For Vimeo, the David to YouTube's Goliath, the focus moving forward will be on creating and delivering mobile video, according to CEO Kerry Trainor. A big part of that future focus will come from Echograph, a GIF-making app that was recently acquired by Vimeo in a deal whose details weren't disclosed.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/0FJX6MSdsAA/
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Supreme Court justices Justice Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer virtually seethed with rage in their roundhouse denunciation of the High Court's denial of review to Bongani Charles Calhoun. The issue again was racial bias in the prosecution of Calhoun on drug charges in Texas. The U.S. Attorney that prosecuted Calhoun quipped during the trial that when you put African Americans and Hispanics in the same room with a bag of money, what else could they be doing but a drug deal or presumably some other criminal act.
The federal prosecutor couldn't let it go at that. When mildly challenged on his blatant racial stereotyping and even more blatant prejudicing of the jury, he piled on with the even dumber quip: "What does your common sense tell you that these people are doing in a hotel room with a bag full of money, cash? None of these people are Bill Gates or computer [magnates]? None of them are real estate investors."
Breyer and Sotomayor correctly called it what it was -- outrageous prosecutorial racial bias. Their colleagues didn't agree, and Calhoun's conviction stood. But Sotomayor and Breyer's rage at the bias simply pointed up what's long been noted in far too many federal cases, and in the action and behavior of far too many federal prosecutors. That's that some will routinely and very calculatingly pander to the overt or latent racial bigotry of some judges and jurors to get a conviction. They fully know that making overt pejorative racial statements, judgments and opinions about a black or Hispanic defendant are flatly forbidden. And in theory, anyway, are the basis for an appeal, and the possibility of having a conviction overturned. But that threat hasn't deterred some prosecutors from playing the race card to get a conviction, as Breyer and Sotomayor angrily noted.
Three years before the two judges' dissent in the Calhoun case, a panel of former federal prosecutors were disturbed enough at the antics of some of their former U.S. Attorney colleagues that they mapped out in tandem with the Brennan Justice Center a series of pointed guidelines to wring out racial bias, overt or sneaky, from the line of attack of prosecutors. Their recommendations included rigorous training and education in what can and can't be said in trials, tougher management and accountability, and better relations with minority communities. The former prosecutors were emphatic that because federal prosecutors have enormous power over what cases are brought, and when they are brought, and how they are prosecuted, they have a special duty and responsibility to be fair and unbiased. The problem with that is that many aren't and this has had devastating consequences in the criminal justice system. The main one being to pump wider the gaping racial disparity in convictions and sentencing, and ultimately who packs America's prisons.
A March 2009 report, "Racial and Ethnic Disparities in the U.S. Criminal Justice System", by the National Council on Crime and Delinquency, found that minorities, with the overwhelming majority of them being African Americans, represented 13 percent of the general population. But they made up nearly 40 percent of those incarcerated in federal prisons. The report made it clear that racial bias, either overt or subtle, by some prosecutors was a big reason for a significant number of those tried and convicted winding up behind bars for long stretches.
The Calhoun case also pointed to another glaring flaw in many federal prosecutions and that's the still prevalent racial disparity in drug prosecutions that have accounted for the explosion in the number of minorities behind federal bars during the last decade. This occurred despite the push by President Obama to purge the racial sentencing disparity from the drug laws.
The standard reasons given for criminalizing practically an entire generation of young blacks is that they are poor, crime-prone, which is pretty much what the prosecutor in the Calhoun case flatly said. Reports and studies by the Justice Department, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, as well as universities and foundations confirm that far more whites use and deal drugs including crack cocaine than blacks. Only a small percent of those sentenced to jail terms are major dealers.
The scapegoating of blacks for America's crime and drug problem actually began in the 1980s when much of the media quickly turned the drug problem into a black problem and played it up big in news stories and features. Many Americans scared stiff of the drug crisis readily gave their blessing to drug sweeps, random vehicle checks, marginally legal searches and seizures, evictions from housing projects and apartments. When it came to law enforcement practices in the ghettos and barrios, the denial of civil liberties protections, due process and privacy made a mockery of the criminal justice system to many blacks and Latinos.
The federal prosecutors that pander to race to get convictions don't help matters and reaffirm suspicions that prosecutorial bias is still alive and well in far too many prosecutions. Sotomayor and Breyer made that point, and a handful of former prosecutors have warned against its corrosive effects. But as the Calhoun case showed fingering prosecutors for racial bias alone won't make it go away.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson is an author and political analyst. He is a weekly co-host of the Al Sharpton Show on American Urban Radio Network. He is the author of How Obama Governed: The Year of Crisis and Challenge. He is an associate editor of New America Media. He is the host of the weekly Hutchinson Report on KPFK-Radio and the Pacifica Network, and KTYM Radio Los Angeles.
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Follow Earl Ofari Hutchinson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/earlhutchinson
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/earl-ofari-hutchinson/federal-prosecutors-racial-bias_b_2768820.html
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will meet with top congressional leaders on Friday to discuss the deep, automatic U.S. government spending cuts slated to go into effect that day, congressional aides said.
Obama is set to meet with Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, Democratic Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader.
"The meeting Friday is an opportunity for us to visit with the president about how we can all keep our commitment to reduce Washington spending," McConnell said in a statement.
"We can either secure those reductions more intelligently, or we can do it the president's way with across-the board cuts. But one thing Americans simply will not accept is another tax increase to replace spending reductions we already agreed to," he said.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Jeff Mason; Editing by Will Dunham)
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Feb. 26, 2013 ? Patients with severe depression show at least as good clinical benefit from 'low-intensity' interventions, such as self help books and interactive websites, as less severely ill patients, according to new research by The University of Manchester.
Depression is a major cause of disability worldwide and effective management of this is a key challenge for health care systems.
The study, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), confirmed evidence that 'low-intensity' interventions provide significant clinical benefit. Initial severity of depression is one of the key variables determining who gets 'low' or 'high' intensity treatment, but this is largely based on epidemiological studies and clinical experience rather than high quality evidence.
Researchers from an international collaboration carrid out a meta-analysis of several studies involving 2470 patients with depression, all treated in a non-hospital setting. All studies were from the year 2000 or later with a sample size of more than 50 patients. The mean age in all studies was 35-45, and studies included patients with lower levels of depressive symptoms, as well as those with quite severe depression.
'Low-intensity' treatment was defined as interventions designed to help patients manage depressive symptoms such as self-help books or interactive websites, often with limited guidance and support from a health professional. Self-help groups were excluded.
The researchers found that patients with more severe depression at baseline derive "at least as good clinical benefit from 'low-intensity' interventions as less severely ill patients." They recommend including 'low-intensity' interventions in the first step of treating severely ill patients and encouraging the majority of patients to use them as the initial treatment option.
Professor Peter Bower, from The University of Manchester who led the research, said: "To better manage depression in the community, many services seek to provide simple forms of psychological therapy (so called 'low intensity' interventions) to depressed patients. We assessed whether more severely ill patients demonstrated better or worse treatment effects from 'low-intensity' treatments. We found no clinically meaningful differences in treatment effects between more and less severely ill patients receiving 'low-intensity' interventions. Patients with more severe depression can be offered 'low-intensity' treatments as part of a stepped care model."
The researchers also say that an important research question for the future is whether low-intensity treatments are cost-effective and if "initial experience with low intensity interventions could act as a barrier to further treatment."
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FILE - In this photo taken Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, in court in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Even if Pistorius is acquitted of murder, firearms and legal experts in South Africa believe that, by his own account, the star violated basic gun-handling regulations by shooting into a closed door without knowing who was behind it, exposing himself to the lesser but still serious charge of culpable homicide. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
FILE - In this photo taken Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 Olympic athlete, Oscar Pistorius, in court in Pretoria, South Africa, for his bail hearing charged with the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. Even if Pistorius is acquitted of murder, firearms and legal experts in South Africa believe that, by his own account, the star violated basic gun-handling regulations by shooting into a closed door without knowing who was behind it, exposing himself to the lesser but still serious charge of culpable homicide. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe, File)
FILE - in this photo taken Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa. Even if Pistorius is acquitted of murder, firearms and legal experts in South Africa believe that, by his own account, the star violated basic gun-handling regulations by shooting into a closed door without knowing who was behind it, exposing himself to the lesser but still serious charge of culpable homicide. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe-File)
FILE - In this photo taken Friday, Feb. 22, 2013 Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius stands in the dock during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa. Even if Pistorius is acquitted of murder, firearms and legal experts in South Africa believe that, by his own account, the star violated basic gun-handling regulations by shooting into a closed door without knowing who was behind it, exposing himself to the lesser but still serious charge of culpable homicide. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe-File)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? The substance found in Oscar Pistorius' bedroom after the shooting death of his girlfriend was identified by his representatives Wednesday as Testis compositum ? an herbal remedy they said is used for "muscle recovery." A product by that name also is sold as a sexual enhancer.
Testis compositum is marketed by some online retailers in both oral and injectable forms as a testosterone booster and sexual performance aid that contains the testicles, heart and embryo of pigs, among other ingredients. Some online retailers also say it can be used to treat fatigue.
At the Paralympian's bail hearing last week in the shooting death of Reeva Steenkamp, police said they found needles in Pistorius' bedroom along with the substance, which a detective initially named in court as testosterone. Prosecutors later withdrew that statement identifying the substance and said it had been sent for lab tests and couldn't be named until those tests were completed.
Pistorius spokeswoman Lunice Johnston said in an email to The Associated Press that the athlete's lawyers had confirmed that the substance is Testis compositum.
In the email, Johnston wrote that the product was being used "in aid of muscle recovery." She did not say whether the substance was the same as the product that is sold as a sex enhancer.
In court, Pistorius defense lawyer Barry Roux said the substance was not banned by sports authorities.
The World Anti-Doping Agency said its science department had already been made aware of the substance and that it wasn't banned.
"It would appear to be a homeopathic treatment, and these treatments are not prohibited by the list," WADA said in a statement to the AP.
Arne Ljungqvist, chairman of the International Olympic Committee's medical commission, told the AP he had not heard of the product but that it sounded like "a real cocktail, all pointing in the same direction, namely having something to do with testosterone."
"This sounds to me like something that needs to be analyzed in order to make sure what it is," Ljungqvist said in a phone interview. "You cannot ban something simply on claims and names. It needs to be looked into. Even saying that it is testosterone boosting, it could contain some precursors. It needs to have some analysis."
Pieter Van Der Merwe, director of South Africa's Doping Control Laboratory in Bloemfontein, declined to comment on whether a sample from Pistorius had been sent to that laboratory for testing.
Pistorius was charged with premeditated murder in the Valentine's Day shooting death of Steenkamp. He says he shot her by accident after mistaking her for an intruder in his home. Prosecutors allege he intended to kill her.
Police took Pistorius for a medical examination when he was arrested on Feb. 14, which included blood-alcohol tests, they said. The substance found in his bedroom was also being tested by police, who haven't released results.
Pistorius, a multiple Paralympic champion, underwent two doping tests in London last year around the Paralympics, the International Paralympic Committee has said. He tested negative for any banned substances in both tests in August and September.
A product called Testis compositum is made by Biologische Heilmittel Heel GmbH, based in Baden-Baden, Germany. The company website says it is one of the world's leading makers of homeopathic combination medications.
A U.S. subsidiary, Heel USA Inc., advertises the product in tablet form only and spokeswoman Joan Sullivan said she didn't know if injectable versions are sold in other countries. Heel USA's website says the product provides temporary relief for men's "sexual weakness" and lack of stamina.
The U.S.-sold tablets contain 23 ingredients, including pig testicles, pig heart, pig embryo and pig adrenal gland, cortisone, ginseng and other botanicals. It also contains several minerals, according to a list Sullivan provided.
Charles Yesalis, a Penn State professor emeritus and expert on steroid use in sports, said animal steroids likely wouldn't have an athletic performance-enhancing effect unless taken in huge quantities. Even so, he said many elite athletes would be wary of using such supplements because they can be laced with banned substances and few would want to risk it.
The company website listed a South African subsidiary as ModHomCo (Pty) Ltd., based in Centurion, near Pretoria. That company couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
___
AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner in Chicago and AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson in London contributed to this report.
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CHICAGO (Reuters) - A powerful winter storm that buried the U.S. Plains moved on Tuesday into the southern Great Lakes region, where it snarled the evening commute in Chicago and Milwaukee, created near-whiteout conditions and forced hundreds of flight cancellations.
Wind gusts of up to 35 miles per hour (56 km per hour) hurled a potent blend of wet snow and sleet on north-central Illinois, southern Wisconsin and northern Indiana and Ohio, according to the National Weather Service.
More than 500 flights were canceled at Chicago's O'Hare International and Midway airports, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation. Those flights that managed to take off or land faced delays of up to an hour.
The Illinois Tollway agency, which maintains nearly 300 miles of highway around Chicago, deployed its fleet of more than 180 snowplows to keep the roads clear.
As the afternoon rush hour began in Chicago, blowing snow reduced visibility and created treacherous driving conditions, doubling average travel times in and out of the city on major expressways, according to Traffic.com.
The Wisconsin Department of Transportation warned that much of Interstate 94 between the Illinois state line and Milwaukee was ice covered.
In Chicago, the city's public school system, the third-largest school district in the country, canceled all after-school sporting events, including six state regional basketball games.
The snowstorm may have discouraged some voters in Chicago and its suburbs from voting in a special election primary to replace indicted Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., who resigned the seat in November citing health concerns.
Forecasters with the National Weather Service said the storm would continue to move eastward, dumping 3 to 5 inches of wet snow on Detroit overnight and into Wednesday morning.
It is then expected to move slowly into the Northeast, largely avoiding the cities of New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., but bringing snow to parts of New York state, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine, said Brian Korty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
"It's going to linger for a long time over portions of the Northeast," Korty said.
'POTPOURRI OF WINTRY WEATHER'
Parts of New York and Pennsylvania could get a "sloppy mix" of snow, ice and rain. Already, ice accumulations were causing sporadic power outages across higher terrains of western Maryland, eastern West Virginia and far western Virginia, said Erik Pindrock, a meteorologist with AccuWeather.
"It's a very multi-faceted storm," Pindrock said. "It's a whole potpourri of wintry weather."
In Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, where the storm hit earlier, residents were digging out.
Highways in the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles and parts of Kansas remained closed because of heavy and drifting snow.
Amarillo, Texas, saw 19 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday, the third-largest snowfall ever in that city, Pindrock said.
In Kansas, a woman died and three passengers were injured Monday night on Interstate 70 when their pickup truck rolled off the icy roadway in Ellis County, Kansas Governor Sam Brownback said. Earlier Monday, a man was killed when his car veered off the interstate in Sherman County near the Colorado border, he said.
"We urge everyone to avoid travel and be extremely cautious if you must be on the roads," said Ernest Garcia, superintendent of the Kansas Highway Patrol.
A 58-year-old man and his 69-year-old sister died from carbon monoxide poisoning in Kansas City, Kansas, from a gas generator being used in their home because they lost power Tuesday in the snowstorm, said Deputy Fire Chief Craig Duke.
In northern Oklahoma, one person died when the roof of a home partially collapsed in the city of Woodward, said Matt Lehenbauer, the city's emergency management director.
"We have roofs collapsing all over town," said Woodward Mayor Roscoe Hill Jr. "We really have a mess on our hands."
Kansas City, Missouri, was also hard hit by the storm, which left snowfalls of 7 to 13 inches in the metro region on Tuesday, said Chris Bowman, meteorologist for the National Weather Service. Another 1 to 3 inches is forecast for Tuesday evening and nearly two-thirds of the flights at Kansas City International Airport Tuesday afternoon were canceled.
In addition to the winter storm, National Weather Service forecasters on Tuesday issued tornado watches across central Florida and up the eastern coast to South Carolina.
(Reporting by Kevin Murphy in Missouri, David Bailey in Minneapolis, James B. Kelleher in Chicago and Corrie MacLaggan in Texas; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Barbara Goldberg, Nick Zieminski, Dan Grebler, Phil Berlowitz, Eric Walsh and Lisa Shumaker)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/storm-buried-plains-slams-great-lakes-region-025456755.html
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Chardon High School remembersChardon, Ohio?A few red ribbons, tattered by the elements, still hang on trees along the streets of Chardon, Ohio. To some people in town, the ribbons are a necessary reminder of a shooting spree at Chardon High School a year ago that left three students dead and three others injured.
On Tuesday, just a day shy of the one-year mark of the tragedy, T.J. Lane pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder and other charges in the Chardon shooting. Prosecutors say Lane fired 10 shots from a .22-caliber pistol at students milling in the school cafeteria the morning of Feb. 27, 2012.
After a year in which even deadlier mass shootings like those in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., grabbed headlines, it could be easy to overlook the tragedy that shook Chardon, a middle-class community of 5,000 residents about 30 miles east of Cleveland.
If there are lessons to be learned from the students at the high school and the broader community, it?s that the emotional damage leaves lasting scars and heavy hearts do not heal quickly.
Four adults have committed suicide in Chardon, and there have been more than a dozen attempted suicides among students since the shootings, a school official said. Counseling sessions and lessons on detecting warning signs that friends, classmates and colleagues might be suffering have become part of classroom curriculum.
Chardon High School principal Andy Fetchik tried to put an upbeat face on a grim year during a press conference last week.
?I can assure you, we?re getting better,? Fetchik said. ?There?s a lot to be done. We have a strong and compassionate community surrounding us, and we?re getting better every day.?
One-year mark
What began as a typical winter day in Chardon turned into a deadly rampage when shots rang out around 8 a.m. Lane, then a 17-year-old junior, aimed his gun at randomly targeted students, authorities said.
Students Vincent "Danny" Parmertor, Demetrius C. Hewlin and Russell D. King Jr. were killed in the attack. Students Nick Walczak, Joy Rickers and Nate Mueller were wounded.
Police captured Lane in a neighborhood near the high school. Under questioning, he reportedly admitted to shooting the students. Before the case went to adult court last year, a juvenile court judge ruled that Lane was mentally competent despite evidence he suffers from hallucinations, psychosis and fantasies. Because he was a minor when the attack occurred, the death penalty was not a consideration.
T.J. Lane enters court.
With his grandparents and family members of the victims in court on Tuesday, Lane changed his plea from not guilty by reason of insanity to guilty. Dressed in a green open-collared shirt with close-cropped hair, Lane answered "yes" or "yes, your honor" to questions from the judge about the plea agreement. After a background review is completed, Lane will return to court on March 19, when Geauga County Judge David Fuhry is scheduled to sentence him.
Lane's attorney, Ian Friedman, said the teen had undergone psychiatric evaluation, but last week declined to discuss his client's emotional state and how he might reflect on the one-year mark.
?It?s a very delicate matter,? Friedman said. ?I don?t think it would be appropriate to comment on anything beyond where the case is procedurally.?
Geauga County Prosecutor James Flaiz did not return messages seeking comment on the case.
While a public trial could have shed light on the shooter?s motives, some community members say such details could have done greater emotional harm.
?There are very good lawyers in this case representing Lane and the prosecutor,? said Carmen Naso, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. ?And, ultimately, the judge is going to decide what happens to this kid.?
No celebration
During a media briefing last week, reporters were asked to refrain from referring to Feb. 27 as the ?anniversary? of the tragedy, which could imply a sort of celebration. Reporters were asked instead to refer to the day as a ?one-year mark.?
Chardon High School students and faculty planned to observe the day by embarking on service projects. Some were making care blankets, like those distributed by volunteers after the tragedy. Others were crafting leashes for comfort dogs, like those brought to the school in the days after the incident.
Students also planned to take a memorial walk from the high school to the village square and host a candlelight vigil and concert.
?Danny, Demetrius and Russell were our classmates,? said Chardon High School senior Will Porter. ?For a lot of us, they were our friends. They?ll never be forgotten, and we hope to honor them through this day.?
Senior Jessie Mysyk said the tragedy has inspired a strong sense of unity at the school.
?There's never a time when a student would feel alone,? she said. ?Within the school, we are a community. We're all friends. We are a family. ... We are together."
Senior Jill Allenby said the killings had pushed students to move beyond typical teenage grievances.
?We don?t have the normal kind of drama or high school cliques that everyone sees,? Allenby said. ?When you walk through the halls, you see everyone and everyone says hello.?
A memorial created for the boys killed in the attack on Feb. 27. 2012. (AP)
Must love kids, not guns
After the slaughter of 20 first-graders and six faculty members at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn., in December, the National Rifle Association suggested placing armed guards at schools and possibly training teachers to shoot as the best way to avert such a tragedy in the future.
While the idea of arming teachers has some support in Chardon, school superintendent Joseph Bergant II says it won't happen.
Bergant said it was fine for teachers to learn to use weapons in their private time. But permitting a teacher to carry a concealed gun, which is legal in Ohio, will not happen in Chardon, he said.
?That defeats our purpose,? Bergant said. ?Our purpose is to educate children in a safe, caring environment. ? We are not going to put bars on the school buildings. We are not going to put an iron dome over the top.?
Fetchik, the high school principal, agreed. The school now has an armed ?resource officer??a police officer whose salary is paid with funds from the local government and donations to the community after the shooting.
?I don?t want guns in school,? Fetchik said. ?I want a trained resource officer. ? That gentleman is prepared to deal with using that weapon, (and) not just pointing and pulling the trigger."
About the red ribbons
Red ribbon hangs on a tree in Chardon, Ohio.Gestures like hanging a ribbon on a tree still serve as a haunting reminder to many. Recently, the city has removed the frayed and faded ribbons from all public places and suggested community members follow suit.
The ribbons have been collected by the school district and will be given to the families of the boys who died, Chardon City Manager Randy Sharpe said.
Many people, he acknowledged, wish the ribbons could stay. ?But, the ones that are tired and dingy reflect poorly on the community,? Sharpe said.
Officials said the city is looking to create a permanent memorial to honor the victims, the schools and community?a process that may take another one to two years.
Chardon resident Jamie Ward is among those people ready to move on. He and his wife, Sandy, had just moved to town shortly before the tragedy and have since had a son, Peter, now 10 weeks old.
?For me, the one-year mark is hard,? said Ward as he held his young son. ?A year later, I don?t want Chardon to always be associated with such a thing."
(The Associated Press contributed information in this story.)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/high-school-mass-shooting-ohio-town-still-grieves-182122697.html
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BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria said Monday it is prepared to hold talks with the armed rebels bent on overthrowing President Bashar Assad, the clearest signal yet that the regime is growing increasingly nervous about its long-term prospects to hold onto power as opposition fighters make slow but persistent headway in the civil war.
The offer, by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem during a visit to Moscow, came hours before residents of Damascus and state-run TV reported a huge explosion and a series of smaller blasts in the capital, followed by heavy gunfire.
State-run news agency SANA said there were multiple casualties from the explosion, which it said was a suicide car bombing.
The proposal marked the first time that a high-ranking regime official has stated publicly that Damascus would be willing to meet with the armed opposition. But al-Moallem did not spell out whether rebels would first have to lay down their weapons before negotiations could begin ? a crucial sticking point in the past.
The regime's proposal is unlikely to lead to talks. The rebels battling the Syrian military have vowed to stop at nothing less than Assad's downfall and are unlikely to agree to sit down with a leader they accuse of mass atrocities.
But the timing of the proposal suggests the regime is warming to the idea of a settlement as it struggles to hold territory and claw back ground it has lost to the rebels in the nearly 2-year-old conflict.
Opposition fighters have scored several tactical victories in recent weeks, capturing the nation's largest hydroelectric dam and overtaking airbases in the northeast. In Damascus, they have advanced from their strongholds in the suburbs into neighborhoods in the northeast and southern rim of the capital, while peppering the center of the city with mortar rounds for days.
Monday night's explosion struck about 800 yards (meters) from Abbasid Square, a landmark plaza in central Damascus. It was followed by several other smaller blast thought to be mortar shells landing in various districts of the capital. The blasts and subsequent gunfire caused panic among residents who hid in their apartments.
On Thursday, a car bomb near the ruling Baath Party headquarters in Damascus killed at least 53 people, according to state media.
While the momentum appears to be shifting in the rebels' direction, the regime's grip on Damascus remains firm, and Assad's fall is far from imminent.
Still, Monday's offer to negotiate with the armed opposition ? those whom Assad referred to only in January as "murderous criminals" and refused to talk with ? reflects the regime's realization that in the long run, its chances of keeping its grip on power are slim.
Asked about al-Moallem's remarks, U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the offer of talks was a positive step "in the context of them raining Scuds down on their own civilians." But he expressed caution about the seriousness of the offer.
"I don't know their motivations, other than to say they continue to rain down horrific attacks on their own people," Ventrell told reporters in Washington. "So that speaks pretty loudly and clearly."
If the Assad regime is serious, he said, it should inform the U.N. peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi of its readiness for talks. Ventrell said the regime hasn't done that yet.
Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute, said called the offer "a sign of weakness."
"I think everybody knows, including Bashar Assad, that they (the regime) can't hang onto the whole country," Tabler said.
Mustafa Alani, an analyst with the Gulf Research Center in Geneva, said the regime has "reached the conclusion that they are heading toward a major defeat eventually, and this is the right time to negotiate."
"They are not losing miles every day, but they are losing substantial ground every day. So the regime is not genuine (in its offer) because it has changed, it's genuine because it is responding to a major shift in the balance of power on the ground," he added.
Alani cautioned, however, that the regime is also eager to keep the idea of talks alive in order to forestall any Western decision on arming the rebels. As long as the possibility of negotiations is still on the table, the U.S. and the European Union ? which have so far provided only non-lethal aid ? will be reluctant to open the flood gates on weapons for the opposition, he said.
"The whole regime tactic is to delay supplying arms, to buy time," Alani said. "The regime can show good will. Whether they're a viable partner or not is a different story."
It's also unclear who exactly the regime would sit across from at the negotiating table.
The dozens of armed groups across Syria fall under no unified command and do not answer to the Syrian National Council, an umbrella group of opposition parties that the West recognizes as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
At least one group offered a lukewarm response Monday to al-Moallem's proposal.
The head of one group, Free Syrian Army chief Gen. Salim Idriss, said he is "ready to take part in dialogue within specific frameworks," but then rattled off conditions that the regime has rejected in the past.
"There needs to be a clear decision on the resignation of the head of the criminal gang, Bashar Assad, and for those who participated in the killing of the Syrian people to be put on trial," Idriss told pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Arabiya TV.
He said the government must agree to stop all kinds of violence and to hand over power, saying that "as rebels, this is our bottom line."
Syria's 23-month-old conflict, which has killed more than 70,000 people and destroyed many of the country's cities, has repeatedly confounded international efforts to bring the parties together to end the bloodshed. Russia, a close ally of Assad and his regime's chief international advocate, offered Feb. 20, in concert with the Arab League, to broker talks between the rebels and the government.
With the proposal, which the Kremlin would be unlikely to float publicly without first securing Damascus' word that it would indeed take part, Moscow ratcheted up the pressure on Syria to talk to the opposition.
Russia has shielded Assad's government from U.N. action and kept shipping weapons to the military, but it is growing increasingly difficult to protect the regime as the violence grinds on.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov repeated his call Monday for Syria to negotiate with the opposition, saying before meeting al-Moallem that "the situation in Syria is at a crossroads now." He also warned that further fighting could lead to "the breakup of the Syrian state."
Past government offers for talks with the opposition have included a host of conditions, such as demanding that the rebels first lay down their arms. Those proposals have been swiftly rejected by both activists outside Syria and rebels on the ground.
Both sides in the conflict in recent weeks have floated offers and counteroffers to hold talks on the crisis.
In a speech in January, Assad offered to lead a national dialogue to end the bloodshed, but said he would not talk with the armed opposition and vowed to keep fighting. The opposition rejected the proposal.
This month, the leader of the Syrian National Coalition, the umbrella group for opposition parties, said he would be open to discussions with the regime that could pave the way for Assad's departure, but that the government must first release tens of thousands of detainees. The government refused, and even members within the coalition balked at the idea of talks.
Speaking to reporters Monday in Cairo, SNC chief Mouaz al-Khatib accused the regime of procrastinating and said it had derailed his dialogue offer by not responding to the coalition's conditions.
"We are always open to initiatives that stop the killing and destruction, but the regime rejected the simplest of humanitarian conditions. We have asked that the regime start by releasing women prisoners and there was no response," he said. "This regime must understand that the Syrian people do not want it anymore."
The coalition also finds itself at odds with its Western backers, and has said it will boycott a conference in Rome that is to help drum up financial and political support for the opposition. The SNC suspended its participation in the Rome meeting because of the indifference of the West and the coalition's Arab allies over the regime's attacks on the Syrian people in Aleppo and other cities.
Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Coalition, said later Monday that the group has reversed its decision following a phone call between al-Khatib and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
Al-Bunni told Al-Arabiya TV the decision was made based on guarantees al-Khatib heard from western diplomats that the conference would be different this time. He did not elaborate.
Kerry on Monday urged rebel leaders not to skip the meeting and insisted that more help is on the way.
Kerry made a public plea at a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague and also called al-Khatib, leader of the Syrian Opposition Council, "to encourage him to come to Rome," a senior U.S. official said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter.
Meanwhile, the fighting inside Syria rages on.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group reported heavy clashes Monday near a police academy in Khan al-Asal just outside Aleppo.
Rebels backed by captured tanks launched an offensive on the facility Sunday. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said at least 13 rebels and five regime troops were killed.
In another part of Aleppo, rebels downed a military helicopter near the Mennegh airport, where there have been fierce clashes for months.
A video posted online by activists showed a missile being fired, a trail of white smoke and the aircraft going up in flames. Voices in the background shouted, "God is great!" as a man raised both hands in celebration.
The video appeared to be authentic and corresponded to other AP reporting.
___
Associated Press writers Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow, Albert Aji in Damascus, Zeina Karam in Beirut, Matthew Lee in London, Bradley Klapper in Washington and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syria-says-prepared-talk-armed-rebels-195253563.html
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The first lady named the Best Picture winner Sunday night. Michelle Obama announced the big award in a surprise appearance live from the White House at Sunday's Academy Awards, naming Hollywood hit "Argo" as Best Picture of the year.
"Argo," which was directed by Hollywood heartthrob Ben Affleck, reigned victorious Sunday night, bringing home three of the seven awards for which it was nominated, the most notable being Best Picture.
Argo, a film about a plan executed by the CIA to rescue six Americans trapped in Iran during the Carter-era hostage crisis, went head to head with other politically driven films such as "Lincoln" and "Zero Dark Thirty," but came out on top.
In her surprise appearance, Michelle Obama presented the award live from the Diplomatic Room of the White House.
During her announcement, Obama was shimmering in her silver Naeem Khan dress. Obama is a frequent costumer of the Indian-born, U.S. fashion designer and has often been spotted donning his pieces. Obama's most recent appearance wearing a Khan outfit was during the National Prayer Service last month when she wore a custom-made wool coat and dress.
Check Out Some More of Michelle Obama's Looks Here
The first lady spoke via satellite Sunday night and praised the films nominated by the Academy, saying, the movies "took us back in time and all around the world. They made us laugh. They made us weep and made us grip our armrests just a little tighter. They taught us that love can endure against all odds and transform our minds in the most surprising ways. And they reminded us that we can overcome any obstacle if we dig deep enough and fight hard enough and find the courage to believe in ourselves."
Affleck, the film's director, was not nominated in the Best Director category for "Argo," but he gladly accepted the Best Picture award, taking the stage to thank struggling Iranians and his wife, actress Jennifer Garner.
"I want to thank our friends in Iran living in a terrible circumstance right now," he said. "I want to thank my wife, who I don't normally associate with Iran, but I want to thank you for working on our marriage. ? It is work, but it's the best kind of work and there's no one I'd rather work with."
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App.net, the project that emerged from founder Dalton Caldwell's desire to build a social platform that wasn't driven by advertising, is adding its first free option today. Given Caldwell's emphasis on creating a product that people are actually willing to pay for, this might seem like a step backwards, or one of those infamous startup "pivots." However, Caldwell told me that this actually isn't a change of plans, and to back that up he pointed to his initial blog post announcing the project back in July. The post didn't explicitly say that that there are going to be both paid and free tiers, but the two positive examples of non-advertising companies that Caldwell cited are Dropbox and particularly Github, which both offer free services and then charge for additional features.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/Hj9BQ14NdDY/
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Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, right, and his sister Aimee, left, are driven to a relatives home in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Pistorius was released on bail and will return to court June, 4, 2013 to face charge a charge of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. (AP Photo/Nelius Rademan-FOTO24-Beeld) SOUTH AFRICA OUT NO SALES. NO ARCHIVE, ONLINE OUT MAGAZINES OUT INTERNET OUT TV OUT
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius, right, and his sister Aimee, left, are driven to a relatives home in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Pistorius was released on bail and will return to court June, 4, 2013 to face charge a charge of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend, Reeva Steenkamp. (AP Photo/Nelius Rademan-FOTO24-Beeld) SOUTH AFRICA OUT NO SALES. NO ARCHIVE, ONLINE OUT MAGAZINES OUT INTERNET OUT TV OUT
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius' uncle, Arnold Pistorius, speaks to journalists at the end of the bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Oscar Pistorius was granted bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday and will return to court June, 4, 2013 to face a charge of pre-meditated murder in the shooting death of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius' sister Aimee Pistorius looks on during his bail hearing at the magistrate court in Pretoria, South Africa, Friday, Feb. 22, 2013. Pistorius was granted bail in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court on Friday. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
El atleta Oscar Pistorius aparece parado en el tribunal durante la audiencia de fianza por el asesinato de su novia Reeva Steenkamp el viernes, 22 de febrero de 2013, en Pretoria, Sud?frica. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
Mike Steenkamp, the uncle of Reeva Steenkamp, centre, speaks to an unidentified man, holding a photo of Reeva, after her funeral in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2013. Olympic athlete Oscar Pistorius is charged with the premeditated murder of Steenkamp on Valentine's Day. The defense lawyer says it was an accidental shooting. (AP Photo/Schalk van Zuydam)
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Far from the courtroom drama that has gripped South Africa, the family of Oscar Pistorius' slain girlfriend has struggled with its own private deluge of grief, frustration and bewilderment.
The victim's relatives also harbor misgivings about efforts by the Olympian's family to reach out to them with condolences.
Pistorius, meanwhile, spent Saturday at his uncle's home in an affluent suburb of Pretoria, the South African capital, after a judge released him on bail following days of testimony that transfixed South Africa and much of the world. He was charged with premeditated murder in the shooting death of girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in the early hours of Valentine's Day, but the athlete says he killed her accidentally, opening fire after mistaking her for an intruder in his home.
"We are extremely thankful that Oscar is now home," his uncle, Arnold Pistorius, said in a statement that also acknowledged the law must run its course. "What happened has changed our lives irrevocably."
Mike Steenkamp, Reeva's uncle, told The Associated Press that the family of the double-amputee athlete initially did not send condolences or try to contact the bereaved parents, but had since sought to reach out in what he described as a poorly timed way. After Pistorius was released on bail in what amounted to a victory for the defense, Arnold Pistorius said the athlete's family was relieved but also in mourning "with the family" of Reeva Steenkamp.
"Everybody wants to jump up with joy," Mike Steenkamp said, speculating on the mood of Pistorius' family after the judge's decision. "I think it was just done in the wrong context, completely."
A South African newspaper, the Afrikaans-language Beeld, quoted the mother of Reeva Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model, law school graduate and participant in a television reality show, as saying the family had received a bouquet of flowers and a card from the Pistorius family.
"Yes, but what does it mean? Nothing," June Steenkamp said, according to the Saturday edition of Beeld. She also said Pistorius' family, including sister Aimee, a somber presence on the bench behind the Olympian during his court hearings in the past week, must be "devastated" and had done nothing wrong.
"They are not to blame," June Steenkamp said. According to Beeld, she said she had hoped to plan a wedding for her daughter one day.
In an affidavit, 26-year-old Oscar Pistorius said he was "absolutely mortified" by the death of "my beloved Reeva," and he frequently sobbed in court during the several days during which his bail application was considered. However, prosecutor Gerrie Nel, suggested in a scathing criticism that Pistorius was actually distraught because his vaunted career was now in peril and he was in grave trouble with the law.
"It doesn't matter how much money he has and how good his legal team is, he will have to live with his conscience if he allows his legal team to lie for him," Barry Steenkamp, Reeva's father, told Beeld .
"But if he is telling the truth, then perhaps I can forgive him one day," the father said. "If it didn't happen the way he said it did, he must suffer, and he will suffer ... only he knows."
Barry Steenkamp suffered "heavy trauma" at the loss of his daughter and his remarks to the newspaper partly reflect how he is working through it, said his brother, Mike Steenkamp.
Steenkamp was cremated in a funeral ceremony on Feb. 19 in her family's hometown of Port Elizabeth on South Africa's southern coast. Mike Steenkamp delivered a statement about the family's grief to television cameras, at one point breaking down in tears.
The three-story house where Pistorius is staying with his aunt and uncle lies on a hill with a view of Pretoria. It has a large swimming pool and an immaculate garden.
Pistorius was born without fibula bones due to a congenital defect and had his legs amputated at 11 months. He has run on carbon-fiber blades and was originally banned from competing against able-bodied peers because many argued that his blades gave him an unfair advantage. He was later cleared to compete. He is multiple Paralympic medalist, but he failed to win a medal at the London Olympics, where he ran in the 400 meters and on South Africa's 4x400 relay team.
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SEOUL, South Korea (AP) ? Even before she takes office Monday as South Korea's first female president, Park Geun-hye's campaign vow to soften Seoul's current hard-line approach to rival North Korea is being tested by Pyongyang's recent underground nuclear detonation.
Pyongyang, Washington, Beijing and Tokyo are all watching to see if Park, the daughter of a staunchly anti-communist dictator, pursues an ambitious engagement policy meant to ease five years of animosity on the divided peninsula or if she sticks with the tough stance of her fellow conservative predecessor, Lee Myung-bak.
Park's decision is important because it will likely set the tone of the larger diplomatic approach that Washington and others take in stalled efforts to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons ambitions.
It will also be complicated by North Korea's warning of unspecified "second and third measures of greater intensity," a threat that comes as Washington and others push for tightened U.N. sanctions as punishment for the Feb. 12 atomic test, the North's third since 2006.
That test is seen as another step toward North Korea's goal of building a bomb small enough to be mounted on a missile that can hit the United States. The explosion, which Pyongyang called a response to U.S. hostility, triggered global outrage.
Park has said she won't yet change her policy, which was built with the high probability of provocations from Pyongyang in mind. But some aren't sure if engagement can work, given North Korea's choice of "bombs over electricity," as American scientist Siegfried Hecker puts it.
"Normalization of relations, a peace treaty, access to energy and economic opportunities ? those things that come from choosing electricity over bombs and have the potential of lifting the North Korean people out of poverty and hardship ? will be made much more difficult, if not impossible, for at least the next five years," Hecker, a regular visitor to North Korea, said in a posting on the website of Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation.
As she takes office, however, Park will be mindful that many South Koreans are frustrated at the state of inter-Korean relations after the Lee government's five-year rule, which saw two nuclear tests, three long-range rocket launches and attacks blamed on North Korea that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010.
Park's policy calls for strong defense but also for efforts to build trust through aid shipments, reconciliation talks and the resumption of some large-scale economic initiatives as progress occurs on the nuclear issue. Park has also held out the possibility of a summit with new North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Much is riding on Park's conclusion.
"The overall policy direction on North Korea among the U.S., Japan and South Korea will be hers to decide," said Victor Cha, a former senior Asia adviser to President George W. Bush. "If Park Geun-hye wants to contain, the U.S. will support that. But if Park Geun-hye, months down the road, wants to engage, then the U.S. will go along with that too. "
Engagement by Park would provide a sharp contrast with the rule of her father, Park Chung-hee, whose antipathy toward Pyongyang during his 18-year rule in the 1960s and '70s prompted a failed attack on the Blue House by 31 North Korean commandos in 1968. In 1974, Park's wife was shot and killed by a Japan-born Korean claiming he was acting on assassination orders by North Korea founder and then leader Kim Il Sung.
Critics say Park Geun-hye's North Korea policy lacks specifics. They also question how far she can go given her conservative base's strong anti-Pyongyang sentiments.
But Park has previously confounded ideological expectations. She travelled to Pyongyang in 2002 and held private talks with the late Kim Jong Il, the father of Kim Jong Un, and her gifts to Kim Jong Il are showcased in a museum of gifts to the North Korean leaders. During the often contentious presidential campaign, she responded to liberal criticism by reaching out to the families of victims of her father's dictatorship.
She said in her 2007 autobiography that she visited Pyongyang because she thought her painful experiences with the North made her "the one who could resolve South-North relations better than anyone else." She also wrote that Kim Jong Il apologized for the 1968 attack.
"I don't think this latest spike in the cycle of provocation and response undermines her whole platform of seeking to somehow re-engage the North," said John Delury, an analyst at Seoul's Yonsei University. North Korea wants a return of large-scale aid and investment from South Korea.
Before the election, Pyongyang's state media repeatedly questioned the sincerity of Park's engagement overture. Since the election, however, although regular criticism of Lee as "human scum" continues, the North's official Korean Central News Agency hasn't mentioned Park by name, though her political party is still condemned.
Pyongyang sees the nuclear crisis as a U.S.-North Korea issue, Delury said. "From a North Korean mindset, ramping up the tension and hostility with the U.S. does not equal jettisoning relations with the South."
Park may take a wait-and-see stance in coming months.
A possible positive turning point could come if North Korea resists tests or launches during April, when it celebrates two state anniversaries ? Kim Il Sung's birthday and the army's founding anniversary ? according to analyst Hong Hyun-ik at the private Sejong Institute in South Korea. Pyongyang conducted a failed long-range rocket launch during last year's celebrations.
Hong predicts that the United States will seek nuclear talks with North Korea in a few months, something that could help Park's efforts to engage North Korea.
"The nuclear test sets back and complicates but does not necessarily doom her engagement efforts over the long term," said Ralph Cossa, president of Pacific Forum CSIS, a Hawaii-based think tank.
Park warned after the test that North Korea faces international isolation, economic difficulties and, eventually, a collapse if it continues to build its atomic program. She also pressed Pyongyang to respond to her overtures.
"We can't achieve trust with only one side's efforts. Isn't there a saying that 'We need both hands to make a clapping sound?'" she said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/skoreas-leader-faces-nkorea-nuke-crisis-050243531.html
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A robotic bat wing flapping in a university lab is providing researchers with a new appreciation for the wonders of nature and hints at a new generation of mini flapping planes to be deployed on reconnaissance missions.
The robot is modeled after the lesser dog-faced fruit bat and flaps while attached to instruments that measure the forces generated by various joints, allowing the Brown University researchers to calculate the energy required to execute wing movements.
"A lot of my interest in bat flight is in understanding how they fly and in particular how their wing motion influences their aerodynamic force generation," Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at the university who led the robotic bat project, told NBC News.
The problem is that studying wing motion in live bats is difficult since bats change several parameters at once depending whether they want to fly slower or faster, turn one way or another, or any other aerial maneuver.
"The solutionto that was to build a robotic bat wing that I can then systematically control the motion parameters," Bahlman said.
While detailed experimental results are forthcoming, a case-study experiment showed that by folding the robotic wing on the upstroke, as real bats do, the robot is able to increase net lift by 50 percent.
This type of data could aid the design of small flapping aircraft for recon missions. "Things that are a foot, foot and a half wingspan that you can send into places that aren't safe for people like abandoned mine shafts or to inspect weak spots around bridges," Bahlman said.
Building the robot, Balhman added in a news release, taught the team many lessons ?about how bats work from trying to duplicate them and having things go wrong.?
For example, the joint used to build the robot?s elbow kept ripping apart during test flights, forcing the researchers to wrap it steel cable similar to the way ligaments hold joints together in animals. Real bats, it turns out, have large muscles at the elbow that help prevent the joint for breaking.
Going forward, the team aims to test out different wing materials, aiming to optimize their design. For example, Bahlman told NBC News he wanted to compare a stretchy membrane like a live bat wing with a non-stretchy material. He suspects the stretchy skin of bat wings enhances flight performance.
"There are just tons of questions," he said. "This made for just a really powerful research tool."
If this research is ultimately paired with other bat-inspired technology, such as an echolocation-based navigation tool that recently allowed a blind college to ride a mountain bike, future robots will be quite batty indeed.
A paper describing the robot was published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.
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FILE - This Nov. 2, 2012 file photo shows Steven Tyler, left, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith on NBC's "Today" show in New York. Perry and Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight" during a June 13 ceremony in New York.(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This Nov. 2, 2012 file photo shows Steven Tyler, left, and Joe Perry of Aerosmith on NBC's "Today" show in New York. Perry and Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight" during a June 13 ceremony in New York.(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, file)
FILE - This Oct. 9, 2012 file photo shows Mick Jones at the "Led Zeppelin: Celebration Day" premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York. Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the Songwriters Hall of Fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight" during a June 13 ceremony in New York.(Photo by Dario Cantatore/Invision/AP, file)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ? The Songwriters Hall of Fame is saluting 1970s and '80s rock 'n' roll with its 2013 induction class.
Joe Perry and Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Mick Jones and Lou Gramm of Foreigner will join the hall of fame this year along with the writers of iconic rock hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Heartache Tonight." The ceremony will be held June 13 in New York.
Aerosmith and Foreigner will get the attention here, but inductees Holly Knight, JD Souther and Tony Hatch also have distinguished careers that helped define the sound of rock 'n' roll.
Knight wrote anthemic hits "Love Is a Battlefield" and "Invincible" for Pat Benatar and "The Warrior" for Patty Smyth. She also wrote several songs for Tina Turner, including "The Best" and "Better Be Good to Me," that became standards for the star.
Souther, who has a role on the music-inspired television show "Nashville," had a partnership with The Eagles that spawned several hits, including "Heartache Tonight," ''Victim of Love," ''New Kid in Town" and "Best of My Love."
Hatch made his mark during the British invasion, teaming with Petula Clark on hits like "Downtown" and "My Love" that helped shaped the future of pop music.
Perry and Tyler have survived a sometimes contentious relationship to become one of rock's most successful songwriting teams over the last 40 years. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, staples of classic rock radio and pop culture icons, are known for hits like "Sweet Emotion," ''Dream On" and "Livin' on the Edge," and released their 15th studio album last year.
Jones and Gramm are contemporaries of Perry and Tyler who also ruled radio for a time, but they sometimes came at it from a different angle. They could lay down a straight-up rocker like "Jukebox Hero" or "Feels Like the First Time." But they also could slow it down with hits like "I Wanna Know What Love Is" and "Cold as Ice" that helped foreshadow the ballad-driven rock of the late '80s.
___
Online:
http://songhall.org
___
Follow AP Music Writer Chris Talbott: http://twitter.com/Chris_Talbott .
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U.S. stocks continued a two-day slide Thursday on weak economic data and concern about the Federal Reserve's resolve to keep juicing the economy.
Signaling that the U.S. labor market remains in slow recovery mode, the government said more people applied for unemployment benefits last week. The four-week average, a less volatile measure, rose to the highest in six weeks.
The Dow Jones industrial average closed down 46.92 points, or 0.3 percent, at 13,880.62.
The S&P 500 index dropped 9.53, or 0.6 percent, to 1,502.42. The S&P is headed for its first weekly loss of the year. The Nasdaq composite index lost 32.92, or 1 percent, to 3,131.49.
In Europe, markets closed sharply lower after a monthly survey of European executives showed that business activity in the European Union slowed in February, a strong signal that a downturn that began last year will continue into 2013. Benchmark indexes lost 2.3 percent in France, 1.9 percent in Germany, and 1.6 percent in Britain.
U.S. indexes have soared this year to the highest levels since the financial crisis but may be ready to fall back to earth, said Kim Caughey Forrest, senior analyst with Fort Pitt Capital Group, a portfolio management firm in Pittsburgh.
"I think the market has gotten ahead of itself," she said. She said fourth-quarter earnings have generally met expectations, but only after those expectations were reduced because companies made dire projections in November and December.
Wal-Mart Stores rose after beating analysts' profit forecasts in the fourth quarter. However, the biggest retailer warned of a slow start to the year. It gained $1.05, or 1.5 percent, to $70.26.
After a strong start to the holiday season, Wal-Mart said, the first three weeks of December were weak, and business has been volatile since then. The company attributed some of the weakness to a delay in tax refund checks that have left people strapped for cash. Wal-Mart's customers also have less money to spend because a temporary payroll tax cut expired in December.
"Everybody's gotten a 2 percent pay cut, and people who file their taxes early are not getting a refund back in a timely manner," Forrest said.
Supermarket chain Safeway was the biggest gainer in the S&P 500, rising $2.84, or 14.1 percent, to $22.97 after saying its net income jumped 13 percent in the fourth quarter, helped by higher gift and prepaid card revenue.
Electric car company Tesla Motors plunged a day after reporting that its fourth-quarter net loss grew 10 percent on costs related to production of its new Model S. The stock fell $3.38, or 8.8 percent, to $35.16.
Earlier, Asian stocks had closed sharply lower. The sell-off began Wednesday afternoon in New York after the release of minutes from the Fed's latest meeting. The meeting notes showed that some policymakers want to wind down bond purchases and other measures aimed at boosting the economy.
The minutes revealed new divisions over the Fed's low-interest rate policies. There is no sign of inflation, yet there was more evidence that some Fed officials are ready to ease off the stimulus programs before the economy has fully recovered.
The Fed's bond-buying has been boosting markets by reducing the cost of borrowing for companies and investors, Forrest explained. When interest rates are lower, it's possible to do business cheaper even if a company isn't growing, she said.
"Thinking maybe interest rates will creep higher, this is a very chilling scenario" for the market, she said.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 1.98 percent from 2.05 percent early Wednesday as demand increased for ultra-safe assets.
___
Daniel Wagner can be reached at www.twitter.com/wagnerreports.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-stocks-keep-sliding-weak-data-fed-qualms-150610925--finance.html
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