Can math models of gaming strategies be used to detect terrorism networks?

May 16, 2013 ? The answer is yes, according to a paper in the SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics.

In a paper published in the journal last month, authors Anthony Bonato, Dieter Mitsche, and Pawel Pralat describe a mathematical model to disrupt flow of information in a complex real-world network, such as a terrorist organization, using minimal resources.

Terror networks are comparable in their structure to hierarchical organization in companies and certain online social networks, where information flows in one direction from a source, which produces the information or data, downwards to sinks, which consume it. Such networks are called hierarchical social networks.

"In such networks, the flow of information is often one way," explains author Pawel Pralat. "For example, a celebrity such as Justin Bieber sends out a tweet, which is sent to millions of his followers. These followers send out their own retweets, and so on. We may therefore view hierarchical social networks as directed networks without cycles, or directed acyclic graphs (DAGs)."

Here, there is no requirement for reciprocity (the celebrity does not necessarily follow his or her followers). Similarly, in a terrorist network, the leaders pass plans down to the foot soldiers, and usually only one messenger needs to receive the message for the plan to be executed.

Disruption of the flow of information would correspond to halting the spread of news in an online social network or intercepting messages in a terror network.

The authors propose a generalized stochastic model for the flow and disruption of information based on a two-player outdoor game called "Seepage," where players who depict agents attempt to block the movement of another player, an intruder, from a source node to a sink. "The game -- motivated by the 1973 eruption of the Eldfell volcano in Iceland -- displays some similarities to an approach used in mathematical counterterrorism, where special kinds of DAGs are used to model the disruption of terrorist cells," says Pralat.

The motivating eruption caused a major crisis at the time, as lava flow threatened to close off the harbor, the island's main source of income. In the game, inhabitants attempt to protect the harbor by pouring water on the volcanic lava to halt its progress. A mathematical model of the game pits two opponents against each other -- the sludge, or intruder, against the greens, or agents -- forming a directed acyclic graph, with one source (the top of the volcano) and many sinks representing the lake. The parameter, "seepage," represents the amount of contamination, and the "green number" corresponds to the number of agents required to halt it.

A previous study modeled terrorist cells as partially ordered sets (a special kind of DAG), which are often used in mathematics to analyze an ordering, sequencing, or arrangement of distinct objects. In such a system, terrorist plans are formulated by nodes at the top of the hierarchy, which represent the leaders or maximal nodes of the set. The plans are transmitted down to the nodes at the bottom: these represent foot soldiers in a terror network or minimal nodes in the set who would be presumed to carry out these plans. The assumption is that one messenger is sufficient for reception and execution of the plan. Thus, if the partially ordered set represents a courier network for a terrorist organization, the intention would be to block all routes from the maximal node to the minimal nodes by capturing or killing a subset of agents.

In this paper, the authors utilize the similarities in the previous terrorist cell model to Seepage, where greens try to prevent the sludge from moving to the sinks by blocking nodes. A number of different winning strategies employed by both players are explored when played on a DAG. The seepage and green number for disrupting a given hierarchical social network are analyzed.

The primary difference from the previous study's model is that the Seepage model is dynamic: greens can move and choose new sets of nodes over time. The authors determine that Seepage is a more realistic model of counterterrorism, as the agents do not necessarily act all at once, but over time.

The analysis is made in two types of terrorist network structures, as Pralat explains, "We consider two extreme profiles: one where the network is regular, where every agent has about the same number of connections. The second profile is power law, where some agents have many connections, but most have very few." This is analyzed by considering the total degree distribution of nodes in the DAG. In regular DAGs, each level of the DAG would have nodes with about the same out-degree (number of outgoing edges emanating from a node), while power law DAGs would have many more low-degree nodes and a few with high degrees.

Mathematical analysis allows the authors to determine what point in a network would be most effective for disrupting messages. "Our mathematical results reinforce the view that intercepting the information or message in a hierarchical social network following a power law is more difficult close to levels near the source. For regular networks, it does not matter as much where the message is disrupted," says Pralat. "Future work could look at more complex profiles of networks, along with developing effective algorithms for disrupting the flow of information in a DAG using our game-theoretic approach."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/Adpbt4Zmc_4/130516142656.htm

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Holder defends subpoenas for AP telephone records

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Attorney General Eric Holder told Congress Wednesday that a serious national security leak required the secret gathering of telephone records at The Associated Press as he stood by an investigation in which he insisted he had no involvement.

Pestered by Republicans and some Democrats, Holder testified that he has faith in the individuals conducting the broad investigation, driven in large part by GOP outrage last year over the possibility that administration officials leaked information to enhance President Barack Obama's national security reputation in an election year.

Holder said he had recused himself from the case because "I am a possessor of information eventually leaked." He said he was unable to answer questions on the subpoenas and why the Justice Department failed to negotiate with the AP prior to the subpoenas, a standard practice.

That elicited frustration from some committee members with the Obama administration and the attorney general.

"There doesn't appear to be any acceptance of responsibility for things that have gone wrong," Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., told Holder. He suggested that administration officials travel to the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and take a photo of the famous sign, "the buck stops here."

It was the Justice Department's No. 2 official, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, who made the decision to seek news media phone records, Holder said.

Last year, Holder appointed two U.S. attorneys to lead a Justice inquiry into who leaked information about U.S. involvement in cyber-attacks on Iran and an al-Qaida plot to place an explosive device aboard a U.S.-bound flight. Holder had resisted calls for a special counsel, telling lawmakers that the two attorneys, Ron Machen and Rod Rosenstein, are experienced, independent and thorough.

Holder was grilled on several scandals rocking the administration, including the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue Service and any missteps in sharing intelligence information prior to the bombings in Boston.

Responding to news of the gathering of AP records, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., planned to revive a 2009 media shield bill that protects journalists and their employers from having to reveal information, including the identity of sources who had been promised confidentiality.

The law does contain some exceptions in instances of national security.

"This kind of law would balance national security needs against the public's right to the free flow of information," Schumer said in a statement. "At minimum, our bill would have ensured a fairer, more deliberate process in this case."

The White House threw its support behind the legislation, said a White House official, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the topic and demanded anonymity. Ed Pagano, President Barack Obama's liaison to the Senate, placed a call Wednesday morning to Schumer's office to ask him to revive the bill, a move the senator had planned to make.

Obama's support for the bill signaled an effort by the White House to show action in the face of heated criticism from lawmakers from both parties and news organizations about his commitment to protecting civil liberties and freedom of the press.

White House officials have said they are unable to comment publicly on the incident at the heart of the controversy because the Justice Department's leak probe essentially amounts to a criminal investigation of administration officials.

Holder on Tuesday defended the move to collect AP phone records in an effort to hunt down the sources of information for a May 7, 2012, AP story that disclosed details of a CIA operation in Yemen to stop an airliner bombing plot around the anniversary of the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. The attorney general called the story the result of "a very serious leak, a very grave leak."

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence committee, said Wednesday that the leak was "within the most serious leaks because it definitely endangered some lives."

Feinstein said it was her understanding that the information gathering did not focus on the "content of phone calls," but rather "to see who reporters have spoken to, that somebody did provide this information with respect to this bomb."

At a news conference Tuesday, Holder defended the subpoenas to the AP and disclosed that the department was investigating the IRS for giving tea party groups extra scrutiny when they applied for tax exempt status.

Documents obtained by the AP suggest the targeting of conservative groups could be more widespread than the IRS has acknowledged. The agency has said it was limited to low-level workers in a Cincinnati office.

At Tuesday's news conference, Holder said the U.S. has gotten good cooperation from the Russians on the Boston bombings investigation. U.S. law enforcement officials are trying to determine whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev was indoctrinated or trained by militants during his visit to Dagestan, a Caspian Sea province of Russia that has become the center of a simmering Islamic insurgency.

___

Associated Press writers Josh Lederman, Erica Werner and Donna Cassata contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/holder-defends-subpoenas-ap-telephone-records-183112739.html

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Boehner spokesman reacts to White House email release (Washington Bureau)

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Distrustful Rohingya resist cyclone evacuation

A Bangladeshi fisherman uses an anchored ropes of his boat to come on the banks of the river Kornofuli, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Cyclone Mahasen is expected to make landfall early Friday. The storm was heading toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could shift east and deliver a more direct hit on Rakhine state in Myanmar. (AP Photo/ A.M.Ahad)

A Bangladeshi fisherman uses an anchored ropes of his boat to come on the banks of the river Kornofuli, in Chittagong, Bangladesh, Wednesday, May 15, 2013. Cyclone Mahasen is expected to make landfall early Friday. The storm was heading toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could shift east and deliver a more direct hit on Rakhine state in Myanmar. (AP Photo/ A.M.Ahad)

An internally displaced Rohingya boy wraps himself with a sarong as he walks in rain at a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said the cyclone, expected later this week, could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

This image provided by the Naval Research Lab shows tropical cyclone Mahasen taken Wednesday May 15, 2013 at 0600 GMT. Cyclone Mahasen is forecast to reach land early Friday and has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Wednesday. The U.N. says although the cyclone churning through the Indian Ocean appears to have weakened it could still bring "life-threatening" conditions to 8.2 million people along the coasts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar. (AP Photo/

Internally displaced Rohingya girl walks with a sibling in rain at a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said the cyclone, expected later this week, could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Internally displaced Rohingya boys shiver in rain in a makeshift camp for Rohingya people in Sittwe, northwestern Rakhine State, Myanmar, ahead of the arrival of Cyclone Mahasen expected later this week, Tuesday, May 14, 2013. The U.N. said they cyclone could swamp makeshift housing camps sheltering tens of thousands of Rohingya. Myanmar state television reported Monday that 5,158 people were relocated from low-lying camps in Rakhine state to safer shelters. But far more people are considered vulnerable. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

SITTWE, Myanmar (AP) ? A massive evacuation to clear low-lying camps ahead of a cyclone has run into a potentially deadly snag: Many members of the displaced Rohingya minority living in the camps have refused to leave, distrustful of Myanmar authorities.

Around 140,000 people ? mostly Rohingya ? have been living in cramped tents and makeshift shelters in Rakhine state since last year, when two outbreaks of sectarian violence between the Muslim minority and ethnic Rahkine Buddhists forced many Rohingya from their homes. Nearly half those displaced are in coastal areas considered highly vulnerable to storm surges and flooding Cyclone Mahasen, which is expected to make landfall early Friday.

Outside the state capital of Sittwe on Wednesday, one community of several hundred Rohingya refused to budge, despite coaxing from soldiers.

"When we told them the storm was coming, they didn't believe us," said army Lt. Lin Lin. "They're still refusing to move."

Inside the camp, cycle rickshaw driver U Kyaung Wa said his people were tired of being ordered around by Myanmar authorities. First, he said, they were forced to move into the camps because they were Rohingya.

"Now they say, 'You have to move because of the storm,'" he said. "We keep refusing to go. ... If they point guns at us, only then will we move."

The cyclone churning through the Indian Ocean appears to have weakened but could still bring "life-threatening" conditions to more than 8 million people in coastal parts of India, Bangladesh and Myanmar, the U.N. said Wednesday.

Mahasen has been downgraded to a Category 1 storm, said the U.N.'s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Heavy rains and flooding in Sri Lanka were blamed for eight deaths earlier this week, said to Sarath Lal Kumara, spokesman for Sri Lanka's disaster management center.

The brunt of the cyclone was barreling toward Chittagong, Bangladesh, but could, "depending on its final trajectory, bring life-threatening conditions for 8.2 million people in northeast India, Bangladesh and Myanmar," the U.N. office said in a storm update issued Friday.

Much attention was focused on western Myanmar because of fears that heavy rains will swamp low-lying Rohingya camps.

Myanmar's government had planned to relocate 38,000 people within Rakhine state by Tuesday but "it is unclear how many people have been relocated," the U.N. office said, adding that Muslim leaders in the country have called on people to cooperate with the government's evacuation.

The issue has been complicated by widespread anti-Muslim sentiment in Rakine. Rohingya have suffered decades of discrimination in largely Buddhist Myanmar, which does not consider them citizens.

Tensions are still running high in Rakhine state nearly a year after unrest that killed at least 192 people and left hundreds of Rohingya homes in ruins. The violence has largely segregated Rakhine state along religious lines, with prominent Buddhists ? including monks ? urging people to boycott Muslim businesses.

International rights and aid agencies urged that the evacuations be stepped up.

"If the government fails to evacuate those at risk, any disaster that results will not be natural, but man-made," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Weather experts have warned that the storm could shift and change in intensity before hitting land.

Myanmar's southern delta was devastated in 2008 by Cyclone Nargis, which swept away entire farming villages and killed more than 130,000 people. Two days before hitting Myanmar, Nargis weakened to a Category 1 cyclone before strengthening to a Category 4 storm.

___

AP writers Krishan Francis in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and Jocelyn Gecker in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-15-Asia-Cyclone/id-31262d3df2144a0fb2b5abb2e7b275e0

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Nigeria declares emergency in areas hit by Islamists

By Joe Brock and Felix Onuah

ABUJA (Reuters) - Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three northeastern states on Tuesday, ordering in more troops to try to stem an increasingly violent Islamist insurgency.

Islamist sect Boko Haram has intensified its attacks on security forces and government targets in its northeast stronghold this month, prompting Jonathan to declare an emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.

"We are facing ... a rebellion and insurgency by terrorist groups which pose a very serious threat to our national unity," Jonathan said in a televised address.

"They have attacked government buildings and facilities. They have murdered innocent citizens and state officials. They have set houses ablaze, and taken women and children as hostages. These actions amount to a declaration of war."

His orders followed growing evidence that Boko Haram now control parts of the northeastern territory around Lake Chad, where local government officials have fled.

Security officials say they control at least 10 local government areas of northeastern Borno state, the epicenter of the insurgency.

Dozens of Boko Haram fighters in buses and machine gun-mounted trucks laid siege to the town of Bama, in Borno, last week, freeing over 100 prison inmates and leaving 55 people dead, mostly police and other security forces.

Days earlier, scores were killed in the fishing village of Baga, also in Borno, on the shores of Lake Chad, when troops from Nigeria, Niger and Chad raided it looking for Islamists. Local residents said soldiers were responsible for many civilian deaths.

Jonathan ordered his chief of defense to deploy extra soldiers to the states.

The decree is likely to bring him into conflict with the powerful governors and northern leaders, with whom he already has a tense relationship.

On Monday, the Nigeria Governors' Forum, representing the governors of Nigeria's 36 states, warned Jonathan against imposing emergency rule in response to the insurgency.

Umar Gusau, spokesman for the Borno state Governor Kassim Shettima, declined to comment on the decree. Other influential northern figures were against it.

"It's not the right thing to do," said Bashir Tofa, a former presidential candidate and northern politician.

Boko Haram and other Islamist groups such as al Qaeda-linked Ansaru have become the biggest threat to stability in Africa's second biggest economy and top oil exporter.

Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video this week that the group had kidnapped several women and children in retaliation against security forces who, it says, have detained the wives and children of its members without just cause.

In December 2011, Jonathan declared a state of emergency over some limited local government areas in the states, after a church bombing blamed on Boko Haram killed 37 people, but he lifted it in July last year.

There has been an uptick in violence in other regions of Nigeria too, with 46 police officers killed by gunmen in an ambush in the central state of Nassarawa last week. Officials blamed a local cult not linked to Islamists.

(Editing by Tim Cocks and Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nigeria-declares-state-emergency-areas-hit-islamists-185302129.html

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Firefox 21 Launches With Social API Support For msnNOW, Mixi And Cliqz, Android App Gets New Fonts, HTML5 Improvements

Mozilla today launched the latest version of its Firefox browser for Mac, Windows and Linux, and the highlight of Firefox 21 is additional support for Mozilla’s Social API. This API allows social providers to integrated directly with Firefox and the organization launched in cooperation with Facebook at the end of last year. Today, it is adding Cliqz, Mixi and msnNOW to the mix. The new Social API integrations, Mozilla says, “help you stay connected to your social networks, no matter where you go on the Web.” Once installed, users can access these integrations from buttons in the browser toolbar. Cliqz users, for example, will be able to see content recommendations right in the new social sidebar in Firefox, share links across their social networks and preview Twitter commentary, all without actually going to Cliqz. The integration with Japan’s Mixi and Microsoft’s msnNOW works in the same way. The Social API, Mozilla writes, “has endless potential for integrating social networks, e-mail, finance, music, cloud possibilities, services, to-do lists, sports, news and other applications into your Firefox experience.” Now that it has landed in Firefox stable, chances are we will see a number of additional integrations in the near future. Also new in this version is preliminary support for the new Firefox Health Report. Similar to what Microsoft is doing with Internet Explorer, Firefox will now also provide users with suggestions for how to improve the application’s startup time. Firefox For Android The Android version of Firefox was also bumped up to version 21 today and with it, the team has integrated support for two new open source fonts, Charis and Open Sans. The fonts will replace the three Android default fonts to enable “a more visually appealing and clear reading experience on the Web.” The difference is “subtle, but beautiful,” Mozilla says. Also new are the ability to save media files through a long tap and access to your recent browsing history through the back and forward buttons. This new version for Android also includes some HTML5 improvements and the browser now scores 421 out of the 500 possible points on HTML5test.com (plus 14 bonus points).

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/pHe4vfd4NsU/

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'Hangover' star Cooper could pursue ninja career

Movies

Randee Dawn TODAY contributor

1 hour ago

He may have gotten an Oscar nomination for his "Silver Linings Playbook" role, but don't think Bradley Cooper's head has gotten too big for movies like "The Hangover." Now, the franchise that helped make him a household name is back -- with a third and final installment.

"It's all gravy," Cooper told TODAY's Matt Lauer Monday during a visit (before that, however, he graciously presented the recently-engaged Savannah Guthrie with a bouquet of roses). "We made the first movie never thinking it was going to be a trilogy. So the fact that I'm sitting with you here now, three movies in, is incredible.... No, it's over, mainly because (director)Todd Phillips; he's the reason we're all here. He just spent the last six years of his life making 'Hangover' movies, and it's time for him to move on."

While it'll be a shame not to get to see the Wolfpack showing up semi-regularly on feature screens, Cooper himself has gone on to any number of feature roles. And there's always his first great obsessive interest to fall back on -- as Lauer reminded him, for a long time as a boy, Cooper wanted to be a ninja.

"You know on the back of magazines when you were a kid, you could buy all these little things if you had enough tickets?" explained Cooper. "I wanted a like, a Chinese (Throwing) Star and nunchucks and all that stuff." He even asked his dad if he could relocate to Japan until he was 21.

Don't count that possibility out, said Cooper. "You never know what could happen, Matt! I'm still healthy!"

"The Hangover Part III" opens in nationwide theaters May 23.

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/bradley-cooper-has-last-hangover-could-pursue-career-ninja-1C9898084

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Remember Baba Wawa and Lewinsky's lipstick?

Pop culture

Gael Fashingbauer Cooper TODAY

2 hours ago

It's hard to imagine the interview game without Barbara Walters as a major player. Walters, 83, confirmed Monday that she'll be retiring from TV appearances in 2014.

No more Walters? She's been on television for a half-century, longer than many of her current co-workers have even been alive, and she's given us plenty of memorable moments along the way. Here's a look at four of them.

Baba Wawa
Walters was famously imitated on "Saturday Night Live" by the comedy legend Gilda Radner back in the 1970s. Walters confessed she didn't like the impersonation at first. "I don't talk that way, and I do pronounce my Rs," Walters recalled thinking, though she said she loved Radner anyway. Walters was parodied by others of course -- including Rachel Dratch on "30 Rock" -- but Baba Wawa became legend.

What kind of tree are you?
It's perhaps the most famous goofy reporter question, but it wasn't all Walters' idea. She was interviewing Katharine Hepburn in 1981 and Hepburn compared herself to a tree, so Walters went there: "What kind of tree are you?" she asked the legendary actress, hastening to add, "If you think you're a tree." (Hepburn chose an oak, over a Dutch Elm disease-stricken elm.) She was never allowed to live down that question, with even Johnny Carson teasing her about it, and proclaiming that he would be a tumbleweed.

Monica Lewinsky: 'Sometimes I hate his guts'
Walters has interviewed world leaders and movie stars, but she herself says her most-watched interview came in March of 1999, when she sat down with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, whose affair with Bill Clinton while he was president became a worldwide scandal. "Sometimes I have warm feelings (for Clinton), sometimes I'm proud of him still, and sometimes I hate his guts," Lewinsky told Walters. In an odd sidenote to the interview, the lipstick Lewinsky wore -- Club Monaco's Glaze, no longer made -- became a huge bestseller after the interview was seen nationally.

????????????? Vladimir Putin: Did you ever order anyone killed?

She may inquire about trees and romantic relationships, but Walters isn't shy about playing hardball with world leaders. The journalist met with Russian president Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin in 2001 and called him "remarkably open." She asked him about how he felt when he saw news of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks (angry, and guilty for not being able to prevent them). And then she dropped a bombshell. "I'm going to ask you a terrible question," she warned. "Did you ever order anyone killed?" Putin answered right away: "Nyet."

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/baba-wawa-remembered-four-memorable-barbara-walters-moments-1C9904738

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Angelina Jolie: I had double mastectomy to reduce risk of breast ...

By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 7:24 EDT

?

Angelina Jolie revealed Tuesday that she has undergone a double mastectomy to reduce her high risk of breast cancer, saying she is speaking out to encourage women address threats to their health.

Jolie, whose mother died of cancer at the age of 56, said she had managed to keep the issue quiet and continue working. Her medical procedures ended late last month. ?But I am writing about it now because I hope that other women can benefit from my experience,? she said.

The 37-year-old American actress wrote in an opinion piece entitled ?My Medical Choice? in The New York Times that she had chosen the procedure because she carries a faulty gene that increases her risk of both breast and ovarian cancer.

Jolie, one of Hollywood?s best-known faces and the partner of actor Brad Pitt, said that because of this gene, known as BRCA1, her doctors estimated she had an 87 percent risk of breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer.

?Once I knew that this was my reality, I decided to be proactive and to minimize the risk as much I could. I made a decision to have a preventive double mastectomy,? she wrote.

?I started with the breasts, as my risk of breast cancer is higher than my risk of ovarian cancer, and the surgery is more complex,? Jolie wrote.

She said that on April 27 she completed the three months of medical procedures that the mastectomies involved.

Jolie said her chances of developing breast cancer are now down to five percent.

Jolie and Pitt have three adopted and three biological children.

?I can tell my children they don?t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer,? Jolie said.

Jolie described a several-stage surgical process, the main one of which is an operation that can take up to eight hours as the breast tissue is removed and temporary fillers are put in place.

?You wake up with drain tubes and expanders in your breasts. It does feel like a scene out of a science fiction film. But days after surgery you can be back to a normal life,? Jolie wrote.

The final phase of the process involved reconstruction of the breasts with implants, she said, adding: ?There have been many advances in this procedure in the last few years and the results can be beautiful.?

Jolie said Pitt has been a huge source of support.

?Brad was at the Pink Lotus Breast Center, where I was treated, for every minute of the surgeries,? she said, adding that ?we managed to find moments to laugh together.?

Jolie said she has only small scars after the ordeal, with nothing alarming for her children to see.

?On a personal note, I do not feel any less of a woman. I feel empowered that I made a strong choice that in no way diminishes my femininity.?

Jolie, one of the world?s highest-paid performers, said the cost of getting tested for BRCA1 and another faulty gene, called BRCA2, is more than $3,000 in the United States and that this ?remains an obstacle for many women?.

She said she hopes women living under the threat of cancer will be able to get tested.

?Life comes with many challenges. The ones that should not scare us are the ones we can take on and take control of,? Jolie wrote.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, who has been working with Jolie in the past few months in her role as UN special envoy for refugee issues to highlight the problem of sexual violence in conflict, said she was ?a brave lady?.

Hague and Jolie visited Rwanda and Democratic Republic of Congo in March and successfully joined forces at a meeting of G8 finance ministers last month to win a pledge to act against the use of rape as a weapon of war.

?She?s a courageous lady, a very professional lady. She?s done a lot of work with me in recent months and travelled with me through some difficult places in the Congo,? Hague told Sky News television.

?She gave no sign that she was undergoing such treatment. She?s a very brave lady not only to carry on with her work so well during such treatment, also to write about it now and talk about it. She?s a brave lady and will be an inspiration to many.?

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Source: http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/05/14/angelina-jolie-i-had-double-mastectomy-to-reduce-risk-of-breast-cancer/

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Oil falls to near $95 as dollar strengthens

The price of oil fell to near $95 a barrel on Monday, reflecting the recent strengthening of the dollar against the yen and other major currencies.

By early afternoon in Europe, benchmark oil for June delivery was down 71 cents to $95.33 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 35 cents on Friday.

The stronger dollar is causing oil prices to fall, analysts said. The dollar has risen in recent days against the euro and last week passed the 100-yen mark for the first time in four years.

Since oil is traded in dollars, a stronger dollar makes crude and other commodities less appealing to investors with other currencies.

"This, like the stock market, ends up pulling a lot of money out of commodities and into more reliable risk," said Carl Larry, president of Oil Outlooks and Opinions, a research analysis firm.

An increase in OPEC's output, which grew by 280,000 barrels to 30.46 million barrels a day in April compared with March, also helped drag down prices by boosting concerns about excess supply.

"The oil market remains oversupplied, with US crude oil stocks at a record level," said a report from analysts at Commerzbank in Frankfurt.

Brent crude, which is a benchmark for many international oil varieties, was down 91 cents to $103 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange in London.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

? Wholesale gasoline fell 2.53 cents to $2.835 a gallon.

? Heating oil lost 1.09 cents to $2.8953 a gallon.

? Natural gas added 0.5 cents to $3.915 per 1,000 cubic feet.

___

Pamela Sampson in Bangkok contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/oil-falls-near-95-dollar-strengthens-121506568.html

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Photonic quantum computers: A brighter future than ever

May 13, 2013 ? Harnessing the unique features of the quantum world promises a dramatic speed-up in information processing as compared to the fastest classical machines. Scientists from the Group of Philip Walther from the Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna succeeded in prototyping a new and highly resource efficient model of a quantum computer -- the boson sampling computer.

The results will be published in the upcoming issue of the scientific journal Nature Photonics.

Quantum computers work by manipulating quantum objects as, for example, individual photons, electrons or atoms and by harnessing the unique quantum features. Not only do quantum computers promise a dramatic increase in speed over classical computers in a variety of computational tasks; they are designed to complete tasks that even a supercomputer would not be able to handle. Although, in recent years, there has been a rapid development in quantum technology the realization of a full-sized quantum computer is still very challenging. While it is still an exciting open question which architecture and quantum objects will finally lead to the outperformance of conventional supercomputers, current experiments show that some quantum objects are better suited than others for particular computational tasks.

The computational power of photons

The huge advantage of photons -- a particular type of bosons -- lies in their high mobility. The research team from the University of Vienna in collaboration with scientist from the University of Jena (Germany) has recently realized a so-called boson sampling computer that utilizes precisely this feature of photons. They inserted photons into a complex optical network where they could propagate along many different paths. "According to the laws of quantum physics, the photons seem to take all possible paths at the same time. This is known as superposition. Amazingly, one can record the outcome of the computation rather trivially: one measures how many photons exit in which output of the network," explains Philip Walther from the Faculty of Physics.

How to beat a supercomputer

A classical computer relies on an exact description of the optical network to calculate the propagation of the photons through this circuit. For a few dozen photons and an optical network with merely a hundred inputs and outputs, even today's fastest classical supercomputer is unable to calculate the propagation of the photons. However, for a boson sampling computer this ambitious task is within reach. The researchers met the challenge and built their prototype based on a theoretical proposal by scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA). "It is crucial to verify the operation of a boson-sampling computer by comparing its outcome with the predictions of quantum physics. Ironically, this test can only be performed on a classical computer. Fortunately, for small enough systems classical computers are still able to accomplish this," as Max Tillmann, first author of the publication, points out. Thus, the researchers successfully showed that their realization of the boson-sampling computer works with high precision. These encouraging results may lead the way to the first outperformance of classical computers in the not-so-far future.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/88QdRx7j5Xc/130513103803.htm

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GOP Probes Deeper Into Benghazi Review (WSJ)

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Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/305300439?client_source=feed&format=rss

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This Genius Flowchart Will Show You Exactly What to Watch on Netflix

The going gets tough on Netflix sometimes. Between the eight people sharing your account it's just not clear who has been marathoning Grey's Anatomy, and the recommendations are all over the place. How are you supposed to find something to watch?

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/clP24VyFjOM/this-genius-flowchart-will-show-you-exactly-what-to-wat-503497824

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Snowe presses for bipartisanship in new book

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) ? U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe describes a scene out of a Rockwell painting: With Washington crippled by a blizzard, President Barack Obama worked the week before Christmas with a fire roaring in the fireplace in the Oval Office. Outside the window, his daughters played in the snow with their dog.

Inside, Snowe writes in a new book, she delivered sad news to the president, whom she described as gracious.

The Maine Republican couldn't support Obama's health care overhaul because her ideas, solicited in more than a dozen calls and eight face-to-face meetings, were left out of the final bill. Democratic Majority Leader Harry Reid wouldn't allow amendments. The bill passed on a straight party-line vote.

In her book, the now-retired Snowe writes about her 34 years on Capitol Hill that she says went from a place where parties worked to forge compromise to today's obstructionist politics and partisanship. The parties, she says, have become more interested in making each other look bad and focusing on re-election than doing what's best for the nation.

"I'm not here to suggest there was a golden era of bipartisanship," Snowe told The Associated Press in an interview Friday. "It's never easy to compromise, but you must. In the past we were able to work out our differences. Today, it's all about taking it to the next election."

The release of her book, "Fighting for Common Ground," on Tuesday coincides with an online push to get voters to turn up the heat on lawmakers through the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit think tank founded by Democrats George Mitchell and Tom Daschle and Republicans Bob Dole and Howard Baker. Weinstein Books, a member of the Perseus Books Group, is donating a portion of her book revenues to the organization.

"It's a place to gather frustrated Americans who want to make change in the way government works and to be a catalyst for change and a call to arms," Snowe said in an interview.

Snowe, a self-described centrist, retired from the Senate in January after deciding she could not be effective given the polarization of the parties that left her increasingly alone in the middle.

Her decision stunned the political world.

Just a week before her February 2012 announcement that she wouldn't seek a fourth term in the Senate, she'd attended fundraising events in New York. But she wrote that she'd been considering leaving the Senate for several months, confiding in her husband, former Maine Gov. John McKernan, and a handful of trusted aides.

Not even her campaign manager knew.

Working outside the Senate, Snowe plans to press for a number of changes to promote civility and compromise: filibuster reform, an open amendment process, elimination of secret "holds" on legislation, authorization of two-year budgets and an end to so-called Leadership PACs, among others.

In her book, she writes that there's plenty of blame for both parties and that she's disappointed that nothing changed after the election of Obama, who vowed to bring the parties together.

Instead, she writes, Obama let the Democrat-controlled Congress loose on the stimulus bill, upsetting conservatives. Then he left Republicans marginalized as Democrats worked on the Affordable Health Care Act, further fueling tea party activists. That allowed divisions between Democrats and Republicans to grow even greater.

"With little chance of cross-party agreement, legislating became guerrilla warfare, marked by cloture motions and filibusters, legitimate devices in the senatorial arsenal but hardly the path to well-crafted legislation to attract bipartisan support," she wrote.

Snowe, 66, came about her independence through being orphaned at age 9 and sent off to an out-of-state boarding school run by the Greek Orthodox Church. After returning to Maine, tragedy struck again at age 26 when her husband, Peter Snowe, a state lawmaker, died in a car crash. She ran for his seat and won, launching her political career.

Her life experience shaped her philosophy: "My concept of government's role in people's lives is that it is limited but legitimate, and essential when people have nowhere else to turn," she wrote.

By her last term, Snowe writes that a senator's willingness to reach across the aisle had become a "scarlet letter" instead of badge of honor. And her willingness to do so had led to frustration among her increasingly conservative Republican colleagues.

She got a chuckle from an episode during the markup of the president's health care bill in which she tripped and fell to the floor, hard enough for there to be a collective gasp in the room.

Perhaps it was telling that three Democratic senators hopped up to check on her. Reflecting on it, she doesn't read too much into the fact that no Republican colleagues jumped to action. But, she added, "It certainly was interesting symbolism of the time and moment."

___

Online:

http://bipartisanpolicy.org/

http://www.fightingforcommonground.com/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/snowe-presses-bipartisanship-book-124744058.html

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School lunchbox bans driving parents nuts - The Daily Telegraph

Marita Ishac and seven-year-old daughter Stephanie who has a nut allergy. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: News Limited

PARENTS are in revolt over school lunchbox restrictions with four out of five complaining schools are overly concerned about food bought to school and one in three objecting to the banning of nuts.

Even the Allergy and Anaphylaxis Association says school-wide bans on nuts in lunchboxes aren't effective and the president of the Primary Principals Association Norm Hart says they are ''wrong'' and can't be enforced.

However Marita Ishac, the mother of seven-year-old Stephanie who suffers from a severe allergy to pistachio nuts, says nuts should be banned.

''The reaction comes on so quickly it's scary,'' she said.

''They should be more sensitive. If they want their kids to have nuts serve them at home,'' she said.

The widespread angst about school food bans was uncovered in a Galaxy survey conducted on behalf of health fund Medibank Private's 24/7 advice line for Food Allergy Week.

It found 79 per cent of the 1000 people surveyed believed schools were overly concerned about the food bought in by pupils and 30 per cent disagreed with banning nuts from packed lunches.

At the same time nearly 40 per cent of respondents admitted they wouldn't know the signs of someone suffering a serious reaction to food and 47 per cent said they wouldn't know what to do if it happened.

''Lunchbox restrictions are an acutely hot topic but this must not be allowed to dilute the seriousness of food allergies,'' Georgia Karabatsos, Medibank 24/7 Health Advice Line Medical Director says.

The president of the Allergy and Anaphylaxis Association Marita Said said there was a ''lot of hysteria'' about food bans and her organisation did not promote them.

''I think schools have thought this is the answer, they are petrified because we have had children die at school or on school camps,'' she said.

Such bans often saw children with allergies stigmatised and bullied and they allowed a handful of parents to focus on the ban rather than the restrictions of the child who had the allergy, she said.

Instead of a school-wide ban schools should look at implementing voluntary restrictions in the allergic child's class and only if they were too young to be fully aware of their diet restrictions, she said.

One in 10 children now developed a food allergy in their first year of life and schools should try to educate all students about allergy problems, how to read the signs and what to do if an emergency happened, she said.

The president of the Primary Principals Association Norm Hart said schools were taking more interest in what was in student's lunchboxes because they wanted parents to work in partnership with teachers to educate children about how to eat a healthy diet.

However, he said school wide bans on nuts were ''wrong'' because they gave a false sense of security to the families of children with an allergy and other parents.

''You can't enforce it, and if you say a place is free of whatever and its not you have a problem,'' he said.

Marita Ishac says she discovered Stephanie's allergy to pistachios when she reacted badly after eating a Lebanese sweet at the age of two.

''I hadn't given her nuts before and she had an itchy throat, then started blotching and her ears started to swell,'' she said.

Mrs Ishac now carries an epipen at all times and has given one to the school in case her daughteR has an attack while at school.

Marita Said says the anaphylactic reactions that are most dangerous are those where there are breathing difficulties or any swelling of the tongue or throat and onlookers should immediately administer an epipen or call an ambulance if they encountered a person suffering these symptoms.

More information on reducing risks for allergy sufferers can be found on the following websites: allergyfacts.org.au and foodallergyaware.com.au.

Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/lifestyle/health-fitness/school-lunchbox-bans-driving-parents-nuts/story-fni0diab-1226640620065

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Pakistan marks democratic milestone in close-fought election

By John Chalmers and Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistanis began voting on Saturday in a landmark election that will bring the first transition between civilian governments in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its turbulent history.

The people of Pakistan hope the polls will deliver change and ease frustrations with a feeble economy, widespread corruption, chronic power cuts and crumbling infrastructure.

Disenchantment with the two mainstream parties appeared this week to have brought a late surge of support for former cricket star Imran Khan, who could end up holding the balance of power if there is no clear-cut winner.

If that happens, weeks of haggling to form a coalition will follow and raise the risk of an unstable government in a country ruled by the military for more than half of its history.

That would only make it more difficult to reverse the disgust with politicians felt among the country's 180 million people and drive through the reforms needed to revive its near-failed economy.

Power cuts can last more than 10 hours a day in some places, crippling key industries like textiles, and a new International Monetary Fund bailout may be needed soon.

Dozens of people have been killed in the run-up to the vote by the al-Qaeda-linked Pakistan Taliban, which regards the poll as un-Islamic and has vowed to disrupt the process with suicide bombings.

"The problems facing the new government will be immense, and this may be the last chance that the country's existing elites have to solve them," said Anatol Lieven, a professor at King's College, London, and author of a book on Pakistan.

"If the lives of ordinary Pakistanis are not significantly improved over the next five years, a return to authoritarian solutions remains a possibility," Lieven wrote in a column in the Financial Times on Friday.

The army stayed out of politics during the five years of the last government, but it still sets the nuclear-armed country's foreign and security policy and will steer the thorny relationship with Washington as NATO troops withdraw from neighboring Afghanistan next year.

The party of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif looks set to win the most seats in the one-day vote, which gets under way across the country at 8 a.m. (0300 GMT).

However, Khan's dark-horse challenge could deprive Sharif of a majority and dash his hopes for a return to power 14 years after he was ousted in a military coup, jailed and later exiled.

Pakistan's best-known sportsman, who led a playboy lifestyle in his younger days, Khan is seen by many as a refreshing change from the dynastic politicians who long relied on a patronage system to win votes and are often accused of corruption.

THREAT OF ATTACKS

Voters will elect 272 members of the National Assembly and to win a simple majority, a party would have to take 137 seats.

However, the election is complicated by the fact that a further 70 seats, most reserved for women and members of non- Muslim minorities, are allocated to parties on the basis of their performance in the contested constituencies. To have a majority of the total of 342, a party would need 172.

Khan appeals mostly to young, urban voters because of his calls for an end to corruption, a new political landscape and a halt to U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil.

The 60-year-old is in hospital after injuring himself in a fall at a party rally, which may also win him sympathy votes.

Early opinion polls had put the share of votes for his Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) party as low as single figures. However, a survey released on Wednesday showed 24.98 percent of voters nationally planned to vote for his party, just a whisker behind Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N).

The Herald magazine poll showed Sharif's party remained the front-runner in Punjab, which, with the largest share of parliamentary seats, usually dictates the outcome of elections.

It also pointed to an upset for the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), which led the last government, placing it third. Pakistan's politics have long been dominated by the PML-N and the PPP, whose most prominent figure is President Asif Ali Zardari, widower of assassinated former premier Benazir Bhutto.

"The PPP didn't take care of the poor masses and always engages in corrupt practices whenever they come to power," said Sher Nabi, a banker from Peshawar.

"So we've decided to vote for the PTI candidate this time and test Imran Khan to see if he proves as honest as he claims."

Pakistan, which prides itself on its democratic credentials, ordered the New York Times bureau chief in Islamabad to leave the country on the eve of national elections, the newspaper said on Friday.

A two-sentence letter was delivered by police officers to the home of the bureau chief, Declan Walsh, at 12:30 a.m. local time on Thursday, it said.

"It is informed that your visa is hereby canceled in view of your undesirable activities," the Times quoted the letter as saying. "You are therefore advised to leave the country within 72 hours."

In the violence ahead of the election, militants mostly targeted secular-leaning parties in the PPP's outgoing coalition and largely spared more conservative parties that question Pakistan's participation in the U.S.-led campaign against militancy, including those of both Khan and Sharif.

Many Pakistanis still plan to vote despite the bloodshed.

"I want to go out and vote but my parents are scared there will be a bomb or a shooting," said 21-year-old Nargis Fatima, a student in Quetta, one of Pakistan's most volatile cities.

"This is the first time I'm old enough to vote and I'll try my best to go out there and feel that I am part of whatever new set-up comes into place."

(Additional reporting by Mehreen Zahra-Malik in ISLAMABAD, Gul Yousafzai in QUETTA, Mubasher Bukhari in LAHORE and Jibran Ahmed in PESHAWAR; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistanis-vote-landmark-election-031123656.html

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G-7 commits to shoring up global growth

AYLESBURY, England (AP) ? Japan convinced its partners in the Group of Seven leading industrial economies Saturday that it was not manipulating its currency as part of its bold attempt to get its economy out of a near two-decade period of stagnation.

And at the conclusion of a two-day meeting of leading financial representatives from the G-7 countries ? the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada and the U.K. ? there appeared to be a formal acknowledgement that each member needed to secure their own countries' growth by balancing economically restraining austerity measures with growth-enhancing policies.

"The will is still there to reduce the deficits but there is certainly a change of tone," said Pierre Moscovici, France's finance minister at the conclusion of the two-day summit at a country house around 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of London.

The global recovery from recession over the past few years has been patchy. While the U.S. economy, the world's largest, appears to be gaining traction, many European countries are in recession as they try to get a grip on their public finances through deep spending cuts and tax increases.

Japan, the world's number 3 economy has been in focus over recent months as the new government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has embarked on a radical policy of aggressive monetary stimulus to restart the country's postwar boom, which effectively ground to a halt in the early 1990s.

One of the offshoots of the pumping more money into the Japanese economy has been a dramatic fall in the value of the yen. On Thursday, the dollar rose above 100 yen for the first time in over four years. At the time of December's general election in Japan, the dollar was trading around the 80 yen mark.

As well as potentially boosting economic growth by making its exports more competitive, the flipside of a lower yen is that it can also stoke inflation by increasing the price of imports. For a country that's seen prices fall for much of the past 15 years, that's important.

So far, the argument presented by Japanese officials that it has been targeting monetary stimulus and not its exchange rate has been accepted by Japan's G-7 partners.

British finance minister George Osborne, who hosted the two days of informal discussions, said the G-7 countries all agreed to make sure that "policies are oriented towards domestic objectives."

In a rare development, the G-7 didn't actually issue a communique at the conclusion of its deliberations. However, Osborne said the previous communique "was a successful statement and one that has been held to" ? a clear reference to Japan.

In February, when markets were particularly roiled by developments in Japan, the G-7 said their respective fiscal and monetary policies were oriented towards meeting domestic requirements and that exchange rates were not a target of policy.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/g-7-commits-shoring-global-growth-132445855.html

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New endurance record for small electric unmanned aerial vehicle

May 10, 2013 ? Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory flew their fuel cell powered Ion Tiger UAV for 48 hours and 1 minute on April 16-18 by using liquid hydrogen fuel in a new, NRL-developed, cryogenic fuel storage tank and delivery system. This flight shatters their previous record of 26 hours and 2 minutes set in 2009 using the same vehicle, but with gaseous hydrogen stored at 5000 psi.

Liquid hydrogen is three times denser than 5000-psi compressed hydrogen. The cryogenic liquid is stored in a lightweight tank, allowing more hydrogen to be carried onboard to increase flight endurance. Success in flight requires developing a high quality, lightweight insulated flight dewar for the cryogenic fuel, plus matching the boil off of the cryogenic hydrogen to the vehicle fuel consumption.

"Liquid hydrogen coupled with fuel-cell technology has the potential to expand the utility of small unmanned systems by greatly increasing endurance while still affording all the benefits of electric propulsion," said Dr. Karen Swider-Lyons, NRL principal investigator.

Although long endurance is possible with conventional, hydrocarbon-fueled systems, these are usually loud, inefficient, and unreliable in this aircraft class. Similarly, small, electric, battery-powered systems are limited to endurances of only several hours.

To address the logistics of in-theater supply of liquid or gaseous hydrogen, NRL proposes in-situ manufacture of LH₂ for use as fuel. An electrolyzer-based system would require only water for feedstock, and electricity, possibly from solar or wind, to electrolyze, compress, and refrigerate the fuel.

The NRL LH₂ flight capability is being developed by NRL's Tactical Electronic Warfare and Chemistry Divisions, and is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/g37siVrMhGc/130510124546.htm

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Heavy metal singer pleads not guilty in California murder-for-hire case

By Marty Graham

VISTA, California (Reuters) - Heavy metal singer Tim Lambesis, the frontman for Christian rock band As I Lay Dying, pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a charge of soliciting the murder of his estranged wife.

North San Diego County Superior Court Judge Martin Staven set bail for Lambesis at $3 million. He ordered Lambesis to surrender his passport, stay away from his wife Meggan and their three children and remain in San Diego county except to meet with his attorney.

If convicted, Lambesis faces up to nine years in prison.

Lambesis, 32, was arrested at a bookstore in Oceanside, north of San Diego, on Tuesday after he tried to hire an undercover sheriff's deputy to kill Meggan Lambesis, according to Deputy District Attorney Claudia Grasso. Meggan Lambesis had filed for divorce in September after eight years of marriage, according to court records.

The singer gave the man he knew as 'Red' an envelope containing $1,000 in cash, photos of his wife, her address and codes to get through the security gates of her home, and a list of dates that would work well because he would have their three adopted children with him, Grasso said.

"The children would be his alibi," Grasso said at a news conference after the hearing, which was attended by more than 40 of Lambesis' friends, family and fans.

Lambesis' attorney, Anthony Salerno, said his client was set up. "If I had to hang a tag on it, I'd call it a scumbag snitch set-up," Salerno said. "Law enforcement was fed something by someone who effectively orchestrated the whole thing ... He did not intend to harm anybody."

Lambesis sent his wife an email in August while he was on tour, telling her he no longer loved her or believed in God, Grasso said. His wife also found he was having an affair and "there had been a string of other women," she said.

The prosecutor said Lambesis asked an acquaintance from his gym if he could find someone to kill his wife.

The gym friend arranged for him to meet with an undercover Sheriff's Department detective on Tuesday, to whom Lambesis gave the envelope of cash and information, Grasso said.

Salerno said he believed Lambesis did not want to harm his wife and had never done so in the past, noting the singer has no history of domestic violence or any arrests.

"Tim was mostly disappointed that it was going the way it was, he didn't feel it was good for his children," Salerno said. "The rest, I think will come out, that he was set up."

He also told the court that the restrictions on Lambesis to stay in San Diego County will affect the band's ability to tour and earn a living.

"The band has a tour scheduled," Salerno told the judge. "There's many people who depend on him. If he can't go that would be to the detriment of many, many people."

Lambesis is due to return to court for a preliminary hearing on July 10.

(Editing by Tim Gaynor and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/heavy-metal-singer-pleads-not-guilty-california-murder-022257426.html

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The GOP Walkout on Obama's EPA Pick Shows Senate Is as Polluted as Earth

The deeply boring procedures under which the Senate operates are so sufficiently riddled with idiosyncrasies that they allow for any number of goofy machinations and roadblocks. Everyone knows this. But every so often it's worth remembering just how weird and innovative they are.

RELATED: FAA Will Stay Open for Business Despite Senator's Objection

And so, this morning, the Republican members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee announced that they were not going to attend a hearing meant to advance the nomination of Gina McCarthy to head the Environmental Protection Agency, effectively halting the process in its tracks. Which problem is trickier to solve ? Senate chicanery or the EPA's mandate, curbing pollution ? is a question for the ages.

RELATED: Senate Republicans Block the Paycheck Fairness Act

There was little doubt that McCarthy's nomination would encounter opposition. In part, that's because McCarthy, who is currently assistant administrator for the Agency's Office of Air and Radiation, has been an outspoken advocate for tighter air pollution restrictions. But the inevitable opposition is more largely due to general Republican antipathy to the mission of the Agency. During the tenure of Lisa Jackson, the most recent administrator of the Agency, the EPA became a favored target of President Obama's opponents. Month after month, week after week, Republicans called Jackson in to testify on any range of issues. (In the long run, Jackson was obstructed nearly as much in her efforts by the president.)

RELATED: Linda McMahon Turns 'Heel' and Sides with Barack Obama

Politically, the Republicans' opposition makes sense. EPA tends to fit neatly into the broader Republican narrative: government stepping in to regulate business activity. Some EPA measures have gone into effect that force business to adjust, though not always to their detriment and nearly always yielding an increased economic benefit on the whole. Other efforts lend themselves easily to being mocked in political shorthand. An EPA effort to reduce airborne particulates became the EPA cracking down on farm dust. Opponents claimed that the EPA wanted to regulate milk spills in the same way it would oil; it didn't.

RELATED: Watch Senator Mark Kirk's Post-Stroke Return to Congress, 'Rocky'-Style

And then, of course, there's climate change. The EPA offers perhaps the administration's only unilateral tool to stem the emission of greenhouse gasses that contribute to climate change ??even if it is an imperfect one. The EPA is empowered by the courts to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, for example, meaning it could severely curtail heavy emitters of carbon pollution. That would be a significant political act for the administration to take, to be sure ??but Obama's opponents are strongly committed to that sort of regulation never coming close to happening.

RELATED: Another of Obama's Blocked Judicial Nominee Gives Up

One way to double down on that commitment is to slow the process of the EPA getting a new Administrator. Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, the ranking minority member of the committee (and whose campaign was funded most heavily by the oil and gas industry), explained the rationale ?for the committee walkout in a press conference this morning.

Politico summarizes:

Committee ranking member David Vitter (R-La.) announced the boycott by all eight GOP members around 8:30 a.m., saying they would deny the panel a quorum because McCarthy and the EPA haven't provided answers to the questions they'd posed.

Democrats have noted that the questions totaled more than 1,000 ? what they call a record. Republicans also had five ?requests? for EPA on issues such as how the agency handles outside groups' threats of litigation ? though Democrats said the GOP senators were actually asking the agency to offer major concessions in how it conducts public business.

Vitter also noted that the move is not without precedent. In 2003, Senate Democrats similarly skipped a meeting in order to keep then-President Bush from appointing Mike Leavitt to run the same agency. It didn't work for long; he served from November 2003 to January 2005.

Nonetheless, the current Democratic majority criticized the move, according to The Hill.

?This is wrong. And you want to know why some of us are going to be in favor of reforming the rules of the Senate? Because of things like this,? Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) said.

Tackling the nation's air and water pollution, eventually targeting the extent to which we contribute to the looming problem of climate change is a challenge. Reforming the Senate to eliminate the gimmicks both sides love is another effort entirely.

Photo: Gina McCarthy. (AP)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-walkout-obamas-epa-pick-shows-senate-polluted-170147229.html

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