Syrian prime minister survives Damascus bombing, six die
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halki survived a bomb attack on his convoy in Damascus on Monday, state media and activists said, as rebels struck in the heart of President Bashar al-Assad's capital. Six people were killed in the blast, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, the latest in a series of rebel attacks on government targets including a December bombing which wounded Assad's interior minister.
Italy's new government begins life in climate of crisis
ROME (Reuters) - New Italian Prime Minister Enrico Letta seeks the backing of parliament in a confidence vote on Monday, facing severe political and economic problems that will test the solidity of his broad coalition government in the months ahead. Letta is due to speak in parliament at 3 p.m. (9:00 a.m. EDT) before the lower house confidence vote in the evening, where he will be backed by his center-left Democratic Party and former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's center-right People of Freedom.
Lawyers, public chant "hang him" as Bangladesh building owner led to court
DHAKA (Reuters) - Bangladeshi lawyers and protesters chanted "hang him, hang him" on Monday as the owner of a factory building that collapsed last week killing nearly 400 people was led into court dressed in a helmet and bullet-proof jacket, witnesses said. The drama came as rescue officials said they were unlikely to find more survivors in the rubble of the building that collapsed on Wednesday, burying hundreds of garment workers in the country's worst industrial accident.
South Africa's Mandela in good health, good spirits: ANC
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - Anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela is in good health and good spirits, South Africa's ruling African National Congress said on Monday, in the first update on his condition since he was discharged from hospital in early April. President Jacob Zuma and other party leaders visited the 94-year-old former president at his Johannesburg home.
In changing region, U.S. committed to military ties with Gulf Arabs
DUBAI/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is signaling its military commitment to its Gulf Arab allies at a time of unfamiliar strain in their decades old partnership. Syria's civil war and Iran's nuclear program have led to tensions, with Gulf Arab states willing a more assertive U.S. response to bring Iran to heel and force Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. Growing U.S. energy independence has further complicated a relationship founded on oil and defense.
Kenya chief justice denies taking bribe in presidential petition
NAIROBI (Reuters) - Kenya's chief justice on Monday denied accusations that he had received bribes to rule in favor of President Uhuru Kenyatta in a petition challenging the outcome of last month's election that was the biggest test yet of the newly reformed judiciary. Kenya's Supreme Court, chaired by Chief Justice Willy Mutunga, upheld Kenyatta's victory, dismissing a petition by presidential contender Raila Odinga. Former Prime Minister Odinga accepted the verdict, helping douse tensions after tribal violence blighted the previous election five years before.
Dubai court jails Britons for four years on drug charges
DUBAI (Reuters) - A Dubai court sentenced three Britons to four years in jail on drug charges on Monday, a decision that may overshadow a visit to Britain by the United Arab Emirates president because of allegations that the defendants were tortured. The three were convicted a day after British Prime Minister David Cameron voiced concern about the allegations and his spokesman said the case would be on the agenda of his talks this week with UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.
British voters see more gloom in years ahead: poll
LONDON (Reuters) - Nearly half of Britons expect their living standards to fall further by the time they vote in the next election in 2015, but the opposition Labor Party could still struggle to win if the economy does rebound, a pollster said on Monday. A YouGov poll showed 46 percent of respondents thought they would be worse off in 2015 than now. Only seven percent saw a full recovery in the next two to three years.
Myanmar should deploy more troops in volatile state: commission
YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar must urgently address the plight of Muslims displaced by sectarian bloodshed in western Rakhine State and double the number of security forces to control the still-volatile region, an independent commission said on Monday. Its long-awaited report recommended a mixed bag of humanitarian and security responses to violence last June and October that killed at least 192 people and left 140,000 homeless, mostly stateless Rohingya Muslims in an area dominated by ethnic Rakhine Buddhists.
Car bomb blasts kill 18 in Iraqi Shi'ite provinces
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Car bombs in busy Shi'ite Muslim areas of southern Iraq killed at least 18 people on Monday, medics and police sources said, taking the week's death toll to nearly 200 as sectarian violence intensifies. Militant attacks have increased as the civil war in neighboring Syria puts further strains on fragile Sunni-Shi'ite relations, and tensions are at their highest since U.S. troops left Iraq more than a year ago.
Apr. 29, 2013 ? Researchers at the University of Waterloo have found that children hear more complex language from parents when they read a storybook with only pictures compared to a picture-vocabulary book. The findings appear in the latest issue of the journal First Language.
"Too often, parents dismiss picture storybooks, especially when they are wordless, as not real reading or just for fun," said the study's author, Professor Daniela O'Neill. "But these findings show that reading picture storybooks with kids exposes them to the kind of talk that is really important for children to hear, especially as they transition to school."
The study, by Professor O'Neill of the Department of Psychology at Waterloo, and Angela Nyhout, a graduate student, recorded 25 mothers while they read to their toddlers both a wordless picture storybook and a vocabulary book with pictures.
"What we found was that moms in our study significantly more frequently used forms of complex talk when reading the picture storybook to their child than the picture vocabulary book," said Professor O'Neill.
The researchers were especially interested in looking at the language mothers use when reading both wordless picture storybooks and picture vocabulary books to see if parents provided extra information to children like relating the events of the story to the child's own experiences or asking their child to make predictions.
"So, when reading the picture story, we would hear moms say things such as 'where do you think the squirrel is going to go?' or 'we saw a squirrel this morning in the backyard.' But we didn't hear this kind of complex talk as often with vocabulary books, where mentioning just the name of the animal, for example, was more common, " said Professor O'Neill.
The results of the study are significant for both parents and educators because vocabulary books are often marketed as being more educational. "Books of all kinds can build children's language and literacy skills, but they do so perhaps in different ways," said Professor O'Neill. "It's exciting to find that even short wordless picture books provide children with exposure to the kinds of sophisticated language that they will encounter at school and that lay the foundation for later reading development."
A Research Development Initiative grant, which the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada awarded to Professor O'Neill, supported this research.
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A. Nyhout, D. K. O'Neill. Mothers' complex talk when sharing books with their toddlers: Book genre matters. First Language, 2013; 33 (2): 115 DOI: 10.1177/0142723713479438
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BERLIN, April 29 (Reuters) - Barcelona will try every trick in the book to overturn a 4-0 first-leg deficit against Bayern Munich in their Champions League semi-final return leg on Wednesday, honorary Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer warned on Monday. Bayern crushed the Spaniards last week in a surprisingly one-sided encounter but Beckenbauer, former player, coach and president of Germany's most successful club, warned that Barcelona were not ready to surrender. "Barca will try everything to throw Bayern off balance," he told Bild newspaper. ...
It?s never a good idea to ?throw the book? at an employee just be??cause a supervisor wants to get rid of her. That?s especially true if it turns out that the supervisor has been making ageist or other offensive comments about the employee and has been making her comply with rules that don?t seem to apply to others.
Before approving discipline, check to make sure this isn?t an illegal effort to terminate. Ask why the supervisor wants to fire the employee.
That?s especially important if she has been doing a good job and received excellent performance reviews in the past. If the supervisor can?t provide a clear performance-based reason or economic argument unrelated to any protected characteristic, press for more information.
Recent case: Sharon, an older woman, worked for U.S. Bancorp until she was terminated for allegedly violating the bank?s so-called zero-tolerance rule against abusing company credit cards. Sharon apparently charged a personal cellphone plan, Internet access and other communications services to her company card.
Sharon sued, alleging that the real reason she was terminated was her age.
She recounted plenty of ageist comments her supervisor had made: that she ?looked ridiculous for her age,? that her clothes were ?inappropriate for her age? and that she wasn?t ?taking care of herself.?
During pretrial discovery, Sharon?s attorney introduced evidence that U.S. Bancorp in fact had no ?zero-tolerance? rule at all. Indeed, other younger employees had charged business suits and other expensive items to their cards with no consequences. Plus, the actual written rule seemed to allow for charging communications technology to the card if employees worked at home and on the road, as Sharon did.
Plus, once the supervisor told Sharon that she couldn?t charge the services, she tried to get them removed from the card but hadn?t completed the process by the time she was terminated.
The court said the combination of evidence?including the ageist statements, the fact that younger employees were retained even when they also appeared to have violated the credit card rules and the fact that Sharon was the only employee terminated for breaking the rule?was enough to send the case to trial. (Brock??bank v. U.S. Bancorp, No. 11-35618, 9th Cir., 2013)
Advice: Could HR have prevented this lawsuit? Yes, by instituting clear guidelines for all discharges.
Insist on an un??biased review of all the stated discharge reasons. Conduct an internal comparison of all past discipline for similar rule violations, including an analysis of how those rules affect protected classes. Interview the affected employee so she can explain her position.
If you see problems with the proposed discharge, consult your attorney. He or she can provide additional advice and may recommend offering a severance package in exchange for a promise not to sue. That can be money well spent. Your lawyer can structure the offer to comply with special rules for older workers so the employee can?t take the money and still sue.
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LONDON (Reuters) - British consumer confidence dropped unexpectedly in April, mainly as a result of worsening personal finances, a survey from researchers GfK NOP showed on Tuesday.
The headline index in the poll fell to -27 from -26 in March, slightly weaker than analysts' forecasts for another unchanged reading.
Although morale remains stronger than a year ago, the index is considerably below its average of -9 since the survey started in 1974.
"After three months of stability, the next move of the index was always going to be important," said Nick Moon, Managing Director of Social Research at GfK. "The fall back, even though by only one point, implies the recovery in confidence has stalled, and real recovery looks a long way away."
The poll of 2,001 Britons was carried out on behalf of the European Commission between April 5 and April 14, before official data showed that Britain's economy avoided another recession, posting growth in the first three months of the year.
(Reporting by Olesya Dmitracova; editing by Ron Askew)
HIGHLANDS, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Monday that President Barack Obama "has kept every promise he's made" about helping the state recover from Superstorm Sandy.
Hours later, Obama's housing secretary approved New Jersey's plans to spend $1.83 billion in federal money to help the state rebuild and recover from the storm.
Speaking on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program six months after the deadly storm, the Republican governor said presidential politics were the last thing on his mind as he toured storm-devastated areas with Obama last fall.
When it comes to helping New Jersey rebuild from the storm, "the president has kept every promise he's made," said Christie, widely considered a potential candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. "I think he's done a good job. He kept his word."
Christie's warm embrace of Obama after the storm angered some Republicans, who said it helped tip a close presidential election to the Democrat and away from Mitt Romney, who Christie endorsed and for whom he campaigned last fall.
Christie says he and Obama have fundamentally different views on governing. But he said the two men did what needed to be done for a devastated region.
"I've got a job to do," he said. "You wake up and 7 million of your 8.8 million citizens are out of power, you're not thinking about presidential politics."
Christie challenged his critics to put themselves in his shoes while dealing with the massive storm, predicting none of them would have done anything differently.
"I have a 95 percent level of disagreement with Barack Obama," Christie said. But that did not come into play while dealing with the storm.
"We saw suffering together," Christie said. "Everything the president promised me they'd do, they've done. I don't have any complaint this morning on the issue of disaster relief."
Sandy destroyed about 360,000 homes or apartment units in New Jersey, and some areas along the shore are still devastated.
Later Monday, U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan appeared with Christie at a press conference and announced federal approval of New Jersey's plans to spend more than $1.8 billion in federal grants on storm rebuilding and recovery.
"Today is the beginning of us getting to phase two of return to normalcy," Christie said. "For the overwhelming majority of New Jerseyans, their life is back to normal. For those who have not been able to leave it behind, I can still see the emotion on their faces, the sense of loss they still carry close to the surface. We are not here today to take a victory lap."
Congress approved more than $60 billion in Sandy relief funds, most of it for New Jersey and New York, despite opposition from many Congressional Republicans who voiced concerns over how some of it would be spent.
At a press conference at a popular seafood restaurant, where reporters and cameramen were pressed up against diners, Christie said it has been easy to work with Donovan on Sandy recovery.
"There's an old joke, right? Someone from the government comes into town and they say, 'I'm from Washington and I'm here to help' and everybody starts to laugh," Christie said. "Shaun Donovan is ruining that joke for me."
Donovan returned the compliment, praising the Republican governor "for his remarkable and relentless leadership in helping this town, this shore and this state recover from one of the toughest blows it has ever endured."
This is the first round of disaster relief money to be allocated. Two more rounds of block grants are expected later.
The grants will be focused in the nine counties with the worst damage from the storm. The first round of grants will help an estimated 26,000 homeowners with their primary residences, 5,000 renters and 10,000 small businesses, in addition to local governments.
The programs the Republican governor wants to implement ? offering grants to rebuild damaged homes, no-interest loans for small businesses and giving landlords cash incentives to repair homes and rent them ? are standard for states receiving federal assistance after natural disasters. Some areas where the state says there are problems, such as repairing infrastructure and restoring the fishing industry, are not included in the plan. An expanded home buyback program for people living in flood-prone neighborhoods will be included in a later funding application.
The plan submitted to HUD includes $825 million for elevation and reconstruction of damaged primary residences; $255 million for displaced renters whose primary residences were damaged by the storm; and $300 million in small business grants. A $25 million allocation to promote storm-impacted shore communities is also included, as is $50 million to help municipalities continue to provide essential services without increasing taxes. Developers of public housing could see $104.5 million in zero- and low-interest loans of up to $120,000 per unit to create new permanent housing
___
Wayne Parry can be reached at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
Earlier this month, TakePart reported on the efforts of a group of high school students in Georgia raising funds to hold their county?s first multi-racial prom?otherwise known as regular prom in the rest of the country.
Last night, those kids got their wish at Wilcox County's first-ever "Integrated Prom," where students of all races were welcome. By all accounts, it was a remarkably successful event.
According to local crews, the entrance to the dance was so swarmed with news cameras, it resembled something closer to a Hollywood red carpet event, rather than a high school dance. Students made their way in front of reporters, stopping for pictures while throngs of parents cheered them on and held back tears.
Quanesha Wallace, one of the students responsible for organizing the event, told one news reporter, ?It turned out really well. I didn?t even know this many people were coming. I didn?t even know this many tickets were being sold.?
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Wilcox County, GA has had a segregated prom system since the school was racially integrated just several decades ago. The school's dances have always been privately funded and held away from school grounds, allowing for the segregation to continue without any legal consequence.
But this year, a group of students at Wilcox County High School had enough, with one in particular, Keela Bloodworth, explaining to WSFA, ?It?s embarrassing to know that I?m from the county that still does this.?
That?s when Bloodworth, Wallace, and a goup of their friends decided to raise funds on their own to hold an integrated prom. While their initial thoughts were of local bake sales and car washes, those became unnecessary once online news sites got a hold of their story. Just two days after that story broke, those students reached their funding goal, according to their Facebook page. Then they quickly surpassed it.
Since then, they?ve continued to collect donations from supporters across the country, with the excess money going towards their own college scholarships, as well as to funds for two unidentified local families, each of whom have recently ?suffered a major loss.?
In the weeks leading up to the dance, the students reported there had been some community backlash, mostly in the form of their fliers getting ripped down and disappearing.
And though several of Georgia?s lawmakers publicly championed the students? efforts, Georgia?s own governor, Nathan Deal initially refused to comment on the events because he didn't "want to take sides," according to a statement released by his spokesperson.
Nonetheless, after several weeks of mounting public pressure, Deal did release a carefully-worded statement, that concluded with, ?I think that people understand that some of these are just local issues and private issues, and not something that the state government needs to have its finger involved in.? And that may explain why segregation is alive and well in Georgia.
While their governor seemed content to sit this one out, these very determined high school students took it upon themselves to effect a change in their county, one that will hopefully be recognized for generations to come. In the meantime, if these are the kids who are representative of our future, we might be okay.
What would be your response if you found out that your county held segregated proms? Let us know in the Comments.
Related Stories on TakePart:
? These Los Angeles Cops Are Super-Excited About Taffeta and Tiaras
? What Every Parent Should Know: How to Help Your Kids Deal With Peer Conflicts at School
? Could Compassion Be the Key to Reducing Dropout Rates?
A Bay Area native, Andri Antoniades previously worked as a fashion industry journalist and medical writer.??In addition to reporting the weekend news on TakePart, she volunteers as a webeditor for locally-based nonprofits and works as a freelance feature writer for?TimeOutLA.com.
PRAGUE (AP) ? A powerful blast believed to be a gas explosion ripped open an office building in the center of Prague on Monday, injuring at least 35 people and sending shockwaves through the Old Town tourist district.
The blast shattered windows in the scenic area of charming streets and postcard-pretty buildings, sending glass flying. Authorities closed a wide area around the site and some tourists were stranded on street corners with baggage-loaded trolleys, unable to get into their hotels.
Authorities said two or three people were still believed to be missing, but sniffer dogs searching the rubble had not indicated that anyone was buried and the prime minister said it appeared no one had died.
An AP cameraman filming at the time of the blast said the physical impact could be felt on the famed 15th-century Charles Bridge over the Vltava River, which was packed with tourists.
The explosion occurred on Divadelni Street at about 10 a.m., in one of a row of several-story tall brick buildings dating back about a century. The street was covered with rubble and police evacuated people from nearby buildings.
"It's really immense and huge, almost like after an air assault or a bomb explosion," Prime Minister Petr Necas said after visiting the scene. "So, if we really prove what we think right now, which is that nobody died, it was very lucky."
Prague mayor Bohuslav Svoboda ruled out a terrorist attack, saying the blast was a gas explosion.
Prague is a major tourist capital, visited every year by legions of students, backpackers and others from around the world. In 2012, a total of 5.4 million people visited, with a large majority from outside the country ? many from Germany, Russia and the United States.
Officials had estimated that up to 40 were injured, but Zdenek Schwarz, head of rescue service in Prague later narrowed that down to 35. He told reporters that 30 of the injured were taken to hospitals for treatment, two of them with serious injuries.
He said five people were treated at the scene, some bandaged and with faces still bloody.
Among the injured were two Portuguese women, another two women from Kazakhstan, a man from Slovakia and a German woman, although none of their injuries was serious, the rescue service said.
City Hall spokeswoman Tereza Kralova said the cause of the incident will be thoroughly investigated and "we believe it won't negatively affect tourism."
Windows in buildings located hundreds of meters from the blast were shattered, including some in the nearby National Theater, an ornate 19th-century structure that is one of the most important cultural institutions in the Czech Republic.
"There was glass everywhere and people shouting and crying," Vaclav Rokyta, a Czech student, told the AP near the scene.
The Faculty of Social Sciences of Prague's Charles University and the Film and TV School of the Academy of Sciences of Performing Arts are located next to the damaged building. Students had to be evacuated.
"I was in the bathroom, no windows, the door was closed. Honestly, if I had been in my bed I would have been covered in glass," said Z.B. Haislip, a student from Raleigh, North Carolina, who was in a nearby building.
The road closures caused major traffic disruption and confused thousands of tourists.
Rescuers were still searching the rubble, using sniffer dogs. Two or three people were still believed to be missing, firefighter spokeswoman Pavlina Adamcova said.
The building likely belongs to the Air Navigation Services of the Czech Republic, said Richard Klima, spokesman for the state-run company that provides air traffic information for civil aviation in the country.
Klima said about six other firms rented office space in the building.
The Prague blast comes the day after a possible gas explosion ripped off the side of a five-story residential building in France's Champagne country, killing at least two people and injuring 14 others
In 2006, another gas blast in Prague killed two men.
When it comes to major news, we didn't expect to hear much from Google in the run-up to I/O, but clearly, the company just couldn't wait that long. Google Now, a service that Android users have enjoyed for a year, just became available on iOS devices in the form of an update to the Google Search app, confirming those leaked videos we saw a few weeks ago. It won't have integration with notifications or alerts at launch -- it may come in a future update, but the company wasn't willing to divulge its future plans -- so you'll need to enter the app and swipe up to refresh your list of cards. The iOS version won't have every type of card that you'll find on Android, either: boarding passes, activity summary, events, concerts, Fandango and Zillow aren't included this go-round. Improvements and additional features will likely trickle in over time, but it's certainly better than nothing for iOS fans who've looked at Jelly Bean users with a slightly jealous eye. We've included Google's blog post in its entirety below, and you can jump to the source to download the app.
Excuse us while we interrupt your episode of The Archers, but we thought users of BBC's iPlayer might like to know about the latest Android app update. Amongst the usual bug fixes, the update promises to offer a "much improved" viewing experience on big hitting devices such as Samsung's Galaxy S III and Note 2, plus the Nexus 4. The Beeb stopped short of spilling further details, but it does go on to confirm that it'll continue to apply spit-and-polish to the playback experience for as much hardware as it can, without having to wait for app updates. We hope this doesn't mean it'll be treading on any toes, of course. Fans of slightly bigger screens (which is more of you, apparently) can expect some attention soon, with a hat tip about a tablet update coming in the next release.
Most solar homes are still dependent on the grid, so when the grid fails, they lose power. But that's beginning to change as the solar industry begins to focus on battery storage as the next 'green' frontier.
By David J. Unger,?Correspondent / April 27, 2013
Workers install solar panels on the roof of a farmstead barn in Binsham near Landshut, Germany, last year. Currently, most solar homes don't have onsite energy storage. Typically, adding backup batteries to a solar home adds about 30 percent to the cost.
Michaela Rehle/Reuters/File
Enlarge
When superstorm Sandy barreled into Long Island last October, it flooded Raina Brett Russo's home.
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"Basically, the ocean and the bay came together in my living room," Ms. Russo says. "It hit us really hard."
The basement and first floor were underwater, three cars were flooded, and to the amazement of her neighbors, the power did not come back on any sooner than theirs. With 10.4 kilowatts' worth of solar panels bolted to her roof and undamaged, shouldn't the Russo house have been an oasis of light and power?
Not quite. Like most solar installations today, Russo's panels are connected to, and reliant on, the broader energy infrastructure. When the grid fails, most residential solar panels also fail. But that's beginning to change. The next evolution of home solar will be not in the panels that create energy, experts say, but in the batteries that can store it.
"Storage to me is the holy grail of renewable technology," says Dan Juhl, head of Juhl Energy, a Minnesota-based clean-energy company that offers, among other things, a hybrid solar-storage system called SolarBank. "With solar and wind we can produce power ? no ifs, ands, or buts about it. And with a little storage, you're good to go."
The technology exists, but it comes at a price. Depending on a house's size, location, and consumption, storage adds about 30 percent to the cost of a solar installation, which averages $26,000. Also, batteries need to be replaced every six to 12 years, depending on whether they're used to provide energy at night or strictly as backup systems.
Some of that?cost may be offset by the savings from buying less power from a central utility. Then there's the benefit of having working lights, refrigeration, and a charged cellphone in the aftermath of a storm, say supporters of solar power. Still, battery storage will have to come down in price to be competitive with conventional backup generators.
Solar panels themselves were once considered cost-prohibitive. Those prices have since plummeted, thanks to technological advances and a rapidly growing global market. The same could happen for storage.
"Ten or 15 years ago the battery was an afterthought because the photovoltaic module was the new, exciting technology," says Dean Middleton, director of sales for renewable energy at California-based Trojan Battery Company. "Today, there's much more of a focus on the battery."
Energy storage topped the list of high-demand features in a December 2012 global survey of 400 solar in-stallers, system integrators, and wholesalers by IHS Inc., a Colorado-based business analysis firm.
One-third of respondents said they expect to use energy storage in more than 40 percent of the photovoltaic systems they install by 2015. "Energy storage is becoming an increasingly important feature for PV systems, and if suppliers are able to deliver products in line with the industry's expectations, the market for energy storage in PV could increase significantly over the next two years," says Sam Wilkinson, a manager at IHS, in a release.
The nascent market is getting a boost from the US government. In November, the Department of Energy awarded $120 million to Argonne National Laboratory in suburban Chicago to lead research into better and cheaper batteries for vehicles and the electrical grid.
In the meantime,?lead-acid batteries will do the trick. The technology is time-tested and well understood, unlike newer and more volatile storage systems. Batterymakers say that storage of lead-acid batteries, despite their ominous name, is clean, safe, and highly recyclable.
When combined with solar panels and a special inverter to direct the flow of energy to and from the various sources, the batteries offer a kind of energy security not available in most solar panel systems.
"While everybody is arguing about a smart grid and how it's going to work, anyone who installs this kind of system already has a smart grid right there in their home," says Mark Cerasuolo, senior marketing manager at OutBack Power Technologies in Arlington, Wash., which specializes in power conversion equipment. "Everything on your side of the meter is what really counts."
Four months passed before Russo and her family could move back into their storm-battered home. She is adamant about acquiring backup power for when the next storm comes. But Russo, cofounder of educational website EcoOutfitters.net, which is dedicated to demystifying the process of installing renewable energy systems, eschews conventional generators because of their emissions.
"Since we already have this solar system, let's use it as a backup," she says.
From sustainable buildings to redesigned currency, we've got plenty of lovely things for you to check out in the most beautiful items of the week. More »
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Russian authorities secretly recorded a telephone conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother, officials said Saturday, days after the U.S. government finally received details about the call.
In another conversation, the mother of now-dead bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was recorded talking to someone in southern Russia who is under FBI investigation in an unrelated case, officials said.
The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, they might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Tsarnaev family.
As it was, Russian authorities told the FBI only that they had concerns that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. With no additional information, the FBI conducted a limited inquiry and closed the case in June 2011.
Two years later, authorities say Tamerlan and his brother, Dzhohkar, detonated two homemade bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 260. Tamerlan was killed in a police shootout and Dzhohkar is under arrest.
In the past week, Russian authorities turned over to the United States information it had on Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens who emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area over the past 11 years.
Even had the FBI received the information from the Russian wiretaps earlier, it's not clear that the government could have prevented the attack.
In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother vaguely discussing jihad, according to U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation with reporters.
The two discussed the possibility of Tamerlan going to Palestine, but he told his mother he didn't speak the language there, according to the officials, who reviewed the information Russia shared with the U.S.
In a second call, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva spoke with a man in the Caucasus region of Russia who was under FBI investigation. Jacqueline Maguire, a spokeswoman for the FBI's Washington Field Office, where that investigation was based, declined to comment.
There was no information in the conversation that suggested a plot inside the United States, officials said.
It was not immediately clear why Russian authorities didn't share more information at the time. It is not unusual for countries, including the U.S., to be cagey with foreign authorities about what intelligence is being collected.
Nobody was available to discuss the matter early Sunday at FSB offices in Moscow.
Jim Treacy, the FBI's legal attache in Moscow between 2007 and 2009, said the Russians long asked for U.S. assistance regarding Chechen activity in the United States that might be related to terrorism.
"On any given day, you can get some very good cooperation," Treacy said. "The next you might find yourself totally shut out."
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has denied that she or her sons were involved in terrorism. She has said she believed her sons have been framed by U.S. authorities.
But Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the Tsarnaev brothers and Zubeidat's former brother-in-law, said Saturday he believes the mother had a "big-time influence" as her older son increasingly embraced his Muslim faith and decided to quit boxing and school.
After receiving the narrow tip from Russia in March 2011, the FBI opened a preliminary investigation into Tamerlan and his mother. But the scope was extremely limited under the FBI's internal procedures.
After a few months, they found no evidence Tamerlan or his mother were involved in terrorism.
The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011.
In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back.
At that time, however, the CIA asked that Tamerlan's and his mother's name be entered into a massive U.S. terrorism database.
The CIA declined to comment Saturday.
Authorities have said they've seen no connection between the brothers and a foreign terrorist group. Dzhohkar told FBI interrogators that he and his brother were angry over wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the deaths of Muslim civilians there.
Family members have said Tamerlan was religiously apathetic until 2008 or 2009, when he met a conservative Muslim convert known only to the family as Misha. Misha, they said, steered Tamerlan toward a stricter version of Islam.
Two U.S. officials say investigators believe they have identified Misha. While it was not clear whether the FBI had spoken to him, the officials said they have not found a connection between Misha and the Boston attack or terrorism in general.
___
Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in Washington and Michael Kunzelman in Boston contributed to this report.
SEDONA, Ariz. (AP) ? Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that Arizona Sen. John McCain probably would have beat his boss in the 2008 presidential election had the economy not collapsed.
Biden's comment about McCain and President Barack Obama came during the opening dinner of an annual forum among the Red Rocks of Sedona in northern Arizona. He and McCain, a Republican, touched on the gun control debate following the Newtown shootings and the bombings in Boston, but made no mention of Syria. Just as the night came to a close, Biden turned to the grueling nature of presidential campaigns.
"The truth of the matter is, Barack knows it, I know, had the economy not collapsed around your ears, John, in the middle of literally ? as things were moving ? I think you probably would have won," Biden said. "But it would have been incredibly, incredibly, incredibly close. You inherited a really difficult time."
The forum is part of the McCain Institute for International Leadership, a program formed by McCain as a way to debate foreign affairs. This year's theme for the Sedona Forum is "How can we promote freedom and democracy effectively?"
Rather than a discussion between McCain and Biden, the two sat on stage together with McCain posing questions to his former Democratic adversary on gun control and whether background checks are necessary, human rights abuses at the hands of the United States and the recent bombings at the Boston marathon.
McCain and Biden both said that despite their disagreements, they've never lost respect for one another.
On gun control, Biden said it's never been a simple issue, but that Congress has miscalculated how deeply the public feels about it and has failed to stand up to groups like the National Rifle Association, particularly after the shootings in Newtown. He said the public is looking to Congress to be mature enough to figure out a way to diminish the chance it will happen again.
"For the first time ever, you have people who are for gun safety, for increasing background checks," Biden said. "Two out of three of them say it will be a major determining factor in how I vote. That's the political dynamic that has changed. So I think we're going to get this anyway. I think this will pass before the year is out, within this Congress."
In responding to a question about the vulnerabilities of the United States when it comes to terrorist attacks, Biden said that the radical, lone wolves have been the most difficult to catch. But he said America shouldn't change its values, how it treats people abroad or people coming into the United States. Nor should America adopt policies that keep people from freely walking down the street without being frisked by police or carrying identification cards, he said.
"The moment we change any of those things, that's when they win," Biden said. "Because they don't see how you can have a society that is not ordered and regimented and wedded to an orthodoxy that is theirs. That's the point that bothers them most about us."
McCain followed up by saying that those who tortured U.S. prisoners, in violation of the Geneva convention, should be exposed and be held responsible to prevent repeated abuses.
Biden agreed with the man once held as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. He said the internal debate in Congress and at the White House is how things got to that point, but it's not yet resolved.
"I think the only way you excise the demons is you acknowledge what happened, straightforward," Biden said.
GDP expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter. Economists expect slowdown in GDP growth this summer as sequester takes hold, which already delayed air traffic briefly.
By Schuyler Velasco,?Staff writer / April 27, 2013
A worker counts US dollar bills, which are being exchanged for Philippine pesos, inside a money changer in Manila. US GDP expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, less than analysts had predicted.
Romeo Ranoco/Reuters/File
Enlarge
GDP good, but not great: Economic growth quickened in the first quarter of 2013, but not at the pace analysts expected or hoped for. US GDP (gross domestic product) expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the first quarter, according to a report released by the Commerce Department Friday. The growth was propelled by an acceleration in consumer spending, housing, and business investment.
Skip to next paragraph Schuyler Velasco
Staff writer/editor
Schuyler Velasco is a writer and editor for the Monitor's business desk.? She writes about consumer issues, sports, and the occasional sandwich.
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Because the last quarter of 2012 was so stagnant, with GDP only expanding at a paltry 0.4 percent annual pace, many analysts expected first quarter GDP to rebound at least 3 percent.
The numbers were ?softer than our forecast and the consensus (both 3.0 percent),? Barclays economist Peter Newland wrote in an e-mailed analysis. ?That said, much of the pattern of growth within the expenditure components ? met broadly with our expectations, with a sharp rebound in inventory accumulation, a pickup in consumption growth, modest growth in business investment and another sizable drag from government spending.?
Analysts are warning, too, that this could be as good as it gets for 2013, as consumers and businesses start to feel the effects of the sequester and the expiration of the payroll tax holiday. For more, read Monitor Business Editor Laurent Belsie?s take on the GDP report.
The Raffinato Color-Block bags?come in three sizes to meet your EDC needs. ?Like all bags from Levenger, they are made of beautiful leather. ?These are made of softly-textured, full-grain Italian leather in shades of?sienna, dune, and caramel; the interior is lined in faille. ?The?Raffinato Color-Block Satchel (top, left; click for a larger view) is?16″ W [...]
Mark Zuckerberg showed he's more than just a social butterfly earlier this month, forming the tech-focused political lobby group FWD.us alongside some other big names in the industry. Now, according to AllThingsD, a few more heavy-hitters have signed up to offer their expertise, including Microsoft's Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, Sean Parker and Intuit CEO Brad Smith. Not a bad crew to have on your side when technology issues are up for discussion, especially Ballmer -- he's notoriously good at getting his point across.
Researchers receive high honor from American Society of Plant BiologistsPublic release date: 26-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
UC Riverside's Natasha Raikhel and Susan Wessler are recognized for their contributions to the field of plant biology
RIVERSIDE, Calif. Two scientists at the University of California, Riverside have received high recognition from the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) for their contributions to the field of plant biology.
Natasha Raikhel, a distinguished professor of plant cell biology, has been named the recipient of the Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award, granted every three years in recognition of outstanding service to plant biology. Susan Wessler, a distinguished professor of genetics, has been named a fellow of the ASPB, granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the society.
Raikhel is being recognized for her scientific contributions to the field of protein trafficking, including work on the vacuole, cell wall biosynthesis, nuclear import signaling, and lectins. She is a world-class expert in the area of secretory trafficking, explaining the key role of the vacuole and its numerous functions essential for plant survival. Her work ranges over the broad areas of plant biochemistry and plant cell biology, her discoveries in these realms being extremely relevant to plant growth and development.
Raikhel received the award also for building a strong and innovative group of plant biologists at UC Riverside and for her service to the plant community. She has served on numerous advisory and editorial boards and was editor-in-chief of the journal Plant Physiology from 2000 to 2005, transforming it into a flagship journal in plant biology.
At UCR, she holds the Ernst and Helen Leibacher Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular, Cell Biology & Genetics. The founding director of UCR's Center for Plant Cell Biology and the current director of the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Raikhel was instrumental in establishing a state-of-the-art research infrastructure that serves the entire campus, including plant biology labs.
Early in her career, she recognized the importance of the genomic revolution to biology and pioneered the use of chemical genomics, which uses simple chemicals to alter the functions of specific proteins without killing the plant, to advance our knowledge of plant processes. This information, in turn, can be used towards increased crop production, disease resistance and better adaptation to threatening environmental changes.
Her lab is actively harnessing the high-throughput capacity of new multidisciplinary methods, such as computational biology, and advanced imaging, genome sequencing and protein identification technologies, to integrate molecular information into a more comprehensive "systems biology" approach to studying organisms.
Her numerous distinguished awards include election as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Women in Cell Biology Senior Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, the ASPB Stephen Hales Prize, a Senior Fellowship from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and being named an ASPB Fellow.
She came to UCR in 2001 from Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Wessler is being recognized for her pioneering work involving the identification and study of plant transposable elements and the roles of these elements in shaping genomes.
She holds a University of California President's Chair and is a member of the NAS and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011, she was elected home secretary of the NAS, received the ASPB Stephen Hale Prize and was named the recipient of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 2012 Excellence in Science Award.
In August 2010, she moved her research program from the University of Georgia to UCR. Four years earlier, she was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and awarded $1 million to implement her project which was to replicate her research laboratory as an undergraduate classroom.
She is the recipient of the Creative Research Medal and the Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award from the University of Georgia. In addition she was the first recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Southeastern Universities Research Association. She is on the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America and the Rosalind Franklin Society.
Wessler is co-author of Mutants of Maize (Cold Spring Harbor Press) and of more than 120 research articles. She is one of the principal authors of Introduction to Genetic Analysis, a leading textbook used in introductory genetics courses in colleges and universities throughout the world. In addition, she is an associate editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial board of Current Opinions in Plant Biology and on the Board of Reviewing Editors of the journal Science.
Wessler is the fourth UCR faculty member to be named an ASPB Fellow. The others are Raikhel, Julia Bailey-Serres and Linda Walling.
The ASPB Fellow award was established in 2007. Award recipients comprise 0.2 percent of the society's current membership each year.
###
The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
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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.
Researchers receive high honor from American Society of Plant BiologistsPublic release date: 26-Apr-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Iqbal Pittalwala iqbal@ucr.edu 951-827-6050 University of California - Riverside
UC Riverside's Natasha Raikhel and Susan Wessler are recognized for their contributions to the field of plant biology
RIVERSIDE, Calif. Two scientists at the University of California, Riverside have received high recognition from the American Society of Plant Biologists (ASPB) for their contributions to the field of plant biology.
Natasha Raikhel, a distinguished professor of plant cell biology, has been named the recipient of the Adolph E. Gude, Jr. Award, granted every three years in recognition of outstanding service to plant biology. Susan Wessler, a distinguished professor of genetics, has been named a fellow of the ASPB, granted in recognition of distinguished and long-term contributions to plant biology and service to the society.
Raikhel is being recognized for her scientific contributions to the field of protein trafficking, including work on the vacuole, cell wall biosynthesis, nuclear import signaling, and lectins. She is a world-class expert in the area of secretory trafficking, explaining the key role of the vacuole and its numerous functions essential for plant survival. Her work ranges over the broad areas of plant biochemistry and plant cell biology, her discoveries in these realms being extremely relevant to plant growth and development.
Raikhel received the award also for building a strong and innovative group of plant biologists at UC Riverside and for her service to the plant community. She has served on numerous advisory and editorial boards and was editor-in-chief of the journal Plant Physiology from 2000 to 2005, transforming it into a flagship journal in plant biology.
At UCR, she holds the Ernst and Helen Leibacher Endowed Chair in Plant Molecular, Cell Biology & Genetics. The founding director of UCR's Center for Plant Cell Biology and the current director of the Institute for Integrative Genome Biology, Raikhel was instrumental in establishing a state-of-the-art research infrastructure that serves the entire campus, including plant biology labs.
Early in her career, she recognized the importance of the genomic revolution to biology and pioneered the use of chemical genomics, which uses simple chemicals to alter the functions of specific proteins without killing the plant, to advance our knowledge of plant processes. This information, in turn, can be used towards increased crop production, disease resistance and better adaptation to threatening environmental changes.
Her lab is actively harnessing the high-throughput capacity of new multidisciplinary methods, such as computational biology, and advanced imaging, genome sequencing and protein identification technologies, to integrate molecular information into a more comprehensive "systems biology" approach to studying organisms.
Her numerous distinguished awards include election as a member of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Women in Cell Biology Senior Award from the American Society for Cell Biology, the ASPB Stephen Hales Prize, a Senior Fellowship from the Japan Society for Promotion of Science and being named an ASPB Fellow.
She came to UCR in 2001 from Michigan State University, East Lansing.
Wessler is being recognized for her pioneering work involving the identification and study of plant transposable elements and the roles of these elements in shaping genomes.
She holds a University of California President's Chair and is a member of the NAS and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2011, she was elected home secretary of the NAS, received the ASPB Stephen Hale Prize and was named the recipient of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology 2012 Excellence in Science Award.
In August 2010, she moved her research program from the University of Georgia to UCR. Four years earlier, she was selected as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor and awarded $1 million to implement her project which was to replicate her research laboratory as an undergraduate classroom.
She is the recipient of the Creative Research Medal and the Lamar Dodd Creative Research Award from the University of Georgia. In addition she was the first recipient of the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Southeastern Universities Research Association. She is on the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America and the Rosalind Franklin Society.
Wessler is co-author of Mutants of Maize (Cold Spring Harbor Press) and of more than 120 research articles. She is one of the principal authors of Introduction to Genetic Analysis, a leading textbook used in introductory genetics courses in colleges and universities throughout the world. In addition, she is an associate editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and is on the editorial board of Current Opinions in Plant Biology and on the Board of Reviewing Editors of the journal Science.
Wessler is the fourth UCR faculty member to be named an ASPB Fellow. The others are Raikhel, Julia Bailey-Serres and Linda Walling.
The ASPB Fellow award was established in 2007. Award recipients comprise 0.2 percent of the society's current membership each year.
###
The University of California, Riverside (http://www.ucr.edu) is a doctoral research university, a living laboratory for groundbreaking exploration of issues critical to Inland Southern California, the state and communities around the world. Reflecting California's diverse culture, UCR's enrollment has exceeded 21,000 students. The campus will open a medical school in 2013 and has reached the heart of the Coachella Valley by way of the UCR Palm Desert Center. The campus has an annual statewide economic impact of more than $1 billion. A broadcast studio with fiber cable to the AT&T Hollywood hub is available for live or taped interviews. UCR also has ISDN for radio interviews. To learn more, call (951) UCR-NEWS.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
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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.
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Public release date: 26-Apr-2013
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