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Monday, 19 August 2013
Friday, 26 July 2013
US business 'bible' sends an apology to Republic of Ireland's president over gay claim
The renowned business magazine that claimed Irish president Michael D Higgins is gay has apologised to the President.
'Forbes', one of the foremost financial magazines in the US, was forced to make the embarrassing apology a day after it pulled a story, which described the Mr Higgins as an "acknowledged homosexual".
Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore said the claim by the so-called 'business bible'' about the happily married President was an "embarrassment" for the author rather than anyone else.
"On the 'Forbes' article, I understand it was online and was taken down.
"That tells us everything we need to know about that article. It is more a source of embarrassment for the journalist who wrote it rather than it is for anyone else," he said.
A spokeswoman for 'Forbes' said the magazine seriously regretted the error and would be sending a written apology to Mr Higgins.
In a statement, issued almost 24 hours after the article was pulled from its website, the magazine said: "On July 23, a contributor to Forbes.com posted an article about American UN Ambassador nominee Samantha Power that contained a serious error concerning the President of Ireland, Mr Michael D Higgins.
"Both Forbes and the author of the post David Monagan sincerely regret the error. Forbes is issuing an apology to President Higgins in a separate correspondence."
"Mr Monagan is part of Forbes.com's contributor network and the article in question did not appear in Forbes magazine," it added.
Mr Monagan, a US citizen who lives in Cork, has already issued a heartfelt apology for the "terrible" error which he described as the "worst mistake I've ever made".
When approached at his home in Cork yesterday, Mr Monagan said he is to write to Mr Higgins to personally apologise for the mistake. The author, who moved to Ireland 10 years ago, said he cannot believe he made such "an inexcusable error" and feels "absolutely terrible" over what happened.
"I just want to offer my sincere apology to the President and his family for what happened," he said.
He previously told this newspaper that the error was made "under deadline pressure".
"I have been reporting on the most complex, difficult things, including cardiovascular medicine, for 35 years and I have never had a mistake like this."
Mr Monagan is the author of two books on Ireland and said that, in the millions of words he has written on this country, "that's the worst mistake I've ever made."
In his article on Ms Power, Mr Monagan wrote: "The current president of Ireland, Michael D Higgins, is a poet, acknowledged homosexual, and nearly as outspoken as his predecessors."
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Tuesday, 2 July 2013
'Heroes': 19 elite firefighters killed battling Arizona blaze - U.S. News
Governor Jan Brewer says her heart is breaking over the unimaginable loss of the firefighters, and for their families, friends and community.
By Erin McClam and Ian Johnston, NBC News
Arizona authorities struggled for answers Monday after 19 highly trained firefighters were trapped and killed by a windblown wildfire ? a blaze the governor vowed to stop ?before it causes any more heartache.?
One day after the worst loss of life for an American fire department since Sept. 11, investigators said they had not figured out why the men were unable to retreat to a safe zone or otherwise survive the inferno.
?For now, we mourn,? Gov. Jan Brewer said.
Those killed include firefighters Kevin Woyjeck, Chris MacKenzie, and Andrew Ashcraft.
Woyjeck, 21, and ?MacKenzie, 30, were both originally from Southern California, according to NBC Los Angeles. Woyjeck was the son of Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Joe Woyjeck, the website reported.
?He was doing everything he could to become a professional firefighter ? he had an extreme work ethic,? L.A. County fire inspector Keith Mora told NBC Los Angeles, referring to Woyjeck. ?He was a great, great kid. I say ?kid,? but he was a young man at 21 years old.?
Juliann Ashcraft told the website of The Arizona Republic and NBC affiliate KPNX that she and her four children were watching the news when they learned her husband, Andrew, 29, was among the dead.
?They died heroes,? she said through tears. ?And we?ll miss them. We love them.?
Monday evening the city of Prescott, Ariz. released the names of the other 16 victims: ?Anthony Rose, 23; Eric Marsh, 43; Robert Caldwell, 23; Clayton Whitted , 28; Scott Norris, 28; Dustin Deford, 24; Sean Misner, 26; Garret Zuppiger, 27; Travis Carter, 31; Grant McKee, 21; Travis Turbyfill, 27; JesseSteed, 36; Wade Parker, 22; Joe Thurston, 32; William Warneke, 25; and John Percin, 24.
The fire, sparked by lightning on Friday, raged uncontrolled for a fourth day. By afternoon it had destroyed more than 200 buildings in Yarnell, a town of about 700 people northwest of Phoenix. It was described as at least 13 square miles and ?zero percent? contained, though more than 400 firefighters were trying.
The wildfire claimed all but one member of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, a team of elite firefighters known for extensive training and a demanding fitness regimen. Officials said only that the survivor might have been repositioning equipment.
Wade Ward, the public information officer for the Prescott Fire Department in Arizona, talks about the tragic loss of 19 firefighters in a massive wildfire, saying "it had to be the perfect storm in order for this to happen."
?We can honor their service with our gratitude and prayers,? Brewer said, ?and through our steadfast dedication to do whatever is necessary to bring this fire under control before it causes any more heartache.?
Brewer ordered that flags at state buildings and facilities be lowered to half-staff from sunrise Monday until sunset Wednesday in honor of the fallen firefighters, according to the governor's website.
Do you or a loved one work for a Hotshot crew? Click here to share your story.
Mary Rasmussen, a spokeswoman for Prescott National Forest, said it appeared the 19 were engaged in a ?direct attack? ? getting close to the fire and trying to create a break to starve it of fuel.
She described the maneuver as ?one foot in the black and one foot in the green,? and said it was only done when the flames were 5 feet high or less: ?They?re right up against it.?
The conditions Sunday were extreme, with unusual wind, she said, and authorities were checking what other factors might have contributed.
Temperatures soared into the 110s in Arizona over the weekend, and National Weather Service meteorologist Brian Klimowski told The Associated Press that there was a sudden increase and shift in the wind at about the time the men were lost Sunday afternoon.
Art Morrison, a state forestry spokesman, told The Associated Press that the men had been forced to deploy emergency fire shelters ? individual, portable cocoons meant to protect breathable air and shield them from the heat.
Tom Harbour, national fire director for the U.S. Forest Service, said the shelters had saved hundreds of lives over the years. But he said some fires are strong enough, and move quickly enough, to overwhelm them. The fire was the deadliest wildfire in the United States in 80 years.
From the few known details, he said it was not clear that anyone did anything wrong.
?It?s way, way too early to be drawing any conclusions,? said Harbour, who said he had not seen anything like this fire in his 44-year career. ?The only conclusion right now is that souls are dead and half the town of Yarnell is gone.?
David Kadlubowski / The Arizona Republic via AP
Nineteen firefighters - all members of an elite response team - were killed Sunday battling a fast-moving wildfire in Arizona, marking the deadliest single incident for firefighters since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, officials said.
Hotshot fire crews often hike into the wilderness lugging 40 or 50 pounds of equipment, including chain saws and other heavy gear, to clear brush and trees and anything else that might feed the flames.
The Granite Mountain crew had battled blazes in New Mexico and elsewhere in Arizona in recent weeks.
?If you ever met them, you would meet the finest, most dedicated people,? Prescott Fire Chief Dan Fraijo said. ?They?ll sleep out there as they try to develop fire lines and put protection between homes and natural resources and still try to remain safe.?
President Barack Obama, in a statement, described the fallen men as ?heroes,? and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer said it was ?as dark a day as I can remember.? Arizona Sen. John McCain said the men?s sacrifice would not be forgotten.
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This story was originally published on Mon Jul 1, 2013 12:08 AM EDT
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Tuesday, 25 June 2013
What the New 'Star Wars' Movies Need: Zuckuss
By Ryan Rigley Now that production on "Star Wars VII' is starting to heat up, the flood gates have been opened for rumors a plenty regarding the film. Last Wednesday, Bleeding Cool intercepted a casting breakdown for the movie revealing seven brand new characters; late-teen female, young twenty-something male, late twenty-something male, seventy-something male, second [...]
Source: http://moviesblog.mtv.com/2013/06/24/star-wars-movies-need-zuckuss/
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Monday, 24 June 2013
Turtles have fingerprints? New genetic technique reveals paternity and more
June 24, 2013 ? For 220 million years they have roamed the seas, denizens of the bustling coral reef and the vast open ocean. Each year, some emerge from the pounding surf onto moonlit beaches to lay their eggs. Throughout human history, we have revered them, used them, and worked to protect them, but we have only begun to understand these ancient, iconic creatures. Now, with all five of the sea turtle species in the U.S. threatened or endangered, knowledge is more crucial than ever.
NOAA scientist Dr. Peter Dutton leads a team that's trying to answer some important questions about marine turtles. What will happen as sea levels rise, covering the nesting beaches turtles have used for hundreds of years? Which turtle laid this mysterious clutch of eggs on a remote beach? Where in the ocean do they mate, and how big is this population?
Thanks to a recent breakthrough in the genetics lab, Dutton and his colleagues have a clever way to find answers. Like detectives, they have learned that fingerprints help solve the puzzle?genetic fingerprints. For decades, most sea turtle studies and conservation efforts have focused on nesting females and hatchlings, because they're easiest for humans to access. Male sea turtles, which don't come ashore, are elusive characters.
Dutton's team has pioneered a technique that allows them to fill in the blanks using tiny DNA samples from nesting females and hatchlings. As Dutton and his colleague Dr. Kelly Stewart wrote in a recent article, "Hidden in a hatchling's DNA is its entire family history, including who its mother is, who its father is, and to what nesting population it belongs." (See: http://seaturtlestatus.org/sites/swot/files/report/030612_SWOT7_p12_Sea%20Turtle%20CSI.pdf)
This innovative tool is opening up new avenues in marine turtle conservation. Population recovery goals are based on how long turtles take to reach maturity, and genetic fingerprinting can help reveal this key piece of information, which may be different for each population. Dutton's team developed the technique while studying endangered leatherbacks on St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands. In the last four years, they have sampled 20,353 hatchlings there, and discovered the genetic identity of the fathers, even when multiple males have sired a single clutch of eggs; how often individual turtles mate and their reproductive success; and the ratio of males to females among the breeding turtles.
On Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, critically endangered Kemp's ridley turtles have been leaving scattered nests along remote beaches, but females are often long gone by the time monitors find the nests. There, NOAA's Southwest Fisheries Science Center and the National Park Service are using the technique to match mystery nests to mother turtles. Identifying who's nesting where and when, survival rate, and breeding success over many years will help us monitor this small population and gauge the impact of major events like disasters.
In the most surprising news yet, green turtles have begun nesting in the main Hawai'ian islands for the first time in generations. Green turtles, or honu, have nested in the remote Northwest Hawai'ian Islands, primarily on the quiet, low-lying beaches of French Frigate Shoals, a coral atoll about 500 miles from Honolulu.
Genetic fingerprinting shows that about 15 untagged females have become "founders" on the main Hawai'ian islands, boldly nesting where no one has nested before?at least not for hundreds of years. It's possible that this pioneer population could provide a kind of buffer as sea level rise threatens to shrink their traditional nesting beaches. Many questions remain, but for now science is giving turtles, and those who care about them, reason to hope.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/ldgcQeFmidI/130624143922.htm
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Bomb attacks in Syrian capital kill 8 people
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Suicide bombers targeted security compounds in Damascus and a car bomb exploded in a pro-regime district there Sunday, killing at least eight people, the latest in a surge of civil war violence in the capital.
In northern Syria, a car bomb killed 12 soldiers in Aleppo, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists in Syria for information. It had no other details, and the government did not comment.
The state-run news agency SANA said three suicide bombers blew themselves up while trying to break into the Rukneddine police station in northern Damascus, killing five people and wounding several others. SANA said three would-be suicide bombers also tried to break into the Criminal Security Branch in the southern Bab Mousalla area but were caught by security forces before they could detonate their explosives.
Activists confirmed the death toll.
SANA said a car bomb exploded in Mazzeh 86 district in the capital, killing three people, including a 3-year-old boy. Residents of the district are mostly Alawites, an offshoot Shiite sect that President Bashar Assad's family belongs to. The opposition forces fighting against Assad's regime are mostly Sunni Muslims.
Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the Damascus explosions, but they bore the hallmarks of al-Qaida-linked groups that have joined forces with rebels fighting to oust Assad.
The attacks in Syria's two largest cities came as government forces pressed an offensive on the outskirts of the capital.
SANA carried a statement by the Interior Ministry saying that the Damascus attacks were a "new escalation by terrorist groups," a term used by the government to refer to the rebels.
More than 93,000 people have been killed in Syrian conflict that started in March 2011 as peaceful protest against Assad's rule. In the past year, the war has taken on sectarian overtones.
The conflict has increasingly spilled across Syria's borders.
In neighboring Lebanon, clashes erupted between Lebanese military and supporters of hard-line Sunni cleric Sheik Ahmad al-Assar, a security official said. Three Lebanese soldiers were killed, he said speaking anonymously in line with regulations.
The fighting broke out in the predominantly Sunni southern port city of Sidon after al-Assir's supporters opened fire on an army checkpoint.
The military issued a statement confirming that three soldiers died in the shooting, including two officers. It said the shooting was unprovoked.
Heavy fighting with machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades caused panic in the city, which until recently had been largely spared the violence hitting other areas. Many people who were spending the day on the beach hurried home, while others living on high floors came down or fled to safer areas. Gray smoke billowed over parts of the city.
The clashes centered on the Bilal bin Rabbah Mosque, where al-Assir preaches. The cleric, a virulent critic of the Shiite militant Hezbollah group, is believed to have hundreds of armed supporters in Sidon. Dozens of al-Assir's gunmen also partially shut down the main highway linking south Lebanon with Beirut.
By Sunday evening, the army appeared poised to move against al-Assir and his supporters, who have been agitating for months. Lebanon's state-run National News Agency said the army have surrounded the mosque, sealing off access to it from all directions and neutralized hostile fire from neighboring buildings.
The NNA report said Assir was believed to be hiding inside the mosque with several of his followers.
The cleric and his followers support Sunni rebels in the Syria conflict, and he has threatened to clear apartments in Sidon where Hezbollah supporters live.
Sunday's clashes in Sidon deepened tensions in Lebanon. on edge since the Syrian conflict began more than two years ago.
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman called an emergency meeting of the security cabinet for Monday. NNA also reported sporadic shooting in the volatile city of Tripoli in the north, and the army announced additional force deployments in around Beirut.
The violence came a day after an 11-nation group that includes the U.S. met in the Qatari capital of Doha to coordinate military aid and other forms of assistance to the rebels.
Syria's al-Thawra newspaper, the mouthpiece of the government, assailed the Friends of Syria meeting.
"It's clear that the enemies of Syria are rushing to arm the terrorists to kill the chances for holding the Geneva conference," the newspaper said, referring to a U.S.-Russia initiative for bringing Assad's government and rebels together to negotiate an end to the crisis.
The Syrian paper pledged that the army would "continue the showdown to eliminate terrorism and restore security and stability."
____
Surk reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bomb-attacks-syrian-capital-kill-8-people-182829771.html
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Facebook Working On A Mobile News Reader - Business Insider
AP
Facebook has been working on a mobile news product for over a year, The Wall Street Journal's Evelyn Rusli reports.
The product, which Facebook employees refer to as "Reader," sounds like a Flipboard competitor. Flipboard is a social news reader for tablets that has more than 50 million users. Facebook's Reader will "displays content from Facebook users and publishers in a new visual format tailored for mobile devices," Rusli's sources say. She's not sure when or if Reader will actually launch though.
Reader's team is being led by Facebook designer Michael Matas, formerly of smart hardware startup Nest and Apple.
Zuckerberg hinted at a social news product in March when News Feed was redesigned and Graph Search was announced. "We want to give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper in the world," Facebook's CEO said then.
Facebook will have its work cut out for it. There is no shortage of mobile news readers. Circa is a venture-backed app that summarizes news stories so they can be easily scanned on the go. Twitter has also started to develop a news team to highlight trending topics and social content.
Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-working-on-a-mobile-news-reader-2013-6
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