Pakistan police defuse 110-pound bomb near Musharraf house

By Mehreen Zahra-Malik

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani police said on Tuesday they had defused 50 kg (110 lb) of explosives hidden in a car wired with remote-controlled detonators near the fortified farmhouse where former president Pervez Musharraf is under house arrest.

The discovery added a new sub-plot to the saga of Musharraf's deepening legal woes, which have transfixed Pakistanis unaccustomed to the sight of a once all-powerful military ruler submitting to the will of judges.

"When we checked the car we found explosives," police bomb squad constable Rehmat Ali told Reuters television. "When we unlocked one of the doors we saw a detonator cord."

Ali added that police had discovered several remote-controlled detonators rigged to the explosives, which they disarmed.

There was no immediate word from police on who they suspected might have planted the device.

Pakistan's Taliban movement, which threatened to kill Musharraf shortly before he returned to Pakistan last month after almost four years of self-imposed exile, denied any involvement in the incident.

"We would have sent suicide bombers," Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said.

MADE ENEMIES

Musharraf made many enemies during his stint in power, notably among militant groups who felt betrayed by his decision to align Pakistan with the United States following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Musharraf had hoped to relaunch his political career by running for a seat in the National Assembly at general elections on May 11, Pakistan's first transition between elected civilian-led governments.

Instead, election officials disqualified him from running and a court ordered he be placed under house arrest last week over allegations he unlawfully ordered the detention of judges during a showdown with the judiciary in 2007.

Police found the explosives several hours after Musharraf made his latest court appearance over separate allegations that he failed to provide adequate security to prevent the 2007 assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto.

Pakistani television broadcast video showing scores of lawyers, who have not forgiven Musharraf for the crackdown he launched on the judiciary, scuffling with supporters of the ex-president after the hearing.

Police arrested Musharraf on Friday, treating Pakistanis to the rare spectacle of a former army commander being humbled by judges in a country where the military has ruled for more than half the years since Pakistan's creation in 1947.

Musharraf's office has dismissed the allegations against him as baseless and politically motivated.

Musharraf, who seized power in a coup in 1999, resigned in 2008 and left Pakistan for residences in London and Dubai.

His legal troubles have provided a stark symbol of the changing balance of power in Pakistan, where the military still retains enormous behind-the-scenes influence but has retreated from the overt meddling and coups of the past.

(Reporting By Mehreen Zahra-Malik, additional reporting by Jibrin Ahmad; Editing by Michael Roddy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pakistan-police-explosives-found-near-musharraf-house-151900508.html

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'Pacific Rim' Promo Image Asks You To Enlist In The PPDC

If you're not already on board with Guillermo del Toro's new movie "Pacific Rim," then Warner Bros. is looking to enlist you. The studio released a new promotional image on Twitter that's styled as a recruitment flier for the Pan Pacific Defense, better known as the PPDC. If you go to the PPDC website, you'll [...]

Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/04/23/pacific-rim-promo-image/

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Foursquare Redesigns Its Venue Pages For The Web To Capitalize On Its 50M Monthly Unique Visitors

Foursquare today launched redesigned venue pages to focus on its Explore and Discover functionality, bringing them more in line?with its homepage.?The changes, which come two weeks after the company raised another round of funding and released an updated iOS app, are designed to capitalize on the traffic that Foursquare gets from?Google, which has doubled the site’s traffic over the past year. This is an important play for Foursquare, as it’s competing with Google Local, Yelp and?Facebook,?which today launched its redesign for local business pages. Foursquare’s lead engineer for the web, Mike Singleton, told me that the site now gets over 50 million unique visitors on the web, which is 17 million more than actually use its app. That means that Foursquare is quietly breaking through as a place for information about venues, its most prized asset: People are coming from Google for different reasons, we needed to give them the information they needed at a glance, which was difficult. Since focusing on its Explore functionality, Singleton says that its usage has doubled, especially on the website. The new venue page has all of the information that people need in a quick glance, the pages are more visually appealing, and owners of the venues should be proud to show them off, perhaps by linking to them on their website over competitors like Yelp. Here’s a look at what a venue page looked like before today’s launch: You’ll notice that some of the more attractive content, such as photos, are pushed way down, putting more focus on the map. Additionally, information such as when the venue is open was shoved to the right-hand side, requiring a scroll, as well as someone’s eyes actually finding them. This redesign solves that: The new design is cleaner, and brings all of the information that Google searchers would want to see immediately, such as photos of the venue and a more attractive map. Since some of the people visiting from the web might not be app users, Foursquare wants to give them a better first impression of the service by populating the page with the info that’s needed to make quick decisions, such as whether to actually go to a place for dinner or not. By being able to search through tips, you could find information about a particular meal, rather than continually clicking “next” buttons to scan all tips. Naturally, Foursquare wants this page to

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/eKHDLnZcK1o/

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This Bill Could Make Tax-Free Online Shopping a Thing of the Past

US Consumers Expected To Spend $1.5 Billion On Cyber Monday Holiday Shopping

CHICAGO, IL - NOVEMBER 26: Retailers advertise Cyber Monday deals on their websites on November 26, 2012 in Chicago, Illinois. Americans are expected to spend $1.5 billion while shopping online today, up 20 percent from last year. Credit: Getty Images

WASHINGTON (AP) -- States could force Internet retailers to collect sales taxes under a bill that overwhelmingly passed a test vote in the Senate Monday.

Under current law, states can only require stores to collect sales taxes if the store has a physical presence in the state. As a result, many online sales are essentially tax-free, giving Internet retailers a big advantage over brick-and-mortar stores.

The bill would allow states to require online retailers to collect state and local sales taxes for purchases made over the Internet. The sales taxes would be sent to the states where shoppers live.

The Senate voted 74 to 20 to begin debating the bill. If that level of support continues, the Senate could pass the bill as early as this week.

Supporters say the bill is about fairness for businesses and lost revenue for states. Opponents say it would impose complicated regulations on retailers and doesn't have enough protections for small businesses. Businesses with less than $1 million a year in online sales would be exempt.

"I believe it is important to level the playing field for all retailers," said Sen. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., the bill's main sponsor. "We should not be subsidizing some taxpayers at the expense of others."

In many states, shoppers are required to pay unpaid sales tax when they file their state income tax returns. However, states complain that few people comply.

"I do know about three people that comply with that," Enzi said.

President Barack Obama supports the bill, but its fate is uncertain in the House, where some Republicans regard it as a tax increase. Heritage Action for America, the activist arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, opposes the bill and will count the vote in its legislative scorecard.

Many of the nation's governors - Republicans and Democrats - have been lobbying the federal government for years for the authority to collect sales taxes from online sales, said Dan Crippen, executive director of the National Governors Association. Those efforts intensified when state tax revenues took hit from the recession and the slow economic recovery.

"It's a matter of equity for businesses," Crippen said. "It's a matter of revenue for states."

The bill pits brick-and-mortar stores like Wal-Mart against online services such as eBay. The National Retail federation supports it. And Amazon.com, which initially fought efforts in some states to make it collect sales taxes, supports it, too.

"Amazon.com has long supported a simplified nationwide approach that is evenhandedly applied and applicable to all but the smallest volume sellers," Paul Misener, Amazon's vice president of global public policy said in a recent letter to senators.

Nicholas Lerma

On "Cyber Monday" Nicholas Lerma gets packages ready for shipping at the Amazon.com 1.2 million square foot fulfillment center Monday, Nov. 26, 2012, in Phoenix. Americans clicked away on their computers and smartphones for deals on Cyber Monday, which is expected to be the biggest online shopping day in history. Shoppers are expected to spend $1.5 billion on Cyber Monday, up 20 percent from last year, according to research firm comScore. That would not only make it the biggest online shopping day of the year, but the biggest since comScore started tracking shoppers' online buying habits in 2001. Credit: AP

On the other side, eBay has been rallying customers to oppose the bill.

"I hope you agree that imposing unnecessary tax burdens on small online businesses is a bad idea," eBay president and CEO John Donahoe said in a letter to customers. "Join us in letting your Members of Congress know they should protect small online businesses, not potentially put them out of business."

The bill is also opposed by senators from states that have no sales tax, including Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., and Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H.

"Supporters of this online sales tax bill are trying to muscle it through before senators find out how disastrous it would be for businesses in their states," Ayotte said. "I will fight this power grab every step of the way to protect small online businesses in New Hampshire and across the nation."

Baucus said the bill would require relatively small Internet retailers to comply with sales tax laws in thousands of jurisdictions.

"This legislation doesn't help businesses expand and grow and hire more employees," Baucus said. "Instead, it forces small businesses to hire expensive lawyers and accountants to deal with the burdensome paperwork and added complexity of tax rules and filings across multiple states."

But Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said the bill requires participating states to make it relatively easy for Internet retailers to comply. States must provide free computer software to help retailers calculate sales taxes, based on where shoppers live. States must also establish a single entity to receive Internet sales tax revenue, so retailers don't have to send them to individual counties or cities.

"We're way beyond the quill pen and leger days," Durbin said. "Thanks to computers and thanks to software it is not that complex."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bill-could-tax-free-online-shopping-thing-past-030425865.html

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Reframing Stress Could Help People Overcome Public Speaking ...

Overcoming stress experienced from common phobias could be as simple as reframing it, according to a new study.

For stage fright in particular, thinking about the common manifestations of stress -- sweaty palms, heart beating at a million miles an hour -- in a positive light could help people to overcome the fear and perform better.

"Those feelings just mean that our body is preparing to address a demanding situation," study researcher Jeremy Jamieson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "The body is marshaling resources, pumping more blood to our major muscle groups and delivering more oxygen to our brains."

The study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, included 69 adults who were given three minutes to come up with a speech about their strengths and weaknesses. About half of the study participants had experienced social anxiety before.

The researchers randomly broke the participants up into two groups: One group was told about why the stress response naturally produced by the body is a good thing, and that they should think about the stress sensations they feel before public speaking as a good thing. The other group wasn't given any advice about rethinking their view of stress.

Then, all the study participants gave their speech to judges, who looked displeased and bored as the participants talked. Then, after the speech, the study participants were instructed to do a number task where they counted backward from 996 in sevens; if they messed up, the judges made them start over.

Researchers found that the people who were given no reframing instruction were more threatened by this, compared with those who were taught to reframe their stress symptoms. The hearts of the people who were taught to reframe stress also pumped more blood, compared with those not taught about reframing stress.

Interestingly, researchers also found that those with the history of social anxiety didn't actually have any physiological differences from those without the history of social anxiety even though they reported feeling way more stressed before the public speaking activity.

The new findings lend more credence to the idea that it's not just the stressors, but our handling of the stressors that matters. Recently, a study in the American Journal of Cardiology showed that our perceptions of our own stress have an impact on our heart disease risks. Similarly, letting yourself get caught up in thinking about stress could also be bad for health in that it could raise your body's inflammation, another study showed.

Also on HuffPost:

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/21/reframing-stress-public-speaking-phobia-stage-fright_n_3055664.html

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Activists: Assad's forces kill 85 in Damascus suburb

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian forces and militiamen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad killed at least 85 people when they stormed a Damascus suburb after five days of fighting, opposition activists in the area said on Sunday.

There was no immediate confirmation of the activists' account of what they described as a "massacre", including of women and children, at Jdeidet al-Fadel. Syrian authorities have banned most independent media since the uprising began in 2011.

Syria's Sana state news agency said the military "inflicted big losses on terrorists in Jdeidet al-Fadel and destroyed weapons and ammunition and killed and wounded members of the terrorist groups".

Jamal al-Golani, a member of the Revolution Leadership Council opposition group, said the number of dead may be higher than 250, mostly shot at close range, but the presence of army patrols made documenting all of them difficult.

"Jdeidet al-Fadel was militarily a lost cause from day one because it was surrounded by the army from every direction. There are almost no wounded because they were shot on the spot," he said.

The killings happened over several days when pro-Assad forces stormed an area where there were up to 270 rebels, Golani said, adding that he had counted 98 bodies in the streets and 86 people who he said had been summarily executed in makeshift clinics where they were lying wounded.

The working class district, part of Sunni Muslim towns surrounding the capital that have been at the forefront of the uprising against Assad, is situated near hilltop bases for elite loyalist forces, who mostly belong to Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated the country since the 1960s.

Abu Ahmad al-Rabi', an activist in the adjacent district of Jdeidet Artouz, said: "We documented 85 summarily executed, including 28 shot in a makeshift hospital after Assad's forces entered Jdeidet al-Fadel. We fear that the victims of the massacre are much higher."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition monitoring group operating from London, said it documented 80 names of people killed, including three children, six women and 18 rebel fighters.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights said the International Committee for the Red Cross should be allowed to evacuate civilians from the district after credible reports of "extrajudicial killings and summary executions inside homes and tens of cases of sexual violence".

Syrian state television showed troops in a pickup truck patrolling the dusty town and several bodies of dead men which a commander described as "terrorists" in front of a building that appears to have been wrecked by gunfire.

Video footage taken by activists showed three bodies of young men lying next to each other and apparently hit by bullets, and bodies in what they described as a makeshift clinic, two of which hit in the face.

In a pattern seen in other towns and neighborhoods overrun by Assad's forces, activists said shops in Jdeidet al Fadel were looted and torched.

Assad's forces have been accused of massacring hundreds of Sunni in areas they stormed in Hama and Homs provinces and Damascus suburbs, while international rights groups say rebel forces have also committed atrocities, although on a smaller scale.

(Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/assads-forces-kill-85-damascus-suburb-activists-171512130.html

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Rich political novice the favorite to win Paraguayan presidency

By Daniela Desantis and Hilary Burke

ASUNCION (Reuters) - Paraguayans began voting on Sunday in a presidential election that could return the center-right Colorado Party to power less than a year after the nation's first leftist leader was impeached.

Millionaire businessman Horacio Cartes, 56, is the Colorado Party candidate and front-runner in the race, most polls show. A political novice, he vows to reform his party, which was tainted by corruption during its 60-year reign through 2008.

His main rival is Efrain Alegre, 50, a lawyer and career politician in the ruling center-right Liberal Party, which took over the presidency after withdrawing support for President Fernando Lugo and clearing the way for his impeachment in June.

Congress ousted Lugo, a leftist and former Roman Catholic bishop, after finding him guilty of mishandling a botched land eviction that killed 17 police officers and peasant farmers. Some of Paraguay's neighbors likened the two-day trial to a coup and imposed diplomatic sanctions on the South American nation.

"They're all the same to me, the Colorados, the Liberals, Lugo's people. I used to have faith in politicians but I don't anymore. What we need is jobs and they promise that but never deliver," said Evelia Benitez, a 38-year-old street vendor in the capital Asuncion.

Nearly 40 percent of Paraguay's 6.6 million people are poor. The landlocked country relies on soybean and beef exports, but is also notorious for contraband trade and illicit financing.

One of Paraguay's wealthiest men, Cartes primarily made his fortune in the financial and tobacco industries. Rivals have tried to link him to drug running and money laundering, but he has never been convicted of a crime and denies any wrongdoing.

"The accusations made during this campaign have no truth to them, and personally I am very serene," Cartes told reporters early on Sunday.

Brash and outspoken, Cartes won support for his candidacy even though he never voted before joining the Colorado Party four years ago.

Alegre, a more somber politician, led corruption probes in Congress. But his reputation as an honest administrator has been undermined by an investigation into whether he misappropriated state funds while serving as Lugo's public works minister.

"My leadership model is different from the traditional one. My project represents a 'decent Paraguay' versus the 'Paraguay of the mafias,'" Alegre told Reuters in a recent interview.

BUCKING THE TREND

Polls opened at 7 a.m. (1100 GMT). There is no second round of balloting so the candidate who captures the most votes wins. Voters also will elect local officials and members of Congress, with the left expected to gain seats in the divided legislature.

Paraguay's current president, Federico Franco, is barred by the constitution from running for re-election even though he is just serving out what remained of Lugo's five-year term. He will hand over the presidency in August.

Political instability has plagued Paraguay in the past and fears often arise that the election results could be disputed.

"I hope there's not much trouble and that democracy truly reigns today. I hope we don't fight each other because we have to vote in democracy and whoever gets the most votes should win," Diana Ayala told Reuters Television as she went to vote.

Paraguay will have a center-right government regardless of whether the Colorados or Liberals win, bucking the trend in South America where leftists have made steady gains in recent years. Only Colombia and Chile are ruled by conservatives.

The leftist bloc is especially strong in the Mercosur trade group, whose members include Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela. Mercosur suspended Paraguay after Lugo's impeachment and brought in socialist Venezuela, even though its inclusion was never approved by Paraguay's Congress.

Both Cartes and Alegre have said they would push for Paraguay's full return to Mercosur.

The country's economy hinges largely on crop weather. It is seen growing 13 percent this year after a severe drought caused a contraction in 2012, according to central bank forecasts.

Land conflicts have intensified in recent years and clashes occasionally break out between squatters and big landowners, including Brazilian soy farmers who live in Paraguay.

Cartes and Alegre promise to carry out agrarian reform, and they want to attract up to $2.7 billion in private capital to refurbish Paraguay's airports and build new highways.

They also have vowed to improve operations at state-run companies and modernize the bloated state bureaucracy, which employs about 10 percent of all workers.

(Additional reporting by Mariel Cristaldo and Miguel Lobianco; Editing by Paul Simao and Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rich-political-novice-favorite-win-paraguayan-presidency-050255324--business.html

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Strong quake hits China; 102 dead, more than 2,200 injured

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - A strong 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit a remote, mostly rural and mountainous area of southwestern China's Sichuan province on Saturday, killing at least 102 people and injuring about 2,200 close to where a big quake killed almost 70,000 people in 2008.

The earthquake occurred at 8.02 a.m. (0002 GMT) in Lushan county near Ya'an city and the epicenter had a depth of 12 km (7.5 miles), the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The quake was felt by residents in neighboring provinces and in the provincial capital of Chengdu, causing many people to rush out of buildings, according to accounts on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.

State television said 102 people had been confirmed dead with more than 2,200 injured, 147 of them seriously.

President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang said all efforts must be put into rescuing victims to limit the death toll.

Li arrived in Chengdu and was on his way to the disaster zone by helicopter, state media said.

"The current most urgent issue is grasping the first 24 hours since the quake's occurrence, the golden time for saving lives," Xinhua news agency quoted Li as saying.

Xinhua said 6,000 troops were heading to the area to help with rescue efforts. State television CCTV said only emergency vehicles were being allowed into Ya'an, though Chengdu airport had reopened.

Most of the deaths were concentrated in Lushan, where water and electricity were cut off. Pictures on Chinese news sites showed toppled buildings and people in bloodied bandages being treated in tents outside the hospital, which appeared only lightly damaged.

Rescuers in Lushan had pulled 32 survivors out of rubble, Xinhua said. In villages closest to the epicenter, almost all low rise houses and buildings had collapsed, according to footage broadcast on state television.

"We are very busy right now, there are about eight or nine injured people, the doctors are handling the cases," said a doctor at a Ya'an hospital who gave her family name as Liu.

The hospital was seeing head and leg injuries, she added.

"SHAKES AND TREMORS"

A resident in Chengdu, 140 km (85 miles) from Ya'an city, told Xinhua he was on the 13th floor of a building when he felt the quake. The building shook for about 20 seconds and he saw tiles fall from nearby buildings.

Ya'an is a city of 1.5 million people and is considered one of the birthplaces of Chinese tea culture. It is also the home to one of China's main centers for protecting the giant panda.

"There are still shakes and tremors and our area is safe. The pandas are safe," said a spokesman with Ya'an's Bifengxia nature park, a tourism park that houses more than 100 pandas.

Shouts and screams were heard in the background while Reuters was on the telephone with the spokesman.

"There was just an aftershock, an aftershock, our office is safe," he said.

Numerous aftershocks jolted the area, the largest of which was magnitude 5.1.

Sichuan is one of the four major natural-gas-producing provinces in China, and its output accounts for about 14 percent of the nation's total.

Sinopec Group, Asia's largest oil refiner, said its huge Puguang gas field was unaffected.

The U.S. Geological Survey initially put the magnitude at 7, but later revised it down.

The devastating May 2008 quake was 7.9 magnitude.

(Additional reporting by Melanie Lee and Lu Jianxin in SHANGHAI; Editing by Jonathan Standing and Sanjeev Miglani)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/magnitude-6-9-quake-strikes-sichuan-region-china-002702079.html

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Boston Marathon bombing moves from solidarity to partisan politics

Partisanship was absent in the days following the Boston Marathon bombing. Now, political issues are entering into the discussion, including gun control, immigration, and national security.

By Brad Knickerbocker,?Staff writer / April 20, 2013

Runners pause during a moment of silence for those injured and killed in the Boston Marathon bombings before the start of the Salt Lake City marathon on Saturday,.

Melissa Majchrzak/AP

Enlarge

Democrats and Republicans declared a truce of sorts Saturday ? at least in their respective weekend radio addresses, both of which focused on the Boston Marathon bombing. Usually those venues are used to attempt to score political points on things like the economy, immigration, and gun control.

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"Through days that would test even the sturdiest of souls, Boston's spirit remains undaunted ? America's spirit remains undimmed," President Obama said in his regular weekly address. "Our faith in each other, our love for this country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences we may have ? that's what makes us strong."

"I have no doubt the city of Boston and its surrounding communities will continue to respond in the same proud and heroic way that they have thus far, and their fellow Americans will be right there with them every step of the way,? Obama said just hours after the second alleged attacker had been captured, ending a day of violent confrontations in which the first alleged attacker was killed in a shootout with police.

Speaking on behalf of the GOP, US Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, echoed the same theme.

"We will stand strong, we will stand united, and we will stand together for Boston,"?Sen. Scott said. ?The greatness of America is not seen during times of prosperity, but is crystallized by how we respond to challenges."

"The leaders of this country will do everything in our power to bring justice for the families and the communities impacted," he said. "Our freedom is our most precious possession ? any effort to take it away will only strengthen our determination."

Through the long, dark week that ended with the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Watertown, Mass. Friday evening, the nation?s political leaders had hung together in their support of stunned Bostonians and the law enforcement agencies, medical personnel, and just plain citizens who worked heroically to respond, then as federal, state, and local officials scrambled to find the perpetrators and prevent any other attack that might have been planned.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who had been soundly defeated in the presidential election by Obama, praised the President?s speech at a memorial service in Boston honoring the victims of the multiple blasts that killed three people and injured more than 170 ? a terrorist attack that brought a lock-down of Boston and surrounding towns.

?I thought the president gave a superb address to the people of this city and the state and the nation,? Mr. Romney said on CNN. ?It was an inspiring day.?

But any event can be turned to political purposes, and the Boston Marathon bombing is no exception.

With news that brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had an arsenal that included pistols and a rifle as well as home-made bombs, gun control was sure to come up.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/3VS-KXo1Yv0/Boston-Marathon-bombing-moves-from-solidarity-to-partisan-politics

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[NSFW] Android adult app store MiKandi bares even more (and does it better) in Version 4

New UI, more content and faster performance all come to one of Android's premier adult apps

MiKandi -- one of the earlier adult app stores for Android -- this week was updated to Version 4, bringing with it a new user interface, improved performance, and more of that old fashion adult fun that doesn't quite fit on Google Play. 

Jen McEwen, MiKandi's chief marketing officer, tell us that new look bares more than ever before. "MiKandi is the Las Vegas of app stores," McEwen told Android Central by e-mail. "It’s a fun, sexy playground for adults. With MiKandi V4, we take full advantage of the limited space on every device by displaying more than twice as much content than previous versions. Now browsing and discovering adult apps is like walking down the Las Vegas Strip. Everywhere you turn is a visual feast."

read more

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/IbeB8jEDjgg/story01.htm

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96% War Witch

All Critics (46) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (44) | Rotten (2)

Canadian writer-director Kim Nguyen spent nearly a decade researching this docudrama about child soldiers in Africa, and the film feels as authoritative as a first-hand account.

A haunting take on unspeakably grim subject matter, shot on location in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A powerful and upsetting portrait of a young girl compelled into unimaginably horrific circumstances.

Nguyen, astonishingly, manages to wring something vaguely like a happy ending from this tragic story.

War Witch is most effective not when we are looking in on Komona but when we are inside her head.

The powerful things we expect from "War Witch" are as advertised, but what we don't expect is even better.

You're likely to ponder its images, its insights into a very foreign (for most of us) location and the tragic situation of Komona (and others like her) for a long time to come.

Is it accurate depiction of Africa's child soldiers? I don't know, thank God. But it feels authentic to its very core, and that makes it as hard to forget as it is to ignore.

Brutal without turning exploitative, the result is harrowing and heartbreaking.

Nguyen creates a mesmerizing tone through his camerawork, editing, sound and the infusion of African folk imagery and ritual, but it's Mwanza's performance as Komona that makes "War Witch" feel so miraculous.

Nguyen reportedly worked on "War Witch" for a decade, and it shows in both the immediacy and authenticity of his tale, and the meticulous craft with which it's told.

Made with extremely clear-eyed restraint from harangues, sentiment, message-mongering, or anything else that would cheapen its central character's suffering and fight.

War Witch features a standout performance by Rachel Mwanza, but the supernatural visions don't really suit the film's tone and mood.

Nguyen's compassion and commitment to the issue is admirable, and at its best, War Witch is devastating.

War Witch is remarkable for the fact that it never strays into sentimentality or sensationalism.

...a love story between youngsters who are forced to become adults all too early in their lives.

This is a straight ahead essay on warfare at its worst and the survival of the human spirit at its best.

An astonishing drama set in Africa that vividly depicts the courage and resiliency of a 12-year-old girl whose spiritual gifts enable her to survive.

It is astonishing that film that contains such violence can have such a serene tone. The source of the serenity is the measured, calm narration by Komona (voice of Diane Umawahoro) that is the telling of her story to her unborn child

An exquisitely made film in direct contrast to the ugliness of its subject matter

The portrait of a girl who retains her dignity and strength, her faith in the future, in the face of unimaginable horrors. It's inspirational in a very real way.

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Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/war_witch/

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AT&T updates Samsung Galaxy S4 shipping date to April 23

The previous date of April 30 has been changed to April 23, price and selection remains unchanged

AT&T has updated the Samsung Galaxy S4 pre-order page and there is a new shipping date - April 23. The previous versions had a shipping date of April 30 for the phone, which put it a week past T-Mobile (April 24) and Sprint (April 27). The price remains the same at $639 or $199 with a new agreement for the 16GB model.

Of course we can't be sure that this date is final, but all of us would like to see it sooner rather than later. There's a lot there to love, and we certainly can't wait to have our very own for the requisite fondling. 

Are you ordering an S4 from one of the carriers? Be sure to let us know who you're rolling with in our poll, then head into the forums where at least you can wait with friends.

Source: AT&T. Thanks, Eric!

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/6PExRvcKrhA/story01.htm

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Africa World Documentary Film Festival docks in Jamaica - 'Songs of ...

Songs of Redemption will be screened at this year's Africa World Documentary Film Festival (AWDFF), set for the University of the West Indies, Mona, from April 24-28.

The festival will be officially launched next Wednesday at 6 p.m. at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre, and the screening of films will take place from April 25-28, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., also at the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre.

Songs of Redemption is a stream-of-consciousness-style documentary told by Kingston prisoners incarcerated for numerous crimes. The prison, once a concrete holding area for African slaves, is devoid of basic human necessities and reflects a reality of unimaginable consequence. The movie exemplifies the unique transformation of an extremely violent environment into a new state of creative and healing artistic collaborations.

The festival is sponsored by the E. Desmond Lee Professorship in African/African-American Studies, International Studies and Programmes at the University of Missouri, St Louis.

It is staged annually at venues around the globe and this is the first year that it will visit Jamaica.

By September, the 2013 festival will have been staged at the Missouri History Museum; The Motefi Kete Asante Institute for Afrocentric Studies, Philadelphia; The University of Yaound?; St Louis University; University of the Western Cape, South Africa, and the 'I Will Tell' International Film Festival, London.

The 2013 festival will present 46 films submitted by filmmakers from 31 countries, including Australia, The Bahamas, Burkina Faso, Canada, Cameroon, Congo, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominican Republic, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Israel, Japan, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Sudan, Spain, Sudan, United Kingdom, Uganda, and the United States.

The films cover a wide range of topics including music and the performing arts, religion, politics, sport, history, gender and human rights issues.

Professor Lee from The University of Missouri and festival director will be in Jamaica for the festival.

He described the AWDFF as committed to the promotion of the knowledge, life and culture, of the people of Africa worldwide through the art of documentary filmmaking.

Members of the public are invited to attend the festival. Admission is free.

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Source: http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130418/ent/ent2.html

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The cost of a botched operation? ?6.99 on Steam thanks to Surgeon Simulator

Clumsy wannabe sawbones: warm up your hammers and hatchets, because Surgeon Simulator has arrived on Steam. The infamous game challenges players to save patients' lives with an array of coarse tools and an apparent case of the DTs, and was prototyped in a mere 48 hours during the Global Game Jam back in January. After being greenlit by Steam, it'll be up for grabs later today at £6.99 (about $11) with extra features like a "fiendishly difficult ambulance mode" that brings extra quarts of gore, along with new operations like a kidney or brain transplant and a new soundtrack and visuals. There's a lineup of desperate patients -- they'd have to be -- waiting at the source link and the video after the break.

Filed under: Gaming

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Datamosh Your Photos With This Glitch Art App

The chillwave vibes of Instagram filters like Rise and X-Pro II are almost unfailingly charming, but every now and then, I wish there were a filter that made my pictures look like a corrupt .jpg from a GeoCities page circa 1996, you know? More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/ynl1MGXcVSg/datamosh-your-photos-with-this-glitch-art-app

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5 Important Steps for Your Weight Loss Plan - Diet and Fitness ...

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Life is full of surprises and unhealthy weight gain can sneak up on you anytime. That?s when you usually end up struggling to lose weight and shape up. Since every great endeavour has a plan of action, weight loss is no different. You need a game plan? to achieve your targets and goals, in this case to lose the weight and get your sexy shape back. Here are 5 important steps for your weight loss plan..

Weight Loss Plan #1

Find out your ideal weight ? BMI is the measuring chart for a healthy body as it takes into account your height and weight.

Weight Loss Plan #2

Set a goal ? Now that you have your ideal weight, it?s time to decide how much weight loss you can accomplish in a given duration. You don?t want to set an unrealistic goal of 10 kgs in one week.

Weight Loss Plan #3

You need to sweat it out ? Burn your calories and sweat it out to achieve fat loss. For your weight loss to be effective you must choose the right exercises to help you lose weight effectively.

Weight Loss Plan #4

Healthy diet plan ? Food plays an important role in your weight loss plan. The right food with right exercise will stimulate fat loss and help you get closer to your weight loss goal.

Weight Loss Plan #5

Keep a journal for your weight loss plan ? Maintaining a dairy will help you keep your plan on track. A journal will also help you see where you can improve and where you can increase your determination.

*Images courtesy: ? Thinkstock photos/ Getty Images

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Source: http://healthmeup.com/news-diet-fitness/5-important-steps-for-your-weight-loss-plan/20855

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Key state Senate committee backs mattress recycling bill

SACRAMENTO ? A key state Senate committee has blessed a compromise among bedding manufacturers, environmentalists and local governments about how best to keep about 2 million used mattresses a year from being dumped on California streets or into landfills.

Still to be determined is exactly what kind of consumer fee or tax would be levied on mattress and box spring purchases, which manufacturers have estimated might be around $25. The money would create a first-in-the-nation "recovery and recycling" program that would be run by the mattress industry and overseen by California regulators.

The bill also would require retailers to offer free pickup of old mattresses when delivering new ones.

Although the proposal received no public opposition, it still faces major obstacles to becoming law. According to the state Constitution, the still-unspecified consumer fee is considered a tax, and thus must be approved by at least two-thirds of the Senate and the Assembly. That would require an aye vote from every member of a group of conservative Democrats or support from predominantly anti-tax Republicans.

"We have work to do," said state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), referring to the process of rounding up the minimum of 54 votes in the Assembly and 27 in the Senate.

Mattresses were just one of three consumer product recycling bills considered by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee on Wednesday. The panel also approved a statewide ban on plastic supermarket bags and a measure aimed at promoting greater recycling and composting of fast-food packaging.

The mattress bill, by coauthors Sens. Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), is needed to counter "a health issue and a tipping-point, blight issue in many communities," Hancock testified. The committee approved the bill, SB 254, on a 6-0 vote, with only Democrats voting in support. It was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Used mattresses can become breeding grounds for mold and pests, supporters said. Their presence in communities often sets the stage for other forms of vandalism, such as graffiti, they added.

Until last week, the mattress industry, which helped defeat a Hancock recycling bill last year, had been backing a rival measure by Correa.

The International Sleep Products Assn. feared being saddled with an expensive, bureaucratic state program. But the compromise mollified those worries by allowing the private sector to develop its own program with a goal of recycling or reusing three-quarters of all used mattresses by 2020.

The bill's first provision ? requiring retailers to offer free pickup of old mattresses when they deliver new ones ? would take effect July 1, 2014. An industrywide mattress recycling council must be organized by April 2015.

The result is a system similar to what California currently uses to encourage recycling of electronic waste, such as computers and monitors, tires, carpets and paint.

"This bill will increase recycling, create recycling jobs without endangering retail jobs," said Ryan Trainer, executive vice president and general counsel of the Sleep Products Assn.

Passage of the measure will be boon for the infant mattress recycling industry, Correa predicted. The director of a Los Angeles recycling center, he said, recently told him that he would run two or three shifts of workers a day to handle the increased volume of used mattresses should the bill pass. Recyclers say that at least 85% of a used mattress' components can be turned into usable materials.

marc.lifsher@latimes.com

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/latimes/news/science/~3/_rpcOpPLeGc/la-fi-mattress-recycle-bill-20130418,0,1705171.story

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SOFIA observations reveal a surprise in massive star formation

Apr. 17, 2013 ? Researchers using the airborne Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) have captured the most detailed mid-infrared images yet of a massive star condensing within a dense cocoon of dust and gas.

The star is G35.20-0.74, commonly known as G35. It is one of the most massive known protostars and is located relatively close to Earth at a distance of 8,000 light-years.

Until now, scientists expected the formation process of massive stars would be complicated by the turbulent, chaotic environments in the centers of new star clusters where they form. But observations of G35 suggest this giant star, more than 20 times the mass of our sun, is forming by the same orderly process as do stars with the same mass as the sun. Stars most like the sun are understood to form by simple, symmetric collapse of interstellar clouds.

"The focus of our study has been to determine how massive stars actually form," said Yichen Zhang of the University of Florida. Zhang is lead author of a paper about the discovery published April 10 in the Astrophysical Journal. "We thought the G35 protostar's structure would be quite complicated, but instead we found it is simple, like the cocoons of protostars with the sun's mass."

The observations of G35 were made in 2011 with a special camera aboard SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747SP aircraft that can carry a telescope with an effective diameter of 100 inches (2.5 meters) to altitudes as high as 45,000 feet (13,700 meters).

G35 was an ideal target for investigations because it is in an early stage of development. But infrared light coming from G35 is so strong it prevented infrared space telescopes from making detailed images. Also, the protostar is embedded so deeply in its natal cloud that it cannot be detected by optical telescopes observing from the ground at visible wavelengths.

Flying high above the light-blocking water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, the airplane-mounted Faint Object Infrared Camera for the SOFIA Telescope (FORCAST) enabled astronomers to see G35 where it hides -- inside a dark, dense, interstellar dust cloud -- by collecting infrared light escaping the cloud. Uniquely suited for this work, FORCAST detected faint details next to bright structures at wavelengths inaccessible to any other telescope on the ground or in space.

"Massive stars, although rare, are important because there is evidence they foster the formation of smaller stars like our sun, and because at the ends of their lives they create and distribute chemical elements that are the basic building blocks of Earth-like planets," said co-author James De Buizer, a SOFIA staff scientist with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

Images of G35 may be viewed on NASA's SOFIA site: http://www.nasa.gov/sofia

Figures 1a and 1b show FORCAST images of G35 at wavelengths of 31 and 37 microns. Figures 2a and 2b respectively present G35 images obtained by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and the Gemini-North telescope at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, also used in this study. Figure 3 shows computer model images intended to match characteristics of the central regions of the images in figures 1a and 1b.

The model images show greatly simplified versions of what is revealed especially in the SOFIA images: a luminous protostar heating a dense interstellar cloud from the inside while simultaneously expelling cone-shaped jets of gas toward the tops and bottoms of the frames. The top outflow cone appears brighter because it is directed toward us and there is less obscuring material along the line of sight.

The high resolution of the images showcases the capability of modern infrared detector arrays when used on an airborne platform and gives scientists hope that data gathered in this way substantially will advance their understanding of the Milky Way galaxy.

FORCAST was built by a team led by Terry Herter of Cornell University in Ithica, N.Y. Co-authors of the Astrophysics Journal paper include scientists from the University of Florida in Gainesville; University of Wisconsin in Madison; University of California at Berkeley; Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; the Arcetri Observatory in Florence, Italy; and the USRA SOFIA science staff at Ames.

SOFIA is a joint project of NASA and the German Aerospace Center. SOFIA is based and managed at NASA's Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif. NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., manages the SOFIA science and mission operations in cooperation with the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) headquartered in Columbia, Md., and the German SOFIA Institute at the University of Stuttgart.

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/space_time/nasa/~3/WtYI7hK-HuQ/130417132555.htm

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Monetization TBD: Instagram Hires Facebook's Emily White As Director Of Business Operations

Instagram has hired a Director of Operations, the first of what we're assuming will be many steps to monetize its explosive scale. Facebook's Director of Mobile partnerships Emily White will be moving over to the more than 20 person team, which just surpassed the 100 million user mark in February.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V6sEU4-Kw_0/

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PFT: Thompson ban implies multiple drug violations

AP

Chuck Fairbanks, a successful but volatile coach who led the Patriots for six seasons in the 1970s, has died.

The Patriots announced on Tuesday that Fairbanks died of brain cancer.

In January of 1973, Fairbanks quit as head coach at Oklahoma ? where he had just led the Sooners to a win in the Sugar Bowl ? to become the head coach of the Patriots. Fairbanks left behind him at Oklahoma a scandal related to altering players? transcripts, and the Sooners went on NCAA probation for two years. That would not be the last time Fairbanks left a job in a controversial manner.

With the Patriots, he built a lousy team into a winner, but in December of 1978, with the Patriots 11-4 and in first place in the AFC East, Fairbanks abruptly decided to leave to become the head coach at Colorado. A messy battle with then-Patriots owner Billy Sullivan ensued, and Colorado boosters ended up buying Fairbanks out of his Patriots contract.

Fairbanks was unsuccessful at Colorado, going just 7-26, and he quit after three seasons to become head coach of the New Jersey Generals of the United States Football League. After one season there, Fairbanks was done as a coach.

Although he?s mostly remembered in the NFL for the circumstances of his departure from the Patriots, there was a time when Fairbanks was considered one of the smartest and most innovative coaches in football. Patriots coach Bill Belichick said in September that Fairbanks had been a friend and a mentor.

?Chuck has been a good friend for a long time and he?s meant a lot to this organization,? Belichick said. ?Really, at the time he came here, he did a great job in turning the Patriots around, making them into one of the top teams in the AFC. Also, some of the things he brought to the Patriots and the league in the ?70s were things that stood the test of time and have been a big principle of this league for many, many years and the disciples and the people that were with him, such as the 3-4 defense, the way he organized the draft, personnel meetings, things like that and some of the great coaches that were here under Chuck.?

Chuck Fairbanks was 79.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/02/thompson-suspension-implies-multiples-violations-of-substance-abuse-policy/related/

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Green Meteorite Found In Morocco May Be From Mercury

An anonymous reader writes in with news that a meteorite found in Morocco might be from Mercury. "The green rock found in Morocco last year may be the first known visitor from the solar system's innermost planet, according to meteorite scientist Anthony Irving, who unveiled the new findings this month at the 44th annual Lunar and Planetary Science Conference in The Woodlands, Texas. The study suggests that a space rock called NWA 7325 came from Mercury, and not an asteroid or Mars."

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/E8rjwkBjsd4/story01.htm

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U.S. soldier playing with Afghan kids fatally stabbed by teen

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) ? An Afghan teenager fatally stabbed an American soldier in the neck as he played with children in eastern Afghanistan, officials said Monday, as the U.S. death toll rose sharply last month with an uptick in fighting due to warmer weather.

Last week's calculated attack shows that international troops still face a myriad of dangers even though they are increasingly taking a back seat in operations with Afghan forces ahead of a full withdrawal by the end of 2014.

Just one U.S. service member was killed in February ? a five-year monthly low ? but the American death toll climbed to at least 14 last month.

Overall, the number of Americans and other foreign forces killed in Afghanistan has fallen as their role shifts more toward training and advising government troops instead of fighting.

But a series of so-called insider attacks on foreign troops by Afghan forces of insurgents disguised as them has threatened to undermine the trust needed to help President Hamid Karzai's government take the lead in securing the country after more than 11 years at war.

The attack that killed Sgt. Michael Cable, 26, of Philpot, Ky., last Wednesday occurred after the soldiers had secured an area for a meeting of U.S. and Afghan officials in a province near the volatile border with Pakistan.

But one of two senior U.S. officials who confirmed that Cable had been stabbed by a young man said the assailant was not believed to have been in uniform so it was not being classified as an insider attack.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the attacker was thought to be about 16 years old. He escaped so his age couldn't be verified.

Cable's brother Raymond Johnston, a 42-year-old waiter in Owensboro, Ky., said the Army told the family the basics of what happened and that his brother was stabbed in the neck from behind.

Johnston said his brother, who also did a tour of duty in Iraq, was "prepared before he left for anything that happened" in Afghanistan.

Cable met individually with Johnston and three other family members before leaving for Afghanistan and had similar conversations with each ? that the deployment was extremely hazardous and that his family and friends should "continue to enjoy life" if he was killed.

"He was able to communicate to the family about if the worst was supposed to happen, what we were supposed to do," Johnston said.

Cable's body was scheduled to return to Owensboro in western Kentucky on Thursday. Visitation was scheduled for Friday with the funeral set for Saturday.

The Afghan and American dignitaries were attending the swearing-in ceremony of Afghan Local Police in Shinwar district in Nangarhar province, senior district official Zalmai Khan said. Afghan Local Police, or ALP, recruits are drawn from villages and backed by the U.S. military.

The soldier was playing with children outside when the attacker came from behind and stabbed him in the neck with a large knife, Khan said. Other guards nearby didn't immediately notice what had happened because there was no gunshot, and the assailant was able to flee to neighboring Pakistan, he added.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid identified the attacker as a 16-year-old local man named Khalid. He said Khalid was acting independently when he killed the soldier but had joined the Islamic militant movement since fleeing the scene.

The district official Khan did not provide a name or confirm the Taliban's claim.

The Pentagon said in a statement last week that Cable, died from injuries sustained when his unit was attacked by enemy forces.

The killing comes as the U.S. death toll rose to 14 in March, compared with four in the previous two months of the year, partly fueled by the start of the spring fighting season when the Taliban and other insurgents take advantage of improved weather to step up attacks.

By contrast, at least 67 members of the Afghan security forces were killed last month, compared with 42 in February and 55 in January.

In a success story for the Afghan government, the intelligence service announced that it had foiled a plan to attack the Sulma dam in the western province of Herat.

Agency spokesman Shafiqullah Tahiri said an Afghan man identified as Sayed Gul was arrested with 1,300 kilograms (about 1.5 tons) of explosives. He blamed the Pakistani Taliban for plotting to bomb the dam in a bid to destabilize the country.

___

Associated Press writers Kimberly Dozier, Amir Shah and Rahim Faiez in Kabul, and Brett Barrouquere in Louisiville, Ky., contributed to this report.

Follow Kim Gamel on Twitter at https://twitter.com/kimgamel

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-teenager-fatally-stabs-us-soldier-105007454.html

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