CHOKWE, Mozambique (AP) ? Flood waters have begun receding in Mozambique, and residents have started returning to the worst-hit city.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator for Mozambique, Jennifer Topping, visited the city of Chokwe on Wednesday to assess the needs. She says Mozambique will require help to get life back to normal.
The city of Chokwe was among the worst hit by flooding that displaced as many as 150,000 people. The U.N. says flood waters killed at least 38 people over the last several days.
The U.N. said this week at least $15 million would initially be needed in relief aid.
Wal-Mart has started to limit sales of ammunition to three boxes per customer per day due to limited supplies, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.?
Sales of guns and ammunition have risen across the United States since the December 14 shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school.?
Walmart U.S., is the largest unit of Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which is the world's largest retailer and the largest U.S. gun seller. The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer had said that it works to strike the right balance between serving hunters and sportsmen and ensuring that it sells firearms responsibly.?
"In order to take care of as many customers as possible, starting Thursday, January 24, all ammunition sales were limited to three boxes per customer, per day as supply is limited at this time," spokeswoman Ashley Hardie told Reuters on Wednesday.?
Wal-Mart was a charter member of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's coalition against illegal guns and adopted a 10-point code established by the Responsible Firearms Retailer Partnership that goes beyond what the law requires.?
Data released on Monday by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Instant Criminal Background Check System showed that nine of the top 10 days for firearms checks from November 30, 1998, to January 27, 2013, including December 14, 2012, occurred since Adam Lanza killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School and then shot and killed himself. Lanza also killed his mother before the school massacre.?
Wal-Mart's policy change was reported earlier by The City Wire, an Arkansas news outlet.
SANTA MARIA, Brazil -- At 2 a.m. on Rua Dos Andradas, a crowd of young people stands in silence. There is nothing to say.
Keir Simmons / NBC News
Mourners stand outside the Kiss nightclub in the early hours of Tuesday, two nights after a devastating fire killed at least 230 clubbers.
Two nights ago, on this same street, at this same time, a tragedy unfolded that is hard to comprehend.?
Outside the Kiss nightclub, where a blaze and its panicked aftermath claimed the lives of at least 230 partygoers ? most of them students at the local university ? the smell of smoke lingers in the air.
Now it has become a place to mourn and remember.
Among the survivors is Adreen Righi, 20, who is still trying to make sense of how the disaster unfolded.
?I was dancing with my friends,? she says, recovering at home. ?People started pushing. I looked at the stage and there was smoke.?
Pushed over in the panic, she was trampled to the ground but still found air. ?Breathe, breathe, come on now breathe,? she told herself as others climbed over her.
Then, she recalls, ?an angel saved my life.? A woman she didn't know pushed her outside, to safety.
In the fresh air, she hugged her friends. But some were missing.
Her classmate, Juliano, had gone to the bathroom 15 minutes before the fire. She will never see him again.
?He was a good person,? she says, ?always smiling. Making jokes. He was a good guy.?
She is ?very happy? to be alive, but adds: ?I can't explain how I feel about my friends, about the city.?
Santa Maria is in mourning, but there is also growing anger.
Investigators must now seek answers to the questions being asked here: Why did the nightclub apparently have only one exit? Why did fire extinguishers not work, as some witnesses have reported? Why did security staff briefly block exits to stop people leaving without paying their drinks tabs?
Keir Simmons / NBC News
'No justification ? 231 murdered'. A sign posted outside the Kiss nightclub in Santa Maria.
On the street outside the nightclub, a hand-made poster says: ?Nada justifica, 231 assassinatos' ? meaning ?No justification ? 231 murdered?.
The final death toll is still unclear, but the message is stark.?
Globo television said 53 seriously-injured victims remain in Porto Alegre, state capital of Rio Grande do Sul,where a support unit has also been set up with psychologists to help relatives of victims.
Police officials said four people are still under temporary arrest over the disaster. Local media reports on Monday said those detained were two owners of the Kiss club and two members of a band whose pyrotechnic display is thought to have set light to the club's sound-proofed ceiling. None of the arrests imply any criminal accusation, police said.
Protesters marched through the town late Monday, carrying flowers, balloons and placards with the names of the victims, according to Globo, which reported that as many as 30,000 took part.
Among them, Eglon Do Canto told The Associated Press: "We hope that the justice system, through its competent mechanisms, succeeds in clarifying to the public what happened, and gives the people an explanation."
Edgar Zuniga Jr, NBC News in Atlanta, contributed to this report.
Related:
Brazil nightclub fire?survivor: 'I felt?her heart stop beating'
Shoes, blood, lime slices scattered across nightclub floor
Painful memories for survivors of 2003 club fire in Rhode Island
According to a FCC filing, Apple has a smaller Apple TV in the works. What's weird is that it's not that much smaller than the current Apple TV—the small version would be 93.78 square millimeters as opposed to the current version's 98 square mm. Everything else about the FCC filing on the Apple TV looks identical to the current one. More »
Ronda Rousey has finally met her match. Rousey, who has won every one of her fights with an armbar in the first round. And yet, when she meets up with an adorable four-year-old, what does Rousey do? She submits to an armbar!
Rousey's actual next opponent is Liz Carmouche at UFC 157. Will we see another armbar from the UFC bantamweight women's champ? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or Twitter.
TORONTO (AP) ? The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedier device, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone. It's the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company.
Thorsten Heins, chief executive of Research In Motion Ltd., will show off the first phone with the new BlackBerry 10 system in New York on Wednesday. A marketing campaign that includes a Super Bowl ad will accompany the long-anticipated debut. Repeated delays have left the once-pioneering BlackBerry an afterthought in the shadow of Apple's trend-setting iPhone and Google's Android-driven devices.
Now, there's some optimism. Previews of the software have gotten favorable reviews on blogs. Financial analysts are starting to see some slight room for a comeback. RIM's stock has nearly tripled to $16.18 from a nine-year low in September, though it's still nearly 90 percent below its 2008 peak of $147.
Most analysts consider a BlackBerry 10 success to be crucial for the company's long-term viability.
"The old models are becoming obsolete quickly," BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis said. "There is still a big user base but it's going to rotate off. The question is: Where do they rotate to?"
The BlackBerry, pioneered in 1999, has been the dominant smartphone for on-the-go business people. Corporate information-technology managers like the phones because they're relatively secure and easy to manage. Many employees loved them because of physical keyboards that were easier to type on than the touch-screen iPhone. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with it when he took office. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." People got so addicted that the device was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."
The BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers. But when the iPhone came out in 2007, it showed that phones can do much more than email and phone calls. They can play games, music and movies. Android came along to offer even more choices. Though IT managers still love BlackBerrys, employees were bringing their own devices to the workplace ? a trend Heins acknowledged RIM was slow to adapt to.
Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.
Even as BlackBerry sales continued to grow in many parts of the world, many BlackBerry users in North America switched to iPhones and Android devices. BlackBerry's worldwide subscriber based peaked at 80 million in the quarter that ended Sept. 1, before dropping to 79 million in the most-recent quarter. In the U.S., according to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 percent of the market in 2008 to 2 percent in 2012. Most phones in use today are either iPhones or Android devices.
RIM promised a new system to catch up, using technology it got through its 2010 purchase of QNX Software Systems. RIM initially said BlackBerry 10 would come by early 2012, but then the company changed that to late 2012. A few months later, that date was pushed further, to early 2013, missing the lucrative holiday season. The holdup helped wipe out more than $70 billion in shareholder wealth and 5,000 jobs.
Although executives have been providing a glimpse at some of BlackBerry 10's new features for months, Heins will finally showcase a complete system at Wednesday's event. Devices will go on sale soon after that. The exact date and prices are expected Wednesday.
RIM redesigned the system to embrace the multimedia, apps and touch-screen experience prevalent today.
"Historically there have been areas that have not been our strongest points," Rick Costanzo, RIM's executive vice president of global sales, said in an interview. "Not only have we caught up, but we may even be better than some of the competition now."
Costanzo said "no one else can touch" what RIM's new system offers.
The new operating system promises better multitasking than either the iPhone or Android. Simply swipe a finger across the phone's display screen to switch to another program.
All emails and notifications from such applications as Twitter and Facebook go to the BlackBerry Hub, a nerve center accessible with a finger swipe even if you have another application open. One can peek into it and open an email, or return to the previous application without opening the email.
"You are not going in and out of applications; you're flowing through applications with one simple gesture of your finger," Costanzo said. "You can leave applications running. You can effortlessly flow between them. So that's completely unique to us."
That said, multitasking will still be limited. If you're watching a video, it will still run while you check for email. But it will pause if you decide to open an email and resume when you are done.
The BlackBerry's touch-screen keyboard promises to learn a user's writing style and suggest words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals. See the one you want, and flick it up to the message area. Costanzo said that "BlackBerry offers the best keyboard, period."
Gus Papageorgiou, a Scotiabank financial analyst who has tried it out, agreed with that assessment and said the keyboard even learns and adjusts to your thumb placements.
The first BlackBerry 10 phone will have only a touch screen. RIM has said it will release a version with a physical keyboard soon after that. That's an area RIM has excelled at, and it's one reason many BlackBerry users have remained loyal despite temptations to switch.
Another distinguishing feature will be the BlackBerry Balance, which allows two personas on the same device. Businesses can keep their data secure without forcing employees to get a second device for personal use. For instance, IT managers can prevent personal apps from running inside corporate firewalls, but those managers won't have access to personal data on the device.
With Balance, "you can just switch from work to personal mode," Papageorgiou said. "I think that is something that will attract a lot of people."
RIM is also claiming that the BlackBerry 10's browser will be speedy, even faster than browsers for laptop and desktop computers. According to Papageorgiou, early, independent tests between the BlackBerry 10 and the iPhone support that claim.
Regardless of BlackBerry 10's advances, though, the new system will face a key shortcoming: It won't have as many apps written by outside companies and individuals as the iPhone and Android. RIM has said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, including those developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011. Even so, that's just a tenth of what the iPhone and Android offer. Papageorgiou said the initial group will include the most popular ones such as Twitter and Facebook. But RIM will have to persuade others to make a BlackBerry version, when they are already struggling to keep up with both the iPhone and Android.
Like many analysts, Papageorgiou recently upgraded RIM's stock, but cautioned that longtime BlackBerry users will have to get used to a whole new operating system.
He said RIM can be successful if about a third of current subscribers upgrade and if the company can get 4 million new users overseas, especially in countries where the BlackBerry has remained popular. IDC said smartphone shipments grew 44 percent in 2012. If those trends continue, it will be possible for the BlackBerry to grow even if iPhone and Android users don't switch.
"This doesn't have to be the best smartphone on the planet to be a success for RIM," he said. "I think the big question though is, if it fails, is it just too late? Are the other two ecosystems just so advanced that no one can catch up? That's a big risk."
Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.
More??
Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.
More??
#SciAmBlogs Monday ? Kenyan mesopredators, Up-Goer Five, Commenting, #scio13, Historic Meteor Procession, Public Statistics, Davos, and more.
About the Author: Bora Zivkovic is the Blog Editor at Scientific American, chronobiologist, biology teacher, organizer of ScienceOnline conferences and editor of Open Laboratory anthologies of best science writing on the Web. Follow on Twitter @boraz.
More??
The views expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily those of Scientific American.
SHERMAN, Texas (AP) ? A prosecutor says country music star Randy Travis is expected to enter a guilty plea in a drunken-driving case in North Texas.
Grayson County District Attorney Joe Brown says details of the agreement will be released following Travis' court appearance Thursday in Sherman.
Travis was naked when he was arrested following a single-vehicle accident Aug. 7 near Tioga, about 60 miles north of Dallas. Authorities have said his blood-alcohol level was more than 0.15. The legal limit for driving is 0.08.
Brown says Travis will plead guilty to misdemeanor drunken driving, punishable by up to two years in jail and a $4,000 fine.
The 53-year-old Travis also faced a retaliation charge for allegedly threatening officers, though that charge is no longer in court files.
Jan. 28, 2013 ? Critical reflection and shrewdness can help companies to avoid crises, but sometimes good old-fashioned stupidity can serve an important function in raising the efficiency of an organisation, claims Mats Alvesson, Professor of Organisation Studies at the School of Economics and Management, Lund University, Sweden, in a new theory of 'functional stupidity' that has been published in the Journal of Management Studies.
"We see functional stupidity as the absence of critical reflection. It is a state of unity and consensus that makes employees in an organisation avoid questioning decisions, structures and visions," says Mats Alvesson. "Paradoxically, this sometimes helps to raise productivity in an organisation."
Together with colleague Andr? Spicer, Mats Alvesson has written an article entitled 'A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organisations', which was recently published in the Journal of Management Studies and has been featured in the Financial Times. In the article, he expounds the logic behind 'functional stupidity'.
"It is a double-edged sword. It is functional because it has some advantages and makes people concentrate enthusiastically on the task in hand. It is stupid because risks and problems may arise when people do not pose critical questions about what they and the organisation are doing."
The state is partly a consequence of a kind of 'stupidity management', which suppresses and marginalises doubt and blocks open communication within the organisation. The parallels with some companies' sudden financial crashes in recent years are clear.
"Short-term use of intellectual resources, consensus and an absence of disquieting questions about decisions and structures may oil the organisational machinery and contribute to harmony and increased productivity in a company. However, it may also be its downfall."
According to the researchers, some industries are more stupid than others. Organisations that make a virtue of their staff's wisdom and sell intangible services or branded products, such as parts of the mass media, the fashion industry and consultancy firms, are highlighted as being particularly disposed to develop functional stupidity.
"Functional stupidity is prominent in economies that are dominated by persuasion using images and symbolic manipulation. It is preferable that people have an enthusiastic belief in an activity which may not necessarily fulfil a need. New management may be required to manage the fine balance and possible pitfalls of functional stupidity," says Mats Alvesson.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Lund University.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Mats Alvesson, Andr? Spicer. A Stupidity-Based Theory of Organizations. Journal of Management Studies, 2012; 49 (7): 1194 DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01072.x
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Samsung's Music Hub has only had a comparatively small reach to date, delivering tunes to seven countries (six with scan-and-match) and just a handful of devices. Senior VP of Media Services TJ Kang expects the audio service to broaden its horizons -- he tells The Next Web that Samsung wants to widen access to rivals' gear as well. There's no convenient timetable to put on the calendar, but the expansion is a significant move for a service that's frequently seen as more of a brand-specific checklist feature than a full competitor with the likes of Google Music or iTunes. Plans for Samsung's own devices are more definite, Kang says. Music Hub is coming to more countries in 2013, as long as licensing deals work out, and further device support (including the non-mobile variety) will depend on flagship hardware releases scattered throughout the year. No matter where Media Hub heads next, it's safe to presume that it will be more than just a nice bonus in the near future.
With as many as?6.2 claimed users and 5 million active Internet users?Internet in Delhi (As per the survey of 2011 of IAMAI), more and more businesses here are going online as the most cost effective and viable option for their products and services to generate considerable sales in a quick and easy manner. With Increased Awareness and younger ?generation has lead to a growing trend of Internet marketing in India.?
Internet marketing helps a business in enhancing its presence on the web, boosting its online existence and helps it to rank higher in the search engines. Top search engine rankings allow a business to attract increased traffic to there website and thereby improve the likelihood of sales of its goods and services.?
There are a large number of companies in?Delhi?that offer Internet marketing services. These Internet marketing ?firms possess wealth of knowledge and expertise in online marketing and help their clients enjoy incredible online reputation. Based on the nature of their client?s business and their individual internet marketing needs and requirements, professional online marketing experts devise a successful internet marketing plan.?
The best part about online is that there is something for everyone and one need not be restricted to a few or ?their own limited Geographical area. The WORLD is the marketplace and Customers are there Globally so fasten your seat belts and Get a Roaring start by Announcing your Presence Powerfully into the Wired world. ?Here you can find Internet marketing services that best suit your budget. So, whether you are a small business or a top multinational company, you can find Internet marketing services to achieve your online business goals and objectives.?
To enjoy the best internet marketing services in?Delhi, please visit websites of the companies given below and Get ready to Grow Online when you have SEM Experts that will help you with Website, SEO, PPC, User Experience, Email marketing etc
KONNA, Mali (AP) ? French and Malian troops regained control of the airport and bridge of the crucial, northern city of Gao on Saturday, marking their biggest advance yet in their bid to oust al-Qaida-linked extremists who have controlled northern Mali for months, military officials said.
The move comes just two weeks after France launched its military offensive in support of the shaky, central government of this former French colony. It is unclear what kind of resistance French and Malian troops will face in the coming days.
The French military said in a statement on its website that their special forces, which had stormed in by land and by air, had come under fire from "several terrorist elements" that were later "destroyed."
In a later press release entitled "French and Malian troops liberate Gao" the French ministry of defense said they were bringing back the town's mayor, Sadou Diallo, who had fled to the Malian capital of Bamako far to the west.
However, a city official interviewed by telephone by The Associated Press said coalition forces so far only controlled the airport, the bridge and surrounding neighborhoods.
And in Paris, a defense ministry official clarified that the city had not been fully liberated, and that the process of freeing Gao was continuing.
Both officials spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Swooping in under the cover of darkness, the French and Malian forces faced sporadic "acts of harassment" during the day, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman in Paris. He had no immediate estimate on casualties.
Gao, the largest city in northern Mali, was seized by a mixture of al-Qaida-linked fighters more than nine months ago, and the battle to retake the city is expected to be tough.
The rebel group that turned Gao into a replica of Afghanistan under the Taliban has close ties to Moktar Belmoktar, the Algerian national who has long operated in Mali and who last week claimed responsibility for the terror attack on a BP-operated natural gas plant in Algeria.
His fighters are believed to include Algerians, Egyptians, Mauritanians, Libyans, Tunisians, Pakistanis and even Afghans.
The French assault began with the capture of the airport, a strategic landing strip that opens the way for easier sorties all over northern Mali.
The further capture of a major bridge leading into the town means that the jihadists "saw their means of transport and their logistics sites destroyed," French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in a statement.
The operation in Gao comes at the same time as airstrikes in the two other provincial capitals held by the extremists ? the cities of Timbuktu and Kidal, which like Gao fell to the rebels last April, during the chaotic aftermath of a coup in the distant capital. Nearly 30 bombs have been fired from fighter jets over the past two days, said France's military in a communique.
The simultaneous aerial attacks also come at the same time that ground troops are carrying out a pincer movement, with French and African land forces heading to Gao from Niger, where Chad has sent a battalion.
The Pentagon said late Saturday that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has told Le Drian the U.S. will aid the French military with aerial refueling missions.
U.S. aerial refueling planes would be a boost to air support for French ground forces as they enter areas of Mali that are controlled by al-Qaida-linked extremists.
The U.S. was already helping France by transporting French troops and equipment to the West African nation.
French and Malian forces are also heading to Timbuktu, via the central corridor that leads straight north from the central Malian city of Segou, via the recently recaptured town of Diabaly.
In an interview Saturday, Col. Shehu Usman Abdulkadir told The Associated Press that the African force will be expanded from an anticipated 3,200 troops to some 5,700 ? which does not include the 2,200 soldiers promised by Chad.
Most analysts had said the earlier figure was far too small to confront the Islamists given the vast territory they hold ? an area larger than Afghanistan.
"Because they've seen that the area itself, northern Mali is too large for that number of troops so there was a need to increase the number and that's why we arrived at 5700," said Abdulkadir, the force commander. "I believe that as time goes on it may be necessary to increase the strength again. Because France pulls out we definitely must have to increase the strength."
Since France began its military operation, the Islamists have retreated from three small towns in central Mali: Diabaly, Konna and Douentza.
For the first time on Saturday, Malian authorities opened the town of Konna to reporters. Although in most places Malians have applauded the arrival of the French, the town of Konna, built around a single, hard-top road, provides a counterweight and reveals the human toll of the operation.
Konna's mayor had earlier said that 11 civilians were killed during the airstrikes. Among them were four relatives of Souleymane Maiga, a young, 20-something man who ran for cover on Jan. 11, the first day of the airstrikes.
He hid between two mud walls separating his compound from that of his neighbor. His aunt, and the four children, including several young girls that were with her, abandoned the pot on an open flame where they were preparing the midday meal and ran inside the house.
French combat helicopters, looking for rebels, strafed the buildings made of nothing more than mud mixed with straw.
"The women were preparing food right here in the shade of this tree, when we heard the noise made by the aircraft. I ran and threw myself between the two walls over there," said Maiga. "After it was over, I went to the house, and when I opened the door, I saw that they were dead. Of the five people inside, only one survived. A toddler. The bodies were one on top of the other. The toddler was crying. The bullets had pierced the door. I tried to find their pulses, but they were gone. I realized it was over. I picked up the child and took him to a relative's house in town."
The zinc door of the modest house is pockmarked by bullet holes, some several inches wide. If you close it behind you, they let in jets of light, which illuminate the unlit interior. The can of tomato paste that the women had just opened in order to make a sauce served over rice, still sits where they left it. It had been partially opened, and now the tomato paste inside has spoiled.
___
Larson reported from Sevare, Mali. Jamey Keaten in Dakar, Senegal; Baba Ahmed in Konna, Mali; and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Abidjan, Ivory Coast contributed to this report.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) ? A Pakistani official says clashes between two Islamic militant groups over control of a prized valley near the Afghan border have killed 24 people.
Arshad Khan of the Khyber tribal region said Saturday that the clashes started Friday when the main militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban captured a base of another militant group, Ansarul Islam, in the Tirah valley. Ansarul Islam then tried to retake the base, with fighting continuing into the next day.
A military officer speaking on condition of anonymity said most of the dead were militants but some local tribesmen were also killed.
The remote and mountainous valley is valued by militant groups as a base. It's difficult for the Pakistani military to enter and allows militants easy access to Afghanistan and other tribal agencies.
Feb. 1?3: Washington Golf Show, Dulles Expo Center, Chantilly. Over 100 vendors and demonstrations planned. Hours: Friday, noon?7 p.m., Saturday 9?6, Sunday 10?4. Cost: $10 for adults (good all three days), free for children 12-under. Information: washingtongolfshow.com or 330/963-6963.
Feb. 10: Sweethearts 4Ever 4-Mile Run, 10 a.m. at Massad YMCA in Falmouth. First race in 2013 Coldwell Banker Grand Prix. Cost: $24 ($30 after Jan. 26), Subtract $6 for no T-shirt. Register online at racetimingunlimited.org.
Feb. 24: Dahlgren Trail Half Marathon, 8 a.m. at Route 605 Trailhead on Heritage Trail in King George. Cost: $45 ($55 after Feb. 9). Register online at racetimingunlimited.org.
March 3: FASA 5K Run for The Dream, 8 a.m. at Spotsylvania Village. (One-mile run for ages 6?12 at 9.) Cost: $20 for 5K, $15 for 1-mile ($25/$18 after Feb. 14). Visit fasasoccer.org or register at racetimingunlimited.org.
March 10: Organ Donor 8K, 8 a.m. at 1701 Fall Hill Avenue, Fredericksburg. Cost: $20 ($22 after Feb. 25, $25 on race day). Register at racetimingunlimited.org.
March 17: Feet for Seats 5K, 8 a.m. at Spotsylvania Courthouse Village. Cost: $25 ($30 after Feb. 1, $35 on race day). Register at racetimingunlimited.org.
Send recreation calendar items to sports@freelancestar.com.
SEVARE, Mali (AP) ? French forces have taken control of the airport and a key bridge in the radical Islamist stronghold of Gao, the French defense minister said Saturday, marking a significant inroad into the heart of territory held by the al-Qaida-linked extremists.
The move comes just two weeks after France launched its military offensive to rout the Islamists from power in northern Mali. It is unclear what kind of resistance they will face in the coming days.
The Islamists first seized control of Gao and two other provinicial capitals ? Timbuktu and Kidal ? in April last year during the chaotic aftermath of a coup in the distant capital.
French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced in a statement from his ministry Saturday that jihadist fighters who encountered the advancing French and Malian troops "saw their means of transport and their logistics sites destroyed."
The French and Malian forces launched the air and land operation to take Gao's bridge and airport under the cover of darkness overnight, said Col. Thierry Burkhard, a French military spokesman in Paris.
French and Malian forces came under fire in the morning from rebels in Gao and continued to face sporadic "acts of harassment" in the afternoon, Burkhard said. He had no immediate estimate available on casualties.
Phone networks have been down in Gao for days, making it nearly impossible to independently corroborate what is going on in the town.
Gao has been under the control of the al-Qaida-linked Movement for Oneness and Jihad, or MUJAO, for months.
On Friday in a show of might, the Islamists destroyed a bridge near the Niger border with explosives, showing that the extremists still remain a nimble and daunting enemy.
Since France began its military operation two weeks ago with a barrage of airstrikes followed by a land assault, the Islamists have retreated from three cities in central Mali: Diabaly, Konna and Douentza.
The Islamists, though, have maintained control of the majority of the territory in Mali's north, most importantly the cities of Gao, Kidal and Timbuktu.
The announcement that Gao's airport had been taken marked the first official confirmation that French and Malian forces had reached the city. Previously the closest they had been was Hombori, a town some 155 miles (250 kilometers) away.
The French currently have about 2,500 forces in the country and have said that they will stay as long as needed in Mali, a former French colony. However, they have called for African nations to take the lead in fortifying the Malian army's efforts.
There are currently some 1,750 troops from neighboring African countries, including Togo, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Benin, Senegal, Niger and Chad.
Presidential candidate Milos Zeman gestures while addressing the media after the announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. According to the preliminary results he won the election with about 54.8 percent. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Presidential candidate Milos Zeman gestures while addressing the media after the announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. According to the preliminary results he won the election with about 54.8 percent. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Presidential candidate Milos Zeman smiles while addressing the media after the announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. According to the preliminary results he won the election with about 54.8 percent. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Presidential candidate Milos Zeman arrives with his daughter Katerina to address media after announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. According to the preliminary results he won the election with about 54.8 percent. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
Presidential candidate Milos Zeman addresses media after announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential elections in Prague, Czech Republic, Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. According to the preliminary results he won the election with about 54.8 percent. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)
PRAGUE (AP) ? A former left-leaning prime minister staged a big return to power Saturday by winning the Czech Republic's first directly elected presidential vote.
With all the votes counted, Milos Zeman won 54.8 percent of the vote for the largely ceremonial post, the Czech Statistics Office reported. His opponent, conservative Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, had 45.2 percent.
"Long live Zeman!" his supporters chanted at his campaign headquarters in Prague.
"I promise that as a president elected in a direct popular vote I will try to be the voice of all citizens," Zeman said.
Voters seemed to punish Schwarzenberg for the government's unpopular austerity cuts that aimed to reduce the budget deficit.
"It definitely didn't help me," Schwarzenberg said, adding he will continue to serve as foreign minister.
Since Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic in 1993, the Czech Republic has had two presidents elected by Parliament: Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus. But bickering during those votes led lawmakers to give that decision to the public.
The 68-year-old Zeman will replace the euro-skeptic Klaus, whose second and final term ends March 7.
Zeman is considered more favorable toward the 27-nation European Union, to which the country belongs. People in his inner circle also have close business ties with Russia so "he might become an advocate of closer relations with Russia," said Josef Mlejnek, an analyst from Prague's Charles University.
Zeman is not opposed to pre-emptive strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities and opposes Kosovo's independence.
In the campaign, one of the top issues became the 1945 expulsion of 3 million ethnic Germans from then-Czechoslovakia in a move approved by the Allies. Schwarzenberg said Czechs should not be proud of this action, prompting attacks from both Zeman and Klaus.
"Nationalism took over the campaign," said Mlejnek.
A chain smoker who likes a good drink, Zeman made international headlines as prime minister with his outspoken comments. He once compared the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to Adolf Hitler, drawing condemnations from the EU and the Arab League, and called Austrians who opposed a Czech nuclear plant "idiots."
After the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., Zeman and his interior minister said they believed that hijacker Mohamed Atta met with a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague in April 2001. That purported meeting was cited as evidence of a possible al-Qaida connection to Iraq. The 9/11 commission later said such a meeting never happened.
In 2002, Zeman outraged German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder by calling ethnic those Germans "Hitler's fifth column." In protest, Schroeder canceled his official trip to Prague.
During his four years in office beginning in 1998, Zeman's government privatized the ailing bank sector but was criticized for a lack of transparency in privatizing state-owned property and for often failing to run public tenders for state contracts.
Under the Czech constitution, the president has the power to pick the prime minister after a general election and to appoint members of the Central Bank board. With the approval of Parliament's upper house, the president also appoints Constitutional Court judges.
Otherwise the president has little executive power and the country is run by the government chosen and led by the prime minister.
The Lexington Tattoo Project is a community art initiative from Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova in the form of a poem to Lexington written?as permanent tattoos?on the bodies of Lexington.? They are taking photographs of each tattoo and will use these photographs to create a video that animates the poem?read by its author, Bianca Spriggs.
Today, project sponsor Nick Kouns went under the needle at Charmed Life under Robert?s expert ink, for The Secret Identity.
?
Subscribe to the Ace e-dition for the latest news in arts, culture, and entertainment, since 1989.
Submit Lexington Daily Photos for consideration via acelist at aceweekly.com, or tag us on twitter, facebook, pinterest, tumblr, or instagram. Your photo may be shared with Ace readers in every possible digital and print format, including those not yet even conceived of, so be sure to include your name and a photo title.
Letter from the Poet, Bianca Spriggs
Dear Tattoo-Happy Lexingtonians:
Thank you for wanting to put my words on your body. This is the largest collaborative work I?ve ever had the pleasure of participating in, so I am raising the proverbial roof right now in your honor. I figured a few of you might be interested in how I wrote this poem. I rarely reveal the slight of hand that is involved with penning a piece, but for you, anything. So, for those who are interested in my process, behold:
First, the form. This type of poem is my favorite to tackle (only the best for y?all) called a contrapuntal. It is actually three poems in one. Here?s how you read a contrapuntal. You start with the left side as its own complete standalone poem (in this case, a narrative poem, or a poem that tells a story). Then, you read the right side as its own poem (in this case, a list poem, or a poem that sounds like what it is: a list). Then you read both sides from left to right and a third poem floats to the surface which could not have existed without its disparate parts. For those of you who are hardcore grammarians, you can relax. The third poem cares nothing for your earthly rules of punctuation. This is THEE universe we?re talking about here. Take the day off and enjoy my mad stream-of-cosmos skills.
As for the content, at its core, this is a love poem to, about, and for our city. I wanted to capture a bit of recklessness and headiness and heightened sensation and euphoria, the trappings of true love, but also work in some of the complexities that reveal themselves in any relationship as people grow together. Over the past few months, I?ve been using social media and personal interviews to figure out the best beloved locations and sentiments about our city. So, the narrative portion is all about name-dropping some of the more recognized spots in Lexington. Alas, if I had included everyone?s, well, we?d never be done with this project, so I included those which were mentioned the most. For the list poem, these were actual responses when I asked folks to fill in the blank: Lexington is the ____________ of the Universe.
Ultimately, this piece truly is written by you. I just did a little re-arranging here and there.
Live long and prosper, Bianca
p.s. For you newbies?yes. Tattoos hurt. But like my good friend ?Cowboy? Dave, the steadfast bartender at Lynagh?s has been known to say, ?If it didn?t hurt, it didn?t happen.? Kinda like love. And poetry.
Surgically implanted electrodes could treat severe cases of the syndrome
By Laura Sanders
Web edition: January 25, 2013
Electrodes implanted deep in the brain of a boy with severe autism have enabled him to live a more normal life. The treatment reduced his destructive behavior and allowed the formerly nonverbal boy to speak a few words, scientists report online January 21 in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
The results are the first to use brain stimulation to alleviate symptoms of autism.? Scientists caution that interpreting the results broadly is impossible without larger, systematic studies, but even so neurosurgeon Ali Rezai of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus calls the boys? gains ?intriguing and promising.?
Researchers have become increasingly interested in deep brain stimulation, a technique in which surgically implanted electrodes act as brain pacemakers. For the last two decades, deep brain stimulation has found use treating movement disorders such as the tremors that accompany Parkinson?s disease (SN: 4/11/09, p.11). More recently, scientists have begun experimenting with the technique to treat behavioral and mental problems, including depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and severe anxiety.
The boy in the study, who was 13 at the time of his experimental surgery, suffered from severe autism symptoms: He couldn?t talk or make eye contact, woke up screaming repeatedly during the night, and habitually injured himself so badly that ?His parents restrained him almost constantly to protect him. Multiple rounds of psychiatric drugs failed to stave off his worsening symptoms.
In an effort to help him, doctors led by Volker Sturm of the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany implanted electrodes into the boy?s brain. Through trial and error, the doctors realized that stimulating a part of the amygdala, a brain structure important for emotions and memory, improved the boy?s symptoms. Stimulating other brain areas had no effect or worsened his symptoms.
After eight weeks of continuous electrical stimulation, the boy shifted on a clinical scale that measures irritability from ?severely ill? to ?moderately ill.? The boy also improved on a scale that measures autism symptoms. He began to make eye contact and was better able to control his behavior.
The boy?s parents reported even more dramatic improvements: His anxiety and self-harming behavior lessened and he slept better at night. He also began to enjoy activities such as tasting new foods, going on car rides and even playing with a piano. After six months of stimulation, the previously nonverbal boy began saying a few simple words such as ?papa? and ?mama.?
The electrodes? stimulation of the brain seemed to be behind the boy?s improvements. After 44 weeks of treatment, the battery on the device ran out of juice. During a monthlong lull in treatment, the boy?s symptoms grew more severe. Once the battery was replaced, his symptoms improved. Rechargeable batteries, which are now available, may circumvent this interruption for future patients, says Rezai.
The next step is to understand how deep brain stimulation changes the brain, particularly in people with behavioral and cognitive problems, Rezai says. That information could allow clinicians to design better therapies for these complex disorders.
Bats split on family livingPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Chris Bunting c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk 44-113-343-2049 University of Leeds
For the tiny Daubenton's bat, the attractions of family life seem to vary more with altitude than with the allure of the opposite sex.
For more than a decade, a team led by Professor John Altringham from the University of Leeds' School of Biology has studied a population of several hundred bats along a 50-km stretch of the River Wharfe. They monitored roosts in Ilkley and Addingham, upstream in the market town of Grassington and higher still in the villages of Kettlewell and Buckden.
The researchers found that all Daubenton's bats in nursery roosts in lowland areas of Wharfedale during the spring and summer were females and their offspring.
Male bats were mostly restricted to a windier, Heathcliff-like existence in roosts at the top of the Dales.
But the researchers were surprised to find a small oasis of cohabitation in Grassington, sandwiched between the bustle of the women-only childrearing in the lowlands and the more relaxed lives of the bachelors in the highlands.
Professor Altringham said: "Low down the dale, the females appear not to tolerate males and we assume they won't let them in the roost. They don't want anything to do with them. High in the dales, all the roosts are bachelor pads. But in the middle, at Grassington, males and females live togetherthe social structure changes with the environment"
"One possible reason for not finding males low down the valley could be that the mothers just want to avoid competing with males for food. It takes a lot of insects to make the milk needed to feed their young," Professor Altringham said.
"But it is also possible that the males choose not to roost with the females. When you look at the nursery colony in Ilkley, mothers and pups often have a lot of ectoparasites like ticks and mites. In a warm, crowded nursery, parasites can thrive, especially if there's less time for good personal hygiene. Parasites not only make life uncomfortable but can affect a bat's health. The males that live by themselves are usually very clean in their bachelor pads, so you can understand why they might not want to move in," he added.
At Grassington, which is deep in the Yorkshire Dales National Park but not as high as Buckden and Kettlewell, the bats have a completely different social structure. Both male and female bats live with the young throughout the spring and summer in roosts in the stonework of the old Dales bridges and in holes in ash trees.
"Females may roost as high up the dale as Grassington because they have these warm, cuddly males to bunk up with. This way, females use less energy keeping warm and babies grow faster," Professor Altringham said. "In these marginal conditions, they may just tolerate a few males to keep them warm. Otherwise they kick them out. Why do the males co-habit if they are going to get parasites all over them? Well, that may be down to the usual answer: sex."
Although male and female Daubenton's bats usually live apart throughout the spring and summer, they meet when they begin flying to caves in late summer.
Professor Altringham said: "In and around these caves the bats gather in huge numbers to mate, in a behaviour known as swarming. This is clubbing for bats, with males displaying to females in lengthy acrobatic chases. As winter closes in, these caves will ultimately be their hibernation sites.
"There are nearly 2,000 cave entrances and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages in the Dales and these attract bats from all over Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and beyond for mating and hibernation. The males in Grassington may be giving themselves the opportunity to mate with the females late in the summer before they even get to the caves."
The researchers have built up a detailed picture of social and sexual behaviour by genotyping hundreds of individuals. The evidence gathered from this supports the theory that the Grassington males enjoy an advantage in mating.
"At Grassington, most of the fathers of bats born there spent the summer with the females. If we look at pups in Addingham and Ilkley, their dads were males caught when swarming at caves. So, as well as two different mating systems, you have distinct social groupings. A bachelor from Buckden is always a bachelor from Buckden. He doesn't pop down to Grassington to visit the females in the summer. His only option seems to be to go clubbing in the autumn," Professor Altringham said.
The Daubenton's bat, named after the 18th Century French naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, is widespread across the United Kingdom and specialises in hunting insects over water. Full-grown adults weigh only 7 to 12 grams, but they can live for 20 years or more.
"These bats are the size of a shrew but have a very different lifecycle. A shrew typically spends its entire life in a few metres of hedgerow, eats and breeds with a ferocious intensity, for a year if it is lucky, and then dies. In contrast, these bats lead a complex life over a huge area and females produce only one pup a year," Professor Altringham said. "This makes bats particularly vulnerable to the problems of habitat fragmentation and climate change."
###
The paper, which is published in PLOS ONE, was co-authored by Dr Ruth Angell and Professor John Altringham at The University of Leeds and by Professor Roger Butlin at Sheffield University. It was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) PhD studentship to Ruth Angell, with additional support from the NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility at Sheffield.
Further information:
Professor John Altringham is available for interview. Images and a map are available on request.
A copy of the full paperRuth L. Angell, Roger K. Butlin and John D. Altringham. 'Sexual segregation and flexible mating patterns in temperate bats,' PLOS ONE (DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0054194) is also available on request.
Contact:
Chris Bunting
Press Officer
University of Leeds
The paper will be available for download from 10 pm London Time / 5 pm US Eastern Time on Thursday 24 January 2013.
[ | 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.
Bats split on family livingPublic release date: 24-Jan-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Chris Bunting c.j.bunting@leeds.ac.uk 44-113-343-2049 University of Leeds
For the tiny Daubenton's bat, the attractions of family life seem to vary more with altitude than with the allure of the opposite sex.
For more than a decade, a team led by Professor John Altringham from the University of Leeds' School of Biology has studied a population of several hundred bats along a 50-km stretch of the River Wharfe. They monitored roosts in Ilkley and Addingham, upstream in the market town of Grassington and higher still in the villages of Kettlewell and Buckden.
The researchers found that all Daubenton's bats in nursery roosts in lowland areas of Wharfedale during the spring and summer were females and their offspring.
Male bats were mostly restricted to a windier, Heathcliff-like existence in roosts at the top of the Dales.
But the researchers were surprised to find a small oasis of cohabitation in Grassington, sandwiched between the bustle of the women-only childrearing in the lowlands and the more relaxed lives of the bachelors in the highlands.
Professor Altringham said: "Low down the dale, the females appear not to tolerate males and we assume they won't let them in the roost. They don't want anything to do with them. High in the dales, all the roosts are bachelor pads. But in the middle, at Grassington, males and females live togetherthe social structure changes with the environment"
"One possible reason for not finding males low down the valley could be that the mothers just want to avoid competing with males for food. It takes a lot of insects to make the milk needed to feed their young," Professor Altringham said.
"But it is also possible that the males choose not to roost with the females. When you look at the nursery colony in Ilkley, mothers and pups often have a lot of ectoparasites like ticks and mites. In a warm, crowded nursery, parasites can thrive, especially if there's less time for good personal hygiene. Parasites not only make life uncomfortable but can affect a bat's health. The males that live by themselves are usually very clean in their bachelor pads, so you can understand why they might not want to move in," he added.
At Grassington, which is deep in the Yorkshire Dales National Park but not as high as Buckden and Kettlewell, the bats have a completely different social structure. Both male and female bats live with the young throughout the spring and summer in roosts in the stonework of the old Dales bridges and in holes in ash trees.
"Females may roost as high up the dale as Grassington because they have these warm, cuddly males to bunk up with. This way, females use less energy keeping warm and babies grow faster," Professor Altringham said. "In these marginal conditions, they may just tolerate a few males to keep them warm. Otherwise they kick them out. Why do the males co-habit if they are going to get parasites all over them? Well, that may be down to the usual answer: sex."
Although male and female Daubenton's bats usually live apart throughout the spring and summer, they meet when they begin flying to caves in late summer.
Professor Altringham said: "In and around these caves the bats gather in huge numbers to mate, in a behaviour known as swarming. This is clubbing for bats, with males displaying to females in lengthy acrobatic chases. As winter closes in, these caves will ultimately be their hibernation sites.
"There are nearly 2,000 cave entrances and hundreds of kilometres of cave passages in the Dales and these attract bats from all over Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria and beyond for mating and hibernation. The males in Grassington may be giving themselves the opportunity to mate with the females late in the summer before they even get to the caves."
The researchers have built up a detailed picture of social and sexual behaviour by genotyping hundreds of individuals. The evidence gathered from this supports the theory that the Grassington males enjoy an advantage in mating.
"At Grassington, most of the fathers of bats born there spent the summer with the females. If we look at pups in Addingham and Ilkley, their dads were males caught when swarming at caves. So, as well as two different mating systems, you have distinct social groupings. A bachelor from Buckden is always a bachelor from Buckden. He doesn't pop down to Grassington to visit the females in the summer. His only option seems to be to go clubbing in the autumn," Professor Altringham said.
The Daubenton's bat, named after the 18th Century French naturalist Louis-Jean-Marie Daubenton, is widespread across the United Kingdom and specialises in hunting insects over water. Full-grown adults weigh only 7 to 12 grams, but they can live for 20 years or more.
"These bats are the size of a shrew but have a very different lifecycle. A shrew typically spends its entire life in a few metres of hedgerow, eats and breeds with a ferocious intensity, for a year if it is lucky, and then dies. In contrast, these bats lead a complex life over a huge area and females produce only one pup a year," Professor Altringham said. "This makes bats particularly vulnerable to the problems of habitat fragmentation and climate change."
###
The paper, which is published in PLOS ONE, was co-authored by Dr Ruth Angell and Professor John Altringham at The University of Leeds and by Professor Roger Butlin at Sheffield University. It was funded by a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) PhD studentship to Ruth Angell, with additional support from the NERC Biomolecular Analysis Facility at Sheffield.
Further information:
Professor John Altringham is available for interview. Images and a map are available on request.
A copy of the full paperRuth L. Angell, Roger K. Butlin and John D. Altringham. 'Sexual segregation and flexible mating patterns in temperate bats,' PLOS ONE (DOI 10.1371/journal.pone.0054194) is also available on request.
Contact:
Chris Bunting
Press Officer
University of Leeds
The paper will be available for download from 10 pm London Time / 5 pm US Eastern Time on Thursday 24 January 2013.
[ | 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.
Share ?
Email ?
Print
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 24-Jan-2013
Share ]