Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Policy, discretion guide media sources probes

The screen on the phone console at the reception desk at The Associated Press Washington bureau, Monday, My 13, 2013. The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

The screen on the phone console at the reception desk at The Associated Press Washington bureau, Monday, My 13, 2013. The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

(AP) ? It was a rare moment in relations between the media and the government: In 2008, FBI Director Robert Mueller called the top editors at The New York Times and The Washington Post to apologize because the bureau had improperly obtained reporters' telephone records four years earlier.

The extraordinary call was an admission that the FBI's actions violated Justice Department policy about seeking journalists' phone records. But nothing about what the FBI did in 2004 appeared to run afoul of any law.

The Justice Department's latest effort to examine whom journalists are talking to ? the secret subpoena of Associated Press phone records from April and May of last year ? demonstrates how government investigators are guided more by policy and the judgments of high-ranking officials than by specific laws or, in this case, the need to satisfy an independent federal judge.

The AP case involves a criminal investigation into who gave information to the news cooperative's reporters about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. The AP's May 7, 2012, story attributed details of the operation to unnamed government officials.

The government informed the AP 10 days ago that it had secretly obtained records for 21 phone numbers, including those of the reporters on the bomb plot story. The department's guidelines, first drafted in the wake of Watergate-era government abuses, call for news organizations to be informed before investigators ask phone companies for records unless doing so would compromise the investigation.

Attorney General Eric Holder said the story was the result of "a very serious leak, a very grave leak." AP President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Pruitt called the gathering of phone records a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

New developments emerged Monday in another case that has led to the indictment of an official for revealing classified information. Federal prosecutors got a search warrant for the private emails of Fox News reporter James Rosen and used building security records at the State Department to track his movements as they sought to identify whom he had relied on for classified information in a story about North Korea.

The tension over balancing the government's duty to protect national security and the media's role as public watchdog is long-standing. Take away protections for reporters' confidential sources and "the people who know what's happening become fearful, and they will not come forward with information the public may find very valuable," said Lucy Dalglish, dean of the University of Maryland's journalism school. "It's a classic chilling effect."

But neither, said George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr, does the public want a world of free disclosure by government workers with no opportunity for the government to investigate. "It requires a very delicate balance. We wouldn't want either extreme," Kerr said.

One possibility for compromise is a long-discussed federal media shield law to go along with similar laws in most states. Even as President Barack Obama defended his administration's aggressive pursuit of leakers of government secrets, he also said Congress should consider a law that generally would protect journalists from government subpoenas and allow judges, in rare instances, to decide whether national security concerns trump press freedoms.

Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said they would introduce a new version of a media shield bill that Congress last considered four years ago.

The congressional proposals ? and there have been many over the years ? are partly a response to a 1972 Supreme Court ruling that nothing in the First Amendment protects reporters from being called to testify before grand juries. Justice Byron White's majority opinion scoffed at the idea that it would dry up confidential sources. He said Congress was free to give journalists, or "newsmen" in that era's parlance, additional protection under federal law. That case arose in the context of the government's pursuit of Black Panthers and also drug users in Kentucky.

But the 5-4 ruling in Branzburg v. Hayes also has bedeviled generations of prosecutors, media lawyers and judges because one of the five justices in the majority, Lewis Powell, wrote a concurring opinion that suggested that maybe the court's holding was not as absolute as it sounded. Powell said courts would consider the competing claims of prosecutors and journalists case by case, and called judges to strike "a proper balance between freedom of the press and the obligation of all citizens to give relevant testimony with respect to criminal conduct."

At the time, Justice Potter Stewart charitably referred to Powell's opinion as "enigmatic" and hoped that it would lead to "a more flexible view in the future."

Last year, Judge Albert Diaz, a member of a federal appeals court panel that is weighing an effort to compel a reporter's testimony in an investigation of unauthorized disclosure, called the 1972 ruling "clear as mud." The panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., has yet to rule on the attempt by New York Times journalist James Risen to avoid testifying at the trial of former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling. Sterling is accused of leaking classified information about a botched covert operation in Iran.

Earlier, U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, the trial judge handling Sterling's case, sided with Risen, saying, "A criminal trial subpoena is not a free pass for the government to rifle through a reporter's notebook."

Other courts, though, recently have rejected journalists' attempts to quash subpoenas for their testimony.

The rules governing how the government seeks other information such as emails haven't kept up with the pace of technology. When it comes to electronic records held by Internet service providers, technology companies and credit card companies, the rules "are not as strict as they are for news media telephone toll records," said Alan Butler, appellate advocacy counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.

The wide sweep of the subpoena ? across AP bureaus in Washington, New York and Hartford, Conn. ? and the lack of advance warning make the government's approach look "more like a dragnet" than the narrowly drafted request the Justice Department guidelines say is required, Dalglish said.

University of Chicago law professor Geoffrey Stone said Justice Department officials are aware that the broader they cast the net, the more questions they will face. "They reached as far as they did because it was the only way to get the information they needed," Stone said.

As for the lack of notice, he said, it was at least plausible to believe that the authorities "really want to catch this guy who leaked really bad information, from their perspective. They didn't want to do anything to scare him off."

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/89ae8247abe8493fae24405546e9a1aa/Article_2013-05-21-US-AP-Phone-Records-Legal-Landscape/id-54a3adafa64545fd8292ef8e00c60a2b

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Monday, May 20, 2013

Cannes helps actors Bejo and Rahim cross borders

CANNES, France (AP) ? The magic and glamour of Cannes can be hard to spot on a day when rain is lashing the palm trees, roiling the gray Mediterranean and pooling in puddles along the Croisette.

But the world's leading film festival can transform careers ? something no one knows that better than actors Berenice Bejo and Tahar Rahim, stars of director Asghar Farhadi's festival entry "The Past."

Bejo shimmered on-screen in Cannes two years ago in "The Artist," her director husband Michel Hazanavicius' vivacious silent homage to Hollywood's Golden Age. It went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture.

Rahim was the breakout star of the 2009 festival in Jacques Audiard's poetic and brutal prison drama "A Prophet," as a youth growing to manhood behind bars.

Cannes exposure helped boost both performers onto the international stage. While once most European actors could choose between stay at home and playing Hollywood villains, their paths suggest a more globalized movie world.

"It was quite a miracle for me," Bejo said Saturday, as rain drummed remorselessly on a Cannes rooftop lounge. "Two years ago my life changed a little bit in Cannes.

"I don't think Asghar Farhadi would have cast me in this movie if I hadn't done 'The Artist.'"

It's hard to think of two movie styles further apart than the flamboyant artifice of "The Artist" and the anatomically detailed domestic drama of "The Past"

Bejo plays Marie, a harried Frenchwoman with two children, a new boyfriend with a young son, and an Iranian ex who has returned after four years to finalize their divorce. Rahim is her boyfriend Samir, a man with complex family ties of his own.

All the characters are trying to move on ? but the past keeps dragging them back.

Bejo said she did a screen test for Farhadi, then didn't hear from him for a month, so initially thought she hadn't got the part.

"He said to me, I was looking into your face if I could see the doubt," she said. "I guess because he saw me in movies where I was quite positive, quite sunny, quite glamorous. He needed to see if I could show another part of myself ? and I guess he found it."

For Bejo, as for Rahim, working with the Iran director was a dream come true. "The Past" is the first film Farhadi has shot outside his homeland, and the actors say they loved his working methods ? two months of rehearsal to delve into character, break down barriers and forge bonds, followed by a four-month shoot.

With its Iranian director and largely French cast, it's one of several border-hopping movies at Cannes this year. French director Arnaud Desplechin's made-in-America "Jimmy P.: Psychotherapy of a Plains Indian" stars France's Mathieu Amalric and Puerto Rican actor Benicio Del Toro. Another French filmmaker, Guillaume Canet, has a multinational cast including Clive Owen, Billy Crudup and Marion Cotillard in his New York crime drama "Blood Ties."

It's a trend Bejo is happy to embrace.

"In America you have Christoph Waltz, you have Marion Cotillard," she said. "In France we have Italian and Spanish actors. ... I think it's great. We are used to strangers and foreign accents, and it's great that we can see that in our movies now."

Both she and Rahim have been busy since their Cannes breakthroughs. Bejo recently made French heist movie "The Last Diamond" and soon starts filming Hazanavicius' next project, a war movie set in Chechnya.

Rahim's projects include the English-language Roman-era adventure "The Eagle" and another movie appearing at Cannes this year, the nuclear power plant romance "Grand Central."

Coming up, he plays a cop in the French movie "The Informant," and is currently shooting a globe-spanning 1920s-set drama with Turkish-German director Fatih Akin, another pillar of culture-crossing cinema.

Despite the busy international career ? and post-"Prophet" expressions of interest from the United States ? Rahim says Hollywood remains a hard nut to crack for non-Anglophone actors.

"It's not what you expect at first," Rahim said. "You'd like to be with Michael Mann or (directors) like this, but you don't have those parts that easily. Because first you have to speak English, you have to erase your accent."

For now, he's just happy to be back in Cannes, an experience that is easier the second time around.

"The difference is that now I'm not afraid when I come here," he said. "I'm (saying) 'OK I'm going to take every good vibe and keep it.'"

___

Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cannes-helps-actors-bejo-rahim-cross-borders-165726670.html

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Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $1.1 billion cash deal

Yahoo to acquire Tumblr in $11 billion cash deal

That cat's out of the bag a day early, it seems. Yahoo's board has approved a $1.1 billion cash deal to purchase the blogging site Tumblr, according to The Wall Street Journal. We were expecting Yahoo to announce the acquisition during tomorrow's NYC media event -- CEO Marissa Mayer may instead use the last-minute gathering to detail the company's plans for integrating the popular platform. It's unclear how Yahoo intends to utilize its latest procurement, but with a 10-figure price tag now public, we can only imagine that Tumblr will be put to good use. We'll be covering tomorrow afternoon's event live, so stay tuned for more details from New York City.

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Source: Wall Street Journal (Twitter)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/19/yahoo-to-acquire-tumblr/?utm_medium=feed&utm_source=Feed_Classic&utm_campaign=Engadget

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Dennis Rodman to Kim Jong-un: 'Do me a solid' and free Kenneth Bae (+video)

US basketball star Dennis Rodman recently hung out with North Korea's leader Kim Jong-un - now he's tweeted a request?that the American sentenced to 15 years' hard labor be released.

By Ryan Lenora Brown,?Correspondent / May 9, 2013

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un (l.) and former NBA star Dennis Rodman watch North Korean and US players in an exhibition basketball game at an arena in Pyongyang, North Korea, in February. Rodman is tapping his friendship with Kim Jong-un when he tweeted a request 'to do me a solid' and free Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American man detained in the North.

Jason Mojica/VICE Media/AP/File

Enlarge

When Dennis Rodman spent a week touring North Korea in February, he had nothing but glowing words for the country?s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Skip to next paragraph Ryan Lenora Brown

Correspondent

Ryan Brown edits the Africa Monitor blog and contributes to the national and international news desks of the Monitor. She is a former Fulbright fellow to South Africa and holds a degree in history from Duke University.?

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?Guess what? I love him,? he told reporters. ?He?s really awesome.?

But now the basketball diplomat is testing his friendship with the young Kim by asking the leader to release an American sentenced last week to 15 years of hard labor for ?hostile acts? against the North Korean regime.

?I?m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea, or as I call him, ?Kim,? to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose,? Mr. Rodman tweeted Tuesday.?

The missive came in response to a Seattle Times opinion piece last week, in which writer Thanh Tan called on Rodman to put his goodwill with Pyongyang on the line for Mr. Bae, a tour operator arrested in November on murky charges.

Perhaps now is the time for the NBA has-been to practice some real basketball diplomacy and call up his so-called friend for a favor: Grant American detainee Kenneth Bae amnesty and release him to his family?.

Bae is being used as a political pawn by a desperate despot who happened to?gallivant around the country with Rodman?in March. Perhaps now is the retired player?s chance to use his notoriety for something other than to over-inflate his ego.

Rodman apparently got the message.

?In direct response to your article headline, 'Ok.' Read your story @uscthanhtan, and I decided to help,? he tweeted.

And while Twitter is an admittedly feeble platform for diplomacy, it?s not out of the question that Kim will see the tweet. After all, the North Korean government has an active ? if bizarre ? Twitter presence itself, putting out an erratic blast of messages about American imperialism and the ?victory and glory? of the Kim regime.

But even if Kim gets Rodman?s message, will he understand it? After all, ?do me a solid? isn?t exactly a phrase that translates easily.

Washington Post blogger Max Fisher writes that the closest Korean equivalent of the colloquialism would be the somewhat menacing (at least to American ears) phrase, ?Look at my face and release Kenneth Bae.?

?Look at my face,? he writes, ?is a Korean expression that?s like a special, for-friends-only version of ?do me a favor.??

Whether Kim will look at Rodman?s face ? double nose ring and all ? remains to be seen, but Americans favored by North Korea have helped coax the regime to release American prisoners in the past.

In 2009, for instance, former President Bill Clinton visited Pyongyang and shortly after the visit then-Dear Leader Kim Jong-il pardoned two American journalists who were being held in the country. In total, six Americans ? including Bae ? have been held by the North Korean government since 2009, the Monitor reported. The other five were all released.

Rodman?s February visit to North Korea ? along with the friendship tour of Google Chairman Eric Schmidt in January ? was initially hailed by some Western observers as a sign that the young Kim might be more interested in opening his country to the rest of the world than his father and grandfather had been.

However, analysts say there have been no fundamental changes to the regime?s posture since then. If anything, interaction with Western celebrities puts the regime in a more powerful position because it can claim new geopolitical cache.?

?Ultimately, they [North Korea] come out ahead because they can portray it as the world coming to pay tribute, or at least to be there,? Aidan Foster-Carter, a Korean expert, told the Monitor in March.

Indeed, as the state-run Korean Central News Agency (as well as Western outlets) reported during Rodman?s trip, the basketball player was an enthusiastic tourist, visiting a greatest hits list of Kim-related sites.?

Rodman and his cohort "paid high tribute to Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il before their statues. They entered the halls where Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il lie in state and paid homage to them,? a press release announced. ?They made an entry in the visitor's book.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/231i8YePVWE/Dennis-Rodman-to-Kim-Jong-un-Do-me-a-solid-and-free-Kenneth-Bae-video

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Monday, May 13, 2013

Non-inherited mutations account for many heart defects

May 12, 2013 ? New mutations that are absent in parents but appear in their offspring account for at least 10% of severe congenital heart disease, reveals a massive genomics study led, in part, by researchers at the Yale School of Medicine.

The analysis of all the genes of more than 1800 individuals found hundreds of mutations that can cause congenital heart disease, the most common form of birth defect that afflicts nearly 1% of all newborns. In particular, the study found frequent mutations in genes that modify histones, proteins that package DNA in the nucleus and orchestrate the timing and activation of genes crucial to development of the fetus.

The results of the study, part of the Pediatric Cardiac Genomics Consortium funded by the NIH's National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), were published online May 12 in the journal Nature.

"These findings provide new insight into the causes of this common congenital disease," said Richard Lifton, Sterling Professor and chair of the Department of Genetics, investigator for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a senior author of the paper. "Most interestingly, the set of genes mutated in congenital heart disease unexpectedly overlapped with genes and pathways mutated in autism. These findings suggest there may be common pathways that underlie a wide range of common congenital diseases."

"This is an important piece of the puzzle that gives us a clearer picture of the causes of congenital heart disease," said Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., director of the NHLBI. "What this international, multi-center collaborative research effort was able to accomplish, in a small amount of time, is truly remarkable. The state-of-the-art sequencing techniques that were used are allowing us to push the envelope and envision a day when we may be able to better treat and eventually prevent congenital heart disease in the early stages of heart formation."

The mutations can occur at the same site, and both increase and decrease the modification histone proteins, said Martina Brueckner, professor of pediatrics and genetics at Yale and another senior author of the study. The results suggest a very sensitive developmental system that might also be influenced by environmental factors in development.

"These findings point to fundamental mechanisms that play a role in a wide range of congenital diseases," Lifton said.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/health_medicine/heart_disease/~3/SrbtmWyEZRs/130512141210.htm

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Sunday, May 12, 2013

Environmental Review to Delay Two Engineered Crops

[unable to retrieve full-text content]The Agriculture Department said approval of the crops might affect the environment and human health.
    


Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/11/business/energy-environment/environmental-review-to-delay-two-engineered-crops.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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HBT: MLB admits umps erred? |? Hands out ban

Another day, another official statement from MLB admitting that umpires did something wrong.

This time it?s about the weird moment in last night?s Astros-Angels game in which seemingly everyone involved except for Mike Scioscia forgot what was presumably a pretty well-known rule about a pitcher having to face at least one batter before a change can be made.

Astros manager Bo Porter tried to swap out pitchers before a batter had been faced and the umpiring crew allowed it, which led to Scioscia rightfully freaking out ? and nothing happening. After the game Porter?s explanation made it very clear he didn?t understand the rule and that?s pretty shocking for a big-league manager, but of course the responsibility for making sure the rules are actually followed falls on the umpires.

MLB?s statement/press release that was just sent out says the rule regarding pitching changes was ?not applied correctly? and they?re reviewing the situation further. Ultimately the Angels came back to win, so Scioscia playing the game under protest meant even less than usual, but when combined with Angel Hernandez?s botched home run replay call this has been a rough week for MLB and their umpires.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/10/mlb-admits-the-umpires-screwed-up-again-last-night/related/

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HP Pavilion M6-1148CA


The HP Pavilion M6-1148CA ($599.99), available in Canada, is a well-rounded Windows 8-equipped laptop that marries a sleek aesthetic with several useful niceties like a large display, full-size keyboard, and roomy hard drive. Although its AMD APU is often outperformed by the Intel-equipped competition, the Pavilion M6-1148CA's decent feature set, and reasonable price tag partially acquit it of this otherwise major flaw. For the average user who occasionally edits photos or home movies, though, it's worth checking out, even if it isn't the best option.

Design and Features
Measuring 1 by 14.9 by 9.8 inches (HWD), the Pavilion M6-1148CA isn't exactly a petite laptop, but its svelte profile helps reduce unnecessary bulk. Moreover, its weight of 5.02 pounds is relatively light for its size and lighter than competing laptops of equal-size, like the HP Pavilion G6-2368CA (5.08 pounds) and Lenovo IdeaPad N581 (5.71 pounds). Although its underside is a standard black plastic affair, a handsome brushed aluminum finish on the system's lid and palmrest add a touch of panache to the Pavilion M6-1148CA's overall aesthetic.

The Pavilion M6-1148CA's 15.6-inch display has a maximum resolution of 1,366 by 768 is sufficient of supporting 720P content, a useful feature for movie buffs given the fact that the Pavilion M6-1148CA features a tray-loading DVD burner. Outside of movies, the display is easy on the eyes, and its glossy coating lends itself to bright colors and crisp text. The Pavilion M6-1148CA's speakers and integrated subwoofer, meanwhile, are housed in a horizontal grille directly above the keyboard and sport the familiar Beats by Dr. Dre logo. Although "Beats Audio technology" is often marketed as a groundbreaking auditory experience, in practice it's just a control panel that features volume boost and an equalizer. Not to say that the Pavilion M6-1148CA's speakers are disappointing: at maximum volume, Radiohead's "Idioteque" sounded crisp and distortion-free and was loud enough to fill a medium-sized room. The much-hyped bass, however, wasn't as nearly as pronounced as I had hoped.

The Pavilion M6-1148CA's raised tile keyboard offers plenty of space for your hands and even includes a dedicated alphanumeric keypad. Although its keystrokes are somewhat shallow, it's not enough to pose an ergonomic issue when typing a lengthy email or term paper. The absence of backlighting is a regrettable shortcoming that's sure to frustrate users who prefer to work in dimly lit environments. The Pavilion M6-1148CA's touch pad sports a smooth finish and its fluid support for the usual bevy of Windows 8-specific gesture controls, which allows users to intuitively navigate through Microsoft's latest operating system despite the absence of a touchscreen.

The I/O port selection is solid on the Pavilion M6-1148CA, thanks to its generous offering of three USB 3.0 ports, which is more than either the Lenovo Ideapad N581 (two USB 3.0 ports) and the Samsung Series 3 NP300E5E-A05CA (no USB 3.0 ports). Two of these USB 3.0 ports can be found on the left side of the system alongside full-size HDMI and VGA outputs, Ethernet, and a headphone jack. The right side sports the system's sole USB 2.0 port, the third USB 3.0 port, and a tray-loading DVD burner. A memory card reader is located in the front of the system. At the same time, though, the Pavilion M6-1148CA's USB 3.0 ports are marked with tiny "SS" (super-speed) logos rather than the familiar blue color, which may confuse less observant users.

The Pavilion M6-1148CA's 750GB 5,400rpm hard drive offers ample storage space for your program files and media. It does, however, come with a hefty serving of preloaded software that must be waded through. It ranges from useful (Microsoft Office Starter 2010, CyberLink disc-burning suite) to delete-on-arrival bloatware (WildTangent Games, Microsoft Live Essentials 2011, links to eBay, Netflix). There's also a large amount of proprietary software by HP (Connected Music, CoolSense, Games, MyRoom, and so on) and trial software (60 days of Norton Internet Security). Accordingly, users who prefer starting with a clean slate should be prepared to devote an afternoon shoveling through the Pavilion M6-1148CA's preloaded software. HP covers the Pavilion M6-1148CA with a one-year warranty on parts and labor.

Performance
HP Pavilion M6-1148CA Although the Pavilion M6-1148CA's 1.9GHz AMD A8-4500 processor and 8GB RAM churned out respectable scores on our benchmark tests, it had difficulty holding its own against Intel-equipped competitors. Its PCMark 7 score of 1,654 points outperformed the AMD-equipped Pavilion G6-2368CA (1,319 points) but struggled to keep up with the Intel-based systems, like the Acer Aspire V5-571P-6627 (2,301 points).The Pavilion M6-1148CA's weaker processing speed was also apparent in our Cinebench R11.5 test, where its score of 1.73 points failed to keep pace with the Lenovo N581 (2.49 points) and the class-leading Series 3 NP300E5E-A05CA (3 points).

The Pavilion M6-1148CA performed more competitively in our multimedia tests. It completed our Handbrake video-encoding test in 2 minutes 3 seconds, putting it within striking distance of the Acer V5-571P-6627 (1:57). Similarly, it churned through the dozen or so filters in our Photoshop CS6 test in 7 minutes 38 seconds, or nearly equal to that of the Acer V5-571P-6627 (7:36) but nonetheless significantly short of the Lenovo N581 (5:34) and the top-performing Samsung Series 3 NP300E5E-A05CA (4:35). On the other hand, the Pavilion M6-1148CA landed at the bottom of the pile in 3DMark11, (986 points in Entry-level settings) and showed signs of struggle in keeping up with the rest, like the Lenovo N581 (1,234 points). Overall, the Pavilion M6-1148CA demonstrated a moderate capacity for media creation. You won't necessarily make a living as a graphic designer with it but can nonetheless still tinker with Photoshop effects and convert movie files.

One area where the Pavilion M6-1148CA performed on equal footing with its Intel-equipped competition was in our gaming test. In both Aliens Vs. Predator and Heaven benchmark tests, the Pavilion M6-1148CA, too, failed to cross the 30 frames-per-second playability barrier.

HP Pavilion M6-1148CA

The Pavilion M6-1148CA landed at bottom in our battery rundown test, where its removable 6-cell 2,800 mAh Li Ion battery lasted for 2 hours 23 minutes, or less than half as long as the class-leading Samsung Series 3 NP300E5E-A05CA (5:11. I If you're on the market for a system that can last an entire workday on a single charge, the Pavilion M6-1148CA probably isn't the way to go. At the very least, however, it gives you the option of using a spare battery.

Despite its less-than-robust processing power, the HP Pavilion M6-1148CA's good feature set helps make it a well-rounded choice. For the average user who occasionally edits photos or home movies, it's worth checking out. At the same time, however, it's not the best choice in this price range and prospective purchasers should accordingly explore other options before making a final decision.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/mA8h2IPeYgM/0,2817,2418812,00.asp

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Pakistan marks democratic milestone in close-fought election

By John Chalmers and Michael Georgy

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan goes to the polls on Saturday for an election that will bring the first transition between civilian governments, but the milestone's significance may be lost on some voters who have lost faith in politics after years of corruption and misrule.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

THREAT OF ATTACKS

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Many Pakistanis still plan to vote despite the bloodshed.

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

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

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-marks-democratic-milestone-close-fought-election-190346455.html

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Saturday, May 11, 2013

Uncle: Marathon bombing suspect buried in Virginia

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev smiles after accepting the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a police shootout, was buried in an undisclosed location outside the city of Worcester, police said Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

FILE - In this Feb. 17, 2010, photo, Tamerlan Tsarnaev smiles after accepting the trophy for winning the 2010 New England Golden Gloves Championship in Lowell, Mass. Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a police shootout, was buried in an undisclosed location outside the city of Worcester, police said Thursday, May 9, 2013. (AP Photo/The Lowell Sun, Julia Malakie, File) MANDATORY CREDIT

(AP) ? Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Virginia with the help of a faith coalition, his uncle said Friday.

The secret burial this week ended a frustrating search for a community willing to take the body, which had been kept at a funeral parlor in Worcester, Mass., as cemeteries in Massachusetts and several other states refused to accept the remains.

Tsarnaev was killed April 19 in a getaway attempt after a gunbattle with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, was captured later and remains in custody.

The Tsarnaevs' uncle, Ruslan Tsarni of Maryland, took responsibility for arranging the burial after Tamerlan's wife, Katherine Russell, said she wanted the body released to her in-laws.

Tsarni said Tsarnaev was buried in a cemetery in Doswell, Va., near Richmond, though he would not say more about the faith coalition that helped.

"The body's buried. That's it," he said.

With costs to protect the funeral home mounting, Worcester police earlier appealed for help finding a place to bury Tsarnaev. They announced Thursday that "as a result of our public appeal for help, a courageous and compassionate individual came forward to provide the assistance needed to properly bury the deceased."

Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at a hospital in Boston, where he could have been buried under state law, because the city was his place of death. But Boston officials said they wouldn't take the body because Tsarnaev lived in Cambridge, and Cambridge also refused.

His mother also said Russia refused to allow his body into the country so she could bury him in her native Dagestan, but Russian authorities would not comment on that contention.

___

Lavoie reported from Boston.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-10-US-Boston-Marathon-Explosions/id-b4fc0408533149ab9566102761035978

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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

World stocks rise as investors cheer US jobs data

BANGKOK (AP) ? World stock markets rose Monday after an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report pushed Wall Street to new highs. Malaysian shares jumped after the country's ruling political alliance won national elections.

The Dow Jones industrial average and the Standard & Poor's 500 index both rose to record highs Friday after the Labor Department reported that U.S. employers added 165,000 workers last month and many more in February and March than previously estimated. The unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, which was the lowest level in four years.

The report counterbalanced weeks of mixed signals about manufacturing and corporate earnings and renewed hopes of a recovery in the world's largest economy.

"Markets just came back to life, helped by that strong reading from U.S. nonfarm payrolls. That number completely obliterated expectations," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 0.9 percent to 6,521.46. Germany's DAX was 0.1 percent higher at 8,133.68. France's CAC-40 was nearly unchanged at 3,912.64. Wall Street appeared headed for yet more gains, with Dow futures rising 0.1 percent to 14,919. S&P 500 futures rose 0.1 percent at 1,610.10.

In Asia, Malaysia's KLSE Composite surged 3.4 percent to 1,752.02 after the country's governing coalition won national elections, albeit with a weakened majority, to extend its unbroken, 56-year rule.

"We will likely see the (government) pay greater attention to fiscal consolidation after the string of populist handouts in the run-up to elections," analysts at Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a commentary.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 22,915.09. Australia's S&P/ASX advanced 0.5 percent to 5,156.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia also rose, while the Philippines fell. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 1,962.25. Japan's stock market was closed for a public holiday.

Surging copper prices helped companies involved in producing the widely used industrial metal. Australia's OZ Minerals surged 9.5 percent. Hong Kong-listed Jiangxi Copper rose 5.2 percent. Australia's BHP Billiton, the world's largest mining company, rose 2.8 percent.

Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 63 cents to $96.24 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.62 to close at $95.61 a barrel on the Nymex on Friday.

In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3107 from $1.3110 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 99.35 yen from 99.04 yen.

___

Follow Pamela Sampson on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pamelasampson

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/world-stocks-rise-investors-cheer-us-jobs-data-091200130.html

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