Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have jetted into Tokyo for the latest stop on their World War Z promotional tour.
Brangelina hit Japan with the three youngest of their brood of six kids - twins Knox and Vivienne and their adopted big brother Pax - said The Sun.
The family were seen arriving off the plane clutching a child's blanket and a giant purple teddy bear.
World War Z stars Brad as a United Nations employee who travels the globe to combat a deadly zombie invasion, with The Killing actress Mireille Enos as his on-screen wife.
Brad, 49, recently spoke about letting his kids watch the zombie flick.
He said: "Some parents have not agreed with me after seeing it because it's the most intense film that you're going to see all summer. But my kids are savvy and I figure it's called parental guidance, so... But yeah, they loved it."
Angelina, 37, announced in May that she had opted to have a double mastectomy after discovering she carried the faulty BRCA1 gene which increased her chances of developing breast cancer.
She had the op to cut her cancer risk and joined Brad at the film's London premiere for their first public appearance together since her announcement.
Brad said: "She is doing great, it is business as usual, it is the next stage for us. I've never not had support from her. I love her, it just brings you closer and makes you stronger."
You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours -- all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.
Islamabad, Jul 30 (PTI): India-born Mamnoon Hussain, a close aide of Prime Minister Nawqaz Sharif, was today elected as the 12 President of Pakistan and will replace the incumbent Asif Ali Zardari in September.
Hussain emerged as a clear winner in the one-sided contest with with ex-judge Wajihuddin Ahmad of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf party, state media reported.
Pakistan People's Party withdrew its candidate Raza Rabbani and boycotted the election held today in protest to the date of polls being changed.
The polling started at 10.00 AM amidst tight security arrangements.
Born in the historic city of Agra, Hussain, who belongs to the Urdu-speaking ethnic group that migrated from India during partition in 1947, was the candidate of ruling PML-N government.
Over 1,000 members of the national parliament and four provincial assemblies cast their ballots for largely ceremonial head of the state.
The office of the president is ceremonial in Pakistan but he is still the constitutional chief of the armed forces but cannot order deployments.
He also appoints the services chiefs at the recommendation of the prime minister.
Pakistan so far had 11 presidents, out of which five were military generals. Four of them illegally got powers through coups, whereas first president Major Sikandar Mirza was elected in 1956 after the first constitution was adopted.
HARVARD ??Three years ago, Bishop David Gardner walked out of Solid Rock Community Church?s Old Orchard Road location sure that he?d never be back.
The recession had taken its toll. As the church was set to enter into a contract to buy at about $370,000 the 10,000-square-foot building it?d been at for about four years, Gardner said, Solid Rock fell on hard times. A separate issue with the property owner pushed the building into foreclosure.
Fast forward to this summer, and the congregation of about 60 has returned to 602 Old Orchard Road ? at a purchase price almost a third of the original total. Gardner said the property was foreclosed and sat vacant for three years before the church bought it for $135,000 from American Bank & Trust in Woodstock.
?I think it was just God?s timing, myself,? said Gardner, the church?s pastor. ?My son was driving and the subject came up. I said, ?Well, it won?t hurt to call the bank.? ?
A representative from American Bank & Trust didn?t return calls for comment for this story, but Jim Haisler, chief executive officer of the Heartland Realtor Organization, said there are several potential reasons the value of the property might have dropped so drastically.
The shape and appearance of church buildings generally limit their marketability and can hurt their value, he said.
He added that banks ? making decisions in conjunction with asset managers and real estate professionals ??sometimes opt to sell foreclosure properties at a price that allows them to simply recoup losses of an unpaid loan from the previous owner.
In that case, the price is ?based on what their investment is, not necessarily what the actual price on the market could be.?
No matter the reasoning for the discount, Gardner is chalking the church?s gain up to a miracle.
?We approached that bank by faith,? he said.
Since leaving the location in 2010, Solid Rock had been operating out of a storefront at 343 S. Division St. that offered just 1,100 square feet of space ? barely more than a tenth the size of the building on Old Orchard.
?It was interesting,? Gardner said.
Gardner himself is considering handing over the reins of pastor to his 22-year-old son, Jordan, as early as September.
He said it?s an ?unexpected victory? that he?ll be able to do so in a real church ??not the makeshift one they?ve been using since 2010.
?The way that this all came about was definitely something that was a blessing,? he said.
Seemingly competitive co-catalysts cooperate to accelerate chemical reactionPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ed Hayward ed.hayward@bc.edu 617-552-4826 Boston College
Lewis bases work in concert to produce highly valued chiral molecules
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (July 29, 2013) A new, computationally-inspired approach has led a team of Boston College chemists to re-conceptualize a highly valued catalytic process, dramatically increasing the efficiency of a chemical transformation that selectively produces chiral, or handed, molecules valued for medical and life sciences research, the team reports in the current online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry.
The new approach allows for reducing the reaction time to less than an hour, down from a period of two to five days, the team reports. That gain was accompanied by a similarly dramatic reduction in catalyst loading, producing a cleaner and more efficient reaction via a procedure known as enantioselective alcohol silylation.
Based on a computational projection, the team employed the high-risk approach of using co-catalysts to achieve marked gains in the reaction. Co-catalysts conflict because of their overlapping properties and functions, making it difficult to control the intended reaction. In this case, the seemingly competitive co-catalysts work in concert.
"The use of co-catalysts can be tricky, especially in procedures intended to deliver handedness in the molecules you want your reaction to produce," said one of the lead authors, Amir Hoveyda, the Joseph T. and Patricia Vanderslice Millennium Professor of Chemistry at Boston College. "What we've shown is that in this procedure you can take two co-catalysts, which on the surface are competing with one another, and effectively keep them from interfering with one another."
Hoveyda and Professor of Chemistry Marc Snapper, the other lead author, have worked since 2006 on this method of catalysis. These catalysts, originally developed in their laboratories seven years ago, are valued for producing reactions that offer a high level of enantioselective purity the synthesis of mirror-image, or handed isomers which are crucial building blocks for biological and medical research.
But a relatively slow reaction time of two to five days had stymied the scientists since reporting an earlier breakthrough in 2006, the latest advance in a research partnership that extends nearly two decades. But the addition of computational chemist Fredrik Haeffner to the team two years ago led to new models and insights into how to further refine the procedure, Hoveyda said.
"We could never have done this without the power of computational chemistry that Fredrik brings to the team," said Hoveyda. Haeffner is a senior research associate in the Hoveyda group in the Chemistry Department at Boston College and a former scientist at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
Based on Haeffner's calculations, the research team, which included BC graduate students Nathan Manville and Hekla Alite, employed the co-catalyst model involving two Lewis base molecules adding an achiral molecule to an already present chiral molecule. These Lewis bases, discovered nearly 100 years ago, are seemingly competitive as they both seek to shed a pair of electrons to a receptive Lewis acid. Remarkably, however, rather than compete, these co-catalysts operate in concert, with the chiral molecule activating alcohol and the additional achiral molecule from commercially available 5-ethylthiotetrazole activating silicon.
Identification of the positive influence of ethylthiotetrazole proved to be the key component of the discovery, giving the team the ability to fine-tune the reaction and effectively control the interplay between the co-catalysts. Together, the Lewis bases served as a closely related Bronsted base an entity that absorbs a proton to allow the catalyst to work faster yet retain high enantioselectivity.
"The bottom line is the reaction goes a lot faster," said Snapper. "The practical advance is adding the tetrazole, which greatly accelerated the pace of the reaction by doing a much better job activating the silicon reaction partner."
The authors suggest that the new conceptualization of the catalyst could lead to the development of new processes that require separate and independently operational Lewis basic co-catalysts. The findings indicate the new strategy can overcome the overlapping functions of the co-catalysts and eliminate detrimental effects on the production of new molecules with high enantioselectivity.
###
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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.
Seemingly competitive co-catalysts cooperate to accelerate chemical reactionPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Ed Hayward ed.hayward@bc.edu 617-552-4826 Boston College
Lewis bases work in concert to produce highly valued chiral molecules
CHESTNUT HILL, MA (July 29, 2013) A new, computationally-inspired approach has led a team of Boston College chemists to re-conceptualize a highly valued catalytic process, dramatically increasing the efficiency of a chemical transformation that selectively produces chiral, or handed, molecules valued for medical and life sciences research, the team reports in the current online edition of the journal Nature Chemistry.
The new approach allows for reducing the reaction time to less than an hour, down from a period of two to five days, the team reports. That gain was accompanied by a similarly dramatic reduction in catalyst loading, producing a cleaner and more efficient reaction via a procedure known as enantioselective alcohol silylation.
Based on a computational projection, the team employed the high-risk approach of using co-catalysts to achieve marked gains in the reaction. Co-catalysts conflict because of their overlapping properties and functions, making it difficult to control the intended reaction. In this case, the seemingly competitive co-catalysts work in concert.
"The use of co-catalysts can be tricky, especially in procedures intended to deliver handedness in the molecules you want your reaction to produce," said one of the lead authors, Amir Hoveyda, the Joseph T. and Patricia Vanderslice Millennium Professor of Chemistry at Boston College. "What we've shown is that in this procedure you can take two co-catalysts, which on the surface are competing with one another, and effectively keep them from interfering with one another."
Hoveyda and Professor of Chemistry Marc Snapper, the other lead author, have worked since 2006 on this method of catalysis. These catalysts, originally developed in their laboratories seven years ago, are valued for producing reactions that offer a high level of enantioselective purity the synthesis of mirror-image, or handed isomers which are crucial building blocks for biological and medical research.
But a relatively slow reaction time of two to five days had stymied the scientists since reporting an earlier breakthrough in 2006, the latest advance in a research partnership that extends nearly two decades. But the addition of computational chemist Fredrik Haeffner to the team two years ago led to new models and insights into how to further refine the procedure, Hoveyda said.
"We could never have done this without the power of computational chemistry that Fredrik brings to the team," said Hoveyda. Haeffner is a senior research associate in the Hoveyda group in the Chemistry Department at Boston College and a former scientist at the National Institutes of Standards and Technology.
Based on Haeffner's calculations, the research team, which included BC graduate students Nathan Manville and Hekla Alite, employed the co-catalyst model involving two Lewis base molecules adding an achiral molecule to an already present chiral molecule. These Lewis bases, discovered nearly 100 years ago, are seemingly competitive as they both seek to shed a pair of electrons to a receptive Lewis acid. Remarkably, however, rather than compete, these co-catalysts operate in concert, with the chiral molecule activating alcohol and the additional achiral molecule from commercially available 5-ethylthiotetrazole activating silicon.
Identification of the positive influence of ethylthiotetrazole proved to be the key component of the discovery, giving the team the ability to fine-tune the reaction and effectively control the interplay between the co-catalysts. Together, the Lewis bases served as a closely related Bronsted base an entity that absorbs a proton to allow the catalyst to work faster yet retain high enantioselectivity.
"The bottom line is the reaction goes a lot faster," said Snapper. "The practical advance is adding the tetrazole, which greatly accelerated the pace of the reaction by doing a much better job activating the silicon reaction partner."
The authors suggest that the new conceptualization of the catalyst could lead to the development of new processes that require separate and independently operational Lewis basic co-catalysts. The findings indicate the new strategy can overcome the overlapping functions of the co-catalysts and eliminate detrimental effects on the production of new molecules with high enantioselectivity.
###
[ | E-mail | 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.
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Yasiel Puig does everything with a touch of panache, including his game-ending home run trot.
The Los Angeles Dodgers' excitable rookie homered with two outs in the 11th inning for a 1-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday. Puig circled the bases and slid into home plate, where teammates were waiting for him after his first career walk-off homer.
"Each player does what he can when he gets to the plate. Some people jump, some people slide, some people run," Puig said through a translator. "I have a previous teammate in Cuba that jumped and hurt his ankle. So I decided to slide."
Puig drove an 0-1 pitch deep into the left-field pavilion against rookie Curtis Partch (0-1) for his 10th homer and 23rd RBI in 48 big league games. It salvaged an otherwise frustrating afternoon for the Dodgers, who were held to one hit by Tony Cingrani through the first seven innings.
"It wasn't a terrible pitch," Reds catcher Devin Mesoraco said. "I think, more than anything, it just had a little bit of elevation. In that situation, guys are trying to hit home runs, and Puig was able to get it in the air. As much as he's chased pitches against us this series, I wanted it to be a ball."
Brandon League (6-3) pitched two hitless innings for the win.
The NL West leaders, who took three of four from the Reds, won for the 26th time in 32 games and extended their lead to 2? games over Arizona. They were a season-worst 12 games under .500 and 9? games out of first place on June 21.
"I don't know anything about destiny, but we're just finding a way to win," League said. "We have the feeling even before the game starts that we're going to win, and whoever's sitting in the other dugout is going to lose. We've got a good thing going and we're just going to keep it rolling. Puig's contributed a lot, but it's not only him. The best part of this is that it's a different guy every day, and we're not counting on one person."
Cincinnati pitchers set a franchise record with 20 strikeouts. Puig, Adrian Gonzalez, Hanley Ramirez and Tim Federowicz each fanned three times as the Dodgers established a team high since 1900.
"You put your at-bats behind you, every single time. What's in the past is in the past and you give it your best each time you come up," Puig said. "Even though three of those strikeouts were mine, I just kept giving it my most. They had been throwing me a lot of high pitches, but I just kept with it."
Cingrani, facing a lineup missing leadoff hitter Carl Crawford for the second straight day because of a high temperature, tied a career high with 11 strikeouts in his 12th big league start before he was lifted for a pinch-hitter.
The only hit against Cingrani was a two-out single through the box in the third inning by Dodgers pitcher Chris Capuano ? his first hit of the season. Mark Ellis followed with a towering drive toward the left-field corner that Chris Heisey caught in front of the short fence.
Los Angeles didn't get another baserunner against the 24-year-old left-hander until Puig walked on a full count leading off the seventh. But the rookie was picked off first base with Gonzalez ? the team's RBI leader ? at the plate.
Capuano held the Reds to three hits over 6 2-3 innings. The left-hander retired 15 of his first 16 batters, less than 24 hours after teammate Hyun-Jin Ryu pitched two-hit ball over seven innings and retired his final 13 in a 4-1 victory.
"Cappy pounded the zone, and his fastball was competitive to both sides of the plate today," pitching coach Rick Honeycutt said. "When he's using his fastball more and more, he's trusting a few of his other off-speed pitches to put in the mix and he doesn't have to depend so much on the changeup. He just needs to use all of his repertoire and trust it. And when he does that, it's fun to watch."
Joey Votto's two-out single in the first was Cincinnati's only hit until Mesoraco snapped a string of 13 straight Cincinnati outs with a leadoff double in the sixth. Mesoraco advanced to third on Cingrani's sacrifice bunt, and Reds manager Dusty Baker put on a suicide squeeze with Derrick Robinson at the plate.
Mesoraco had to return to third after the rookie fouled off an 0-1 pitch, and was retired in a rundown after Robinson grounded to third baseman Juan Uribe with the infield playing in.
The Reds wasted another leadoff double in the seventh by Votto.
NOTES: After beating RHP Zack Greinke in the series opener, the Reds lost three straight games started by Dodgers left-handers. Cincinnati is 19-19 in games started by opposing lefties. ... Reds RHP Greg Reynolds, out of minor league options, was designated for assignment to make room for Cingrani, who was optioned to the minors during the All-Star break. ... Ellis led off the first inning with an 11-pitch at-bat, popping up to third base after fouling off six consecutive pitches. ... Phillips, the Reds' cleanup hitter, was 1 for 13 with no RBIs during the four-game series. He has driven in two runs in his last seven games. ... Ramirez singled in the 10th to reach base safely for the 36th consecutive game.
The IRIS solar observatory, launched last month, has sent back new pictures that show a key part of the sun's atmosphere in unprecedented detail. Some of the data are surprising.
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / July 25, 2013
These images show a comparison between the higher resolution provided by the new IRIS solar observatory (r.) and the SDO (Solar Dynamics Observatory) spacecraft. Scientists say IRIS, launched last month, will help shed light on the sun's impact on Earth.
Goddard Space Flight Center/NASA/AP
Enlarge
A new solar observatory, launched less than a month ago, is revealing remarkably fine details about a little-explored region of the sun's atmosphere, where temperatures leap from tens of thousands of degrees Fahrenheit at the sun's surface to to millions of degrees in its extended atmosphere.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
Dubbed the interface region by the observatory's science team, this first 2,000 to 3,000 miles of the sun's atmosphere is thought to play a key role in a range of processes, including those that power solar flares and even more potent coronal-mass ejections. These events can endanger satellites, disrupt radio communication and GPS navigation, as well as disrupt the power grid on Earth.
For all their excitement at seeing the first images from this new orbiting observatory, mission scientists aren't quite ready yet to hazard informed guesses about what the new observations mean.
"I'm not brash enough to tell you what new and exciting things there are, but there are enough hints that people are very excited," said Alan Title, a solar physicist with aerospace giant Lockheed Martin and the lead scientist for NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS), during a briefing Thursday.
In general, the team has been surprised "that there is so much structure in areas that are relatively quiet" on the sun's surface, Dr. Title said, referring to small-scale regions of varying temperatures and looping eruptions of hot gas. "We're seeing a lot more structure than we anticipated."
The 400-pound telescope, launched on June 27, taps ultraviolet light from the sun's interface region to take detailed images and spectra of features as small as 150 miles across.
That capability represents a 10-fold improvement in picking out fine details, compared with previous solar observatories operating at ultraviolet wavelengths, mission officials said. And the instrument gathers images and spectra 20 times faster than its predecessors, allowing researchers to capture events that would have been too fleeting to see before.
The interface region actually encompasses what typically has been thought to be two layers of the solar atmosphere ? the lowest layer, or chromosphere, capped by a region less than 200 miles thick dubbed the transition region.
Over the past decade, however, solar physicists have come to recognize that this onion-skin-like picture is less than tidy, explains Jeffrey Newmark, a solar physicist at NASA headquarters in Washington.
Today, theorists suggest that the interface region is characterized by constant eruptions throughout the chromosphere of hot gas in a random, geyser-like fashion on small scales all over the sun's surface.
"We think it's these smaller-scale jets and waves that propagate through these jets" that send the atmospheric heating process on the sun into overdrive, Dr. Newmark says. That rapid increase can occur with a change in altitude of less than 600 miles.
During the briefing, researchers unveiled images of a small sunspot and a small active region where hot gas erupted from the sun. In addition, the researchers presented some initial data from the observatory's spectrograph.
The spectra yield information on temperature, pressure, and the velocity of features moving across or erupting from the sun's surface. These allow researcher to unpack the physics behind the processes at work in the interface region.
The team also hopes to monitor long-term trends in solar activity, in coordination with observatories that can provide the big picture for events such as solar flares and prominences, even as IRIS captures what's happening on small scales.
The spectra the team released Thursday showed intense emissions from magnesium atoms forged in the sun's fusion furnace.
By tracking the intensity of those spectral lines over time, the team can track changes in the sun's brightness at ultraviolet wavelengths ? changes that have an impact on Earth's climate through their influence on temperatures and circulation in the stratosphere.
"We want to see how the brightness of the sun in these ultraviolet lines changes as a function of the solar cycle," said Bart DePontieu, also a solar physicist with Lockheed Martin.
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San Diego Mayor Bob Filner pauses as he speaks during a news conference at city hall Friday, July 26, 2013, in San Diego. Filner said Friday he will undergo therapy after less than a year in office amid allegations that he sexually harassed women. Filner announced his plan for a two-week stay beginning Aug. 5, in a behavioral clinic after a series of women claimed he kissed, groped and placed them in headlocks. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
SAN DIEGO (AP) ? Declaring he "must become a better person," San Diego Mayor Bob Filner said Friday he will undergo two weeks of counseling after a series of women claimed he made unwanted sexual advances that included groping, kissing and offensive comments.
The announcement did little to stifle widespread calls for the former congressman to resign and further plunged the nation's eighth-largest city into political turmoil.
"Words alone are not enough," Filner said at a nationally televised news conference. "I am responsible for my conduct and I must take responsibility for my conduct so that such conduct does not ever happen again."
Filner said he will receive twice-a-day briefings about city operations while participating full-time in what he described as "intensive therapy" beginning Aug. 5. He said he would return on Aug. 19 and focus on "doing right by the city in terms of being the best mayor I can be, and the best person I must be."
He said the two-week stint will be part of a continuing program that involves ongoing counseling. City Attorney Jan Goldsmith said Filner, not the city, will pay for the therapy.
Filner, who is 70 and divorced, did not take any questions after the announcement.
Several people who have called on Filner to resign said his plan for therapy was inadequate and reiterated calls for the Democrat to step down.
"Two weeks of therapy may help Bob Filner with his personal problems, but it does not help to address the needs of San Diego," said Laura Fink, a political consultant who alleges that Filner patted her buttocks at a 2005 fundraiser when she was deputy campaign manager for the then-congressman.
Kevin Faulconer, a Republican city councilman, said Filner's "bad behavior" will not end after two weeks of therapy.
"Bob Filner should leave to receive the help he obviously needs, but he shouldn't take the office of the mayor and San Diego city government with him." Faulconer said. "He needs to resign and seek long-term treatment as a private citizen."
Another Republican city councilwoman, Lorie Zapf, said Filner's refusal to step down was "an insult to women everywhere." And Todd Gloria, the Democratic City Council president who would become acting mayor if Filner resigned, said the mayor was prolonging a "civic nightmare."
"The mayor has finally acknowledged his very serious disorder which prevents his ability to govern and seriously affects his ability to interact with people," Gloria said.
Filner was served with a subpoena Friday to address allegations in a lawsuit filed against him and the city by his former communications director, Irene McCormack Jackson, who claims the mayor asked her to work without panties, demanded kisses, told her he wanted to see her naked and dragged her in a headlock while whispering in her ear.
Filner will answer questions under oath on Aug. 9, said Goldsmith, whose office served the subpoena as the mayor left a regional planning agency meeting.
"We have a bunch of questions," Goldsmith said. "Our goal is to get to the heart of it as quickly as possible."
During his absence from City Hall, the mayor will keep his full authority, which includes overseeing parks, roads, libraries and other services along with signing legislation, Goldsmith said.
The former congressman is San Diego's first Democratic mayor in 20 years, and he is less than eight months into a four-year term.
When the allegations first surfaced two weeks ago, Filner apologized for disrespecting women and said he needed help. But soon after, he said he was innocent of sexual harassment and resisted calls to leave office.
Filner disclosed his plans hours after the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee called on him to resign, as did leaders of the San Diego Democratic party, after seven women identified themselves as targets of his sexual harassment.
DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz called Filner's alleged behavior "reprehensible and indefensible."
Francine Busby, chairwoman of the local Democratic Party, said, "We are not here to determine guilt or innocence. However, in the best interest of the city, the San Diego County Democratic Party has voted to ask Mayor Filner to step down, seek the personal help that he needs, and allow San Diego to move forward."
Veronica "Ronne" Froman, a retired rear admiral, said Filner once blocked a doorway after others left a meeting, ran his finger up her cheek and asked if she had a man in her life.
Froman, who is known in San Diego as the "Navy Mayor" and has led the American Red Cross local chapter, said the incident occurred a couple years ago at Filner's congressional office.
Sharon Bernie-Cloward, president of the San Diego Port Tenants Association, said the then-congressman told her at an event in 2010 that she was beautiful and he wanted to date her after his re-election. At another event last year during the mayoral campaign, she said Filner "groped me on my backside inappropriately."
"I was left there startled and fearful. In fact, I actually had someone walk me to my car that night," she said.
Patti Roscoe, a businesswoman in the tourism and hospitality industry who knew Filner before he was elected to Congress in 1992, said Filner placed her in a "headlock" numerous times and tried to kiss her on the lips.
"I'd have to squirm to get away. And just as recently as a few months ago this happened. I turned and he just slobbered down my chin," Roscoe said.
(Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Saturday, 27 July 2013, 12:09 pm Press Release: New Zealand Government
26 July 2013
PM meets with Korean President Park Geun-hye
Prime Minister John Key met today for bilateral talks with Korea?s new President Park Geun-hye at the ?Blue House? in Seoul.
President Park took office as Korea?s first woman head of state in February 2013.
?I congratulated President Park on a successful start to her administration,? Mr Key says.
?The President is a good friend of New Zealand. She first visited in 1968 accompanying her father, President Park Chung-hee, and was most recently here in 2008.
?New Zealand?s contemporary relationship with Korea is close, strong and successful.
?Our discussions today covered many areas of cooperation including trade, tourism, science and technology, and defence.
?I made the President aware of the importance we place on getting a free trade agreement in place so that New Zealand companies can compete on an equal footing in the Korean marketplace with the US and other countries with which Korea has concluded FTAs.
?I have also indicated New Zealand?s support for the President?s efforts at trust and confidence-building with North Korea, and for international efforts to persuade the North to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
?I thanked the President for the warm reception which Korea has given to war veterans from New Zealand and other countries for the armistice commemorations.
?The President referred to Korea?s on-going gratitude for the contribution of New Zealand and other countries during the Korean War.
?I have extended an invitation for President Park to visit New Zealand when her schedule permits.?
Mr Key is visiting Korea with a group of New Zealand veterans to take part in commemorations marking the 60th anniversary of the Korean War armistice. ends
TRIPOLI (Reuters) - Protesters attacked offices of Libya's Muslim Brotherhood and the headquarters of a liberal coalition on Saturday after demonstrations sparked by assassinations in the eastern city of Benghazi turned violent, witnesses said.
Hundreds took to the streets overnight to denounce the killing of a prominent political activist and critic of the Brotherhood, Abdelsalam al-Mosmary, who was shot dead on Friday after leaving a mosque.
Mosmary was an outspoken opponent of the Brotherhood, whose Islamist political wing is the second biggest party in the national congress. Two military officials were also killed in Benghazi on Friday.
Libya's government is struggling to assert its authority over armed groups that helped topple veteran leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, part of the wave of Arab Spring uprisings that also felled autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.
Protesters in Benghazi set fire to two buildings - one belonging to the Muslim Brotherhood and another to its political wing, the Justice and Construction Party (JCP), witnesses said.
"They shouted 'Gather your belongings. Benghazi wants you out'," Benghazi resident Rami al-Shahibi said.
In Tripoli, a crowd stormed JCP headquarters before heading on to ransack the headquarters of the liberal National Forces Alliance (NFA), the country's biggest political party founded by wartime rebel prime minister Mahmoud Jibril.
There has been rising opposition to the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has links to several government ministers. It has struggled to convince Libyans wary of foreign interference that it has no financial or administrative links to its namesake in neighboring Egypt, whose Islamist president Mohamed Mursi was overthrown by the military on July 3.
Tensions are also high between secularists and the ruling Islamists in Tunisia, where the funeral of an assassinated secular politician was taking place on Saturday.
"THE STATE HAS FAILED"
Many of the Libyan protesters accused the Brotherhood of being behind the killings in Benghazi, cradle of the 2011 revolution - a charge rejected by Abdulrahman al-Dibani, a JCP member in congress.
"We have strongly condemned the assassination of Mosmary and all the Libyan people should hear this and not openly blame us," he said.
Reached by phone, Bashir el-Kubti, head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, declined to comment on the attacks on the movement's offices.
Libyans are growing increasingly frustrated as they witness continuous political squabbling and lawlessness across the north African country, a major oil producer.
"The people were in the streets because they are fed up of all political parties and how the state has failed," said Hisham Idris, who had demonstrated in Tripoli's Martyrs Square.
"Maybe the growing opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood is because they are trying to achieve their political ambitions using religion as a cover for their agenda."
The Tripoli protesters waved Libyan flags and shouted anti- Brotherhood slogans. A group of youths then descended on the JCP offices, smashing its windows, climbing on desks, grabbing documents and throwing them in the streets.
Graffiti reading "Go shave your beards hypocrites, Libya does not need you" was sprayed on the building.
Calm later returned to Tripoli and Benghazi but residents did not rule out more protests after Mosmary's funeral later in the day.
(Additional reporting by Feras Bosalum and Reuters Television; Writing by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)
According to a report circulating the web, Google is officially retiring its Google+ Local application for iOS as of August 7th. However, as far as we can tell, that app has already been removed from Apple?s iTunes App Store, and links pointing to the app, when clicked, provide the message that ?the item you?ve requested is not currently available in the U.S. store.?
The report being cited by a number of publications is based on 9to5Mac?s blog post, which refers an email sent in by a tipster. We?ve also obtained a copy of the email, as well, forwarded to us by?Mark Traphagen?who had posted about the app?s closure on Google+. (See full email below).
In the email, Google explains that the Google+ Local app on iOS will be retired on August 7th, as the updated version of the Google Maps app can now offer a number of the functions the Local app once provided, including the ability to search by categories of places, read place information, reviews, pricing, and addresses, plus the ability to rate, review and share the places you?ve been to and discover.
In addition, the email says that after August 7th, users would no longer be able to access the Google+ Local app on their iOS device, but any reviews and ratings created would be available on both their Google+ profile and within the Google Maps app for iOS.
However, clicking today on the actual link to the app?from a Google Search result or other webpage, is currently broken. In addition, a search inside the iOS App Store for all Google apps?shows that the app is no longer available there. (Though we did spot what appears to be a beta test of something called Google Coordinate. What?s that all about?)
9to5Mac?s blog post uses an App Store affiliate link to point to the Google+ Local app, and this is now redirecting users who click to the Google Maps iOS application instead.
We?ve reached out to Google to confirm the situation, but it seem pretty apparent, as is. Google+ Local for iOS is no more, even though it?s not yet August 7th. (Update: Google confirms the app is being retired.)
Though much of the functionality has now made it over to Google Maps, the Local app was useful for its singular focus which made it an easy access tool for local listings. Maps is a more robust, feature-rich application, which doesn?t always work best when you?re in need of speed. But the Local app hadn?t been getting much attention in recent weeks, leading to several negative App Store reviews where users complained. One even said the project ?has been put on the back burner? and Google should ?just get rid of it.?
And so it seems Google did.
Under the Larry Page era at Google, the company has been busy streamlining its product lineup and areas of development, with a heavy emphasis on its social platform, Google+. Already, Google+ had absorbed Local on the web, but the Google+ iOS app doesn?t yet contain ?Local? as an option in the sidebar, which is why the email likely pointed users to the Google Maps flagship application instead of both it and the Google+ app.
Keeping your body healthy is always very important and there are services in Washington County to help you do just that.
Kathryn Dodrill was at the Washington County Commissioners meeting today to talk about healthy people, healthy finances and healthy relationships.
Dodrill works with the Ohio State Extension Educator and Family and Consumer Services here in Washington County where they put on programs to help people improve the quality of their life for a more healthy lifestyle.
Dodrill says the diabetes class in particular has helped many people in Washington County live better and easier with the disease.
"Please come because it's a great class. We have people tell us all the time and write down what they have learned from this class. The diabetes educators at Marietta Memorial Hospital work with us. So we talk about the disease, eating for the disease, you know, eating out and then we do actual food preparation in the class," said Dodrill.
They are currently putting on classes to help people deal with their diabetes, manage their finances and even help people manage their food stamps purchases.
The next diabetes classes are October 14, 21 & 28th from 6-8:00 PM. To reserve your spot call: 740-376-7431.
Trader Neil Catania, left, and Mark Muller, right, confer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, July 22, 2013. Asian stocks dipped Thursday July 25, 2013 as investors prepared for a slew of earnings reports in coming days that will give a reading of how confident companies are in the outlook for major economies. Improved German business confidence boosted European markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Trader Neil Catania, left, and Mark Muller, right, confer on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Monday, July 22, 2013. Asian stocks dipped Thursday July 25, 2013 as investors prepared for a slew of earnings reports in coming days that will give a reading of how confident companies are in the outlook for major economies. Improved German business confidence boosted European markets. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks are opening mostly lower on Wall Street after several companies reported disappointing earnings.
Home builder PulteGroup plunged 9 percent to $16.89 after reporting a 14 percent plunge profits. Another major home builder, D.R. Horton, fell 7 percent to $19.62.
Technology shares fared better than the rest of the market.
Facebook soared 27 percent after reporting earnings late Wednesday that easily beat the forecasts of Wall Street analysts as mobile ad revenue rose.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down 65 points at 15,478 after the first few minutes of trading Thursday.
The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down three at 1,683. The Nasdaq composite was up three points at 3,582.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.62 percent from 2.59 percent the day before.
Bodybuilding.com ? officially opened the polls for their ninth annual Bodybuilding.com Supplement Awards.
Toronto? Bodybuilding.com ? the Internet?s most-visited bodybuilding and fitness site and the largest online retailer of nutritional supplements ? has officially opened the polls for their ninth annual Bodybuilding.com Supplement Awards. PHARMAFREAK? is up for TWO awards in the following categories:
? Fat-Loss Supplement of the Year - RIPPED FREAK? ? Men's Support Supplement of the Year - TEST FREAK?
The Bodybuilding.com Supplement Awards recognize the most superior products and brands in the fitness and supplement industry ? according to the fans! Nominations were based on sales on Bodybuilding.com. In other words, the public helped nominate their favorites with each purchase. Now it?s time to pick the champs. Last year, almost two million votes from across the world helped decide which products would stand out as the elite among the 9,900+ products Bodybuilding.com carries.
?Being nominated for a Bodybuilding.com Supplement Award is quite an accomplishment,? explains Bodybuilding.com CEO, Ryan DeLuca. ?Nominees are the most popular brands and products on our site. And it?s the public who chooses the final winners. Winning a Bodybuilding.com Supplement Award means that supplement users have deemed that brand or product the most trustworthy and effective of its kind.?
Winners will be determined via an online voting system that will live on Bodybuilding.com July 15, 2013 ? August 12, 2013. Results will be announced live on the Olympia Main Stage as part of Joe Weider?s Olympia Weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada on September 26-29, 2013.
Cast your votes now, and receive 10% off your next purchase at Bodybuilding.com!? Go to www.Bodybuilding.com/Awards.?
About Bodybuilding.com Based in Meridian, Idaho, Bodybuilding.com is the world?s largest online sports nutrition store. The site carries more than 9,900 health and fitness supplements and accessories, shipping to customers in more than 155 countries. Bodybuilding.com helps more than 26 million people every month achieve their health, fitness and appearance goals by offering over 28,000 pages of FREE information, including more than 20,000 articles and 8,000 videos, expert-designed online training programs, and new content added daily. For more information, please visit www.bodybuilding.com
About PHARMAFREAK? Founded in 2008, PHARMAFREAK? is the industry leader on account of its commitment to scientific research and its ability to deliver the most potent and effective sports supplements available. PHARMAFREAK is dedicated to researching, developing and creating the world?s strongest supplements made with premium, clinically-proven ingredients and the highest level GMP quality control standards.
For more information: www.PharmaFreak.com Contact: George Benakis Email: info@pharmafreak.com
There's no question that Google Hangouts can be helpful; wouldn't it be nice to get cash for hosting them? Google may be sympathetic to that idea. TechCrunch claims that the search firm is testing Helpouts, a service that would let most anyone book Hangouts that optionally require fees. The appointment system would lean on Google Wallet for transactions, and it would divide chats into categories such as repair (think tech support) or education. Don't assume that you'll be starting a side business just yet, though. Helpouts reportedly entered internal testing in late June, and any public launch would be "at least a month away" -- if it happens at all, that is. We've reached out to Google for answers, so we'll let you know if and when it's time to start charging for online conversations.
Comedian Doug Stanhope, a Bisbee resident, ended up raising more than $125,000 for a woman whose house was destroyed in the Oklahoma tornado in May.
Stanhope told New Times that he started raising funds for Rebecca Vitsmun after the widely seen interview on CNN in which anchor Wolf Blitzer asked her if she "thank[ed] the Lord" for her family's decision to leave their house before it was destroyed by the tornado. Vitsmun's much-replayed response -- she's actually an atheist.
See also: Doug Stanhope Raising Thousands for Tornado Survior
Stanhope, who has taken jabs at religion in his comedy material and in public, started raising funds on a website with the hopes of getting $50,000 for Vitsum.
That fundraising goal was surpassed pretty quickly -- he hadn't even gotten into contact with Vitsum until he'd already raised $50,000 -- and the website he used didn't allow him to change the end date of the fundraiser from July 22.
So, he set a newer goal.
"There is no reason for us to stop raising funds," he wrote. "The median cost of a home in Moore, OK is $125,250, and that was back when they had homes."
Stanhope's "Atheists Unite" campaign raised $125,760, although it was a little short of his most ambitious fundraising goal, $6.1 trillion.
Several people got "perks" from Stanhope for donating certain amounts, which were hilarious (but not hilarious if you're touchy about religion). One person donated more than $2,500, earning their "first choice for reincarnation" (because "all those eagle & dolphin spots go fast").
There were actually other people raising funds for Vitsum, too, after her CNN appearance, so she might be a little better off than her God-fearing neighbors.
Send feedback and tips to the author. Follow Matthew Hendley on Twitter at @MatthewHendley.
The American Legion Canton Post 24 baseball team?s excellent late-season starting pitching performances and offensive production up and down the batting order enabled the squad to earn a berth in the state playoffs.
Canton finished the regular season 13-11, good for the #4-seed in District 6 East. After a rocky opening to the season, Head Coach Greg Lyons is very pleased with the squad?s progression over the course of the summer.
?I really did not know what to expect from the squad, and after the slow start we had, I thought it could potentially be a long summer,? Lyons said. ?But whenever we hit a roadblock, we always seemed to overcome it and find a way to win ballgames.?
The summer baseball team consists of high school players residing in Canton and Sharon. Captaining the squad are Canton residents Drew Blake (Milton Acad.) and Steve Mullaney (Canton High) and recent Sharon High graduates Jake Fishman and Nathan Pedersen.
This summer was Post 24?s first in District 6 East; the squad previously was a member of the district?s West side. Canton was widely predicted to be one of the division?s weaklings this season.
?Nobody believed we could come close to making the playoffs,? said captain Drew Blake. ?So I feel that we really proved ourselves to the new league and showed the other teams we can play with them now and years to come.?
Lyons has been impressed with how the team came together after he and Post 24 manager Al Jackson had sensed that the squad wasn?t clicking early in the season.
?We have a good mix of young guys and 2nd and 3rd year veterans, and once everyone got to know each other and gelled together, we started to play great baseball that translated to wins,? Lyons said.
Blake has led an offense that found its groove towards the end of the season. Post 24 plated 30 runs over its most crucial stretch, a four-game winning streak July 14-17.
During the 23-game regular season, Blake hit.375, mashed six home runs (the team?s total), and drove in 27 runs ? leading to a .736 slugging percentage. The left-handed-hitting third baseman also stole a team-high 14 bases. Outfielder Matt Shaffer led the team in batting average (.410).
One other regular is above .300 (Fishman, .329), and several other regulars are batted in the high .200s. The offense has clicked when players throughout the lineup have hit to their potentials, contributing to a well-rounded attack.
?I think pretty much everyone (who's still on the team) has played a role at some point this year in helping us finish 4th and win 13 games,? Lyons said. ?We couldn't have done it without every single guy stepping up at one point or another.?
Pitching was generally a strength for Post 24 throughout the summer. Fishman, a lefthander, dominated over his 34 innings to the tune of a 4-1 record, a 1.03 ERA, and 38 strikeouts. Righthander Kevin Powers posted three victories, and five other pitchers won single games.
?Fishman, all year, has been our ace,? Lyons said. ?He?s unreal. Anytime I hand him the ball, I am shocked if we lose. He doesn?t walk anyone. He has eight different pitches and keeps the game moving. He?s my type of pitcher.?
Lyons sent Fishman to the hill to open Post 24?s postseason on Wednesday night. Games 1 and 2 of the series versus rival Foxboro Post 93, the #3-seed in District 6 West, are Wednesday (5pm at Foxboro High) and Thursday (5pm at Canton High).
Lyons says the squad is excited to begin postseason play. ?The district playoffs is exactly why we battled all summer through the heat, rain, and tough scheduling,? he said. ?It makes all of those long games, days, weeks worth the fight.
?I expect our boys to come out strong, give it 110% effort from the first pitch to the last out of the game. The results of the games will take care of themselves. But I have all the confidence in the world that if we play our game, we have a great shot of making it past Foxboro and into sectionals,? Lyons added.
Blake says that Post 24 is confident is confident that they will repeat their strong all-around performances of several late-regular-season games. ?My expectations are high for the postseason.
?I truly believe we can advance past Foxboro because when we play our game - when the entire lineup is contributing offensively and defensively - we can play with and beat any team.
Should the teams split the first two games, the rubber match of the best-of-three series would be on Friday night at Foxboro High at 5 p.m. The winner of the series will advance to the South Sectional Bracket Tournaments, which begin on Sunday.
Blake said, ?I am looking forward to the playoff series against Foxboro, and hope we can make a run in the tournament.? Lyons added, ?If/when we?re in sectionals, anything can happen from there.?
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama's choice to be the No. 2 official at the Homeland Security Department is under investigation for his role in helping a company secure an international investor visa for a Chinese executive, The Associated Press has learned.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Alejandro Mayorkas, who has been nominated to be the department's No. 2 leader, was named by the DHS Inspector General's Office as a target in an ongoing investigation about the foreign investor program run by USCIS.
According to an email sent to lawmakers Monday evening, the IG's office said that it initially started investigating the EB-5 visa program last year based on a referral from an FBI analyst in the counter intelligence unit in Washington.
In the email detailing the case, the IG's office said "at this point in our investigation, we do not have any findings of criminal misconduct." The email does not specify what criminal violations it is investigating.
White House press secretary Jay Carney referred questions to the DHS inspector general's office, which said the probe is in its preliminary stage and that it doesn't comment on the specifics of investigations.
The EB-5 program allows foreign nationals to get a visa if they invest $500,000 to $1 million in a project or business that creates jobs for U.S. citizens. The amount of the investment required depends on the type of project. Investors who are approved for the program can become legal permanent residents after two years and would later be eligible to become citizens.
The White House did not have an immediate comment on the investigation. Neither the department nor USCIS immediately responded to inquiries.
Were Mayorkas confirmed as the department's deputy secretary, he likely would run the department on an interim basis until a permanent replacement has been approved to take over for departing Secretary Janet Napolitano.
The email said the primary complaint against Mayorkas was that he helped a financing company run by Anthony Rodham, the brother of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to win approval for an investor visa, even after the application was denied and an appeal was rejected.
Mayorkas, a former U.S. attorney in California, previously came under fire for his involvement in the commutation by President Bill Clinton of the prison sentence of the son of a Democratic Party donor. Another of Hillary Clinton's brothers, Hugh Rodham, had been hired by the donor to lobby for the commutation. Mayorkas told lawmakers during his 2009 confirmation hearing that "it was a mistake" to talk to the White House about the request.
According to the Inspector General's email, the investigation of the investor visa program also includes allegations that other USCIS Office of General Counsel officials obstructed an audit of the visa program by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The email did not name any specific official from the general counsel's office.
The email says investigators did not know whether Mayorkas was aware of the investigation. The FBI's Washington Field Office was told about the investigation in June after it inquired about Mayorkas as part of the White House background investigation for his nomination as deputy DHS secretary.
The FBI in Washington has been concerned about the investor visa program and the projects funded by foreign sources since at least March, according to emails obtained by The AP.
The bureau wanted details of all of the limited liability companies that had invested in the EB-5 visa program. Of particular concern, the FBI official wrote, was Chinese investment in projects, including the building of an FBI facility.
"Let's just say that we have a significant issue that my higher ups are really concerned about and this may be addressed way above my pay grade," the official wrote. The FBI official's name was redacted in the email.
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent the FBI a lengthy letter Tuesday asking for details of its review of the foreign investor visa program and Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure projects.
Chinese investment in U.S. infrastructure projects has long been a concern of the U.S. government. In September, the Obama administration blocked a Chinese company from owning four wind farm projects in northern Oregon that were near a Navy base used to fly unmanned drones and electronic-warfare planes on training missions. And in October, the House Intelligence Committee warned that two leading Chinese technology firms, Huawei Technologies Ltd. and ZTE Corp., pose a major security threat to the U.S. Both firms have denied being influenced by the Chinese government.
The most routine users of the EB-5 program are Chinese investors. According to an undated, unclassified State Department report about the program obtained by the AP, the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou, China, processed more investor visas in the 2011 fiscal year than any other consulate or embassy. The document says "applicants are usually coached and prepped for their interviews, making it difficult to take at face value applicants' claims" about where their money comes from and whether they hold membership in the Chinese Communist Party. Party membership would make an applicant ineligible for the investor visa.
Anthony Rodham is president and CEO of Gulf Coast Funds Management LLC in McLean, Va. The firm is one of hundreds of "Regional Centers" that pool investments from foreign nationals looking to invest in U.S. businesses or industries as part of the foreign investor visa program.
There was no immediate response to an email sent to Gulf Coast requesting comment.
It is unclear from the IG's email why the investor visa application was denied. Visa requests can be denied for a number of reasons, including a circumstance where an applicant has a criminal background or is considered a threat to national security or public safety.
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Associated Press reporters Stephen Braun and Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.
Follow Alicia A. Caldwell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/acaldwellap
Islamabad, Jul 30 (PTI): India-born Mamnoon Hussain, a close aide of Prime Minister Nawqaz Sharif, was today elected as the 12 President of Pakistan and will replace the incumbent Asif Ali Zardari in September.![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s22mvsFfVVF-zwTzHx9lsjU3duGxmNyOcnCVOfiQRfckObzlb1nY2CMwt7bQB088z3haQnSHIUGdfECWXLspXjn3q7D6j5IO8a_CkfTuI=s0-d){kind=small}
Public release date: 29-Jul-2013
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