Cowboys, Romo agree on 6-year, $108M extension

File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throwing a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) throwing a pass during the first half of an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

File- This Dec. 30, 2012 file photo shows Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) standing during the national anthem before an NFL football game against the Washington Redskins in Landover, Md. Romo and the Cowboys have agreed on a six-year contract extension worth $108 million, with about half of that guaranteed. The agreement was reported on the team?s website Friday March 29, 2013. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) ? Tony Romo has a chance to start for the Dallas Cowboys longer than Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman. The question is whether he will ever match their Super Bowl pedigrees.

Romo signed a six-year contract extension worth $108 million Friday, with about half of that guaranteed to make him the highest-paid player in franchise history.

The agreement, reported on the team's website, will lower the quarterback's salary cap number for 2013 by about $5 million, giving the team more room to sign free agents and draft picks.

Romo, who turns 33 next month and was entering the final year of his contract, gets $55 million guaranteed.

Super Bowl winner Joe Flacco got $52 million guaranteed in the six-year, $120.6 million contract he signed with Baltimore earlier this month.

"I think it's just exciting more than anything that you know you're going to be here the rest of my career," Romo said in a video on the team's website that showed owner Jerry Jones exchanging high-fives with Romo's nearly 1-year-old son. "We're a team on the rise and I think it's going to show here going forward."

Romo could be with Dallas through 2019, giving him a chance to be the starter longer than the 11 seasons of Aikman and seven of Staubach, who was a part-time starter his first four years with the Cowboys.

Aikman and Staubach won five Super Bowls between them, while Romo has just one playoff win in six full seasons as the starter. He had a gut-wrenching playoff loss the year he took over midseason in 2006, flubbing the hold after driving the Cowboys into position for the go-ahead field goal in the final minutes.

Romo alluded to changes "behind the scenes" in the interview on the team's website, and Jones said in a statement that his quarterback will have "a significant level of input and contribution to the planning and implementing of our offensive approach ? both in the meeting room and on the field."

"Tony is uniquely qualified to lead this team at the quarterback position for the next several years," Jones said. "He knows how to run an offense and run a team."

Romo lost playoff-or-bust games in regular-season finales the past two years. That included a loss to Washington last season when Romo threw an interception with a chance to tie or win the game with a drive in the final 3 minutes.

A former Romo rival, Donovan McNabb, questioned the deal on Twitter.

"Wow really, with one playoff win," McNabb wrote. "You got to be kidding me."

Dez Bryant, who teamed with Romo for career highs of 1,382 receiving yards and 12 touchdowns in 2012, tweeted, "Congrats Big Tony on the contract extension."

Romo is the franchise leader in touchdown passes and the single-season leader in touchdowns, passing yards, completions and attempts. He had a career-high 4,903 passing yards in 2012 but matched his highest interception total at 19 and had his lowest quarterback rating at 90.5 rating.

His best rating of 102.5 came in 2011, when the Cowboys lost to the New York Giants with a playoff berth on the line in the finale. His other best season was 2009, which included his only playoff win against Philadelphia.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/347875155d53465d95cec892aeb06419/Article_2013-03-29-FBN-Cowboys-Romo-Contract/id-3991df21f8c7426d8f313697dc6d7292

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No end to Italy deadlock despite president's efforts

By James Mackenzie and Barry Moody

ROME (Reuters) - Italy remained in political deadlock on Friday after a new round of talks led by President Giorgio Napolitano failed to break the stalemate created by elections last month that left no group able to form a government alone.

Napolitano, 87, conducted a swift round of talks with the three main forces in parliament on Friday after the failure of a week of efforts by center-left leader Pier Luigi Bersani to win support for a new government.

But all the parties remained in the same entrenched positions they have occupied since the February 24-25 election, with no sign of movement from any of them.

Bersani won the largest share of the vote in the election but fell short of a majority in parliament.

The third biggest force, Beppe Grillo's populist 5-Star Movement, which holds the balance of power, on Friday again rejected backing a Bersani government or any administration not led by them.

The center-left in turn reiterated that it would not enter a coalition with Berlusconi, which the 76-year-old billionaire media magnate said after his talks with Napolitano was the only way out of the crisis short of a snap new election.

Bersani's deputy, Enrico Letta, said after meeting Napolitano that a coalition with Berlusconi's center-right, "would not be the choice of change the country has asked for."

Berlusconi and 5-Star both ruled out backing a technocrat government like the one led by outgoing Prime Minister Mario Monti, whom they both blame for pushing Italy into recession.

This had been seen as a possible alternative way to give Italy the government it needs to address a deep economic crisis.

"Our position has not changed. We expressed it with absolute clarity to the president," Berlusconi told reporters after the meeting with Napolitano.

Grillo on Friday scornfully rejected any idea of giving support for a government not led by his movement.

"Give them a vote of confidence? Those are swear words in the mouths of people like them," Grillo said in a live video broadcast on his popular blog. "They should all just go home."

Bersani says Berlusconi is untrustworthy and also rejects the latter's demand to nominate a successor to Napolitano, whose mandate expires in May.

PRESIDENT'S OPTIONS LIMITED

The refusal by Berlusconi and his allies in the Northern League, as well as Grillo, to back a technocrat government reduces Napolitano's options greatly and makes it much less likely that an independent figure will be able to lead a non-political administration.

"We were against the Monti government and if there is to be another government of that type it's a thousand times better to have new elections," League leader Roberto Maroni said.

The political gridlock has fed growing worries about Italy's ability to confront a prolonged economic crisis that has left it in deep recession for more than a year, with a 2-trillion-euro ($2.6-trillion) public debt and record unemployment, especially among the young.

Rumors have been circulating for days that ratings agency Moody's is preparing to cut its rating on Italy's sovereign debt, which is already only two notches above "junk" grade, partly due to the uncertain political outlook.

Napolitano has made clear that he does not want Italy to go back to new elections immediately, not least because the widely criticized election law is likely to just repeat the deadlock.

He made no announcement after the end of the talks on Friday and officials said he was considering his options. After the failure of the latest round of talks it is not clear what he can do to avoid a quick return to the polls.

Many are already preparing to vote again, with Berlusconi's center-right confident that the momentum created by his surge towards the end of the last campaign will continue.

A poll by the SWG company on Friday showed the center-right had pushed Bersani's bloc into second place since the vote.

(Additional reporting by Naomi O'Leary; Editing by Barry Moody and Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/italys-president-seeks-way-political-deadlock-091517168.html

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Hayden Panettiere Secretly Engaged To Wladimir Klitschko!

Hayden Panettiere Secretly Engaged To Wladimir Klitschko!

Hayden Panettiere Secretly Engaged To Wladimir Klitschko! Stupid Celebrities Gossip Stupid Celebrities Gossip News

Source: http://stupidcelebrities.net/2013/03/hayden-panettiere-secretly-engaged-to-wladimir-klitschko/

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Uncovering Africa's oldest known penguins

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Africa isn't the kind of place you might expect to find penguins. But one species lives along Africa's southern coast today, and newly found fossils confirm that as many as four penguin species coexisted on the continent in the past. Exactly why African penguin diversity plummeted to the one species that lives there today is still a mystery, but changing sea levels may be to blame, the researchers say.

The fossil findings, described in the March 26 issue of the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, represent the oldest evidence of these iconic tuxedo-clad seabirds in Africa, predating previously described fossils by 5 to 7 million years.

Co-authors Daniel Thomas of the National Museum of Natural History and Dan Ksepka of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center happened upon the 10-12 million year old specimens in late 2010, while sifting through rock and sediment excavated from an industrial steel plant near Cape Town, South Africa.

Jumbled together with shark teeth and other fossils were 17 bone fragments that the researchers recognized as pieces of backbones, breastbones, wings and legs from several extinct species of penguins.

Based on their bones, these species spanned nearly the full size spectrum for penguins living today, ranging from a runty pint-sized penguin that stood just about a foot tall (0.3 m), to a towering species closer to three feet (0.9 m).

Only one penguin species lives in Africa today ? the black-footed penguin, or Spheniscus demersus, also known as the jackass penguin for its loud donkey-like braying call. Exactly when penguin diversity in Africa started to plummet, and why, is still unclear.

Gaps in the fossil record make it difficult to determine whether the extinctions were sudden or gradual. "[Because we have fossils from only two time periods,] it's like seeing two frames of a movie," said co-author Daniel Ksepka. "We have a frame at five million years ago, and a frame at 10-12 million years ago, but there's missing footage in between."

Humans probably aren't to blame, the researchers say, because by the time early modern humans arrived in South Africa, all but one of the continent's penguins had already died out.

A more likely possibility is that rising and falling sea levels did them in by wiping out safe nesting sites.

Although penguins spend most of their lives swimming in the ocean, they rely on offshore islands near the coast to build their nests and raise their young. Land surface reconstructions suggest that five million years ago ? when at least four penguin species still called Africa home ? sea level on the South African coast was as much as 90 meters higher than it is today, swamping low-lying areas and turning the region into a network of islands. More islands meant more beaches where penguins could breed while staying safe from mainland predators.

But sea levels in the region are lower today. Once-isolated islands have been reconnected to the continent by newly exposed land bridges, which may have wiped out beach nesting sites and provided access to predators.

Although humans didn't do previous penguins in Africa in, we'll play a key role in shaping the fate of the one species that remains, the researchers add.

Numbers of black-footed penguins have declined by 80% in the last 50 years, and in 2010 the species was classified as endangered. The drop is largely due to oil spills and overfishing of sardines and anchovies ? the black-footed penguin's favorite food.

"There's only one species left today, and it's up to us to keep it safe," Thomas said.

###

National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent): http://www.nescent.org

Thanks to National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent) for this article.

This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/127480/Uncovering_Africa_s_oldest_known_penguins

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Tribeca to close with 'King of Comedy' restoration

NEW YORK (AP) ? The Tribeca Film Festival will close with a 30th anniversary restoration of Martin Scorsese's "The King of Comedy."

This year's festival will bow out on April 27 with a classic from one of its founders: Robert De Niro. In the 1983 dark comedy, he stars as the aspiring comedian Rupert Pupkin, whose obsessive celebrity hounding leads to kidnapping.

Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal said it had always been a goal of Scorsese's to use the festival, with which he's closely associated, to showcase restored and rediscovered films.

The 12th annual Tribeca Film Festival opens April 17.

___

Online:

http://www.tribecafilm.com/festival

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tribeca-close-king-comedy-restoration-182027297.html

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2014 Jeep Cherokee's racy design stirs up social-media storm

By Paul Lienert

DETROIT (Reuters) - The 2014 Jeep Cherokee revives one of the brand's hallowed nameplates, one that dates back nearly 40 years. But the Chrysler Group's new crossover vehicle looks like it would fit better in Italian cousin Alfa Romeo's future product stable.

The latest iteration of the Cherokee, the fourth to wear that badge since 1974, makes its public debut this week at the New York International Auto Show and goes on sale at U.S. dealers in late summer.

But the racy design of the 2014 Cherokee has been stirring up a social-media storm, especially among Jeep loyalists, since Chrysler released the first official photos in late February.

"American variant of Nissan Juke, unfortunately . . . No more tough'n'rough," complained one online Jeep forum member.

Responded another: "It is sexy, looks tough and is gonna kick some butt! Thanks, Jeep, for keeping it fresh and relevant."

Chrysler executive Ralph Gilles, who heads the automaker's design department, responded simply to critics on his Twitter feed: "Time will tell."

The decision to resurrect the Cherokee name might not be so controversial if the new crossover didn't represent a radical departure from previous boxy-looking Jeep designs.

The original Cherokee, a full-size two-door companion to the Jeep Wagoneer, was built from 1974 to 1983 by American Motors.

A smaller and even more squarish-looking Cherokee was launched in 1984 by AMC, which was acquired two years later by Chrysler. After the second-generation Cherokee was retired in 2001 by Chrysler, it was replaced by the Liberty, which was sold in overseas markets as the Cherokee before it, too, was phased out last year.

The 2014 Cherokee was designed to broaden the Jeep brand's reach, both in North America and overseas.

In addition to breaking out of the traditional design box, the new Jeep sports a sloping nose whose signature seven-slot grille wraps up and into the hood, and is flanked by stacked headlamps.

It is being built in Ohio, where Chrysler is pouring $1.7 billion into its Toledo plant, parts of which date to 1910 and which once housed Jeep's original owner, Willys-Overland.

The new Cherokee is built on the same mechanical underpinnings as the Dodge Dart and the Alfa Romeo Giulietta. All three use a vehicle architecture originally developed in Italy by Chrysler's corporate parent, Fiat.

The 2014 Cherokee will be the first crossover to use Chrysler's new nine-speed automatic transmission. It will offer buyers a choice of three four-wheel-drive systems and two engines, a 184-horsepower 2.4-liter four cylinder and a 271-horsepower 3.2-liter V6.

Chrysler said the four-cylinder Cherokee is expected to have an EPA highway fuel-economy rating of 31 miles per gallon.

The 2014 Cherokee will come in four versions: Sport, Latitude, Limited and Trail Hawk.

(Reporting By Paul Lienert in Detroit; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2014-jeep-cherokees-racy-design-stirs-social-media-040748242--finance.html

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F-35B fighter jet's first vertical landing was years, billions in the making (video)

Lockheed Martin's F-35 program has been a political whipping boy seemingly forever, but the VTOL 'B'-variant of the pricey supersonic jet finally did what it was made for: a vertical landing. That happened nearly two years to the day after the estimated $304 million (each!) jet's first mid-air hover, at which point the Pentagon pegged the cost at $83 million. Inflation aside, it seemed to make a fine, if solid three point landing and Lockheed Martin says it's made considerable strides in the flight testing program over the last couple of years, despite all the overruns and delays. Hopefully that means the Marines, Britain's Royal Air Force et. al. will be able to deploy their F-35B's soon -- ie, before they're already obsolete. Check the video after the break.

Filed under: Misc

Comments

Via: Megazone (Google+)

Source: Lockheed Martin (YouTube)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/03/27/f-35b-fighter-jets-first-vertical-landing/

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Could Obesity Prevent Heart-Related Deaths? | Your Health Journal

From Your Health Journal?..?A very interesting article from Red Orbit that I wanted to promote here entitled Could Obesity Help Prevent Heart-Related Deaths? An interesting finding from the UK which states that obese cardiac patients are actually less likely to die from their heart-related condition than those who maintain normal body weight. The study discovered that subjects who participated in physical activity at least one time per week and who did not smoke had a lower risk of dying, no matter their weight. They also discovered obese patients who did not exercise nor follow other healthy lifestyle recommendations still had a lower risk of death than their normal weight counterparts who smoked or did not exercise. Very interesting finding, and you are encouraged to visit the Red Orbit web site (link provided below) to read the complete article. There is probably a little more research needed in this area to confirm these findings, but nonetheless, very helpful information.?

From the article?..

Obese cardiac patients are actually less likely to die from their heart-related condition than those who maintain normal body weight, researchers from University College London claim in a new study.

According to Andrew Kincade of Examiner.com, the investigators studied 4,400 heart patients hailing from England and Scotland. They found that patients with cardiovascular issues who were clinically obese ? having a body mass index (BMI) score of at least 30 ? were less likely to die within a seven-year time span than their fitter counterparts.

?The study found that those who engaged in physical activity at least once a week and who did not smoke had a lower risk of dying, no matter their weight,? Kincade explained. ?However, obese patients who did not exercise nor follow other healthy lifestyle recommendations still had a lower risk of death than their normal weight counterparts who smoked or did not exercise.?

Thirty-one percent of the patients who were analyzed as part of the study were considered obese, BBC News reported on Saturday. Those individuals were said to have been younger, but also in worse health overall.

Those individuals also had additional heart-related risk factors, including higher cholesterol and blood pressure levels, the researchers explained in the journal Preventive Medicine. Furthermore, even obese patients who did not follow medical recommendations for healthy living had a lower risk of death that normal weight patients who smoked or did not regularly exercise.

?We don?t yet understand this paradox and we would clearly not advise patients to put on weight,? lead researcher Dr. Mark Hamer told the British news organization. ?One of the more sensible explanations may be that when obese patients present to their doctor, they are given more aggressive treatment because they are seen as very high risk.?

To read the complete article?..Click here

Source: http://www.lensaunders.com/wp/could-obesity-prevent-heart-related-deaths/

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UFC lightweight champ Benson Henderson goes 2-1 at jiu-jitsu tournament

UFC lightweight champion Benson Henderson will fight Gilbert Melendez on April 20, but he took on other competitors over the weekend. Henderson competed in the 2013 Pan Jiu-Jitsu Championships. He won his first two matches, but lost 8-0 to Jaime Soares Canuto.

Henderson, a brown belt in jiu-jitsu, decided to do the tournament for fun. It wasn't a break from training for the bout with Melendez. Henderson's coach said he did six rounds of MMA sparring on Saturday before competing on Sunday. Instead, it was just a little bit of competition.

He tweeted about the tournament:

Guess who still got #OnePercentBetter today??? That's right, this guy did...congrats to all the #PanAms2013 winners twitpic.com/ce5c8n

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

Just got done w/#2013PanAm 's, didn't go the way I wanted, 2-1, on the day, lost 8-0...had a blast, MUCH LOVE to the #BJJ community...

? Benson Henderson (@BensonHenderson) March 25, 2013

What are your thoughts on Henderson competing just weeks before his fight? Speak up in the comments, on Facebook or on Twitter.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/ufc-lightweight-champ-benson-henderson-goes-2-1-200528627--mma.html

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Administrators armed in W. Colo. school district

DENVER (AP) ? As lawmakers across the country debate arming teachers and administrators to prevent another deadly school shooting, one Colorado school district has voted to let its superintendent and a high school principal carry concealed semi-automatic pistols on campus ? a move some say sidesteps laws meant to keep schools gun-free.

The seven-member school board in southwestern Colorado's rural Dolores County voted unanimously in February to allow Ty Gray, principal of Dove Creek High School, and Superintendent Bruce Hankins to double as security officers, who under state law are allowed to carry guns on elementary, middle and high school campuses.

Hankins and Gray ? both lifelong hunters ? will receive an additional $1 per year for the extra responsibility after completing a concealed-carry course and receiving permits from the county sheriff before they can carry a gun on school grounds.

"We won't live our lives in fear, but we realize the world we live in today and need to do everything in our power to keep kids safe," Hankins told The Cortez Journal after the vote.

"If somebody comes into the building making threats or shooting, I'm not going to hide behind my desk. I'd prefer to have more than a chair (as a weapon)."

The superintendent of District RE-2J, which serves about 275 students, declined an Associated Press request to be interviewed by phone or in person, though he did respond to emailed questions.

"In most school shootings, they are over in just a few minutes," Hankins wrote. "We will have immediate response capability."

In New Jersey, Passaic Valley High School's board of education voted unanimously last month to allow the school's principal, a retired police sergeant, to carry a concealed weapon during the school day.

Before becoming principal, Ray Rotella spent four years as the school's safety officer and carried a gun.

Rotella said the board proposed the idea for him to carry a concealed weapon. He said he is licensed to carry one in the state of New Jersey. and would have no problem doing so in school.

"It's a unique situation. I'm not advocating administrators carry weapons," Rotella said last month. "You don't just give a gun to someone even with a little training. You're talking about someone who was in law enforcement. I was a firearms instructor."

In Colorado's rural Dolores County, the Feb. 6 school board resolution argued that because of an average police response time of 40 minutes ? and a limited budget ? "it is necessary to rely upon existing staff to fulfill the function of the needed security personnel."

Authorities say in the spring of 2009, a 16-year-old student plotted to kill Dove Creek High School's principal, then ambush the county sheriff, take his weapon and continue shooting. Sheriff's deputies recovered seven rifles, including .22-caliber weapons, shotguns and an M1 carbine, at the boy's Dove Creek home, and three more weapons when the teen and a 19-year-old friend were arrested in New Mexico.

Authorities made the arrests after one of the teens told his family about the plot, which was delayed because the school was on spring break. The 19-year-old was not charged, and the district attorney's office does not release information on cases involving juveniles.

"They had stolen the guns and it just happened that the day they planned we were not in session. So, it is real to our community," Hankins said.

But some say the school board's decision is merely a semantic argument that skirts state laws prohibiting guns at schools.

"I think it really does subvert the intention of the law, and I don't think that is ever a good thing," said Laura Cutilletta, a senior staff attorney for the San Francisco-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. "I think, unfortunately, this would probably make them less safe by introducing a gun into school."

Cutilletta added that school administrators already are "swamped" by their primary duties and don't have the experience of a security guard or a police officer.

"They're not used to being in that type of stressful situation, not the type of stress that a police officer faces," she said. "The likelihood of causing more death and injury is through the roof. Even police officers have a hard time hitting the target during a stressful situation, so how can we expect a superintendent or principal to do it?"

The school board's resolution theoretically could allow any employee with an extra-duty security officer contract to bring a gun to school. It came a little more than a week after a Colorado Senate committee rejected a guns-in-schools bill that would have allowed local districts to decide whether their employees could carry concealed weapons on campus.

The decision, strongly backed by the National Rifle Association, is part of a larger debate sparked by the mass shootings in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper signed several bills into law last week, including requiring background checks for private and online gun sales and banning ammunition magazines that hold more than 15 rounds.

Figures compiled by the National Conference of State Legislatures indicate that most states ban guns on campus, unless they are carried by peace officers, security guards or by employees who have written permission from the schools superintendent.

But since the Sandy Hook shooting, lawmakers in almost two dozen states have introduced legislation that would make it easier for school employees or volunteers to carry guns on campus.

South Dakota's Republican governor, Dennis Daugaard, signed a bill March 8 allowing districts to permit teachers and other personnel to serve as "sentinels" and carry firearms on campus. The law takes effect July 1.

Legislatures in a handful of other states, including Georgia, New Hampshire and Kansas, are working on measures similar to South Dakota's.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-26-Guns%20In%20Schools/id-04f7e7b22b8f409789e0307e54aa6edc

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Government lets public pension funds raise stakes in infrastructure

LONDON (Reuters) - The British government has made it easier for local authority pension schemes to invest in infrastructure by doubling the amount they can invest to up to 30 percent of their assets, paving the way potentially for billions of pounds of investment to be made in projects such as new roads and railways.

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) said on Wednesday that from April local government pension funds will be able to raise the amount they can invest in key infrastructure projects from 15 percent to 30 percent of their assets under new rules set by the government's Department for Communities and Local Government.

Britain's local authority pension schemes had been lobbying the government for more leeway to invest in infrastructure, arguing that current rules were hampering their investment in the sector.

"Many local authority pension funds have told us that they are prevented from making the best decision on investments because of outdated rules which place limits on the amount that can be invested in infrastructure," Darren Philp, policy director at the NAPF, said in a statement.

A new Pensions Infrastructure Platform (PIP) has been launched as a way for pension funds to invest in capital projects with the backing of six large pension schemes, including the London Pension Fund Authority (LPFA), West Midlands Pension Fund and Strathclyde Pension Fund.

Volatile equity markets and rock-bottom interest rates have already caused a surge in new pension fund money going into transport and other major facility projects.

(Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/government-lets-public-pension-funds-raise-stakes-infrastructure-190206075--sector.html

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South Korea: We'll strike back at North if attacked

Kcna Via Kns / AFP - Getty Images

A North Korean military spokesman announcing the end of the armistice that ended the Korean War in 1953.

By Jack Kim and Louis Charbonneau, Reuters

South Korea's military said it will strike back at North Korea and target its top leadership if Pyongyang launches a threatened attack.

A top North Korea general, in a rare appearance on state television on Tuesday,?threatened military action against the U.S. and South Korea because of military drills between the two western allies countries that began March 1.

Tensions have ratcheted higher across the Korean peninsula since the North, under youthful leader Kim Jong Un who took office just over a year ago after the death of his father, launched a long-range rocket last December.

The youngest son of Kim Jong Il succeeded his late father in 2011, becoming the third member of his family to rule the unpredictable and reclusive communist state.

He followed this with a third nuclear test on February 12, triggering the prospect of more U.N. sanctions that are due to be formally announced on Thursday after the United States and?China, the North's one major diplomatic ally, struck a deal to punish Pyongyang.

At the same time, North Korea has stepped up its military threats against South Korea and the United States, prompting the terse warning from Seoul on Wednesday that it would not stand idly by if its territory was attacked.

"We have all preparations in place for strong and decisive punishment, not only against the source of the aggression and its support forces but also the commanding element," Major General Kim Yong-hyun of the South Korean army told a press conference.

North Korea's bellicose rhetoric rarely goes beyond that, although in 2010 it sank a South Korean naval vessel, killing 46 sailors and in the same year shelled a South Korean island, killing civilians.

South Korea's new President Park Geun-hye had pledged to engage with the North if it dropped its nuclear plans but now faces the prospect of a hostile challenge early in her 5-year term.

The proposed fresh sanctions would explicitly ban the sale to Pyongyang of items coveted by North Korea's ruling elite, such as yachts and racing cars, a U.N. Security Council diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

Dr. Sung-Yoon Lee, a professor of Korean studies at the Fletcher School at Tufts University, provides insight into how sanctions would impact alleged illicit business that benefits the North Korean regime.

In 2009, Italian authorities blocked the sale of two yachts worth more than $10 million that they believed were headed for Kim Jong Il, the current Kim's father, who enjoyed copious amounts of luxury brandy and fresh sushi in a country where a third of the population is malnourished.

The new sanctions will target North Korea's financial transactions, which often involve using cash couriers that make them hard to trace, and its criminal activities such as drugs and counterfeiting.

North Korea was slapped with sanctions in 2006 that banned the import of a range of luxury goods from jet skis to Harleys following its first nuclear test in a bid to hit the high-life of the Kim family and its hangers-on.

The impoverished country, whose economy is smaller than it was 20 years ago, has been subject to sanctions of some kind from the United States for almost all of its existence and since 2006 has seen U.N. sanctions imposed for its long range rocket and nuclear tests.

Despite the sanctions Pyongyang now has a nuclear stockpile sufficient for around half a dozen warheads, has made substantial progress in developing a long-range missile and is working towards miniaturizing a nuclear warhead for an intercontinental ballistic missile.

China has backed all rounds of sanctions and fell into line with the latest move in the Security Council, risking relations with its prickly ally.

About 200,000 Korean troops and 10,000 U.S. forces are expected to be mobilized for their "Foal Eagle" exercise, under the Combined Forces Command, which goes until the end of April. Separate computer-simulated drills called "Key Resolve" start on March 11.

Related:?

Kerry dismissive of Rodman's North Korea visit

Huge military exercise highlights 'rebalancing of US policy toward Asia'

North Korea's propaganda poets stay true to their muse

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/06/17206704-south-korea-well-strike-back-at-north-if-attacked?lite

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In defense of organized religion - The Daily Collegian

With all the news surrounding the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, religion and in particular the Catholic Church have been the subject of much debate. Benedict XVI was widely considered a conservative Pope (although he was to the left of the Democrats on economic issues and the environment, which says a lot about the Democrats), so there was a lot of criticism of his papacy in progressive circles. But many of my liberal friends went further, and took this opportunity to criticize organized religion itself ? a criticism often accompanied by the claim that it is better to be ?spiritual but not religious,? or that ?faith? is good but organized religion is bad.

MCT

Though this is sad, it is not surprising. Polls show that a rapidly growing number of Americans, especially young Americans, claim to be non-religious, but not atheist or agnostic either. These are the ?nones?: people who do not wish to identify with any organized religion, but still hold beliefs in the supernatural. They often say that they wanted to free themselves from the constraints of traditional religions. They want to find God (or spirituality) on their own, and they think organized religion is too rigid, dogmatic or illogical.

Now let me be absolutely clear: abandoning organized religion to embrace an ill-defined ?spirituality? is a rejection of logic and reason, not an affirmation of it.

Organized religion is organized precisely because it attempts to impose a logical structure and order upon the chaos of personal beliefs. It is a marriage of faith and reason. The Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant Churches have spent enormous time and effort to construct elaborate doctrines to ensure that their beliefs made logical sense, that they were not contradictory. Those who disparage religious doctrines for being supposedly unscientific are failing to realize that having a doctrine is far more rational than believing whatever feels right to you. The process of creating religious doctrine is one of deduction. If certain premises are true, what conclusions can we logically draw from them? The first part of this process involves faith, and the second part involves reason.

The problem with ?spirituality? is that it throws all reason out the window. Rather than accepting a few ideas on faith and then drawing rational conclusions from them, ?spirituality? means accepting a wide variety of mutually contradictory ideas from various sources and never thinking too hard about them.

For example, it is popular to say that all religions are just alternative paths to the same destination, or different ways of seeing the same God or the same Truth. This is not just wrong; it is so illogical to such an extent that it could not possibly be true. Different religions make entirely different claims about essential questions of life and death. It?s not just that some religions allow you to eat pork and others don?t. Some religions believe in reincarnation, while others believe in an afterlife, such as heaven and hell. The two cannot be reconciled, and there is no possible middle ground. Your soul can?t be half-reincarnated and half in heaven

Each of the great, organized religions of the world is a self-contained, internally consistent system of thought. What may appear dogmatic at first is simply an attempt to preserve that internal consistency. For example, if you are a Christian, then you cannot believe in reincarnation, fortune telling, or lucky charms, because that would contradict your other beliefs. You also cannot believe that Jesus was only a man, because that would make his death and resurrection, the most important part of the New Testament, entirely pointless.

To hold faith in God or the supernatural, while also ?liberating? yourself from the constraints of organized religion, is like trying to build a suspension bridge but ?liberating? yourself from the constraints of physics and engineering. The result won?t be an innovative structure that stands as a testament to your free spirit. It will be a tangled mess that will collapse as soon as a strong wind starts blowing.

Do-it-yourself religion is not progressive nor is it a haven for free thought. It is a breeding ground for superstition and fear. It is a throwback to an earlier time in human history, when spiritually free people could simply make up whatever stories they wanted and have people believe them. Today, we have similar examples such as the proliferation of ?psychics,? self-improvement ?experts,? cult leaders and conspiracy theorists. Do-it-yourself religion is the reason why 46 percent of Americans believe in creationism despite the fact that the vast majority of organized religious institutions (including the Catholic Church) reject it.

Compared to earlier, more disorganized belief systems, organized religion brought us a radically progressive innovation: the idea that religious leaders were no longer allowed to make things up as they went along. Organized religion has holy texts to be read and followed and theological precedents that limit the power of priests in the same way that legal precedents limit the power of judges and lawyers. Organized religion has laws, while ?spirituality? is lawless. And, as anyone who has ever lived in a lawless part of the world can tell you, it is far more liberating to live under a system of laws, even bad laws, than to live in a place with no laws at all.

Paradoxically, organized religion was also the mother of atheism. Organized religion nurtured the idea that other religions are wrong, that their gods do not exist. This made it possible for people to imagine that perhaps all religions are wrong, and perhaps no gods exist. In a world filled with ?spirituality,? where no one is definitely wrong, where religious beliefs are just a matter of personal opinion and they are all correct in their own way, atheism is almost inconceivable.

I am an Orthodox Christian, but I fully respect and understand the choices made by my friends and others who follow different organized religions, or who are atheists. Those options, organized religion and atheism, are internally consistent and rational systems of thought (note to the skeptic: empirical evidence is a different issue from rationality). If you consider yourself spiritual but not religious, please examine your beliefs more closely, and have the courage to pick a side.

Mike Tudoreanu is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at mtudorea@econs.umass.edu.

Source: http://dailycollegian.com/2013/03/06/in-defense-of-organized-religion/

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Recon teases new sports heads-up display for sunglasses, promises more info this summer

Anyone who's ever had a nice brisk bike ride through a snowstorm is likely to cringe a bit at the above image. Though the gentlemen pictured is looking forward to the summer season for other reasons -- that's when the Recon heads-up display he's testing is set to get a bigger reveal. In the meantime, we're stuck staring at the above image of HUD-equipped sunglasses and wondering precisely what it all means -- aside, of course, for the company's move off the ski slopes.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/4VP52R1cn0w/

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Why it's 'sinkhole season' in Florida

A new 12-feet wide and 5-feet deep sinkhole has opened up between two homes in Seffner, Fla., just miles away from the crater that swallowed a man as he slept. WFLA's Peter Bernard reports.

By Tamara Lush, Associated Press

SEFFNER, Fla. - As crews entombed a man who was swallowed by a sinkhole near Tampa, the earth opened up again just a few miles away. On Tuesday, in a neighboring county, officials investigated reports of a home cracking, perhaps due to another sinkhole.

Across Florida this time of year, it's the start of what's unofficially considered the "sinkhole season," State Geologist Jonathan Arthur said. It coincides with the beginning of the state's rainy season and usually lasts until the end of summer.

---

"Florida is famous for bugs, alligators, pythons, hurricanes and now sinkholes," said Larry McKinnon, a Hillsborough sheriff's office spokesman. "I think our salvation is that for most of the time, our weather is picture-perfect." But it's also the weather - along with man-made factors - that exacerbate sinkholes, experts said.

Arthur said February is usually when the state is at its driest, but it's also the start of the rainy season. Acidic rain can, over time, eat away the limestone and natural caverns that lie under much of the state, causing sinkholes. Both extremely dry weather and very wet weather can trigger sinkholes, he said.

"An extensive drought can cause soil and sediment over a cavity to be extremely dry and collapse," said Arthur.

On the other hand, following Tropical Storm Debby in 2012, dozens of sinkholes formed in counties north of Tampa because of the rain.

In Hillsborough County, an area particularly susceptible to sinkholes, 37-year-old Jeff Bush was killed last week when a hole opened up underneath his bedroom. Engineering experts have said it is too dangerous to retrieve Bush's body, so they demolished the home and filled the hole with gravel.

Hillsborough County is in a moderate drought, but engineers and county officials don't know exactly why the sinkhole formed in Seffner, and said they will likely never know.

The county has had 1.56 inches of rainfall since Jan. 1; it usually averages about 5.41 inches, according to the National Weather Service.

In Pinellas County, about 30 miles away from Seffner, fire-rescue workers in the community of Palm Harbor said they asked two people to evacuate a home after the residents reported "extensive cracking on the interior and exterior of the home." A county building inspector said the home was safe to live in, but the homeowner was seeking an engineer's opinion.

Arthur said he looked at 50 years of data and found that there is usually an uptick of reported sinkholes in February, with an increase until about July, when activity tapers off. December and January have typically low sinkhole activity.

Florida tracks naturally-occurring sinkholes and other ground collapses following a busted water main, development and groundwater pumping for crops.

In 2010, strawberry farmers in eastern Hillsborough County pumped water from the aquifer onto their crops during cold weather so that the water would freeze on the crops, creating a layer of ice that protects the berries.

So much water was pumped that more than 65 sinkholes opened in the area and wells went dry.

"When they take water out of the ground it's like taking air out of a balloon," said Bill Fernandez, a Florida sinkhole repair expert. "When you suck water out of the ground, you change the hydrostatic pressure underground and that's what can cause sinkholes."

Arthur added that moving a lot of dirt around for development can also trigger sinkholes. On Sunday in Largo, a failure in a pipe in a mall's stormwater control system under the parking lot caused the ground to collapse.

"There are a lot of variables," said Arthur. "Sinkholes are naturally occurring. Regardless of human activity they would occur."

Demolition crews in Florida are hoping to get a better look at the sinkhole that swallowed a man after knocking down the remaining the structure above the hole. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez reports.

? 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/03/05/17199807-when-the-earth-opens-up-why-its-sinkhole-season-in-florida?lite

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Album Review: Atoms For Peace ? 'AMOK' - Impact Magazine

The label of ?supergroup? is a problematic one. Surely any band worth describing as ?super? (like my nan would) is surely a ?supergroup? regardless of who the members are. Atoms For Peace, the Thom Yorke initiated project ? originally arranged to play his solo effort The Eraser?live ? is both a ?supergroup,? in music-lingo terms as well as downright ?super.? The liner notes of AMOK?reads as a list of some the most integral musicians of the modern era: Flea, Nigel Godrich, Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco as well as the Radiohead frontman. Not all of these names are familiar; however, if the works of Elliot Smith, REM, David Byrne, Beck or Brian Eno strike a chord, you can be sure these guys had something to do with it.

The usual worry of any collaboration like this is so often the egos involved. The finished project tends to be a compromised mishmash of two very distinct but distant styles; notably, the Jack White/Alison Mosshart mediocre-fest of The Dead Weather. There is a sense on AMOK that Yorke always had control. In Radiohead, his fellow band members would describe Yorke as the Unites States in the band?s United Nations, i.e. he gets his way. That dynamic seems in play here too. Flea, though a monumental musician, must have leased creative control to the time-tested pairing of Yorke and Godrich. Perhaps this is why AMOK feels like such a natural progression from their last non-Radiohead project of The Eraser.

And like The Eraser, AMOK blurs the line between synthetic sound and live instruments. The polyrhythms that result are some of Yorke?s most layered; his thin guitar lines contrast with Flea?s deep, rolling bass lines creating a satisfying jam. There is never the sense that either of their styles have been compromised. This is clearest on the album?s keystone track ?Stuck Together Pieces? in which Flea?s bass groove cascades down every bar of the song. However, after such promising gigs in 2010, the beats do seem a little fixed and somewhat too synthetic unlike the gigs. The rhythms ? something of an obsession for Thom Yorke ? are brittle, quick and repetitive to provide a solid bedding for Yorke?s falsetto. The lack of tempo change within songs suggests he perhaps limited Refosco and Waronker too much.

Likewise, Yorke has not experimented with the lower register of his voice in ways he has shown us before in tracks such as ?Skip Divided? from The Eraser. He sticks to his signature lilt and beautiful as it may be, after forty-five minutes I?m craving his mean side ? the one you?d see in ?Myxomatosis? or ?A Wolf At The Door.? Nonetheless, his voice on AMOK is his UPS and his vocalised anxiety in, say, the singles ?Default? and ?Judge, Jury and Executioner? do remind me exactly why I love his singing; it?d probably be a little churlish to expect more.

There is a lot more of Godrich?s synth-work to be found in some of the most layered tracks such as album?s eponymous track and ?Before your Very Eyes.? In some ways the multitude of beats seems like a ?wall-of-sound,? but without the intimidating baggage a wall-of-sound usually entails. I expect the more I listen to this album, the more hidden synths lines, auxiliary drums, or discreet vocals I?m likely to find. Finding these gems never gets boring.

This album, like much of Yorke?s work, will retain much interest for a long while. My main worry is this: when the band plays these songs live, with the energy of Yorke, Flea et al., how tame does the album risk looking? It is devoid of much of the melancholia of his Radiohead work; he?s cut loose and having a little more fun. Perhaps, the instrumentals, too, could cut loose, be less rigid and a little more jammier. In spite of this, AMOK lives up to the expectations that only Thom Yorke, Godrich and Flea could create.

Jeremy Dobson

?Jeremy is listening to Van Morrison ? ?It?s Too Late To Stop Now??

Source: http://www.impactnottingham.com/2013/03/atoms-for-peace-amok/

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The California agriculture industry wants to make sure immigration reform mistak...

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HSBC net profits drop by 17 percent

LONDON (AP) ? The HSBC banking group said Monday its full-year net profits dropped by 17 percent in 2012 but remained high at $13.5 billion as its Asian business continued to perform well.

The figures reflect HSBC's nearly $2 billion in fines paid to settle a money-laundering case brought by U.S. officials that dealt with drug money from Mexico. The net profit was also hurt by an accounting loss on the value of the bank's own debt.

The bank says its "underlying profit" before tax ? a measure that does not count one-time charges ? totaled $16.4 billion, an 18 percent increase over 2011, when it had booked heavier on-time charges on bad loans.

Group Chief Executive Stuart Gulliver said the bank has made important progress and is performing well. The bank increased its dividend payout by 10 percent for the full year compared with 2011.

The global banking group earns roughly 90 percent of its revenue outside of Britain and has done well in growing Asian markets.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2013-03-04-Britain-Earns-HSBC/id-0753b128f244421eb297c8947ad1eb5c

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PFT: Flacco's cap number low in '13? |? 'Fitting' deal

AP

Instead of devoting nearly $15 million to quarterback Joe Flacco as the non-exclusive franchise player (and risking losing him) or more than $19 million as the exclusive franchise player, the new deal signed by Flacco counts for only $6.8 million against the 2013 salary cap.

Which means that the Ravens have much more flexibility when it comes to keeping or signing other players.

?I know we have a lot of good players on the team, and I love to play with those guys so hopefully it works out very good for the organization and we can keep as many people as we need,? Flacco said Monday, via the Baltimore Sun.? ?That?s all I really know. . . .? When you get to a point where you?re happy with it, then it?s all about saying, ?All right I?m good.?? Now let?s take care of the rest of the guys.?

So what do the Ravens do?

They don?t have many unrestricted free agents, but nearly all of them are big names.? Linebacker Paul Kruger, linebacker Dannell Ellerbe, cornerback Cary Williams, tackle Bryant McKinnie, and defensive tackle Ma?ake Kemoeatu are all unrestricted.

The restricted free agents are tight end Dennis Pitta, tight end Ed Dickson, and defensive lineman Arthur Jones.? Keeping each of them for another year will be less expensive, and it will come with the ability to match any offers received elsewhere.? (Besides, the restricted free agent market has dried up in recent years.)

It could be harder to keep the unrestricted free agents.? Safety Ed Reed has said he wants to stay, but he?s going to want to be paid.? Before he?ll take whatever the Ravens will offer, he?ll need to see what else is out there, like Ray Lewis did four years ago.? (And there continues to be a belief that the Pats and coach Bill Belichick will make a play for Reed.)

As to the two linebackers and Williams, there?s a growing belief that former Ravens defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano will come after one or more of them, given that Pagano?s current team, the Colts, has more than $40 million in cap space.

In the end, the Ravens may decide that, even though the Flacco deal gives them plenty of cap space, it?s not worth overspending.? If the Ravens decide to hold their cap space, they can carry it over to 2014 and beyond.

Actually, that could be the best option.? Given that Flacco?s cap number shoots to $29 million in 2016, it?s smarter to bank it for the future than to waste it now on players who want more than they objectively deserve.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/03/04/flaccos-cap-numbers-stay-low-in-2013-and-2014/related/

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Alleged press shots out LG Optimus F5 as Verizon's mid-range Lucid 2

About a week ago, we went hands-on with LG's new mid-range LTE-capable Optimus F5 and F7 smartphones at MWC. At the time it was unknown where these handsets would land in the US, but it appears that we now have the goods on the former. According to a pair of alleged press shots obtained by UnwiredView, LG's F5 will be showing up on Verizon in the not so distant future. Said to be a follow up to last year's Lucid, this mid-tier device's main bullet points include a modest 4.3-inch qHD display, a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera (capable of 1080p video capture) and Android 4.1.2. Sure, the Lucid 2's specs remind us more of a keyboard shortcut and less of a powerful storm -- we just hope that its price tag will also be a refresh. If so, that should make this device a considerable option for first-time smartphone buyers looking to make the jump to LTE.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

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Source: UnwiredView

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/M8fNdv2Slyw/

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You Can Safely Ignore The First Ad For ... - Business Insider

Samsung recently posted a teaser video for the Galaxy S 4, as it gears up to launch its new flagship phone later this month.?

We first spotted the clip over on The Verge.

The video features a young boy who receives a "top secret" package. When he opens it, his eyes light up, and then he excitedly runs home with it.

As Aaron Souppouris of The Verge notes, it's "frustratingly bad."?

Check out the teaser below.

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/you-can-safely-ignore-the-first-ad-for-samsungs-new-phone-2013-3

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Web searches eyed at NY cannibalism-plot trial

FILE- In this Feb. 25, 2013, courtroom sketch, former New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, second right, is seated at federal court in New York. An FBI agent says a New York police officer accused of conspiring with others on the Internet to kill and eat women was cooperative and willing to help the agency catch dangerous people on the Internet, not just those role playing, when he was arrested in October. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams, File)

FILE- In this Feb. 25, 2013, courtroom sketch, former New York City Police Officer Gilberto Valle, second right, is seated at federal court in New York. An FBI agent says a New York police officer accused of conspiring with others on the Internet to kill and eat women was cooperative and willing to help the agency catch dangerous people on the Internet, not just those role playing, when he was arrested in October. (AP Photo/Elizabeth Williams, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Jurors are seeing evidence that a New York City police officer surfed the Web for subjects like "eat her for dinner."

An FBI agent presented the evidence Monday at the cannibalism-plot trial of Officer Gilberto Valle (VAL'-ee).

Prosecutors allege the 28-year-old Valle wanted to abduct and eat women. The defense says it was all fantasy.

The government says Valle used his computer to look up "how to tie up a girl," ''human meet recipes" and other topics.

Earlier Monday, the judge barred prosecutors from showing gruesome photos of mutilated women. He said there was no proof Valle ever looked at the images.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-03-04-Police%20Officer-Cannibalism/id-205fd7cb5d9d4ebca4268bbf3fa68655

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Shirley MacLaine to return to 'Downton Abbey'

Carnival Films

Shirley MacLaine as Martha Levinson on "Downton Abbey."

By Anna Chan, TODAY

Get ready for another delightful war of words on ?Downton Abbey?!? Carnival Films and Masterpiece on PBS revealed Saturday that Shirley MacLaine is returning to the popular period drama for the season four finale. She?ll be reprising her role as Martha Levinson, mother of Lady Cora.

MacLaine made her ?Downton? debut in season three, when she traveled from America to attend Lady Mary?s wedding to Matthew Crawley at Downton. Her witty character provided a formidable foe for Maggie Smith?s Dowager Countess as the two women traded sharp barbs throughout MacLaine?s stint.

The news of the actress' return comes on the heels of confirmation that Siobhan Finneran, who plays the scheming maid O'Brien, will not be back next season. Masterpiece said that there door is open for Finneran's to come back.

In addition to Oscar winner MacLaine's return, season four will be introducing six new characters:

• Lord Gillingham, an old family friend of the Crawleys, played by Tom Cullen
• Green, a valet played by Nigel Harman
• Lady Shackleton, a friend of the Dowager Countess, played by Dame Harriett Walter
• The Duchess of Yeovil, played by Joanna David
• Charles Blake, an aristocrat, played by Julian Ovenden
• And an unnamed singing guest at the house to be played by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa

? ?Downton Abbey? has seen many great characters visit the house over the years and we couldn't be more thrilled to welcome the new faces that will be joining the regular cast of ?Downton? in series four,? executive producer Gareth Naeme said in a statement.

Added fellow exec producer Rebecca Eaton, ?The addition of these characters can only mean more delicious drama ? which is what Downton Abbey is all about.?

Carnival Films and Masterpiece on PBS also released a new photo from the season, featuring Lady Mary (Michelle Dockery) and her son with her husband, Matthew (Dan Stevens).? Though the child?s birth brought great joy to Downton in the season three finale, it was also marked by tragedy. As Matthew raced home to share the news of his son?s birth with the family, his vehicle was struck by another, leaving him dead on the side of the road.

Nick Briggs / Courtesy of Carnival Films

Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley on "Downton Abbey," season four.

?Downton Abbey? airs on Masterpiece on PBS.

What did you think of MacLaine's performance in season three? Are you excited she's back? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page!

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Source: http://theclicker.today.com/_news/2013/03/02/17158890-shirley-maclaine-to-return-to-downton-abbey-in-season-4?lite

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