wyndham windburn: May 2013

Friday, May 31, 2013

Stocks rise as Fed concerns ease

Stocks rose Thursday on Wall Street after disappointing economic reports eased concerns that the Federal Reserve would scale back its stimulus program.?Banks and other stocks that stand to benefit the most from an improving economy have surged this week.

By Steve Rothwell,?AP Markets Writer / May 30, 2013

A screen displays stock charts while a trader works at his post on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday. Trading in stocks has been choppy this week as investors wrestle with the question of whether the Fed will ease its economic stimulus.

Brendan McDermid/Reuters

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The?stock?market rose Thursday after a pair of lackluster economic reports convinced traders that the U.S. central bank will continue to boost the economy with its stimulus program.

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Unemployment claims rose and an initial estimate of first-quarter economic growth was revised slightly lower. That suggests the U.S. economy may still need some time to recover from its funk and that the Fed will keep up its $85 billion in monthly bond purchases.

"The big worry that's been hitting the market lately, that the Fed might step back prematurely, might be fading a little today on the idea that the economy does need a bit more support," Jeff Kleintop, chief market strategist at LPL Financial, said.

The Dow closed up 21.73 points, or 0.1 percent, at 15,324.53 points. In other trading, the Nasdaq composite index rose 23.78 points, or 0.7 percent, to 3,491.30.

The S&P 500 rose in early trading, climbing as much as 13.6 points, or 0.8 percent, by late afternoon. The index then gave up some of the gains in the last hour of trading to end up just 6.05 points, or 0.4 percent, at 1,654.41.

The rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index was led by banking and insurance?stocks, which gained 1.1 percent. Among individual bank?stocks, Bank of America rose 35 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $13.87. The?stock?is trading at its highest in more than two years. JPMorgan gained 95 cents, or 1.7 percent, $55.62.

Banks and other?stocks?that stand to benefit the most from an improving economy have surged this week, a change from earlier in the year when investors favored dividend-rich?stocks?like utilities. Now investors are selling dividend-rich?stocks?and buying so-called growth?stocks. The S&P's financial index is up 2.1 percent this week, and its utilities index is down 2.5 percent.

Even after that increase, by one measure bank?stocks?are still less expensive than the broader market. The price-to-earnings ratio for financial companies is still lower than that of S&P 500 average. The so-called P/E ratio is 14.4 for banks and insurers, compared with 16.2 for all companies in the S&P, according to FactSet.

Stocks?also got a boost from deal news.

NV Energy surged $4.34, or 23 percent, to $23.62, leading a broad advance in utility companies. Clearwire, a wireless network operator, surged $1.02 cents, or 29 percent, to $4.50 after satellite TV operator Dish Network raised its bid for the company to $6.9 billion.

In economic news, the number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week, a sign layoffs have increased, the Labor Department said Thursday. Claims for unemployment aid rose 10,000 last week to 354,000. The government also lowered its estimate for U.S. economic growth in the first three months of the year to 2.4 percent from 2.5 percent.

Trading has been choppy on Wall Street this week as investors wrestle with the question of whether the Fed will ease its economic stimulus. Minutes released last week from the Fed's last policy meeting showed that some central bank officials favored slowing the purchases as early as next month, if the economy improves enough. The program has been a major factor supporting a rally in?stocks?by encouraging investors to buy riskier assets.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 106 points Tuesday, then fell by the same amount Wednesday, leading some market watchers to ask whether the rally that has pushed the Dow and S&P 500 index to record levels may be fizzling out.

While the prospect of a change in Fed strategy is unsettling investors, ultimately, they should welcome the end of the Fed's stimulus because it means that the economy is strong enough to stand on its own two feet, JJ Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at TD Ameritrade, said.

"It's the vote of confidence," Kinahan said. "It should mean that the overall economy is healthy."

Phone companies and the makers of consumer staples were the biggest decliners, dropping 1 percent and 0.4 percent respectively. These so-called defensive?stocks?that pay rich dividends have fallen out of favor this month after investors pushed their prices higher at the start of the year.

Stock?investors have had a good year so far. The Dow is 16.9 percent higher on the year and has set record closing highs on nine days in May. The S&P 500 index is up 16 percent and is on track to rise for a seventh straight month, its longest winning streak since 2009.

In commodities trading, oil rose 48 cents to $93.61 a barrel. Gold rose $20.20, or 1.5 percent, to $1,411.50 an ounce. The dollar fell against the euro and the Japanese yen.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year note was unchanged at 2.12 percent.

Among other?stocks?making big moves:

? EMC, a data storage equipment maker, rose $1.27, or 5.4 percent, to $24.93 after the company said it will ramp up its?stock?buyback program and begin paying a quarterly dividend.

? Big Lots, a discount store chain, fell $3.45, or 9 percent, to $34.93 after the company reported a 21 percent drop in quarterly income and lowered its full-year revenue forecast.

? First Solar rose $3.39, or 6.5 percent, to $55.15 after the company's?stock?was upgraded to "buy" from "neutral" by Goldman Sachs. The investment bank says the solar energy's company's earnings may rise more than Wall Street forecasts and that it might buy other companies or its own?stock?as it generates more cash.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/e0pDSIa3_AM/Stocks-rise-as-Fed-concerns-ease

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Alarm grows as Iraqi forces fail to stem violence

Civilians inspect the site of a parked car bomb attack near a popular restaurant in the Ur neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, killed and wounded dozens of people, police said, in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Baghdad municipality workers clean up while restaurant staff react in front of their destroyed restaurant after a parked car bomb exploded near a popular restaurant in the Ur neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. A series of bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday killed and wounded dozens in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country, officials said. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Workers inspect their destroyed restaurant after a parked car bomb exploded near a popular restaurant in the Ur neighborhood in northern Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. A series of bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday killed and wounded dozens in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country, officials said.(AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Iraqis gather at the scene of a bomb attack in the commercial area of Karradah in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, killed and wounded dozens of people, police said, in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Security forces inspect the scene of a car bomb attack in the commercial area of Karradah in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday, May 30, 2013. A series of morning bomb explosions in Baghdad and the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Thursday, killed and wounded dozens of people, police said, in the latest eruption of violence rattling the country. (AP Photo/ Hadi Mizban)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Officials in Iraq are growing increasingly concerned over an unabated spike in violence that claimed at least another 33 lives on Thursday and is reviving fears of a return to widespread sectarian fighting.

Authorities announced plans to impose a sweeping ban on many cars across the Iraqi capital starting early Friday in an apparent effort to thwart car bombings, as the United Nations envoy to Iraq warned that "systemic violence is ready to explode."

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, meanwhile, was shown on state television visiting security checkpoints around Baghdad the previous night as part of a three-hour inspection tour, underscoring the government's efforts to show it is acting to curtail the bloodshed.

Iraqi security forces are struggling to contain the country's most relentless round of violence since the 2011 U.S. military withdrawal.

The rise in violence follows months of protests against the Shiite-led government by Iraq's Sunni minority, many of whom feel they've been marginalized and unfairly treated since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. Tensions escalated sharply last month after a deadly crackdown by security forces on a Sunni protest camp.

Sunni militants, including al-Qaida, have long targeted Iraq's Shiite majority and government security forces. But Sunni mosques and other targets have also been struck over the past several weeks, raising the possibility that Shiite militias are also growing more active.

Several members of the security forces were killed in Thursday's bombings. The attacks also included an assassination attempt by a suicide bomber targeting a provincial governor in the country's Sunni-dominated west.

"These daily patterns of car bomb attacks ... in Baghdad and some other cities (are) really unacceptable for the people of Iraq, who have suffered so much," Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Thursday.

"It's the government's responsibility to redouble its efforts, to revise its security plans, to contain this wave, to prevent it from sliding into sectarian conflict and war," he added. "That should not happen again."

The spike in violence, which has gained momentum since the middle of the month, is raising worries that Iraq is heading back toward the widespread sectarian bloodletting that spiked in 2006 and 2007 and pushed the country to the brink of civil war.

More than 500 people have been killed in May. The month before was Iraq's deadliest since June 2008, according to a United Nations tally that put April's death toll at more than 700.

"Iraq is a reactor that's overheating and there's little coolant available," said Ramzy Mardini, an analyst at the Beirut-based Iraq Institute for Strategic Studies. "Iraq's nascent politics is not equipped to sustain the current dangerous levels of internal and external pressure. There needs to be an off-ramp to relieve some of the pressure."

The vehicle ban coming into effect Friday applies to cars bearing temporary black license plates. Those plates are common in post-war Iraq, where for years it was difficult to obtain new ones. They are typically on older-model vehicles and are more difficult to trace, and authorities say they are frequently used in car bombings.

Most of Thursday's blasts erupted in Baghdad.

Car bombs killed four in the northeastern Shiite neighborhood of Binouq, and three died in a bombing at a market selling spare car parts in central Baghdad, according to police. In Baghdad's eastern Shiite Ur neighborhood, a parked car bomb went off next to an army patrol, killing four and wounding 17, police said.

Police officials also said that a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol in the largely Shiite central commercial district of Karradah, killing three people there. That explosion shattered glass on several storefronts and left the stricken police unit's modified Ford pickup truck charred and mangled.

"What have these innocent people done to deserve this?" asked witness Sinan Ali. "So many people were hurt. Who is responsible?"

In Baghdad's northern Shiite neighborhood of Shaab, a car bomb exploded in a commercial area, killing six civilians and wounding 17 others.

In the largely Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah in the capital's north, a car bomb struck near a military convoy, killing three people, including two soldiers, according to police. Another 14 people were wounded in that attack.

A bomb hidden on a minibus killed three and maimed eight in the eastern mixed Sunni-Shiite New Baghdad neighborhood. And a police patrol was struck in the southern neighborhood of Saydiyah, wounding six.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties.

In Anbar province, the provincial governor escaped an assassination attempt when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into his convoy, his deputy Dhari Arkan said. The governor escaped unharmed, but four of his guards were wounded.

Anbar is a vast Sunni-dominated province west of Baghdad that for months has been the center of protests against the Shiite-led government.

In the former insurgent stronghold city of Mosul, about 360 kilometers (225 miles) northwest of Baghdad, a suicide bomber attacked a federal police checkpoint, killing three people, according to police.

And to the west of Mosul, a suicide attacker drove his explosives-packed car into a security checkpoint, killing two members of the security forces and two civilians, according to a police officer and a doctor. Eight other people were wounded in the attacks in the town of Tal Afar, they added.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to talk to the media.

The United Nations envoy to Iraq, Martin Kobler, urged Iraqi leaders to do more to "pull the country out of this mayhem."

"Systemic violence is ready to explode at any moment," he said in a statement.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks but blame for many of the attacks is likely to fall on al-Qaida's Iraq arm, which frequently carries out bombings against civilians and security forces in an effort to undermine faith in the Shiite-led government.

Other militant groups have also grown more active in recent months, including the Army of the Men of the Naqshabandi Order, which has ties to members of Saddam Hussein's now-outlawed Baath party.

The attacks began hours after bomb blasts tore through two Baghdad neighborhoods Wednesday evening, killing at least 30, including several members of a wedding party in the mixed Sunni-Shiite Jihad neighborhood.

___

Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Sinan Salaheddin contributed to this story.

___

Follow Adam Schreck on Twitter at http://twitter.com/adamschreck

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-05-31-Iraq/id-ee5ad4e4704346e0b6e7c7a1d1c6df3b

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Why doesn't Venus have oceans? Study offers intriguing new theory.

Venus is Earth's twin in many ways, so its lack of liquid water oceans has perplexed scientists. A new study suggests that Venus might be about 7 million miles too close to the sun.

By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / May 29, 2013

The northern hemisphere of Venus is displayed in this view of the planet's surface. A runaway greenhouse effect makes liquid water impossible on Venus's scorching surface, but a new study suggests most of Venus's water might might have been gone even before the planet cooled.

JPL/AP/File

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Two planets ? Earth and Venus ? share similar sizes, bulk compositions, and underlying structures. They are the nearest of any two planetary neighbors in the solar system. So why does one have oceans while the other one doesn't?

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Therein lies a steamy tale of early planetary evolution, one whose different endings were determined from the outset by location, rather than by processes that sent the two on divergent paths later in their histories, according to a new study.

If the analysis holds up to further scrutiny, it not only could help answer the Earth-Venus riddle. It also could help scientists studying extrasolar planets pin down more precisely a star's habitable zone, or help them identify rocky planets in habitable zones that are still working their way through their molten youth, some researchers say.

"Of all the planetary-science questions we have, the question of why are the Earth and Venus different is the most gigantic and fundamental unanswered question we've got," says Lindy Elkins-Tanton, director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Terrestrial Magnetism and a researcher who studies planet evolution.

If scientists want to say they know anything about what makes for a habitable planet, she says, "We'd better be able to answer that one."

Generally, ideas about how the differences came about fall into two broad categories, she explains. One envisions both planets starting out as dry. After they solidified, they accumulated water through comet and asteroid impacts. The other envisions both starting as planets with steamy atmospheres.

In both cases, Venus lost its water through a runaway greenhouse effect based on its closer proximity to the sun and the copious amounts of heat-trapping water vapor in its early atmosphere, reinforced by the lack of a carbon cycle, which partitions and recycles heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) among oceans, living things, and rocks. Earth retained its supply of water because it has these and other features.

Each general explanation, however, presumes the planets had first cooled to host solid crusts.

The new work represents "the first model that suggests that the planets accreted with the same wet material, but Venus lost its water as it was solidifying, not afterwards," says Dr. Elkins-Tanton, who was not part of the research team.

The story, as set out by a trio of Japanese scientists led by the University of Tokyo's Keiko Hamano, begins with the generally accepted picture of rocky planets building from primordial, rocky chunks that dominated the inner regions of the disk of dust and gas that surrounded the young sun some 4.6 billion years ago.

Growth often was a violent process, aided by collisions with other massive objects trying to become planets. These collisions generated heat sufficient to periodically cover the planets with relatively deep oceans of magma.

Meanwhile, water was ubiquitous in clouds of gas and dust that gave rise to stars and planets. The recurring collisions that kept the crust molten before Earth and Venus solidified released the water bound up in the once-solid minerals as steam.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/AI8xdlGwZVQ/Why-doesn-t-Venus-have-oceans-Study-offers-intriguing-new-theory.

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Thursday, May 30, 2013

Republican Party seeks documents on Benghazi

FILE ? In this Jan.23, 2013, file photo U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham pounds her fist as she testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the deadly September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Republicans and Democrats began condemning each other's response to Benghazi within hours of the first shots fired. The issue has flared and dimmed ever since, revived by new testimony, reports or documents like newly released emails. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The political arm of the Republican Party is seeking any emails and documents that might exist between the State Department and President Barack Obama's re-election campaign about the deadly assault last year in Benghazi, Libya.

The Republican National Committee said Thursday it sent a request under the Freedom of Information Act for material between Sept. 11 ? the day of the attack ? and Nov. 7 ? the day after Obama's re-election.

The RNC is seeking anything containing the words Libya or Benghazi.

The attack killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Republicans are accusing the Obama administration of misleading Americans about the assault. It's a crucial issue for conservatives, the GOP voters who will be vital in next year's midterm elections.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-30-Benghazi%20Investigation/id-a836761cb2bb44be8f6808ed9a072d50

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Tweetbot for Mac updated with profile cover photo support, media timelines, and more

Tweetbot for Mac has just been updated with a few new features as well as some minor bug fixed. The most notable additions are media timeline view which lines up now with the iPhone and iPad version, profile cover image support, and some changes to tweet views.

The largest new feature in the 1.3 update is the addition of the new media timeline. This view filters all your tweets to only show those with media attached. To access the media timeline, just open Tweetbot and type cmd + f and you'll see a search bar drop down and to the right of that you'll be able to toggle between media and regular timeline views.

Other changes include a reworked tweet detail screen that now shows information on retweets and favorites. You'll also notice support for profile cover images that wasn't there before. Some other minor enhancements have also been made in regards to how you can interact with profiles and timelines. Mainly how certain click actions will scroll to the top or return you to a different view.

If you've installed the update and notice anything not mentioned in the release notes, let us know in the comments below

$19.99 - Download Now

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/HWOoJ6lnquo/story01.htm

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Low-sodium 'diet' key to a stellar old age

Public release date: 29-May-2013
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Contact: Emily Walker
emily.walker@monash.edu
61-399-034-844
Monash University

Astrophysicists have found that contrary to decades of orthodoxy, stars with a high sodium content die before reaching the final, spectacular stages of life.

In a study published today in Nature, an international group of researchers led by Dr Simon Campbell of the Monash Centre for Astrophysics (MoCA), used the European Southern Observatory's 'Very Large Telescope' (VLT) to observe NGC 6752, a globular cluster of stars in our galaxy, 13,000 light years from Earth.

They found that 70 per cent of stars in the tightly bound group fail to reach the final red giant phase. This phase is the last stage of nuclear burning before stars form a planetary nebula, where the gas and dust emitted through copius stellar winds are colourfully illuminated by radiation from the star's naked core.

Dr Campbell said the results were startling because prior to this, it was thought that all low-mass stars, including our Sun, would progress to this final red giant phase.

"We, and other groups in the world, have modeled the entire life-time of these stars and all the models indicate that they pass through this phase. It turns out that the models are not accurately predicting what we have observed here," Dr Campbell said.

"If it were just a small number of stars not making it to this stage, we could put it down to uncertainties in the observations or in the models, but it is a huge proportion of stars - 70 per cent, all those with high sodium content - that are following this newly observed pattern. It can not be ignored."

Globular clusters, which contain about a million stars, are some of the oldest structures in the Universe, having formed shortly after the Big Bang around 14 billion years ago. These very old stars are highly homogenous in mass and age, and so are widely used as natural laboratories for constraining the computer modelling of stars.

Co-author on the paper and Director of MoCA, Professor John Lattanzio, said that the sodium was a marker and unlikely to be the cause of the early death of the stars.

"Although, at this stage, we don't know the causes, this finding affects our understanding of some of the oldest stars in the Universe - stars that we routinely use to compare with our computer models to test how accurate they are," Professor Lattanzio said.

The MoCA group will now observe some of the other 157 globular clusters in the Milky Way to confirm that the pattern holds. They are also working on new theoretical models to try and understand what is causing so many stars to fail to reach a stellar old age.

###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Low-sodium 'diet' key to a stellar old age Public release date: 29-May-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Emily Walker
emily.walker@monash.edu
61-399-034-844
Monash University

Astrophysicists have found that contrary to decades of orthodoxy, stars with a high sodium content die before reaching the final, spectacular stages of life.

In a study published today in Nature, an international group of researchers led by Dr Simon Campbell of the Monash Centre for Astrophysics (MoCA), used the European Southern Observatory's 'Very Large Telescope' (VLT) to observe NGC 6752, a globular cluster of stars in our galaxy, 13,000 light years from Earth.

They found that 70 per cent of stars in the tightly bound group fail to reach the final red giant phase. This phase is the last stage of nuclear burning before stars form a planetary nebula, where the gas and dust emitted through copius stellar winds are colourfully illuminated by radiation from the star's naked core.

Dr Campbell said the results were startling because prior to this, it was thought that all low-mass stars, including our Sun, would progress to this final red giant phase.

"We, and other groups in the world, have modeled the entire life-time of these stars and all the models indicate that they pass through this phase. It turns out that the models are not accurately predicting what we have observed here," Dr Campbell said.

"If it were just a small number of stars not making it to this stage, we could put it down to uncertainties in the observations or in the models, but it is a huge proportion of stars - 70 per cent, all those with high sodium content - that are following this newly observed pattern. It can not be ignored."

Globular clusters, which contain about a million stars, are some of the oldest structures in the Universe, having formed shortly after the Big Bang around 14 billion years ago. These very old stars are highly homogenous in mass and age, and so are widely used as natural laboratories for constraining the computer modelling of stars.

Co-author on the paper and Director of MoCA, Professor John Lattanzio, said that the sodium was a marker and unlikely to be the cause of the early death of the stars.

"Although, at this stage, we don't know the causes, this finding affects our understanding of some of the oldest stars in the Universe - stars that we routinely use to compare with our computer models to test how accurate they are," Professor Lattanzio said.

The MoCA group will now observe some of the other 157 globular clusters in the Milky Way to confirm that the pattern holds. They are also working on new theoretical models to try and understand what is causing so many stars to fail to reach a stellar old age.

###
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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-05/mu-lk052713.php
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Wednesday, May 29, 2013

PAC supporting Hillary Clinton bid names finance chairs

Hillary Clinton (Kika Press/File)

Ready for Hillary, a super PAC supporting a possible Hillary Clinton presidential bid in 2016, announced Tuesday that longtime Clinton fundraiser Susie Tompkins Buell and Houston lawyers Steve Mostyn and Amber Mostyn would lead the organization?s national finance committee.

The addition of high-profile fundraising talent is the latest sign of the group?s seriousness and depth of connection to the former secretary of state as she weighs a potential candidacy.

?Hillary is the best candidate to build on the progress President Obama has made, and Ready for Hillary is the best vehicle for donors who want to help make Hillary our next president,? Steve Mostyn said in a statement released Wednesday. Mostyn and his wife contributed $3 million to the Obama-affiliated Priorities USA in 2012.

While Clinton has yet to offer any real indication of her intentions regarding the 2016 contest, Ready for Hillary has moved forcefully to recruit top talent since its launch earlier this year. The group was founded by George Washington University professor Allida Black and Adam Parkhomenco, who worked as a staffer on Clinton?s ill-fated 2008 presidential campaign.

Ready for Hillary received much attention early last month when James Carville, a Democratic strategist who helped engineer Bill Clinton?s winning 1992 campaign, announced he's backing the group. In an email blast, Carville wrote, ?We owe it to Hillary to start putting the building blocks of her campaign together now. The modern political campaign demands it.?

Carville?s support mirrors that of many other Clinton family surrogates who have stepped forward in recent months to be part of the Ready for Hillary team. Craig Smith, who recently assumed a senior leadership role with the PAC, served as political director in the Clinton White House; Harold Ickes, another longtime adviser to Bill Clinton, is supporting the group as well.

Buell, who refrained from opening up her wallet for President Obama in the last two election cycles, led Hillary?s fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2008. ?Ready for Hillary is the wisest investment right now for anyone who wants Hillary Clinton to be the next president,? Buell said in a statement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/super-pac-supporting-clinton-presidential-bid-names-finance-214922520.html

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UFC fan uses guillotine choke to hold off attempted carjacker after watching UFC 160

Stockton, Calif., is the home of UFC fighters Nick and Nate Diaz, but another Stocktonian made the news for his MMA moves over the weekend. Abel Simmons was returning home from watching UFC 160 with his family when he used a guillotine to hold off a man who was attacking his family.

Simmons' two children were in the backseat of his SUV when the family car pulled into their driveway. A man walked up to the car and started banging on the windows, and then tried to open the door. Simmons, who was in the passenger seat, got out and scuffled with the man until he had him in a guillotine.

"I had him in a guillotine choke. And he wasn't getting out of that. I had that lock really tight," said Simmons. "I just held him in place and said, 'Well, guess you are going to jail tonight buddy.'"

Simmons' wife called 911. When the police arrived, the man tried fighting them, as well. He was arrested for attempted carjacking, battery and resisting arrest.

Watching UFC fights is not meant to be educational, but at least Simmons did learn something from tuning into Saturday's bouts. Now, if you've watched a few fights and haven't had any kind of training, you probably shouldn't go patrolling the streets looking to stop injustice with a choke hold. But it's nice to know that watching fights helped one family stay safe. The same can't be said for people who tuned into the basketball playoffs this weekend.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-fan-uses-guillotine-hold-off-attempted-carjacker-143145461.html

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Should I Flip or Should I Rent? - RealEstate.com

If you?ve been reading this column for a while, you know the first commandment of the Flippin? Insider: Buy at a discount.

This is good advice because it preserves your options: If you can buy at a discount, you not only have every advantage going into a flip, but you?ll have a much easier time renting it out for more than you are paying out in mortgage, interest, maintenance and taxes. It?s simply much easier to create a cash-flow positive property from a house you buy cheap than from one for which you pay full price.

Real estate investors may wonder which is better, renting or flipping properties, but the answer depends on each investor's situation Many times, you actually have an option: You can continue flipping the property, or you can rent it out and use the proceeds to finance future acquisitions ? or for yourself. Which is better?

The answer, for most, is either one, but not both! At least, not at the same time. Few people excel both at being a property flipper and a landlord. The two require different mindsets: The flipper is a hunter, always on the lookout for his next deal; the renter is a farmer, looking to cultivate his farmland to provide a generous yield every year.

Both approaches can generate very good results over the long haul ? if you do them right. But before you get involved in playing landlord, ask yourself a few questions:

Do I Have What it Takes to Evict People I Like?

If you?re in the landlord game long enough for enough properties, sooner or later you?re going to have to make the difficult choice to evict a sympathetic tenant. We?re talking single moms, kindly grandmothers, nice families with a breadwinner out of work, and the like. In some cases they could be friends or relations ? which is doubly tricky.

Sure, you can step out of the process altogether and have a property manager handle the eviction based on protocols you define ? but that doesn?t absolve you of the responsibility to make the difficult decision. It only isolates you from the consequences for the tenant.

But if you are a real estate investor, you have to be willing and able to do this. Indeed, if your tenants know you will, your chances of having to do so are lower.

Do I Want the 3 a.m. Phone Calls for Plumbing Emergencies?

Being a landlord means you?re always on call. You can never really be ?on vacation? because when the phone call with a big maintenance problem comes, you still have to deal with it. If you?re flipping houses and you want to take some time off, you can do so. Just don?t buy a new place right after you sell one. But being a landlord is a 365-day commitment every year.

Can I Handle the Risk?

You have heard it said that flipping real estate is risky, and there?s a big chance of loss. But I say that rental real estate is at least as risky as flipping, for one simple reason: liability. Your risk is minimal if you?re flipping unoccupied houses, or you don?t own them for very long. But your risk is substantial if you are renting the place out to clumsy, careless or irresponsible people. If someone gets hurt and they can attribute it to your property, they?re coming after you.

Mitigating against this risk takes careful planning, well before the potential tort occurs. For example, you definitely should be speaking to an attorney about using entities to separate your properties from one another ? so that one person who slips on a tile floor cannot sue you and unravel your entire enterprise. But even if they win a lawsuit and attach just one property, or one LLC, that?s a pretty big ding on any small real estate investor.

Who Will My Likely Tenants Be?

The better the neighborhood, and the more substantial the home, the better your tenant quality is likely to be, and the fewer the headaches. Potential issues that landlords encounter include:

Late-payers.
Partial rent payments.
Crime.
Drugs and drug labs, including environmental clean-up.
Depressed property values.
Drama.

This has nothing to do with race. This is true in white neighborhoods, black neighborhoods, Hispanic neighborhoods, Jewish neighborhoods and any kind of community or combination you can think of.

All these issues will not just generate risk: They will also create demands on your time. You must compensate by demanding a lower price, higher rents, or some combination of the two. You can also expect any future buyer will also demand price concessions for the same reasons.

Do I Know the Landlord/Tenant Laws in My Area?

Some areas are much more tenant-friendly than others. One key factor: How long does an eviction take? Some areas can clear out your property in a few weeks with a legal eviction order. Other jurisdictions let the process drag out for months ? during which time you aren?t getting rental income, but still on the hook for your own mortgage, taxes and insurance payments.

You also need to take into account any rent control provisions, zoning restrictions on the number of people who can live in a given house, restrictions on security deposits, and access restrictions: You can?t always just walk into a home you own.

Working with a good attorney early in the landlording process is a must ? from the property acquisition through the development of the lease agreement and through the eviction process. The rules are extensive, vary by jurisdiction, and it takes a full-time commitment to keep up with them all.

Tenant screening is hugely important. Indeed, it?s a make-or-break issue for rental property owners. But the rules are complex, and it?s easy to get in trouble over discrimination and fair housing rules. Make sure you know the rules going in.

Advantages of Renting

That said, there are significant advantages to renting: You get a steady stream of passive income ? which you can use to borrow against to enhance your flipping practice. Renting a cash-flow positive property can also buy you time with a difficult flip: You have an income cushion to see you through if a flip takes longer than anticipated. You can also be a little pickier when courting buyers: Your rental property will still put groceries on your table (though you shouldn?t be cutting it that close).

Successful renters can also relax a bit more between deals. The pure flipper is a hunter ? and must always be hungry and on the prowl for the next deal. The renter is a farmer. If he cultivates his fields, they will provide.

Rental properties are also a nice hedge against disability, illness or life changes. The day may come when you can?t put in the time and relentless energy it takes to flip properties anymore. A rental portfolio is there, through disability, illness, unemployment, and nearly any other economic hazard you can name ? except perhaps a collapse in rent payments!

Finally, a nice rental portfolio is a beautiful thing to pass on to the next generation. You cannot pass a flipping business on to the next generation, unless they are dedicated flippers, too. And if they are, they don?t need you to do it. A rental portfolio, though, is a potential source of income, security and wealth for generations to come. Indeed, historically, landownership is the most long-lasting and reliable legacy and source of family wealth, going back to the ancient world.

That said, combining the two approaches is very difficult. The more time you spend attending to landlord problems, the less time you will have for flipping. So if you are a die-hard hunter ? if you were born for the hunt ? be wary of getting sidetracked too early in your career. But at a certain point, you might want to plan a transition.

Tagged as: flip, flipper, flipping, invest, investing, investor, landlord, real estate, rent, renting, tenant

Source: http://www.realestate.com/advice/should-i-flip-or-should-i-rent-49392/

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Japan, India to discuss military plane sales

Dr Singh addresses Japan's business lobby

JAPAN is close to signing an agreement to supply amphibious planes to India, a report said on Monday (May 27), in what would be the first sale of hardware used by the military since a weapons export ban was imposed.

During a four-day visit to Tokyo by Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, starting later Monday, the two sides are set firm up plans for Delhi to purchase the US-2, a domestically-developed aircraft used by Japan?s armed forces.

The sale, reported by the Nikkei business daily, would be the first of a finished product made by Japan?s homegrown defence industry since rules were imposed restricting the export of weapons systems and other equipment.

It would also mark a strengthening of the alliance between Japan and India, which both see rising China as a threat to regional stability.

Experts say the aircraft must be classed as for civilian use if it is to comply with Japan?s 1967 self-imposed ban on arms exports, part of the post-World War II anti-militarist drive.

The US-2, which was developed by ShinMaywa Industries and has been sold to the Japanese navy at a price of roughly 10 billion yen ($99m/?65.45m), has a range of 4,700km and can land in seas with waves of up to three metres.

?If the US-2 is exported to India for civilian use, that would be the first case of exports of Japanese-developed weaponry used by the defence ministry for civilian use,? a trade ministry official in charge of arms sales told reporters.

ShinMaywa opened a sales office in New Delhi last year and has been promoting the plane there, a spokesman for the company said.

?We hear there is some demand from the Indian government but decline to comment further as we have yet to reach a contract,? he added. The Nikkei said India is looking to acquire at least 15 of the aircraft.

Japan has sought to expand the market for its defence industry. It has previously exported technology or parts of military hardware but not finished products.

The plane could be deemed to have a non-military - for example, search and rescue - purpose if ?friend-or-foe? identification systems were disabled, officials said, making it eligible for export.

In 2011 Tokyo eased the ban on arms exports, paving the way for Japanese firms to take part in multinational weapons projects.

Source: http://www.gg2.net/news/india-news/Japan,+India+to+discuss+military+plane+sales/5106

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FNF to buy Lender Processing Services for $2.9 billion

(Reuters) - Title insurer Fidelity National Financial Inc said it will buy Lender Processing Services Inc for about $2.9 billion in cash and stock to grow its mortgage servicing business.

FNF said the offer, which works out to $33.25 per LPS share, represents a premium of 19 percent to the average 30-day closing price of LPS shares. LPS shares were up about 3 percent at $33.90 in early trade.

LPS shares have risen just over 13 percent since the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that a deal was in the works.

The insurer said it would pay half the deal value in cash and the rest in FNF stock, subject to some final adjustments.

FNF, which owns a number of restaurant chains, an automotive business and a payment solutions business apart from its core insurance businesses, has been modeling itself as a mini Berkshire Hathaway Inc

The insurer said the deal values its shares at $25.48, which represents an exchange ratio of 0.652 shares per LPS share.

FNF expects to issue about 57.4 million shares, or 20 percent of its diluted outstanding shares, as the stock component of the deal.

The company said it plans to merge its ServiceLink business with LPS, and sell a 19 percent stake in the combined company to private equity firm Thomas H. Lee Partners for about $381 million.

"We have set a target of $100 million for cost synergies and are confident that we can meet or exceed that goal," FNF Chairman William Foley said in a statement.

FNF said the deal would add 11.3 percent to its pro-forma 2012 net earnings.

"We have significant experience and familiarity with LPS from our previous ownership of these businesses. This combination will create a larger, broader, more diversified and recurring revenue base for FNF," Foley said.

LPS was spun off in 2008 from Fidelity National Information Services Inc , which was formed in 2006 in a merger between an FNF unit and Certegy Inc.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan acted as financial advisers to FNF, while Credit Suisse Securities and Goldman Sachs advised LPS.

The deal, which is expected to close in the fourth quarter, includes a "go-shop" period through July 7 and includes a break-up fee of about 1.25 percent of the total value if LPS terminates the deal for a superior offer.

FNF, which has a market value of about $5.7 billion, posted a higher first-quarter profit earlier this month, as it earned more premiums from its direct title insurance business.

FNF shares were up 3 percent at $27 on Tuesday morning on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal in Bangalore; Editing by Roshni Menon)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fnf-buy-lender-processing-services-2-9-billion-121153193.html

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Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Fire breaks out aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ship

The fire-damaged exterior of Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship is seen while docked in Freeport, Grand Bahama island, Monday, May 27, 2013. Royal Caribbean said the fire occurred early Monday while on route from Baltimore to the Bahamas on the mooring area of deck 3 and was quickly extinguished. All 2,224 guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. (AP Photo/The Freeport News, Jenneva Russell)

This photo provided by Royal Caribbean shows the fire-damaged exterior of Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship, in Freeport, Bahamas. Royal Caribbean says the fire occurred on the mooring area of Deck 3 about 2:15 a.m. Monday, May 27, 2013, and was quickly extinguished, as the ship was en route to the Bahamas. Passengers and crew members reported to evacuation stations. No injuries were reported. (AP Photo/Royal Caribbean)

The fire-damaged rear of Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas cruise ship is seen while docked in Freeport, Grand Bahama island, Monday, May 27, 2013. Royal Caribbean said the fire occurred early Monday while on route from Baltimore to the Bahamas on the mooring area of deck 3 and was quickly extinguished. All 2,224 guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. (AP Photo/The Freeport News, Jenneva Russell)

BALTIMORE (AP) ? A fire that broke out aboard a Royal Caribbean ship Monday did enough damage that the rest of the cruise was canceled and the company said the more than 2,200 passengers will be flown from the Bahamas back to Baltimore where the trip began.

The fire that began at 2:50 a.m. Monday was extinguished about two hours later with no injuries reported. A cause wasn't immediately known. The Grandeur of the Seas, which left Baltimore on Friday, never lost power and was able to sail into port in Freeport, Bahamas, Monday afternoon. It had been planned to be a seven-night cruise.

Royal Caribbean said on its website and through social media that executives met with passengers in port and that the cruise line is arranging flights for all 2,224 guests on Tuesday. It said passengers will receive a full refund of their fare and a certificate for a future cruise.

Aboard ship early Monday, the captain announced that passengers needed to go to their muster stations, rousing Mark J. Ormesher from his stateroom. Ormesher said in an email to The Associated Press that immediately after the announcement, his room attendant knocked on the door and told him and his girlfriend to grab their flotation devices. The attendant said it wasn't a drill.

Ormesher, a native of England, who lives in Manassas, Va., said he and his girlfriend smelled acrid smoke as they went to their muster station, the ship's casino. The crew quickly provided instruction.

"This encouraged calm amongst the passengers," he said. Passengers were required to remain at their stations for four hours, he said, and the captain "provided us as much information as we needed to stay safe."

Ormesher, who is 25 and on his first cruise, said the air conditioner had been shut off, and as the hours passed and the ship got hot, bottled water was distributed. The crew and passengers remained calm, and helped those who needed it. Crying babies were given formula and held while their parents used the bathrooms.

In Freeport, Bahamas, passenger Andrea Sanders of Washington, D.C., said she slept on the deck with hundreds of other passengers as smoke billowed out of the stern of the ship. "I was terrified with it being my first cruise," Sanders told The Freeport News as she ate lunch in port.

Royal Caribbean said all guests and 796 crew were safe and accounted for. Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez said in an email that the company was arranging 11 different charter flights for passengers. Photos show a substantial area of the stern burned on several decks of the ship the length of about three football fields.

The company in a statement on its website said it is "deeply sorry for this unexpected development in our guests' vacation. We understand that this may have been a very stressful time for them. We appreciate their patience and cooperation in dealing with this unfortunate situation."

Carnival Corp. also had trouble with fire aboard ship earlier this year.

The 900-foot Triumph was disabled during a February cruise by an engine room fire in the Gulf of Mexico, leaving thousands of passengers to endure cold food, unsanitary conditions and power outages while the ship was towed to Mobile, Ala. It remained there for repairs until early May when it headed back to sea under its own power .

On the Grandeur, after passengers were allowed to leave their stations, Ormesher said he saw water on the outside of deck 5 and in the hallways. The mooring lines were destroyed he said; crew members brought new lines from storage.

The damage at the rear of the ship "looks bad," Ormesher said; burned out equipment was visible.

Magnus Alnebeck, general manager of the Pelican Bay Hotel, said his staff was asked to hold rooms for passengers, although it was not yet clear how many would stay there.

The ship will stay docked in Freeport at least overnight. The National Transportation Safety Board said in a tweet that it will join the U.S. Coast Guard in investigating the fire.

Martinez said in a news release that a cruise set aboard the Grandeur of the Seas for May 31 has been canceled so the ship can be repaired.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-05-27-Cruise%20Ship%20Fire/id-1f7cb6c5c42e494999d1a1ecaaf7150c

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Chinese PM meets German chancellor amid trade row

BERLIN (AP) -- Chinese Premier Li Keqiang met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday amid a looming trade spat between Asia's economic giant and the European Union.

The leaders were expected to discuss economic issues and human rights but also international topics such as Iran's nuclear program and the civil war in Syria, German officials said before the meeting in Berlin.

During a visit to Switzerland on Saturday, Li criticized the EU for pursuing anti-dumping cases against Chinese solar power and telecommunications equipment manufacturers that he warned will hurt both sides.

"The cases over these two types of products will hurt Chinese industries, business and jobs, and also damage the vital interests of European users and consumers," China's official Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying. "We express firm opposition."

The EU Commission, the 27-nation bloc's executive arm, accuses China of pricing its solar panels and mobile telecom devices too cheaply, thereby flooding the European market, distorting competition and hurting European manufacturers. Brussels has therefore proposed imposing an average 47 percent special duty on Chinese solar panels, and it is continuing to look into the telecommunication sector.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, has indicated that it hopes for a negotiated solution in those cases rather than having the EU impose anti-dumping duties, which could provoke China to impose retaliatory tariffs.

Merkel's spokesman, Steffen Seibert, said Friday the trade issue will certainly be part of the Chancellor's talks with Li.

"Between Europe and China, we must try to find amicable and fair agreements and joint approaches that both sides can live with," Seibert said.

Germany's powerful industrial lobby groups also oppose the discussed EU anti-dumping measures against China, fearing an escalating trade war that would dent the countries' buoying business ties.

China is the world's largest producer of solar panels, and more than half of its output is exported to Europe, totaling 21 billion euros in 2011.

The global solar panel market is suffering from overcapacity, which has led to stiff competition that has forced several European manufacturers out of business.

China rejects the EU's price-dumping allegations, but the problem is no novelty for Beijing. The U.S. last year imposed punitive tariffs on solar panel imports after finding that China's government was subsidizing companies that were flooding the U.S. market.

The EU, the world's largest economy, is China's second-biggest business partner after the U.S., with a trade volume of about 430 billion euros in 2012.

Following Li's arrival at Berlin's Chancellery, Merkel and her Chinese counterpart met with students from both countries before holding closed-door talks. Later Sunday, they were set to have a dinner at a government guest house outside the capital.

Li, who took office in March, visited Switzerland on Friday. In Zurich, he signed China's first free-trade agreement with a major Western economy that had been negotiated over the past years.

Germany is the only EU member nation on Li's trip.

On Monday, he will meet other officials and business leaders. He also is scheduled to meet Merkel's challenger in September's national elections, the Social Democrats' candidate Peer Steinbrueck.

___

Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/chinese-pm-meets-german-chancellor-120142668.html

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Monday, May 27, 2013

Kenya: UK soldier killing suspect arrested in 2010

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) ? A suspect in last week's savage killing of a British soldier on a London street was arrested in Kenya in 2010 while apparently preparing to train and fight with al-Qaida-linked Somali militants, an anti-terrorism police official said Sunday.

Michael Adebolajo, who was carrying a British passport, was then handed over to British authorities in the East African country, another Kenyan official said.

The information surfaced as London's Metropolitan Police said specialist firearms officers arrested a man Sunday suspected of conspiring to murder 25-year-old British soldier Lee Rigby. Police gave few details about the suspect, only saying he is 22 years old.

The arrest brought to nine the number of suspects who have been taken into custody regarding Rigby's horrific killing in London. Two have been released without charge, and one was released on bail pending further questioning. No one has been charged in the case.

The British soldier, who had served in Afghanistan, was run over, then stabbed with knives in the Woolwich area in southeast London on Wednesday afternoon as he was walking near his barracks.

Adebolajo, 28, and Michael Adebowale, 22, are the main suspects in the killing and remained under armed guard in separate London hospitals after police shot them at the scene.

In 2010, Adebolajo was arrested with five others near Kenya's border with Somalia, Kenya's anti-terrorism police unit chief Boniface Mwaniki told The Associated Press. Police believed Adebolajo was going to work with Somali militant group al-Shabab.

A video clip from a local TV station appears to show Adebolajo speaking during a court hearing in the Kenyan city of Mombasa on Nov. 23, 2010. He says, "These people are mistreating us. We are innocent. Believe me," shortly before leaving the court with five other suspects.

Mwaniki said that Adebolajo was deported from Kenya after his arrest in 2010. Kenya's government spokesman said he was arrested under a different name, and taken to court before being handed to British authorities.

"Kenya's government arrested Michael Olemindis Ndemolajo. We handed him to British security agents in Kenya, and he seems to have found his way to London and mutated to Michael Adebolajo," spokesman Muthui Kariuki said. "The Kenyan government cannot be held responsible for what happened to him after we handed him to British authorities."

Kariuki said Adebolajo was traveling on a British passport, but he could not confirm if it was authentic.

When asked whether British security agents and embassy officials had handled Adebolajo in Kenya, a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said in a brief statement: "We can confirm a British national was arrested in Kenya in 2010. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided consular assistance as normal for British nationals." She did not elaborate and said she did not have information about what had happened to Adebolajo then.

Rigby's grieving family visited the scene of his killing in London on Sunday, pausing for a few moments in reflection and laying flowers to join the hundreds of floral tributes already left at the nearby Woolwich Barracks by well-wishers.

The soldier's gruesome slaying has horrified Britain, partly because it was captured by witnesses' cellphones. A video picked up by British media showed one of the suspects, with bloodied hands, making political statements and warning of more violence as the soldier lay on the ground behind him.

Hardline Muslim leaders say the man in the video was Adebolajo, and they have described him as an Islam convert who used to take part in London demonstrations organized by British radical group al-Muhajiroun. The group catapulted to notoriety after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by organizing an event to celebrate the airplane hijackers, and was banned in Britain in 2010.

More than 20 supporters of the group have been arrested over terrorism offenses, including a foiled plot to blow up central London nightclub Ministry of Sound and a bomb attack on London's Territorial Army base.

Abu Nusaybah, a friend of Adebolajo's, has asserted in a BBC interview that Adebolajo became withdrawn after he allegedly suffered abuse by Kenyan security forces during interrogation in prison there. Nusaybah was arrested by counter-terrorism police outside the BBC's London studios Friday night immediately after recording the interview, and police said Sunday his detention has been extended to May 31.

Anti-terrorism chief Mwaniki on Sunday rejected Nusaybah's allegations. Mwaniki said at the time there were no indications of torture or abuse, but that the unit would further investigate.

Mwaniki said dozens of foreign youth are arrested every year attempting to cross the Kenyan border to join al-Shabab, which claims to be fighting a jihad, or holy war, against the Somali government and African Union forces.

Al-Shabab controlled the Somali capital, Mogadishu from roughly 2007 to 2011. The group still dominates most of south central Somalia but has seen its territory reduced after military pushes by African Union and Somali forces.

According to an August U.S. State Department report on terrorism, al-Shabab continues to maintain training camps in southern Somalia for young recruits, including Americans who have traveled there from Somali communities in the United States.

The camps have churned out dozens of bombers who've launched attacks in and outside Somalia.

Al-Shabab boasts several hundred foreign fighters, mostly East African nationals and veterans from the Iraqi and Afghanistan wars.

British officials have been on the lookout for security threats originating from Somalia for some years.

In a speech in 2010, Jonathan Evans, then head of Britain's MI5 domestic security service, warned that "a significant number" of British residents were training in al-Shabab camps to fight in the insurgency there.

"I am concerned that it is only a matter of time before we see terrorism on our streets inspired by those who are today fighting alongside al-Shabab," he said.

Meanwhile, London police said a man in his 20s was stabbed Sunday in the Woolwich area of London close to where Rigby was killed, momentarily rattling people in the area. But Scotland Yard said the stabbing was not related to terrorism or to Wednesday's slaying. A spokesman said the victim was not a soldier, and one man was arrested for assault.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Stuart Osborne, head of Scotland Yard's counterterrorism command, said officers are pursuing CCTV, social media, forensic and intelligence leads in the Rigby investigation. He appealed for anyone who knew the two attackers to contact police with information.

British officials said Sunday they are also setting up a new terrorism task force to tackle radical preachers and extremism. Home Secretary Theresa May said the group will look at whether new powers and laws are needed to clamp down on religious leaders and organizations who promote extremist messages and who target potential recruits in British jails, schools and mosques.

___

Hui reported from London. Associated Press Producer Khaled Kazziha contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-uk-soldier-killing-suspect-arrested-2010-132149952.html

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Boston Marathon runners finally get to finish race

About 3,000 people gathered to run the final mile of the Boston Marathon Saturday. OneRun was intended to honor the victims of the Boston bombings, the emergency workers, and allow runners to reclaim the final mile of the race.

By Amy Crawford,?Associated Press / May 25, 2013

Rosy Spraker was only a half-mile from the finish line of her seventh Boston Marathon when the bombs went off. She received her medal later in the mail at her Lorton, Virginia, home. But she couldn't bring herself to wear it until Saturday, when she and thousands of other athletes joined victims of the blast to run and walk the last mile (1.6 kilometers) of the race.

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"Now I feel like I've earned my medal," Spraker said, beaming, after she crossed the Boylston Street finish line, encouraged by a cheering crowd. "I wanted to run for the victims, for freedom, to show the world that nothing is going to stop us."

"Somebody that thinks that they're going to stop a marathoner from running doesn't understand the mentality of a marathoner," said her husband, Lesley, after he placed the medal around Spraker's neck.

On April 15, explosions near the finish line killed three people and wounded more than 260.

On Saturday morning, about 3,000 runners and bombing victims gathered in light rain to run the final mile of the world's oldest annual marathon, said Kathleen McGonagle, spokeswoman for those organizing the event known as OneRun.

OneRun was intended to honor the victims and emergency workers and allow runners to reclaim the final mile, McGonagle said.

"For the runner that didn't get the chance to finish the marathon, this is the chance for them to experience the final mile that was taken away from them," McGonagle said.

For many runners, it was also a chance to heal from the events of that harrowing day.

"It was very emotional to run down this street and see all the people cheering," said OneRun organizer J. Alain Ferry, who was prevented from completing his ninth consecutive Boston Marathon on April 15 and ran the final mile Saturday.

"There were a lot of tears," Ferry said, clutching his 2013 marathon bib, with the number 22084. "And I can feel in my throat that there are going to be more. This was a scab for everyone that just was not healing."

While the event was not a fundraiser, donations from some corporate sponsors covered the operating costs for OneRun, McGonagle said, and any leftover funds will be sent to a charity set up to benefit bombing victims.

Before the race, the National Anthem was sung by the choir from St. Ann Parish, where 8-year-old victim Martin Richard's family worshipped.

"It was a beautiful thing," said an emotional Steve Poirier, of Chelmsford, who had been running his sixth Boston Marathon when he was turned back last month. "As a runner, you want the chance to finish. Better late than never."

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/YkwHUTKWpSw/Boston-Marathon-runners-finally-get-to-finish-race

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