a shootout with police. He is in a federal prison hospital in Ayer, Mass., recovering from a gunshot wound to the neck.

?Mentally he is normal, but the child is shocked,? Tsarnaeva said after her six-minute conversation with Tsarnaev. ?It was really hard to hear him and for him to hear me. The conversation was very quiet. It was my child. I know he is locked up like a dog, like an animal.?

Tsarnaeva has maintained her sons are innocent, claiming they were set up by the FBI. Tsarnaev reportedly admitted his role in the attack after his arrest, communicating to investigators that he and his brother were motivated by Islam extremists but acted alone.

Three people were killed and more than 260 others wounded when two powerful homemade bombs exploded near the race?s finish line.

Tsarnaev was charged with two federal counts of using a weapon of mass destruction to kill, injure and cause widespread damage at the marathon. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

Last month, U.S. investigators traveled to southern Russia to speak to Tsarnaeva and Anzor Tsarnaev, the suspects' father, who also denies his sons' involvement in the bombings. Maret Tsarnaeva, the brothers' aunt who lives in Toronto, also said she believes her nephews were framed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/dzhokhar-tsarnaev-calls-mom-123019771.html

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বৃহস্পতিবার, ৩০ মে, ২০১৩

Our Web Design Services helps marketing oriented leaders and ...

Looking for effective and result oriented online presence with robust and comprehensive solutions in terms of Content Management System, E-commerce, Web responsive design

We provide web based?solutions for Startups, Small Business Owners and Digital Companies and Enterprise.

57pixelmedia creates both your business as well as the web-marketing ecosystems.?You need to react rapidly to the ever-evolving business needs. We help you acquire customers, build brands, manage social conversations, experiment with new technology and more.

Our web design service is instituted to give our clients an attractive, functional website that serves your individual business needs. We define what will make the most effective presentation to your prospective customers. E.g. Banner design, Graphics design, web responsive design etc. On the web, success is often measured by how quickly and effectively you communicate your ideas to the user. Visual design is a tool for relaying the message, it is not the message in itself. Good design supports its content effectively with quick access, and without clutter.

With our e-commerce development services will design all aspects of your website including page templates for your main site pages, blog pages, and sales pages and even help you with how visitors will move about your site. We also design email marketing templates to augment your marketing efforts.

Our web responsive design assures to achieve the exact business growth with, reach to all kinds of internet devices with same customize WordPress theme. We integrate SalesForce, CRM solution, to bring Sales Success to your business.

About 57 PixelMedia

57PixelMedia provides effective and result oriented online presence with robust and comprehensive solutions in terms of CMS, E-commerce, SEO and SMM. We provide solutions for Small Business Owners, Startups, Digital Companies and Enterprise.

Gagan is Website Consultant, Strategist and Visual Designer and owner of 57PixelMedia. She has provided robust and comprehensive solutions in terms of CMS, E-commerce, and SMM for Startups, Digital Companies and Enterprises. She is User Experience and Usability enthusiast. She is also author for online product based company at Usabilla.

Specialties: Website Consultancy, Usability Analyst, Visual Designer, UX Designer, Social Media Planning, Internet Marketing, Project Management.

Source: http://www.prunderground.com/our-web-design-services-helps-marketing-oriented-leaders-and-professionals-build-strong-brands/0024249/

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New virus called ?threat to entire world?

The first death in France from a new SARS-like coronavirus brings the worldwide total for the disease to 27 deaths and 49 infections, CNN reports.

The 65-year-old Frenchman was diagnosed after returning from a stay in Dubai.

According to CNN, the World Health Organization has said that the disease was first seen in Saudi Arabia last year.?The virus is "a threat to the entire world," Margaret Chan, WHO's general director, told the network.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, coronaviruses can affect people or animals and, in worst-case scenarios, cause SARS. And it notes there's currently no vaccine to protect against human coronavirus infection.

The disease acts like a cold and causes upper respiratory system problems. Symptoms include fever and cough, which can lead to kidney failure and pneumonia.

The WHO has not learned how the virus spreads, making it difficult to prevent infections. The organization has named it, though: Middle East Respiratory Symptom Coronavirus, or MERS-CoV, according to CNN.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/virus-called-threat-entire-world-152046513.html

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Republicans eye larger income tax cut - Wisconsin Radio Network

Rep. Dale Kooyenga (Photo: Andrew Beckett)

Rep. Dale Kooyenga (Photo: Andrew Beckett)

A state lawmaker wants to more than double a proposed income tax cut included in Governor Scott Walker?s state budget.

The plan?from state Representative Dale Kooyenga (R-Brookfield) would cut state income taxes by an additional $450 million over the next two years, while eliminating 18 seldom claimed business tax credits and reducing Wisconsin?s five tax brackets to just three. The plan builds on a $343 million tax cut proposed in Governor Walker?s budget plan.

Democrats were quick to voice opposition to the proposal, with state Representative Jon Richards (D-Milwaukee) pointing out that the state?s wealthiest residents will benefit the most. The plan would tax anyone making between $14,000 and $319,000 a year at the same rate, which would be set at 5.94 percent in 2015. Kooyenga contends it?s ?nearly impossible? to push through a tax reform plan that doesn?t benefit high-income earners, since they account for over 50 percent of the tax revenue collected by the state.

Richards also argued that the budget surplus being used to justify the larger cut came about as a result of ?historic cuts? made to education under the last state budget. The Milwaukee Democrat, who sits on the Legislature?s Joint Finance Committee, says the money would benefit far more Wisconsin residents if it were used to increase per pupil spending in public schools.

AUDIO: Rep. Dale Kooyenga (4:42)

While the Legislature?s budget committee has yet to take up Walker?s tax cut proposal, action on the provision is expected to come by early next month. It remains unclear if Kooyenga?s plan will be added to the bill though. While Republican leaders have indicated they are open to increasing the amount of income tax relief included in the budget, no top GOP leaders in the Legislature endorsed the proposal.


Source: http://www.wrn.com/2013/05/republicans-eye-larger-income-tax-cut/

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YouTube Lets You Create Slow-Motion Videos Now

YouTube has added a feature that lets you make any video into a slow-mo video. Because everything is more awesome in slow-mo, obviously.

Read more...

    


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/CNLRUFisN6U/youtube-lets-you-create-slow-motion-videos-now-510174520

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Sprint, SoftBank agree to U.S. national security deal

By Alina Selyukh

(Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp and Japan's SoftBank Corp said on Wednesday they had reached a national security agreement with U.S. authorities, overcoming a major hurdle for the Japanese company's $20.1 billion bid to control the wireless carrier.

Even with that approval, there are still a number of regulatory, congressional and investor hurdles facing SoftBank before it can close on its plan to break into the U.S. market. One influential U.S. senator said on Wednesday he was "carefully examining" the approval to see if it eased his security concerns.

The companies said they had received notice from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) that it had completed its national security review of the proposed deal and there were no unresolved issues.

The approval was a blow to Dish Network, which launched an unsolicited $25 billion offer for Sprint in April.

Dish has mounted an aggressive lobbying campaign, trying to convince Washington decision-makers that foreign ownership of Sprint posed threats to U.S. national security.

In a statement late on Wednesday, Dish said the CFIUS agreement failed to address the relevant national security concerns, and the company called on Congress to conduct a review of the whole process.

On paper, all that stands in SoftBank's way now is approval from the government's "Team Telecom" security panel, the Federal Communications Commission and Sprint shareholders.

Dish, however, has been drumming up worries about the deal among lawmakers, regulators and investors, and now hopes those concerns could delay the FCC vote long enough for the shareholders to vote on June 12 on SoftBank's bid.

The FCC's transactions team is still reviewing SoftBank's bid for its market impact and no draft approval has yet circulated among the three commissioners' offices, two FCC sources said on Wednesday. A non-binding 180-day deadline for completing the review expires on Wednesday but the agency routinely extends flexible timelines.

The FCC traditionally can be reluctant to act in a way that would influence shareholders, and it remained unclear whether acting Chairwoman Mignon Clyburn's office would choose to follow CFIUS and act before a shareholder vote.

The chair's office declined comment.

NATIONAL SECURITY CONCERNS

To alleviate some national security concerns, SoftBank and Sprint agreed to several conditions, including giving the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice the power to review and veto new equipment purchases in certain circumstances.

Sprint disclosed some of the conditions in its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. The companies would also appoint a new Sprint board member, to be approved by the U.S. government, to oversee national security compliance.

As part of the deal with CFIUS, sources previously told Reuters that SoftBank had also agreed to remove equipment made by China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd from Sprint and Clearwire Corp's networks if the deal was completed by the end of 2016.

Last week, Clearwire's board recommended Sprint's sweetened buyout offer for the company after Sprint raised its bid.

The question remains whether CFIUS approval with such conditions will ease the concerns of Senators Charles Schumer and John McCain, both of whom have sent letters to the FCC calling for careful scrutiny of SoftBank's offer on national security grounds.

"CFIUS has agreed that there are security concerns here, and we're carefully examining the conditions they've imposed to address them," Schumer said in a statement issued by his office.

One analyst said that in the end, even with those concerns, SoftBank was likely to win the approvals it needs.

"McCain and Schumer are not your average senators, so their concerns will definitely get maximum attention at the agencies. But Japan is considered a friendly country, an ally and unless there's more to come on the national security issue, I suspect regulators will end up greenlighting the deal," said Paul Gallant, a telecom policy analyst at Guggenheim Partners.

Japanese mobile operator SoftBank agreed to buy a 70 percent stake in Sprint last October.

Sprint shares rose 0.1 percent to $7.28 on Wednesday, while Dish fell 2.2 percent to $39.25.

(Additional reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Joyjeet Das, Chizu Nomiyama and Tim Dobbyn)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sprint-softbank-agree-national-security-deal-u-114920265.html

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বুধবার, ২৯ মে, ২০১৩

Libraries at the Ready: Helping Patrons Find the Right Financial ...

Libraries have always been a place for the community to gain information about personal finance. ?However, since 2008, the rules have changed. ?What resources are up-to-date and which ones are still useful? ?Join us for an informative session with Karen Chan, a financial educator and Certified Financial Planner, to learn how to best work with patrons on financial issues and connect them to the resources they need.

Topics covered will include:

  • Handy tools you can share with clients including how to compare loans to identifying assets
  • Financial tips that will benefit you and your patrons
  • Opportunities for libraries to become more involved in providing financial education opportunities to their communities
  • Activities you can use with job clubs

All reference librarians and front line reference desk workers can benefit from this informative session!

REGISTER HERE

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Source: http://rlace.info/2013/05/28/libraries-at-the-ready-helping-patrons-find-the-right-financial-tools-and-resources-2/

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U.S. mom 'framed' in Mexico drug bust

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • NEW: Jailed Arizona woman's husband says a bribe attempt is behind her arrest
  • "She's an honest, good woman," her daughter says
  • She was on her way back from a family funeral
  • The family is worried because it doesn't understand the local legal system

(CNN) -- The family of an Arizona mother of seven being held in a Mexican jail vehemently denies charges that she was trying to smuggle about 12 pounds of marijuana back into the United States.

"It's about getting money here," Yanira Maldonado's husband, Gary Maldonado, told CNN's "Starting Point" Tuesday.

A Mexican state official also believes Yanira Maldonado was framed.

On Tuesday, Maldonado has a court hearing, after which she may find out whether she will go free or remain jailed until a trial.

Mexican authorities arrested Maldonado Wednesday as she and her husband were on their way back from a family funeral.

During a search of their bus at a military checkpoint in the northwestern Mexican state of Sonora, authorities asked everyone to get off.

At first, authorities told Gary Maldonado that marijuana had been found under his seat and arrested him, his father, Larry Maldonado, told CNN. After the father contacted the U.S. Consulate in Hermosillo, Mexico, authorities said they were mistaken and released Gary.

Then, they charged his wife.

Gary Maldonado said he believes Mexican soldiers manning the checkpoint wanted a bribe.

"From what I hear, that's a regular occurrence," he said.

Questions about arrest

A Sonora state official with extensive knowledge of the case told CNN there are questions about the arrest.

"Can you imagine?" asked the official, who was not authorized to speak to the media and did not want to be named. "A passenger by himself or herself would have been unable to carry almost six kilos of marijuana onto a bus without being noticed. She must've been framed."

The husband, Gary, was told by authorities that regardless of his wife's guilt or innocence, he would have to pay $5,000 to secure her freedom, the family said.

He was able to cobble together the money but then was told it was too late. His wife had been transferred to another jail.

Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake is monitoring the case, his office said.

"Senator Flake is personally monitoring the situation, and he has had multiple conversations with the deputy Mexican ambassador this weekend," Flake's office said.

'Blind mules' unknowingly ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border

Fear grips family

But all this has not changed the situation for Yanira Maldonado or lessened the fears of her family.

"She's not happy where she's at but she has high hopes she'll be free," Gary Maldonado said.

Brandon Klippel, Maldonado's brother-in-law, says the family has hired a lawyer in Mexico but still is very worried because they do not fully understand the local legal system.

At the court hearing scheduled for Tuesday, Klippel said, a judge will decide whether to release Maldonado or hold her in custody for four months until a trial.

A local lawyer has told them that Maldonado can request a 72-hour extension to delay that decision.

"We're worried that Yanira may not know that she's the one that needs to request this," said Klippel. "If they don't extend the 72 hours, (the judge) will make the decision whether she can go free tomorrow or will be transported to a prison in south Mexico."

Emotional visits

On Saturday, Maldonado's daughter, Anna Soto, said she visited her mother in jail.

"I broke down in tears, but she just told me that she was going to get out," Soto said Monday in an emotional interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

"She wanted to tell my brothers and sisters that she loved them very much. My biggest fear is that I will never get to see her again "

The next day, other family members paid Maldonado a visit.

They were told they would have hours to talk with her, but when they arrived they were given only 10 minutes, Klippel said.

"She was at a wire window with her fingertips up through the holes, touching her son's hand with one hand and touching her husband's hand with the other," Klippel said. "She was just saying, 'I don't know how this happened to me. I've never done anything illegal in my life. Why has this happened?'"

"She's innocent," Soto said. "She's an honest good woman. A Christian woman that would never do anything to jeopardize her freedom."

Former marine released from Mexican prison

CNN's Catherine Shoichet contributed to this report.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/28/justice/mexico-american-arrest/index.html?eref=edition

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Olloclip brings distortion-correcting camera app to its three-in-one iPhone lens

Olloclip brings distortion correcting camera app to its threeinone iPhone lens

As our debut Insert Coin project, the Olloclip will always be near and dear to our hearts, but the handy three-in-one iPhone lens is not without its niggles -- like significant distortion produced by the the wide-angle and fish-eye attachments, for one. Luckily, Olloclip now has a remedy for that in the form of an iPhone camera app that'll correct or enhance such aberrations, depending on which way you want to take your artistry. You'll also get video and macro modes, spot focus and exposure adjustments and a photo library -- all the better to stay footloose and DSLR-free on the road. You can grab it for free at the source.

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Via: Cult of Mac

Source: Olloclip

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/mvE4P1ppUx0/

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Xbox One and PS4: Analyzing their support for 4K video and gaming ...

Xbox One vs. PS4

One of the questions that?s come out of Microsoft?s Xbox One reveal last week is to what degree the console actually supports 4K content. When asked about 4K support, Microsoft?s Corporate Vice President of Marketing, Strategy and Interactive Entertainment Business Yusuf Mehdi, told Forbes that ?The video and interface portions, absolutely. Games developed for 1080p will run at 1080p, obviously.? It will support up to 4K at launch for things like Blu-ray, but what about later? ?There?s no hardware restriction there at all.?

The accuracy of that statement depends entirely on which hardware Mehdi was referring to. The Xbox One?s CPU and GPU are definitely powerful enough to handle 4K decode or 3D video display, but that?s only one link in the content chain. There are several current barriers which make 4K a dubious proposition on the Xbox One come launch day. We?ve highlighted whether these issues apply to the Xbox One, PS4, or both systems below.

Blu-ray compatibility (Xbox One and PS4):?As of this writing, there is no defined Blu-ray standard for content above 1080p and no decision is expected until the end of the year. That leaves Sony and Microsoft stuck with guessing. The simplest way for both companies to hedge their bets is to include BDXL drives in their consoles rather than standard BD-ROMs. BDXL drives can support up to 128GB discs; the current mass market standard is 50GB. (See:?Xbox One vs. PS4 vs. PC: How the hardware specs compare.)

Sony?s ?Remastered in 4K? films are 1080p films that?ve been converted from 4K originals. The company is also putting all extras and bonus content on separate discs in order to maximize the amount of video bandwidth available for the feature film. It?s clear that Blu-ray needs an upgrade to keep pace with content standards ? Peter Jackson?s The Hobbit was only released in 24 fps because there?s not enough room on a BD disc for the film and no formal definition for a 48 fps playback format.

No codec standard (Xbox One and PS4):?4K content could presumably use either H.264 or H.265 for encoding. H.264 is more compatible and already supported by the Blu-ray standard, which would make backwards compatibility easier to achieve, but it takes up twice as much storage space as the newer H.265. H.265 is a more efficient codec than H.264, but requires more CPU power for decoding. The PS4 and Xbox One will both use an AMD-based video decode engine for offloading this work, but it probably won?t support H.265; the standard is simply too new.

HDMI 1.4 output (Xbox One and PS4): HDMI 1.4 is the latest released version of the HDMI standard (version 2.0 won?t be released until later this year). HDMI 1.4 supports 3840?2160 output at 24p (24 fps, progressive) or 30p. That may not seem like much of a problem, but it means the Xbox One couldn?t display a hypothetical version of The Hobbit running at 48p on a new Blu-ray standard. 4K 3D, if it ever takes off, would also require HDMI 2.0.

As it stands, Sony hasn?t said anything about its own supported outputs ? but there?s nothing to suggest Sony has a trick up their sleeve on this one; HDMI 2.0 isn?t ready for market. This issue will almost certainly affect both consoles.

Stream size (Xbox One and PS4):?The last barrier to native 4K content has nothing to do with Microsoft or Sony. A 4K video contains 4x as much data as a 1080p video. Even if you use H.265 for streaming, you?ll end up with a stream twice the size. This is going to naturally slow the rate of 4K video adoption.

H.264 bitrate requirements

H.265 will shift this requirement substantially lower. Keep in mind, this graph shows 30 fps speeds ? if you want to stream at higher rates, the bitrate increases in any platform.

Forging the chain

The reason there?s so much uncertainty around 4K video is because the standards necessary to achieve it are actually less developed now than the HDTV standards were when the Xbox 360 and PS3 launched. Both consoles will be capable of outputting their own interfaces at 4K. Both are apparently designed to upscale 1080p video to 4K, though we expect 4K TVs to have their own upscale solutions as well. Both consoles should be able to handle decoding native 4K content in both H.264 and H.265, though the H.265 solution may be implemented in software.

4K resolution

We will be surprised if the launch versions of the Xbone and PS4 offer flawless support for a native 4K version of Blu-ray. Capabilities like 4K 3D will not be supported, due to limitations in the HDMI 1.4 standard. Local 4K file playback on the Xbox One may be hampered by the unit?s relatively small hard drive, though it?s not clear how easy it will be to move hypothetical 4K content from PC to Xbox in any case. (See:?8K UHDTV: How do you send a 48Gbps TV signal over terrestrial airwaves?)

The bottom line is this: Don?t expect perfect 4K compatibility out of the gate from either console. The standard is too young, and support is too scattered. If you love being on the cutting edge, and you?re planning to buy into 4K television and wondering when 3D content will be available in native formats, the answer is: ?A while.?

Next page: So, what about 4K gaming?

Source: http://www.extremetech.com/gaming/156790-xbox-one-and-ps4-analyzing-their-support-for-4k-video-and-gaming

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মঙ্গলবার, ২৮ মে, ২০১৩

U.S. accuses cyber exchange of laundering $6 billion

By Emily Flitter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have indicted the operators of digital currency exchange Liberty Reserve, accusing the Costa Rica-based company of helping criminals around the world launder more than $6 billion in illicit funds linked to everything from child pornography to software for hacking into banks.

The indictment unsealed on Tuesday said Liberty Reserve had more than a million users worldwide, including at least 200,000 in the United States, and virtually all of its business was related to suspected criminal activity.

"Liberty Reserve has emerged as one of the principal means by which cyber-criminals around the world distribute, store and launder the proceeds of their illegal activity," according to the indictment filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Officials said authorities in Spain, Costa Rica and New York arrested five people on Friday, including the company's founder, Arthur Budovsky, and seized bank accounts and Internet domains associated with Liberty Reserve.

Digital currency is made up of transferable units that can be exchanged for cash. Over the past decade, its use has expanded, attracting attention from the media and Wall Street. The most widely known digital currency is called Bitcoin. Liberty Reserve's currency was not connected to Bitcoin.

The indictment detailed a system of payments that allowed users to open accounts with little information and move money around with anonymity.

The U.S. Treasury named Liberty Reserve under the USA Patriot Act as a company "specifically designed and frequently used to facilitate money laundering in cyber space."

That designation, the first against a virtual currency exchange, prohibits banks or other payment processors from doing any business with Liberty Reserve, even if it should reopen under a new name.

In addition to pornography and drug trafficking funds, Liberty Reserve's virtual currency was also used to anonymously buy and sell software designed to steal personal information, according to a statement from the U.S. Treasury.

Users could also buy malware programs designed to assault financial institutions, as well as lists of information from thousands of compromised personal accounts, the Treasury said.

In addition to Budovsky, his deputy, Azzedine El Amine was arrested, as was co-founder Vladimir Kats, and two technology designers, Maxim Chukarev and Mark Marmilev.

Two more company employees were still at large in Costa Rica according to officials: Ahmed Yassine Abdelghani and Allan Esteban Hidalgo Jimenez. According to the indictment, almost all of the men used the alias, Eric Paltz.

None of the men could be reached for comment.

According to the indictment, Liberty Reserve's currency unit was called the "LR." Users opened accounts at Liberty Reserve giving only a name, address and date of birth that the company made no attempt to verify.

Once a user had a Liberty Reserve account, he or she could use cash to purchase LRs from third-party exchange merchants, which traded LRs with each other in bulk and charged fees to make the exchanges between LRs and hard cash.

Liberty Reserve users could transfer the digital currency units called LRs to each other, to be redeemed in different parts of the world for cash using the third-party exchange companies.

The third party exchange companies provided the gateway to more conventional payment systems. According to information Liberty Reserve's archived web pages, the company had relationships at one time with at least 35 different exchange companies, some of which transferred cash back and forth to customers using PayPal, Western Union, MoneyGram, credit cards including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and CitiBank Global Money Transfer.

The indictment said Liberty Reserve did not collect any banking or transaction information from the third-party exchange companies. It also let its users hide their Liberty Exchange account numbers when making transactions, which offered another opportunity for the users to mask their true identities.

The company processed around 12 million financial transactions per year. Since it began operating in 2006, the indictment said, Liberty Reserve laundered over $6 billion in criminal proceeds.

On Tuesday, the company's website, www.libertyreserve.com, displayed the message: "This domain name has been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team."

It was not clear whether the people arrested in Spain and Costa Rica would be extradited to the United States or when the two people arrested in Brooklyn, New York, would appear in court.

Regulatory obligations to combat money laundering have emerged as a major challenge to digital currency firms. The U.S. Treasury Department's anti-money laundering unit, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), issued guidance in March that labeled digital currency firms as money transmitters, thereby obliging them to enact anti-money laundering programs and register with FinCEN.

A top Bitcoin exchange, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, failed to register with FinCEN earlier this month and had its U.S. dollar accounts seized by authorities.

Over the past week, a Bitcoin unit has traded at around $130, according to the website Bitcoincharts.com.

(Reporting by Emily Flitter in New York; Additional reporting by Brett Wolf in St. Louis and Isabella Cota Schwarz in San Jose, Costa Rica and Matthew Goldstein in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe, Tim Dobbyn and Jan Paschal)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/u-shuts-alleged-cyber-criminal-money-transfer-system-144155238.html

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10 fans injured when TV cable falls on race track ? Artesia News

In this photo provided by Fernando Echeverria, security personnel assist a fan injured by a broken television camera cable during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Coca-Cola 600 auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Fernando Echeverria)

In this photo provided by Fernando Echeverria, security personnel assist a fan injured by a broken television camera cable during the NASCAR Sprint Cup series Coca-Cola 600 auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Sunday, May 26, 2013. (AP Photo/Fernando Echeverria)

CONCORD, N.C. (AP) ? Charlotte Motor Speedway said 10 fans were injured Sunday at the Coca-Cola 600 and three of them were taken to the hospital after a nylon rope supporting a Fox Sports overhead television camera fell from the grandstands and landed on the track surface.

CMS vice president of communications Scott Cooper said after the race that all three fans were treated and released from the hospital. He said he couldn?t discuss the nature of their injuries due to privacy laws.

Cooper said seven other people were treated with minor cuts and scrapes at the track and released.

Fox Sports released a statement Sunday night saying it hasn?t determined the cause of the accident and it is suspending use of the camera system indefinitely.

?Our immediate concern is with the injured fans,? Fox said in the statement.

Fox said the camera system consists of three ropes ? a drive rope that moves the camera back and forth, and two guide ropes on either side. Fox said it was the drive rope that failed near the first-turn connection and fell to the track.

?The camera itself did not come down because guide ropes acted as designed,? Fox said in the statement. ?A full investigation is planned, and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely.?

Fox said it has used the camera system at the Daytona 500, at last week?s NASCAR Sprint All-Star race and other major sporting events.

?We certainly regret that the system failure affected tonight?s event, we apologize to the racers whose cars were damaged, and our immediate concern is for the race fans,? Fox said in the statement. ?We also offer a sincere thank you to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keeping us informed on this developing situation.?

The incident occurred on lap 121 of the 400-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup race.

The race was delayed for 27 minutes while crews repaired damage to their cars.

Kyle Busch, going for a sweep at Charlotte Motor Speedway after winning the Nationwide and Truck series races, was leading when he incurred damage to the right front wheel well of his No. 18 Toyota.

Marcos Ambrose and Mark Martin also reported damage.

No drivers were injured.

The cars were initially brought along pit row as workers cleared the ropes from the track.

NASCAR first threw a caution flag before two red flags came out. It eventually allowed the cars to come into the pits, giving crews 15 minutes to work on their cars.

During the break, Busch?s crew frantically worked to repair a number of problems to the right front wheel well. After completing repairs to the car, the crew slapped high-fives after getting the car back on the track.

Busch remained competitive and was running in the top five at the midpoint of the race. But his night ended in frustration when his engine blew up on lap 253.

?I commend NASCAR for taking the initiative and letting us repair our damaged cars from the issue we had,? Busch said.

Busch said he never saw the nylon rope.

?I just heard a big thunk on the right-front side tire and thought the right-front tire blew out,? Busch said. ?That?s how hard it felt? It did have an effect slowing my car down and I could feel it like, ?Whoa, that?s weird.? I don?t know that anybody has ever seen that. Maybe now we can get rid of that thing.?

It was more bad luck for Busch, who has never won a Sprint Cup race at Charlotte Motor Speedway and suffered his share of bad luck.

Kasey Kahne, who wound up finishing second behind Kevin Harvick, said he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him when he saw something strange on the track.

?I have never seen anything like it,? Kahne said. ?I came off turn four and I saw it wrapped around Kyle?s car and it hit mine and I thought I had to be seeing things because there?s no way there could be a cable on the race track. By the time we got to turn one I saw it again and saw Kyle?s fender and saw his car go down a little. That?s when I knew I wasn?t seeing things.?

NASCAR said the camera system in question is from CamCat.

The CamCat camera system is the product of an Austrian company that does work with many outfits around the world, including the Olympics, NBC and others. The company has been handling sporting events since 2000 and hasn?t had any prior known incidents with its cameras.

In May of 2000, more than 100 fans were injured outside of the CMS when an 80-foot section of the walkway fell an estimated 25 feet onto a highway below. Fans were crossing the bridge to a parking lot following the completion of the NASCAR All-Star race.

This entry was posted on May 26, 2013, 10:53 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

Source: http://www.artesianews.com/2013/05/26/ap-news/sports-ap-news/10-fans-injured-when-tv-cable-falls-on-race-track/

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99% Mud

All Critics (136) | Top Critics (31) | Fresh (134) | Rotten (2)

There is an enchanted-fairy-tale aspect to Mud, but its bright, calm surface only barely disguises a strong, churning undercurrent.

A modern fairy tale, steeped in the sleepy Mississippi lore of Twain and similar American writers, and with a heart as big as the river is wide.

Nichols has a strong feeling for the tactility of natural elements-water, wood, terrain, weather.

Nichols takes his time with the story, dwelling on how the boy is shaped by the killer's tragic sense of romance, yet the suspense holds.

"Mud" isn't just a movie. It's the firm confirmation of a career.

"Mud" unfolds at its own pace, revealing its story in slivers. The performances are outstanding, especially from Sheridan, who plays tough, sweet, vulnerable and confused with equal conviction.

This is American cinema at its very best as Huckleberry Finn meets Stand By Me.The two boys are terrific and McConaughey is sensational as Mud, dazzlingly frazzled as the hunted and haunted man on the run.

Up till just past the three-quarter mark, Mud is one heck of a nifty psychological fable.

The Southern-fried drama "Mud" is an electrifying example of what happens when you merge a crackerjack yarn with a very specific setting, and then pour on the heat with riveting performances.

McConaughey and Sheridan 's acting skills, as well as those of the entire supporting cast, make this movie better than it ought to be.

It gets under our skin because Nichols gives us time to come to know Mud's island like the places we knew as children.

As Mud might say, it's a hell of a thing.

The boys are so skillfully played that Mud also plays like cinema verite. Nichols' fluid camerawork suggests a documentary-style approach. That helps these young lads transform into flesh-and-blood characters who get our attention and support.

Sheridan, who played the Terrence Malick surrogate in The Tree Of Life, is terrific at conveying adolescent confusion with tiny squints and frowns, and McConaughey plays off him masterfully.

Carefully crafting films that fly just below the political radar, director-writer Jeff Nichols is slowly, but surely, reweaving the fabric of the American dream.

It's totally worth it to pay good money to see a good, little film nestled between theaters showing 'Iron Man 3' and 'The Great Gatsby.' (Complete Content Details for Parents also available)

This is a junior adventure story echoing Huckleberry Finn and Stand By Me, a tale which is in no hurry to unfold, but beautifully done, exquisitely performed, and filled with terror and wonder.

Beautifully acted, intellectually engaging, and dramatically satisfying, Mud deserves to rocket to the top of your must-see list.

Nichols is a gifted writer-director who knows how to get into the heads of his characters. And this film has superior actors who create people who are intriguing and hugely involving.

'Mud' is a standout film in this 'coming of age' genre mainly because of its central character, one tough, warm-hearted, stubborn little kid who believes in the power of love, above all else.

Other than pacing problems that needlessly stretch the film past the two-hour mark, 'Mud' slings the dirt and sweat with the best of them, as it both mourns and celebrates a way of life that's all but disappeared.

A sublime coming-of-age film, 'Mud' would be the offspring if 'Stand By Me' and 'Cape Fear' reproduced.

Mud is a movie of striking performances and memorable images and of people who seem to belong in rather than being imposed upon their environment.

A brilliant metaphor for how a child deals with divorce.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mud_2012/

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Aid group describes siege of Afghan compound

Foreign troops, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), investigate the site a day after an assault on an international compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 25, 2013. A would-be suicide bomber died when his explosives-rigged vest went off prematurely in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning, police said. The apparent failed attack came a day after a major Taliban assault on an international compound in Kabul left many people dead including, the attackers.(AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Foreign troops, part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), investigate the site a day after an assault on an international compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, May 25, 2013. A would-be suicide bomber died when his explosives-rigged vest went off prematurely in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning, police said. The apparent failed attack came a day after a major Taliban assault on an international compound in Kabul left many people dead including, the attackers.(AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

Afghan men investigate at the site of an attack on an international compound in Kabul, Afghanistan, Saturday, May 25, 2013. A would-be suicide bomber died when his explosives-rigged vest went off prematurely in Afghanistan's capital on Saturday morning, police said. The apparent failed attack came a day after a major Taliban assault on an international compound in Kabul left many people dead including the attackers.(AP Photo/Ahmad Jamshid)

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? Ten terrified international aid workers huddled inside a fortified room in Kabul for two hours as a Taliban attack raged around them until they were rescued by Afghan police, the aid group's country chief said Sunday.

Richard Danziger, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration, praised the police for fighting their way into the compound to free the workers during the eight-hour Taliban assault Friday that turned one of the capital's most upscale neighborhoods into a battleground.

"Both the police and our ... guards, they held their ground and fought for two hours until they found a time when they could grab our staff and take them out of the compound," he said at a news conference along with his deputy, Enira Krdzalic, who survived the siege.

An Afghan police officer and two civilians died in the heavy fighting that began with a suicide bombing, Interior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said.

Afghan security forces have been criticized over how such heavily armed attackers could penetrate the area, which is dotted with checkpoints and blast walls protecting several government buildings and humanitarian offices including the headquarters of the United Nations in Sharr-e-Now district.

Others noted the fact that only two civilians died as a sign of the Afghan forces' growing capability ? one of the lynchpins of the international military coalition's plans to withdraw by the end of next year.

Details of the chaotic siege were still emerging two days later. Danziger said earlier police reports that one of the group's armed Nepalese guards died was not true, though five of the guards were wounded along with four IOM staff, including one Italian woman badly burned by a grenade. All of the attackers were killed.

Danziger said the attack was clearly planned to target the international staff, and the gunmen appeared to know the layout of at least part of the compound.

"The way they forced themselves in, the way they knew where to go once they were inside, certainly provides every indication that they were coming for us," he said.

Danziger, who was out of Afghanistan during Friday's siege, said he was "mystified" as to why IOM was targeted. Insurgent assaults on aid groups are relatively rare, though attacks have hit guest houses used by the U.N. in the past. The IOM is a U.N.-affiliated agency assisting returning Afghan migrants as well as those displaced internally.

A Taliban spokesman on Friday said the insurgents launched an attack on a group of CIA trainers for the Afghan security forces, but Danziger stressed that the group has no affiliation with the American spy agency, adding that the Taliban often see any foreigner as an attractive target.

When the Taliban car bomb slammed into the IOM's southeastern gate just after 4 p.m. on Friday, only about 12 international staff who live in the compound and another dozen Afghan employees were inside along with the Nepalese guards, Danziger said.

Most of the Afghan staff escaped through the main gate and took three international workers with them. Nine other staff, including Krdzalic, fled to a fortified "strong room" along with one foreigner working for the International Labor Organization who also lived in the guest house.

"They were basically in direct line of attack," said Danziger. He said the Taliban attackers were armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers that they fired from the building and, later, from upper floors of nearby offices they took over.

"You can imagine it was a very confusing situation inside the strong room. Not to mention we had this one (wounded) colleague of ours who they were desperately trying to keep out of going into shock," he said.

He said it took Afghan police two hours of fighting to get to the strong room and get the staff out. "And then, of course, when there were knocks on the door, (those inside) had to be reassured that these were friendly knocks and not the terrorists."

Krdzalic, who is from Bosnia and Herzegovina, was still visibly shaken from her ordeal.

"I hope you all understand that it is still too early for me to go back over that time," she said.

She thanked the Afghan police, saying without them, she might not be alive.

Training Afghan military and police to take over security is essential to the withdrawal of more than 60,000 foreign forces remaining in Afghanistan nearly 12 years after toppling the Taliban's hard-line regime for sheltering al-Qaida's terrorist leadership. The start of the insurgents' spring fighting season last month has proved a crucial test for those forces, as U.S. military trainers pull back and let the local police and military take the lead.

The coalition said Friday that its troops were not involved in the fighting Friday, though they provided medical support.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-26-Afghanistan/id-c5013418b52046bc8e64d22553602b3f

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Kenya: UK soldier killing suspect arrested in 2010

FILE - Michael Adebolajo, front, shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest against the arrest of 6 people in anti-terror raids, in this Friday April 27, 2007 file photo. Adebolajo has been identified as one of the two men who attacked and killed a British soldier on a street in south London on Wednesday May 22 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file) MAGAZINES OUT

FILE - Michael Adebolajo, front, shouts slogans as Muslims march in London in a protest against the arrest of 6 people in anti-terror raids, in this Friday April 27, 2007 file photo. Adebolajo has been identified as one of the two men who attacked and killed a British soldier on a street in south London on Wednesday May 22 2013. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, file) MAGAZINES OUT

In this undated image released Thursday May 23, 2013, by the British Ministry of Defence, showing Lee Rigby known as ?Riggers? to his friends, who is identified by the MOD as the serving member of the armed forces who was attacked and killed by two men in the Woolwich area of London on Wednesday. The Ministry web site included the statement "It is with great sadness that the Ministry of Defence must announce that the soldier killed in yesterday's incident in Woolwich, South East London, is believed to be Drummer Lee Rigby of 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers." (AP Photo / MOD)

People heckle the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, not pictured, as he leaves the scene of a terror attack in Woolwich, southeast London, Thursday, May 23, 2013. A member of armed forces was attacked and killed by two men on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)

The mother of killed Drummer Lee Rigby, Lyn Rigby, centre, holds onto a teddy bear as she joins his stepfather Ian, and other family members looking at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks as they visited the scene of his murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. Family members laid flowers at the Woolwich Barracks where the 25-year-old soldier of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Lee Rigby who was attacked and killed by two men in broad daylight Wednesday May 22, and where hundreds of floral tributes have been left by public well wishers. (AP Photo / John Stillwell, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

The mother of killed Drummer Lee Rigby, Lyn Rigby, centre, holds onto a teddy bear as she joins his stepfather Ian, and other family members looking at floral tributes outside Woolwich Barracks as they visit the scene of his murder in Woolwich, south-east London, Sunday May 26, 2013. Family members laid flowers at the Woolwich Barracks where the 25-year-old soldier of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers Lee Rigby was attacked and killed by two men in broad daylight Wednesday May 22, and where hundreds of floral tributes have been left by public well wishers. (AP Photo / John Stillwell, PA) UNITED KINGDOM OUT - NO SALES - NO ARCHIVES

(AP) ? A suspect in last week's savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with al-Qaida-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said.

Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said Sunday.

The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested a man Sunday suspected of conspiring to murder 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby. Police gave no other details about the suspect, only saying he is 22 years old.

The arrest brought to nine the number of suspects who have been taken into custody regarding Rigby's horrific killing in London. No one has been charged in the case.

The British soldier, who had served in Afghanistan, was run over, and then, witnesses say, was stabbed with knives by two men in the Woolwich area in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon as he was walking near his barracks.

Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are the main suspects in the killing and remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene.

In 2010, Adebolajo was arrested with five others near Kenya's border with Somalia, Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit chief Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press. Police believed Adebolajo was going to work with Somali militant group al-Shabab.

A video clip from a local TV station shows a man appearing to be Adebolajo speaking during a court hearing in the Kenyan city of Mombasa on Nov. 23, 2010. He says, "These people are mistreating us. We are innocent. Believe me," shortly before leaving the court with five other suspects.

Mwaniki said that Adebolajo was deported from Kenya after his arrest in 2010. Kenya's government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name, and taken to court before being handed to British authorities.

"Kenya's government arrested Michael Olemindis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya, and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo," spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. "The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities."

Kariuki said Adebolajo was traveling on a British passport, but he could not confirm if it was authentic.

When asked whether British security agents and embassy officials had handled Adebolajo in Kenya, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a brief statement: "We can confirm a British national was arrested in Kenya in 2010. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided consular assistance as normal for British nationals." She did not elaborate and said she did not have information about what had happened to Adebolajo then.

Rigby's grieving family visited the scene of his killing in London on Sunday, pausing for a few moments in reflection and laying flowers to join the hundreds of floral tributes already left at the nearby Woolwich Barracks by well-wishers.

The soldier's gruesome slaying has horrified Britain, partly because it was captured by witnesses' cellphones. A video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects ? identified by hardline Muslim leaders as Adebolajo ? with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.

The killing has also fed a spike in anti-Muslim sentiment, with police, politicians, and activists reporting a surge in hate crimes, including violence and vandalism.

A mosque in the northern England town of Grimsby was firebombed Sunday night, according to chairman Diler Gharib, who told a local newspaper he was discussing how to thank his neighbors for the support they had shown his community in the past days when the building was hit with gasoline bombs.

"We have all been feeling on edge and now this has happened," he told the Grimsby Telegraph. Local police said they had made two arrests in connection with the incident.

Adebolajo has been described by his associates as a convert to Islam who used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.

More than 20 supporters of the group have been arrested over terrorism offenses, including a foiled plot to blow up central London nightclub Ministry of Sound and a bomb attack on London's Territorial Army base.

Abu Nusaybah, a friend of Adebolajo's, has asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Nusaybah was arrested by counter-terrorism police outside the BBC's London studios Friday night immediately after recording the interview, and police said Sunday his detention has been extended to May 31.

Anti-terrorism chief Mwaniki on Sunday rejected Nusaybah's allegations. Mwaniki said at the time there were no indications of torture or abuse, but that the unit would further investigate.

Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad, or holy war, against the Somali government and African Union forces.

Al-Shabab controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu, from roughly 2007 to 2011. The group still dominates most of south central Somalia but has seen its territory reduced after military pushes by African Union and Somali forces.

According to an August U.S. State Department report on terrorism, al-Shabab continues to maintain training camps in southern Somalia for young recruits, including Americans who have traveled there from Somali communities in the United States.

The camps have churned out dozens of bombers who've launched attacks in and outside Somalia.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, mostly East African nationals and veterans from the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.

British officials have been on the lookout for security threats originating from Somalia for some years.

In a speech in 2010, Jonathan Evans, then head of Britain's MI5 domestic security service, warned that "a significant number" of British residents were training in al-Shabab camps to fight in the insurgency there.

"I am concerned that it is only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabab," he said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command, said officers are pursuing CCTV, social media, forensic and intelligence leads in the Rigby investigation. He appealed for anyone who knew the two attackers to contact police with information.

British officials said Sunday they are also setting up a new terrorism task force to tackle radical preachers and extremism. Home Secretary Theresa May said the group will look at whether new powers and laws are needed to clamp down on religious leaders and organizations who promote extremist messages and who target potential recruits in British jails, schools and mosques.

___

Hui reported from London. Producer Khaled Kazziha in Nairobi and Raphael Satter in London also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-27-Britain-Attack/id-8660e4707ebe4f348871c10102b5bb6e

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French soldier stabbed while on patrol near Paris

By Nicolas Bertin

PARIS (Reuters) - A French soldier patrolling a business neighborhood west of Paris was stabbed in the neck and injured on Saturday by a man who fled the scene and is being sought by police, President Francois Hollande said.

The 23-year-old was patrolling in uniform with two other soldiers as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terror surveillance plan when he was approached from behind around 6 p.m. and attacked with a knife or a box-cutter.

A police union spokesman said surveillance footage of the attacker showed him as tall and bearded, aged about 35, possibly of North African origin and wearing a white Arab-style tunic.

Hollande, in the Ethiopian city of Addis Ababa, commented on the stabbing to say police were hunting for the attacker but did not provide any details about his identity or any possible motivation for the attack.

"We still don't know the exact circumstances of the attack or the identity of the attacker, but we are exploring all options," Hollande told journalists.

Three days after a British soldier was killed in a London street by two men who said they acted to avenge violence against Muslims, the attack near Paris raised questions about a possible copycat attempt to kill a French soldier.

Interior Minister Manuel Valls noted the similarity in an interview on France 2 TV saying the attacker was clearly trying to murder his victim, but he added that it was too early to offer any theories.

"Let's be prudent for now," Valls said of the attacker's identity and motivations. "Everything is being done to arrest this individual."

Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told journalists near the site of the attack: "The soldier was attacked because he is a soldier."

"LOST A LOT OF BLOOD"

Pierre-Andre Peyvel, police prefect for the Hauts-de-Seine area west of Paris, said the soldier had lost a considerable amount of blood but would survive, and was being treated in a nearby military hospital. He was not named.

Witnesses near the commuter train station where the attack occurred gave conflicting descriptions of the fleeing suspect. One asserted on TV that he saw two men fleeing, while another said the scene was too confused to tell.

Peyvel declined to confirm or deny any description and said further details would be forthcoming. A source said police would broadcast the man's likeness if no arrest was made soon.

France is on high alert for attacks by Islamist militants following its military intervention in Mali in January, which prompted threats against French interests from AQIM, the North African wing of al Qaeda.

The latest warning was published on YouTube a few weeks before armed gunmen this week attacked a military base and a French uranium extraction site in the central African state of Niger, killing 24 soldiers and one civilian.

Valls said France would retain its current terror alert level at "red, reinforced", one step down from "scarlet", which is only activated in case of a serious and confirmed attack.

(Reporting by Nick Vinocur, Nicolas Bertin and Sunaina Karkarey; Writing by Nick Vinocur; Editing by Andrew Roche and Mike Collett-White)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/french-soldier-stabbed-neck-police-source-171413871.html

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'Should I stay or should I go?' CSHL scientists link brain cell types to behavior

'Should I stay or should I go?' CSHL scientists link brain cell types to behavior [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-May-2013
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Contact: Peter Tarr
tarr@cshl.edu
516-367-8455
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

The activity of 2 specific neuron types correlates with foraging decisions in mice

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. You are sitting on your couch flipping through TV channels trying to decide whether to stay put or get up for a snack. Such everyday decisions about whether to "stay" or to "go" are supported by a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is part of the prefrontal cortex. Neuroscientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have now identified key circuit elements that contribute to such decisions in the ACC.

CSHL Associate Professor Adam Kepecs and his team today publish results that, for the first time, link specific brain cell types to a particular behavior pattern in mice a "stay or go" pattern called foraging behavior. The paper, published online in Nature, shows that the firing of two distinct types of inhibitory neurons, known as somatostatin (SOM) and parvalbumin (PV) neurons, has a strong correlation with the start and end of a period of foraging behavior.

Linking specific neuronal types to well-defined behaviors has proved extremely difficult. "There's a big gap in our knowledge between our understanding of neuron types in terms of their physical location and their place in any given neural circuit, and what these neurons actually do during behavior," says Kepecs.

Part of the problem is the technical challenge of doing these studies in live, freely behaving mice. Key to solving that problem is a mouse model developed in the laboratory of CSHL Professor Z. Josh Huang. The mouse has a genetic modification that allows investigators to target a specific population of neurons with any protein of interest.

Kepecs' group, led by postdocs Duda Kvitsiani and Sachin Ranade, used this mouse to label specific neuron types in the ACC with a light-activated protein a technique known as optogenetic tagging. Whenever they shone light onto the brains of the mice they were recording from, only the tagged PV and SOM neurons responded promptly with a 'spike' in their activity, enabling the researchers to pick them out from the vast diversity of cellular responses seen at any given moment.

The team recorded neural activity in the ACC of these mice while they engaged in foraging behavior. They discovered that the PV and SOM inhibitory neurons responded around the time of the foraging decisions -- in other words whether to stay and drink or go and explore elsewhere. Specifically, when the mice entered an area where they could collect a water reward, SOM inhibitory neurons shut down and entered a period of low-level activity, thereby opening a 'gate' for information to flow in to ACC. When the mice decided to leave that area and look elsewhere, PV inhibitory neurons fired and abruptly reset cell activity.

"The brain is complex and continuously active, so it makes sense that these two types of inhibitory interneurons define the boundaries of a behavior such as foraging, opening and then closing the 'gate' within a particular neural circuit through changes in their activity," says Kepecs.

This is an important advance, addressing a problem in behavioral neuroscience that scientists call "the cortical response zoo." When researchers record neural activity in cortex during behavior, and they don't know which type of neurons they are recording from, a bewildering array of responses is seen. This greatly complicates the task of interpretation. Hence the significance of the Kepecs team's results, for the first time showing that specific cortical neuron types can be linked to specific aspects of behavior.

"We think about the brain and behavior in terms of levels; what the cell types are and the circuits or networks they form; which regions of the brain they are in; and what behavior is modulated by them," explains Kepecs. "By observing that the activity of specific cell types in the prefrontal cortex is correlated with a behavioral period, we have identified a link between these levels."

###

"Distinct behavioural and network correlates of two interneuron types in prefrontal cortex" is published online in Nature on May 26, 2013. The authors are: D. Kvitsiani, S. Ranade, B. Hangya, H. Taniguchi, Z. J. Huang, A. Kepecs. The paper can be obtained online at doi:10.1038/nature12176.

The research described in this release was supported by the following grants and funding agencies: Sloan, Whitehall and Klingenstein Foundations to A.K. and the NIH NINDS (NS075531). B.H. received support from the Swartz Foundation and Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (2007-2013). D.K. received support from The Robert Lee and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship and Human Frontier Science Program (2008-2011).

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. CSHL is ranked number one in the world by Thomson Reuters for impact of its research in molecular biology and genetics. The Laboratory has been home to eight Nobel Prize winners. Today, CSHL's multidisciplinary scientific community is more than 600 researchers and technicians strong and its Meetings & Courses program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year to its Long Island campus and its China center. Tens of thousands more benefit from the research, reviews, and ideas published in journals and books distributed internationally by CSHL Press. The Laboratory's education arm also includes a graduate school and programs for undergraduates as well as middle and high school students and teachers. CSHL is a private, not-for-profit institution on the north shore of Long Island. For more information, visit http://www.cshl.edu.

Written by: Edward Brydon Ph.D., Science Writer | ebrydon@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455


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'Should I stay or should I go?' CSHL scientists link brain cell types to behavior [ Back to EurekAlert! ] Public release date: 26-May-2013
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Contact: Peter Tarr
tarr@cshl.edu
516-367-8455
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

The activity of 2 specific neuron types correlates with foraging decisions in mice

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. You are sitting on your couch flipping through TV channels trying to decide whether to stay put or get up for a snack. Such everyday decisions about whether to "stay" or to "go" are supported by a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which is part of the prefrontal cortex. Neuroscientists from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have now identified key circuit elements that contribute to such decisions in the ACC.

CSHL Associate Professor Adam Kepecs and his team today publish results that, for the first time, link specific brain cell types to a particular behavior pattern in mice a "stay or go" pattern called foraging behavior. The paper, published online in Nature, shows that the firing of two distinct types of inhibitory neurons, known as somatostatin (SOM) and parvalbumin (PV) neurons, has a strong correlation with the start and end of a period of foraging behavior.

Linking specific neuronal types to well-defined behaviors has proved extremely difficult. "There's a big gap in our knowledge between our understanding of neuron types in terms of their physical location and their place in any given neural circuit, and what these neurons actually do during behavior," says Kepecs.

Part of the problem is the technical challenge of doing these studies in live, freely behaving mice. Key to solving that problem is a mouse model developed in the laboratory of CSHL Professor Z. Josh Huang. The mouse has a genetic modification that allows investigators to target a specific population of neurons with any protein of interest.

Kepecs' group, led by postdocs Duda Kvitsiani and Sachin Ranade, used this mouse to label specific neuron types in the ACC with a light-activated protein a technique known as optogenetic tagging. Whenever they shone light onto the brains of the mice they were recording from, only the tagged PV and SOM neurons responded promptly with a 'spike' in their activity, enabling the researchers to pick them out from the vast diversity of cellular responses seen at any given moment.

The team recorded neural activity in the ACC of these mice while they engaged in foraging behavior. They discovered that the PV and SOM inhibitory neurons responded around the time of the foraging decisions -- in other words whether to stay and drink or go and explore elsewhere. Specifically, when the mice entered an area where they could collect a water reward, SOM inhibitory neurons shut down and entered a period of low-level activity, thereby opening a 'gate' for information to flow in to ACC. When the mice decided to leave that area and look elsewhere, PV inhibitory neurons fired and abruptly reset cell activity.

"The brain is complex and continuously active, so it makes sense that these two types of inhibitory interneurons define the boundaries of a behavior such as foraging, opening and then closing the 'gate' within a particular neural circuit through changes in their activity," says Kepecs.

This is an important advance, addressing a problem in behavioral neuroscience that scientists call "the cortical response zoo." When researchers record neural activity in cortex during behavior, and they don't know which type of neurons they are recording from, a bewildering array of responses is seen. This greatly complicates the task of interpretation. Hence the significance of the Kepecs team's results, for the first time showing that specific cortical neuron types can be linked to specific aspects of behavior.

"We think about the brain and behavior in terms of levels; what the cell types are and the circuits or networks they form; which regions of the brain they are in; and what behavior is modulated by them," explains Kepecs. "By observing that the activity of specific cell types in the prefrontal cortex is correlated with a behavioral period, we have identified a link between these levels."

###

"Distinct behavioural and network correlates of two interneuron types in prefrontal cortex" is published online in Nature on May 26, 2013. The authors are: D. Kvitsiani, S. Ranade, B. Hangya, H. Taniguchi, Z. J. Huang, A. Kepecs. The paper can be obtained online at doi:10.1038/nature12176.

The research described in this release was supported by the following grants and funding agencies: Sloan, Whitehall and Klingenstein Foundations to A.K. and the NIH NINDS (NS075531). B.H. received support from the Swartz Foundation and Marie Curie International Outgoing Fellowship within the EU Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (2007-2013). D.K. received support from The Robert Lee and Clara Guthrie Patterson Trust Postdoctoral Fellowship and Human Frontier Science Program (2008-2011).

About Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Founded in 1890, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has shaped contemporary biomedical research and education with programs in cancer, neuroscience, plant biology and quantitative biology. CSHL is ranked number one in the world by Thomson Reuters for impact of its research in molecular biology and genetics. The Laboratory has been home to eight Nobel Prize winners. Today, CSHL's multidisciplinary scientific community is more than 600 researchers and technicians strong and its Meetings & Courses program hosts more than 12,000 scientists from around the world each year to its Long Island campus and its China center. Tens of thousands more benefit from the research, reviews, and ideas published in journals and books distributed internationally by CSHL Press. The Laboratory's education arm also includes a graduate school and programs for undergraduates as well as middle and high school students and teachers. CSHL is a private, not-for-profit institution on the north shore of Long Island. For more information, visit http://www.cshl.edu.

Written by: Edward Brydon Ph.D., Science Writer | ebrydon@cshl.edu | 516-367-8455


[ Back to EurekAlert! ] [ | E-mail | Share Share ]

?


AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.


Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/cshl-is052213.php

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