Sunday, March 7, 2010
'ALICE' IS A MONSTER! $116.3M Worldwide Blows Past 'Avatar' For Biggest Domestic 3D Bow
SATURDAY PM UPDATE: Disney's Alice In Wonderland is a monster hit despite blowing past its budget and bringing back mediocre reviews. It clearly becomes the biggest 3D bow ever and the best March release ever and the highest grossing movie of 2010 with $41 million on Friday and $44.3 million on Saturday. Remember, those higher priced 3D tickets make all the difference. Even so, the Tim Burton-directed, Johnny Depp-starring fantasy flick had the biggest 3D release of all time. Of its 3,728 North American locations this weekend, its total domestic 3D count is 2,063, plus 180 Imax 3D engagements. That helped the pic post a $116.3M opening weekend with numbers blowing away Avatar's first Fri-Sat-Sun. IMAX on Friday had the biggest day in their history with $4.3M for Alice. The IMAX weekend take of $11+M also is a record for the big screen company. Overseas, Alice shot to #1 almost everywhere after opening day and date in 40 territories beginning Wednesday. Disney narrowly avoided a boycott overseas when UK and other exhibitors were angered by the studio's plans to shorten the theatrical-to-DVD window from 16 weeks to just 12 weeks. (UK Exhibitors End Boycott Of Disney's Alice)
As for foreign grosses, Alice debuted to $94 million in 40+ markets representing only 60% of the international marketplace. That means the worldwide box office was $210.3M. That's only 2nd to Avatar's $242M global bow, but Wonderland's domestic total blew past Avatar's.
This would be a huge triumph for Walt Disney Studios except this also is one of those awkward Hollywood situations where a studio cleans house of top executives only to have the new management preside over a hit courtesy of their predecessors. In this case, Rich Ross et al will benefit from what Dick Cook and Oren Aviv hath wrought. Everyone knows that Dick had a very special relationship with both Tim and Johnny. But what's really amusing is the way that one of Alice's producers, Joe Roth, is trying to use the film to claw his way back into Hollywood. I see the former Disney and Fox production chief who failed miserably with his Revolution Studios is up to his old trick of manipulating the media, this time with a tale of how he put together Wonderland singlehandedly. (Oh, puh-leeze.) "Don't you think 4 years in the penalty box is long enough?" a Roth pal emailed me today. Not when considering how arrogantly he made so many awful movies. And not when knowing that Alice blew past its budget. (Roth admits to $150M, but I hear the real figure is $200M.)
The only other major newcomer this weekend was Overture's Brooklyn's Finest directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke opened like most R-rated action films: it had a $4.7M Friday and $5.5M Saturday for a $13.5M weekend.
Here's the Top 10 as of Saturday. (Numbers will be refined in the morning.)
1. Alice In Wonderland (Disney) NEW [3,728 Theaters]
Friday $41M, Saturday $44.3M, Weekend $116.3M, Worldwide $210.3M
2. Brooklyn's Finest (Overture) NEW [1,936 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $5.2M, Weekend $13.1M
3. Shutter Island (Paramount) Week 3 [3,178 Theaters]
Friday $4.0M, Saturday $6.0M, Weekend $13.0M, Cume $95.6M
4. Cop Out (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,150 Theaters]
Friday $2.8M, Saturday $4.0M, Weekend $9.1M, Cume $32.3M
5. The Crazies (Overture) Week 2 [2,479 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3.0M, Weekend $6.9M, Cume $27.3M
6. Avatar (Fox) [2,163 Theaters] Week 12
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $3.6M, Weekend $7.7M, Cume $720.1M
7. Percy Jackson (Fox) Week 4 [2,994 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5.1M, Cume $78.0M
8. Valentine's Day (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,040 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.2M, Cume $106.4M
9. Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight) Week 12 [1,274 Theaters]
Friday $925K, Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.3M, Cume $29.5M
10. Dear John (Sony) Week 5 [2,496 Theaters]
Friday $965K, Saturday $1.3M, Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $76.6M
7:40 PM: I'm hearing that Friday's North American grosses for Disney's 3D Alice In Wonderland are looking like $35+M and maybe even as high as $40M from 3,728 theaters. This would make it the biggest film of 2010 so far and its aleady the biggest 3D bow ever. Also opening this weekend is Overture's cop drama Brooklyn's Finest which could hit $5M today for a possible $13M weekend.
10:55 AM: I just learned that today's matinees for Disney's Alice In Wonderland are running ahead of Avatar's so far.
FRIDAY AM: First it was $90+M. Now I'm hearing from Hollywood that Disney's Alice In Wonderland has a real shot at $100 million weekend.
info came from http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/100m-weekend-for-alice-in-wonderland/
As for foreign grosses, Alice debuted to $94 million in 40+ markets representing only 60% of the international marketplace. That means the worldwide box office was $210.3M. That's only 2nd to Avatar's $242M global bow, but Wonderland's domestic total blew past Avatar's.
This would be a huge triumph for Walt Disney Studios except this also is one of those awkward Hollywood situations where a studio cleans house of top executives only to have the new management preside over a hit courtesy of their predecessors. In this case, Rich Ross et al will benefit from what Dick Cook and Oren Aviv hath wrought. Everyone knows that Dick had a very special relationship with both Tim and Johnny. But what's really amusing is the way that one of Alice's producers, Joe Roth, is trying to use the film to claw his way back into Hollywood. I see the former Disney and Fox production chief who failed miserably with his Revolution Studios is up to his old trick of manipulating the media, this time with a tale of how he put together Wonderland singlehandedly. (Oh, puh-leeze.) "Don't you think 4 years in the penalty box is long enough?" a Roth pal emailed me today. Not when considering how arrogantly he made so many awful movies. And not when knowing that Alice blew past its budget. (Roth admits to $150M, but I hear the real figure is $200M.)
The only other major newcomer this weekend was Overture's Brooklyn's Finest directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Richard Gere, Don Cheadle and Ethan Hawke opened like most R-rated action films: it had a $4.7M Friday and $5.5M Saturday for a $13.5M weekend.
Here's the Top 10 as of Saturday. (Numbers will be refined in the morning.)
1. Alice In Wonderland (Disney) NEW [3,728 Theaters]
Friday $41M, Saturday $44.3M, Weekend $116.3M, Worldwide $210.3M
2. Brooklyn's Finest (Overture) NEW [1,936 Theaters]
Friday $4.7M, Saturday $5.2M, Weekend $13.1M
3. Shutter Island (Paramount) Week 3 [3,178 Theaters]
Friday $4.0M, Saturday $6.0M, Weekend $13.0M, Cume $95.6M
4. Cop Out (Warner Bros) Week 2 [3,150 Theaters]
Friday $2.8M, Saturday $4.0M, Weekend $9.1M, Cume $32.3M
5. The Crazies (Overture) Week 2 [2,479 Theaters]
Friday $2.3M, Saturday $3.0M, Weekend $6.9M, Cume $27.3M
6. Avatar (Fox) [2,163 Theaters] Week 12
Friday $1.9M, Saturday $3.6M, Weekend $7.7M, Cume $720.1M
7. Percy Jackson (Fox) Week 4 [2,994 Theaters]
Friday $1.3M, Saturday $2.3M, Weekend $5.1M, Cume $78.0M
8. Valentine's Day (Warner Bros) Week 4 [3,040 Theaters]
Friday $1.4M, Saturday $1.9M, Weekend $4.2M, Cume $106.4M
9. Crazy Heart (Fox Searchlight) Week 12 [1,274 Theaters]
Friday $925K, Saturday $1.6M, Weekend $3.3M, Cume $29.5M
10. Dear John (Sony) Week 5 [2,496 Theaters]
Friday $965K, Saturday $1.3M, Weekend $2.8M, Estimated Cume $76.6M
7:40 PM: I'm hearing that Friday's North American grosses for Disney's 3D Alice In Wonderland are looking like $35+M and maybe even as high as $40M from 3,728 theaters. This would make it the biggest film of 2010 so far and its aleady the biggest 3D bow ever. Also opening this weekend is Overture's cop drama Brooklyn's Finest which could hit $5M today for a possible $13M weekend.
10:55 AM: I just learned that today's matinees for Disney's Alice In Wonderland are running ahead of Avatar's so far.
FRIDAY AM: First it was $90+M. Now I'm hearing from Hollywood that Disney's Alice In Wonderland has a real shot at $100 million weekend.
info came from http://www.deadline.com/2010/03/100m-weekend-for-alice-in-wonderland/
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Porsche unveils 'green' supercar for petrol-heads
Published: 2 Mar 10 12:34 CET
Porsche unveiled a futuristic hybrid supercar this week that it claims can hit 100km/h in just 3.2 seconds while emitting just a tiny fraction of the carbon put out by most sports cars.
Click here for a photo gallery of the 918 Spyder.
The 918 Spyder prototype is the German carmaker’s offering to the growing market for hybrid cars that combine an internal combustion engine with electric propulsion, dramatically slashing the amount of greenhouse gasses the car emits.
Porsche unveiled its creation at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show. It claims the car has a top speed of 320 km/h but uses just three litres of fuel for every 100 kilometres - equivalent to 94 miles per imperial gallon.
“We are a sports car manufacturer and that means it's about driving fast – but at the same time about cutting pollution and conserving natural resources,” Porsche chief Michael Macht said according to the website of news magazine Der Spiegel.
Critically, the Spyder emits an average of just 70 grammes of carbon dioxide, the firm claims. According to Britain’s Department for Transport, the third-generation Toyota Prius – the best-known hybrid car – emits 89 g/km.
Many conventional supercars, including models made by Ferrari and Lamborghini, emit between 400g and 500g of carbon per kilometre.
The Porsche prototype makes it around the legendary 22.8 kilometre Nürburgring race track south of Cologne in less than seven-and-a-half minutes, Macht boasted.
Driving legend and Porsche representative Walter Röhrl concurred, saying: “This car goes even faster than the last super sports car from Porsche, the Carrera GT.”
Martin Winterkorn, Chairman of the Board of Management of Volkswagen, Porsche’s parent company, added: “Porsche is showing the future.”
The open two-seater has a high-performace V8 engine with more than 500 brake horse power and a maximum engine speed of 9,200 rpm as well as electric motors on the front and rear axle.
The electric motors are powered by a fluid-cooled lithium-ion battery than can be recharged by plugging it into a normal power point.
Porsche also used the Geneva show to release two other hybrids: a Cayenne S Hybrid SUV and a 911 GT3 R Hybrid racing car.
info came from http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100302-25605.html
President Obama to Say Democrats Will Use Reconciliation to Pass Senate Health Care Reform Fix, If Not Given Up or Down Vote
White House officials tell ABC News that in his remarks tomorrow President Obama will indicate a willingness to work with Republicans on some issue to get a health care reform bill passed but will say that if it is necessary, Democrats will use the controversial reconciliation rules requiring only 51 Senate votes to pass the "fix" to the Senate bill.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.
In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will happen without a health care reform bill – skyrocketing premiums, everyone at the mercy of the insurance industry as recently seen with the 39% premium increases proposed by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
He will note that the “fixed” bill will include the proposal for a new "Health Insurance Rate Authority" to set guidelines for reasonable rate increases. If proposed premium increases are not justifiable per those Health Insurance Rate Authority guidelines, the Health and Human Services Secretary or state regulators could block them.
The president will outline the plan to pass the bill, including having the House of Representatives pass the Democratic Senate health care reform legislation as well as a second bill containing various “fixes.”
He will call for an up or down vote, as has happened in the past, and though he won't use the word reconciliation, he'll make it clear that if they're not given an up or down vote, Democrats will use the reconciliation rules.
White House officials will make the argument these rules are perfectly appropriate because the procedure is not being used for the whole bill, just for some fixes; because reconciliation rules are traditionally used for deficit reduction and health care reform will reduce the deficit; and because the reconciliation process has been used many times by Republicans for larger legislation such as the tax cuts pushed by President George W. Bush.
The president will also extend a hand to work with Republicans on measures they have pushed, including $50 million for state grants for demonstration projects to explore alternatives to medical malpractice cases, and a crackdown on Medicaid and Medicare fraud as proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
He will also herald the removal of extraneous provisions in the bill such as the so-called “Cornhusker Kickback,” a deal to secure the support of Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., in which the federal government would pay for Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion; and “Gator-aid,” the provision to shield Florida seniors from cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, secured by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Mr. Obama will say that he will be working on exact legislative language in the next few days. Republicans can join him and Democratic congressional leaders of the House and Senate to makes these changes and to pass the bill, but either way the bill will be moving forward.
-Jake Tapper
info came from http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/obama-democrats-will-use-reconciliation-to-pass-senate-health-care-bill.html
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been awaiting the president’s remarks direction on how health care reform will proceed.
In his remarks, scheduled to be at the White House, the president will paint a picture of what he will say will happen without a health care reform bill – skyrocketing premiums, everyone at the mercy of the insurance industry as recently seen with the 39% premium increases proposed by Anthem Blue Cross in California.
He will note that the “fixed” bill will include the proposal for a new "Health Insurance Rate Authority" to set guidelines for reasonable rate increases. If proposed premium increases are not justifiable per those Health Insurance Rate Authority guidelines, the Health and Human Services Secretary or state regulators could block them.
The president will outline the plan to pass the bill, including having the House of Representatives pass the Democratic Senate health care reform legislation as well as a second bill containing various “fixes.”
He will call for an up or down vote, as has happened in the past, and though he won't use the word reconciliation, he'll make it clear that if they're not given an up or down vote, Democrats will use the reconciliation rules.
White House officials will make the argument these rules are perfectly appropriate because the procedure is not being used for the whole bill, just for some fixes; because reconciliation rules are traditionally used for deficit reduction and health care reform will reduce the deficit; and because the reconciliation process has been used many times by Republicans for larger legislation such as the tax cuts pushed by President George W. Bush.
The president will also extend a hand to work with Republicans on measures they have pushed, including $50 million for state grants for demonstration projects to explore alternatives to medical malpractice cases, and a crackdown on Medicaid and Medicare fraud as proposed by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.
He will also herald the removal of extraneous provisions in the bill such as the so-called “Cornhusker Kickback,” a deal to secure the support of Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., in which the federal government would pay for Nebraska’s Medicaid expansion; and “Gator-aid,” the provision to shield Florida seniors from cuts to the Medicare Advantage program, secured by Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.
Mr. Obama will say that he will be working on exact legislative language in the next few days. Republicans can join him and Democratic congressional leaders of the House and Senate to makes these changes and to pass the bill, but either way the bill will be moving forward.
-Jake Tapper
info came from http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2010/03/obama-democrats-will-use-reconciliation-to-pass-senate-health-care-bill.html
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pennsylvania Man Killed By Pet Bull
WERNERSVILLE, Pa. (AP) ― An eastern Pennsylvania man was attacked and killed by a "temperamental" pet bull a day before his 53rd birthday, the coroner's office said Monday.
Ricky Weinhold, of Reinholds, was attacked Saturday by a 1-ton bull on a farm where he leased barn space in Wernersville, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Berks County Deputy Coroner Terri Straka said. The son of the farm's owner found his body Sunday in an outdoor pen.
The property owners had encouraged Weinhold to get rid of the bull, Straka said. She said the same animal believed responsible for the weekend attack rammed Weinhold last summer, breaking several of his ribs.
"He's been known to be temperamental," Straka said. "The property owners just didn't trust him. They told Ricky, 'This bull has got a bad disposition."'
Weinhold kept about 10 head of cattle at the farm, all of them as pets. Straka said it's not clear what precipitated Saturday's attack. The bull recently fathered a calf, but Straka said bulls are not as protective of their offspring as cows.
"We don't know if this is a playful thing, or a nasty, agitated, angry thing," she said.
No one witnessed the attack. All of Weinhold's injuries appear to have been inflicted by a bull's head and hooves.
"The poor man, he loved his animals," Straka said. "They were his pets."
info came from http://cbs3.com/local/bull.killed.pennsylvania.2.1528214.html
Ricky Weinhold, of Reinholds, was attacked Saturday by a 1-ton bull on a farm where he leased barn space in Wernersville, about 60 miles northwest of Philadelphia, Berks County Deputy Coroner Terri Straka said. The son of the farm's owner found his body Sunday in an outdoor pen.
The property owners had encouraged Weinhold to get rid of the bull, Straka said. She said the same animal believed responsible for the weekend attack rammed Weinhold last summer, breaking several of his ribs.
"He's been known to be temperamental," Straka said. "The property owners just didn't trust him. They told Ricky, 'This bull has got a bad disposition."'
Weinhold kept about 10 head of cattle at the farm, all of them as pets. Straka said it's not clear what precipitated Saturday's attack. The bull recently fathered a calf, but Straka said bulls are not as protective of their offspring as cows.
"We don't know if this is a playful thing, or a nasty, agitated, angry thing," she said.
No one witnessed the attack. All of Weinhold's injuries appear to have been inflicted by a bull's head and hooves.
"The poor man, he loved his animals," Straka said. "They were his pets."
info came from http://cbs3.com/local/bull.killed.pennsylvania.2.1528214.html
Some Iraq, Afghanistan war veterans criticize movie 'Hurt Locker' as inaccurate
By Christian Davenport
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 28, 2010; E01
Time magazine called "The Hurt Locker" "a near-perfect war film," but Ryan Gallucci, an Iraq war veteran, had to turn the movie off three times, he says, "or else I would have thrown my remote through the television."
Critics adore the film and it has been nominated for nine Oscars -- a feat matched only by "Avatar," the top-grossing movie of all time -- but Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, says that's "nine more Oscar nominations than it deserves. I don't know why critics love this silly, inaccurate film so much," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Many in the military say "Hurt Locker" is plagued by unforgivable inaccuracies that make the most critically acclaimed Iraq war film to date more a Hollywood fantasy than the searingly realistic rendition that civilians take it for.
To which you might say: It's just a movie and an action flick at that. It's Tinseltown fiction -- an interpretation of war such as "Full Metal Jacket" or "Apocalypse Now." It's supposed to entertain. It's not a documentary, not real life.
But to those who were there, Iraq is real life. And they're very sensitive -- some would say overly so -- when their war is portrayed via a central character who is a reckless rogue.
Hence a rising backlash from people in uniform, such as this response on Rieckhoff's Facebook page from a self-identified Army Airborne Ranger:
"[I]f this movie was based on a war that never existed, I would have nothing to comment about. This movie is not based on a true story, but on a true war, a war in which I have seen my friends killed, a war in which I witnessed my ranger buddy get both his legs blown off. So for Hollywood to glorify this crap is a huge slap in the face to every soldier who's been on the front line."
Even Brian Williams, the NBC News anchor, took a shot on his blog, writing a post titled, "The Hurt Locker: Hurting for a fact-checker." The movie's positive reviews could not have been "written by anyone who had spent any time with U.S. armed forces in Iraq," he wrote, wondering why none of the soldiers in the movie dipped smokeless tobacco or said "hoo-ah" -- "the universal term for hello, goodbye, understood, etc."
'Reckless' character
In an interview, Rieckhoff said the anger about "Hurt Locker" stems not so much from such small inaccuracies -- for example, the uniforms the soldiers wear in the film weren't available until well after the time the story took place -- but rather from the depiction of the main character, Sgt. 1st Class William James.
Portrayed by Jeremy Renner, who's nominated for Best Actor, James is a daredevil who in one scene takes off his protective armor while disarming a bomb because, as he says, "If I'm going to die, I'm going to be comfortable." He runs alone through the streets of Baghdad with his sweat shirt hood up like a gangster. Later, he takes two soldiers hunting for insurgents in Baghdad's back alleys without any backup.
James's fellow soldiers are, or try to be, by-the-book professionals. They call James "rowdy" and "reckless," and one worries out loud that his leader's crazy antics are "going to get me killed." James is as much cowboy as soldier, and vets fear he could become an iconic figure in the American imagination should the movie win a bunch of statues.
"Films, almost more than anything, will be the way Americans understand our war," Rieckhoff said. "So we feel that there is a responsibility for filmmakers to portray our war accurately. We see ourselves as watchdogs. . . . When he puts a hood on like Eminem and starts roving outside the wire, it's ridiculous."
Gallucci, a former sergeant who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, says he kept hoping James would get "blown up throughout the entire movie. I wanted to see his poor teammates get another team leader, who was actually concerned about their safety."
'Dramatic effect'
Mark Boal, the film's screenwriter, knows the soldiers in the film are wearing the wrong uniform. He was embedded in Iraq with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in 2004, and he's aware of what soldiers wore. Boal has worked as a journalist -- an article he wrote for Playboy became the basis for the 2007 film "In the Valley of Elah," about an Iraq war veteran who is murdered upon returning home -- and he feels a duty to hew as close to possible to the truth.
But "The Hurt Locker" is a movie, not a magazine article, Boal says, and screenwriters need ample artistic license to build a compelling -- and true -- story. So when he chose to have the film's soldiers wear the current Army uniform rather than the one they wore in 2004, it's to allow his audience "to relate to the imagery they saw on the news."
Yes, he had military consultants help him get details of radio protocol and uniforms right, but he never felt obliged to be precisely accurate. The consultants, Boal says, give a writer the information he needs so that "when you do choose to make a dramatic effect, [you] do it in a way that is not totally embarrassing."
The arc of the narrative, he says, has to come from the writer. "The story came out of my imagination based on my life experience and hundreds of conversations I've had with soldiers.
"I definitely tried for dramatic effect to make artistic choices, but I hope I made them respectfully and carefully and with the goal of not making a training video or a documentary, but showing just how hellish this war is. I was also aware, by the way, that there are many wonderful documentaries on Iraq and many wonderful articles, which no one has seen. And quite frankly, I was hoping that people would see the film."
Art vs. reality
Each writer's search for truth lands at a different point on the spectrum between art and reality. When screenwriter David Simon made the series "Generation Kill" for HBO, he considered it more important to have Marines find his work an accurate portrayal of their culture and experience invading Iraq than to win critical acclaim. "The real fun isn't trying to convince the average viewer" that we have it right, he told the Marine Corps Times. "It's trying to convince people who have been in the game."
Boal not only wanted to tell a riveting and important story, but also to raise awareness about soldiers who disarm bombs, a specialty known as explosive ordnance disposal, which he believed the general public knew little about, even though hidden bombs are the leading cause of casualties in Iraq.
As a result, despite some complaints about inaccuracies, many veterans of bomb disposal units love the movie, says James O'Neil, executive director of the EOD Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that has benefited financially from the film.
"While there is some artistic license," O'Neil says, "there's a lot of good representation of the intensity and the courage that's displayed by EOD techs. What it takes to find, identify and then render safe those [bombs] -- that's a story, and it's an incredible story."
Filmmakers always worry that productions that servicemembers see as spot-on might leave general audiences cold. So: Is it really important that a war movie be accurate?
No, says David McKenna, a film professor at Columbia University. "Hurt Locker," he argues, isn't as much about Iraq as it is about one soldier's addiction to war. It's a character study, an exploration of courage, bravado and leadership told through "a series of suspenseful situations. I suppose it could have just as easily been set in outer space."
If veterans don't like it, McKenna says, "well, this is an opportunity to go make your own movie."
info came from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022506161_pf.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 28, 2010; E01
Time magazine called "The Hurt Locker" "a near-perfect war film," but Ryan Gallucci, an Iraq war veteran, had to turn the movie off three times, he says, "or else I would have thrown my remote through the television."
Critics adore the film and it has been nominated for nine Oscars -- a feat matched only by "Avatar," the top-grossing movie of all time -- but Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, says that's "nine more Oscar nominations than it deserves. I don't know why critics love this silly, inaccurate film so much," he wrote on his Facebook page.
Many in the military say "Hurt Locker" is plagued by unforgivable inaccuracies that make the most critically acclaimed Iraq war film to date more a Hollywood fantasy than the searingly realistic rendition that civilians take it for.
To which you might say: It's just a movie and an action flick at that. It's Tinseltown fiction -- an interpretation of war such as "Full Metal Jacket" or "Apocalypse Now." It's supposed to entertain. It's not a documentary, not real life.
But to those who were there, Iraq is real life. And they're very sensitive -- some would say overly so -- when their war is portrayed via a central character who is a reckless rogue.
Hence a rising backlash from people in uniform, such as this response on Rieckhoff's Facebook page from a self-identified Army Airborne Ranger:
"[I]f this movie was based on a war that never existed, I would have nothing to comment about. This movie is not based on a true story, but on a true war, a war in which I have seen my friends killed, a war in which I witnessed my ranger buddy get both his legs blown off. So for Hollywood to glorify this crap is a huge slap in the face to every soldier who's been on the front line."
Even Brian Williams, the NBC News anchor, took a shot on his blog, writing a post titled, "The Hurt Locker: Hurting for a fact-checker." The movie's positive reviews could not have been "written by anyone who had spent any time with U.S. armed forces in Iraq," he wrote, wondering why none of the soldiers in the movie dipped smokeless tobacco or said "hoo-ah" -- "the universal term for hello, goodbye, understood, etc."
'Reckless' character
In an interview, Rieckhoff said the anger about "Hurt Locker" stems not so much from such small inaccuracies -- for example, the uniforms the soldiers wear in the film weren't available until well after the time the story took place -- but rather from the depiction of the main character, Sgt. 1st Class William James.
Portrayed by Jeremy Renner, who's nominated for Best Actor, James is a daredevil who in one scene takes off his protective armor while disarming a bomb because, as he says, "If I'm going to die, I'm going to be comfortable." He runs alone through the streets of Baghdad with his sweat shirt hood up like a gangster. Later, he takes two soldiers hunting for insurgents in Baghdad's back alleys without any backup.
James's fellow soldiers are, or try to be, by-the-book professionals. They call James "rowdy" and "reckless," and one worries out loud that his leader's crazy antics are "going to get me killed." James is as much cowboy as soldier, and vets fear he could become an iconic figure in the American imagination should the movie win a bunch of statues.
"Films, almost more than anything, will be the way Americans understand our war," Rieckhoff said. "So we feel that there is a responsibility for filmmakers to portray our war accurately. We see ourselves as watchdogs. . . . When he puts a hood on like Eminem and starts roving outside the wire, it's ridiculous."
Gallucci, a former sergeant who served in Iraq from 2003 to 2004, says he kept hoping James would get "blown up throughout the entire movie. I wanted to see his poor teammates get another team leader, who was actually concerned about their safety."
'Dramatic effect'
Mark Boal, the film's screenwriter, knows the soldiers in the film are wearing the wrong uniform. He was embedded in Iraq with an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team in 2004, and he's aware of what soldiers wore. Boal has worked as a journalist -- an article he wrote for Playboy became the basis for the 2007 film "In the Valley of Elah," about an Iraq war veteran who is murdered upon returning home -- and he feels a duty to hew as close to possible to the truth.
But "The Hurt Locker" is a movie, not a magazine article, Boal says, and screenwriters need ample artistic license to build a compelling -- and true -- story. So when he chose to have the film's soldiers wear the current Army uniform rather than the one they wore in 2004, it's to allow his audience "to relate to the imagery they saw on the news."
Yes, he had military consultants help him get details of radio protocol and uniforms right, but he never felt obliged to be precisely accurate. The consultants, Boal says, give a writer the information he needs so that "when you do choose to make a dramatic effect, [you] do it in a way that is not totally embarrassing."
The arc of the narrative, he says, has to come from the writer. "The story came out of my imagination based on my life experience and hundreds of conversations I've had with soldiers.
"I definitely tried for dramatic effect to make artistic choices, but I hope I made them respectfully and carefully and with the goal of not making a training video or a documentary, but showing just how hellish this war is. I was also aware, by the way, that there are many wonderful documentaries on Iraq and many wonderful articles, which no one has seen. And quite frankly, I was hoping that people would see the film."
Art vs. reality
Each writer's search for truth lands at a different point on the spectrum between art and reality. When screenwriter David Simon made the series "Generation Kill" for HBO, he considered it more important to have Marines find his work an accurate portrayal of their culture and experience invading Iraq than to win critical acclaim. "The real fun isn't trying to convince the average viewer" that we have it right, he told the Marine Corps Times. "It's trying to convince people who have been in the game."
Boal not only wanted to tell a riveting and important story, but also to raise awareness about soldiers who disarm bombs, a specialty known as explosive ordnance disposal, which he believed the general public knew little about, even though hidden bombs are the leading cause of casualties in Iraq.
As a result, despite some complaints about inaccuracies, many veterans of bomb disposal units love the movie, says James O'Neil, executive director of the EOD Memorial Foundation, a nonprofit that has benefited financially from the film.
"While there is some artistic license," O'Neil says, "there's a lot of good representation of the intensity and the courage that's displayed by EOD techs. What it takes to find, identify and then render safe those [bombs] -- that's a story, and it's an incredible story."
Filmmakers always worry that productions that servicemembers see as spot-on might leave general audiences cold. So: Is it really important that a war movie be accurate?
No, says David McKenna, a film professor at Columbia University. "Hurt Locker," he argues, isn't as much about Iraq as it is about one soldier's addiction to war. It's a character study, an exploration of courage, bravado and leadership told through "a series of suspenseful situations. I suppose it could have just as easily been set in outer space."
If veterans don't like it, McKenna says, "well, this is an opportunity to go make your own movie."
info came from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022506161_pf.html
Barack Obama should drink less alcohol and try harder to kick his smoking habit, doctors say
Barack Obama should not only try harder to kick his smoking habit, his team of doctors warned, but they also recommended 'moderation of alcohol intake'.
It would seem the pressure of the U.S. presidency - and all those White House receptions - are taking their toll after the 48-year-old's first medical checkup since winning the race to the White House.
The chief executive, who has endured an exhausting first year in the White House and year-long battles with congressional Republicans, should also eat better to lower his cholesterol, but was otherwise declared in excellent health and fit for duty.
The White House physician, Navy Capt Jeffrey Kuhlman, said Obama should stick with 'moderation in alcohol intake' and ‘smoking cessation efforts’, the use of nicotine gum, and come back in August 2011 after he turns 50.
Obama's cholesterol levels have crept up to borderline high and he should alter his diet accordingly, according to a report the White House released after the 90-minute examination at the National Naval Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland.
While at the facility, he visited 12 military service members receiving treatment and rehabilitation for injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president is the picture of health, eats modest portions and exercises regularly. He is an avid basketball player and golfer.
The slightly elevated cholesterol levels, occasional smoking and tendinitis in his left knee were the only negatives noted.
Obama said at a June news conference that he still had an occasional cigarette. It was his first public acknowledgment that he hadn't kicked the habit.
He chews nicotine gum to avoid regular smoking, and his doctor said that should continue.
Occupational hazard: Obama (right) at the so-called 'Beer Summit' with (from left) Harvard Professor Henry Gates, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Police Sgt James Crowley. The summit was called after Crowley arrested Gates at his home on July 16, sparking racial tensions
On a previous occasion he said quitting smoking didn't create 'huge withdrawal symptoms', partly because he smoked only seven or eight cigarettes a day at the most.
The then senator first announced his decision to quit in 2007, in order to please his wife Michelle, while on the David Letterman Show.
Kuhlman also said the president should modify his diet to bring his LDL, or bad cholesterol, below 130.
At the time of his last exam, Obama's total cholesterol was 173, while his LDL was 96 and HDL, or good cholesterol, was 68.
This time, total cholesterol was up to 209, with HDL down slightly at 62. LDL was up to 138. Borderline high cholesterol starts at 200, with LDL considered in the same category at 130.
Bad habits: Obama smoking with a relative in front his family's hut in Kenya, Africa. He first announced his decision to quit in 2007, in order to please his wife Michelle, while on the David Letterman Show
In the U.S., the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that for healthy men, drinking more than four drinks on any day or 14 per week is considered 'at-risk' or 'heavy' drinking.
Last year Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
The law allows the Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweet flavourings and block labels such 'low tar' and 'light.'
Tobacco companies are now also required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.
More...Obama warned by Nation of Islam leader that 'white right' will make him one-term president
Hillary Clinton 'stands ready' to help Argentina and Britain resolve Falkland Islands row
Strictly's Phil Tufnell: The secret of giving up smoking? Drink more red wine...
The law didn't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco, but the agency is now able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make public their ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.
Kuhlman said Obama's last checkup was in July 2008 when he was seen by the attending physician to Congress when Obama was an Illinois senator.
During the 2008 White House race, his campaign released a statement from his longtime Chicago doctor saying Obama was in excellent health when examined in January 2007.
Sunday's report said Obama is 6ft 1in and weighs 180lb (82kg) in shoes and exercise clothing. His pulse rate is 56, which is very good, as is his blood pressure - 105 over 62.
The doctor recommended that Obama should:
● Have another exam for colon cancer in five years
● Continue smoking cessation efforts, a daily exercise programme, a healthy diet, moderation in alcohol intake, periodic dental care and remain up to date with recommended immunisations
● Keep up a modified exercise regimen to strengthen his legs to ward off more difficulties with his knee
● Modify his diet to lower his LDL cholesterol below 130
The doctor said Obama's vision was 20/20 in both eyes for both distance and near vision.
The president was checked for and found free of colon cancer with a virtual colonoscopy, a scan that avoids the more invasive visual inspection with a camera device that is passed into the large intestine.
The tendinitis that Obama suffers in his left leg could be the result of his regular basketball playing.
Kuhlman said that there was mild popping and grinding in Obama's left knee and ‘some weakness’ in his left hip, also possibly a result of rigorous and extended periods on the basketball court.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1254684/Barack-Obama-try-harder-kick-smoking-habit-doctors-say.html#ixzz0gybQ0JnE
It would seem the pressure of the U.S. presidency - and all those White House receptions - are taking their toll after the 48-year-old's first medical checkup since winning the race to the White House.
The chief executive, who has endured an exhausting first year in the White House and year-long battles with congressional Republicans, should also eat better to lower his cholesterol, but was otherwise declared in excellent health and fit for duty.
The White House physician, Navy Capt Jeffrey Kuhlman, said Obama should stick with 'moderation in alcohol intake' and ‘smoking cessation efforts’, the use of nicotine gum, and come back in August 2011 after he turns 50.
Obama's cholesterol levels have crept up to borderline high and he should alter his diet accordingly, according to a report the White House released after the 90-minute examination at the National Naval Medical Centre in Bethesda, Maryland.
While at the facility, he visited 12 military service members receiving treatment and rehabilitation for injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The president is the picture of health, eats modest portions and exercises regularly. He is an avid basketball player and golfer.
The slightly elevated cholesterol levels, occasional smoking and tendinitis in his left knee were the only negatives noted.
Obama said at a June news conference that he still had an occasional cigarette. It was his first public acknowledgment that he hadn't kicked the habit.
He chews nicotine gum to avoid regular smoking, and his doctor said that should continue.
Occupational hazard: Obama (right) at the so-called 'Beer Summit' with (from left) Harvard Professor Henry Gates, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Police Sgt James Crowley. The summit was called after Crowley arrested Gates at his home on July 16, sparking racial tensions
On a previous occasion he said quitting smoking didn't create 'huge withdrawal symptoms', partly because he smoked only seven or eight cigarettes a day at the most.
The then senator first announced his decision to quit in 2007, in order to please his wife Michelle, while on the David Letterman Show.
Kuhlman also said the president should modify his diet to bring his LDL, or bad cholesterol, below 130.
At the time of his last exam, Obama's total cholesterol was 173, while his LDL was 96 and HDL, or good cholesterol, was 68.
This time, total cholesterol was up to 209, with HDL down slightly at 62. LDL was up to 138. Borderline high cholesterol starts at 200, with LDL considered in the same category at 130.
Bad habits: Obama smoking with a relative in front his family's hut in Kenya, Africa. He first announced his decision to quit in 2007, in order to please his wife Michelle, while on the David Letterman Show
In the U.S., the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism says that for healthy men, drinking more than four drinks on any day or 14 per week is considered 'at-risk' or 'heavy' drinking.
Last year Obama signed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act.
The law allows the Food and Drug Administration to reduce nicotine in tobacco products, ban sweet flavourings and block labels such 'low tar' and 'light.'
Tobacco companies are now also required to cover their cartons with large graphic warnings.
More...Obama warned by Nation of Islam leader that 'white right' will make him one-term president
Hillary Clinton 'stands ready' to help Argentina and Britain resolve Falkland Islands row
Strictly's Phil Tufnell: The secret of giving up smoking? Drink more red wine...
The law didn't let the FDA ban nicotine or tobacco, but the agency is now able to regulate the contents of tobacco products, make public their ingredients and prohibit marketing campaigns, especially those geared toward children.
Kuhlman said Obama's last checkup was in July 2008 when he was seen by the attending physician to Congress when Obama was an Illinois senator.
During the 2008 White House race, his campaign released a statement from his longtime Chicago doctor saying Obama was in excellent health when examined in January 2007.
Sunday's report said Obama is 6ft 1in and weighs 180lb (82kg) in shoes and exercise clothing. His pulse rate is 56, which is very good, as is his blood pressure - 105 over 62.
The doctor recommended that Obama should:
● Have another exam for colon cancer in five years
● Continue smoking cessation efforts, a daily exercise programme, a healthy diet, moderation in alcohol intake, periodic dental care and remain up to date with recommended immunisations
● Keep up a modified exercise regimen to strengthen his legs to ward off more difficulties with his knee
● Modify his diet to lower his LDL cholesterol below 130
The doctor said Obama's vision was 20/20 in both eyes for both distance and near vision.
The president was checked for and found free of colon cancer with a virtual colonoscopy, a scan that avoids the more invasive visual inspection with a camera device that is passed into the large intestine.
The tendinitis that Obama suffers in his left leg could be the result of his regular basketball playing.
Kuhlman said that there was mild popping and grinding in Obama's left knee and ‘some weakness’ in his left hip, also possibly a result of rigorous and extended periods on the basketball court.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1254684/Barack-Obama-try-harder-kick-smoking-habit-doctors-say.html#ixzz0gybQ0JnE
Nancy Pelosi's brutal reality check
Asked this weekend to grade her performance as speaker, Nancy Pelosi gave herself an “A for effort.”
But Pelosi knows that the real test is still to come.
Pelosi is inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history — an authoritarian figure in an era of centralized power in the House. But the coming months are a make-or-break period for her, a brutal reality check of her ability to manage all aspects of her job — consensus-building, agenda-setting, vote-counting, fundraising and campaigning.
Now in her fourth year as speaker and eighth overall as the top Democrat in the House, Pelosi has never faced such a daunting set of challenges:
Health care: Pelosi and other top House Democrats say publicly that they have the votes to push through a comprehensive package, but privately, they know they don’t. Pelosi must balance the diverging interests of her own members while simultaneously satisfying Senate Democrats and working with President Barack Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a former House colleague with whom she has an uneasy relationship.
The voters: The electoral winds that were at Pelosi’s back in the past two cycles thanks to having George W. Bush in the White House are blowing this year in Democrats’ faces. Prognosticators both inside and outside the party are laying odds on an outcome that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago: a GOP takeover of the House.
Democratic infighting: The factions that make up the House Democratic majority, from the conservative Blue Dog Coalition to the liberal Progressive Caucus, are increasingly willing to fight for their own priorities at the risk of party unity. That dynamic was evident last week when a simple $15 billion jobs bill was punted from the floor schedule over a series of Goldilocks-like objections about too little spending, too much spending and misdirected spending.
Brutal campaigning: Pelosi faces a tough year on the fundraising circuit, with a punishing travel schedule and hard environment in which to raise money. She’s collected $18.5 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — with a goal of $25 million for the election cycle — and $3.6 million for vulnerable Democratic incumbents and challengers. But hints of GOP victory in the fall could to make it more difficult for her to raise money from Corporate America and K Street.
Loss of allies: Pelosi suffered a tremendous personal loss with the death of her friend and her most influential ally in the House, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha. Another of Pelosi’s powerful colleagues, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, has seen his influence diminished by ethical problems — including an admonishment last week by theHouse ethics committee.
The “bullet in the head” factor: Pelosi insists she will fight for every Democratic seat this November. But as Election Day draws nearer, Pelosi will most likely have to make tough calls on which vulnerable Democratic candidates to help and which ones to cut loose. Those choices would cause conflict in her caucus and could threaten the Democratic majority if she picks poorly.
Internal polls look bad for the Democrats, and Charlie Cook has warned that the party may lose its majority in November.
But in an interview over the weekend, Pelosi said unequivocally that the Democrats will hold on to their majority in November.
“I’m not yielding one grain of sand; we’re fighting for every seat,” the speaker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Pelosi’s supporters point to her past successes as a sign that she’ll succeed again this year, despite all the obstacles and the gloom and doom.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33670.html#ixzz0gyaJNTMB
But Pelosi knows that the real test is still to come.
Pelosi is inarguably one of the strongest speakers in modern history — an authoritarian figure in an era of centralized power in the House. But the coming months are a make-or-break period for her, a brutal reality check of her ability to manage all aspects of her job — consensus-building, agenda-setting, vote-counting, fundraising and campaigning.
Now in her fourth year as speaker and eighth overall as the top Democrat in the House, Pelosi has never faced such a daunting set of challenges:
Health care: Pelosi and other top House Democrats say publicly that they have the votes to push through a comprehensive package, but privately, they know they don’t. Pelosi must balance the diverging interests of her own members while simultaneously satisfying Senate Democrats and working with President Barack Obama and his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a former House colleague with whom she has an uneasy relationship.
The voters: The electoral winds that were at Pelosi’s back in the past two cycles thanks to having George W. Bush in the White House are blowing this year in Democrats’ faces. Prognosticators both inside and outside the party are laying odds on an outcome that seemed unthinkable just a few months ago: a GOP takeover of the House.
Democratic infighting: The factions that make up the House Democratic majority, from the conservative Blue Dog Coalition to the liberal Progressive Caucus, are increasingly willing to fight for their own priorities at the risk of party unity. That dynamic was evident last week when a simple $15 billion jobs bill was punted from the floor schedule over a series of Goldilocks-like objections about too little spending, too much spending and misdirected spending.
Brutal campaigning: Pelosi faces a tough year on the fundraising circuit, with a punishing travel schedule and hard environment in which to raise money. She’s collected $18.5 million for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee — with a goal of $25 million for the election cycle — and $3.6 million for vulnerable Democratic incumbents and challengers. But hints of GOP victory in the fall could to make it more difficult for her to raise money from Corporate America and K Street.
Loss of allies: Pelosi suffered a tremendous personal loss with the death of her friend and her most influential ally in the House, Defense Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Murtha. Another of Pelosi’s powerful colleagues, Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel, has seen his influence diminished by ethical problems — including an admonishment last week by theHouse ethics committee.
The “bullet in the head” factor: Pelosi insists she will fight for every Democratic seat this November. But as Election Day draws nearer, Pelosi will most likely have to make tough calls on which vulnerable Democratic candidates to help and which ones to cut loose. Those choices would cause conflict in her caucus and could threaten the Democratic majority if she picks poorly.
Internal polls look bad for the Democrats, and Charlie Cook has warned that the party may lose its majority in November.
But in an interview over the weekend, Pelosi said unequivocally that the Democrats will hold on to their majority in November.
“I’m not yielding one grain of sand; we’re fighting for every seat,” the speaker said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Pelosi’s supporters point to her past successes as a sign that she’ll succeed again this year, despite all the obstacles and the gloom and doom.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0210/33670.html#ixzz0gyaJNTMB
Crosby's goal wins gold, Canada beats US 3-2 in OT
By IRA PODELL, AP Hockey Writer Ira Podell, Ap Hockey Writer – Mon Mar 1, 6:22 am ET
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sidney Crosby sized up goalie Ryan Miller in overtime and delivered hockey gold to a nation that not only craved it, but demanded it, too.
Silver wouldn't satisfy. Not in this sport and not in these Olympics.
Canada needed a pick-me-up to call the past 17 days a success. With a wrist shot Miller wasn't expecting, Crosby wiped away a whole lot of hurt. The scoreboard read Canada 3, USA 2. A happy — yet relieved country — rejoiced Sunday.
The death of a luger before the Olympic cauldron was lit, disheartening glitches and a slow start in the medals race had Canada down on these games. But after finishing tops among all nations with a Winter Olympics record 14 gold medals, including the one it wanted most, the hosts held their heads high.
'O Canada' surely never sounded as sweet as when the Maple Leaf flag rose above the ice to honor hockey's latest champions. And the way the Canadians pulled it off was truly dramatic. Crosby and Canada shook off a shocking tying goal by Zach Parise that gave the United States hope in the closing seconds of regulation.
"I'm very proud to be Canadian," forward Jarome Iginla said. "You know what, I'm really proud of setting the gold-medal record for Canada."
Remember the time: 7:40 into the extra session. That's the moment Sid the Kid grew up on the world stage and scored the winning goal. It set off howls, chants, sobs and cheers inside a packed Canada Hockey Place that was so proud of the guys decked out in red and white.
"It's a pretty unbelievable thing," the 22-year-old Crosby said. "Being in Canada, that's the opportunity of a lifetime. You dream of that a thousand times growing up. For it to come true is amazing."
For the past few years, Crosby has basically been on loan. He plays below the border in Pittsburgh — a working-class American town that celebrated him and the Stanley Cup title he and the Penguins brought to the Steel City last year.
For the past two weeks, he was back home for Canada to reclaim as its own. There could be no more fitting ending to the Vancouver Games than to have the favorite son bring home the gold medal to a country that loves hockey more than any other sport.
At times, it seemed as if the pressure and expectations on this group of Canadian hockey players might be too much too handle. There was the early scare against Switzerland that produced a victory, a scaled-down one in a shootout, and then the crushing loss to the Americans at the end of preliminary round play.
Canada was stuck in a play-in game just to get into the quarterfinals. Could they realistically be expected to win four times in six days to capture gold?
The answer was a resounding yes.
"We talked about not getting discouraged if the tournament didn't go our way right off the bat," defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "Believe in each other and get our team game the way it needs to be to win, and we did it."
To win, Canada withstood a remarkable and determined effort from a U.S. team that wasn't supposed to medal in Vancouver, much less roll through the tournament unbeaten before losing in the first overtime gold-medal game since NHL players joined the Olympics in 1998.
"No one knew our names. People know our names now," said Chris Drury, one of three holdovers from the 2002 U.S. team that also lost to Canada in the gold-medal game.
Miller graciously accepted the silver medal around his neck, but the disappointment was easy to read on his face.
"He was the main reason we were in the gold medal game and why we got it to overtime," forward Ryan Callahan said.
Drury, Miller's former teammate with the Buffalo Sabres, hugged the devastated goalie near the U.S. bench as the celebration roared all around them.
"He's pretty down, but there's no chance we're here without the way he played the whole tournament," Drury said. "It's heartbreaking to lose in OT of a gold-medal game, but he should be proud of everything he did the last two weeks."
Miller was done in on Sunday by a couple of costly mistakes by his typically sure-handed defensemen. The gaffes led to shots that gave the rock-solid goalie little chance to stop.
Even with an early 0-2 deficit — the first for the Americans' in this stunning Olympic run — Miller proved to be as brilliant as he had been throughout the tournament.
A two-goal hole was already deep for the Americans. Three would have been almost too monumental to overcome.
Miller knew it and never let it get that far. He watched from the bench after being pulled for an extra attacker and saw Parise net the goal that made it 2-2 with 24.4 seconds remaining that forced a most improbable overtime. Ryan Kesler began the comeback when he cut the deficit to 2-1 with 7:16 left in the second.
Whatever momentum was gained by Parise's exhilarating goal was mostly gone by the time the teams returned after a lengthy break before overtime.
"Once we got past about 10 minutes into the intermission we realized, 'You know what? We've still got a chance here,'" Crosby said. "We just said, 'Let's go after it.'
"I didn't want to have any regrets."
Canada was in control throughout extra time, keeping the puck in the U.S. zone and the pressure squarely on the young Americans. Their speed, the Americans' greatest strength, seemed to slow as the game wore on under the constant hitting from the much-bigger Canadians.
Crosby scored from the bottom of the left circle on a shot Miller didn't think would come.
Now, Crosby joins Lemieux — whose goal beat the Soviet Union in the 1987 World Cup — and Paul Henderson, who beat the Soviets with a goal in the 1972 Summit Series, among the instant national heroes of Canadian hockey. At age 22, Crosby has won the Stanley Cup and the Olympics in less than a year's time.
"He's got a little destiny to him — his entire career, throughout minor hockey, junior hockey, NHL," Canada executive director Steve Yzerman said about Crosby. "So it's just another monumental moment in his career. And he's what, 22 still? He's a special, special guy. Kind of like Gretzky."
Minutes after the game ended, delirious fans chanted, "Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!" International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge paused before giving the final medal to Crosby as the crowd got even louder. Then he gestured with his right hand, calling for more cheers for Crosby.
"It's just fitting, I think, that Sid would get it," goalie Roberto Luongo said. "I couldn't think of anyone better."
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oly_hko_canada_us
VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Sidney Crosby sized up goalie Ryan Miller in overtime and delivered hockey gold to a nation that not only craved it, but demanded it, too.
Silver wouldn't satisfy. Not in this sport and not in these Olympics.
Canada needed a pick-me-up to call the past 17 days a success. With a wrist shot Miller wasn't expecting, Crosby wiped away a whole lot of hurt. The scoreboard read Canada 3, USA 2. A happy — yet relieved country — rejoiced Sunday.
The death of a luger before the Olympic cauldron was lit, disheartening glitches and a slow start in the medals race had Canada down on these games. But after finishing tops among all nations with a Winter Olympics record 14 gold medals, including the one it wanted most, the hosts held their heads high.
'O Canada' surely never sounded as sweet as when the Maple Leaf flag rose above the ice to honor hockey's latest champions. And the way the Canadians pulled it off was truly dramatic. Crosby and Canada shook off a shocking tying goal by Zach Parise that gave the United States hope in the closing seconds of regulation.
"I'm very proud to be Canadian," forward Jarome Iginla said. "You know what, I'm really proud of setting the gold-medal record for Canada."
Remember the time: 7:40 into the extra session. That's the moment Sid the Kid grew up on the world stage and scored the winning goal. It set off howls, chants, sobs and cheers inside a packed Canada Hockey Place that was so proud of the guys decked out in red and white.
"It's a pretty unbelievable thing," the 22-year-old Crosby said. "Being in Canada, that's the opportunity of a lifetime. You dream of that a thousand times growing up. For it to come true is amazing."
For the past few years, Crosby has basically been on loan. He plays below the border in Pittsburgh — a working-class American town that celebrated him and the Stanley Cup title he and the Penguins brought to the Steel City last year.
For the past two weeks, he was back home for Canada to reclaim as its own. There could be no more fitting ending to the Vancouver Games than to have the favorite son bring home the gold medal to a country that loves hockey more than any other sport.
At times, it seemed as if the pressure and expectations on this group of Canadian hockey players might be too much too handle. There was the early scare against Switzerland that produced a victory, a scaled-down one in a shootout, and then the crushing loss to the Americans at the end of preliminary round play.
Canada was stuck in a play-in game just to get into the quarterfinals. Could they realistically be expected to win four times in six days to capture gold?
The answer was a resounding yes.
"We talked about not getting discouraged if the tournament didn't go our way right off the bat," defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "Believe in each other and get our team game the way it needs to be to win, and we did it."
To win, Canada withstood a remarkable and determined effort from a U.S. team that wasn't supposed to medal in Vancouver, much less roll through the tournament unbeaten before losing in the first overtime gold-medal game since NHL players joined the Olympics in 1998.
"No one knew our names. People know our names now," said Chris Drury, one of three holdovers from the 2002 U.S. team that also lost to Canada in the gold-medal game.
Miller graciously accepted the silver medal around his neck, but the disappointment was easy to read on his face.
"He was the main reason we were in the gold medal game and why we got it to overtime," forward Ryan Callahan said.
Drury, Miller's former teammate with the Buffalo Sabres, hugged the devastated goalie near the U.S. bench as the celebration roared all around them.
"He's pretty down, but there's no chance we're here without the way he played the whole tournament," Drury said. "It's heartbreaking to lose in OT of a gold-medal game, but he should be proud of everything he did the last two weeks."
Miller was done in on Sunday by a couple of costly mistakes by his typically sure-handed defensemen. The gaffes led to shots that gave the rock-solid goalie little chance to stop.
Even with an early 0-2 deficit — the first for the Americans' in this stunning Olympic run — Miller proved to be as brilliant as he had been throughout the tournament.
A two-goal hole was already deep for the Americans. Three would have been almost too monumental to overcome.
Miller knew it and never let it get that far. He watched from the bench after being pulled for an extra attacker and saw Parise net the goal that made it 2-2 with 24.4 seconds remaining that forced a most improbable overtime. Ryan Kesler began the comeback when he cut the deficit to 2-1 with 7:16 left in the second.
Whatever momentum was gained by Parise's exhilarating goal was mostly gone by the time the teams returned after a lengthy break before overtime.
"Once we got past about 10 minutes into the intermission we realized, 'You know what? We've still got a chance here,'" Crosby said. "We just said, 'Let's go after it.'
"I didn't want to have any regrets."
Canada was in control throughout extra time, keeping the puck in the U.S. zone and the pressure squarely on the young Americans. Their speed, the Americans' greatest strength, seemed to slow as the game wore on under the constant hitting from the much-bigger Canadians.
Crosby scored from the bottom of the left circle on a shot Miller didn't think would come.
Now, Crosby joins Lemieux — whose goal beat the Soviet Union in the 1987 World Cup — and Paul Henderson, who beat the Soviets with a goal in the 1972 Summit Series, among the instant national heroes of Canadian hockey. At age 22, Crosby has won the Stanley Cup and the Olympics in less than a year's time.
"He's got a little destiny to him — his entire career, throughout minor hockey, junior hockey, NHL," Canada executive director Steve Yzerman said about Crosby. "So it's just another monumental moment in his career. And he's what, 22 still? He's a special, special guy. Kind of like Gretzky."
Minutes after the game ended, delirious fans chanted, "Crosby! Crosby! Crosby!" International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge paused before giving the final medal to Crosby as the crowd got even louder. Then he gestured with his right hand, calling for more cheers for Crosby.
"It's just fitting, I think, that Sid would get it," goalie Roberto Luongo said. "I couldn't think of anyone better."
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/oly_hko_canada_us
UPDATE 1-Winter storms to distort US jobless figures-Summers
(Adds quotes on Greece, background)
Regulatory News | Bonds | Global Markets
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Monday winter blizzards were likely to distort U.S. February jobless figures, which are due to be released on Friday.
"The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics. So it's going to be very important ... to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends," Summers said in an interview with CNBC, according to a transcript.
Construction activity was hit particularly hard by the storms, but many restaurants and stores also had to close, putting the brakes on hiring plans and temporarily throwing some employees out of work.
Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council, also said the United States was closely monitoring Greece's debt problems and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was encouraged by what he had heard from European officials about the issue.
"With respect to Europe, I am obviously very concerned about what's happening in Greece and Portugal, in Spain, in Italy, on the European continent," Summers said.
"I think there have been increasing signs of recognition both in Greece and in the major countries of Europe that this is a situation that has to be managed; that combination of getting the Greek budget under better control and providing more support is necessary to stabilize this situation."
Summers brushed aside speculation that he was interested in changing jobs.
"I like what I'm doing," he said. "My view is if the president asks me to do something in which I think I can make a contribution, the right approach to it is to say yes, and that's why I'm very pleased to be here working at the National Economic Council." (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Ross Colvin; editing by Chris Wilson)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0111549320100301?type=marketsNews
Regulatory News | Bonds | Global Markets
WASHINGTON, March 1 (Reuters) - White House economic adviser Larry Summers said on Monday winter blizzards were likely to distort U.S. February jobless figures, which are due to be released on Friday.
"The blizzards that affected much of the country during the last month are likely to distort the statistics. So it's going to be very important ... to look past whatever the next figures are to gauge the underlying trends," Summers said in an interview with CNBC, according to a transcript.
Construction activity was hit particularly hard by the storms, but many restaurants and stores also had to close, putting the brakes on hiring plans and temporarily throwing some employees out of work.
Summers, director of the White House's National Economic Council, also said the United States was closely monitoring Greece's debt problems and U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was encouraged by what he had heard from European officials about the issue.
"With respect to Europe, I am obviously very concerned about what's happening in Greece and Portugal, in Spain, in Italy, on the European continent," Summers said.
"I think there have been increasing signs of recognition both in Greece and in the major countries of Europe that this is a situation that has to be managed; that combination of getting the Greek budget under better control and providing more support is necessary to stabilize this situation."
Summers brushed aside speculation that he was interested in changing jobs.
"I like what I'm doing," he said. "My view is if the president asks me to do something in which I think I can make a contribution, the right approach to it is to say yes, and that's why I'm very pleased to be here working at the National Economic Council." (Reporting by Jeff Mason and Ross Colvin; editing by Chris Wilson)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN0111549320100301?type=marketsNews
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Huge quake hits Chile; tsunami threatens Pacific
By ROBERTO CANDIA and EVA VERGARA, Associated Press Writer Roberto Candia And Eva Vergara, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago
TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly.
In the town of Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, Associated Press journalist Roberto Candia said it felt as if a giant had grabbed him and shaken him.
The town's historic center, filled with buildings of adobe mud and straw, largely collapsed, though most of those were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.
Many roads were destroyed, and electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.
Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.
Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.
"We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," she said from an emergency response center. She said Chile has not asked for assistance from other countries, and urged Chileans not to panic.
"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down.
Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.
Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister told Chilean television. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.
Candia was visiting his wife's 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when the quake struck.
"Everything was falling — chests of drawers, everything," he said. "I was sleeping with my 8-year-old son Diego and I managed to cover his head with a pillow. It was like major turbulence on an airplane."
In Concepcion, 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.
A 15-story building collapsed: "I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, who lived in the building but somehow escaped with no major injuries.
Abarzua said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake hit, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."
Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, is 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
The quake also shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) away on the Atlantic side of South America. It was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) east of the epicenter.
Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
"But then I thought, `Oh, there's no train here.' And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."
The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.
"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
___
Eva Vergara reported from Santiago, Chile. Associated Press Television News cameraman Mauricio Cuevas and writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, and AP writer Sandy Kozel in Washington contributed to this story.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake
TALCA, Chile – A devastating earthquake struck Chile early Saturday, toppling homes, collapsing bridges and plunging trucks into the fractured earth. A tsunami set off by the magnitude-8.8 quake threatened every nation around the Pacific Ocean — roughly a quarter of the globe.
President-elect Sebastian Pinera said more than 120 people died, but the death toll was rising quickly.
In the town of Talca, just 65 miles (105 kilometers) from the epicenter, Associated Press journalist Roberto Candia said it felt as if a giant had grabbed him and shaken him.
The town's historic center, filled with buildings of adobe mud and straw, largely collapsed, though most of those were businesses that were not inhabited during the 3:34 a.m. (1:34 a.m. EST, 0634 GMT) quake. Neighbors pulled at least five people from the rubble while emergency workers, themselves disoriented, asked for information from reporters.
Many roads were destroyed, and electricity, water and phone lines were cut to many areas — meaning there was no word of death or damage from many outlying areas.
In the Chilean capital of Santiago, 200 miles (325 kilometers) northeast of the epicenter, a car dangled from a collapsed overpass, the national Fine Arts Museum was badly damaged and an apartment building's two-story parking lot pancaked, smashing about 50 cars whose alarms rang incessantly.
Experts warned that a tsunami could strike anywhere in the Pacific, and Hawaii could face its largest waves since 1964 starting at 11:19 a.m. (4:19 p.m. EST, 2119 GMT), according to Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center.
Tsunami waves were likely to hit Asian, Australian and New Zealand shores within 24 hours of the earthquake. The U.S. West Coast and Alaska, too, were threatened.
Waves 6 feet (1.8 meter) above normal hit Talcahuano near Concepcion 23 minutes after the quake, and President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave swept into a populated area in the Robinson Crusoe Islands, 410 miles (660 kilometers) off the Chilean coast, but there were no immediate reports of major damage.
Bachelet said she had no information on the number of people injured in the quake. She declared a "state of catastrophe" in central Chile.
"We have had a huge earthquake, with some aftershocks," she said from an emergency response center. She said Chile has not asked for assistance from other countries, and urged Chileans not to panic.
"The system is functioning. People should remain calm. We're doing everything we can with all the forces we have. Any information we will share immediately," she said.
Powerful aftershocks rattled Chile's coast — 29 of them magnitude 5 or greater and one reaching magnitude 6.9 — the U.S. Geological Survey reported.
In Santiago, modern buildings are built to withstand earthquakes, but many older ones were heavily damaged, including the Nuestra Senora de la Providencia church, whose bell tower collapsed. A bridge just outside the capital also collapsed, and at least one car flipped upside down.
Several hospitals were evacuated due to earthquake damage, Bachelet said.
Santiago's airport will remain closed for at least 24 hours, airport director Eduardo del Canto said. The passenger terminal suffered major damage, he told Chilean television in a telephone interview. TV images show smashed windows, partially collapsed ceilings and pedestrian walkways destroyed.
Santiago's subway was shut as well and hundreds of buses were trapped at a terminal by a damaged bridge, Transportation and Telecommunications Minister told Chilean television. He urged Chileans to make phone calls or travel only when absolutely necessary.
Candia was visiting his wife's 92-year-old grandmother in Talca when the quake struck.
"Everything was falling — chests of drawers, everything," he said. "I was sleeping with my 8-year-old son Diego and I managed to cover his head with a pillow. It was like major turbulence on an airplane."
In Concepcion, 70 miles (115 kilometers) from the epicenter, nurses and residents pushed the injured through the streets on stretchers. Others walked around in a daze wrapped in blankets, some carrying infants in their arms.
A 15-story building collapsed: "I was on the 8th floor and all of a sudden I was down here," said Fernando Abarzua, who lived in the building but somehow escaped with no major injuries.
Abarzua said a relative was still trapped in the rubble six hours after the quake hit, "but he keeps shouting, saying he's OK."
Concepcion, Chile's second-largest city, is 60 miles (95 kilometers) from the ski town of Chillan, a gateway to Andean ski resorts that was destroyed in a 1939 earthquake.
The quake also shook buildings in Argentina's capital of Buenos Aires, 900 miles (1,400 kilometers) away on the Atlantic side of South America. It was felt as far away as Sao Paulo in Brazil — 1,800 miles (2,900 kilometers) east of the epicenter.
Marco Vidal, a program director for Grand Circle Travel who was traveling with a group of 34 Americans, was on the 19th floor of the Crown Plaza Santiago hotel when the quake struck.
"All the things start to fall. The lamps, everything, was going on the floor," he said. "I felt terrified."
Cynthia Iocono, from Linwood, Pennsylvania, said she first thought the quake was a train.
"But then I thought, `Oh, there's no train here.' And then the lamps flew off the dresser and my TV flew off onto the floor and crashed."
The quake struck after concert-goers had left South America's leading music festival in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, but it caught partiers leaving a disco.
"It was very bad. People were screaming. Some people were running, others appeared paralyzed. I was one of them," Julio Alvarez told Radio Cooperativa.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center called for "urgent action to protect lives and property" in Hawaii, which is among 53 nations and territories subject to tsunami warnings.
"Sea level readings indicate a tsunami was generated. It may have been destructive along coasts near the earthquake epicenter and could also be a threat to more distant coasts," the warning center said. It did not expect a tsunami along the west of the U.S. or Canada.
The largest earthquake ever recorded struck the same area of Chile on May 22, 1960. The magnitude-9.5 quake killed 1,655 people and left 2 million homeless. The tsunami that it caused killed people in Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines and caused damage to the west coast of the United States.
___
Eva Vergara reported from Santiago, Chile. Associated Press Television News cameraman Mauricio Cuevas and writer Eduardo Gallardo in Santiago, and AP writer Sandy Kozel in Washington contributed to this story.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake
Boozy ape sent to rehab
Ai Ai, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, enjoys a cigarette after a meal in her glass enclosure at the zoo in Xian, in central China's Shaanxi province, in this August 2005 file photo. A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday.
Photograph by: File, Reuters
info came from http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Boozy+chimp+sent+rehab+Russia/2616639/story.html
The gun-toting boys from Brazil who rule Rio’s ‘Corner of Fear’
A boy steps boldly into the night traffic and waves a gun to bring the cars to a halt, clearing a path for a motorcycle which screeches into the intersection. Riding pillion is another boy, brandishing a machinegun.
Later two teenagers, also riding pillion on motorbikes, flash their guns at other motorists; nearby, a boy can be seen taking aim with a rifle equipped with a telescopic sight. Other youths wander the street smoking crack.
For residents, the junction between the busy Dom Helder Câmara and dos Democráticos, in North Rio de Janeiro, has become known as the Corner of Fear — and video footage of daily life there has shocked a nation already familiar with guns and violence.
The latest images, captured by undercover journalists from the Rio tabloid Extra, have exposed the city’s criminal youth culture in a manner that echoes the journalistic investigation featured in the film City of God.
The age of the criminals — one pistol-toting boy is 12 — is obvious cause for alarm, but so is the seeming impunity with which they act.
The video footage has provided a glimpse into the city’s underworld that hardly touches Rio’s wealthier citizens.
Local newspapers rarely show at first hand the violence that permeates the city’s slums (favelas). Since the brutal torture and murder of the journalist Tim Lopes — who was caught filming secretly in the Vila Cruzeiro favela in 2002 — Brazilian reporters have been reluctant to take their cameras into slum areas. Any reports that are filed tend to come from correspondents talking from inside armoured cars, or are images showing the aftermath of a shooting.
“What is shocking is this parallel power, the fact that they are very young,” said André Cabral De Almeida Cardoso, 41, a teacher. “They are so brazen about it.”
Valera dos Santos, 34, a maid who lives in a favela in São Paulo, said: “My God, I’ve never seen pictures like this. It’s absurd, they’re just boys.”
The journalists who captured the images were also taken aback. “Even knowing the reality of what could happen, you are still shocked by the glamour that these weapons represent in the arms of minors,” said Fernando Torres, 27, one of a team of three who spent four nights undercover at the Corner of Fear.
“These images are desolate,” said Lucy Petroucic, 56, a translator. “These boys have become little Taleban who think they have nothing to lose.”
Within hours, police arrested one of a group of bandits shown in the video and promised that changes were on the way. Luiz Fernando Pezão, Rio’s Deputy Governor, told reporters that a new police base would open nearby in May.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Saturday, February 20, 2010
Ohno becomes most decorated US Winter Olympian
Feb 20, 11:50 PM (ET)
By BETH HARRIS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Trailing the South Koreans and a pair of Canadian brothers, Apolo Anton Ohno had to rally on the last lap to make history.
With the gold and silver out of reach, Ohno scooted furiously past brothers Charles and Francois Hamelin to earn a bronze in the short-track 1,000-meter final Saturday night, making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian.
Lee Jung-su of South Korea won and teammate Lee Ho-suk earned the silver.
Ohno's seventh career medal broke a tie with long-track speedskater Bonnie Blair. He now has two gold, two silver and three bronze medals in his three Olympic appearances. The skater from Seattle already earned a silver in the 1,500 last weekend.
Ohno's medals are the most of any short-track skater.
He appeared relieved as he crossed the finish line, having skated near the back of the pack early in the nine-lap race. Ohno briefly moved up to second, then dropped to last with three laps to go, forcing his rally near the end.
Ohno grabbed an American flag and skated around, then patted his long-time South Korean rivals on their shoulders.
He has two more events in Vancouver to add to his medal cache.
In the women's 1,500 final, Zhou Yang of China easily won the gold medal.
Zhou breezed to the finish line Saturday night, well ahead of Lee Eun-byul of South Korea, who earned the silver. Park Seung-hi of South Korea took the bronze.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100221/D9E0BMV00.html
By BETH HARRIS
VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) - Trailing the South Koreans and a pair of Canadian brothers, Apolo Anton Ohno had to rally on the last lap to make history.
With the gold and silver out of reach, Ohno scooted furiously past brothers Charles and Francois Hamelin to earn a bronze in the short-track 1,000-meter final Saturday night, making him the most decorated U.S. Winter Olympian.
Lee Jung-su of South Korea won and teammate Lee Ho-suk earned the silver.
Ohno's seventh career medal broke a tie with long-track speedskater Bonnie Blair. He now has two gold, two silver and three bronze medals in his three Olympic appearances. The skater from Seattle already earned a silver in the 1,500 last weekend.
Ohno's medals are the most of any short-track skater.
He appeared relieved as he crossed the finish line, having skated near the back of the pack early in the nine-lap race. Ohno briefly moved up to second, then dropped to last with three laps to go, forcing his rally near the end.
Ohno grabbed an American flag and skated around, then patted his long-time South Korean rivals on their shoulders.
He has two more events in Vancouver to add to his medal cache.
In the women's 1,500 final, Zhou Yang of China easily won the gold medal.
Zhou breezed to the finish line Saturday night, well ahead of Lee Eun-byul of South Korea, who earned the silver. Park Seung-hi of South Korea took the bronze.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100221/D9E0BMV00.html
Friday, February 19, 2010
Obama to tout housing help Friday in Las Vegas
Feb 19, 7:05 AM (ET)
By BEN FELLER
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
By BEN FELLER
LAS VEGAS (AP) - President Barack Obama is unveiling $1.5 billion in housing help, a boost timed to his appearance in the city with the worst foreclosure crisis in the nation.
Obama's move, detailed by aides in advance of his town hall here Friday, is the latest by a White House determined to show it is helping families rebound from a deep recession. The downturn is taking an election-year toll on Obama's party as voter frustration builds.
Obama was to announce that housing finance agencies in the five hardest-hit states in the housing crisis will receive $1.5 billion to help spur local solutions to the problem. Those five are Arizona, California, Florida, Michigan and Nevada.
The policy wrinkle comes during a two-day Western trip with different agendas for the president. He will be back in town-hall mode, a venue that aides say allows him to connect with people and distance himself from the messy process of Washington governing.
The president is also out to help vulnerable senators protect their seats and, in turn, gain as much legislative leverage as he can.
At the town hall and a business speech he will be lending his support to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, a top 2010 election target of Republicans.
Obama's political involvement comes as the Democrats' command of the Senate grows shakier, jeopardizing the president's agenda. The tide of change that Obama rode to office is threatening to slam against his own party.
The first day of the trip was all politics. Obama campaigned Thursday for Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado in Denver, then held a $1 million fundraiser for Democrats in Las Vegas.
Reid is one of Obama's allies, despite a flap over the president's tendency to refer to Las Vegas as a symbol of imprudent spending, which has the city's mayor fuming at the president.
For Obama, slowing the foreclosure rate is a key step in the recovery of the overall economy. Millions of people have lost their homes because they couldn't afford the mortgages anymore, and millions lost jobs because of the associated slowdown in new home building.
Reid's state leads the nation in home foreclosures; Las Vegas was the metro area with the highest foreclosure rate in January, with one in every 82 homes receiving such a filing.
The money for the new rescue effort will come from the $700 billion financial industry bailout program, according to a senior administration official who spoke anonymously Thursday night because the formal announcement had not been made.
Economic issues, such as unemployment or reduced income, are expected to be the main catalysts for foreclosures this year. Initially, subprime mortgages were mostly the culprit, but homeowners with good credit who took out conventional, fixed-rate loans are the fastest growing group of foreclosures.
Obama will cap his Las Vegas trip with a speech to the city's Chamber of Commerce before returning to Washington later Friday.
info came from http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100219/D9DV7SS00.html
Tiger Woods says sorry, golf return still unknown
By DOUG FERGUSON, AP Golf Writer Doug Ferguson, Ap Golf Writer – 1 hr 31 mins ago
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Missing his smile and aura of invincibility, Tiger Woods finally showed his face to a waiting world Friday and apologized again for cheating on his wife, without revealing the scope of his infidelity or when he will return to golf.
Standing at a podium before a presidential-blue backdrop in a hushed room of his closest associates, Woods stumbled a few times as he read a 13 1/2-minute statement. He offered no new details of what happened or what's next, except that he was leaving Saturday for more therapy.
"I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did," Woods said.
Woods' wife, Elin, did not attend his first public appearance since he crashed his car into a tree outside their home three months ago, setting off shocking allegations of rampant extramarital affairs.
"I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated," Woods said. "What I did was not acceptable."
Woods alternately looked into the camera and at the 40 people in the room, raising his voice only to deny that his wife ever hit him and to demand that the paparazzi leave his family alone. Beyond that, there were stretches when Woods — with his formidable business empire — could have been reading from a tough corporate report.
He entered the room alone. When he finished, he stopped for a long embrace with his mother, Kultida, who said she whispered in his ear, "I'm so proud of you. Never think you stand alone. Mom will always be there for you, and I love you."
Regaining trust and support from everyone else might not be so easy.
Woods already has lost two corporate endorsements — Accenture and AT&T — and he has gone from being perhaps the most famous athlete in the world to a punch line in night clubs and on talk shows.
"It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made," Woods said. "It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."
Woods left therapy on Feb. 11 and has been spending time with his two children and his mother — but not his wife — in Orlando, according to a person with knowledge of Woods' schedule. The person, not authorized to release such information, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Woods did not say how much longer he would be in therapy, only that "I have a long way to go."
Pool photos were released Thursday of Woods hitting golf balls on the practice range.
"I do plan to return to golf one day," Woods said. "I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game."
Just as unpredictable is the future of his marriage. Woods said he and his wife have started discussing the damage he has done.
"As Elin pointed out to me, my apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time," Woods said. "We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us."
After an embrace with his mother, Woods hugged the two women who sat on either side of her — Amy Reynolds, formerly of Nike who now works for Tiger Woods Design, and Kathy Battaglia, who is Woods' administrative assistant at ETW Corp.
He made his way down the front row and greeted others — his chief financial officer, Web site administrator, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Notah Begay, who played with Woods at Stanford and withdrew from the PGA Tour event in Mexico.
Begay said Woods had a long, tough recovery ahead of him — not only at home, but before thousands of fans behind the ropes.
"It's a little bit harder than making a swing change," Begay said.
Woods remained composed throughout the statement, pausing briefly before the first of several apologies. At times, however, he looked into the camera almost on cue. Begay said he got choked up listening, and felt his words were sincere.
"This is as emotional as I've ever seen him in public," Begay said.
The only employee not on the front row was Bryon Bell, his friend from junior high who now is president of his design company. Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG, sat on the last of three rows with 14 PGA Tour executives.
"He's an American hero. And he's had his issues," Finchem said. "At the end of the day, he's a human being. We all make mistakes. My personal reaction was that his comments were heartfelt. He clearly recognizes that there has been serious impact to a wide range of individuals and organizations."
Some of the eight players at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona watched the coverage before the third round.
"From a guy that's done a lot of tough things in golf over the years, it was probably one of the most difficult things he's ever had to do," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. "And it was something probably that's going to help him along the way of healing."
In Sweden, Elin's father, Thomas Nordegren, saw Woods' confession.
"I watched it but I have nothing to say right now," Nordegren told The Associated Press. Elin's mother, Barbro Holmberg, declined to comment through her spokeswoman.
Friday's event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Woods live. The confession became a major television event with the networks breaking in to show it.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos called the speech "one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure."
Said golf analyst David Feherty on CBS: "The vast number of people just want their Tiger Woods back."
Certainly, no other PGA Tour player could command this kind of attention.
But Woods has always been special on the course and in popular culture. Television ratings double when he is in contention, which has happened a lot on his way to winning 71 times on the PGA Tour and 14 majors, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus watched the announcement, but a spokesman said he would have no comment.
Most of the associates left the room when Woods finished speaking. Among those who stayed were Mrs. Woods, who rarely gives interview but in this case said, "I would like to talk."
She said her son has a "good heart and good soul" but made a mistake. Mrs. Woods, raised in Thailand, also claims the media showed a "double standard" by keeping the sex scandal in the news for so long.
"Some of media, especially tabloid, hurt my son bad," Mrs. Woods said. "He didn't do anything illegal. He didn't kill anybody. But he try to improve himself. He try to go to therapy and help. He change that and making better. When he go do all this thing, he will come out stronger and a better person."
As his Thai-born mother sat with arms folded across her chest, Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith. Woods said his mother raised him as a Buddhist, and he practiced his faith "until I drifted away from it in recent years."
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security," Woods said. "It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
The companies that have stuck most closely by Woods, Nike Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc., reiterated their support.
"Tiger has apologized and made his position clear. Nike fully supports him and his family. We look forward to him returning to golf," the company said in a statement.
EA Sports president Peter Moore said: "It was good to see Tiger address the public today, and we're supportive of his focus toward family and rebuilding his life."
Woods' appearance drew reaction from all corners, even at the Winter Games in Vancouver.
"It's a bummer, his personal life," Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White said. "He's trying to pick his words very carefully and apologize. I respect that."
Veronica Siwik-Daniels, one of Woods' alleged mistresses and a former pornographic performer, watched the event with her attorney in a Los Angeles radio studio. She said she wants an apology for the unwanted attention the scandal has brought her.
"I really feel I deserve to look at him in person face to face in the eyes because I did not deserve this," she said.
___
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Marana, Ariz., Associated Press writers Antonio Gonzalez in Ponte Vedra Beach, John Rogers in Los Angeles, and AP Retail Writers Ashley Heher in Chicago and Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_tiger_woods
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – Missing his smile and aura of invincibility, Tiger Woods finally showed his face to a waiting world Friday and apologized again for cheating on his wife, without revealing the scope of his infidelity or when he will return to golf.
Standing at a podium before a presidential-blue backdrop in a hushed room of his closest associates, Woods stumbled a few times as he read a 13 1/2-minute statement. He offered no new details of what happened or what's next, except that he was leaving Saturday for more therapy.
"I have made you question who I am and how I could have done the things I did," Woods said.
Woods' wife, Elin, did not attend his first public appearance since he crashed his car into a tree outside their home three months ago, setting off shocking allegations of rampant extramarital affairs.
"I was unfaithful. I had affairs. I cheated," Woods said. "What I did was not acceptable."
Woods alternately looked into the camera and at the 40 people in the room, raising his voice only to deny that his wife ever hit him and to demand that the paparazzi leave his family alone. Beyond that, there were stretches when Woods — with his formidable business empire — could have been reading from a tough corporate report.
He entered the room alone. When he finished, he stopped for a long embrace with his mother, Kultida, who said she whispered in his ear, "I'm so proud of you. Never think you stand alone. Mom will always be there for you, and I love you."
Regaining trust and support from everyone else might not be so easy.
Woods already has lost two corporate endorsements — Accenture and AT&T — and he has gone from being perhaps the most famous athlete in the world to a punch line in night clubs and on talk shows.
"It's now up to me to make amends, and that starts by never repeating the mistakes I've made," Woods said. "It's up to me to start living a life of integrity."
Woods left therapy on Feb. 11 and has been spending time with his two children and his mother — but not his wife — in Orlando, according to a person with knowledge of Woods' schedule. The person, not authorized to release such information, spoke on condition of anonymity.
Woods did not say how much longer he would be in therapy, only that "I have a long way to go."
Pool photos were released Thursday of Woods hitting golf balls on the practice range.
"I do plan to return to golf one day," Woods said. "I just don't know when that day will be. I don't rule out that it will be this year. When I do return, I need to make my behavior more respectful of the game."
Just as unpredictable is the future of his marriage. Woods said he and his wife have started discussing the damage he has done.
"As Elin pointed out to me, my apology to her will not come in the form of words. It will come from my behavior over time," Woods said. "We have a lot to discuss. However, what we say to each other will remain between the two of us."
After an embrace with his mother, Woods hugged the two women who sat on either side of her — Amy Reynolds, formerly of Nike who now works for Tiger Woods Design, and Kathy Battaglia, who is Woods' administrative assistant at ETW Corp.
He made his way down the front row and greeted others — his chief financial officer, Web site administrator, PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem and Notah Begay, who played with Woods at Stanford and withdrew from the PGA Tour event in Mexico.
Begay said Woods had a long, tough recovery ahead of him — not only at home, but before thousands of fans behind the ropes.
"It's a little bit harder than making a swing change," Begay said.
Woods remained composed throughout the statement, pausing briefly before the first of several apologies. At times, however, he looked into the camera almost on cue. Begay said he got choked up listening, and felt his words were sincere.
"This is as emotional as I've ever seen him in public," Begay said.
The only employee not on the front row was Bryon Bell, his friend from junior high who now is president of his design company. Mark Steinberg, Woods' agent at IMG, sat on the last of three rows with 14 PGA Tour executives.
"He's an American hero. And he's had his issues," Finchem said. "At the end of the day, he's a human being. We all make mistakes. My personal reaction was that his comments were heartfelt. He clearly recognizes that there has been serious impact to a wide range of individuals and organizations."
Some of the eight players at the Accenture Match Play Championship in Arizona watched the coverage before the third round.
"From a guy that's done a lot of tough things in golf over the years, it was probably one of the most difficult things he's ever had to do," British Open champion Stewart Cink said. "And it was something probably that's going to help him along the way of healing."
In Sweden, Elin's father, Thomas Nordegren, saw Woods' confession.
"I watched it but I have nothing to say right now," Nordegren told The Associated Press. Elin's mother, Barbro Holmberg, declined to comment through her spokeswoman.
Friday's event was tightly controlled, with only a few journalists allowed to watch Woods live. The confession became a major television event with the networks breaking in to show it.
ABC's George Stephanopoulos called the speech "one of the most remarkable public apologies ever by a public figure."
Said golf analyst David Feherty on CBS: "The vast number of people just want their Tiger Woods back."
Certainly, no other PGA Tour player could command this kind of attention.
But Woods has always been special on the course and in popular culture. Television ratings double when he is in contention, which has happened a lot on his way to winning 71 times on the PGA Tour and 14 majors, four short of the record held by Jack Nicklaus.
Nicklaus watched the announcement, but a spokesman said he would have no comment.
Most of the associates left the room when Woods finished speaking. Among those who stayed were Mrs. Woods, who rarely gives interview but in this case said, "I would like to talk."
She said her son has a "good heart and good soul" but made a mistake. Mrs. Woods, raised in Thailand, also claims the media showed a "double standard" by keeping the sex scandal in the news for so long.
"Some of media, especially tabloid, hurt my son bad," Mrs. Woods said. "He didn't do anything illegal. He didn't kill anybody. But he try to improve himself. He try to go to therapy and help. He change that and making better. When he go do all this thing, he will come out stronger and a better person."
As his Thai-born mother sat with arms folded across her chest, Woods said part of his rehab would include a return to his Buddhist faith. Woods said his mother raised him as a Buddhist, and he practiced his faith "until I drifted away from it in recent years."
"Buddhism teaches that a craving for things outside ourselves causes an unhappy and pointless search for security," Woods said. "It teaches me to stop following every impulse and to learn restraint. Obviously I lost track of what I was taught."
The companies that have stuck most closely by Woods, Nike Inc. and Electronic Arts Inc., reiterated their support.
"Tiger has apologized and made his position clear. Nike fully supports him and his family. We look forward to him returning to golf," the company said in a statement.
EA Sports president Peter Moore said: "It was good to see Tiger address the public today, and we're supportive of his focus toward family and rebuilding his life."
Woods' appearance drew reaction from all corners, even at the Winter Games in Vancouver.
"It's a bummer, his personal life," Olympic gold-medalist Shaun White said. "He's trying to pick his words very carefully and apologize. I respect that."
Veronica Siwik-Daniels, one of Woods' alleged mistresses and a former pornographic performer, watched the event with her attorney in a Los Angeles radio studio. She said she wants an apology for the unwanted attention the scandal has brought her.
"I really feel I deserve to look at him in person face to face in the eyes because I did not deserve this," she said.
___
AP Sports Writer Bob Baum in Marana, Ariz., Associated Press writers Antonio Gonzalez in Ponte Vedra Beach, John Rogers in Los Angeles, and AP Retail Writers Ashley Heher in Chicago and Sarah Skidmore in Portland, Ore., contributed to this report.
info came from http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100219/ap_on_sp_go_ne/glf_tiger_woods
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Police push for warrantless searches of cell phones
When Christian Taylor stopped by the Sprint store in Daly City, Calif., last November, he was planning to buy around 30 BlackBerry handhelds.
But a Sprint employee on the lookout for fraud grew suspicious about the address and other details relating to Taylor's company, "Hype Univercity," and called the police. Taylor was arrested on charges of felony identity fraud, his car was impounded, and his iPhone was confiscated and searched by police without a warrant.
A San Mateo County judge is scheduled to hear testimony on Thursday morning in this case, which could set new ground rules for when police can conduct warrantless searches of iPhones, laptops, and similarly capacious electronic gadgets.
This is an important legal question that remains unresolved: as our gadgets store more and more information about us, including our appointments, correspondence, and personal photos and videos, what rules should police investigators be required to follow? The Obama administration and many local prosecutors' answer is that warrantless searches are perfectly constitutional during arrests.
"There are very, very few cases involving smartphones," Chris Feasel, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The law has not necessarily caught up to the technology."
Feasel said the county's position is that a search of a handheld device that takes place soon after an arrest is lawful. "It's an interesting issue that may decide the future of how courts handle these kinds of cases, especially smartphones and iPhones," he said.
Attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco civil liberties group that's representing Taylor, have asked the court to suppress any evidence obtained from the search of his iPhone. They say the search was "unconstitutional" because it was done without a warrant--and they say it also may have violated a 1986 federal law designed to protect the privacy of e-mail messages.
Privacy advocates say that long-standing legal rules allowing police to search suspects during an arrest--including looking through their wallets and pockets--should not apply to smartphones because the amount of material they store is so much greater and the risks of intrusive searches are so much higher. A 32GB iPhone 3GS, for instance, can hold approximately 220,000 copies of the unabridged text of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Neither the search of (Taylor's) vehicle nor the search of his iPhone was justified by any exception to the warrant requirement," the EFF and its co-counsel, San Francisco attorney Randall Garteiser wrote in a brief filed earlier this month.
Sex photos drew federal lawsuit
Concerns about privacy are not merely hypothetical. In March 2008, Nathan Newhard was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Culpeper, Va., and his cell phone was seized. In the pictures folder of the cell phone were multiple pictures of Newhard and his then-girlfriend, Jessie Casella, nude in sexually compromising positions.
Newhard and Casella--at that point no longer a couple--filed separate civil rights lawsuits against Sgt. Matt Borders, who they said alerted the rest of the police department on the radio "that the private pictures were available for their viewing and enjoyment." Newhard claimed that, as a result of the incident, he was nonrecommended for continued employment with the Culpeper school system, where he had worked before the arrest.
A federal judge in Virginia last year agreed that the police conduct was "irresponsible, unprofessional, and reprehensible" but said that Culpeper police officers could not be held legally responsible because they did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights. In addition, the court pointed out, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that "officers may retrieve text messages and other information from cell phones and pagers seized incident to an arrest" to preserve evidence.
The problem for EFF and its co-counsel in the San Mateo County case is that, while the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up the issue, a number of other courts have reached similar conclusions. In 2007, the Fifth Circuit concluded that police were permitted to conduct a warrantless search for call records and text messages during an arrest. So did the Seventh Circuit in a 1996 case dealing with information from numeric pagers ("It is imperative that law enforcement officers have the authority to immediately 'search' or retrieve, incident to a valid arrest, information from a pager in order to prevent its destruction as evidence.")
"There's a very good case that the police, as awful as it sounds, should be able to go through the contents of this phone," said Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who has written a paper on the topic. "Courts for the most part have held that a phone is like a container, a wallet or a purse."
Then again, does an iPhone or Nexus One really have that much in common with a numeric pager? "The Fourth Amendment requires a search to be reasonable," Gershowitz said. "At a certain point it just becomes so excessive as to be unreasonable, and we may be getting close to that point."
From pagers to iPhones
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, of course, prohibits "unreasonable" searches and seizures.
Warrantless searches generally violate the Fourth Amendment. But the Supreme Court has allowed an exception permitting warrantless searches at the time that someone is being arrested, on the grounds that police should be allowed to look for weapons or items that could be linked to an alleged crime. A second exception to the warrant requirement is a "booking search" that allows police to establish an inventory of the defendant's possessions.
The examination of Taylor's iPhone by the Daly City police department was a two-step process. After Taylor was taken to the prisoner processing center, Daly City detective Joseph Bocci conducted what prosecutors describe as a "limited search of the iPhone." Then, armed with a search warrant, Bocci completed an analysis of the phone's contents.
Meanwhile, Taylor's business seems to be languishing. The HypeUOnline.com blog, created after his arrest, features only three test posts. And the linked Twitter account features only a series of messages titled "2,218 New Followers Within 7 Days" and "Make Money On Twitter" that include links to a non-existent Web page. (Prosecutors say Taylor has prior convictions for forgery, fraud, and identity theft.)
Another reason why a search of Taylor's phone was constitutional, said Feasel, the deputy district attorney, is because "of the transitory nature of that information, because iPhones do present interesting issues with regards to e-mails, and because the iPhone with the 3.0 operating system does have a feature known as a remote wipe."
"The potential for destruction of evidence by a defendant further bolsters our argument regarding limited search incident to arrest," Feasel said.
There is a dispute about whether the iPhone was protected with a password. San Mateo County said in court papers that there is no evidence "that the iPhone was locked." Feasel said that if there had been a password, "there would need to be a search warrant."
EFF, on the other hand, says its client is positive that Bocci, the detective, "bypassed the password" on the iPhone. Jennifer Granick, an EFF attorney, says she plans to ask the officer about it during Thursday's hearing.
There are guides online showing how to do just that, including one titled "Defeating the iPhone Passcode." The technique works on both jail-broken and unaltered iPhones and involves overwriting an iPhone file that stores the password. A $29.99 Windows application called QuickPWN reportedly does the trick.
"If the government can look at a paper appointment book, why can't they look at a contact list on an iPhone?" said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who has written extensively about electronic investigations. "Where I think things get much more difficult is searching through the phone using keyword searches."
A 2007 decision by a San Francisco federal judge, which CNET reported at the time, noted that "the line between cell phones and personal computers has grown increasingly blurry" and that the U.S. Department of Justice "asserted that officers could lawfully seize and search an arrestee's laptop computer as a warrantless search incident to arrest." The Obama Justice Department, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position about warrantless searches of cell phones.
"I think eventually courts will probably have a new rule" for smartphone searches, said Kerr, the George Washington law professor. "The question is, what the limit will be? You can imagine different possibilities. Maybe there's a time limitation. We just don't know. It's too early."
info came from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10455611-38.html
But a Sprint employee on the lookout for fraud grew suspicious about the address and other details relating to Taylor's company, "Hype Univercity," and called the police. Taylor was arrested on charges of felony identity fraud, his car was impounded, and his iPhone was confiscated and searched by police without a warrant.
A San Mateo County judge is scheduled to hear testimony on Thursday morning in this case, which could set new ground rules for when police can conduct warrantless searches of iPhones, laptops, and similarly capacious electronic gadgets.
This is an important legal question that remains unresolved: as our gadgets store more and more information about us, including our appointments, correspondence, and personal photos and videos, what rules should police investigators be required to follow? The Obama administration and many local prosecutors' answer is that warrantless searches are perfectly constitutional during arrests.
"There are very, very few cases involving smartphones," Chris Feasel, deputy district attorney for San Mateo County, said in an interview on Wednesday. "The law has not necessarily caught up to the technology."
Feasel said the county's position is that a search of a handheld device that takes place soon after an arrest is lawful. "It's an interesting issue that may decide the future of how courts handle these kinds of cases, especially smartphones and iPhones," he said.
Attorneys for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the San Francisco civil liberties group that's representing Taylor, have asked the court to suppress any evidence obtained from the search of his iPhone. They say the search was "unconstitutional" because it was done without a warrant--and they say it also may have violated a 1986 federal law designed to protect the privacy of e-mail messages.
Privacy advocates say that long-standing legal rules allowing police to search suspects during an arrest--including looking through their wallets and pockets--should not apply to smartphones because the amount of material they store is so much greater and the risks of intrusive searches are so much higher. A 32GB iPhone 3GS, for instance, can hold approximately 220,000 copies of the unabridged text of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
"Neither the search of (Taylor's) vehicle nor the search of his iPhone was justified by any exception to the warrant requirement," the EFF and its co-counsel, San Francisco attorney Randall Garteiser wrote in a brief filed earlier this month.
Sex photos drew federal lawsuit
Concerns about privacy are not merely hypothetical. In March 2008, Nathan Newhard was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving in Culpeper, Va., and his cell phone was seized. In the pictures folder of the cell phone were multiple pictures of Newhard and his then-girlfriend, Jessie Casella, nude in sexually compromising positions.
Newhard and Casella--at that point no longer a couple--filed separate civil rights lawsuits against Sgt. Matt Borders, who they said alerted the rest of the police department on the radio "that the private pictures were available for their viewing and enjoyment." Newhard claimed that, as a result of the incident, he was nonrecommended for continued employment with the Culpeper school system, where he had worked before the arrest.
A federal judge in Virginia last year agreed that the police conduct was "irresponsible, unprofessional, and reprehensible" but said that Culpeper police officers could not be held legally responsible because they did not violate any clearly established constitutional rights. In addition, the court pointed out, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that "officers may retrieve text messages and other information from cell phones and pagers seized incident to an arrest" to preserve evidence.
The problem for EFF and its co-counsel in the San Mateo County case is that, while the U.S. Supreme Court has not taken up the issue, a number of other courts have reached similar conclusions. In 2007, the Fifth Circuit concluded that police were permitted to conduct a warrantless search for call records and text messages during an arrest. So did the Seventh Circuit in a 1996 case dealing with information from numeric pagers ("It is imperative that law enforcement officers have the authority to immediately 'search' or retrieve, incident to a valid arrest, information from a pager in order to prevent its destruction as evidence.")
"There's a very good case that the police, as awful as it sounds, should be able to go through the contents of this phone," said Adam Gershowitz, a professor at the South Texas College of Law who has written a paper on the topic. "Courts for the most part have held that a phone is like a container, a wallet or a purse."
Then again, does an iPhone or Nexus One really have that much in common with a numeric pager? "The Fourth Amendment requires a search to be reasonable," Gershowitz said. "At a certain point it just becomes so excessive as to be unreasonable, and we may be getting close to that point."
From pagers to iPhones
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, of course, prohibits "unreasonable" searches and seizures.
Warrantless searches generally violate the Fourth Amendment. But the Supreme Court has allowed an exception permitting warrantless searches at the time that someone is being arrested, on the grounds that police should be allowed to look for weapons or items that could be linked to an alleged crime. A second exception to the warrant requirement is a "booking search" that allows police to establish an inventory of the defendant's possessions.
The examination of Taylor's iPhone by the Daly City police department was a two-step process. After Taylor was taken to the prisoner processing center, Daly City detective Joseph Bocci conducted what prosecutors describe as a "limited search of the iPhone." Then, armed with a search warrant, Bocci completed an analysis of the phone's contents.
Meanwhile, Taylor's business seems to be languishing. The HypeUOnline.com blog, created after his arrest, features only three test posts. And the linked Twitter account features only a series of messages titled "2,218 New Followers Within 7 Days" and "Make Money On Twitter" that include links to a non-existent Web page. (Prosecutors say Taylor has prior convictions for forgery, fraud, and identity theft.)
Another reason why a search of Taylor's phone was constitutional, said Feasel, the deputy district attorney, is because "of the transitory nature of that information, because iPhones do present interesting issues with regards to e-mails, and because the iPhone with the 3.0 operating system does have a feature known as a remote wipe."
"The potential for destruction of evidence by a defendant further bolsters our argument regarding limited search incident to arrest," Feasel said.
There is a dispute about whether the iPhone was protected with a password. San Mateo County said in court papers that there is no evidence "that the iPhone was locked." Feasel said that if there had been a password, "there would need to be a search warrant."
EFF, on the other hand, says its client is positive that Bocci, the detective, "bypassed the password" on the iPhone. Jennifer Granick, an EFF attorney, says she plans to ask the officer about it during Thursday's hearing.
There are guides online showing how to do just that, including one titled "Defeating the iPhone Passcode." The technique works on both jail-broken and unaltered iPhones and involves overwriting an iPhone file that stores the password. A $29.99 Windows application called QuickPWN reportedly does the trick.
"If the government can look at a paper appointment book, why can't they look at a contact list on an iPhone?" said Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University who has written extensively about electronic investigations. "Where I think things get much more difficult is searching through the phone using keyword searches."
A 2007 decision by a San Francisco federal judge, which CNET reported at the time, noted that "the line between cell phones and personal computers has grown increasingly blurry" and that the U.S. Department of Justice "asserted that officers could lawfully seize and search an arrestee's laptop computer as a warrantless search incident to arrest." The Obama Justice Department, in a series of prosecutions including one in Nebraska involving a crack cocaine dealer, has taken the same position about warrantless searches of cell phones.
"I think eventually courts will probably have a new rule" for smartphone searches, said Kerr, the George Washington law professor. "The question is, what the limit will be? You can imagine different possibilities. Maybe there's a time limitation. We just don't know. It's too early."
info came from http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10455611-38.html
Frustration Mounts After Latest Newark Breach
Parts of Newark Liberty International Airport were closed again this week due to a security breach, the second security snafu in six weeks.
It was calm at Newark on Thursday, but that definitely wasn't the case Monday when a security breach forced the closure of parts of Terminal A for over an hour.
The reason for the security breach was a real doozy -- a passenger was flagged for having suspicious objects in his carry-on bag but a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said that agents stopped the wrong passenger for rescreening and the passenger with the suspicious objects got away.
Stay Updated: Download CBS2's Free iPhone App Now!
When agents couldn't find the passenger after shutting down the operations for an hour they went to all gate areas to screen passengers but they never found the person.
The problem is it was the second security breach at the airport in six weeks. On Jan. 3 a security breach caused the airport to shut down Terminal C for six hours, stranding 16,000 passengers for days and entangling flights around the world.
"You cannot allow back-to-back major mistakes like this, security gaps like this to occur, especially such flagrant ones as this," Rep. Peter King said.
King, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, is especially concerned because, he said, al Qaeda terrorists are constantly on the lookout for holes in our security system.
"It's a crisis or tragedy waiting to happen," Rep. King said. "Everything we do is being watched by al Qaeda. When they see such an easy way to breach security at Newark Airport we have to assume, we have to assume al Qaeda will try to take advantage."
Passengers were stunned at news of the latest breach.
"Shocking. I would expert security to be a little more tighter than that," said Edin Haya of Paterson, N.J.
"It's a little bit concerning. I like to see people be safe and that calls into question the security procedures yet again," added Nelson Hurt of Chatham.
This comes as the airport scored dead last in a national survey of airport customer satisfaction. One big trouble spot is poor security checks.
A TSA spokesman said the agency is reviewing the in incident and will take appropriate action against the officer responsible for flagging the wrong passenger.
info came from http://wcbstv.com/local/newark.airport.security.2.1502898.html
It was calm at Newark on Thursday, but that definitely wasn't the case Monday when a security breach forced the closure of parts of Terminal A for over an hour.
The reason for the security breach was a real doozy -- a passenger was flagged for having suspicious objects in his carry-on bag but a Transportation Security Administration spokesman said that agents stopped the wrong passenger for rescreening and the passenger with the suspicious objects got away.
Stay Updated: Download CBS2's Free iPhone App Now!
When agents couldn't find the passenger after shutting down the operations for an hour they went to all gate areas to screen passengers but they never found the person.
The problem is it was the second security breach at the airport in six weeks. On Jan. 3 a security breach caused the airport to shut down Terminal C for six hours, stranding 16,000 passengers for days and entangling flights around the world.
"You cannot allow back-to-back major mistakes like this, security gaps like this to occur, especially such flagrant ones as this," Rep. Peter King said.
King, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, is especially concerned because, he said, al Qaeda terrorists are constantly on the lookout for holes in our security system.
"It's a crisis or tragedy waiting to happen," Rep. King said. "Everything we do is being watched by al Qaeda. When they see such an easy way to breach security at Newark Airport we have to assume, we have to assume al Qaeda will try to take advantage."
Passengers were stunned at news of the latest breach.
"Shocking. I would expert security to be a little more tighter than that," said Edin Haya of Paterson, N.J.
"It's a little bit concerning. I like to see people be safe and that calls into question the security procedures yet again," added Nelson Hurt of Chatham.
This comes as the airport scored dead last in a national survey of airport customer satisfaction. One big trouble spot is poor security checks.
A TSA spokesman said the agency is reviewing the in incident and will take appropriate action against the officer responsible for flagging the wrong passenger.
info came from http://wcbstv.com/local/newark.airport.security.2.1502898.html
Pilot Crashes Into Texas Building in Apparent Anti-IRS Suicide
A pilot furious with the Internal Revenue Service crashed his small plane into an Austin, Texas, office building where nearly 200 federal tax employees work on Thursday, ignited a raging fire that sent massive plumes of thick, black smoke rising from the seven-story structure.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the incident was a single act by a sole individual, who appeared to be targeting the federal building. He refused to classify it as terrorism.
"I call it a cowardly, criminal act and there was no excuse for it," Acevedo said at a news conference.
The FBI identified the pliot as Joseph Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer. Stack was confirmed dead, but his body has not yet been recovered.
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, thirteen others were treated and released said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton.
Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul told reported the incident was, "not tied to overseas terror organizations."
A U.S. law official said investigators were looking at a lengthy, anti-government "manifesto" Stack is believed to have written on his Web site. The message outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer." Click here to read the "manifesto" that was published on Stack's Web site.
About 190 IRS employees work at 9420 Research Boulevard, the building that Stack crashed into. IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford said the agency is trying to account for all of its workers.
IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming toward the building, TheStatesman.com reported.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web site.
SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building
He said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor,” he said.
In what appears to have been his suicide note, Stack is believed to have written:
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time...
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer...
"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note, dated Thursday, reads.
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said he was shocked by the "tragic events," but did not directly address Stack's rant against the government agency.
"This incident is of deep concern to me," the statement read. "We are working with law-enforcement agencies to fully investigate the events that led up to this plane crash."
Stack took off in a Piper Cherokee from Georgetown Municipal Airport in Texas at 9:40 a.m. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said he didn't file a flight plan. The plane crashed into the building in Austin about 20 minutes later.
Click here for chilling eye-witness acccounts of Texas plane crash.
The Department of Homeland Security said it did not believe the crash was an act of terrorism. President Obama was briefed on the incident. As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and was conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
Police said the situation was "totally contained." "This is an isolated incident, there is no cause for alarm," a spokesman for the Austin Police Department said during a news conference.
Stuart Newberg, who was in the area right before the crash, said the plane was flying low and fast when it plowed into the building, according to The Statesman.com.
“It was flying low and fast and I did a double take," Newberg said, according to the Web site.
"I thought it was a play remote control plane. Then I saw the smoke."
He told the paper he thought the plane seemed “very controlled.”
In a neighborhood about six miles from the crash site, a home listed as belonging to Stack was on fire earlier Thursday. Two law enforcement officials said Stack apparently set fire to his home before embarking on his suicide mission.
MyFoxAustin.com said firefighters reported that the entire house was on fire, including the fence, when they arrived on the scene.
Neighbors said they heard a loud explosion in the house Thursday morning right before it became engulfed in flames.
MyFoxAustin.com reported that a 12-year-old girl and a woman were rescued by a neighbor from the $236,000 home. The station reported that the girl is believed to be Stack's stepdaughter. Other media reports indicated that these individuals may have alerted authorities to Stack’s actions.
A neighbor told MyFoxAustin.com that Stack was an experienced pilot who owned his own plane.
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported several "walking wounded" at the scene of the crash. Paramedics set up a triage center at the scene.
Early reports that the building housed the FBI field office in Austin turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building. There are some federal offices in the building, though authorities couldn't identify which ones.
The NTSB was sending staff out of Dallas and Washington to the scene.
Witnesses were asked to contact the Austin Police Department at 210-650-6196 with any information that might be useful in the investigation.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Click here for more from MyFoxAustin.com.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
FoxNews.com's Michelle Maskaly, The Statesman.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
info came from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo said the incident was a single act by a sole individual, who appeared to be targeting the federal building. He refused to classify it as terrorism.
"I call it a cowardly, criminal act and there was no excuse for it," Acevedo said at a news conference.
The FBI identified the pliot as Joseph Stack, a 53-year-old software engineer. Stack was confirmed dead, but his body has not yet been recovered.
At least one person who worked in the building was unaccounted for and two people were hospitalized, thirteen others were treated and released said Austin Fire Department Division Chief Dawn Clopton.
Texas Republican Congressman Michael McCaul told reported the incident was, "not tied to overseas terror organizations."
A U.S. law official said investigators were looking at a lengthy, anti-government "manifesto" Stack is believed to have written on his Web site. The message outlines problems with the IRS and says violence "is the only answer." Click here to read the "manifesto" that was published on Stack's Web site.
About 190 IRS employees work at 9420 Research Boulevard, the building that Stack crashed into. IRS spokesman Richard C. Sanford said the agency is trying to account for all of its workers.
IRS Agent William Winnie said he was on the third floor of the building when he saw a light-colored, single engine plane coming toward the building, TheStatesman.com reported.
“It looked like it was coming right in my window,” Winnie said, according to the Web site.
SLIDESHOW: Small Plane Crashes Into Austin Office Building
He said the plane veered down and smashed into the lower floors. “I didn’t lose my footing, but it was enough to knock people who were sitting to the floor,” he said.
In what appears to have been his suicide note, Stack is believed to have written:
"If you’re reading this, you’re no doubt asking yourself, “Why did this have to happen?' The simple truth is that it is complicated and has been coming for a long time...
"Violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer...
"I saw it written once that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting the outcome to suddenly be different. I am finally ready to stop this insanity. Well, Mr. Big Brother IRS man, let's try something different; take my pound of flesh and sleep well," the note, dated Thursday, reads.
IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said he was shocked by the "tragic events," but did not directly address Stack's rant against the government agency.
"This incident is of deep concern to me," the statement read. "We are working with law-enforcement agencies to fully investigate the events that led up to this plane crash."
Stack took off in a Piper Cherokee from Georgetown Municipal Airport in Texas at 9:40 a.m. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford said he didn't file a flight plan. The plane crashed into the building in Austin about 20 minutes later.
Click here for chilling eye-witness acccounts of Texas plane crash.
The Department of Homeland Security said it did not believe the crash was an act of terrorism. President Obama was briefed on the incident. As a precaution, the Colorado-based North American Aerospace Defense Command launched two F-16 aircraft from Houston's Ellington Field, and was conducting an air patrol over the crash area.
Police said the situation was "totally contained." "This is an isolated incident, there is no cause for alarm," a spokesman for the Austin Police Department said during a news conference.
Stuart Newberg, who was in the area right before the crash, said the plane was flying low and fast when it plowed into the building, according to The Statesman.com.
“It was flying low and fast and I did a double take," Newberg said, according to the Web site.
"I thought it was a play remote control plane. Then I saw the smoke."
He told the paper he thought the plane seemed “very controlled.”
In a neighborhood about six miles from the crash site, a home listed as belonging to Stack was on fire earlier Thursday. Two law enforcement officials said Stack apparently set fire to his home before embarking on his suicide mission.
MyFoxAustin.com said firefighters reported that the entire house was on fire, including the fence, when they arrived on the scene.
Neighbors said they heard a loud explosion in the house Thursday morning right before it became engulfed in flames.
MyFoxAustin.com reported that a 12-year-old girl and a woman were rescued by a neighbor from the $236,000 home. The station reported that the girl is believed to be Stack's stepdaughter. Other media reports indicated that these individuals may have alerted authorities to Stack’s actions.
A neighbor told MyFoxAustin.com that Stack was an experienced pilot who owned his own plane.
The Austin American-Statesman newspaper reported several "walking wounded" at the scene of the crash. Paramedics set up a triage center at the scene.
Early reports that the building housed the FBI field office in Austin turned out not to be true. An FBI spokesman told Fox News that the FBI office in Austin is near where the plane crashed, but not in the same building. There are some federal offices in the building, though authorities couldn't identify which ones.
The NTSB was sending staff out of Dallas and Washington to the scene.
Witnesses were asked to contact the Austin Police Department at 210-650-6196 with any information that might be useful in the investigation.
According to California Secretary of State records, Stack had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's Franchise Tax Board.
In 1985, he incorporated Prowess Engineering Inc. in Corona. It was suspended two years later. He started Software Systems Service Corp. in Lincoln in 1995 and that entity was suspended in 2001. Stack listed himself as chief executive officer of both companies.
Click here for more from MyFoxAustin.com.
NewsCore contributed to this report.
FoxNews.com's Michelle Maskaly, The Statesman.com and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
info came from http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,586581,00.html
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Marines spearhead major Afghanistan offensive
MARJAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - Marines spearheaded one of NATO's biggest offensives against the Taliban in Afghanistan on Saturday, in an early test of President Barack Obama's troop surge policy.
WORLD
Marines in helicopters landed in Marjah district, the last big Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, in the first hours of a NATO campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas before U.S. forces start a planned 2011 drawdown.
They fired at least four rockets at militants who attacked from compounds near the bazaar in Marjah town. Hours later, the area was still gripped by the firefight.
There was one Marine casualty in the unit in which a Reuters correspondent was embedded. In their house nearby, a family huddled in one room, laundry flapping on the line outside.
"We are currently moving to seize our objective. We have been in contact for five hours from the southwest, north and east and we are moving to push to finish securing the areas of insurgents still," Lieutenant Mark Greenlief told Reuters.
The Marines' first objective was to take over the town center, a large cluster of dwellings, and they called in two Harrier jets which flew over a Taliban position at the edge of the town center and fired on the militants with machineguns.
Like civilians in the district of up to 100,000 people, the U.S., British and Afghan troops risk being blown up by booby traps the Taliban are believed to have rigged in the hundreds to try to slow the advance.
A local Taliban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier about 2,000 fighters were ready to fight.
Also in southern Afghanistan, five NATO troops, including three Americans, died after roadside bomb strikes, and a shooting in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, NATO said in a statement.
It was not clear whether they were killed during the offensive but the violence illustrated how vulnerable they still were after eight years of fighting the Taliban.
Helmand task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said a British solider was killed in an explosion while on vehicle patrol during the operation. It was not clear whether the solider was one of the five.
15,000 TROOPS IN OPERATION
NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy emphasizes seizing population centers and avoiding combat in built-up areas whenever possible.
McChrystal has stressed precautions to avoid killing civilians, and the number of civilians killed by NATO troops has declined since he took command in mid-2009.
Heavy casualties may ruin the government's chance of gaining more support from Afghans. NATO forces advised civilians not to leave their homes. Some have already fled Marjah.
"The international forces must adopt certain procedures and mechanisms during operation in Marjah to protect civilians," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
In Marjah, resident Abdel Aziz, 16, told the Marines through a translator, "All the walls between the streets and houses are surrounded by bombs. Most people have gone to Lashkar Gah. That's where we want to go today."
An elderly neighbor emerged from her house and asked Marines not to fire at it. "This is just my house," she said.
HEAVILY BOOBY-TRAPPED
After helicopters began ferrying U.S. Marines into Marjah, British troops flew into the northern part of Nad Ali district, and tanks and combat engineering units followed.
"The first phase of the operation is proceeding very successfully. The Taliban have heavily booby-trapped the area, but there has not been any fierce fighting yet," Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal told a news conference.
"We have seized 11 key locations in the district and the resistance from the insurgents has been subdued."
The 15,000-troop operation was named Mushtarak, or "together," perhaps to highlight that NATO and Afghan forces were determined to work closely to restore stability to Afghanistan.
Whether the apparent early success can translate into a more permanent end to the insurgency may depend on the government's ability to ensure long-term political and economic stability.
"Our aim is not the elimination of the insurgents, the goal is developing the influence of central government, safeguarding the civilians and providing long-term security and stability," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters in Kabul.
Marjah has long been a breeding ground for insurgents and lucrative opium poppy cultivation, which Western countries say funds the insurgency.
Even if NATO deals a heavy blow to the Taliban in Helmand, militants on the U.S. hit list operate from other sanctuaries inside Pakistan or close to the border.
U.S.-allied Pakistan is reluctant to pursue them as it sees these groups as assets to counter the influence of rival India in Afghanistan.
Decades ago, the Marjah area was home to an Afghan-U.S. development project. Its canals, which criss-cross lush farmland, were built by the Americans.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Michael Georgy and Bryson Hull; Editing by Louise Ireland)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B1ZJ20100213
WORLD
Marines in helicopters landed in Marjah district, the last big Taliban stronghold in Helmand province, in the first hours of a NATO campaign to impose government control on rebel-held areas before U.S. forces start a planned 2011 drawdown.
They fired at least four rockets at militants who attacked from compounds near the bazaar in Marjah town. Hours later, the area was still gripped by the firefight.
There was one Marine casualty in the unit in which a Reuters correspondent was embedded. In their house nearby, a family huddled in one room, laundry flapping on the line outside.
"We are currently moving to seize our objective. We have been in contact for five hours from the southwest, north and east and we are moving to push to finish securing the areas of insurgents still," Lieutenant Mark Greenlief told Reuters.
The Marines' first objective was to take over the town center, a large cluster of dwellings, and they called in two Harrier jets which flew over a Taliban position at the edge of the town center and fired on the militants with machineguns.
Like civilians in the district of up to 100,000 people, the U.S., British and Afghan troops risk being blown up by booby traps the Taliban are believed to have rigged in the hundreds to try to slow the advance.
A local Taliban commander, Qari Fazluddin, told Reuters earlier about 2,000 fighters were ready to fight.
Also in southern Afghanistan, five NATO troops, including three Americans, died after roadside bomb strikes, and a shooting in southern Afghanistan on Saturday, NATO said in a statement.
It was not clear whether they were killed during the offensive but the violence illustrated how vulnerable they still were after eight years of fighting the Taliban.
Helmand task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel David Wakefield said a British solider was killed in an explosion while on vehicle patrol during the operation. It was not clear whether the solider was one of the five.
15,000 TROOPS IN OPERATION
NATO commander General Stanley McChrystal's counter-insurgency strategy emphasizes seizing population centers and avoiding combat in built-up areas whenever possible.
McChrystal has stressed precautions to avoid killing civilians, and the number of civilians killed by NATO troops has declined since he took command in mid-2009.
Heavy casualties may ruin the government's chance of gaining more support from Afghans. NATO forces advised civilians not to leave their homes. Some have already fled Marjah.
"The international forces must adopt certain procedures and mechanisms during operation in Marjah to protect civilians," Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in a statement.
In Marjah, resident Abdel Aziz, 16, told the Marines through a translator, "All the walls between the streets and houses are surrounded by bombs. Most people have gone to Lashkar Gah. That's where we want to go today."
An elderly neighbor emerged from her house and asked Marines not to fire at it. "This is just my house," she said.
HEAVILY BOOBY-TRAPPED
After helicopters began ferrying U.S. Marines into Marjah, British troops flew into the northern part of Nad Ali district, and tanks and combat engineering units followed.
"The first phase of the operation is proceeding very successfully. The Taliban have heavily booby-trapped the area, but there has not been any fierce fighting yet," Helmand Governor Gulab Mangal told a news conference.
"We have seized 11 key locations in the district and the resistance from the insurgents has been subdued."
The 15,000-troop operation was named Mushtarak, or "together," perhaps to highlight that NATO and Afghan forces were determined to work closely to restore stability to Afghanistan.
Whether the apparent early success can translate into a more permanent end to the insurgency may depend on the government's ability to ensure long-term political and economic stability.
"Our aim is not the elimination of the insurgents, the goal is developing the influence of central government, safeguarding the civilians and providing long-term security and stability," Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak told reporters in Kabul.
Marjah has long been a breeding ground for insurgents and lucrative opium poppy cultivation, which Western countries say funds the insurgency.
Even if NATO deals a heavy blow to the Taliban in Helmand, militants on the U.S. hit list operate from other sanctuaries inside Pakistan or close to the border.
U.S.-allied Pakistan is reluctant to pursue them as it sees these groups as assets to counter the influence of rival India in Afghanistan.
Decades ago, the Marjah area was home to an Afghan-U.S. development project. Its canals, which criss-cross lush farmland, were built by the Americans.
(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi in Kabul; Writing by Michael Georgy and Bryson Hull; Editing by Louise Ireland)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B1ZJ20100213
Toyota to recall 8,000 Tacomas in U.S.: document
ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp will recall about 8,000 model-year 2010 Tacoma pickup trucks in the United States, the latest in a series of recalls that have hurt the automaker's sales and its reputation for quality.
In a document sent to U.S. dealers on Thursday and obtained by Reuters, Toyota said the all-wheel drive version of the 2010 Tacoma trucks may have a component containing cracks in the joint portion of the drive shaft due to an "improper manufacturing process control."
The cracks may lead to the separation of the drive shaft and the separated shaft may come into contact with the road surface, potentially causing drivers to lose control of the vehicle, the document showed.
The front drive shafts are manufactured by Dana Holding Corp, and the affected vehicles were produced from mid-December 2009 to early February, according to the document.
Representatives at Toyota were not immediately available for comment. Ohio-based supplier Dana was not immediately available for comment.
The latest move follows a string of recalls over the past few months that cover more than 8.5 million vehicles globally due to the risk that a loose floormat or a sticky accelerator pedal may lead to unintended acceleration.
Toyota notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday of its intention to conduct a safety recall, the document showed.
The potential defect in Tacomas was discovered during the manufacturing process of the front drive shaft at supplier Dana, the document showed. Toyota said it was not aware of any accidents related to the condition.
The 2005-2010 model year Tacoma trucks were also involved in a safety recall last September for the risk of unintended acceleration, which Toyota said was linked to floormats that can become lodged under the acceleration pedal.
Toyota sold about 112,000 Tacomas in the United States last year, down from nearly 145,000 in 2008.
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B4ZM20100212
In a document sent to U.S. dealers on Thursday and obtained by Reuters, Toyota said the all-wheel drive version of the 2010 Tacoma trucks may have a component containing cracks in the joint portion of the drive shaft due to an "improper manufacturing process control."
The cracks may lead to the separation of the drive shaft and the separated shaft may come into contact with the road surface, potentially causing drivers to lose control of the vehicle, the document showed.
The front drive shafts are manufactured by Dana Holding Corp, and the affected vehicles were produced from mid-December 2009 to early February, according to the document.
Representatives at Toyota were not immediately available for comment. Ohio-based supplier Dana was not immediately available for comment.
The latest move follows a string of recalls over the past few months that cover more than 8.5 million vehicles globally due to the risk that a loose floormat or a sticky accelerator pedal may lead to unintended acceleration.
Toyota notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on Thursday of its intention to conduct a safety recall, the document showed.
The potential defect in Tacomas was discovered during the manufacturing process of the front drive shaft at supplier Dana, the document showed. Toyota said it was not aware of any accidents related to the condition.
The 2005-2010 model year Tacoma trucks were also involved in a safety recall last September for the risk of unintended acceleration, which Toyota said was linked to floormats that can become lodged under the acceleration pedal.
Toyota sold about 112,000 Tacomas in the United States last year, down from nearly 145,000 in 2008.
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61B4ZM20100212
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
'Miss Me Yet?' Billboard With Photo Of Bush Is Real; Not An Internet Trick
By Mark Memmott
Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.
But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes:
There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"
Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.
Bob says there's no readily apparent claim of ownership on the billboard, so he's heading back to the scene to see if he can find out who's behind the message. He's also got some local politicos looking into it. He'll keep us posted.
At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.
Anyone out there know anything about where it came from? Tell us and we'll pass the word to Bob. As he says, we could do a little crowdsourcing.
Internet chatter had led to speculation that it might be an urban myth -- nothing more than clever digital trickery spreading via the Web.
But our friend Bob Collins at Minnesota Public Radio assures us he's seen it with his own eyes:
There is a billboard along I-35 near Wyoming, Minn., with a huge photo of former president George W. Bush and this question: "Miss Me Yet?"
Now, the push is on to find out who paid to have it put up.
Bob says there's no readily apparent claim of ownership on the billboard, so he's heading back to the scene to see if he can find out who's behind the message. He's also got some local politicos looking into it. He'll keep us posted.
At first glance, it would seem to be from some person or group who isn't thrilled by President Barack Obama's performance so far -- unless it's a more ironic message from those who didn't think too much of Bush and want to remind voters about him.
Anyone out there know anything about where it came from? Tell us and we'll pass the word to Bob. As he says, we could do a little crowdsourcing.
Moscow says U.S. missile shield aimed at Russia
MOSCOW, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Tuesday that plans for a U.S. missile shield are directed against his country.
"The development and establishment of the (U.S.) missile shield is directed against the Russian Federation," Interfax news agency quoted Russian armed forces chief of staff, Nikolai Makarov, as saying. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Steve Gutterman)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6181JK20100209
"The development and establishment of the (U.S.) missile shield is directed against the Russian Federation," Interfax news agency quoted Russian armed forces chief of staff, Nikolai Makarov, as saying. (Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman, editing by Steve Gutterman)
info came from http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE6181JK20100209
China confirmed as world’s top exporter
By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt and Geoff Dyer in Beijing
Published: February 9 2010 10:16 | Last updated: February 9 2010 10:16
China overtook Germany last year to become world export champion, official figures confirmed on Tuesday.
December trade figures for Germany highlighted the hit Europe’s largest economy took in 2009 from the collapse in global economic confidence at the start of the year. German goods’ exports fell by 18.4 per cent compared with the previous year – the biggest year-on-year fall since 1950, according to the federal statistics office. Overall, German exports last year were equivalent to $1,121.3bn, which compared with the $1,201.7bn exported by China.
In Germany, the loss of the “Exportmeister” label is not seen as a massive blow, however. China had long been on track to take the title and its loss might deflect some of the international criticism the German government has faced for not doing more to boost domestic demand. German imports fell by 17.2 per cent last year – almost as fast as exports.
Meanwhile, Germany can take comfort from a surprisingly strong rebound in exports at the end of last year. Exports rose in December for the fourth consecutive month and were 3 per cent higher than in November, continuing a robust recovery since the May.
The data suggest exports helped boost overall economic growth in the final quarter of last year, and will offset some of the gloom created last week by disappointing figures for German industrial orders at the end of 2009.
Simon Junker, economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said business confidence surveys and orders in the pipeline suggest German exports will continue to grow in coming months – but their dynamism might start to slow as a result of the problems that have hit Greece and other highly indebted eurozone countries.
“The structural problems in many trading-partner countries, which have become apparent recently in several eurozone periphery countries, will prevent a sharp upswing of Germany’s export driven industry,” Mr Junker argued.
China’s goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16 per cent over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978. In recent months there have been signs of a pick-up in exports, including a 17.7 per cent year-on-year increase in December and analysts expect a 20 per cent increase in January when the figures are released later this week. However it is not clear yet if the rebound reflects restocking by customers in Europe and the US which had let inventories run down during the crisis or if it is the result of recovering demand from consumers.
China’s trade surplus dropped 34 per cent last year to $196bn as stimulus spending led imports to decline at a slower rate than exports. However some economists predict the surplus could start to widen again this year as the global economy recovers and Chinese investment slows.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
info came from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35de8406-155c-11df-8f05-00144feab49a.html
Published: February 9 2010 10:16 | Last updated: February 9 2010 10:16
China overtook Germany last year to become world export champion, official figures confirmed on Tuesday.
December trade figures for Germany highlighted the hit Europe’s largest economy took in 2009 from the collapse in global economic confidence at the start of the year. German goods’ exports fell by 18.4 per cent compared with the previous year – the biggest year-on-year fall since 1950, according to the federal statistics office. Overall, German exports last year were equivalent to $1,121.3bn, which compared with the $1,201.7bn exported by China.
In Germany, the loss of the “Exportmeister” label is not seen as a massive blow, however. China had long been on track to take the title and its loss might deflect some of the international criticism the German government has faced for not doing more to boost domestic demand. German imports fell by 17.2 per cent last year – almost as fast as exports.
Meanwhile, Germany can take comfort from a surprisingly strong rebound in exports at the end of last year. Exports rose in December for the fourth consecutive month and were 3 per cent higher than in November, continuing a robust recovery since the May.
The data suggest exports helped boost overall economic growth in the final quarter of last year, and will offset some of the gloom created last week by disappointing figures for German industrial orders at the end of 2009.
Simon Junker, economist at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, said business confidence surveys and orders in the pipeline suggest German exports will continue to grow in coming months – but their dynamism might start to slow as a result of the problems that have hit Greece and other highly indebted eurozone countries.
“The structural problems in many trading-partner countries, which have become apparent recently in several eurozone periphery countries, will prevent a sharp upswing of Germany’s export driven industry,” Mr Junker argued.
China’s goods exports also suffered badly last year, falling by 16 per cent over the course of the year, the first time they had declined since 1978. In recent months there have been signs of a pick-up in exports, including a 17.7 per cent year-on-year increase in December and analysts expect a 20 per cent increase in January when the figures are released later this week. However it is not clear yet if the rebound reflects restocking by customers in Europe and the US which had let inventories run down during the crisis or if it is the result of recovering demand from consumers.
China’s trade surplus dropped 34 per cent last year to $196bn as stimulus spending led imports to decline at a slower rate than exports. However some economists predict the surplus could start to widen again this year as the global economy recovers and Chinese investment slows.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.
info came from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/35de8406-155c-11df-8f05-00144feab49a.html
Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff
Authorities’ claim that virtual strip search pictures immediately destroyed proven fraudulent – use of devices needs to be halted now
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.
“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.
Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.
However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff. “I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed – if you’re not well endowed,” said Khan, referring to how the scans produce clear images of a person’s genitals.
“You walk into the machine and everything – the whole outline of your body – comes out,” he said.
“I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out. Then I saw these girls – they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said ‘give them to me’ – and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them,” stated Khan.
The story was carried by Yahoo News under the headline “Shah Rukh signs off sexy body-scan printouts at Heathrow”.
Khan’s reference to “girls” with printouts of his naked body scan can only refer to female airport security staff responsible for processing the images produced by the scanners, “professionals” who are supposed to instantly delete the images, according to Lord Adonis.
The revelation that airport security staff are completely abusing any notion of the professionalism promised by authorities by printing out and circulating images of naked body scans should set alarm bells ringing, especially in light of the fact that such images of minors break child pornography laws. British authorities have made it mandatory for travelers to submit to the naked body scanners when asked and have overturned previous rules that prevented under 18’s from passing through the devices.
Within days of the devices being introduced at Heathrow, staff have abused their professionalism and printed out naked scans of a famous actor for their own titillation.
We were promised all along that the body scanners “increased privacy” because they were only accessible to a single staff member who had no personal contact with the passenger taking the scan, in addition to the assurance that the images could not be saved and were instantly deleted. It in fact turns out that airport staff have been saving, printing and circulating naked body scans in complete violation of these supposed guarantees.
Furthermore, we were told that the identity of the person undergoing the virtual strip search would also be kept private. The fact that Heathrow employees must have known that the actor was about to take the body scan in order to print out copies of the image also proves this claim to be a total fallacy.
The abuse of the naked body scan images in this instance is a total violation of every data protection law in the UK. Far from treating the story in a comical manner, Khan should be filing a very expensive lawsuit and preparing for a successful and lucrative outcome.
In the meantime, the revelation that the naked body scanner images are being freely printed out and circulated by airport security staff should prove to be the death knell for plans on behalf of governments worldwide to institute the scanners on a widespread basis.
Courts have consistently found that strip searches are only legal when performed on a person who has already been found guilty of a crime or on arrestees pending trial where a reasonable suspicion has to exist that they are carrying a weapon. Subjecting masses of people to blanket strip searches in airports reverses the very notion of innocent until proven guilty.
Barring people from flying and essentially treating them like terrorists for refusing to be humiliated by the virtual strip search is a clear breach of the basic human right of freedom of movement. Security experts agree that such scanners would not even have stopped the incident that has been exploited to justify their widespread introduction – the Christmas Day underwear bomber.
Not only have the scanners proven to be a total violation of privacy, but major international radiation safety groups are now warning of the health risks they pose.
Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.
Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”
“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.
info came from http://www.prisonplanet.com/exposed-naked-body-scanner-images-of-film-star-printed-circulated.html
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Claims on behalf of authorities that naked body scanner images are immediately destroyed after passengers pass through new x-ray backscatter devices have been proven fraudulent after it was revealed that naked images of Indian film star Shahrukh Khan were printed out and circulated by airport staff at Heathrow in London.
UK Transport Secretary Lord Adonis said last week that the images produced by the scanners were deleted “immediately” and airport staff carrying out the procedure are fully trained and supervised.
“It is very important to stress that the images which are captured by body scanners are immediately deleted after the passenger has gone through the body scanner,” Adonis told the London Evening Standard.
Adonis was forced to address privacy concerns following reports that the images produced by the scanners broke child pornography laws in the UK. When the scanners were first introduced, it was also speculated that images of famous people would be ripe for abuse as the pictures produced by the devices make genitals “eerily visible” according to journalists who have investigated trials of the technology.
However, the Transport Secretary’s assurances were demolished after it was revealed on the BBC’s Jonathan Ross show Friday that Indian actor Shahrukh Khan had passed through a body scan and later had the image of his naked body printed out and circulated by Heathrow security staff. “I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed – if you’re not well endowed,” said Khan, referring to how the scans produce clear images of a person’s genitals.
“You walk into the machine and everything – the whole outline of your body – comes out,” he said.
“I was a little scared. Something happens [inside the scans], and I came out. Then I saw these girls – they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said ‘give them to me’ – and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them,” stated Khan.
The story was carried by Yahoo News under the headline “Shah Rukh signs off sexy body-scan printouts at Heathrow”.
Khan’s reference to “girls” with printouts of his naked body scan can only refer to female airport security staff responsible for processing the images produced by the scanners, “professionals” who are supposed to instantly delete the images, according to Lord Adonis.
The revelation that airport security staff are completely abusing any notion of the professionalism promised by authorities by printing out and circulating images of naked body scans should set alarm bells ringing, especially in light of the fact that such images of minors break child pornography laws. British authorities have made it mandatory for travelers to submit to the naked body scanners when asked and have overturned previous rules that prevented under 18’s from passing through the devices.
Within days of the devices being introduced at Heathrow, staff have abused their professionalism and printed out naked scans of a famous actor for their own titillation.
We were promised all along that the body scanners “increased privacy” because they were only accessible to a single staff member who had no personal contact with the passenger taking the scan, in addition to the assurance that the images could not be saved and were instantly deleted. It in fact turns out that airport staff have been saving, printing and circulating naked body scans in complete violation of these supposed guarantees.
Furthermore, we were told that the identity of the person undergoing the virtual strip search would also be kept private. The fact that Heathrow employees must have known that the actor was about to take the body scan in order to print out copies of the image also proves this claim to be a total fallacy.
The abuse of the naked body scan images in this instance is a total violation of every data protection law in the UK. Far from treating the story in a comical manner, Khan should be filing a very expensive lawsuit and preparing for a successful and lucrative outcome.
In the meantime, the revelation that the naked body scanner images are being freely printed out and circulated by airport security staff should prove to be the death knell for plans on behalf of governments worldwide to institute the scanners on a widespread basis.
Courts have consistently found that strip searches are only legal when performed on a person who has already been found guilty of a crime or on arrestees pending trial where a reasonable suspicion has to exist that they are carrying a weapon. Subjecting masses of people to blanket strip searches in airports reverses the very notion of innocent until proven guilty.
Barring people from flying and essentially treating them like terrorists for refusing to be humiliated by the virtual strip search is a clear breach of the basic human right of freedom of movement. Security experts agree that such scanners would not even have stopped the incident that has been exploited to justify their widespread introduction – the Christmas Day underwear bomber.
Not only have the scanners proven to be a total violation of privacy, but major international radiation safety groups are now warning of the health risks they pose.
Despite governments claiming that backscatter x-ray systems produce radiation too low to pose a threat, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety concluded in their report that governments must justify the use of the scanners and that a more accurate assessment of the health risks is needed.
Pregnant women and children should not be subject to scanning, according to the report, adding that governments should consider “other techniques to achieve the same end without the use of ionizing radiation.”
“The Committee cited the IAEA’s 1996 Basic Safety Standards agreement, drafted over three decades, that protects people from radiation. Frequent exposure to low doses of radiation can lead to cancer and birth defects, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,” reported Bloomberg.
info came from http://www.prisonplanet.com/exposed-naked-body-scanner-images-of-film-star-printed-circulated.html
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