his life brings Holly to the attention of the elected leaders of the rebellion. It also changes her own life irrevocably, for as they used to say on Old Earth, saving someone’s life means being responsible for him for the rest of your own.

Mercy Mission is a novella of 27100 words. This story is a digital premiere and has never been published previously.

This novella is part of the Shattered Empire saga, a series of more or less loosely connected novellas about the great rebellion against the Fifth Human Empire told from the POVs of the people who fought it.

The background to this story and the whole Shattered Empire series is that I’ve always been very fond of traditional space opera. Indeed, there was a time, back when IMaps reveal how Japan’s cities were destroyed during World War II

Essay on incendiary bombings awarded 2012 Best Paper Prize by the Journal of Historical Geography

By Alison Bert, DMA Posted on 18 March 2013

David Fedman was doing research at Stanford University's Branner Library when he stumbled across some maps that left him confounded. They were produced by the US Army Air Forces during World War II.

A target chart dated July 1942 has concentric circles over the coastal city of Osaka, with small dots marking targets sprinkled throughout the map.

[pullquote align="right"]It neatly reveals the doctrine of precision bombing ...[/pullquote]

"It neatly reveals the doctrine of precision bombing — high altitude strategic bombing of military and industrial targets," explained Fedman, a doctoral candidate in history at Stanford who studies Japan's cartographic history.


"The idea was to surgically take out only those targets."

'A striking gap between the rhetoric and the reality'

As Fedman soon discovered, however, "there was a striking gap between the rhetoric and the reality of these bombings."

This gap was thrown into focus by other maps stashed away in the U.S. National archives. One such map was of Tokyo in early July, 1945.

Fedman was struck by the "big black blob overtaking the image," as though a bottle of ink had spilled on it. The black mass represents the parts of Tokyo that had been burned to the ground.

"I wanted to know more," he said. So he sought out a leading expert on the Japan air raids: geographer Cary Karacas, a professor in the Department of Political Science, Economics, and Philosophyat The City University of New York in Staten Island. He maintains the website Japanairraids.org, digitizing maps and primary sources to make them publically available.

Fedman emailed him scans of the target charts, and Dr. Karacas quickly wrote back that he, too, was intrigued.

"We both realized there was a lot more to this story," Fedman said. "What's really intriguing … is how you get from the precise dots of the target maps to these huge swaths of destruction that encompassed whole cities."

'A cartographic fade to black'

Taken together, what these maps reveal is the "shift to the strategic doctrine of area incendiary bombing," he said, pointing out that the black represents "huge areas that were burned to the ground; the destruction of entire cities, described by some scholars as urbicide."

The


blackened maps would inspire the title of the paper they collaborated on: 'A cartographic fade to black: mapping the destruction of urban Japan during World War II.

Frustrated with the results of precision bombing, the US Air Forces turned to a technique that was pioneered by the Allies, especially the British Royal Air Force, over the skies of Germany. "They lowered their bombing altitude and loaded their B-29s with incendiary bombs, which they released with the hope the fire would grow and spread," he said. Some of these bombs contained napalm, and others a jellied-petroleum formula.

Still other maps reveal the extent to which the Air Force went to maximize this destruction.

This map was produced by geographers in the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the US intelligence agency formed duringthe war that would become the CIA. It shows the extent to which war planners sought out information about the vulnerability and inflammability of Japanese urban spaces. They used black to indicate the most flammable areas, which happened to correspond to the most densely populated and working-class neighborhoods of Tokyo, Fedman explained.

"They did a lot of research into the nature of Japanese urban spaces so they could understand how to best burn them to the ground," Fedman said. "And I think this map reveals that mentality."But it was a later map the researchers found even more striking.

'Trophy map'

This is a damage report map of Kofu, assessing the extent to which this small city was decimated. It shows how the Air Force turned its attention to smaller areas after


Journal of Historical Geography," Fedman said. "For us this was the perfect place to feature this work. We're drawing from research produced by both disciplines and, I think, weaving together a lot of different strands of scholarship."

The editorial board of the journal agreed when they selected this for the 2012 Journal of Historical Geography Best Paper Prize Prize. "The standard of submissions for this newly-established Prize was remarkably high," said Editor-in-Chief Felix Driver, Professor of Human Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. "In the 21st century, a historical perspective on geographical issues is more important than ever."

Read the article

'A cartographic fade to black: mapping the destruction of urban Japan during World War II, by David Fedman and Cary Karacas, was awarded the 2012 Best Paper Prize bythe Journal of Historical Geography.

It is freely available on ScienceDirect.

The judges said it made the greatest contribution to the advancement of scholarship in historical geography in 2012, primarily on the basis of the significance and originality of the research.

The essay traces the history, production and uses of maps created by the US government during World War II as part of the programs of aerial bombing in Japan. Drawing from a wide range of documentary sources in US archives, the authors argue that maps provide an important and long-neglected means to trace the history of the incendiary bombing of Japan's cities. They show how maps — along with the men who made and used them — played a central role in the aerial campaign. They also raise more general


questions about the relationships between the geographical profession, the intelligence community and the role of cartography in the context of total war.

The shortlisted papers were also based on high-quality research in very different contexts: the rise and fall of a department store in London's west end, and the politics of cotton cultivation and climate change in colonial India:

"'Mr. Bourne's dilemma'. Consumer culture, property speculation and department store demise: the rise and fall of Bourne and Hollingsworth on London's Oxford Street," by Sonia Ashmore, Bronwen Edwards and David Gilbert

Read the press release about the winners here.

The journal An international quarterly, the Journal of His torical Geography publishes articles on all aspects of historical geography and related fields, including environmental history. Themes include: The geographies of places and environments inA New Way to Dispose of Corpses—With Chemistry!

Alkaline hydrolysis is a clean, green method for dissolving a body into its chemical building blocks; the runny remains just wash down the drain.

The Resomator stands monolithic in the corner of a room on the ground floor of a building at UCLA. It’s as sterile as a hospital in here, but every patient is already dead. This is the penultimate stage of their time under the care of Dean Fisher, director of the Donated Body Program at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. After dissection, bodies are wheeled in under crisp sheets for disposal in Fisher’s alkaline hydrolysis machine, which turns them into liquid and pure white bone. Later, their air-dried bones will be pulverized and scattered off the coast


body, liquefied, smells like steamed clams.

Cremation and burial, the most common ways that bodies are disposed of after death, haven’t fundamentally changed in quite some time. The modern act of embalming, popularized during the American Civil War, is a physically violent one in which blood goes down the drain, untreated, after being pushed out by embalming fluid pumped through the vascular system. Full of dyed-pink carcinogenic formaldehyde and other chemicals, the body is put in the ground, where its decomposition is delayed, but not entirely so. The chemicals seep out as the corpse putrefies, along with any drugs that were present at the time of death. In the US alone, more than 800,000 gallons of embalming fluid are buried every year.

In 2015, the popularity of cremation fractionally outpacedlakh PPEs are available in various hospitals across the country. About 60,000 PPE kits have already been procured and supplied by Government of India.

Indian Red cross society has arranged 10,000 PPEs from China which have also been received and are being distributed. Another 3 lakh donated PPE coveralls are to arrive by 4th April. An order for 3 lakh PPEs has been placed with ordinance factories.

Foreign sources of PPE kits are also faced with a huge increase in worldwide demand. They are being approached through the Ministry of External Affairs. A Singapore based online platform has been identified which can supply 10 lakh PPE kits and an order has been placed through Ministry of External Affairs to procure them.

Another supplier based in Korea, who has tie ups with


Promising teenager Chayce Jones has made a long-term commitment to Adelaide, signing a three-year contract extension.

Already committed for next season, Jones’ extension will see him remain with the Crows until at least the end of 2023.

The Launceston product became the Crows’ first top-10 draftee in more than a decade when he was selected with pick No.9 in the 2018 national draft.

Jones made his AFL debut in Round One against Hawthorn, joining an exclusive club when he kicked a goal with his first kick in senior footy.

He has played six AFL games so far this season, averaging 9.7 disposals, 2.2 tackles and 15 pressure acts per game.

The 19-year-old said he was thrilled to sign an extension and was living out his dream.

“It’s still a bit surreal being on anJohn Paesano's score for Marvel’s Daredevil Season One had the unenviable task of setting the tone for the new Netflix television series. Right from the opening credits Paesano creates a powerful sense of urgency and an undercurrent of darkness, crafting some of the most kinetic musical sequences in the Marvel Universe including the bombastic tracks "Hallway Fight" and "Stick."

This features all new original artwork by Matthew Woodson. Pressed on 180 Gram Red Vinyl.

John Paesano's score for Marvel’s Daredevil Season One had the unenviable task of setting the tone for the new Netflix television series. Right from the opening credits Paesano creates a powerful sense of urgency and an undercurrent of darkness, crafting some of the most kinetic musical sequences in the Marvel Universe including the bombastic tracks "Hallway


that are covered by national health insurance, such as abolition of the child and mother centers fee, significantly increasing state participation in the costs of rehabilitation services (to 75%), giving the elderly (75+) a 10% discount on medicines, lowering the maximum copay for medicines for chronically ill elderly and recipients of income assurance benefit; expanding national health insurance to cover additional essential services: preservative and preventive dental care for children up to age fourteen, and vaccinations; eliminating linguistic and cultural impediments to access to healthcare services---setting up a medical translation call center, developing tools for training on the topic, and training cultural supervisors and instructors; expanding the supply of human resources in the periphery and among minority groups by creating grants and wage bonuses for doctors and nursesapplicable

All three authors substantially contributed to the formulation of this article: EP and AS initiated the study, formulated the research strategy, performed the cost analysis and wrote the corresponding sections. SA wrote the section of the article describing the Israeli MOH activities aimed at mitigating inequities as well as analyzed MOH expenses during the years 2011--2015. SA also prepared the article for submission according to the journal's guidelines. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Eran Politzer is a PhD student in the Economics Track of the Health Policy Program at Harvard University. At the time of the study, Eran was an economist at the Bank of Israel's Research Department.

Amir Shmueli is a Professor of Health Economics at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health.

Shlomit Avni is the


director of the Policy planning division in the Administration for Strategic and Economic Planning at the Israeli Ministry of health. The division is in charge, amongst other things, for thr reduction of health inequalities. She holds a PhD degree from The Department of Politics and Government in Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.

Not applicable

Not applicable

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
a painful lesson about how the world really works in 2017.

Walking in the door, I saw all the staff standing around the glass from a large broken mirror. I didn't think much of it and went to the suit section. I looked down the row and saw a teenage boy sitting on the floor. He was sobbing uncontrollably and texting on his phone. A pool of blood in front of him, streaming from his hand.

I went up to a staff member and asked if she knew there was a boy crying and bleeding on the floor. She put her finger over her lips to hush me. Another woman wondered why he was still crying. It turned out to be his mother. She told me a group of about


10 male youths had followed him from school trying to catch him and beat him up. They called him "faggot." The employee said being called that didn't mean anything.

"It means something to my son," his mother said.

The boy's mother had confronted the group and one of the youths threatened her. That's when her son went after the kid. She restrained him and brought him into the store for safety. He was so upset he punched the mirror and cut his hand.

The mother told me the boys had been tormenting her son for months. "He's having a mental-health breakdown," she said. I told her I was sorry to see this happening to them. The store had called the police and the first officer arrived quickly. He was a big,they think they will never have grandchildren. Fathers turn their backs on their sons because they don't consider them real men. On and on it goes.

The true founder of the gay rights movement in Canada is Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who, as justice minister, first proposed decriminalizing homosexuality in 1967, something that actually came to pass in 1969. His son is now Prime Minister and marches in Gay Pride parades. All the work done by activists between then and now is buried in history books no one reads or cares about and is essentially forgotten.

Listening to the men at my bar, it's as if none of it ever actually happened. These guys are still at square one. Oblivious to what came before them, all they know is what they


The "treatment IND (investigational new drugs)": public policy considerations.
A major activity occupying the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for several years has been a rewrite of the FDA's IND and NDA regulations which govern the clinical testing of investigational new drugs and the process for subsequent market approval for those drug entities. In March of 1987, the FDA "reproposed" that portion of the 1983 IND rewrite dealing with the "treatment use" of investigational new drugs during the clinical testing phases of new drug development or during the period between the completion of clinical testing and NDA approval. The Treatment IND reproposal resulted in substantial controversy immediately following its publication in the Federal Register. This article compares the key features of the Treatment IND regulations as reproposed with thoseof the Final Rule and summarizes the major points of contention among the various interest groups affected. With its new Treatment IND regulations, the FDA appears to have placed itself squarely between competing interests and public policy considerations. The essential purpose and role of the FDA is to determine the inherent safety and effectiveness of new therapeutic medications. Debate on the Treatment IND regulations has raised a number of questions as to the regulations' own safety and efficacy in achieving that objective. It is likely the Treatment IND implementation will engender as much controversy as the regulations as originally reproposed.


the inspiration behind the personalities of the leading heroes and the imaginary storyline. As improv actors from HUGE Theater act the adventures out on the spot, DC Comics graphic artist Christopher Jones brings them to life through colorful illustration, providing the most entertaining live action comic since the 1960's Batman television series. Don't miss your chance to be a part of the action, regardless your level of artistic talent.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE BLB SITE

THURSDAY JANUARY 29TH

Spring Awakening After Party

@ Chambers901 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis

10:30pm-2am / Free

For a play from the 19th century to still have relevance today is a feat in and of itself, let alone for it to still portray a level of controversy and edginess -- but the revamped interpretation of the German play, Spring Awakening,exhibit, Changing Identities: Recent Works by Women Artists from Vietnam. Ten artists are featured, with work ranging from mixed media, photography, ink drawings, paintings and video. Changing Identities is part of the first U.S. touring exhibition to represent the work of Vietnamese women, and uniquely challenges the stereotypes of a Vietnamese society and the dichotomies women face. Not to mention, The Weisman always throws one hell of an opening party! Tonight's soiree will feature complimentary bevies and apps, up close and personal mingling with the artists and curators, plus sweet beats from DJ Etones to set the mood.

The title of this show couldn't describe l'etoile fave Eric Ink's work more accurately. Inkala's canvases are saturated with multi-layered fields of color and detail obsessed line work, creating characters inspired


at Noon on Saturday and put on the guestlist at the door.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE UPTOWN SITE

SUNDAY MUSIC PICK: DAN AUERBACH

If you love the Black Keys as much as we do, then listen up: the Keys' lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Dan Auerbach has a solo release called Keep It Hid on the way. Although the album sports some of the same high-energy, Black Keys-esque blues, garage, and rock, most of the album finds Auerbach scratching other musical itches in the vein of classic-rock and country. Check him out in First Avenue's mainroom in March!

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE DAN AUERBACH MYSPACEPhoto by James Quine

GUEST BLOGGER: A TINY MACHINE

Breaking art gossip from Washington D.C. a la A Tiny Machine! Check this blog for incoming from Fashion Week aswell!

Le Gossip

One of my best friends works at the National Gallery in DC. She has one of those amazing jobs in conservation and restoration that requires her to fly out to Italy for a week so that she can escort a few paintings back to the gallery. Not only does this mean a behind the scenes tour when I go out there for the Cherry Blossom Festival (I'm still despondent that I didn't visit her in Los Angeles to take advantage of the same treatment at the Getty), it also means that I'm occasionally privy to juicy bits of gossip from the national and international art community. So with her permission, I'd like to share a story that confirms what many already suspected: Mrs. Cheney is kind of


C.S. Lewis impregnated Baron Münchhausen behind a carnival tent sometime during the last half of the 20th century, their love child might have been named Alex Gross. This prolific artist touches on fantasy, mystery and history in his intriguingly surreal paintings and mixed media work. A delight to examine and dissect, Gross' work is deliciously creepy in an old-timey and storybook-ish sort of way. We can't help but wonder what would happen if this artist put pen to paper in a more writerly approach, as his imagination seems to know no bounds.

Kicking off his 10th year in business, gallery owner Nicholas Harper hosts the exhibit Eat Your Heart Out, showcasing the evocative artwork of Roxanne Jackson and Kurt Melancon. Through dualistic elements, Jackson's sculptures pair the shockingly grotesqueOrdway Center 345 Washington St. St. Paul

7:30pm / $40-120

Back on the stage for the first time in over a decade, the Minnesota Opera presents Faust, a classic tale of the lengths one may journey for desire and self-fulfillment. In this Goethe story, a weathered Dr. Faust bargains with devil to restore his body to the days of his prime, in hopes of winning the heart of the youthful Marguerite. But if Meryl Streep taught us anything in Death Becomes Her, it was that eternal youth comes at a heavy price, and Faust's naïve attempt at romantic harmony leads to an epic struggle between good and evil. Paired with the stunning music of Charles Gounod, this production is a must see. Visit the Minnesota Opera website below for dates


exhibit Masterpiece Photographs from the MIA: The Curatorial Legacy of Carroll T. Hartwell (the founding curator of the department), which includes 50 of the most important photographs in the museum.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE MIA SITE

THURSDAY JANUARY 15TH

Sound and Light: Projector Performances

@ Walker Arts Center Cinema1750 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis

7:30pm / Free

Part of the Walker's on-going series, Expanding the Frame 2009, Bruce McClure's work is an experimentation with multiple projectors, xenon flash technology and sound that steps past the boundaries of cinema and visual art. McClure's mish-mash of film loops and light infusion to the soundtrack of synthesized electronic noises plays upon sensory reaction and borders on elements of mind control. As if Bruce McClure wasn't reason enough to show up, it also happens to be Target Free Firstplayed with the likes of The Hold Steady, World/Inferno Friendship Society and Guignol. He wanders into town tonight to regale us with gypsy music, his handlebar mustache and a boatload of good times. With the God Damn Doo Wop Band.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR THE FRANZ NICOLAY MYSPACEPhoto by Konstantin Sergeyev

FRIDAY JANUARY 16TH

Solid Gold & Lookbook

@ Turf Club1601 University AveSt Paul

9pm / 21+ / $7

It's the weekend once again, and we can't think of a better way of spending a Friday night than at St. Paul's best rock club, the Turf, for a line-up of undeniable talent. The ever-dashing boys of Solid Gold continue to charm the pants off us with their sizzling indie electro-pop, and up and coming experimental outfit Lookbook round out the bill perfectly with their


into the comfort and warmth of their homes, taking their creativity into hibernation with them. But the artists involved in the sixth annual Art Shanty Project do quite the opposite. What some of us might see as the white void of a dead tundra, they see as the unblemished, clear palate of potential. Each year, this community art project challenges the way we see artistic environments by using the expansiveness of a public frozen lake as an art gallery and host to a series of interactive art projects. Black Rock City has Burning Man, the Twin Cities has the Art Shanty Projects. Take a ride across the ice in an ArtCar Taxi, enjoy a puppet show, sing your lungs out to a bit of karaoke and a witnesssound is provocative and organic with a unique electronic progression and tribal elements. Karin's distinctive vocal spectrum is perfectly blended with eerily absorbing lyrics and ambient sounds. Their self-titled album is set to be released at the end of March but in the meantime, check out this haunting video for the single “If I Had a Heart” by the genius director Andreas Nilsson shot in a fittingly ominous castle in Sweden.

The best and worst of the 70s and beyond collide with Long Beach's DJ Katie tonight at the Hex! This special guest will bust out gems from her personal collection of Motown, garage and girl group sounds for this all-lady edition of Hot Roxx. Resident DJs Jen and Nick will follow suit with corresponding chick-rock, and drinks will


It was a big day for Ibrahim, and figured to be a long one: day one of a high-profile trial for three local men accused of plotting to join ISIS fighters in Syria.

Ibrahim and a reporter for the Star Tribune approached the security screening and offered their bags for clearance by a security officer. The other reporter, who is white, passed right through and headed for the elevator. Ibrahim was stopped, and told he couldn't go in yet. He would have to wait for the time when the court opened to the public.

Ibrahim protested, pulling out a press badge showing he works for Minnesota Public Radio. Not good enough, the officer said. Go wait with the rest of the public.

Ibrahim didn't argue and instead just collected his wallet,storied and the hall on the southeast is entered through this porch. The porch, with its date tablet of 1639, is an addition put up soon after the house was finished.

Grounds
Arreton Manor House lies under the south slope of the chalk down. The manor is close to the church. To the east of the house is a 16th–17th century dovecote with a four-centred arched opening and stone mullioned windows, and to the south stands a 17th-century barn of noble proportions, with a chestnut roof worthy of notice.

Cultural references
Arreton Manor, fictionalised as "Arden Manor", is a central location of the 1889 Maxwell Gray novel, The Reproach of Annesley.

References
This article includes text incorporated from William Page's "A History of the County of Hampshire: Volume 5 (1912)", a publication now in


Kanchanaburi, Thailand - The Tiger Temple was founded in 1994 as just another monastery. The monks at the temple had started life simply enough, offering the grounds as a sanctuary for a few indigenous wild animals - a fairly common occurrence with rural monasteries.

According to the Tiger Temple website, the monks were given their first tiger in 1999 by local villagers, an abandoned and sickly cub who died soon after. By 2001, another seven tigers were at the temple, also rescues. But by 2016, they numbered nearly 150.

This week, as evidence of illegal trafficking continued to emerge from the Tiger Temple and allegations were made against the upper management and abbot, Phra Sutthi Sarathera, a massive raid was conducted by wildlife officials to relocate all the tigers.

Removing andrelocating the 137 tigers from the temple in a week was an enormous task involving hundreds of wildlife officers. The goal was to remove around 20 a day when the heat was less severe.

The staff and volunteer caretakers who had dedicated their work to improving the welfare of temple tigers feel what progress they had made has been halted by the raid, and are deeply concerned about the fate of the tigers - both during the traumatic removal process and in the new facilities.

READ MORE: What really happened at the Tiger Temple?

Tanya Erzinclioglu, a volunteer caretaker at the temple since 2010, said: "It concerns me greatly that … everyone will forget about it and no one will actually follow through to see what actually happens with the tigers."


analyses and drafted the manuscript. MT and TL wrote parts of the body text and contributed to the interpretation of the results. TL was responsible for the acquisition of data from electronic patient records. JT provided clinical expertise in patient group and treatment process definitions. MP helped with processing of the data. All authors contributed to the critical revision of the manuscript and approved the final manuscript.

This study has been funded by the Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies at the University of Eastern Finland and the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland (decision number 312704). The study is a part of the research consortium, Improving the Information Base and Optimizing Service Solutions to Support Social Welfare and Health Care Reform (IMPRO) 312703. Neither ofand the amount of alcohol allegedly consumed by appellant.
The trial court committed prejudicial error in permitting examination of appellant relative to prior arrests and convictions.
Remarks made by the trial Judge in the presence of the jury constituted a comment on the evidence which prejudiced appellant.
The trial court erred in admitting into evidence repair estimates on plaintiff's vehicle."
*724 The collision occurred in this manner: McDaniel was driving his automobile on Highway 16 in Fayetteville and Lane was driving his automobile in the same direction in front of the McDaniel vehicle. Judy was driving in the opposite direction meeting the Lane and McDaniel automobiles. Lane made a left turn from the highway to enter a side street, and in doing so he had his automobile across the traffic lane Judy


of body fluids in criminal prosecutions for driving under the influence of alcohol and fixes presumption of guilt on chemical content ratings. No presumption of driving under the influence attended the testimony in the case at bar. Officer Arnold investigated the collision and before he was asked concerning the intoximeter test, he had already testified that he could smell alcohol on Judy when he talked to him at the scene of the accident; that from the way Judy handled himself and walked and talked he could tell that Judy had "a little something to drink." Officer Arnold testified that he was of the opinion that Judy's faculties were impaired.
The question on the intoximeter test was first asked on direct examination and was objected to. The objection was sustainedfourth extra helping of dessert.

Cillizza: Finish this sentence: "The most important impact of this NC ruling for national politics is ____." Now, explain.

Levitt: In the immediate term, the impact is on NC congressional seats in 2018.

This case might lead to redrawing the congressional map before the midterms in a way more friendly to Democrats' efforts to make gains in the House.

In the longer term, (the impact is) the solidification of courts pushing back on legislatures abusing their authority. It's way too easy for legislators to conflate personal interest and party interest with public interest when their jobs are at stake: Representatives shouldn't be choosing their constituents to lock in partisan power against the normal electoral tides.

Courts are starting to recognize that: under state law, under federal law, in


Presidential election: can Sarkozy win back the popular vote?

President Sarkozy is back on the campaign trail and has returned to France's industrial north, where swaying disgruntled factory workers may be a tall order. After the interior minister announced his plan to ban praying in the street, we consider the religious and political conundrum facing this secular state. Finally, we dip into the magical world of Oksa Pollock.

Born in Belgium, raised in Italy and now resident in France, he holds a degree in Japanese. He previously worked for CNN International. At FRANCE 24, he presents the news on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings and also the show France in Focus.the U.S. towards Russia, he said, can now take on "nuclear dimensions."

Anti-Americanism is not rare on Russian state news, nor is an inclination for the apocalyptic. But more notable than the intensity of the warnings has been how Russian government ministries have joined in the alarms in recent weeks. Since September, Russia has conducted a nationwide civil defense drill, purportedly involving 40 million people, preparing them for catastrophes -- among them nuclear fallout. Russia’s military announced who would run the country in the event of war and ran an exercise simulating that in the south.

Even more bluntly, Russia announced this week it was moving nuclear-capable ballistic missiles into its Northern European enclave, Kaliningrad, putting them within striking distance of Western capitals. In the same week, Russia test-fired 3


in Russia that they could be made without real fear of being taken sincerely.

"The ease with which people in this country use the nuclear threat in their aggressive rhetoric is truly amazing and of course alarming," Maria Lipman, a veteran Russian analyst and editor-in-chief of Counterpoint journal.

That relative unconcern is perhaps reflected in that the war talk does not appear to have much traction among Russians. What's more Baunov said, anti-Americanism not especially high among ordinary people currently, limited he said to official discourse.

That discourse, rather than heralding war, Baunov said, was meant to deter Western countries from intervening in Syria and in particular perhaps was meant to prevent the U.S. from responding too strongly to suspected Russian interference in the U.S. elections. Moscow, he said, is tryingmore prosaic reason for the war talk -- Russia's military budget is currently up for consideration at a time when the economy is in trouble, weighed down by low oil prices and Western sanctions over the Kremlin's foreign military ventures.

"The more tension the better for the Russian General Staff," Pavel Felgenhauer, a military analyst in Moscow, said. "Tensions are going to rise and rise and rise."

"The good news is no one really wants a war," he added. "But it’s going to be a good show."

For ordinary Russians it appeared an overly familiar show. Though often describing themselves as outraged by U.S. behavior in Syria, most seemed inured to the suggestions of possible nuclear doom, taking a more realistic view of the television warnings. Photos appeared on social media


Recent Performances

Lloyd and the Fellas

Calling Kalamazoo home, Lloyd and the Fellas formed in February 2009. At its concert on December 16, the band performed its own compositions plus a handful of shape note songs from the Sacred Harp tradition. This is music to really listen to – thoughtful lyrics combined with skillful acoustic instrumentation. Lloyd and the Fellas has a promising future and we look forward to hearing more from these talented musicians.Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin are in the midst of a budding bromance.

The two strongmen celebrated Mr Putin's last birthday over vodka and Russian sausage and afterwards Mr Xi called the Russian President his best, most intimate friend.

With the two cosying up to Iran, many in the West are worried about a new "Axis of Autocrats" emerging.

The China-Russia relationship, of course, has been helped along by a common enemy: US President Donald Trump, who has recently slapped more sanctions on Russia and more tariffs on China.

President Trump has recently slapped more sanctions on Russia. ( AP: Pablo Martinez Monsivais )

Mr Putin and Mr Xi have met 26 times and will meet again later next month. Their nations are forging the deepest and strongest relationship


since their last formal split in 1979 when Russia was the Soviet Union.

Their biggest ambition is to thwart American dominance in the world order and, with help from Iran, they are proving effective in shaping events from Syria to North Korea.

Senior Associate Professor Stephen Nagy from Tokyo's prestigious International Christian University has been carefully watching the geopolitical plates shift over the past decade and says the new Russia-China partnership is more a marriage of convenience.

"China is feeling the heat, so by strengthening relations with Russia, stressing comradeship between Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, the growing economic and military tie — this is a way to send a message to the United States that China does have options and Russia is a powerful option that can provide energy resourcesthe United States, but it will build capabilities and capacities with countries like Russia that can contribute to its social and economic stability and the ability of both to push back indirectly against the US."

Looking back at history, it seems unwise for the US to stimulate the formation of a powerful Chinese-Russian axis.

One reason the United States won the Cold War was it befriended China in 1972 and together they confronted the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union's downfall only took 20 years from there.

And the architect of that move, master political strategist Henry Kissinger, has apparently counselled Mr Trump to pursue "a reverse Nixon China strategy" by seeking to befriend Moscow to isolate Beijing.

It's an acknowledgement of how the Russia-China relationship can define the world order.


Follow @frozenroyalty LOS ANGELES AND EL SEGUNDO, CA — Ever since Dustin Brown was named as the 15th captain of the Los Angeles Kings on October 8, 2008, many have been highly critical of his captaincy, with a considerable number calling for the “C” to be ripped off his chest, something that has become a common, repeated refrain, year after year.

Indeed, all it takes is a quick perusal of Kings-related message boards on the World Wide Web to find a large amount of those who have called for the captaincy to be taken away from Brown, going back to the 2008-09 season, his first year wearing the “C.”

Critics of Brown’s captaincy have many reasons for their strong beliefs, even though some have changed their tune after watching himlead the Kings to a commanding 3-0 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference Quarterfinal playoff series against the Vancouver Canucks, with Game 4 scheduled for April 18, at Staples Center in Los Angeles (7:00 PM PDT, televised exclusively in the United States on the NBC Sports Network). Still, a significant number of them point to the fact that he is not the fiery, loud, vocal, in-your-face type of player, that he rarely fights, and that he is not even the best player on the team.

That last point has been proven to be phony time and time again. In fact, many would point to Washington Capitals superstar and captain Alexander Ovechkin as a case in point. As for the other two points, they mean little.

Maybe not even that much.

To


Posts Tagged ‘Harry Dean Stanton’

After the great character actor Harry Dean Stanton died earlier this week, Deadspin reprinted a profile by Steve Oney from the early eighties that offers a glimpse of a man whom many of us recognized but few of us knew. It captured Stanton at a moment when he was edging into a kind of stardom, but he was still open about his doubts and struggles: “It was Eastern mysticism that began to help me. Alan Watts’s books on Zen Buddhism were a very strong influence. Taoism and Lao-tse, I read much of, along with the works of Krishnamurti. And I studied tai chi, the martial art, which is all about centering oneself.” Oney continues:

But it was the I Ching (The Book of Changes) inKatta took his Samsung Galaxy Nexus into a Santa Clara, Calif., Microsoft Store and was challenged to look up the weather in two different cities. Katta had two weather widgets on his Android home screen and had set up his phone to bypass the lock screen so all he had to do was turn on the phone and he'd win. That's exactly what happened, but Microsoft employees quickly tried to wrangle out of giving Katta the prize with several excuses such as he had to show the weather in two different states. After the rest of the tech media picked up the story, Microsoft apologized and offered Katta the prize.

Soon after Katta's experience, The Verge tried the challenge and claimed Microsoft stacked the deck in its favor by


Devin Hester

Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester (23) on the field for pre-game warm-ups before the start of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday.

Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester (23) on the field for pre-game warm-ups before the start of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday. (Nuccio DiNuzzo, Chicago Tribune)

Chicago Bears wide receiver Devin Hester (23) on the field for pre-game warm-ups before the start of the game against the Minnesota Vikings at Soldier Field in Chicago on Sunday.Charlotte was undistinguished, with a head that struck Mr. Smith as “too large for her body”; she might just as well have been a missionary, or even a cook. Her younger sister Anne had a manner “curiously expressive of a wish for protection and encouragement, a kind of constant appeal.” Emily, the middle sister, had remained at home in Yorkshire, where she kept house and fed the dogs.

Mr. Smith could hardly have guessed that he was present at the birth of a literary legend as powerful as that of Marlowe’s murder or Chatterton’s suicide. The received story of the Brontës was not so sanguinary, but it was equally sensational. The world soon knew that there had been three women of genius, untutored and unloved, immured within a house


as bleak as any prison or asylum, insulted by a drunken and manic brother, oppressed by a stern and occasionally violent father, finding their relief only in wonderful little treks across the Yorkshire moors.

Mrs. Gaskell, possibly the most credulous and most sentimental biographer of the nineteenth century, began the process. She was already a famous novelist, but she reserved her finest fictional touches for her life of Charlotte Brontë. Her sublimely inaccurate portrait was followed by works of various other biographers, who managed to fill their books with material more extravagant than anything to be found in a Brontë novel. One of them had the sisters eating “gypsy fashion” on the moors, while another tried to prove that all their writings were based upon Irish originals.

There was aexchange for their illusions, Juliet Barker offers them a beguiling and convincing account of the family upon the moors.

Patrick Brontë was an Irishman of straitened means who by skill and hard work made his way to Cambridge University. He became a devout Evangelical, then a minister who managed to give even “muscular Christianity” a good name. In 1812, while serving at a church in Hartshead, near Dewsbury, Yorkshire, he met Maria Branwell, his future wife. She was bright, alert, and energetic, with her own propensity for religious fervor. They conversed upon “the heavenly Father” and “eternal felicity,” but there were one or two pleasantly gothic touches to redeem an otherwise sober courtship: he proposed to her in a ruined abbey, and her bridal veil was lost in a


six novels published. I co-wrote the screenplay for the horror anthology film The Horror Seasons. I co-wrote the screenplay for the film Sparrow. I co-wrote and worked as an actor and associate producer on the film Midnight Matinee Psycho.I also co-wrote on the screenplay for Derek Young's new film that is premiering in March, Psychotic State.

Also, I'm the producer and host of the very popular podcast, The Wolf Pack Podcast which is on it's fifth season.

Also, a fan of my books has spent several thousand dollars of his own money to produce a film adaptation of my novel Friday the 13th Mother's Day. Which says something about my fan base because I know of very few authors who have had fans do that. In fact several hundred fansfan fiction writer who had some Friday the 13th teen novels published in the mid 90's (which he will bring up every chance he gets)

Morse/Pattison has also become so well know for his stalking of female actresses and bullying both celebs and fellow fans on-line, many celebrities refuse to attend conventions he is at.

Morse is a vendor, "featured artist" is something he calls himself to elevate his ego. After celebs for Twisted Terror con came to promoters with their concerns about Morse/Pattison he was refunded and removed, because lets face it, fans come to see celebrities, not fan fiction writers with attitude problems.

Recently he added himself to a "All Time Greatest Authors List" on a website then posted he was "shocked and honored" to be on the list


on the freeway," according to CHP spokesperson Mike Zerfas.

The men fighting on the freeway were involved in the initial collision. Witnesses driving by said one of the men was hitting the other with some type of weapon, CHP said.

The man who was hit died from his injuries.

The suspect then continued walking north on the interstate. As he was walking, he was hit by a car and died, CHP said.

The driver of the car who killed the suspect is cooperating with CHP.Animation studio SHAFT will unveil a short concept movie for a new story related to Puella Magi Madoka Magica for its "~Commemorating 40 Years of Shaft~ Madogatari" event in Tokyo on Friday. The movie hints at a new project for the franchise , but nothing has been officially announced.

Magica Quartet —the team behind the Puella Magi Madoka Magica anime, consisting of director Akiyuki Simbo , character designer Ume Aoki , scriptwriter Gen Urobuchi ( Nitroplus ), and animation studio Shaft—have continued plans for a new work since the Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion film opened in October 2013. The concept movie was born from their meetings.

Simbo created the storyboards and served as chief director for the short, while series director Yukihiro Miyamoto returned to


direct. Composer Yuki Kajiura contributed a new musical piece. Other returning staff members include:

The following cast members from previous anime recorded new lines for the concept movie:

The original television anime premiered in January 2011, and Crunchyroll later streamed the series. Aniplex of America released the television series, two compilation films, and Puella Magi Madoka Magica The Movie Part 3: Rebellion sequel film in North America.

Sources: Moca News, animeanime.jp"to provide a deep evolutionary account of the origins and significance of friendship," Christakis said.

The new study is based on data from the Framingham Heart Study, which is a large, ongoing study looking at heart disease risk factors in the people living in one town: Framingham, Massachusetts. The researchers looked at data on people's DNA, as well as who was friends with whom.

After analyzing almost 1.5 million markers of gene variations, the researchers found that pairs of friends had the same level of genetic relation as people did with a fourth cousin, or a great-great-great grandfather, which translates to about 1 percent of the human genome.

The most common gene shared by friends was the "olfactory" gene, which is involved in a person's sense of smell.

Although 1 percent may


advantage to people's genes evolving in relation to those of their friends.

The researchers acknowledged some caveats to their conclusions. For example, it may be that people form friendships with those of the same ethnicities, they said. But to take this into account, the researchers studied participants from a homogenous group of people, from a Caucasian background.

The researchers compared pairs of strangers within this population as well as friends, using a "friendship score," which predicts whether two people could be friends based on their genetic background.

"What we're reporting is the difference between people who are friends, and people who could be friends, all from the same ancestry," said study researcher James Fowler, a professor of medical genetics at the University of California, San Diego.

The study was published today (JulyA rabbi who runs a number of schools in northern Israel has been arrested on suspicion he sexually assaulted three minors, the court cleared for publication Friday.

Ynet has learned that the rabbi is suspected of raping a 14-year old girl and performing indecent acts on a boy of the same age, as well as sexually assaulting another girl, also 14.

He has denied the allegations, claiming they are the product of a conspiracy against him by the schools he heads.

The rabbi was arrested Thursday while preparing to go abroad for two weeks. The Nazareth Magistrates' Court remanded his arrest by a week on Friday.

His attorney claimed before the court that the rabbi fell victim to blackmail. He said the father of the girl allegedly raped was trying to extort


his usage of the player. From December 1 through to that interview, Klefbom had played 13 games for the Oilers, averaging just 19:56 per game. He’d been used extensively in November, but that was a rough month for Edmonton and one of the ways McLellan and his staff responded was by cutting into his ice time.

This, though, was a temporary state of affairs.

From the time that interview aired through the end of the regular season, Klefbom played 45 games. He averaged 23:11 per night, picked up 26 points (after posting just 12 in his first 37 contests). In the last half of the season, he would play less than 20 minutes only once – on March 14, in a 7-1 win over Dallas that was over by midwaythink the Oilers can win a cup with Klefbom as our #1D.

I think Klefbom and Larsson have potential to be one of the better pairings in the league next year. By the end of last season and into the play offs you could see how both those players were learning from each other. At that time Klefboms defensive prowess and grown considerably, and Larssons offensive ability also saw a little jump. Im willing to bet most of Larssons points came in the latter half of the season when Klef settled in more. If next year they can both each improve marginally i could see that pairing making another big stride in their game.

Who would you rather go into the corner against or battle in front of the net


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Venkyuppada

From University Innovation

He is Uppada Venkat Ramana pursuing 3/5 B.TECH in "Aditya Institute of Technology and Management". He completed his schooling at "Geethanjali Public School" in the stream of SSC syllabus. He completed his inter(+2) in Sri Chaitanya Jr college of SSC syllabus. At present, he is pursuing B.TECH in the stream of "CIVIL ENGINEERING (CE)". From the beginning onwards he is most passionate about designing so chosen the CIVIL stream.

He is the person who is contributing whole work efficiency to empower students in engineering and making them to know the importance of practical knowledge in their studies as well as in life also.have such memories respectively, a package space for hardware increases and the cost of the product increases. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the main processor 100 and the coprocessor 200 each have structures in which the first flash memories, the second flash memories, and the RAMs are independently contained. Since the main processor 100 and the coprocessor 200 must include many memories respectively, many problems occur in achieving miniaturization, low power, and low cost of the terminal.
Accordingly, when the main processor 100 and the coprocessor 200 share the first flash memories, the second flash memories, and the RAMs and the main processor 100 and the coprocessor 200 respectively and independently access the memories when necessary, the number of the memories can be reduced by half.


was among the group that founded left-wing Air America Radio with Al Franken. He resides in the D.C. suburb of Bethesda, Maryland.

Why is this Beltway-based cyber lobbyist in Denver advising a small public relations firm?

Goodfriend took a class at Georgetown Law School with current Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, who was then in between shifts in the Bill Clinton White House. Goodfriend is reportedly a member of a Hillary Clinton For President organization. His relationship with Podesta was documented.

Goodfriend not only lobbied senior Obama White House officials on behalf of clients including DISH Network, but he attended at least twelve media “messaging” meetings at the White House after Obama took office.

So how did Goodfriend get involved on this case? Goodfriend appeared on Newsmax TV to defend HillaryFrozen product machines, such as frozen carbonated beverage (FCB) machines, utilize a freeze cylinder or freeze barrel for producing a slush beverage product. In operation of the frozen product machine, relatively warm liquid beverage product components, such as syrup and a diluent for the syrup, are delivered into the freeze barrel in a predetermined ratio. The freeze barrel is heat exchange coupled to a chilling means, such as an evaporator coil that is wrapped around the exterior of the barrel and chilled by a refrigeration system, to cool and reduce the temperature of the product mix in the barrel to below its freeze point. A beater bar and scraper assembly, powered by an electric drive motor, is within the barrel and is rotated to scrape frozen product from


the inner wall of the freeze barrel and to mix it with liquid product in the barrel to form a slurry mixture of frozen beverage product for service to customers. The output torque of the motor, that is required for the motor to rotate the beater bar and scraper assembly at a nominal speed, is generally proportional to the viscosity of the product in the barrel and, therefore, to the amount of ice present in the barrel. The power draw of the motor is generally proportional to the output torque of the motor, and is sensed by a controller, usually by sensing the current or amperage draw of the motor. The controller uses the sensed power draw of the motor, which is representative of the viscosity of beverageAn unidentified source familiar with the situation told The Kansas City Star that the alleged battery involved Hill and Espinal's 3-year-old son and resulted in a broken arm. "We're in the process of gathering information and have been in contact with the league and local authorities". Hill's fiancee has reportedly been in contact with the police. As of Friday evening, Hill has yet to be accused of any crime, according to The Star. "We'll have no further comment at this time".

Hill, 25, was arrested in December 2014 for punching and choking his pregnant girlfriend, Crystal Espinal, who is now Hill's fiancee and is pregnant with twins, per the Star.

Chiefs' Hill under investigation for alleged battery incident

According to multiple reports, the team was preparing to make the star wide


receiver one of the highest-paid players in the game. He was kicked off the team and pleaded guilty to domestic assault and battery by strangulation, and received three years of probation in the case.

Hill completed his probation in August, causing the domestic-abuse charges to be dismissed and his record to be expunged.

Hill transferred to West Alabama and was chosen by the Chiefs in the fifth round of the 2016 draft, a selection widely criticized given his history.

According to KCTV5 in Kansas City, police were also called to Hill's home in regards to a report of child abuse or neglect, which police closing the report three days later.

Popular news

Defying Trump, Senate votes to end US support for Yemen war
The US Senate approved SJ Res 7 on Wednesday that callsfor the removal of US military from hostilities in the Republic of Yemen. Bernard Sanders, a potential Trump 2020 opponent, who led the push for the move, flexing the War Powers Resolution.Saturday, March 16, 2019

Trump signs first veto of his presidency
Friday's veto ceremony fulfills Trump's pledged to thwart any effort by the Senate to block his emergency proclamation. He said the vote against the president was also a vote "against the America people and their safety and security".Saturday, March 16, 2019


Oakland book club more than just a pretty cover

By Lou Fancher

Reading gets a bad rap: It's hard, boring, old-fashioned, no fun.

Enter Nakia White, founder and national executive chair of the Oakland-based BookTini Book Club. Surrounded by laughter and the 14 young professional black women who are members, White, 34, said, "I just wanted to talk about books with educated people my age. Having drinks with the books is part of the attraction, too."

BookTini began in Oakland in 2009 after White and Mikele Lewis borrowed an idea they picked up on Facebook.

"I had a friend who wrote about how much she loved her book club on her Facebook page; I wanted one, too," White said.

The club pairs each month's book with a thematically related cocktail. The first meeting washeld at Oakland Grille, and the book was Pleasure by Eric Jerome Dickey. The signature drink? A strawberry mimosa.

From its humble origins, BookTini has grown to 62 mostly African-American women members and charter groups in Brooklyn, N.Y., Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. The Oakland group has remained stable, with a waiting list so long that a new Oakland hills chapter that launched this month has already been capped at the club's 20-member per-charter limit.

Growing up in East Oakland in the 1980s, White rode her bike to the Martin Luther King Jr. branch of the Oakland Public Library for weekly stock-up sessions.

"Reading has been my life since I was a kid," she said. "My mom said she read a lot when she was pregnant with me, and maybe it rubbed


off."

Books such as Toni Morrison's "Sula," which she claims as "my own" and backs up her belief that "friendship between women can sometimes be more powerful than romantic love," is a cornerstone, White said.

"Talking about a book is about a sense of community," she said. "Finding that other people agree, or having the same "aha" moment, having a lot of laughter -- that's what I enjoy most."

BookTini members are all women, although the group holds one coed meeting each year. At national, regional and chapter retreats the women engage in sightseeing and what White calls "lots of extracurricular activities."

Oakland chapter co-leader Brigette Warren, of Hercules, said she has always been an avid reader, and she found her "club" in BookTini.

"I was looking for women to bond with overbooks," she said. "Women who are college-educated, have good values, go to church. Women who like to go to bars and like to drink. They were women like me."

Discussing a book's themes or why a character goes off on an inexplicable tangent allows for differing points of view, said Danielle Chapple of Richmond, the co-leader of the Oakland club. "It relates to life," she said. "I've changed my mind about a book after discussing it. It makes me embrace new ideas and be more open to the various backgrounds of people."

Every chapter is encouraged to participate in one outreach effort annually. In 2014, BookTini spearheaded an event at United for Success Academy, where they donated two books each to 120 sixth-grade students at the Oakland charter school. Last


a significant amount of effort has been devoted towards the more refined search for models that are not only integrable but also Markovian (or *stochastic*). These include certain classes of interacting particles systems and directed polymers in random media, in which the asymmetric simple exclusion process (ASEP) and Kardar–Parisi–Zhang (KPZ) stochastic partial differential equation serve as representative examples, respectively.

The first wave of integrable Markovian models started in the late 1990s with the papers of Johansson [@Johansson] and Baik–Deift–Johansson [@BaikDJ], and the key to their integrability was in reductions to determinantal and Pfaffian random point processes. The second wave of integrable Markovian models started the in late 2000s, and their integrability mechanisms heavily relied on those that had been previously developed for non-Markovian integrable models of statistical and quantumSprint mobile device with an Internet address that traced back to the Carolinas.

The Justice Department indictment against Vaughn and Duke-Cohan released this week alleges the pair were equally responsible for sending spoofed bomb threat emails to 2,000 schools in the United States and more than 400 in the U.K., falsely warning that various explosive devices were planted at the schools and would be detonated unless a ransom demand was paid.

In this snippet from a January 2018 online chat taken from a channel maintained by HDGZero, the accused can be seen claiming credit for the bomb threats and posting links to stories in various local media outlets about schools evacuating students in response to the threats. The bomb threat emails were made to look like they were sent by


The Hester trade wouldn't have been bad had he shown up as the RB they drafted him to be. Unfortunately, it took him a few years to show he could actually run the ball. Now he'll be Mathews' primary backup. Add that in with his ST abilities, and it wasn't as horrible as a trade as some make it out to be._________________

AJ did a good job in Free Agency, and the team won't have to go OLB in the 1st round.
Phillips and JJ are our starters. Barnes comes in to rush the QB. AJ gives a last chance to English to stay healthy. I am not afraid to say it, but I am happy with these 4 guys. These 4 players are all better than our RT andGENEVA -- A triple bombing killed at least 50 people in a predominantly Shiite suburb south of the Syrian capital of Damascus on Sunday even as a U.N. mediator held his first meeting with members of the main opposition group that seeks progress on humanitarian issues before it will join formal talks on ending the five-year civil war.

The attacks were claimed by militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and Syria's delegate to the U.N.-sponsored peace talks said the violence confirmed the connection between "terrorism" and "some political groups" -- a reference to those who oppose President Bashar Assad.

The blasts went off in the Damascus suburb of Sayyda Zeinab, about 600 yards from one of the holiest shrines for Shiite Muslims. Syria's state news agency


SANA said the attackers detonated a car bomb at a bus stop and that two suicide bombers then set off more explosives as rescuers rushed to the area.

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State TV showed several burning cars and a scorched bus, as well as blown out windows, twisted metal and large holes in the facade of a nearby apartment building. The golden-domed Shiite shrine itself was not damaged.

At least 50 people were killed, the Syrian Foreign Ministry said, with more than 100 wounded.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based opposition group that monitors the conflict, said at least 63 people were killed, including 25 pro-government Shiite fighters. It said the dead fighters included Syrians and foreigners.

The suburb is one of the first areas where Lebanon'sHezbollah group sent fighters in 2012 to protect it from Sunni extremists who vowed to blow up the shrine. Hezbollah and Shiite groups from Iraq are known to have fighters in the area.

A website affiliated with the ISIS said the attacks were carried out by members of the Sunni Muslim extremist group, which controls large areas in both Syria and Iraq.

The bombings cast a shadow over the Geneva talks, the first U.N. effort since 2014 to try to end the conflict that has killed at least 250,000 people, forced millions to flee the country, and given an opening to IS militants to capture territory.

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry appealed to both sides "to make the most of this moment, to seize the opportunity for serious


and Syrian forces, and the lifting of government blockades on rebel-held areas.

On Sunday, de Mistura paid an informal visit to the HNC delegation, saying he is "optimistic and determined" about the talks.

HNC spokesman Salem al-Mislet told The Associated Press that the violence against civilians must stop first, saying the U.N. Security Council should put "pressure on Russia to stop these crimes in Syria," he said. Moscow, which began its airstrikes in Syria in September, is a major Assad ally, along with Iran.

But Bashar Ja'afari, the head of the Syrian delegation, criticized the opposition in remarks to reporters.

"Those who speak about preconditions are coming to this meeting in order to derail it," he said. "With the opposition's delegation not showing up, it shows that they are not serious andirresponsible at a time when Syrians are being killed."

Ja'afari added that the Damascus-area bombings "confirms what the Syrian government has stated before - that there is a link between terrorism and the sponsors of terrorism from one side, and some political groups, who claim that they are against terrorism."

Assad's government has long referred to all those fighting to overthrow him as terrorists, but has agreed to negotiations with some armed groups in the latest talks.

On Saturday night, Syrian Information Minister Omar al-Zoubi told state TV the Assad government will "never accept" the inclusion in the peace talks of two militant groups it considers terrorists.

Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam, two Islamic groups fighting to overthrow Assad, agreed to take part in the Geneva talks. The ultraconservative Ahrar


al-Sham is not part of the team sent to Geneva, but the delegation has named Army of Islam official Mohammed Alloush as its chief negotiator.

Alloush told AP he is heading to Geneva for the talks.

While virtually all parties agree that IS and the al-Qaida-linked Nusra Front should be excluded from the talks, the two sides are divided over Ahrar al-Sham and the Army of Islam. The mainstream opposition views both as fellow rebels, despite their ideological differences, while Syria's government and Russia view them as extremists.Loewen: Trump win, Clinton win, it tells us little about America

(FILES) This combination of file photos taken on September 26, 2016 shows Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton facing off during the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. PAUL J. RICHARDS / AFP/Getty Images

Suppose Donald Trump wins Tuesday’s election by half a percentage point and by a handful of Electoral College votes. What conclusion would we draw about the American electorate? Perhaps that they were given over to nativist sentiments, that the United States was more racist than we imagined, and that the world was turning away from a period of more open borders and greater trade.

Now, suppose Hillary Clinton wins the election in the same manner. Perhaps we


would then conclude that the United States had continued on a steady progressive march, extending the presidency to a woman after it had been previously held by an African-American. It would be a country affirming the provision of near universal health care. It would similarly be a country characterised by relatively open borders.

There are two important problems with such interpretations. First, it is fundamentally the same electorate and thus country which would produce either outcome. The presidency is an indivisible office; only one person can hold it. But in a closely fought election – in a toss up – the message given by the election of the winner is no clearer than the message given by the rejection of the loser.

Indeed, the story of every election since Georgecurrent affairs programming. This should start to flow this year.

The commitment has drawn the ire of Mediaworks CEO Ian Anderson, who complains it will weaken media diversity and hasten the end of Free To Air TV. Instead he suggests, turn TV1 into a true public broadcaster—Talk about flogging a dead horse. He also suggests that TVNZ has the TV business talent that Radio NZ does not. Many in the industry would think that puts Radio NZ in a good place not a bad one. And try telling that to former Maori Television CFO Alan Witherington and former MTS Head of Programming, and TV news and current affairs producer Carol Hirshfeld, both of who hold top management jobs at Radio NZ.

There’s been no mention of any additional funding for


Government-appointed NZFC board, and they were after all the ones she had to convince to get the job. We can expect Labour’s hand will come into play as board members on both NZFC’s and NZ ON Air’s boards reach their ends of terms and new appointments are made.

One of the big shifts at NZ On Air will happen in February or March when they announce their new drama strategy. After the incredible noise generated around the Filthy Rich and Dirty Laundry funding, primarily by Duncan Grieve, and the constant chatter around digital funding and the lack of support of emerging content makers, again very attributable to Mr Grieve, NZ On Air went into a major reassessment of scripted programming. No doubt the cracks that opened will widen. InterestingSummary

This scene is set in Ezra's study a month later. Underneath the looming portrait of Ezra in his judge's robes, Orin sits at his desk writing. As he finishes, he talks to the portrait, explaining that he's writing down the truth about everything that happened. Lavinia rattles the locked door. Orin hides his document and then goes to open it. Lavinia comes in, in another green dress like Christine's. Orin explains to her that he is studying his father's law books, and when Lavinia asks why he keeps the curtains closed, he refers to the sun as an accusing eye and says the dark is a fitting place to sit and examine questions of guilt. Lavinia tries to tease him, saying he can keep on being mysterious if


Three of Allen's players - Rupp, Smith and Ralph Miller (who won 674 games at three schools) - are in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. So is Allen and so is John McLendon, who was the first black man to graduate from Kansas with a degree in physical education and went on to win 523 games at three of the South's traditionally black colleges. Williams is enshrined in Springfield as well. Self may be on the way.The curfew declared upon Cevatpaşa, Fatihpaşa, Dabanoğlu, Hasırlı, Cemal Yılmaz and Savaş neighborhoods in Amed’s central Sur district on 28 November 2015 remains in effect for 1 year 8 months and 21 days. The curfew that began following the killing of Diyarbakır Bar Association Head Tahir Elçi in front of the Foor-Footed Minaret is the longest one in the recent world history.

In accordance with the urgent expropriation decree published on Official Gazette, an area of 6300 parcels have been expropriated in the historic district.

One third of the district has been demolished during this period of time despite all the efforts made to stop the destruction that was carried out in the form of the greatest pillaging in the history of Amed and Sur. According to an Amnesty International


report, around 40 thousand people have been displaced as a result of the all-out destruction of the district.

In addition to the houses of the people, the Turkish state has also demolished thousands of historical structures in the district, that include churches, mosques, mansions and hammams.

Access to the neighborhoods where demolition continues, is still banned. A few buildings that remain standing have been turned into military outposts by the police and special operations forces of the state. Thousands of inhabitants have still not left their homes despite everything. Several tradesmen had to take down the shutters due to the state’s genocidal attacks on the historic district.for her family.

Tesfanesh says she was forced to leave her office during work hours and queue at a government-operated fruit stand for items that until recently had been easily available in neighborhood shops.

Sugar, cooking oil and other items disappeared from store shelves in January, after Ethiopia imposed price ceilings on 18 basic commodities. The controls were ordered about the time food riots in Tunisia triggered the political unrest that spread across North Africa and the Middle East.

Local media hailed state intervention in the market as a bold move to help cash-strapped consumers cope with soaring global food prices.

But shop owners rebelled. They complained the ceilings were too low to allow them a fair profit, and refused to sell at what they said was a loss.

When price-controlled items became


provided a young Oregon architect named Brad Cloepfil with a dauntingly controversial commission.

The Gallery of Modern Art, one of several quixotic cultural projects launched by Hartford, an heir to the A. & P. fortune, who died earlier this year at the age of ninety-seven, was originally intended to house his collection of figurative works and to stand as a riposte to what Hartford saw as the reign of abstraction at the Museum of Modern Art. The architect was Edward Durell Stone. Stone had been a leading American exponent of the International Style, but, in the fifties, his new wife, a fashion writer he met on an airplane, encouraged him toward elegance and decoration, and he began to fill his buildings with glitter and marble and screens and goldcolumns.

As a museum, the Columbus Circle building was a disaster. The galleries, tricked out with expensive wood panelling and brass fixtures, were cramped, and the institution closed after five financially ruinous years. And yet somehow the structure’s dainty columns, tiny portholes, huge arches, and vast windowless expanses of flat, unadorned white marble embedded themselves more deeply into the consciousness of New Yorkers than many better buildings. So what if it looked like a Bauhaus version of the Alhambra—or, as Ada Louise Huxtable, then the architecture critic at the Times, put it, “a die-cut Venetian palazzo on lollypops”? Amid the austere glass boxes of the nineteen-fifties and sixties, it seemed to strike a blow for quirky individualism. Huxtable’s harsh judgment gave rise to a nickname—the Lollipop Building—that was as


much affectionate as mocking.

The building eventually wound up in the hands of the city, which, in 1998, decided to sell it to the highest bidder. The city repeatedly refused to have its own Landmarks Preservation Commission consider giving 2 Columbus Circle landmark status, a move that provoked outrage but kept the building salable and more or less sealed its fate. Whether or not the building deserved landmark status depends on what you think a landmark should be: it wasn’t great architecture, but it had unique qualities and some historical importance. In 2002, the city agreed to sell it to the Museum of Arts and Design, formerly the American Crafts Museum. The museum was eager for an architect who had never built in New York before, and hired Cloepfil,whose firm, Allied Works Architecture, in Portland, was just completing its first major project, the sharp and serene Contemporary Art Museum in St. Louis. Cloepfil started work on his design while the legal struggle to preserve the building was in progress, but in 2005 the preservationists lost in court, and construction began. The building will open next month.

Cloepfil ended up all but demolishing the original building and creating a new one of exactly the same shape and size, and almost the same color. He kept the gentle curve reflecting the shape of Columbus Circle but changed just about everything else. To let light into the interior, he made long linear incisions, two feet wide, in the façade. These glass channels—Cloepfil has called them “ribbons of light”—make a number


US: Iran Threatens Family of Nuclear Defector Shahram Amiri Iranian scientist at center of spy intrigue was key source for CIA.

June 28, 2010 -- This story has been updated.

The Iranian government has threatened to harm the family of a nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. and helped provide crucial details about Iran's burgeoning weapons program unless he returns home, according to people in the intelligence community briefed by the CIA.

The high-stakes spy saga is being played out online, where both the Iranian intelligence agency and the CIA have posted dueling videos of the scientist. In one video, he claims the U.S. kidnapped him, in the other he says he is happy to be in the U.S.

Behind the scenes, the situation has become so grave that American officialsfear Amiri could re-defect, according to the people briefed on the situation. A full report on the case will be broadcast Monday on ABC's "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline."

At the center of the intrigue is Shahram Amiri, an Iranian nuclear scientist, who officials say operated within Iran as a key CIA spy for several years before his defection.

Amiri apparently provided crucial information, though his precise role in U.S. intelligence gathering remains unclear. Former and current intelligence officials told ABC News that Amiri confirmed the existence of a secret underground enrichment facility near Qom and also described him as a key source in the conclusions of the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate, which found that Iran had suspended its nuclear weaponization program. Initially, before Amiri defected back to


Iran, the same officials told ABC News that Amiri's information had contradicted the 2007 NIE finding, but further reporting indicates that was an incorrect interpretation.

CIA director Leon Panetta told ABC News yesterday on This Week that the CIA no longer believes the conclusions of the 2007 NIE, saying that Tehran continues "to work on designs" for a nuclear weapon.

"I think they continue to develop their know-how," Panetta said. "They continue to develop their nuclear capability."

CIA officials pushed for Amiri to flee the country out of fear that his disclosures might expose him to Tehran as a spy.

Amiri vanished last year during a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The Iranian government claimed then that their scientist, a professor at Tehran's Malek Ashtar University, had been kidnapped by the CIA. Infact, say U.S. officials, the CIA, with the help of the Saudi government, whisked Amiri to the U.S., where he was to permanently resettle.

Competing Amiri Videos

A few months after Amiri arrived, the Obama Administration announced that U.S. intelligence had discovered a second, hidden nuclear enrichment facility in the Iranian city of Qom.

Both the CIA and the White House have refused to comment on Amiri.

Complicating the defection is the fact that he left behind a wife and child. Since arriving in the U.S., and being secluded in Arizona, U.S. officials say Amiri has struggled with his decision to flee Iran.

Then came the alleged threats by Iranian intelligence, which set off the bizarre battle of dueling videos that were released earlier this month. The first, which was broadcast on Iranian


state television, shows Amiri speaking to a computer camera and announcing that the U.S. had drugged and kidnapped him and forced him to Tucson, Arizona.

He appeared to be looking down at a script as he spoke.

According to the two current U.S. officials, Amiri called home earlier this year because he missed his family. On a second call, Iranian intelligence answered and threatened to harm his son, unless he taped an internet video saying he'd been kidnapped. Amiri, fearing for his family, agreed, according to a person briefed on the case.

"He missed his son," said the person. "And he couldn't help calling home to speak to him."

Within days, the CIA learned that Amiri had given the Iranians a video and moved quickly to produce a version of its own.The second video shows Amiri well-dressed and manicured with a globe - turned to North America - and chess set behind him as he appears to read from a teleprompter. He says, in Farsi, that he is happily living in the U.S. and going to school. He also denied having worked in the Iranian nuclear program and made a plea to his wife and son. "I want them to know that I never abandoned then, and that I will always love them."

According to one U.S. official, the CIA intended to produce the video and launch it on the internet before the Iranians had a chance to air their version.

Instead, the video languished at CIA headquarters for weeks, according to a senior intelligence official. Then, earlier this month, Iranian


state television aired the Amiri video. Within a day, the CIA posted their Amiri video on YouTube, with a user identification of "shahramamiri2010."

Amiri Faces Tough Decisions

The Iranian government has since formally requested the U.S. government to return Amiri, accusing the Americans of holding him against his will. A spokesperson for the State department has acknowledged that the U.S. government has received the request, but has had no further comment.

"The United States doesn't force people to defect—that's a decision they make themselves," said a U.S. official. "Mr. Amiri wasn't kidnapped, and he certainly wasn't tortured. That's absurd. The guy has internet access and the ability to make and transmit videos. Let's get real. If you look at defectors as a group, without commenting on any particular individual, some adjustLexus: Dark Ride

Get in the driver's seat.

Published on May 17, 2010

Editor's Pick

Lexus teamed with Skinny and Stink Digital with Skunk on Lexus Dark Ride, a 12:30 interactive thrill ride in the brand's new hybrid compact car, the CT 200h.

Visitors to the Dark Ride site sit in the passenger seat alongside driver Tony, played by actor Norman Reedus, who's in charge of
navigating the car from Nevada to Los Angeles in a high speed chase. Participants can upload their own mugs using the webcam or a digital picture and can even add their own voices via mic. Although not in the driver's seat, visitors do the steering and can change the camera POV and tell Tony where to go, creating a different ride each time. Watch a trailer of the


So much for the Uncharted movie having a reasonably firm release date. Sony's Columbia Pictures has delayed the release of the game-inspired swashbuckler from its earlier December 18th, 2020 slot to March 5th, 2021. There wasn't a specific explanation, but it came just weeks after the project lost director Travis Knight. It would've been no mean feat to find his replacement and complete the whole movie within less than a year. The March timing suggests that it won't be a huge blockbuster, but it's at least not destined for the January/February slot frequently reserved for movies with low expectations.Developing patient and family education programs for a transplant center.
Patient and family education is an important component of the organ transplant programs at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The Medical Center is in the process of planning a new transplant center which will employ the family-centered, educationally-intensive cooperative care concept. This approach was chosen as the model for the delivery of care at the Lied Transplant Center because it emphasizes efficient, effective clinical care by requiring active participation by the family or essential other, thereby better preparing both the patient and the family for the transition to home and to the community. This article presents the evolution of patient education in our transplant programs, discusses the educational needs of transplant patients across the continuum of care, provides


which deprives future generations of the equality of their votes and undermines their ability to democratically change their Constitution.

The Foundation conducted much of the research that was used to create Amendment 69, and it advocates for universal health care. Establishing universal health care on a national basis remains unlikely, so the Foundation has an interest in future proposals for universal health care appearing on the Colorado ballot. The board members and supporters of the Foundation have substantial roles in the lawsuit. Ralph Ogden is a board member; Bill Semple, one of the plaintiffs, is a board member; and three Foundation board members were board members of the plaintiff ColoradoCareYES (Jeanne Nicholson, Ivan Miller, and Bill Semple). In addition, many supporters and volunteers from ColoradoCareYES also support and volunteerNorway warship Helge Ingstad 'warned' before collision By Soraya Auer

BBC News Published duration 9 November 2018

image copyright Kystverket/NCA/Forsvaret image caption The Norwegian frigate was pushed to shallower waters to prevent it sinking on Thursday

A Norwegian warship was repeatedly warned of its collision course with a Maltese oil tanker before then hitting it in a fjord, the BBC has been told.

The KNM Helge Ingstad has been listing dangerously since Thursday's collision in the Hjeltefjord near Bergen.

The frigate was returning from Nato military exercises. The tanker, the Sola TS, was slightly damaged but it appears that it did not spill oil.

The early morning incident led to the temporary shutdown of a major oil terminal and a gas plant.

Who knew what, when?

Communication between the vessels and the maritime traffic centre was


recorded prior to the "very uncommon" collision, a maritime official told the BBC.

"This was a very serious accident and [the authorities] need the time to investigate," said John Erik Hagen, who is in charge of the Norwegian Coastal Administration's western region.

media caption The KNM Helge Ingstad takes in water amid fears that it might sink

He would not confirm further details as reported by a Norwegian defence and security website, which broke the news that the two vessels could see each other and followed communication protocols on an open channel.

"The tanker, which was heading northbound, contacted the frigate, heading southbound, to ask if they had a plan to safely pass them as they seemed to be on a collision course," Kjetil Stormark, the editor of AldriMer.no told the BBC.

Luckylocal time (03:00 GMT) as the frigate, part of Nato's fleet, was sailing inner fjords for training, officials say.

"Due to the damage to the frigate it was moved to a safe place," Nato's Allied Maritime Command said in a statement.

The tanker had already left Equinor's Sture oil terminal with a cargo of North Sea crude, Reuters news agency reports.

The tanker, which had an uninjured crew of 23, returned to port for inspection.

An unnamed official told AFP news agency that a "small oil slick" had been detected from the frigate.

"It took on a lot of water and there is a real danger that it sinks where it is," the official said.

media caption Nato holds biggest military exercise since Cold War


PUBLISHED

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT

TERESA ANN WILSON,
Petitioner-Appellant,

v.

MICHAEL MOORE, Commissioner of
                                                                     No. 98-6577
South Carolina Department of
Corrections; CHARLES MOLONY
CONDON, Attorney General of the
State of South Carolina,
Respondents-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court
for the District of South Carolina, at Charleston.
Henry M. Herlong, Jr., District Judge.
(CA-97-1040-2-20AJ)

Argued: January 28, 1999

Decided: May 25, 1999

Before WILKINSON, Chief Judge, TRAXLER, Circuit Judge,
and GOODWIN, United StatesDistrict Judge for the
Southern District of West Virginia, sitting by designation.

_________________________________________________________________

Affirmed by published opinion. Judge Traxler wrote the opinion, in
which Chief Judge Wilkinson and Judge Goodwin joined.

_________________________________________________________________

COUNSEL

ARGUED: David Isaac Bruck, Columbia, South Carolina, for Appel-
lant. Robert Eugene Bogan, Assistant Attorney General, Columbia,
South Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: Charles M. Condon,
Attorney General, John W. McIntosh, Deputy Attorney General, Don-
ald J. Zelenka, Assistant Deputy Attorney General, Columbia, South
Carolina, for Appellees.

_________________________________________________________________

OPINION

TRAXLER, Circuit Judge:

Appellant Teresa Ann Wilson ("Teresa") applied under 28
U.S.C.A. § 2254 (West 1994 & Supp. 1998) for relief from two drug
conspiracy convictions in South Carolina state court, asserting that
her Sixth Amendment right to counsel was abridged when one lawyer
jointly represented her and her husband, and that she did not know-
ingly waive her right to be represented separately by her own


to separate
counsel because she was suffering the effects of BWS and was unable
to assess independently whether it would serve her best interests to
retain her own attorney.

In support of her § 2254 application, particularly her second ground
for relief, Teresa presented -- for the first time-- several affidavits
attesting to the abuse she allegedly suffered at Ronnie's hands and a
psychological report concluding that Teresa suffered from BWS
before and during the trial. Thus, Teresa's § 2254 application rested
in part on factual allegations that were never presented to the PCR
court. It is undisputed that this newly presented evidence was avail-
able and could have been developed at the time Teresa filed her PCR
application.

Teresa's § 2254 application was referred to a magistrate judge for
a recommendation to the district court. After the State moved for
summary judgment,Supreme Court in its original jurisdiction were virtually identical. At
oral argument, it was established that Teresa petitioned the South Caro-
lina Supreme Court in a last-minute attempt to have the state courts con-
sider the evidence.

8 The district court also decided that Teresa was not entitled to an evi-
dentiary hearing on this new evidence. See 28 U.S.C.A. § 2254(e)(2)
(West Supp. 1998). Teresa does not challenge this conclusion on appeal.

                     7
II.

Teresa directs her argument primarily toward the district court's
ruling that the South Carolina Supreme Court refused to reach the
merits of her habeas petition and, therefore, did not consider her new
evidence. Teresa contends that the "denial" language used by the state
supreme court


and it usually peaks between June and July.

The primary vector of Japanese encephalitis is a species of mosquito, Culex tritaeniorhynchus, which breeds in rice paddy fields, ponds, and irrigation canals.

To prevent infection, avoid visiting vector-breeding sites such as pigpens at dawn and dusk when mosquitoes are most active.

As vaccination is the most effective way to prevent Japanese encephalitis, people who live near or work in close proximity to pig farms or rice paddy fields that increase their risk of Japanese encephalitis infection are recommended to visit one of the hospitals under the Ministry of Health and Welfare for self-paid vaccination.

In addition, Taiwan CDC also urges parents and caretakers of age-appropriate children who have not received the vaccine to get vaccinated as soon as possible at their local healthFoundations of Business Research

20 Units

The course introduces students to research in the social sciences by providing an overview of the key principles and concepts used in research and it facilitates students in defining and refining their research topic in preparation for the subsequent courses in the program. Additionally the course provides practical skills required for successful research organisation and writing.


Madaba (Arabic: ?) is the capital city of Madaba Governorate in central Jordan, with a population of about 60,000. It is best known for its Byzantine and Umayyad mosaics, especially a large Byzantine-era mosaic map of the Holy Land. Madaba is located 30 kilometres (19 miles) south-west of the capital Amman.

Map of Madaba

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Things to see & do in madaba jordan, middle east

History

Madaba dates from the Middle Bronze Age.

The town of Madaba was once a Moabite border city, mentioned in the Bible in Numbers 21:30 and Joshua 13:9.

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During its rule by the Roman and Byzantine empires from the 2nd to the 7th centuries, the city formed part of the Provincia Arabia set up by the Roman Emperor Trajan to replace the Nabataean kingdom of Petra.

The first evidencefor a Christian community in the city, with its own bishop, is found in the Acts of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, where Constantine, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bostra (the provincial capital) signed on behalf of Gaiano, "Bishop of the Medabeni."

During the rule of the Islamic Umayyad Caliphate, it was part of the southern Jund Filastin.

The resettlement of the city ruins by 90 Arab Christian families from Kerak, in the south, led by two Italian priests from the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem in 1880, saw the start of archaeological research. This in turn substantially supplemented the scant documentation available.

The Catholic Churchs list of titular sees uses the spelling "Medaba", traditional in reference to the ancient bishopric centred on this city, while at the same time referring to the


modern city as Madaba".

Tourist Attractions

Madaba’s main attraction is its Byzantine mosaics, drawing many visitors, especially since the creation of an archaeological park. They cover the floors of houses and churches dating from the site’s earliest period of habitation.

The nearby site of Umm ar-Rasas, south-east of Madaba on the edge of the semi-arid steppe, started as a Roman military camp and grew to become a town from the 5th century. It also has very large and well-preserved mosaics.

At the southern entrance to Madaba, near the King’s Highway, is the Church of the Apostles. The ruins of this Byzantine church date to 578 CE, and are currently being restored. It includes a mosaic known as the "Personification of the Sea", depicting a woman emerging from the sea, surrounded by mythicalCytochemical localization of acid phosphatase in Leishmania mexicana amazonensis.
Acid phosphatase was cytochemically detected at the ultrastructural level in infective and non-infective promastigotes and in amastigotes of the parasitic protozoan Leishmania mexicana amazonensis. Cerium chloride was used as the capture agent of the phosphate liberated during the hydrolysis of the substrate (Na-beta-glycerophosphate). Reaction product, indicative of enzyme activity, was seen in the outer face of the plasma membrane of many, but not all, infective and noninfective promastigote forms. No reaction product was seen in the plasma membrane of amastigote forms. Reaction product was seen in the endoplasmic reticulum, in the Golgi complex, in vesicles located close to the flagellar pocket and in cytoplasmic structures which may represent lysosomes. No reaction product was seen when the substrate was omitted from


Olympic Photo Of The Day: Giant Head Edition

Imagery from Russia's recent past – including the hammer and sickle that adorned the flag of the Soviet Union – is seen in the Opening Ceremony of the Sochi Olympics Friday. The display came in a portion of the program describing Russia's industrial growth.Indonesia's Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by a woman whose complaint about the volume of mosque loudspeakers led to an 18-month prison sentence for blasphemy.

Key points: Meliana's case is the latest in a string of high-profile blasphemy cases targeting minorities

Meliana's case is the latest in a string of high-profile blasphemy cases targeting minorities Indonesian law criminalises insulting any of its six official religions

Indonesian law criminalises insulting any of its six official religions The country's largest Muslim organisation and other religious groups have called for Meliana's release

In a March 27 ruling posted on the court's website on Monday, the court rejected the appeal by Meliana, a 44-year-old ethnic Chinese, Buddhist resident from the island of Sumatra.

The court did not provide a reason for the decision.

Meliana's lawyers said she


had made remarks in a private conversation in 2016 on the volume of mosque loudspeakers. Those remarks were twisted to appear like she was objecting to the call to prayer itself and repeated in the community and on social media, her legal team said.

"This is another nail in the coffin of religious freedom and tolerance in Indonesia because of institutionalised discrimination," Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch said.

Meliana, a mother of four, is serving an 18-month sentence in a prison in Medan, Sumatra.

Senior members of Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organisation, have said her remarks should not be considered blasphemy.

Human rights and interfaith groups have rallied for Meliana's release, arguing that she merely expressed her opinion peacefully.

Indonesia has the world's largest population of Muslims, and sizeable communitiesSamer Habib goes through the binder of paperwork he hopes will allow him to stay in Canada.

It contains his passport, his story, school transcripts, a work permit and news articles explaining what happens to gay men, like him, in Egypt.

Habib, 23, has started the immigration process under the Manitoba provincial nominee program, but his Egyptian passport will expire in June. He's now preparing to apply for refugee status because he is afraid to go back to Egypt to renew his passport.

The 23-year-old gay man said when he thinks about having to go back to Egypt, he is afraid.

"It puts a lot of fear and it makes me feel like my life is in danger," Habib said.

Habib became a student at the University of Winnipeg about five years ago


and had a student visa. After graduating, he received a post-graduation work permit for his job as an office assistant at the university.

He began applying to immigrate under the provincial nominee program and was approved for the next steps in January, but learned that it could take 16 months for his application to go through.

There is one large hurdle in the way — his Egyptian passport is set to expire in June.

Samer Habib hopes the information in his binder will lead to a successful asylum claim in Canada. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

To have his passport renewed, Habib would have to return to Egypt and complete three years of mandatory military service.

"I don't feel safe. Like, what's going to happen in the next few months if I have to leave theHabib said.

He has only come out to his father, who told him to never speak about it again and threatened to silence him if he does, Habib said.

Habib is most afraid of what could happen to him if he has to join the military.

has started the immigration process under the Manitoba provincial nominee program, but his Egyptian passport will expire in June. He's now preparing to apply for refugee status because he is afraid to go back to Egypt to renew his passport. 2:03

"I'd rather die than go there because, to me, it's like being a slave but also a prisoner at the same time," he said.

If the military suspects a person is gay, "they decide what they want to do with you next," he said.

"It could be