Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Texas woman set to be 500th execution in state

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) ? Texas, the nation's busiest death penalty state, is set to mark a solemn moment in criminal justice Wednesday with the execution of convicted killer Kimberly McCarthy.

If McCarthy is put to death in Huntsville as planned, she would become the 500th person executed in Texas since the state resumed carrying out the death penalty in 1982. The 52-year-old also would be the first woman executed in the U.S. since 2010.

McCarthy's attorney, Maurie Levin, said she has exhausted all efforts to block the execution, after denials by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

"If there was something to appeal, I would," said Levin.

Texas has carried out nearly 40 percent of the more than 1,300 executions in U.S. since the Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. The state's standing stems from its size as the nation's second most populous state as well as its tradition of tough justice for killers.

With increased debate in recent years over wrongful convictions, some states have halted the practice entirely. However, 32 states have the death penalty on the books. Still, it's clear the debate over capital punishment has touched Texas, with lawmakers providing more sentencing options for juries and courts narrowing the cases for which death can be sought.

McCarthy faces execution for the 1997 robbery, beating and fatal stabbing of retired college psychology professor Dorothy Booth. Booth had agreed to give McCarthy a cup of sugar before she was attacked with a butcher knife at her home in Lancaster, about 15 miles south of Dallas. Authorities say McCarthy cut off Booth's finger to remove her wedding ring.

Police also had linked two other slayings to McCarthy, a former nursing home therapist who became addicted to crack cocaine.

In her appeals, McCarthy contended prosecutors improperly excluded black jurors and that her lawyers failed to challenge the moves at trial or in early appeals. McCarthy is black, and Booth was white. All but one of the 12 jurors at McCarthy's trial were white.

In January, McCarthy had been moved to a small holding cell a few steps from the Texas death chamber when a Dallas judge moved her execution to April. That timing then was reset for June when Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said he wanted to await the outcome of capital punishment-related bills before lawmakers in Austin.

On Tuesday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals declined to reconsider its denial a day earlier of McCarthy's appeal, saying her claims should have been raised previously.

Levin, a University of Texas law professor, said because the court's ruling focused on a procedural and not a substantive issue, the case cannot be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"The shameful errors that plague Ms. McCarthy's case ? race bias, ineffective counsel and courts unwilling to exercise meaningful oversight of the system ? reflect problems that are central to the administration of the death penalty as a whole. For this to be the emblem of Texas' 500th execution is something all Texans should be ashamed of," Levin said.

McCarthy declined to speak with reporters as her execution date neared.

Anti-death penalty groups planned to protest outside the Walls Unit in Huntsville, where McCarthy is set to receive a lethal injection Wednesday evening.

"The whole world is looking at Texas," said Gloria Rubac, with the Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement in Houston.

McCarthy would be the 13th woman nationwide and the fourth in Texas put to death since 1976. In the same period, more than 1,300 men have been executed nationwide, 496 of them in Texas. Virginia is a distant second, nearly 400 executions behind.

Federal statistics show that over the past three decades women account for about 10 percent of convicted murderers. According to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, there were 63 women on death row in the U.S. as of Jan. 1, representing 2 percent of the nation's 3,125 condemned prisoners.

Prosecutors showed that McCarthy stole Booth's Mercedes and drove to Dallas, pawned the wedding ring she had removed from the woman's severed finger for $200 and then went to a crack house to buy cocaine. Evidence also showed she used Booth's credit cards at a liquor store.

Booth's DNA was found on a 10-inch butcher knife recovered from McCarthy's home.

McCarthy blamed the crime on two drug dealers, but there was no evidence either existed.

Blood DNA evidence also tied McCarthy to the December 1988 slayings of 81-year-old Maggie Harding and 85-year-old Jettie Lucas. Harding was stabbed and beaten with a meat tenderizer, while Lucas was beaten with both sides of a claw hammer and stabbed.

McCarthy, who denied any involvement in the attacks, was indicted but not tried for those slayings.

McCarthy is a former wife of Aaron Michaels, founder of the New Black Panther Party, and he testified on her behalf. They had separated before Booth's slaying.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano at http://www.twitter.com/juanlozano70.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/texas-woman-set-500th-execution-state-073800079.html

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Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Flu shot effective regardless of circulating flu strain, research finds

June 25, 2013 ? New research out of St. Michael's Hospital has found that despite popular belief, the flu shot is effective in preventing the flu, even if the virus going around does not match the vaccine.

"It's quite common for people to say they are not going to get the flu shot this year because they've heard it does not match the strain of flu going around," said Dr. Andrea Tricco, the lead author of the paper and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital. "However, we've found that individuals will be protected regardless of whether the flu strain is a match or not."

The review of the literature analyzed more than 40 years of data, from 1971 to 2011, and included 47 influenza seasons and almost 95,000 healthy people.

Dr. Tricco and colleagues were particularly interested in flu seasons when the flu vaccines were not matched well to circulating strains. They wanted to understand whether the flu vaccines would still be effective when the strains were not a match.

Vaccines work by giving the body an inactive, or non-infective, form of the flu virus so that the body can produce antibodies. When an individual comes into contact with the virus in the future, the body can use the natural antibodies it has created to fight it off.

The study looked at the two most popular vaccine formulations in Canada -- Trivalent inactive vaccine for adults and live-attenuated influenza vaccine for children. They found that both vaccines provided significant protection against matched (ranging from 65 per cent to 83 per cent effectiveness) and mismatched (ranging from 52 per cent to 54 per cent effectiveness) flu strains.

The paper was published online in the journal BMC Medicine today.

"Looking at matches and mismatches can be a difficult process because it's not a yes or no variable," Dr. Tricco said. "Often we're looking at the degree of match between a flu strain and what's included in a vaccine because strains drift from year to year."

Dr. Tricco said that the study's results are mainly applicable to the seasonal flu in otherwise healthy children and adults.

The study was funded by GlaxoSmithKline.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/hgD7CR0J29Q/130625162235.htm

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HSBC considers quitting Iraq by selling Dar Es Salaam bank stake

DUBAI (Reuters) - HSBC Holdings said on Tuesday it is considering selling its majority stake in Dar Es Salaam Investment Bank , which has made it the main international lender in Iraq.

There has been speculation in the Iraqi banking market about the 70.1 percent holding for some time and Simon Cooper, HSBC's chief executive for the Middle East and North Africa, told reporters in April its presence in Iraq was under review.

"Following a strategic review, it was decided to explore options for the disposal of HSBC's shareholding in DES (Dar Es Salaam)" the lender said in a regulatory filing in London, adding it would not participate in a proposed capital increase for DES.

As part of a three-year global restructuring, HSBC has cut retail banking business in some Middle Eastern nations and merged its operations in Oman with a local bank. It has also scaled back its Islamic banking operations.

Selling its DES stake could be complicated by the domination of Iraq's banking sector by two state-owned lenders - Rafidain and Rashid - with the rest divided among a large number of small players.

Iraq's security and political problems have put many global lenders off operating in the country, despite the agreed potential of its emerging banking system.

However, Standard Chartered has said it hopes to open branches in the country this year and Citigroup Inc said on Monday it would open a representative office in Baghdad.

Some Middle Eastern lenders have operations in Iraq, including Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank and Qatar National Bank . Lebanon's Bank Audi said it would launch in Iraq in 2013.

DES, which focuses on corporate and consumer banking and has 14 branches in Iraq, has had a partnership with HSBC since October 2005.

Speculation that HSBC might pull out of Iraq had been fed by the absence of its name on a $1.35 billion initial share sale of telecom firm Asiacell in January, a deal in which it had been due to be a bookrunner.

(Reporting by Brenton Cordeiro in Bangalore; Writing by David French in Dubai; Editing by Ruth Pitchford)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hsbc-considers-quitting-iraq-selling-dar-es-salaam-104812809.html

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Taliban attack presidential palace in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? The Taliban say they have hit one of the most secure areas of the Afghan capital with a suicide attack, as a series of explosion rocked the gate leading into the presidential palace.

Smoke rose from the eastern gate of the palace early Tuesday after more than a half dozen explosions and at least 45 minutes of on-and-off small arms fire.

The Taliban sent a quick text-message statement saying "we brought death to the enemy."

The palace is in a large fortified area of downtown Kabul that also includes the U.S. Embassy and the headquarters for the NATO-led coalition forces.

Reporters gathering for an event with President Hamid Karzai counted at least seven or eight explosions starting about 6:30 a.m.

Police had no immediate comment.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/taliban-attack-presidential-palace-afghanistan-030026459.html

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Sony Xperia Z Ultra hands-on

Xperia ZU.

Sony enters the big leagues with a 6.44-inch screen and the latest Snapdragon 800 CPU

Sony hasn't always found itself ahead of the technological curve when it comes to smartphone internals. Often it's lagged a generation of so behind the competition, giving the likes of HTC and Samsung the first shot at releasing phones running the latest mobile chips. Yet here we sit with one of the very first Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 devices, and above its ginormous screen sits a Sony logo.

Say hello to the Xperia Z Ultra.

read more

    


Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/pGkvonLmrpA/story01.htm

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OUYA hits retailers for $100, promptly sells out at Amazon

DNP Ouya officially launched

OUYA has unlocked a major achievement today: the teensy crowdfunded gaming console is now available at retail, after a slight delay from the June 4th date it promised earlier. That's good news for everybody, except perhaps some of the original Kickstarter backers who've still not received their consoles -- though founder Julie Uhrman said the firm is "working overtime" to resolve that issue. As for the retail OUYA package (which has had most of its flaws ironed out since we first saw it), it'll come with the game console, controller, an HDMI cable and batteries for $100, with extra controllers running $50. It's already sold out at Amazon, but you can also seek it out online or in person at Best Buy, GameStop, Target or GAME. If you're still undecided, make sure to read about our hands-on experience with the device.

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Source: Kickstarter

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/25/ouya-retail-launch/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Soccer-China sack coach Camacho after costly spell

June 24 (Reuters) - Spanish coach Jose Antonio Camacho has been sacked by China after a dismal and expensive two-year spell in charge, the CFA said on Monday.

The former Real Madrid and Spain coach oversaw three home friendly defeats in June, including an embarrassing 5-1 thrashing by Thailand, and suffered an early exit in World Cup qualifying last year.

"Having consulted with related parties and informed coach Camacho, the authority made a primary decision of terminating the cooperation with the Spaniard," the Chinese Football Association (CFA) said in a statement carried by the state news agency Xinhua.

"Details are yet to be negotiated with Camacho. The seeking for his successor has been initiated."

Appointed in Aug. 2011, Camacho lost 11 of his 20 matches in charge of the national team, including a record 8-0 defeat by Brazil in September.

His bid to help China qualify for only a second World Cup finals ended early last year when his side were beaten to one of the 10 places in the fourth round of Asian qualifiers by Jordan and Iraq.

The team also slumped to a record low of 109 in the FIFA rankings last March with fans long calling for his removal.

Xinhua said Camacho was on a reported 2.8 million euros ($3.68 million) a year salary and would receive a pay off of around 3 million euros after cutting short his contract just over a year early.

China take on South Korea, Australia and Japan in the East Asian Cup in July before resuming their qualification bid to reach the 2015 Asian Cup later in the year.

($1 = 0.7612 euros) (Reporting by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; Editing by John O'Brien)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/soccer-china-sack-coach-camacho-costly-spell-075627550.html

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Saturday, June 22, 2013

G2Reader


When Google announced it would flip the death switch on Google Reader on July 1, I furiously scoured the RSS feed reader scene to find the best replacement service available. Not long after I landed on G2Reader (free), the search was over. I continued my search, testing several more options, but none ticked all the boxes G2Reader did.

G2Reader is a Web-based RSS feed reader that requires little more than an email and password signup. A big selling point for me is that you can import your Google Reader feeds from the Google Takeout data (for instructions on how to get it, see Get Organized:?Get Off Google Reader). Some other services require you connect them directly to your Google account, which won't work after Google shuts down Reader and didn't necessarily feel very secure to me, especially when an unknown company with no privacy policy or terms of service is behind the app. Maybe that sounds far-fetched, but it was in fact my experience with both Feedly and FeedsBundle.

G2Reader very closely resembles Google Reader in layout and function, although the design is much more stylized than Google Reader's ever was. It's smart and clean, yet simple.

Upon importing data from Google Reader (which you can do via the file called subscriptions.xml that comes in your Google Takeout data), G2Reader keeps all your feed organization intact, so you don't have to muck around moving feeds back into folders and such. G2Reader brought over my Google Alerts, too, and they appear to be updating. That's huge. We'll see if they continue to update correctly after July 1, but for the time being, G2Reader was the only RSS feed reader that correctly imported and implemented my Google Alerts.

One of my favorite features in G2Reader is you can save a list of key words that the app will always highlight for you in the posts that show up in your feed. There's even an API key for your feeds, should you want to do a little programming to extend what your G2Reader feeds can do for you and where you access them.

And, perhaps most impressive of all, G2Reader is available in seven languages: English, Spanish, French, Mandarin (Taiwan/traditional), Russian, Czech, and Slovak. I have friends all over the world who often ask me for software recommendations, and while plenty of them speak and read in English, it's not always their language of choice. Kudos to the tiny G2Reader team for making the app accessible to as many global users as possible.

G2Reader even has some sharing capabilities built in, although not to the extent of The Old Reader, which mimic's Google Reader pre-2011, with the ability to follow other users and be followed in turn. In G2Reader, you can click to open any post to tweet, share on Facebook, or post the link to the post on Google+. If you're looking for real social features, sign up for The Old Reader. It's nearly as impressive as G2Reader in other capacities, too.

There's really only one qualm[a qualm is a doubt the user might have, not a flaw in the app] that might affect whether you think as highly as G2Reader as I do. Updates can lag a little. If you use an RSS reader to monitor breaking news, the latency issue could make G2Reader a no-go. But if, like me, you use it to keep an eye on overall trends or to follow blogs more casually, the speed at which it delivers content isn't a serious issue.

If you're more of a DIY person, definitely explore Commafeed, a source for building your own RSS feed reader that you can host yourself. It's very good, except a little sluggish. We also looked at?TinyTiny RSS, an open-source platform for building your own private RSS feed reader, but found it painfully slow.

G2Reader doesn't have any mobile apps just yet, although according to the team, an Android app is underway. That's a great sign. I'm happy to see a small and dedicated team expanding its service because it gives me hope that other improvements (like speed) could be on the way, too. G2Reader is my new RSS feed reader of choice and an Editors' Choice here at PCMag.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/KyoRXopw3PU/0,2817,2420820,00.asp

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Tokyo court says Samsung infringed Apple 'bounce-back' patent

By Nobuhiro Kubo

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Tokyo court ruled on Friday that Samsung Electronics Co Ltd had infringed rival Apple Inc's patent for a so-called bounce-back feature on earlier models of its popular smartphones.

Samsung and Apple, the world's top two smartphone makers, are fighting patent disputes across the globe as they compete to dominate the lucrative mobile market and win customers with their latest gadgets.

Apple claimed that Samsung had copied the feature, in which icons on its smartphones and tablets quiver back when users scroll to the end of an electronic document. Samsung has already changed its interface on recent models to show a blue line at the end of documents.

The Japanese court's decision comes after the U.S. Patent and Trademark office judged earlier this year that Apple's bounce-back patent was invalid, allowing older Samsung models that had a similar feature to remain on sale.

However, the U.S. agency subsequently decided that several aspects of the bounce-back feature were actually patentable, according to documents filed by Apple in U.S. court last week.

(Additional reporting by Dan Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Richard Chang)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tokyo-court-says-samsung-infringed-apple-bounce-back-050406105.html

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Saturday, June 8, 2013

Activists brave heat to demonstrate outside presidential summit

RANCHO MIRAGE, CALIF. - Demonstrators endured near-record breaking temperatures Friday to catch a glimpse of a presidential motorcade.

Protestors were largely self-segregated into distinct groups: Vietnamese immigrants, Taiwanese immigrants and Falun Dafa followers, a religion outlawed in China. Protests were mostly peaceful, but took on a circus-like atmosphere when Tibetan protestors streaked along Bob Hope Drive. Vietnamese residents from Orange County, Calif. carpooled to the summit site to defend Vietnamese fisherman they said were killed by Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.

Demonstrators held posters, flags, microphones and banners with their messages for both presidents.

Several dozen Tibetan immigrations were outside the grounds from San Francisco, eight of whom carried a larger than life iron statue of a self-immolating monk.

Protesters mostly stayed huddled under the shade of tents or umbrellas they brought, and even though the presidents had already arrived at Sunnylands, excitement built and demonstrators fanned out along the barrier when unmarked vans, black SUVs and California Highway Patrol motorcycle teams passed by.

The local Starbucks at a nearby Vons became an air-conditioned spot of refuge for protesters who had been out in the sun and heat for hours on end.

Among the sea of protesters were a couple Americans eager to see a president they supported.

"It's a chance to see history," resident Adrianna Menoni said.

Obama landed in Palm Springs, but there was one hiccup.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/social-round-activists-brave-114-degree-heat-demonstrate-013717578.html

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Friday, June 7, 2013

Alpine lakes reflect climate change

June 6, 2013 ? Increases in temperature as a result of climate change are mirrored in lake waters where temperatures are also on the rise. A new study, by Dr. Martin Dokulil, retired researcher from the Institute for Limnology at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, forecasts surface water temperatures in large Austrian lakes for 2050 and discusses the impact on the lakes' structure, function and water quality.

The research is published online in Springer's journal Hydrobiologia.

Austria has a multitude of lakes varying widely in type, size, flushing, altitude and geographic location. Most of these lakes are important ecosystems and are sensitive to environmental changes. Surface water temperature is directly affected by climate change and is an essential aspect for recreation on the lakes by tourists, particularly during the summer season.

Dokulil analyzed long-term data records for air temperature and surface water temperatures dating back to the mid-1960s from the Austrian Hydrological Yearbooks. The nine large lakes studied, in or bordering Austria, were situated in different climatic zones. From these data, Dokulil was able to project temperature trends for the lakes' surface waters and predict temperatures for 2050.

His work suggests that lake surface temperatures are likely to rise by up to 3oC in Austrian lakes by 2050 depending on the region, as a direct result of climate change.

Dr. Dokulil concludes: "The predicted changes in surface water temperatures will affect the thermal characteristics of the lakes. Warmer water temperatures could lead to enhanced nutrient loads and affect water quality by promoting algal blooms and impairing the biological functions of aquatic organisms. Significant increases in summer temperatures will also affect the carbon cycling in lakes, with potential consequences on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the Earth's climate."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Springer Science+Business Media, via AlphaGalileo.

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Journal Reference:

  1. Dokulil M. Predicting summer surface water temperatures for large Austrian lakes in 2050 under climate change scenarios. Hydrobiologia, 2013 DOI: 10.1007/s10705-013-1550-5

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/un_SxJleW78/130606110513.htm

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