Source: http://rss.news.yahoo.com/rss/education
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সোমবার, ২৯ জুলাই, ২০১৩
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The Beautiful Sedation of the The Paul Taylor Dance Company ...
It was the first time I?d seen Paul Taylor Dance Company live. It?s simply never worked with my schedule to be there. (Last year when they were performing at ADF I was watching the world?s greatest tap dancers in Chicago.) I?ve heard the company recommended as a great introduction to modern dance, especially for those who already have an appreciation for ballet. Since ballet is my first love, I circled the date for Paul Taylor Dance Company at the American Dance Festival on my calendar this year.
I could see almost as soon as the first piece started ? it was Perpetual Dawn ? that the things I?d heard about them were true. The dancers moved lifted and lengthened, like in ballet; they swept across the stage landing lightly, toes first, like in ballet; they did small and fast footwork and partnered with lifts and leaps, like in ballet. The production quality in terms of lighting and dancers? preparation and expectation also seemed on par with a major world class ballet company. I understand that Paul Taylor Dance Company is a major world class dance company in its own right, but I want to distinguish them from other modern dance companies, most of which have none of these characteristics.
Perpetual Dawn had a rustic charm with smoky pastels against earth tones and a celebratory joyousness that reminded me of the first act of Giselle or any other peasant scene in a ballet. The music from the Dresden Concerti by Johann David Heinichen, a grand harpsichord Baroque piece, contributed to the ?wind comes sweeping down the plain? peasant life feeling.
The second piece, Eventide, turns out to have been much the same, with music Suite for Viola and Orchestra and Hymn-Tune Prelude by Vaughan Williams, strings still sweeping, but with less wind. Most of the visual patterns were created using pairs of dancers, as in the first, and this one had a loose story of love and memories. The dancers were as beautiful and composed as ever, and the colors on stage were striking and vibrantly highlighted the dancers, but I began to yawn half-way through.
The final piece of the evening, Arden Court, with music from several symphonies of William Boyce, was the most energetic and modern of the program. The clean lines and flawless technique continued with the addition of more acrobatic feats and humor.
I could see why the Paul Taylor Dance Company is one of the most highly respected and sought-after ensembles in the world. Everything was flawless, from the picturesque costumes and lighting, to the exacting choreography, to the dancers? technical ability to execute the demanding selections. Still, I left feeling very even and nearly unaffected. Any of the three selections would have been great as part of a more diverse program, but together, they were degrees of the same thing. I grew weary of seeing dancers in pairs, and in spite of the leaping and acrobatics, I felt a monotony I shouldn?t expect from such an energetic performance. After Perpetual Dawn I was gradually deflated by an undynamic program. I walked out impressed by remarkable production quality but not feeling particularly anxious to return.
Here are a few pictures from Arden Court. See more at Arts View NC
Paul Taylor Dance Company in Arden Court
Paul Taylor Dance Company in Arden Court
Review and pictures by Denise Cerniglia
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শনিবার, ২৭ জুলাই, ২০১৩
Sprint's HTC 8XT brings BoomSound and HTC camera to Windows Phone 8 (Gallery)
I was given an HTC 8X at the Windows Phone 8 launch event and loved the design that seemed to disappear in your hand. Sprint hasn't seen much Windows Phone love, but has two decent options for customers. I've been using the HTC 8XT for a couple days and wanted to share some first impressions.
The HTC 8XT from Sprint brings a mixture of HTC's best with design aspects of the HTC 8X and 8S, along with features from the excellent HTC One. It is available now from Sprint for $99.99 with a 2-year contract.
Hardware
It comes in California Blue and at first glance looks like a slightly larger 8S with a different shade of color on the bottom button area. Specifications include:
- 4.3 inch 800x480 pixels resolution Gorilla Glass display
- 1.4 GHz dual-core processor
- 1GB RAM
- 8GB integrated storage with microSD card (up to 64GB supported)
- 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.6 megapixel front camera
- HTC BoomSound front facing stereo speakers
- Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11 a/b/g/n WiFi, and NFC
- 1,800 mAh battery
- Dimensions of 5.2 x 2.6 x 0.39 inches and 4.9 ounces
As you can see this is more of a mid-range device with the lower resolution display, 8GB of internal storage, and processor. Then you see high end aspects with the HTC BoomSound speakers, Beats Audio, NFC, and 1GB of RAM.
Like the HTC 8X, the 8XT feels great in your hand and if I was a Sprint customer looking for a Windows Phone then this would probably be the one. The camera has been improved over the 8X with a more attractive design around the lens and new HTC Camera utility. The HTC Camera utility gives you some different effects to use when you capture your photo, just like the HTC One camera utility. You also get the ability to capture photos in burst mode with the software then selecting the best shot so you can make sure to capture the best photo. You can also capture still images while recording video, something again seen on HTC Android devices.
Software
The HTC 8XT launches with Windows Phone 8, which is a very functional OS that has enough apps to compete with iOS and Android. You will find all the typical Windows Phone 8 functionality in the 8XT with some HTC-specific experiences included. Windows Phone 8's latest Data Sense utility is included with Office, OneNote, Wallet, and more. Don't forget you can also download and install HERE Maps from Nokia on the 8XT.
HTC includes their weather/news/stocks utility, handy flashlight app, photo enhancer, unit converter, and utility to manage space on your device. As I mentioned earlier, they also provide an HTC Camera app similar to what Nokia does with their special apps. I haven't taken a ton of photos yet, but so far I am pleased with the camera performance and functionality of the HTC Camera application.
Sprint also includes apps and services, but like all Windows Phone devices you can easily remove anything you want, unlike on Android devices. Sprint apps and services include Sprint Music Plus, Sprint TV and Movies, Visual Voicemail, and Slacker Radio.
I was pleasantly surprised to find Telenav Scout on the HTC 8XT since I find this application to be quite useful on my iPhone 5. I did not know they had a Windows Phone 8 client and after trying it on the HTC 8XT I saw it is also available on T-Mobile Windows Phone devices so I installed it on my new Nokia Lumia 925.
First experiences
The HTC 8XT is a solid Windows Phone device for Sprint customers. The device feels excellent in your hand and the resolution looks good on a 4.3 inch display. All the user reviews on the Sprint site show nearly all five star ratings so it seems Sprint customers like the device so far.
The light weight and curved design of the 8X always appealed to me and the 8XT continues that look and feel. With the soft touch material all around, the 8XT doesn't slide around and the California Blue looks great.
I understand that there is still no LTE coverage in the Puget Sound area so I won't be able to test out those speeds unless I travel in the next couple of weeks. With Seattle being the home of Microsoft and Windows Phone, I find this lack of LTE to be rather disappointing.
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Scientists create false memories in mice, cause rodent-style Inception
A group of MIT researchers (we assume they're all Philip K. Dick fans) have successfully implanted false memories in the minds of mice, according to a study published in the journal Science. This "mouseception" experiment was designed to examine the phenomenon called false memory syndrome, in which the brain concocts recollections of events that have never happened. By manipulating the memory engram-bearing cells in the hippocampus, the research team convinced a few unsuspecting mice that they had experienced a shock to their feet when one had never actually occurred. One can only assume that after finessing this false memory implantation, the next logical step is going into the mice's dreams and stealing all their secrets. Christopher Nolan would be so proud. Or horrified. Jury's still out.
Source: Science
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Rcr5SZXHLec/
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বুধবার, ২৪ জুলাই, ২০১৩
2 face animal cruelty charges at Calif. breeder
In this Dec. 2012 photo provided by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows a weak and lethargic rat who was found in a tub among at least 200 other juvenile rats, many of whom were severely dehydrated and dying at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, Calif., authorities said Monday, July 22, 2013. Riverside County authorities say two men have been charged with 106 counts of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found diseased, dying or dead. (AP Photo/PETA)
In this Dec. 2012 photo provided by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows a weak and lethargic rat who was found in a tub among at least 200 other juvenile rats, many of whom were severely dehydrated and dying at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, Calif., authorities said Monday, July 22, 2013. Riverside County authorities say two men have been charged with 106 counts of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found diseased, dying or dead. (AP Photo/PETA)
This undated photo provided by the Riverside County Sheriff's Department shows Mitchell Steven Behm, 54, the owner of Global Captive Breeders in Lake Elsinore, Calif. Behm and and company manager David Delgado, also known as Jose Magana, 29, have been charged with more than 100 counts each of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated many of nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found dead, dying or diseased at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Riverside County Sheriff's Department)
This undated photo provided by the Riverside Sheriff Department shows David Delgado, 29, the former manager of Global Captive Breeders in Lake Elsinore, Calif., Delgado and owner Mitchell Steven Behm, 54, have been charged with more than 100 counts each of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated many of nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found dead, dying or diseased at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, authorities said Monday, July 22, 2013. (AP Photo/Riverside County Sheriff's Department)
This Dec. 2012 photo provided by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows a monitor lizards that was very emaciated, with plainly visible vertebrae, who was also missing skin from the white areas on his or her nose and back, at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, Calif. Riverside County authorities said Monday, July 22, 2013 that two men have been charged with 106 counts of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found diseased, dying or dead. (AP Photo/PETA)
This Dec. 2012 photo provided by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) shows flooding rat enclosures and spilling water onto a facility floor where rats were warehoused like shoes in rack after rack of tiny tubs, at a breeding center in Lake Elsinore, Calif. Riverside County authorities said Monday, July 22, 2013 that two men have been charged with 106 counts of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles found diseased, dying or dead. (AP Photo/PETA)
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Rescue crews went into a warehouse last year to save nearly 20,000 rats and reptiles at a wholesale distributor of exotic snakes and rodents, encountering a sight so revolting that they needed crisis counselors to cope.
Many of the animal control workers came out gasping for air and sickened by the heinous sights and smells, including a mixture of death, disease, decay and ammonia from accumulated urine and feces in rat bins. Officials with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals called it the largest-ever seizure of animals in California.
The owner and manager of the business have now been arrested and charged with more than 100 counts each of felony animal cruelty for the way they treated the rats and reptiles. Their company, Global Captive Breeders, raised rats and snakes that were sold at pet stores and swap meets.
The Riverside County district attorney filed the case Friday and a judge issued warrants for owner Mitchell Steven Behm, 54, and company manager David Delgado, also known as Jose Magana, 29. A message left for Behm's attorney was not immediately returned, and a lawyer for Delgado could not be located.
The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals initiated the investigation after sending an undercover operative to work at the breeding facility in Lake Elsinore, 70 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Some of the animals were already dead by the time rescue workers got there. The ones still living were too sick to treat and too toxic to move, and had to be euthanized.
The toll the operation took on workers ranged from physical to emotional, said Capt. Cindy Machado, who headed up a team of workers from the Marin Humane Society in Novato and coordinated veterinarians who came from all over the country for the weeklong December operation.
People were throwing up because of the ammonia fumes and "there were times you had to run outside just to catch a breath of fresh air," she said.
People emotionally broke down and had to be excused. Several people ended up with colds and sore throats. "I lost my voice," she said.
"I had some idea what to expect but little could have prepared me for the overwhelming stench of death and decay you could smell from the outside of the facility. On the inside it was overpowering," said Daphna Nachminovitch, senior vice president of cruelty investigations for PETA.
There were 18,400 feeder rats and over 600 snakes, black tree monitors, tokay geckos and sulcata tortoises, Nachminovitch said.
Most of the rats were without food in overcrowded bins and because of a faulty water system, were either drowning or dying of thirst. "Some were literally eating each other alive," she said.
Mitch Behm got a conditional use permit for the business in 2009, said Justin Carlson, a spokesman for Lake Elsinore. The city received one anonymous complaint about the business before PETA stepped in, Carlson said. The company's website listed corporate offices in Rancho Santa Margarita.
A whistleblower contacted PETA and the animal welfare agency sent an undercover investigator to get a job at the business. The investigator documented rats being grabbed by their tails and slammed against poles, stomped on, shot with a BB gun, frozen alive and drowned.
The undercover worker was there for two months, and Nachminovitch said that period of time was needed to document enough photo and video evidence to obtain a search warrant. In addition, the neglect was so far advanced by the time the whistleblower called that it would have been impossible to save the animals.
The 6,100-square-foot warehouse had separate entrances to the reptile and rat rooms, but the snakes didn't fare any better than the rats, Nachminovitch said. Some of the boas and pythons were 15-feet long.
The animals were euthanized in the warehouse and taken to a rendering plant, she said.
Every rescue worker sets out to save animals, Machado said. But there is also satisfaction in giving an animal in pain a humane, peaceful passing, she said.
"I have been with PETA for 15 years and there was an unprecedented amount of active suffering while we were standing there. I am grateful we could end it," Nachminovitch said.
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Backers of surveillance program battle a challenge
WASHINGTON (AP) ? The White House and congressional backers of the National Security Agency's surveillance program warn that ending the massive collection of phone records from millions of Americans would put the nation at risk from another terrorist attack.
With a high-stakes showdown vote looming in the House, White House press secretary Jay Carney issued an unusual, nighttime statement on the eve of Wednesday's vote. The measure by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., would cancel statutory authority for the secret program, a move that Carney contended would "hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."
Gen. Keith Alexander, head of the NSA, made a last-minute trip to Capitol Hill on Tuesday to urge lawmakers to reject the measure in separate, closed-door sessions with Republicans and Democrats. Seven Republican committee chairmen issued a similar plea in a widely circulated letter to their colleagues.
An unlikely coalition of libertarian-leaning conservatives and liberal Democrats says the program amounts to unfettered domestic spying on Americans. Amash and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., are the chief sponsors of an amendment that would end the ability of the NSA to collect phone records and metadata under the USA Patriot Act unless it identifies an individual under investigation.
Amash said his measure tries to rein in the NSA's blanket authority. Responding to the White House statement, the congressman tweeted late Tuesday: "Pres Obama opposes my #NSA amendment, but American people overwhelmingly support it. Will your Rep stand with the WH or the Constitution?"
Republican leaders allowed the House to consider Amash's amendment to a $598.3 billion defense spending bill for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
The vote on Wednesday would be the first time Congress has weighed in since former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden leaked documents that revealed that the NSA had collected phone records, while a second NSA program forced major Internet companies to turn over contents of communications to the government.
"This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open or deliberative process," Carney said. "We urge the House to reject the Amash amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation."
Proponents of the NSA programs argue that the surveillance operations have been successful in thwarting potential terrorist attacks, including a 2009 plot to strike at the New York Stock Exchange.
"This bill would basically turn off our ability to find terrorists trying to attack us," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Intelligence panel.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., chairman of the Intelligence committee, joined other GOP chairmen in a letter urging lawmakers to reject the Amash amendment.
"While many members have legitimate questions about the NSA metadata program, including whether there are sufficient protections for Americans' civil liberties," the chairman wrote, "eliminating this program altogether without careful deliberation would not reflect our duty, under Article I of the Constitution, to provide for the common defense."
The debate over privacy and national security has prompted calls and emails to lawmakers, said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., a member of the Intelligence panel who said members of Congress are facing competing pressures.
The overall defense spending bill would provide the Pentagon with $512.5 billion for weapons, personnel, aircraft and ships plus $85.8 billion for the war in Afghanistan for next budget year.
The bill is $5.1 billion below current spending and has drawn a veto threat from the White House, which argues that it would force the administration to cut education, health research and other domestic programs in order to boost spending for the Pentagon.
In a leap of faith, the bill assumes that Congress and the administration will resolve the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that have forced the Pentagon to furlough workers and cut back on training. The bill projects spending in the next fiscal year at $28.1 billion above the so-called sequester level.
In addition to the vote on the Amash amendment, the House also will consider an amendment prohibiting any U.S. funds for military or paramilitary operations in Egypt and barring the administration from arming the Syrian rebels without congressional approval.
On Tuesday the House voted to cut $79 million from the Afghanistan Infrastructure Fund, reducing the amount to the current level of $200 million as projects have been delayed. The House also endorsed the $70.2 million in the bill to study the feasibility for an East Coast missile defense site.
The overall bill must be reconciled with whatever measure the Democratic-controlled Senate produces.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/backers-surveillance-program-battle-challenge-075910474.html
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Men's Fitness Magazine Sale, $4.99 - Savings Lifestyle
Men?s Fitness Magazine Sale, $4.99
Pick up a 1-year subscription to Men?s Fitness Magazine for $4.99. This comes with 10 issues. Use coupon code 1434 during checkout to receive the discount. This magazine focuses on Men?s health along with giving workout and fitness advice and routines.
Buy the Magazine subscription HERE.
Disclaimer: This post contains a link to an affiliate. See my Disclaimer Policy for additional information.
by Savings Lifestyle: Bridgett on July 24, 2013
Source: http://savingslifestyle.com/2013/07/mens-fitness-magazine-sale-499/
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মঙ্গলবার, ২৩ জুলাই, ২০১৩
'Veronica Mars' movie: Check out the new trailer
The 'Veronica Mars' movie was the focus of a panel at Comic-Con in San Diego, where director Rob Thomas presented new footage. The 'Veronica Mars' movie is currently being filmed.
The 'Veronica Mars' movie is being directed by Rob Thomas (l.) and stars Kristen Bell (center) and Enrico Colantoni (r.).
Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
EnlargeIt seems like only yesterday that creator Rob Thomas and star Kristen Bell were kickstarting the cinematic continuation of their beloved teen girl detective series,?Veronica Mars ? which subsequently made $5+ million and became the ?most backed? Kickstarter ever.
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Now the Veronica Mars movie is smack-dab in the middle of production, which means there?s just enough footage to debut a trailer (of sorts) at San Diego Comic-Con 2013.
As we know from the Kickstarter and Thomas? interviews, the plot of the movie revolves around Veronica?s ten-year high school reunion and the murder of Logan Echolls? (Jason Dohring) pop star girlfriend.
In the time since the series finale, Veronica hasn?t taken a single detective case, she?s moved to New York City, and she?s graduated from Columbia Law School.
You can see some of that on display in the movie footage. For example, it appears that Veronica is being interviewed by a law firm (note the cameo with Bell?s You Again co-star Jamie Lee Curtis) near the beginning of the trailer.
We also see a moment where Veronica gets a phone call from Logan where he pleads for her help ? probably because he?s the main suspect in his girlfriend?s murder ? and she explains that she ?[doesn't] really do that anymore.?
At the Veronica Mars panel ? courtesy of?The Hollywood Reporter - Rob Thomas once again touched upon the ?out of retirement? dynamic:
?I can tell you that it sort of has a ?Godfather III? theme to it. Which is odd, because why not pick ?Godfather II? ? It was better. ? I can tell you [Bell's Veronica character] has not worked as a private detective since the last time you saw her. Part of this movie is her getting back into this life she thought she left behind.?
Thomas also discussed one of his earlier ideas for the?V-Mars movie when it was an extremely low-budget film (as opposed to just being a very low-budget film):
?I wanted to do an Agatha Christie movie with everyone in one house ? very few sets and very few guest stars. And that?s not what we did. We made an incredibly ambitious, sprawling low-budget movie. We wanted to include all of those smaller parts that fans really loved.?
Does he want to make more Veronica Mars movies?
?Oh, yes I do! I want to be a ?Bond? franchise. I hope we make a ton of money with this one and get to do it via the normal channels. Next time, maybe the studio will just give us the money.?
Finally, Thomas talked about his recent book deal to write two Veronica Mars follow-up novels:
?[The first one] picks up where the movie left off. For years, I wanted to get the ?Veronica Mars? books done as young adult novels, but we sold them as adult novels. So it?s Veronica at 28.?
The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of music, film, and television bloggers. Our guest bloggers are not employed or directed by The Monitor and the views expressed are the bloggers' own and they are responsible for the content of their blogs. To contact us about a blogger, click here.
Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/vgSmsZxWU6w/Veronica-Mars-movie-Check-out-the-new-trailer
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A New Kind of Microchip Mimics the Human Brain in Real Time
A team of scientists in Switzerland has managed to cram 11,011 electrodes onto a single two-millimeter-by-two-millimeter piece of silicon to create a microchip that works just like an actual brain. The best part about this so-called neuromorphic chips? They can feel.
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How the NSA is Using Cell Phone Data to Drone Civilians (In Pakistan)
In late 2001, a National Security Agency analyst was asked to do something unusual. Instead of locating a target's cell phone to eavesdrop on his conversation, the analyst was asked for the phone's location in real-time. It was apparently the beginning of the NSA's role in the CIA's drone operations that, a new report compiled by Pakistan suggests, had killed nearly 200 civilians by 2009.
RELATED: U.S. Drone Strikes Are Back with a Vengeance in Pakistan
The details of that first NSA-supported strike appear in a new story from The Washington Post. A Navy SEAL, standing in a trailer that was once home to the CIA's child care program, asked the analyst where the NSA's target was located.
?We just want you to find the phone!? the SEAL urged. No one cared about the conversation it might be transmitting. ?The NSA collector in Georgia took what was then considered a gigantic leap ? from using the nation?s most sophisticated spy technology to record the words of presidents, kings and dictators to using it to kill a single man in a terrorist group.
This, The?Post suggests, spurred the NSA's rapid expansion in the last decade, building and expanding its facilities around the world. Meanwhile, the technology used by the agency to track targets also expanded.?The?Post:
By September 2004, a new NSA technique enabled the agency to find cellphones even when they were turned off. JSOC troops called this ?The Find,? and it gave them thousands of new targets, including members of a burgeoning al-Qaeda-sponsored insurgency in Iraq, according to members of the unit.At the same time, the NSA developed a new computer linkup called the Real Time Regional Gateway into which the military and intelligence officers could feed every bit of data or seized documents and get back a phone number or list of potential targets. It also allowed commanders to see, on a screen, every type of surveillance available in a given territory.
This appears to be a different tool than Boundless Informant, the graphical interface of the NSA's PRISM data collection revealed in the leaks from Edward Snowden. But that 2004 innovation may explain Snowden's insistence that visitors stash their cell phones in his fridge when visiting.
RELATED: Everything We Know So Far About Drone Strikes
The side effects of the NSA-fueled drone strikes has been a point of dispute since the program began. The United States government has been vague about its estimates of civilian casualties from the strikes. During the president's first speech acknowledging the program, he stated that "it is a hard fact that U.S. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties, a risk that exists in every war" ??without putting a number on it. Documents released in April of this year included language from the CIA stating that civilian deaths were "exceedingly rare."
RELATED: U.S. Drones Hit Pakistan for the Third Straight Day
A report just leaked from the Pakistani government is a bit more specific. Acquired by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, it offers that country's assessment of the civilian casualty risk.
Drawn from field reports by local officials in Pakistan?s Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the document lists over 70 drone strikes between 2006 and late 2009, alongside a small number of other incidents such as alleged Nato attacks and strikes by unspecified forces.Of 746 people listed as killed in the drone strikes, at least 147 of the dead are clearly stated by the leaked report to be civilian victims. Some 94 of these are said to be children.
That figure is slightly lower than the comprehensive data compiled by the New America Foundation, which puts the total for that time period in the range of 190 ??with scores more listed as "unidentified." Last fall, Columbia University's Human Rights Institute tried to assess the accuracy of reports on civilian and militant casualties, finding that "estimates are incomplete and may significantly undercount the extent of reported civilian deaths." The number released by Pakistan, it's worth noting, also include fewer strikes than reported by the New America Foundation.
RELATED: First Drone Strike of the New Drone Era Is Business as Usual, with a Twist
Last week, representatives of the government's surveillance infrastructure testified before the House Judiciary Committee. Chris Inglis, deputy director of the NSA, was asked about a key concern of privacy advocates: if the agency's sweep of phone metadata included location data for those calls. (That data collection program was renewed on Friday.)
RELATED: Pakistani Death Squads Target Informants Who Help Drone Attacks
Inglis' response: "We are not collecting that data under this program." For at least one other program, they are ? as of late 2001.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-using-cell-phone-data-drone-civilians-pakistan-135254073.html
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Dubai pardons woman at center of rape dispute
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) ? A Norwegian woman at the center of a Dubai rape claim dispute said Sunday that officials have dropped her 16-month sentence for having sex outside marriage and she is free to leave the country.
"I am very, very happy," Marte Deborah Dalelv told The Associated Press. "I am overjoyed."
The sentence against the 24-year-old Dalelv last week stirred widespread outrage in the West and highlighted the frequent clash between Dubai's Western-friendly image and its Islamic-based legal codes.
Dalelv claimed she was raped in March by a co-worker, but was charged with having sex outside marriage after going to the police. Her decision to go public about the sentence last week in a series of interviews appeared to put pressure on authorities in Dubai and tarnish the city's reputation as a cosmopolitan hub, including possible fallout on its high-profile bid for the 2020 World Expo.
"I have my passport back. I am pardoned," said Dalelv, who worked for an interior design firm in Qatar and was in Dubai for a business meeting when the alleged rape took place.
There was no immediate word from Dubai officials, including whether the pardon was linked to traditions of clemency during the current Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
It also was unclear whether authorities would keep the 13-month sentence against Dalelv's alleged attacker, identified as a 33-year-old Sudanese man who was charged with consuming alcohol and sex outside marriage. While liquor is widely available in Dubai hotels and restaurants, public intoxication can bring serious charges.
"I have my life back," said Dalelv. "This is a great day."
In Norway, Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide posted a Twitter message: "Marte is released! Thanks to everyone who signed up to help."
Barth Eide told the Norwegian news agency NTB that international media attention and Norway's diplomatic measures helped Dalelv, who was free on appeal with her next court hearing scheduled for early September. Norway also reminded the United Arab Emirates of obligations under U.N. accords to seriously investigate claims of violence against women.
"The United Arab Emirates and Dubai is a rapidly changing society. This decision won't only affect Marte Dalelv, who can travel home now if she wishes to, but also serve as a wake-up call regarding the legal situation in many other countries," Barth Eide was quoted as saying.
Norway's Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter: "Happy that Marte has been pardoned and that she is a free woman again."
Dalelv said she planned to leave the UAE soon, but "first I have to thank some very special people," including local groups that supported her. She had been staying at a Norwegian-linked aid center.
The AP does not identify the names of alleged sexual assault victims, but Dalelv went public voluntarily to talk to media.
In an interview with the AP last week, she recalled that she fled to the hotel lobby and asked for the police to be called after the alleged attack. The hotel staff asked if she was sure she wanted to involve the police, Dalelv said.
"Of course I want to call the police," she said. "That is the natural reaction where I am from."
She said she was held in custody for four days before being able to reach her stepfather in Norway.
Norway's foreign minister said "very high level" Norwegian officials, including himself, had been in daily contact with counterparts in the United Arab Emirates since the verdict against Dalelv.
"We have made very clear what we think about this verdict and what we think about the fact that one is charged and sentenced when one starts out by reporting alleged abuse," Barth Eide said.
In London, a rights group monitoring UAE affairs urged authorities to change laws to " ensure victims are protected, feel comfortable reporting crimes and are able to fairly pursue justice."
"While we are pleased that Marte can now return home to Norway, her pardon still suggests that she was somehow guilty of a crime," said Rori Donaghy, a spokesman for the Emirates Center for Human Rights. "Until laws are reformed, victims of sexual violence in the UAE will continue to suffer in this way and we will likely see more cases such as this one."
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Associated Press writer Malin Rising in Stockholm contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dubai-pardons-woman-center-rape-dispute-093407907.html
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