Latest hot news update of the world

Salman khan latest wallpaper image

2020-07-08T01:38:00.000-07:00

Salman is the Bollywood actor. People like for his bikini body and acting. He is famous for his advantanger movie and so on thouh the world.

World thread for Covid-19!! Who will save human nation?

2020-03-23T03:55:00.000-07:00

World gradually decay by Coved 19 human nation could not found any better solution for save their life although china raised by this critical circumstances but they will not save. Now world thinking new type of alternative to solution this circumstances. At that situation human creation save whole nation by his kindness. World try a better solution to secure by this vanish human exist but how can possible ????????

Current situation of world Coved 19 attach of 192 countries by this terrorist virus . China other countries are demonstrating that spread of the virus can be slowed and impact reduce through the use of universally applicable actions, such as working across society to identify people who are sick, bringing them to care, following up on contacts, preparing hospitals and clinics to manage a surge in patients and training health workers,

Who calls on all countries to continue efforts that have been effective inflating the number of cases and slowing the spread of the virus?

Last update for Coved 19 for whole world attack people Total 343437, dead -14910 and secure-99068 people.

Why test important---Testing is also crucial ofr an appreciate responses to the pandemic. IT allows us to understand the spread of the disease and to take evidence based measure to slow down the spread of this disease.

Unfortunately. The capacity for Covid-19 testing is still low in many countries around the world. For this season we still do not have a good understating of the spread of the pandemic

Top ten countries highest rate for Covid-19

Countries	Affected people	Dead	Secure
China	81093	3270	-77823
Italy	59138	5476	-53662
USA	35070	458	-34612
Spain	29909	1813	-28096
Gremany	26198	111	-26087
Iran	23049	1812	-21237
Frach	16018	674	-15344
South Korea	8961	111	-8850
Swizerland	7806	100	-7706
UK	5683	281	-5402

American horror them for season now on online

2014-03-18T05:25:00.000-07:00

American horror history is the best interesting thing in the world. We are so much love all kind of horror. Because we can not find any more enjoyable thinks same like this. Actually this scenery was a awesome. We love so much only for that it is so enjoyable.

Speaking in a podcast with Nerdist Panel, writer Douglas Petrie revealed that the new season will take on a carnival theme. According to Petrie it is still a rough idea but a carnival will be the setting.

Really it is the best choice for all. I love so much it is well.

Progress seen in last-minute 'fiscal cliff' talks

2012-12-31T06:43:00.000-08:00

Democrats and Republicans say signs of progress are emerging in urgent negotiations to avert the looming 'fiscal cliff' ahead of a midnight deadline.

A person familiar with the negotiations says Democrats have offered to extend tax cuts for families making up to $450,000 a year and individuals making up to $400,000. President Barack Obama originally wanted the tax cuts to be extended only for families making up to $250,000 a year.
Unless an agreement is reached and approved by Congress by the start of New Year's Day, more than $500 billion in 2013 tax increases will begin to take effect and $109 billion will be carved from defense and domestic programs
The person familiar with the talks requested anonymity in order to discuss the internal negotiations.

L.A. Reid will not returne for ' X Factor' next year

2012-12-14T07:03:00.002-08:00

L.A. Reid is voting himself off the "The X Factor."
“I have decided that I will not return to ‘The X Factor’ next year,” he told Access Hollywood. “I have to go back and I have a company to run that I’ve kind of neglected and it saddens me a little bit, but only a little bit.”

A representative for Epic Records confirmed Reid's departure on Thursday. Reid is currently the chairman and CEO of Epic, a division of Sony Entertainment.
Reid left his job as chairman and CEO of Island Def Jam Music Group, where he helped launch careers for acts like Rihanna and Justin Bieber. At Epic, his roster includes Sade, Fiona Apple, Karmin, Ciara and "X Factor" season one winner Melanie Amaro.
Reid joined the American version of the show last year along with creator Simon Cowell. This season also boasts Britney Spears and Demi Lovato as judges. Its finale is next week.

'Iron man 3' villain's colorful armor

2012-05-30T23:13:00.001-07:00

Iron Man 3 villain’s colorful armor Marvel The Avengers “is always shred the box office at work to bringmore than $ 527,000 to date, but that does not mean Tony Morrison giant becomes a separate issue, according to the Community.” Iron Man 3 “is currently shooting in Wilmington, North Carolina. Amateur photographers of the first look at one of the new villainsin the film, could give the metal-patriot who wears armor giant a run for its money. first time in the comic “Dark Avengers # 1 has,” the Patriot metal could cause a high-tech battle armor with a leading company in the paint job the United States of America, but man is not an idol inside.

I'm not sure what the heck to make of that. Marvel Studios has made it very clear that the villain of this movie won't be another guy wearing armor. Since Norman Osborn is Iron Patriot in the comics, it can't he him either. He's at Sony Pictures. Rhodey is in the US Air Force, so perhaps this is the War Machine version of the Thunderbirds Demonstration Squadron that does PR for the Air Force.

Military Moms Breastfeeding in Uniform Stir Controversy

2012-05-30T22:51:00.002-07:00

At a time when breastfeeding in public is already controversial, pictures of two military moms doing so while wearing their uniforms is sparking outrage.

The photo is part of a local breastfeeding awareness campaign by Mom2Mom of Fairchild Air Force Base, a support group launched in January by Crystal Scott, a military spouse and mother of three. Among the intimate close-ups of smiling young mothers cuddling their adorable babies, the images of the two airmen stand out. "People are comparing breastfeeding in uniform to urinating and defecating in uniform. They're comparing it to the woman who posed in "Playboy" in uniform [in 2007]" Scott told in an interview. "We never expected it to be like this."

"I'm an X-ray tech and I breastfeed in my uniform all the time," Scott says. "Granted they're scrubs. But people do it all the time in their uniforms. If you have a hungry baby, why would you take the time to change completely?"

Terran Echegoyen-McCabe, a member of the Air National Guard who was photographed in uniform nursing her 10-month-old twin daughters, says that she's surprised by the reaction to the photos.

"I have breastfed in our lobby, in my car, in the park ... and I pump, usually in the locker room," she told the "Today" show, adding that she usually nurses her babies while on her lunch break during drill weekends. "I'm proud to be wearing a uniform while breast-feeding. I'm proud of the photo and I hope it encourages other women to know they can breastfeed whether they're active duty, guard or civilian."

All of the women in the photos volunteered to appear in the awareness campaign, and Echegoyen-McCabe is featured -- wearing civilian clothing -- in a few of the other candid shots. None of the photos are posed; the women are simply feeding their babies the way they usually do. But even though some of the other photographs are just as revealing, only the ones of Echegoyen-McCabe and her friend Christina Luna in uniform have been criticized.

"The Air Force has never endorsed these photos," the photographer, Brynja Sigurdardottir points out on her website, where she posted several other photos from the Mom2Mom campaign. "These women just happen to be in the Air Force, in their uniform, breastfeeding their babies."

When it comes to talking about breastfeeding in public, comparing it to other bodily functions -- and even sex -- is common, in spite of the fact that breastfeeding is legal and protected while defecating or having sex in public is not. But the fact that two of the moms are shown breastfeeding in public while wearing military uniforms makes the entire controversy more complicated. The Army, for example, didn't even come up with a combat uniform for women until 2010, so accepting the idea of a uniformed soldier breastfeeding a baby may be especially jarring. And the uniforms themselves come with their own sets of rules.

According to Military Spouse Central, public displays of affection -- even something as innocuous as holding hands -- are not allowed while wearing a military uniform. Also forbidden while in uniform: eating, drinking, or talking on a cell phone while walking, carrying an umbrella that's not black, and (in some cases) smoking or even chewing gum. While there is no policy that addresses breastfeeding in uniform, Air Force spokesperson Captain Rose Richeson told MSNBC: "Airmen should be mindful of their dress and appearance and present a professional image at all times while in uniform." Military moms who are still breastfeeding are encouraged to pump and bottle-feed their babies while they're in uniform.

Scott suggests that the issue might have less to do with the uniform and more to do with our own internal conflicts. "I think a lot of people think that you can't be a mom and be a soldier," she says. "This is not something that's out of norm for them. They breastfeed in uniform all the time -- it's just not something that's usually captured on film."

8 year old student gets 'Catastrophe Award' for most homework excuses

2012-05-30T10:44:00.001-07:00

Cassandra Garcia, an eight-year-old student in Arizona, was humiliated when her teacher gave her an award in front of the whole class. But why would a third grader become so upset over an award?

According to Garcia's mother, Christina Valdez, the award her daughter received was the "Catastrophe Award" for having the most homework excuses.
Valdez told ABC News affiliate KGUN9 that her daughter received the award from her teacher, Mrs. Plowman, at Desert Springs Academy in Tucson, Ariz. on May 18, 2012. Valdez said the award was given because her daughter had the most excuses for not doing her homework.
"You're Tops! Catastrophe Award. Awarded to Cassandra Garcia. For Most Excuses for Not Having Homework," the award read along with a signed signature from Mrs. Plowman and a smiley face sticker.

Garcia was reportedly upset when the award was presented in front of the entire third grade class, who in turn laughed at Garcia.
"I think it's cruel and no child should be given an award like this. It's disturbing," Valdez told KGUN. Valdez said she was unaware that her daughter frequently gave excuses for not completing her homework, and she added that Garcia was enrolled in a homework assistance program that takes place after school hours.
According to KGUN, when Valdez demanded an explanation from the school principal, she was told it was merely a joke.
"[The principal] blew me off," Valdez said. [The principal] said it was a joke that was played on her daughter, and that the teachers joke around with the children," Valdez told KGUN.
The principal of Desert Springs Academy did not give a comment to KGUN.

Polish Prime minister demands Obama address Nazi gaffe

2012-05-30T10:25:00.001-07:00

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk angrily demanded Wednesday that President Barack Obama explain his reference to "a Polish death camp" during a high-profile White House ceremony a day earlier, saying the remark smacked of "ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions" and amounted to "a distortion of history."

"When someone says 'Polish death camps,' it is as if there were no Nazis, no German responsibility, as if there was no Hitler—that is why our Polish sensitivity in these situations is so much more than just simply a feeling of national pride," the prime minister said.

Tusk bluntly rejected National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor's expression of "regret" for the remarks and acknowledgment that Obama "misspoke" as falling woefully short of making up for the mistake.

"I am convinced that today, our American friends are capable of a stronger reaction—a clearer one, and one which perhaps eliminates, once and for all, these types of mistakes—than just the correction itself and the regret which we heard from the White House spokesperson," the prime minister said in a statement posted in English on his official website.

"We take note of these words, but it seems that it would be even more important for the United States than for Poland to end this with class. That is how one acts with regard to tried-and-tested friends, but this is also how one acts in your own, well-defined interest. I believe our allies are capable of such behavior," Tusk said.

Obama ignited the diplomatic flare-up on Tuesday as he honored Polish resistance hero Jan Karski and others with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor.

"Jan served as a courier for the Polish resistance during the darkest days of World War II. Before one trip across enemy lines, resistance fighters told him that Jews were being murdered on a massive scale, and smuggled him into the Warsaw Ghetto and a Polish death camp to see for himself," the president said.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski immediately demanded on Twitter that the White House apologize for what he called an "outrageous mistake" and said the ceremony had been "overshadowed by ignorance and incompetence."Conservatives happily piled on: David Frum, former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, likened Obama's comment to saying that the Atlantic slave trade had been run by Africans.

"Obviously the insult to Poles was unintentional. That's what's shocking. Cdnt be bothered to get it right, even when honoring a Polish hero," Frum added in a subsequent tweet.

But while the White House could easily shrug off criticism from partisan sources, Tusk's blistering statement suggested that Obama himself would need to try to defuse the controversy.

"The words uttered yesterday by the President of the United States Barack Obama concerning 'Polish death camps' touched all Poles," Tusk said.

"We always react in the same way when ignorance, lack of knowledge, bad intentions lead to such a distortion of history, so painful for us here in Poland, in a country which suffered like no other in Europe during World War II," the prime minister said.

"Here, in Poland, we cannot accept such words even if they are spoken by the leader of a friendly power—or perhaps especially in such situations—since we expect diligence, care, and respect from our friends on issues of such importance as World War II remembrance. In Polish-American relations, in friendly relations, respect vis-à-vis the smaller partner should be the most recognizable sign of such relations," Tusk said.

Obama has avoided that blunder before. In a late-April visit to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, he cited the Poles among the victims of Nazi genocide. "We tell them, our children, about the millions of Poles and Catholics and Roma and gay people and so many others who also must never be forgotten," Obama said.

And in a January 27, 2010, videotaped statement for the ceremony marking the 65th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, Obama paid tribute to the Polish resistance.

"Even as we recall man's capacity for evil, Auschwitz also tells another story—of man's capacity for good. The small acts of compassion—the sharing of some bread that kept a child alive. The great acts of resistance that blew up the crematorium and tried to stop the slaughter. The Polish Rescuers and those who earned their place forever in the Righteous Among the Nations," he said.

Huge anicent civilization's collapse explained

2012-05-29T10:54:00.002-07:00

The mysterious fall of the largest of the world's earliest urban civilizations nearly 4,000 years ago in what is now India, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh now appears to have a key culprit — ancient climate change, researchers say.

Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia may be the best known of the first great urban cultures, but the largest was the Indus or Harappan civilization. This culture once extended over more than 386,000 square miles (1 million square kilometers) across the plains of the Indus River from the Arabian Sea to the Ganges, and at its peak may have accounted for 10 percent of the world population. The civilization developed about 5,200 years ago, and slowly disintegrated between 3,900 and 3,000 years ago — populations largely abandoned cities, migrating toward the east.

"Antiquity knew about Egypt and Mesopotamia, but the Indus civilization, which was bigger than these two, was completely forgotten until the 1920s," said researcher Liviu Giosan, a geologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts.

Nearly a century ago, researchers began discovering numerous remains of Harappan settlements along the Indus River and its tributaries, as well as in a vast desert region at the border of India and Pakistan. Evidence was uncovered for sophisticated cities, sea links with Mesopotamia, internal trade routes, arts and crafts, and as-yet undeciphered writing.

"They had cities ordered into grids, with exquisite plumbing, which was not encountered again until the Romans," Giosan told LiveScience. "They seem to have been a more democratic society than Mesopotamia and Egypt — no large structures were built for important personalitiess like kings or pharaohs."

Like their contemporaries in Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Harappans, who were named after one of their largest cities, lived next to rivers.

"Until now, speculations abounded about the links between this mysterious ancient culture and its life-giving mighty rivers," Giosan said.

Now Giosan and his colleagues have reconstructed the landscape of the plain and rivers where this long-forgotten civilizationdeveloped. Their findings now shed light on the enigmatic fate of this culture.

"Our research provides one of the clearest examples of climate change leading to the collapse of an entire civilization," Giosan said. [How Weather Changed History]

The researchers first analyzed satellite data of the landscape influenced by the Indus and neighboring rivers. From 2003 to 2008, the researchers then collected samples of sediment from the coast of the Arabian Sea into the fertile irrigated valleys of Punjab and the northern Thar Desert to determine the origins and ages of those sediments and develop a timeline of landscape changes.

"It was challenging working in the desert — temperatures were over 110 degrees Fahrenheit all day long (43 degrees C)," Giosan recalled.

After collecting data on geological history, "we could reexamine what we know about settlements, what crops people were planting and when, and how both agriculture and settlement patterns changed," said researcher Dorian Fuller, an archaeologist with University College London. "This brought new insights into the process of eastward population shift, the change towards many more small farming communities, and the decline of cities during late Harappan times."

Some had suggested that the Harappan heartland received its waters from a large glacier-fed Himalayan river, thought by some to be the Sarasvati, a sacred river of Hindu mythology. However, the researchers found that only rivers fed by monsoon rains flowed through the region.

Previous studies suggest the Ghaggar, an intermittent river that flows only during strong monsoons, may best approximate the location of the Sarasvati. Archaeological evidence suggested the river, which dissipates into the desert along the dried course of Hakra valley, was home to intensive settlement during Harappan times.

"We think we settled a long controversy about the mythic Sarasvati River," Giosan said.

Initially, the monsoon-drenched rivers the researchers identified were prone to devastating floods. Over time, monsoons weakened, enabling agriculture and civilization to flourish along flood-fed riverbanks for nearly 2,000 years.

"The insolation — the solar energy received by the Earth from the sun — varies in cycles, which can impact monsoons," Giosan said. "In the last 10,000 years, the Northern Hemisphere had the highest insolation from 7,000 to 5,000 years ago, and since then insolation there decreased. All climate on Earth is driven by the sun, and so the monsoons were affected by the lower insolation, decreasing in force. This meant less rain got into continental regions affected by monsoons over time."

Eventually, these monsoon-based rivers held too little water and dried, making them unfavorable for civilization.

"The Harappans were an enterprising people taking advantage of a window of opportunity — a kind of "Goldilocks civilization," Giosan said.

Eventually, over the course of centuries, Harappans apparently fled along an escape route to the east toward the Ganges basin, where monsoon rains remained reliable.

"We can envision that this eastern shift involved a change to more localized forms of economy — smaller communities supported by local rain-fed farming and dwindling streams," Fuller said. "This may have produced smaller surpluses, and would not have supported large cities, but would have been reliable."

This change would have spelled disaster for the cities of the Indus, which were built on the large surpluses seen during the earlier, wetter era. The dispersal of the population to the east would have meant there was no longer a concentrated workforce to support urbanism.

"Cities collapsed, but smaller agricultural communities were sustainable and flourished," Fuller said. "Many of the urban arts, such as writing, faded away, but agriculture continued and actually diversified."

These findings could help guide future archaeological explorations of the Indus civilization. Researchers can now better guess which settlements might have been more significant, based on their relationships with rivers, Giosan said.

It remains uncertain how monsoons will react to modern climate change. "If we take the devastating floods that caused the largest humanitarian disaster in Pakistan's history as a sign of increased monsoon activity, than this doesn't bode well for the region," Giosan said. "The region has the largest irrigation scheme in the world, and all those dams and channels would become obsolete in the face of the large floods an increased monsoon would bring."

California baseball team pulls off terrific trick play to perfection

2012-05-29T10:36:00.002-07:00

Pick off plays always carry a prime opportunity for embarrassment, either for the pitcher — if his throw is too high or off line — or the runner, if he happened to stray too far from off base. Still, few pick off plays have ever been more embarrassing than the trick attempt employed by the Delano (Cal.) High baseball team in the video you see below.

As noted by the blog It's Always Sunny in Detroit, with two outs and the bases loaded, Delano desperately needed a way to get out of an inning without allowing any more runs. Rather than risk giving up a game-changing hit, Delano coach Dan Paulson called for a trick play the team calls "El Black."

Now, let's walk through the crafty piece of baseball be-devilment known as El Black, shall we? First, the unnamed pitcher faked a pickoff throw to second base. As soon as he did so, the second baseman rushed over as if he was covering the bag and preparing for a throw.

The trick, of course, was that the throw never came. While everyone in the field reacted as if the ball had soared into the outfield, the pitcher himself still held the ball in his glove. Not knowing this, the runner on third base skipped his way toward home assuming that he could practically trot in with an easy run … only for the pitcher to swivel and gun him out at home with a bullet of a throw from the mound.

The play is a terrifically executed elementary trick play, perhaps second only to the hidden ball trick. While the fake to second certainly isn't unheard of, it's rarely pulled off as cleanly as it was in Delano.

Of course, the bad news is that the Tigers' success with the trick play in such a key situation will almost certainly raise other people's awareness about the risk of the fake to second play, which will in turn decrease the chance of it being successful again in the future.

That takes nothing away from Delano's successful foray with El Black, not to mention the guts it took to call such a play in a key moment of a game.

Egypt protesters torch candidate's HQ

2012-05-28T23:52:00.000-07:00

Demonstrators furious that Hosni Mubarak's last prime minister made it into the run-off for the country's presidential election set ablaze his campaign headquarters on Monday, underscoring the divisive outcome of the nation's historic vote.

The campaign offices of Ahmed Shafiq, viewed as a symbol of Mubarak's rule, were set on fire after a group of protesters broke into and vandalized the premises, the state news agency reported. An official in the fire service confirmed the blaze had been extinguished without causing any casualties.

Several thousand protesters took to the streets across Egypt to demonstrate against the first-round result - a run-off between Shafiq and the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi, two of the most controversial figures in the field.

Troubled flared in Cairo's Tahrir Square when activists said unknown assailants attacked one such protest. Rocks were thrown in scenes reminiscent of other spasms of violence in a messy transition from military rule that is due to end with the election of the president.

The April 6 movement, one of the group's that spearheaded the 2011 revolt against Mubarak, said on its Facebook page that the Tahrir protest had been attacked by unknown "thugs".

Analysts had predicted that a Shafiq-Mursi run-off could trigger trouble, leading to a ballot box struggle between a symbol of the military-based autocracy of the last six decades and one of the Islamist movements it had oppressed.

Can Egypt's voters force candidates to compromise?

The result is deeply disappointing to the activist movement that took to the streets on January 25, 2011, inciting the protests that toppled Mubarak. They had seen other candidates as more representative of their hopes for change.

One of those candidates, Khaled Ali, joined a protest in Tahrir Square, where the numbers grew into the night.

"Revolutionaries! Free! We will complete the march!" chanted some 2,000 demonstrators as they made their way through the centre of Cairo, a short distance from Tahrir Square, the cradle of the uprising that toppled Mubarak.

Though both Mursi and Shafiq have sizeable constituencies, the result has left the many Egyptians who voted for neither with a wrenching choice between a symbol of the past autocracy and an Islamist group that arouses deep suspicions for some.

Mursi topped the poll with 24.3 percent of the vote, followed by Shafiq with 23.3 percent. Turnout was 46 percent, according to official results released on Monday.

About half of the first-round votes went to candidates somewhere in the middle ground - from leftist Hamdeen Sabahy, third-placed with 20.4 percent, to moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Abol Fotouh, with 17.2 percent, and former Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa, with 10.9 percent.

"Neither Brotherhood or feloul," said Mahmoud Momen, a 19-year old student, invoking the word used in Egyptian political slang to refer to politicians who served in the Mubarak administration. He had voted for Abol Fotouh.

"We want someone who represents the square," added Momen, holding aloft a picture of Shafiq with black X daubed over his face as he took part in the Cairo march.

Another protester, a 19-year old student who identified himself as Omar, said the vote had been rigged, triggering an argument with a bystander who disputed the claim.

Similar protests erupted in Alexandria on Egypt's northern Mediterranean coast and Port Said, Ismailia and Suez, cities along the Suez Canal east of Cairo.

In Alexandria, some 2,000 protesters marched through the city, tearing up Shafiq and Mursi election posters they encountered along their way.

Abol Fotouh, Sabahy and Moussa filed complaints about the voting, all of which were rejected by the six judges forming the electoral committee.

The disputes add rancor to an already messy and often bloody transition to democracy since generals took over from Mubarak when a street revolt forced him out on February 11, 2011.

"I reject these results and do not recognize them," said Abol Fotouh, a former Brotherhood member, alleging that votes had been bought and representatives of candidates had been denied access to polling stations during the count.

Moussa said earlier that "question marks" hung over the vote. "There were violations, but this should not change our minds on democracy and the necessity of choosing our president."

The Muslim Brotherhood sought to muster a coalition to help Mursi against Shafiq, who calls Mubarak a role model.

The close contest has set both contenders scrambling for support, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, which is trying to draw losing candidates and other political forces into a broad front to prevent a "counter-revolutionary" Shafiq victory.

The ultra-orthodox Salafi Islamist party Al-Nour has said it will now back Mursi, after siding with Abol Fotouh in the first round. The party has the second biggest bloc in parliament after the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party.

U.S winds down longer benefits for the unemployed

2012-05-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of thousands of out-of-work Americans are receiving their final unemployment checks sooner than they expected, even though Congress renewed extended benefits until the end of the year.

The checks are stopping for the people who have the most difficulty finding work: the long-term unemployed. More than five million people have been out of work for longer than half a year. Federal benefit extensions, which supplemented state funds for payments up to 99 weeks, were intended to tide over the unemployed until the job market improved.

In February, when the program was set to expire, Congress renewed it, but also phased in a reduction of the number of weeks of extended aid and effectively made it more difficult for states to qualify for the maximum aid. Since then, the jobless in 23 states have lost up to five months’ worth of benefits.

Out of benefits even as job picture improves

Next month, an additional 70,000 people will lose benefits earlier than they presumed, bringing the number of people cut off prematurely this year to close to half a million, according to the National Employment Law Project. That estimate does not include people who simply exhausted the weeks of benefits they were entitled to.

Separate from the Congressional action, some states are making it harder to qualify for the first few months of benefits, which are covered by taxes on employers. Florida, where the jobless rate is 8.7 percent, has cut the number of weeks it will pay and changed its application procedures, with more than half of all applicants now being denied.

The federal extension of jobless benefits has been a contentious issue in Washington. Republicans worry that it prolongs joblessness and say it has not kept the unemployment rate down, while Democrats argue that those out of work have few alternatives and that the checks are one of the most effective forms of stimulus, since most of it is spent immediately.

After the most recent compromise reached in February, another renewal seems unlikely.

The expiration of benefits is one factor contributing to what many economists refer to as a “fiscal cliff,” or a drag on the economy at the end of this year when tax cuts and recession-related spending measures will all come to an end unless Congress acts. The Congressional Budget Office warned last week that the combination could contribute to another recession next year.

Candace Falkner, 50, got her last unemployment check in mid-May, when extended benefits were curtailed in eight states. Since then she has applied for food stamps and begun a commission-only, door-to-door sales job. Since losing her job two years ago, Ms. Falkner said, she has earned a master’s degree in psychology and applied for work at numerous social service agencies as well as places like Walmart, but no offers came.

Jobless claims steady as labor market grows tepidly

Ms. Falkner, who lives on the outskirts of Chicago, said she was grateful for the checks she received. But when they ended, she said, “They should have had some program in place to funnel those people back into the job market. Not to just leave them out there cold, saying, ‘The job market has improved, but there’s still 60,000 people in the city who can’t find one.’ ”

Unemployment is lower than it was when the emergency unemployment extensions were ramped up in November 2009. Now, it is 8.1 percent, down from 9.9 percent then. But it is still far higher than pre-recession norms, and there are more than three job seekers for every opening.

Proponents of extended benefits say the cuts are premature. Chad Stone, the chief economist at the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said Congress had never before put the brakes on extended benefits when the labor market was so weak. “It’s moving in the wrong direction, and it’s occurring at a time when unemployment is very high,” he said.

Conservative economists and political leaders have argued that unemployment benefits prolong joblessness and simply transfer wealth from one area of the economy to another without contributing to growth.

Kevin A. Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said, “I haven’t liked the 99-week solution from the beginning because it creates an environment where people are subsidized to become a structural unemployment problem.”

Still, he is troubled by the latest developments. “If you just reduce the weeks of unemployment for people already unemployed but don’t do anything else, it’s a bad deal,” he said, “because they’re already about the worst-off people in society.”

He points to alternatives like using unemployment money to encourage entrepreneurship or paying benefits in a lump sum, rather than over time, to encourage people to find work faster.

Most states offer 26 weeks of unemployment benefits, plus the federal extensions that kicked in after the financial crash.

The number of extra weeks available by state is determined by several factors, including the state’s unemployment rate and whether it is higher than three years earlier. So states like California have had benefits cut even though the unemployment rate there is still almost 11 percent.

“Benefits have ended not because economic conditions have improved, but because they have not significantly deteriorated in the past three years,” Hannah Shaw, a researcher at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, wrote in a blog post. In May, an estimated 95,000 people lost benefits in California.

Flat jobless claims raise worries about job market

After the recession, 99 weeks became a symbol of the plight of the jobless, with those who exhausted their benefits calling themselves “99 weekers” or “99ers.” But by the end of September, the extended benefits will end in the last three states providing 99 weeks of assistance — Nevada, New Jersey and Rhode Island.

Some states have tightened eligibility as well. Nationwide, most people apply for benefits by phone. Last August, Florida began requiring people to apply online and to complete a 45-minute test to assess their job skills, according to a complaint submitted to the federal labor secretary by the National Employment Law Project and Florida Legal Services.

The complaint said that applicants with limited Internet access or English skills, disabilities or difficulty reading had effectively been shut out, and that failure to complete the assessment was illegally being used to deny benefits. Denials have soared; now just over half of applicants are rejected. Nationally, 30 percent of applicants are rejected, according to the law project.

The changes have saved the state $2.7 million, according to James Miller, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. The state’s unemployment rate, he pointed out, has declined for 10 straight months. “The Department of Economic Opportunity provides accommodations to individuals with barriers to filing their claims,” he wrote in an e-mail. “D.E.O. welcomes any review and is certain that Florida’s statutory changes are in full compliance with federal law.”

The Labor Department is reviewing Florida’s unemployment program in response to multiple complaints, a spokesman said.

Powerful ''Flame'' cyber weapon found in Iran

2012-05-28T22:53:00.001-07:00

Security experts said on Monday a highly sophisticated computer virus is infecting computers in Iranand other Middle East countries and may have been deployed at least five years ago to engage in state-sponsored cyber espionage.

Evidence suggest that the virus, dubbed Flame, may have been built on behalf of the same nation or nations that commissioned the Stuxnet worm that attacked Iran's nuclear program in 2010, according to Kaspersky Lab, the Russian cyber security software maker that took credit for discovering the infections.

Kaspersky researchers said they have yet to determine whether Flame had a specific mission like Stuxnet, and declined to say who they think built it.

Iran has accused the United States and Israel of deploying Stuxnet.

Cyber security experts said the discovery publicly demonstrates what experts privy to classified information have long known: that nations have been using pieces of malicious computer code as weapons to promote their security interests for several years.

"This is one of many, many campaigns that happen all the time and never make it into the public domain," said Alexander Klimburg, a cyber security expert at the Austrian Institute for International Affairs.

A cyber security agency in Iransaid on its English website that Flame bore a "close relation" to Stuxnet, the notorious computer worm that attacked that country's nuclear program in 2010 and is the first publicly known example of a cyber weapon.

Iran's National Computer Emergency Response Team also said Flame might be linked to recent cyber attacks that officials in Tehran have said were responsible for massive data losses on some Iranian computer systems.

Kaspersky Labsaid it discovered Flame after a U.N. telecommunications agency asked it to analyze data on malicious software across the Middle East in search of the data-wiping virus reported by Iran.

STUXNET CONNECTION

Experts at Kaspersky Laband Hungary's Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security who have spent weeks studying Flame said they have yet to find any evidence that it can attack infrastructure, delete data or inflict other physical damage.

Yet they said they are in the early stages of their investigations and that they may discover other purposes beyond data theft. It took researchers months to determine the key mysteries behind Stuxnet, including the purpose of modules used to attack a uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, Iran.

If Kaspersky's findings are validated, Flame could go down in history as the third major cyber weapon uncovered after Stuxnet and its data-stealing cousin Duqu, named after the Star Wars villain.

The Moscow-based company is controlled by Russian malware researcher Eugene Kaspersky. It gained notoriety after solving several mysteries surrounding Stuxnet and Duqu.

Officials with Symantec Corp and Intel Corp McAfee security division, the top 2 makers of anti-virus software, said they were studying Flame.

"It seems to be more complex than Duqu but it's too early to tell its place in history," said Dave Marcus, director of advanced research and threat intelligence with McAfee.

Symantec Security Response manager Vikram Thakur said that his company's experts believed there was a "high" probability that Flame was among the most complex pieces of malicious software ever discovered.

At least one rival of Kaspersky expressed skepticism.

Privately held Webroot said its automatic virus-scanning engines detected Flame in December 2007, but that it did not pay much attention because the code was not particularly menacing.

That is partly because it was easy to discover and remove, said Webroot Vice President Joe Jaroch. "There are many more dangerous threats out there today," he said.

MAPPING IT OUT

Kaspersky's research shows the largest number of infected machines are in Iran, followed by Israel and the Palestinian territories, then Sudan and Syria.

The virus contains about 20 times as much code as Stuxnet, which caused centrifuges to fail at the Iranian enrichment facility it attacked. It has about 100 times as much code as a typical virus designed to steal financial information, said Kaspersky Lab senior researcher Roel Schouwenberg.

Flame can gather data files, remotely change settings on computers, turn on PC microphones to record conversations, take screen shots and log instant messaging chats.

Kaspersky Labsaid Flame and Stuxnet appear to infect machines by exploiting the same flaw in the Windows operating system and that both viruses employ a similar way of spreading.

That means the teams that built Stuxnet and Duqu might have had access to the same technology as the team that built Flame, Schouwenberg said.

He said that a nation state would have the capability to build such a sophisticated tool, but declined to comment on which countries might do so.

The question of who built flame is sure to become a hot topic in the security community as well as the diplomatic world.

There is some controversy over who was behind Stuxnet and Duqu. Some experts suspect the United States and Israel, a view that was laid out in a January 2011 New York Times report that said it came from a joint program begun around 2004 to undermine what they say are Iran's efforts to build a bomb.

The U.S. Defense Department, CIA, State Department, National Security Agency, and U.S. Cyber Command declined to comment.

Hungarian researcher Boldizsar Bencsath, whose Laboratory of Cryptography and Systems Security first discovered Duqu, said his analysis shows that Flame may have been active for at least five years and perhaps eight years or more.

That implies it was active long before Stuxnet.

"It's huge and overly complex, which makes me think it's a first-generation data gathering tool," said Neil Fisher, vice president for global security solutions at Unisys Corp. "We are going to find more of these things over time."

Others said cyber weapons technology has inevitably advanced since Flame was built.

"The scary thing for me is: if this is what they were capable of five years ago, I can only think what they are developing now," Mohan Koo, managing director of British-based Dtex Systems cyber security company.

Some experts speculated that the discovery of the virus may have dealt a psychological blow to its victims, on top of whatever damage Flame may have already inflicted to their computers.

"If a government initiated the attack it might not care that the attack was discovered," said Klimburg of the Austrian Institute for International Affairs. "The psychological effect of the penetration could be nearly as profitable as the intelligence gathered."

(Additional reporting by Jim Wolf in Washington, Daniel Fineran in Dubai and William Maclean in London; editing by Edward Tobin, Ron Popeski and Mohammad Zargham)

Pregnant Woman & her unborn baby survive being abducted, set on fire, shot

2012-05-28T00:17:00.001-07:00

A 22-year-old pregnant woman and her unborn baby are alive expected to live after being kidnapped, set on fire and shot in Warren, Mich., police said.

The woman, who is nine months pregnant, told police she was dropping her ex-boyfriend at his new girlfriend's home early Saturday morning after seeing a drive-in movie. After they pulled into the garage and got out of the car, the garage door closed unexpectedly, she told police.

"The next thing she knew she was grabbed by the throat and a gun was put to her head," Warren Police Commissioner Jere Green told ABC News affiliate WXYZ-TV in Detroit. "She was ordered to the ground."

Duct tape was placed over her mouth and wrapped around her hands and feet, and she was blindfolded, before being put back into her car and driven to an alley in Detroit, Green said.

"She didn't know where she was at the time," Warren police Sgt. Dave Geffert told the Detroit Free Press.

The man who kidnapped her indicated that it was because of her pregnancy.

"[The suspect] said 'you know why this is happening' and then he asked her about how far along she was," Green said.

The woman told police she felt liquid being poured on her, heard a match strike and then was set on fire.

"She was able to get out of the car and start rolling on the ground, trying to put the fire out," Green said. "And when that happened, two shots were fired and she was struck once in the back."

The woman played dead, and the man left, police said.

"Right after the assailant had shot her, he fled the scene," Geffert told the Free Press. "I'm saying 'he' because she reported a male voice, unknown description."

She freed herself from the duct tape and drove to her mother's house in Detroit. Her mother took her to the hospital.

Police took the woman's ex-boyfriend into custody on Saturday and named him a person of interest in the case. He had not called 911 when she was kidnapped, police said.

A possible motive is the boyfriend not wanting another baby, police said.

An ultrasound performed after the attack showed the baby is healthy, police said, and the woman is expected to recover.

Gordon Ramsay taken off on stretcher after getting flattened in Soccer Aid Match

2012-05-28T00:01:00.000-07:00

The biennial Soccer Aid match benefiting UNICEF was once again held at Old Trafford on Sunday, pitting England against the Rest of the World. As usual, both teams were comprised of a mix of celebrities and football legends, but this year one of those celebrities probably regretted stepping on the pitch with one of those legends.

Playing for the Rest of the World team along with the likes of Will Ferrell, Gerard Butler, Mike Myers, Ed Norton and Woody Harrelson (who scored the winning penalty two years ago) under recently sacked Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish (see full rosters here), chef and profanity connoisseur Gordon Ramsay was taken off on a stretcher an hour into the game after former Manchester United striker Teddy Sheringham smashed into him.

Ramsay, who was a trialist with Rangers in his younger days before a knee injury ended his hopes of a career as a footballer, didn't get much sympathy from Sheringham after the hit. Instead, the England striker gave him a pat on the face as Ramsay winced in pain before being carried off and replaced by "X-Men: First Class" actor James McAvoy.

England (under manager Sam Allardyce) went on to win the match 3-1 with their first goal coming from Sheringham himself just nine minutes after crushing Ramsay, but the goal of the day belonged to the RotW team's Serge Pizzorno, lead guitarist for Kasabian, who chipped a beauty over legendary Arsenal keeper David Seaman.

"I told my careers adviser I wanted to be centre forward for Leicester City. When he said 'No' I thought I'd be in a rock 'n' roll band," Pizzorno said before the match, showing that he was a bit too easily swayed as a youth.

Reds todd Frazier loses bat, still connects for home run

2012-05-27T23:36:00.001-07:00

The baseball was flying at the Great American Ballpark on Sunday, where the Rockies and Reds combined to hit a stadium record nine home runs in Cincinnati's 7-5 victory. That barrage included Todd Frazier's solo home run off Jamie Moyer — the fourth he allowed in as many innings — that sailed comfortably into the seats above the left field scoreboard.

Frazier's blast wasn't the longest home run of the afternoon. That distinction belonged to Michael Cuddyer, who hit one 448 feet to center field one half inning later. But Frazier's was by far the most impressive, because he practically did it with no hands.

Yes, you read that correctly. And if you've watched the video, what you saw actually happened. The bat slipped completely out of Frazier's hands as he made contact with Moyer's 72 mph changeup, and it nearly ended up in the pitcher's lap 60 feet from home plate. Yet the ball kept carrying, and carrying, and carrying, all the way to Frazier's fifth home run of the season.

''I felt the bat slipping out of my hands,'' Frazier said. ''I looked at the (slow motion) and it looks like my bottom hand is off. At first, I thought it was a short popup, but then I took a couple of steps and said, 'Oh.' It's a pretty interesting way to hit a home run. It was a pretty cool.''

If you look at the same motion replay Frazier is referencing — it's in the video above or at the :35 mark of this Twitvid — you can clearly see Frazier's right hand is completely off the bat, while his left hand barely holds on. Then comes the contact that led to the incredible result and the bat goes flying.

Truly an odd home run. And truly an odd baseball game in that Reds starter Mat Latos allowed five runs in seven plus innings without ever entering the stretch. That's because all five hits he allowed were solo homers.

Like I said, the ball was flying on this Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati, and for the first time perhaps in their history, a Rockies pitching staff is boarding an airplane on their way back to Coors Field, and actually looking forward to it.

Michelle Obama going to Atlantic city to watch Beyonce concert

2012-05-27T06:23:00.000-07:00

Michelle Obama jetted in to Atlantic City last night to join 5,500 fans at a Beyonce concert.

The first lady was with daughters Sasha and Malia - but without her husband - at Revel Resorts, where Beyonce performed two dozen songs Saturday night.

The First Lady has made no secret of her admiration for the superstar - recently naming Beyonce as the person she would most like to be if she could be anyone else.

Governor Chris Christie was among the sell-out crowd packed into Revel's Ovation Hall.

Mrs Obama and the girls appeared excited throughout the concert, cheering Beyonce on. The daughters even sang along to the old school-sounding jam Love On Top.

The first lady got a roaring cheer that matched Beyonce's as she made her way to her seat in a shiny green dress.

Some fans took photos while others screamed her name. One yelled, 'This is history!'

Mrs Obama is due back in Washington on Monday for Memorial Day events before she heads to New York to continue promoting her new book about the White House Kitchen Garden.

Still got it: Beyonce performs for a sold out audience at the Revel Ovation Hall in Atlantic City on Friday night. It was her first show since having daughter Blue Ivy in January

In an interview promoting her book American Grown, Mrs Obama told People magazine: 'I'd be Beyonce. I'd be some great singer... It looks like musicians just have the most fun.’

Beyonce’s three-night stint of concerts are the main attraction at the opening of the $2.4 billion mega resort in Atlantic City. The tickets for the shows over Memorial Day weekend sold out within one minute.

The First Lady will have brought the tickets herself although the bill for jetting to the concert could well be picked up by taxpayers.

Mrs Obama is unlikely to be disappointed by her idol who won rave reviews for her first performance last night.

USA Today's Elysa Gardner wrote: 'Backed by an all-female band and a tireless posse of dancers and backup vocalists, Beyonce reasserted her unique pop persona; she was at once angel and seductress, cool diva and woman of the people.

The gig was the first time Beyonce had performed since giving birth to her daughter, Blue, in January.

Speaking to the 5,500 fans at the Ovation Hall in the Revel, the 30-year-old said: 'I gotta say, it feels so good to be back home on stage.'

And the singer flaunted her post-pregnancy curves in custom-made costumes designed by Ralph & Russo, who used 500,000 Swarovski Elements crystals to create the show-stopping look.

In an open letter Beyonce praised the First Lady as the 'ultimate example of a truly strong African-American woman.'

The pop-star posted the handwritten missive on her website last month where she wrote that she was 'proud to have my daughter grow up in a world where she has people like you to look up to.'
Beyonce and her husband, rapper Jay-Z, have been prominent supporters of the Obamas since his 2008 presidential campaign.
Beyonce performed at Barack Obama's inaugural ball in 2009, where she sang the Etta James song At Last.
In 2010 the former Destiny’s Child singer took to the stage at the White House State dinner where the Obama’s hosted Mexican president Felipe Calderon.
More recently the singer has designed a T-shirt for the Runway To Win initiative, which is raising funds for the Obama re-election campaign, and last year she joined the First Lady in a Let's Move flash workout event.

Rondo leads Celtics to 85-75 game 7 win over 76ers

2012-05-27T05:36:00.002-07:00

BOSTON To Doug Collins, Boston's Big Three is already a memory.

''I don't look at them as the Big Three. I look at them as the Championship Four,'' the Philadelphia coach said. ''Because if you're going to leave Rondo out, you're making a huge mistake.''
Rajon Rondo helped his aging teammates keep their season going Saturday night, finishing with 18 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds in Game 7 against the 76ers to lead Boston to an 85-75 victory and into an Eastern Conference finals matchup with the Miami Heat.
The Celtics will open the third round of the NBA playoffs in Miami on Monday night.
''I've already packed,'' Celticscoach Doc Rivers said. ''We'll be ready. It's going to be a tough turnaround, but we're not an excuse team. We'll be ready on Monday.''
Bouncing back from his worst game of the playoffs - and snapping out of a 32-minute slump in which he had just two assists and five points - Rondo scored nine straight Boston points after Paul Pierce fouled out to help the Celtics turn a three-point edge into a double-digit lead.
Rondo had 11 points in the fourth quarter, including his first 3-pointer in five games, made all four of his free throws down the stretch and grabbed his 10th rebound in the final minute - chucking it over his head and into the frontcourt to help the Celtics dribble down the clock.
''He really came through,'' Sixers guard Jrue Holiday said. ''He put the team on his back.''
Andre Iguodala scored 18 points, and Holiday and Elton Brand had 15 apiece for the 76ers, who eliminated the top-seeded Chicago Bulls in the first round but couldn't do the same with the Celtics.
Kevin Garnett had 18 points and 13 rebounds for Boston, and Ray Allen hit a pair of fourth-quarter 3-pointers after missing his first five attempts.
''Ray is the ultimate gunslinger,'' Rivers said. ''That's what makes great players great. I was a basketball player someday, and I would have never taken that shot.''
Pierce had 15 points and nine rebounds before fouling out with 4:16 left.
That's when Rondo took over.

The point guard, who had nine points and a playoff-low six assists in the Game 6 loss in Philadelphia, scored on a baseline drive and followed it up with a long 2-pointer (originally scored a 3) with 2:47 left. Then he made a 3-pointer with a little more than 2 minutes left to make it a 10-pont game and, after Brand scored on a tip-in, Rondo went to the line as the crowd chanted ''M-V-P! M-V-P!'' and hit a pair of free throws to leave Boston with an 80-70 lead with 1:44 left.
The Celticswill now face the actual NBA MVP - LeBron James - along with Dwyane Wade and the rest of the Heat. Miami advanced to the conference finals by eliminating the Indiana Pacers in six games.
Miami beat Boston in five games in the conference semifinals last year. In 2010, the Celticseliminated the Heat in the first round and then knocked James and the Cavaliers out in the second - his final game with Cleveland before defecting to Miami.
''Last year is in the past,'' Rondo said. ''This year we're a totally different team. We feel we can beat Miami. We got to this point; there's no doubt in my mind we can. We've got to go down there and take care of business.''
Philadelphia had one last chance with 100 seconds to play after Holiday made a 3-pointer to cut it to seven points. Pierce was left with nothing to do but cheerlead, waving his arms to encourage the crowd as Garnett went to the line with just under a minute left.
He made one of two, but Holiday lost the ball on the way to the basket and Rondo made a pair of free throws with 54 seconds left. Allen made a pair as the crowd chanted ''Beat the Heat!''
Jodie Meeks' 3-pointer rimmed out, the ball bounced to the floor and Rondo got his hands on it to complete the triple-double.
Pierce picked up two fouls seven seconds apart with about 8 minutes to play, then his fifth with 5:16 left. Rivers left him in, and Pierce picked up No. 6 a minute later - a charging call against Thaddeus Young out by the free throw line.
Notes: Boston got off to a fast start, taking a 10-2 lead thanks to four assists and two rebounds from Rondo in the first 3 minutes. ... The Celticsmissed their first 14 attempts from 3-point range and made their last three. ... Seven of the first nine fouls were called against the Celtics. ... It was the 25th anniversary of Larry Bird's steal, and pass to Dennis Johnson, on Isiah Thomas' inbounds pass to beat Detroit in the 1987 playoffs. ... CNN anchor John King, a Boston native, took in the game from courtside. ... Philadelphia shot 28 percent from the floor in the first half.

Beryl threatens rain, winds on southeast US coast

2012-05-27T05:19:00.002-07:00

Subtropical storm Beryl began moving faster toward an expected landfall Sunday night on the Southeast U.S. coast, threatening Memorial Day beachgoers with forecast conditions of dangerous surf and drenching rains from northeast Florida up through a swath of the Carolinas.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the entire Georgia coastline, as well as parts of Florida and South Carolina, the National Hurricane Center said. Forecasters at the center in Miami said the system of powerful thunderstorms was expected to make landfall sometime Sunday night in the region.

Beryl was technically considered a "subtropical storm," but the system of menacing storms was expected to bring winds and rain to the area regardless of its official classification.

At 5 a.m. EDT Sunday, Beryl was centered about 175 miles southeast of Savannah. Forecasters said the system had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph and was moving toward the west-southwest at 10 mph — up from a forward speed of 7 mph reported hours earlier.

Tropical storm conditions — meaning maximum sustained winds of 45 mph — were expected to reach the coast late Sunday morning or afternoon and continue through the night. Three to six inches of rain were forecast for a wide area from northern Florida up the coast to the southeastern portion of North Carolina. Some coastal flooding also was in the forecast, as the rain could cause high tides.

Dangerous surf conditions, including rip currents, are possible from northeast Florida to North Carolina in the coming hours, forecasters added.

Meanwhile, little change in strength was expected before Beryl makes landfall and the storm system was then expected to weaken to a depression Monday once ashore, the center said.

The Southeast coast is popular with tourists who visit the beaches and wilderness areas and generally throng to many of its beach communities and resort towns each Memorial Day weekend.

"A three-day thunderstorm is what it's probably going to be," said Jay Wiggins, emergency management director for Glynn County, which is about 60 miles south of Savannah and includes Brunswick and St. Simons Island in Georgia. "Unfortunately, it's going to ruin a lot of Memorial Day plans."

Wiggins said he expects some flooded roadways and scattered power outages, perhaps some minor flooding in waterfront homes, but otherwise little damage. However, he urged beachgoers to beware of dangerous rip currents.

On Tybee Island, home to Georgia's largest public beach east of Savannah, employees at Amy Gaster's home and condo rental business were making sure arriving guests were aware of the approaching storm during the weekend. Gaster said her 180 rentals were sold out and nobody was canceling plans or asking to check out early.

While Georgia hasn't taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in 114 years, the last time a tropical storm made landfall here was in August 1988. Tropical Storm Chris hit near Savannah but did little damage as it pushed northward into South Carolina.

In South Carolina, Beaufort County Emergency Management deputy director David Zeoli said Saturday that word went out to first-responders along the coast near the Georgia line to pay attention to the storm's progress.

'Star Wars' celebrates 35th Anniversary

2012-05-25T23:57:00.001-07:00

Thirty-five years ago, Hollywood changed forever. "Star Wars" hit cinemas on May 25, 1977. But, while the film went on to be one of the biggest blockbusters of all time and launched sequels, prequels, TV shows, action figures, LEGO sets, and more, you may be surprised to learn that on its opening day, only a modest number of folks got to see it. That's because the film opened in just 32 theaters across the nation. It opened on a Wednesday. By Friday, it had expanded to a whopping 43 theaters. Contrast that to Marvel's "The Avengers," which opened in 4,349 theaters, according to Box Office Mojo.

Of course, there are a lot more movie theaters now than there were in 1977. But, according to a stellar article from in70mm.com, other "big" films from 1977 opened with far greater numbers. For example, the highly anticipated but critically lambasted "Exorcist II: The Heretic" opened in more than 700 theaters. Martin Scorsese's "New York, New York" opened in more than 400.

Nobody anticipated that the film was going to be such a hit. The number of theaters showing "Star Wars" expanded once word got out that the film was selling out. Twentieth Century Fox, the distributor of the film, made as many copies as quickly as it could. It must have done a pretty good job, because "Star Wars" (or as it is now known "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope") ended up taking in hundreds of millions of bucks and became a part of American culture.

In the book "The Making of Star Wars," creator George Lucas explains that he was still working on the film's sound the day it opened. "I could see this huge crowd in front of Graumann's Chinese (Theater) -- limos -- and I thought someone must be premiering a movie. It never occurred to me that my movie was out, because I was still working on it."

Is China poor? Key question at climate talks

2012-05-25T23:35:00.003-07:00

Another round of U.N. climate talks closed without resolving how to share the burden of curbing man-made global warming, mainly because countries don't agree on who is rich and who is poor.

China wants to maintain a decades-old division between developed and developing countries, bearing in mind that, historically, the West has released most of the heat-trapping gases that scientists say could cause catastrophic changes in climate.

But the U.S. and Europe insisted during the two-week talks that ended Friday in Bonn that the system doesn't reflect current economic realities and must change as work begins on a new global climate pact set to be completed in 2015.

"The notion that a simple binary system is going to be applicable going forward is no longer one that has much relevance to the way the world currently works," U.S. chief negotiator Jonathan Pershing said.

Countries like Qatar and Singapore are wealthier than the U.S. per capita but are still defined as developing countries under the classification used in the U.N. talks. So is China, the world's second largest economy.

Finding a new system that better reflects the world today, while also acknowledging the historical blame for greenhouse gas emissions, is the biggest challenge facing the U.N. process as it seeks a global response to climate change.

"That is a fundamental issue," said Henrik Harboe, Norway's chief climate negotiator. "Some want to keep the old division while we want to look at it in a more dynamic way."

The U.N. climate talks are based on the premise that industrialized countries must take the lead on climate change by committing to reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. They are also expected to provide money to help poor countries grow in a sustainable way and to protect the most vulnerable nations from rising sea levels, droughts and other consequences of a warming world

Disputes on how to categorize countries going forward was behind much of the procedural wrangling that slowed down the talks in Bonn. Delegates failed to agree on an agenda until the last day, leaving most of the work for a bigger summit in Qatar in November.

A separate dispute between developing countries delayed the appointment of officials to steer the talks. That stalemate was also unlocked on the last day.

The slow pace frustrated climate activists who fear that there won't be enough political will to rein in emissions to avoid dangerous levels of warming in coming decades.

"The talk here doesn't match the action that science says is required," said Mohamed Adow, senior climate change adviser at Christian Aid.

China's lead negotiator Su Wei told The Associated Press that the proposed new deal, which would have binding commitments for all countries after 2020, must be based on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibility" enshrined in previous climate agreements.

"That means we still would continue the current division between developed and developing countries," Su said.

He said China is still a developing country because if you look at wealth per capita, it barely makes the world's top 100. More than 100 million Chinese live below the poverty line, which Beijing has defined as about $1 a day.

Still, Western officials say China's fast-growing energy needs and rising emissions mean it can no longer be off the hook in climate negotiations.

"We need to move into a system which is reflecting modern economic realities," EU negotiator Christian Pilgaard Zinglersen said.

In the early 1950s, China accounted for just 2 percent of global emissions while the U.S. accounted for more than 40 percent, according to Climate Analytics, a climate research group based in Potsdam, Germany.

Today China's share of global emissions exceeds 25 percent, while the U.S. share has fallen toward 20 percent.

China and its supporters reject blame for stalling the climate talks, saying it is the U.S. and other developed nations that are unwilling to live up to their obligations to cut carbon emissions.

The U.S. refused to join the only binding accord to limit emissions — the 1997 Kyoto Protocol — partly because it didn't include China.

Seyni Nafo, spokesman for a group of African countries in the climate talks, noted that the U.S. also said that joining Kyoto would harm the U.S. economy. Years later, the U.N. climate effort still has little support in the U.S. Congress, which includes outspoken climate skeptics.

"We are hoping that they will get on board this time, which is not a given," Nafo said.

France President Outlines early pullout from Afghanistan

2012-05-25T08:58:00.003-07:00

French President Francois Hollande says he plans to pull all of his country's 2,000 combat troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, but that France will continue to support the war-torn country.

During an unannounced visit to Afghanistan Friday, Hollande said some 1,300 other troops will remain in the country in a support role. They will be training Afghan security forces and looking after equipment.

The newly-elected French leader said the early withdrawal will be closely coordinated with the Afghan government and NATO allies.

He also said the Afghan army will be ready by year's end to take over French military installations in eastern Kapisa province.

Hollande made his remarks after meeting Friday in Kabul with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. In a joint news conference, the French president said France would still have a presence in Afghanistan, but a different role than in the past -- focusing instead on the civilian front.

Earlier in the day, Hollande met with French troops stationed at a military base in the Nijrab district of Kapisa. He thanked the troops for their service and said any withdrawal would be closely coordinated with NATO allies.

During his presidential campaign, Hollande pledged to pull French troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2013, a year earlier than his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy had planned.

France has some 3,300 troops in Afghanistan. Eighty-three French troops have been killed in the country since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.

All foreign combat forces are due to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

Hollande arrived in Kabul Friday accompanied by Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

Meanwhile, bomb blasts in three southern Afghan provinces Friday killed three people and wounded nine. Also, a NATO soldier was killed in an insurgent attack in eastern Afghanistan.

Tim Tebow teased with chants of 'Lolo!' in Jets locker room

2012-05-25T08:15:00.002-07:00

Tim Tebow and American hurdling star Lolo Jones share two things in common: They're saving their virginity until marriage and they get made fun of incessantly for that decision.

Jones, the 29-year-old world indoor champion and Olympic medal hopeful, recently told HBO's "Real Sports" that she was still a virgin. Once that interview aired, she drew immediate comparisons to America's most famous sexual holdout, Timothy Richard Tebow. That similarity wasn't lost on Tebow's New York Jets teammates.

According to Kevin Armstrong of the New York Daily News, Tebow was serenaded with chants of "Lolo! Lolo!" when he entered the locker room following Thursday's OTAs and it wasn't because he's good at hurdling and sort of looks like Rashida Jones.

Those chants don't seem right to me. If Tebow gets "Lolo!" chants, it's only fair that Antonio Cromartie enter to the calls of "Duggar!"

Jones told Mary Carillo that keeping her virginity is harder than training for the Olympics. Sometimes, men will try to entice her into the bedroom by claiming sex makes you run faster. As I wrote on a Fourth-Place Medal post earlier this week, that'd certainly explain Cromartie's speediness.

Curt Schilling shutters his game studios, lays off entire staff

2012-05-24T22:03:00.002-07:00

The sad saga of 38 Studios took an even more depressing turn Thursday afternoon.

The beleaguered game maker run by former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling abruptly laid off all of its employees, effective immediately. Insiders at the company say they also learned their health insurance will run out at midnight.

Employees learned of the layoffs through an internal email, which Gamasutra has obtained.

It reads:

''The Company is experiencing an economic downturn. To avoid further losses and possibility of retrenchment, the Company has decided that a company wide lay off is absolutely necessary.

These layoffs are non-voluntary and non-disciplinary.This is your official notice of lay off, effective today, Thursday, May 24th, 2012.''

Meanwhile, a person claiming to be a now-former employee of the company told Kotaku that no one has been paid since April 30 -- and company officials have not communicated the status of things to workers throughout the process.

Rhode Island news outlet WPRI reports the company had 379 employees as of March 15, 288 of which were located within the state, with the remaining located at the offices of Big Huge Games in Maryland. That subsidiary studio, too, was reportedly shut down today.

38 Studios, which earlier this year shipped the role-playing game Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, is in the throes of a severe financial crisis that's been impacting the entire state of Rhode Island. The developer, which obtained a $75 million loan from the state, failed to make a $1.125 million payment last week, eventually scraping together the funds at the expense of payroll.

While Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning was a mid-level hit, it was unable to help the company stay afloat. 38 Studios has been working on a massively multiplayer online game, codenamed "Copernicus," though that likely has been shelved now with the development team dismissed.