Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/192284785?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Saturday, January 28, 2012
Steam community app available, access limited to beta participants for now
If you're a PC or Mac gamer, chances are you've used Steam, Valve Software's leading digital distribution platform for games. Today sees the launch of the official Steam app for Android, a new application that gives you access to the Steam store and community features like Steam chat on-the-go. If you're big on Steam and the Steam community, this could definitely be worth a look.
It's worth clarifying that this isn't a fully-fledged Steam client for Android, so you won't be playing Portal 2 on your Galaxy Tab any time soon, unfortunately. All it lets you do is buy PC and Mac games and chat to your Steam friends.
While the app itself is freely available on the Android Market (see the link after the jump), you'll need to be part of the Steam Mobile beta group in order to use it, or you'll be rejected at the login screen. This is a little strange given that the app is openly advertised on SteamPowered.com with no mention that a beta invite is required. So keep an eye on this one, folks. All signs point to a possible public launch in the near future. If you are in the beta group, however, you'll find a handy Market link after the break.
Source: SteamPowered.com
 |  |
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/ZBNzeQrjQ2M/story01.htm
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Friday, January 27, 2012
How to Beat a K-Cup With Simple Coffee Gadgets [Video]
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Thursday, January 26, 2012
Tensions high as FA Cup games revive racism rows
By ROB HARRIS
AP Sports Writer
Associated Press Sports
updated 5:18 p.m. ET Jan. 25, 2012
LONDON (AP) -The specter of two recent racist incidents will hang over the FA Cup this weekend, with tensions high as the clubs involved prepare to play each other again.
Manchester United will travel to Anfield on Saturday for the first time since defender Patrice Evra was repeatedly racially abused by Liverpool striker Luis Suarez in a league match in October.
Chelsea captain John Terry is set to play at Queens Park Rangers days for the first time since prosecutors decided to charge him with racially abusing Anton Ferdinand in the last meeting of the west London clubs in October.
Terry's legal team will enter a not guilty plea on his behalf in a London court next week, with the defender not planning to attend the initial hearing.
Fears that any lingering animosity between the players or rival fans could boil over in the weekend matches have prompted statements appealing for calm from the four clubs and a strong police warning about abusive behavior.
Chelsea and QPR tried to quell any tensions by issuing a statement describing Saturday's fourth-round match as "a unique opportunity to show the world that hatred has no place in our game."
The comments from Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck and QPR counterpart Tony Fernandes came after talks between the clubs.
"Abuse and discrimination has no place in football or society," Buck and Fernandes said in the statement. "Both clubs enjoy fantastic support. However, we would remind fans that while we want to hear their passion, it's a fact that hatred and abuse is not what being a fan of Chelsea or QPR is about.
"The clubs will work together with the police to ensure that anyone using discriminatory or inflammatory language is identified and that the strongest possible action is taken against them."
The spotlight will be on Ferdinand and Terry before the match to see if they shake hands, as is customary.
While racial abuse between players was the problem in the October matches, alleged taunts at Anfield was the issue in the third round of the FA Cup earlier this month.
With Liverpool still reeling from Suarez's eight-match ban for the verbal confrontation with Evra, its fans were accused of racially abusing an Oldham player at Anfield.
And police in Liverpool said Wednesday that a "firm, fair and friendly" approach will be adopted for Saturday's visit of United.
Many meetings between the northwest rivals have been fraught with drama, but United manager Alex Ferguson has written to his club's fans to ensure they do not step over the mark with their behavior at Anfield.
"Your support is vital to the team and down the years that has been especially true at Anfield," Ferguson wrote. "But please put the emphasis on getting us into the next round and giving the sort of support you are famous for - positive, witty and loud."
Police warned that all allegations of offensive conduct will be thoroughly investigated.
"We cannot allow this type of behavior to affect the enjoyment of genuine fans, especially families with young children who attend the game," match commander chief superintendent Jon Ward said in a statement. "We will continue with our efforts to deal with the small number of individuals who commit offenses at football matches, in particular with the continued use of football-banning orders."
The racism cases prompted a British parliamentary committee to launch an investigation into whether enough is being done to combat the problem in football, with a hearing due to take place in March that could hear evidence from the accused and victims.
On Wednesday morning, nine men were arrested by police investigating suspected racist chanting by supporters of Charlton Athletic on a train back from their FA Cup match at London rival Fulham on Jan. 7.
"These recent arrests are saddening to all those who have worked so hard over many decades," Charlton chief executive Stephen Kavanagh said.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAFP - Getty ImagesBarca holds off Madrid rally
??Pedro Rodriguez and Daniel Alves scored first-half goals, and Barcelona held off a spirited Real Madrid comeback attempt to eliminate the defending Copa del Rey champion with a 2-2 tie Wednesday night.
Do-or-die
The U.S. women's soccer team was still on the field, having dispatched rival Mexico, when Abby Wambach gathered her teammates for a little speech.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/45324854/ns/sports-soccer/
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"The Artist" wins over producers at Guild Awards (Reuters)
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? "The Artist" continued its love affair with American cinema after winning best-produced film on Saturday at the Producers Guild Awards (PGA), boosting its chances for an Oscar nod ahead of the Academy Award nominations next week.
The silent black-and-white French comedy, starring Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo, is a homage to the pre-talkie era of Hollywood in the 1920s and tells the story of a fading silent movie star as sound began entering the world of cinema.
"When Michel Hazanavicius and I dreamed of making "The Artist," we knew we were dreaming of writing a love letter to American cinema. We never knew in return we would get a taste of the American dream," Thomas Langmann, the film's producer, said in his acceptance speech in Beverly Hills.
The film has been sweeping awards ceremonies in the run up to the Oscars, winning best picture at the Critics Choice and Golden Globes earlier this month.
It was up against nine other films in contention for best-produced film on Saturday, including female-led comedy "Bridesmaids," civil rights drama "The Help," and Steven Spielberg's epic tale "War Horse."
"The Adventures of Tintin," produced by Spielberg, Peter Jackson and Kathleen Kennedy, picked up best-produced animated film.
The Producers Guild awards are significant in the race to the Academy Awards on February 26, as many of the 5,000-plus members of the PGA, are members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, who vote for the Oscars.
For the last four years, the producers' best-produced film picks have gone on to win the best picture Oscar, with "No Country For Old Men" in 2008, "Slumdog Millionaire" in 2009, "The Hurt Locker" in 2010 and "The King's Speech" in 2011.
Other PGA award winners on Saturday included "Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest" for best-produced documentary, which explores the journey of influential hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest.
Angelina Jolie received the Stanley Kramer award for "In the Land of Blood and Honey," which she wrote, directed and produced, an accolade reserved for contributions that highlight provocative social issues.
The Oscar-winning actress delivered a sober acceptance speech, noting that when war-film "Schindler's List" won a PGA in 1994 during the Bosnian war, "the world turned a blind eye" to the atrocities happening in Eastern Europe at the time.
Spielberg was awarded the coveted David O. Selznick achievement award and comic-book legend Stan Lee received the Vanguard award, presented by "Spider-Man" actor Tobey Maguire. Both received standing ovations as they took the stage.
ABC's "Modern Family" was named best-produced television comedy for the second year running, while HBO's "Boardwalk Empire" was named best-produced TV drama. PBS' British period drama "Downton Abbey" was named best-produced long-form television series.
(This version deletes reference to 1930s films, para 2; adds "Tintin"producers, para 5; and fixes misspellings in Spider-Man and David O. Selznick)
(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Paul Simao)
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Cancer Incidence Death Rates Continue to Drop: Report ...
By Lisa Collier Cool | Posted January 24 2012
Encouraging news in the fight against cancer: A new report shows that between 1990 and 2008, cancer deaths have dropped almost 23 percent in men and just over 15 percent in women. As a result, says Dr. Ahmedin Jemal, senior author of the report, about one million cancer deaths were prevented. The report found significant progress against 4 major cancer killers: lung, colorectal, breast and prostate cancer. GE has recently launched a $1 billion global campaign to speed the fight against cancer, with the goal of helping clinicians deliver improved, more personalized care to 10 million patients by 2020.
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Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Latest DIY Destroyer Proves That the Slingshot Master Is Officially a Wizard [Video]
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Sweeping genetic analysis of rare disease yields common mechanism of hypertension
ScienceDaily (Jan. 22, 2012) ? Analyzing all the genes of dozens of people suffering from a rare form of hypertension, Yale University researchers have discovered a new mechanism that regulates the blood pressure of all humans.
The findings by an international research team headed by Yale scientists, published online Jan. 22 in the journal Nature, may help explain what goes wrong in the one billion people who suffer from high blood pressure. The study also demonstrates the power of new DNA sequencing methods to find previously unknown disease-causing genes.
The team used a technique called whole exome sequencing -- an analysis of the makeup of all the genes -- to study a rare inherited form of hypertension characterized by excess levels of potassium in the blood. They found mutations in either of two genes that caused the disease in affected members of 41 families suffering from the condition.
The two genes interact with one another in a complex that targets other proteins for degradation, and they orchestrate the balance between salt reabsorption and potassium secretion in the kidney.
"These genes were not previously suspected to play a role in blood pressure regulation, but if they are lost, the kidney can't put the brakes on salt reabsorption, resulting in hypertension," said Richard Lifton, Sterling Professor and chair of the Department of Genetics at Yale and senior author of the paper.
The mutations had previously been difficult to find because there were very few affected members in each family, so traditional methods to map the genes' locations had been ineffective.
"The mutations in one gene were almost all new mutations found in affected patients but not their parents, while mutations in the other gene could be either dominant or recessive. The exome sequencing technology was ideally suited to cutting through these complexities," said Lynn Boyden of Yale, the first author of the paper.
The next step is to establish how these new components are involved in regulating sodium reabsorption in the kidney, in hopes of finding new ways intervene in hypertension, a major global health problem.
"We are finding all the individual parts to a complicated machine, and we need to understand how they are all put together to make the machine work," said Lifton, who is also an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Physicians from 10 countries and 17 states in the United States recruited patients and families with this rare disease and participated in the research.
The work was funded by the HHMI and Leducq Transatlantic Network for Hypertension and from National Institutes of Health grants from a O'Brien Center and the Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award grant through the National Center for Research Resources.
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Journal Reference:
- Lynn M. Boyden, Murim Choi, Keith A. Choate, Carol J. Nelson-Williams, Anita Farhi, Hakan R. Toka, Irina R. Tikhonova, Robert Bjornson, Shrikant M. Mane, Giacomo Colussi, Marcel Lebel, Richard D. Gordon, Ben A. Semmekrot, Alain Poujol, Matti J. V?lim?ki, Maria E. De Ferrari, Sami A. Sanjad, Michael Gutkin, Fiona E. Karet, Joseph R. Tucci, Jim R. Stockigt, Kim M. Keppler-Noreuil, Craig C. Porter, Sudhir K. Anand, Margo L. Whiteford, Ira D. Davis, Stephanie B. Dewar, Alberto Bettinelli, Jeffrey J. Fadrowski, Craig W. Belsha, Tracy E. Hunley, Raoul D. Nelson, Howard Trachtman, Trevor R. P. Cole, Maury Pinsk, Detlef Bockenhauer, Mohan Shenoy, Priya Vaidyanathan, John W. Foreman, Majid Rasoulpour, Farook Thameem, Hania Z. Al-Shahrouri, Jai Radhakrishnan, Ali G. Gharavi, Beatrice Goilav, Richard P. Lifton. Mutations in kelch-like 3 and cullin 3 cause hypertension and electrolyte abnormalities. Nature, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nature10814
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/7eUiI5yhRCA/120122152548.htm
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Monday, January 23, 2012
Marine guilty plea brings final Haditha case to a close (Reuters)
SAN DIEGO (Reuters) ? The U.S. Marine sergeant accused of leading a massacre of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha pleaded guilty on Monday to dereliction of duty, ending the final prosecution stemming from a 2005 incident that brought international condemnation of U.S. troops.
Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, entered his plea as part of a deal with military prosecutors in which more serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed.
Wuterich was initially charged with murder.
He now faces a maximum sentence of three months of confinement, forfeiture of two-thirds of his pay for three months and a reduction in rank when he is sentenced on Tuesday at the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base north of San Diego, a base spokesman said.
Wuterich, 31, was accused of being the ringleader in a series of November 19, 2005, shooting and grenade attacks that left two dozen civilians dead in Haditha, a city west of Baghdad that was then a hotbed of insurgent activity.
The killings were portrayed by Iraqi witnesses as a massacre of unarmed civilians and brought international condemnation of the U.S. military.
Local witnesses claimed angry Marines had killed unarmed men, women, and children after a popular comrade, Lance Corporal Miguel "TJ" Terrazas, was killed by a roadside bomb.
Lawyers for the troops involved argued the deaths resulted from a fast-moving situation in which the Marines believed they were under enemy fire.
Wuterich pleaded not guilty when the court-martial began in early January.
The court-martial was suspended last Wednesday by the presiding military judge, who ordered prosecutors and defense lawyers to seek a negotiated plea deal. The trial resumed on Friday for one day, and the plea agreement was announced on Monday morning.
Six out of the eight Marines originally accused in the case had their charges dismissed by military judges, and a seventh was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.
(Reporting by Marty Graham and Mary Slosson; Writing by Steve Gorman, Editing by Paul Thomasch)
Heyzap Announces Mobile Gaming Partners: PocketGems And ...
Anthony Ha is a writer at TechCrunch, where he covers media, advertising, and startups. Previously, he was a staff technology writer at Adweek, worked as a senior editor at the tech blog VentureBeat, and was also a reporter at the Hollister Free Lance, where he won awards from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for breaking news coverage and writing.... ? Learn More
Gaming startup Heyzap first launched its social discovery service for mobile games nearly a year ago. Now it?s unveiling the first list of partners who are using the service.
Some of these partnerships weren?t exactly a secret before ? you could just open up the Heyzap app and see which games were available. But now the startup is really trumpeting those partnerships, in part to show off some of the big names who are buying into its vision.
?Foursquare has its location network, Instagram has its picture network, Socialcam has its version of that,? says co-founder Jude Gomila. ?No one?s really built the gaming community yet.?They?ve done it in hardcore gaming ? but no one?s done it for the Angry Birds and Farmville generation.?
Specifically, with the Heyzap Android and iOS apps, users can share the mobile games they?re playing by checking in, and they can also find new games and new people to play with.
Heyzap says it now partners with a total of more than 800 game developers.?The new partner list includes Spacetime Studios (which integrates Heyzap into Pocket Legends and Star Legends), Nubee (Japan Life), PocketGems (Tap Zoo and Tap Zoo: Santa?s Quest), Bionic Panda Games (Aqua Pets), Magma Mobile (Bubble Blast Sports and MatchUp People), Digital Chocolate (Millionaire City), GameDuell (Fluffy Birds), Animoca (Pretty Pet Salon and My Car Salon), Fluik (Office Jerk and Office Zombie), Get Set Games (Mega Jump), BBC (Torchwood: Web of Lies), and Vostu (Elemental and Meow).
Heyzap is a social discovery platform for mobile and the largest social network for Android/iPhone mobile gamers. Heyzap is based on San Francisco and was founded in 2009 by Jude Gomila and Immad Akhund. Heyzap provides users with a way to check-in to their favorite games, discover games and join a massive community of mobile gamers. Heyzap allows users to let other gamers know what they are playing, leave or browse tips for their favorite games, and earn badges. For mobile...
Learn morePocket Gems develops free-to-play mobile games that are ridiculously fun. We were founded in 2009 by Daniel Terry and Harlan Crystal, engineers and gaming industry outsiders, who wanted to bring the excitement of social gaming to the mobile platform. There five titles to-date have been smash hits, each landing at the top of the App Store charts and entertaining millions of customers across the globe. Apple Rewind 2011 named Pocket Gems? Tap Zoo as the #1 top grossing app of...
Learn moreSource: http://techcrunch.com/2012/01/20/heyzap-partners-pocket-gems/
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Sunday, January 22, 2012
Could the Internet Ever Be Destroyed?
Partial map of the Internet based on the January 15, 2005 data found on opte.org. Each line is drawn between two nodes, representing two IP addresses. The length of the lines are indicative of the delay between those two nodes. View full size image
Image: Creative Commons | The Opte Project
The raging battle over SOPA and PIPA, the proposed anti-piracy laws, is looking more and more likely to end in favor of Internet freedom ? but it won't be the last battle of its kind. Although, ethereal as it is, the Internet seems destined to survive in some form or another, experts warn that there are many threats to its status quo existence, and there is much about it that could be ruined or lost.
Physical destruction
A vast behemoth that can route around outages and self-heal, the Internet has grown physically invulnerable to destruction by bombs, fires or natural disasters ? within countries, at least. It's "very richly interconnected," said David Clark, a computer scientist at MIT who was a leader in the development of the Internet during the 1970s. "You would have to work real hard to find a small number of places where you could seriously disrupt connectivity." On 9/11, for example, the destruction of the major switching center in south Manhattan disrupted service locally. But service was restored about 15 minutes later when the center "healed" as the built-in protocols routed users and information around the outage.
However, while it's essentially impossible to cripple connectivity internally in a country, Clark said it is conceivable that one country could block another's access to its share of the Internet cloud; this could be done by severing the actual cables that carry Internet data between the two countries. Thousands of miles of undersea fiber-optic cables that convey data from continent to continent rise out of the ocean in only a few dozen locations, branching out from those hubs to connect to millions of computers. But if someone were to blow up one of these hubs ? the station in Miami, for example, which handles some 90 percent of the Internet traffic between North America and Latin America ? the Internet connection between the two would be severely hampered until the infrastructure was repaired.
Such a move would be "an act of cyberwar," Clark told Life's Little Mysteries, a sister site to LiveScience.
Content cache
Even an extreme disruption of international connectivity would not seriously threaten the survival of Web content itself. A "hard" copy of most data is stored in nonvolatile memory, which sticks around with or without power, and whether you have Internet access to it or not. Furthermore, according to William Lehr, an MIT economist who studies the economics and regulatory policy of the Internet-infrastructure industries, the corporate data centers that harbor Web content ? everything from your emails to this article ? have sophisticated ways to back up and diversely store the data, including simply storing copies in multiple locations.
Google even stores cached copies of all Wikipedia pages; these were accessible on Jan. 18 when Wikipedia took its own versions of the pages offline in protest of SOPA and PIPA.
This diversified storage plan keeps the content itself safe, but it also offers some protection against loss of access to any one copy of the data in the event of a cyberwar. For example, if power were cut to a server, you may be unable to reach a website on its home server, but you mayfind a cached version of the content stored on another, accessible server. Or, "If you wanted data that was not available from a server in country X, you may be able to get substantively the same data from a server in country Y," Lehr said.
Internet arms race
The redundancy of so much online content and of connectivity routes makes the Internet resilient to physical attacks, but a much more serious threat to its status quo existence is government regulation or censorship. In the early days of Egypt's Arab Spring uprising, the government of Hosni Mubarak attempted to shut down the country's Internet in order to cripple protesters' ability to organize; it did this by ordering the state-controlled Internet Service Provider (ISP), which grants Internet access to customers, to cut service.
Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=3723b979a22b777edbfd647dc0143495
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Saturday, January 21, 2012
Wounded UK veteran fighting for gold at Paralympics (Reuters)
NEWPORT, Wales (Reuters) ? Jon-Allan Butterworth served with the British armed forces in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he lost an arm, but says getting on a bicycle makes him most nervous.
The 25-year-old former Royal Air Force (RAF) weapons technician suffered his life-changing injury in a rocket attack on a British base in Basra in August 2007.
After watching the Beijing Olympics on TV he took up cycling as part of his rehabilitation and now has a good chance of making the British Paralympic cycling team for this summer's London Games.
In 1948, when London last staged the Olympics, the first international disabled sports event was held for Second World War veterans at Stoke Mandeville hospital north of the capital.
Butterworth is one of a number of injured servicemen and veterans to go through the Ministry of Defence's Battle Back rehabilitation program, 14 of whom have gone on to represent their country, but he is probably the best placed to make the team where only a podium place, preferably gold, is good enough.
His analytical skills, which he used in his job in the RAF, have also helped propel him to the top of his sport, along with a great physical and mental strength.
When shrapnel tore his left arm to pieces he had to apply his own tourniquet or face the prospect of bleeding to death.
"The blood was pouring out," he told Reuters in a matter-of-fact way, the shiny black prosthetic arm resting on his blue tracksuit trouser leg.
"My desert camouflages were non-recognizable they were that red. All the sand around me was red."
"EASIER IN BASRA THAN IN THE SADDLE"
At first, Butterworth was a reluctant cyclist, not knowing what a velodrome was, but the sport has helped smooth his transition into civilian life, giving him focus and structure.
"Mentally, cycling is a lot tougher than the RAF," he said, sitting in a hotel room in Newport, South Wales, with the frost still on the ground outside.
"I often joke that it was a lot easier to be out in Basra getting attacked than it is being on the start line. I was a lot more nervous in the starting gate on a bike.
"It's all on your own merit really because in the RAF you are told what to do.
"In cycling, it is up to you to control how well you do. It means a lot to get a good result. That's why I think I get nervous. Then you've got a secondary factor - you don't want to let people down, anyone who has supported you."
Battle Back, launched in 2008, encourages the injured to take up sport and outdoor activities, and also works with Parlaympics GB to identify talent.
"With the advent of Iraq and Afghanistan what we have done is bring sports back into the recovery process," said Martin Colclough, head of the Battle Back Phoenix Programme.
Britain has supported NATO-led military operations in Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on the U.S., and has about 9,500 military personnel still serving there.
It also took part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 which toppled former President Saddam Hussein. All British combat forces withdrew from Iraq in July 2009.
Colclough said coaches enjoy working with servicemen because they have the attributes that allow rapid progress.
"Our servicemen are combat athletes," he said.
"We have occasionally found athletes that aren't super talented but their work ethic, and their reliability, commitment, ability to follow orders from coaches has actually made them progress a lot quicker."
GOLD IS THE COLOUR
Britain's Paralympic cycling team won 17 golds in Beijing, but lead coach Chris Furber expects Battle Back's results to be strongest at the Rio Olympics in 2016.
"We had a clear and targeted idea of what kind of athletes we were looking for," Furber said.
"Ostensibly, I came up with a wish list and said I needed a one-legged person, (and) a one-armed person. As cruel as that sounds that is the kind of game you are in."
Butterworth, who is a world champion and holds two world records, will shortly head off with the rest of the Paracycling team to the world championships in Los Angeles.
"There is no shame in getting silver or bronze in Games time, but I don't feel there is any point in aspiring for silver," Butterworth said.
"I have to think about being the best in the world ... if you are not working towards that, I don't know what's the point."
(Reporting by Avril Ormsby)
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HHS move scores no points on right (Politico)
The Obama administration?s modest tweak to an exclusion for religious employers from a new contraceptive coverage mandate isn't winning it any points with Republicans, religious conservatives or anti-abortion groups.
But it doesn't seem to have cost it any support from abortion rights activists, either. And that could count as a political success in itself, since many of these advocates didn?t want an exemption in the first place and could have rebelled against even a one-year waiver.
Continue Reading
The decision, announced Friday, leaves in place an exemption to a new contraceptive coverage requirement ? part of a rule issued under the health reform law ? that only exempts religious employers like churches, but not ones like religiously affiliated hospitals or schools.
The only change the administration made was to give these other organizations an additional year to come into compliance with the mandate, which requires all health plans to cover FDA-approved contraceptives.
Within minutes of the announcement, the Senate Republican Policy Committee blasted the Obama administration for ?ruling against [the] Catholic Church.? The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops had vocally attacked the rule as violating Catholic institutions? religious liberty.
?This ruling forces religious organizations to violate the fundamental tenets of their faith, or stop offering health insurance coverage to their employees,? RPC health policy analyst Chris Jacobs wrote.
Americans United for Life?s Anna Franzonello took issue with HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius?s statement that the one-year grace period ?strikes the appropriate balance between respecting religious freedom and increasing access to important preventive [health] services.?
Franzonello said it ?was just adding insult to injury? to put ?an expiration date on conscience clause protections.?
By contrast, abortion rights groups sent out jubilant statements backing the administration?s move, even though many advocates had wanted the administration to get rid of the exemption altogether. They had spent months bracing themselves for the administration to broaden the exemption to placate religious groups.
In its statement, Planned Parenthood did note that it opposed any exemption and the new one-year grace period. But it buried the complaint in the tenth paragraph of a press release that began like this: ?Planned Parenthood Federation of America applauds the decision by the United States Department of Health and Human Services to ensure access to affordable birth control, and not further expand the refusal provision to the birth control coverage benefit under the Affordable Care Act.?
No such caveat appeared in the press release from NARAL Pro-Choice America, in which the group?s president, Nancy Keenan, praised the administration for standing ?firm against intensive lobbying efforts from anti-birth control organizations trying to expand the refusal option even further to allow organizations and corporations to deny their employees contraceptive coverage.?
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This article first appeared on POLITICO Pro at 2:35 p.m. on January 20, 2012.
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Friday, January 20, 2012
Local college sports briefs
Indoor track and field
SIUE junior honored by league
EDWARDSVILLE -- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville junior Colleen McDonough was selected as Ohio Valley Conference co-female Field Athlete of the Week after a strong showing at the Holiday Inn Invitational over the weekend.
McDonough placed third in the weight throw with a toss of 51 feet, 10.5 inches, which ranks as the best mark in the OVC this indoor season.
She also finished fourth in the shot put, throwing 43-10.5. Her throw is second on the OVC performance list.
The award is the first-ever for the SIUE women's track and field program.
McDonough shares the honor with Jill Schnurbusch, a junior pole vaulter from Southeast Missouri.
The Cougar track and field teams continue the indoor season at the Illini Classic on Friday and Saturday in Champaign.
Women's bowling
McKendree women win tourney
LEBANON -- The McKendree University women's bowling team kicked off the second half of its 2011-12 season in strong fashion last weekend at the Roto Grip Eagles Baker Challenge, taking first place in both the varsity and junior varsity sections of the two-day event. The tournament was hosted by Robert Morris University at the Bowling Green Sports Center in West Chicago.
On the varsity side, McKendree led after each day of competition in posting its second tournament victory of the season. The Bearcats held a 123-pin lead over Davenport University following Saturday's 24-game Baker format block. McKendree then slowly stretched its lead over the final 16 games on Sunday, finishing with a team total of 7,715 pins. The Bearcats held a 356-pin advantage over Davenport in the final standings. Host Robert Morris University was third in the 19-team field.
"This tournament used a very challenging pattern, which created a lower scoring pace," said McKendree women's bowling coach Steven Michelfelder. "This put a premium on shot-making and spare conversions. Our ladies came out and established themselves early in the weekend. They were up to the challenge and had a great weekend."
In JV competition, McKendree outdistanced the field of eight with its final total of 7,300 pins. The Bearcat JV squad finished 178 pins better than runner-up Robert Morris University-Chicago.
McKendree will return to the lanes Jan. 28-29 at the Lions Classic in St. Charles, Mo.
Wrestling
Seven Cougars place at Denker Open
WARRENSBURG, Mo. - Kyle Lowman took second place at 157 pounds Sunday to lead seven Southern Illinois University Edwardsville placewinners at the Central Missouri Roger Denker Open.
Lowman worked his way to the finals only to draw the wrestler who would finish the tournament with the most pins. Alex Deringer, unattached from Oklahoma State, pinned Lowman for his fourth fall of the day in the championship match in 4 minutes, 23 seconds.
Steve Ross also placed sixth at 157 pounds but had to forfeit in the fifth-place match.
Brendan Murphy was a winner in his final match of the day, a third-place finish at 141 pounds. Murphy defeated Maryville's Tyrell Galloway 4-1.
SIUE collected two finishers in the top six at 184 pounds. Cole Brandt took fourth while Derek Nagel finished in sixth.
The Cougars also had Dillon Pousson take sixth at 149. David Devine, wrestling unattached, took fourth at heavyweight.
Bearcats back in action tonight
LEBANON -- The McKendree University wrestling team will travel today to St. Louisfor a dual match against Missouri Baptist University.
The dual begins at 7 p.m.
The Bearcats had six individuals finish in the top six at the Cumberland University Open on Saturday in Lebanon, Tenn.
Junior John Vogt was McKendree's top finisher with a runner-up finish at 184 pounds. Vogt was pinned in the championship match by Weston Kelleher of Missouri Baptist University and finished with a record of 2-1 overall.
Redshirt freshman Ross Janney finished in third place at heavyweight with a record of 4-1 overall. Janney defeated Theodore Furnish of Lindsey Wilson College in a 2-0 decision in the third place match.
Freshman Tim Gilbert finished in fourth place at 165 pounds with a record of 3-2 overall. Gilbert could not compete in the third place match and lost by medical forfeit to James Haywood of Lindsey WIlson.
Senior Mandela Johnson also earned a fourth place finish at the tournament. Johnson fell to Ty Cartmell of Campbellsville University in a 8-7 decision in the third place match at 174 pounds and finished the day with a record of 4-2.
Sophomore Luis Albadropped a 4-2 decision to Scott Stewart of Cumberland University in the third place match at 184 pounds to finish in fourth place. Alba ended the day with a record of 3-2 overall.
Freshman Clay Wilsonfinished in sixth place at 174 pounds and a record of 1-3. Wilson was pinned in the fifth place match by Cadyn McKeeth of Lindsey WIlson College in 1:12.
Senior Kyle Williams (Mascoutah), junior Isaiah Gonzalez, and sophomore Julian Smith all placed while wrestling unattached. Williams and Gonzalez both posted 4-0 records to win championships at 149 and 184 pounds, respectively. Smith finished as runner-up at 197 pounds with a record of 2-1.
Women's basketball
Lady Lynx win Classic
BELLEVILLE -- The Lindenwood-Belleville women's basketball team went 2-0 over the weekend at the Comfort Suites Fairview Heights MLK Classic. The Lady Lynx picked up their second win with a 59-55 win over Robert Morris-Springfield on Sunday.
Both teams were undefeated on the weekend heading into the matchup. The Lady Lynx came out shaky to start the game, but picked up tempo to take a 30-19 lead at halftime. Megan Clark led through the first 20 minutes of play with seven points and four rebounds, recording two assists and two steals. An aggressive battle had the Lady Lynx committing ten first-half fouls, but the Lady Eagles couldn't find their shots from the charity line, making only three of their attempted nine shots.
The Lady Eagles went on a run in the second half, taking the lead with just seven minutes remaining in the game. The Lady Lynx regained control and took the lead back at the three-minute mark. It was a one-possession game until the final minute, when the Lady Lynx pulled ahead by four. A turnover by the Lady Eagles gave LU - Belleville the ball concluding 59-55 victory for the Lady Lynx.
Four Lady Lynx saw double digits, as Clark and Ashley Will put up 14 points each. Bernadette Brown recorded 12 on the night, while Brooke Dunning contributed 10. The Lady Eagles committed 31 turnovers and 18 fouls against Lindenwood - Belleville.
LU-Belleville improves to 9-11 on the season.
Baseball
Cougars add hitter to roster
EDWARDSVILLE -- Southern Illinois University Edwardsville associate coach Tony Stoecklin has announced another addition to the most recent recruiting class. Outfielder Bryan Ryberg (St. Charles, Mo.) has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Cougars beginning with the 2013 season.
"Bryan is an extremely athletic outfielder," Stoecklin said. "He has a very quick, flat swing and a nice approach at the plate. He's a tough out."
Ryberg is a 5-foot, 10-inch left-handed hitter who played at Francis Howell North High School. He hit .389 as a junior with four doubles and 10 RBIs. He led the Gateway Athletic Conference with five triples. Ryberg led Howell North with 10 stolen bases. He was an honorable mention All-GAC selection as a junior.
Ryberg also has been on the honor roll at Howell North all four years.
"He's cut from the same cloth as the rest of the (recruiting) class," Stoecklin added. "He has good academics and great character."
Ryberg joins Zach Little (Washington), Jacob Stewart (Mt. Zion), Caleb Wilkerson (Festus, Mo.), and Justin (JD) Williams (Kansas City, Mo.) who previously signed letters of intent to play for the Cougars in 2013.
Source: http://www.bnd.com/2012/01/18/2020639/local-college-sports-briefs.html
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SpaceX delays trial run to space station
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida |
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - Space Exploration Technologies, a startup space transportation firm hired by NASA to fly cargo to the International Space Station, is delaying a planned February 7 test flight to allow more time to prepare for the mission, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday.
The launch of the company's Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station has not yet been rescheduled.
"We believe that there are a few areas that will benefit from additional work," said Kirstin Brost Grantham, a spokeswoman for the company, also known as SpaceX.
"We will continue to test and review data. We will launch when the vehicle is ready," she said.
The flight will be the second and possibly last test flight before privately owned SpaceX begins delivering cargo to the station under a $1.6 billion NASA contract.
The firm, based in Hawthorne, California, and founded by Internet entrepreneur Elon Musk, hopes to combine its two remaining test flights into one with a berthing at the space station, pending NASA's approval.
SpaceX successfully launched, orbited and landed a Dragon capsule during a test flight in December 2010.
NASA has hired SpaceX, as well as a second company, Orbital Sciences Corp to fly supplies to station after the retirement of the space shuttles last year.
The station, a $100 billion research laboratory flying about 240 miles above Earth, also is serviced by Russian, European and Japanese ships.
SpaceX and Orbital, which plans to debut its Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo capsule this year, are in line to be the first commercial firms to fly to the outpost, which is staffed by rotating crews of six astronauts.
SpaceX also has a $75 million NASA contract to upgrade its Dragon capsule to carry astronauts.
The United States hopes to break Russia's monopoly on crew transportation to the station by supporting private industry efforts to develop passenger spaceships. Congress allotted $406 million for NASA's so-called Commercial Crew program for the year that began October 1.
Russia charges NASA about $60 million per person for rides to the station.
Also this week, United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin, has hired NASA's former shuttle launch director Michael Leinbach to oversee the company's transition from launching U.S. government satellites to launching people.
Of the four firms NASA currently is backing for space taxi development, all but SpaceX plan to use United Launch Alliance's Atlas 5 rockets to put their spaceships into orbit.
"Mike's expertise in human launch systems provides a strong synergy in bringing together two world-class launch cultures," Jerry Jamison, a United Launch Alliance vice president, said in a statement.
NASA intends to release a solicitation for the next phase of its Commercial Crew program in February.
Other firms currently receiving NASA funding for space taxi development are Boeing, Sierra Nevada Corp, and Blue Origin, a startup owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
(Editing by Kevin Gray and Eric Walsh)
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Thursday, January 19, 2012
Gingrich Comes Back?Again
Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are both trying to help South Carolina voters imagine what will happen if Gingrich captures the nomination. In the Gingrich model, he crushes President Obama in the fall 2012 debates, wins a huge victory on Election Day, and prepares the country for fundamental change. In the Romney vision, the undisciplined Gingrich clatters into the fall surrounded by the wreckage of his campaign: His oddball comments set off a series of press feeding frenzies, and he manages to squander a huge Republican opportunity to regain the White House.
Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=6fb177539d0b63b1bec17c6368c8c9e5
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Peter Dinklage's Golden shout out explained
Robyn Beck / AFP - Getty Images
Peter Dinklage picked up his "Game of Thrones" Golden Globe, but used his speech to bring attention to another actor's plight.
By Randee Dawn
Actors thank any number of people from the stage when they pick up awards, but Peter Dinklage's speech as he picked up his Golden Globe for best supporting TV actor for "Game of Thrones" took a slightly different turn. He mentioned someone named "Martin Henderson," and instead of explaining what that meant, simply told audiences to "Google him."
Turns out Dinklage was referring to a 37-year-old actor who has appeared in some of the "Harry Potter" films as a goblin and who, according to the Daily Telegraph, was picked up and thrown last October by a stranger while he was standing outside a U.K. pub.
Dinklage and Henderson suffer from achondroplasia, which is the cause of their dwarfism, and as MTV News points out, Dinklage was trying to raise awareness for the insensitivity people can show towards little people -- insensitivity that can lead to assault and bodily injury, as happened with Henderson.
The actor was already recuperating from a 2010 back injury, reported The Daily Mail, when he was attacked. The injury was a setback in that recovery, and he has said in interviews that his legs have become numb since the attack, causing falls. He now faces the possibility of spending his life in a wheelchair, as well as the collapse of his career.
"Every time I stand up I don't know if I'm going to fall over. I will have to use a wheelchair and I won't get any acting jobs," Henderson told the Mail.
While attacks on dwarfs are not unheard of, Henderson says he blames this particular incident on English rugby team players who reportedly attended dwarf-tossing contest in New Zealand during the Rugby World Cup.
His assailant has not yet been found, but thanks to that shout-out from Dinklage, his case has now reached millions around the world.
Related content:
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Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Mom takes legal action against bullies
POJOAQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - It's not uncommon for middle school kids to come home with magic marker and ink on them, but an angry mother says the way they got on her son has her outraged and now she's demanding action.
Roberta Lujan says her 12-year-old son Margarito was at school at the Pojoaque Valley Sixth Grade Academy, when two of his fellow classmates went to town.
She says they took magic markers and wrote all over her son's face, arms and neck.? She says the boys also poured orange juice in his back-pack, destroying his cell-phone and books.?
Lujan says the school district waited four hours to notify her about the incident all the while her son? was left to walk around school with ink on him.
She says the bullying happened back in October, but says nothing was done so Lujan filed a police report with the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department.?
The department confirmed deputies are investigating, but so far no one has been charged in the case.
"It's very cruel because he's having trouble sleeping.? He's having trouble functioning.? He doesn't want to go to school and he's one of the best kids in class," Lujan said.
Pojoaque Schools Superintendent Adan Delgado says district employees spent hours investigating the case.? He could not say if the kids involved have been disciplined, but says the district is doing everything possible to eliminate bullying.?
Source: http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/mom-takes-legal-action-against-bullies
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Drowning Incidents Among Children Drop, Study Finds (LiveScience.com)
The rate of children hospitalized yearly due to drowning-related incidents has dropped by 50 percent since the early 1990s, a new report finds.
The biggest drop occurred in the southern U.S., where drowning-related incidents fell from seven yearly hospitalizations per 100,000 children to three annual hospitalizations?per 100,000 children.
"The report shows that we're doing a good job," said lead author Stephen Bowman, an epidemiologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Injury Research and Policy.
"Trends are going in the right direction, but there's still about 1,000 deaths from drowning in children per year," Bowman said. "And that's too many."
This is the first study to look at trends in hospitalizations for drowning incidents in children.
The study is published today (Jan. 16) in the journal Pediatrics.
Drowning highest among infants and toddlers
Every day in the U.S, about ten people die from accidental drowning. Of these, two are children 14 years old or younger, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Drowning is the second leading cause of accidental death in children ages 1 to 19 in the U.S.
Among children, infants and toddlers are the highest risk group. In 2007, almost 30 percent of children who died from accidental injury?died from drowning.
Near drownings can cause brain damage, which can lead to long-term health complications such as memory problems, learning disabilities and permanent loss of basic functioning.
"Drowning is such a terrible, nasty injury because you're not getting enough oxygen," said Dr. Linda Quan, a pediatric emergency room physician at Seattle Children's Hospital.
"You can have a cardiac arrest, and with medical assistance, your heart might be able pump again," said Quan who was not involved with the work.
"But other organs including the brain may not be able to sustain such an injury," she said.
Which may explain how even after resuscitation, a person can still die after being hospitalized.
Are efforts to reduce accidental drownings enough?
Researchers looked at hospital data over a 16-year period and found the rates of hospitalization from drowning-related incidents declined in children younger than 19 years old.
From 1993 to 2008, researchers found, the number of hospitalizations associated with drowning decreased from about five cases per 100,000 children, to two cases.
Researchers also observed a 40 percent drop in bathtub-related drowning hospitalizations in infants and toddlers.
Study authors noted boys maintained higher rates of drowning injuries than girls.
The reason for the overall decline may be due to "educational campaigns that have been put into place to reduce drowning," Bowman said.
"Efforts such as putting fences around pools and encouraging parents to have kids in a supervised setting, are some of the things we'd like to believe are yielding positive results in reducing drowning," he said.
But Quan said she isn't entirely sure such efforts are the only reason for the decline.
"It could mean that kids aren't going to the beach as often," she said. "Or maybe they're just sitting at home playing computer games. We don't really know for sure why there's a decline." She said there hasn't been enough attention given to water safety.
"We haven't had national focus, medical focus or family focus on preventing drowning," Quan said. "We haven't taken the same approach to preventing drowning like we have with motor vehicle accidents."
What is most important is that parents follow all the necessary steps to ensure their child is safe, she said.
"Every family needs to think about how to prepare and respond to any water related activity," Quan said.
Some of her suggestions included:
- Bring a lifejacket with you when visiting a beach.
- Swim only where there's a lifeguard.
- Keep active watch on your child if they're near or in the water.
- Have your kids take swimming lessons.
- Before engaging in a water-related activities, set expectations and rules with your kids.
Pass it on: Fewer kids require hospitalization from drowning.
This story was provided by MyHealthNewsDaily, a sister site to LiveScience. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND. Find us on Facebook.
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Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Brown, Warren call for Super PAC cease fire (Politico)
BOSTON ? Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren and Republican Sen. Scott Brown on Monday demanded a cease-fire of the third-party spending that?s certain to play a major role in this state?s pivotal Senate race.
Senior officials from Brown?s and Warren?s campaigns will soon meet to try to craft an unusual pact to curtail the influence of so-called Super PACs that have grown in power since the Supreme Court?s Citizen United case loosened campaign finance rules in 2010.
Continue ReadingWhether the talk amounts to anything more than public posturing to distance themselves from the millions of dollars in negative attacks launched by the groups remains to be seen. Experts are skeptical that groups will unilaterally disarm knowing that this race could tip the balance of power in the Senate.
But Brown and Warren ? both of whom will have warchests flush with their own campaign cash ? are trying to make the case they want outside groups to stay off the airwaves, in a bid to appeal to voters tired of partisan mud-slinging.
?What I?d like to do is I?d like to be able to run my campaign,? Warren said before a Martin Luther King Jr. Day event at this city?s convention center. ?I?d like for Sen. Brown to run his campaign and we both be responsible for what is said. I think that is the right way to be able to run the campaign.?
Brown, speaking outside an American Legion post in Mattapan, Mass., said he?s ?glad Professor Warren seems to be coming around on this issue,? adding that he?s been calling on her to disavow outside spending for several weeks.
?I think by sending a joint message to stay out, I?m hopeful they?ll accept that message,? he said. ?This is going to be decided by the people of Massachusetts, not by the tens of millions of outside interest dollars coming into our state.?
Federal law precludes the campaigns from coordinating with the outside groups, which have already spent at least $3.5 million across the airwaves here. But Warren said Monday that the campaigns could agree on a common response if third party groups become active on the airwaves and ignore their demands.
?That?s certainly within our control,? she said.
The back-and-forth started Friday when Warren responded to Brown in a letter, saying she wanted to create an ?enforceable? pact to seek an end to radio, TV and online advertisements by outside groups, saying there should be ?consequences? for the campaign that does not honor the agreement. The two spoke later that day, and their campaign managers are talking Tuesday about setting a time for a future meeting.
Asked Monday if she could lay out consequences for not adhering to any agreement, Warren would only say that she wants ?something that actually means something. No more politics as usual.?
Rick Hasen, an election law expert, said outside groups would have ?no incentive? to stop pouring money into the state given the high stakes of what will be a closely contested race.
Indeed, outside groups on both sides were non-committal when asked about the candidates? rhetoric on Monday.
?We don?t discuss strategy of specific races,? said a spokesman for the GOP-aligned American Crossroads on Monday.
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White Diamonds shows off artistic, Swarovski encrusted cases for iPhone and iPad
White Diamonds is continuing their line of artistically printed, Swarovski crystal emblazoned iPhone and iPad cases, and at CES 2012, they showed us just what they have in store
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheIphoneBlog/~3/Ke3QX9Tf4ao/story01.htm
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Monday, January 16, 2012
Marines name general to handle video probes (AP)
WASHINGTON ? The Marine Corps has appointed a three-star general to decide what, if any, disciplinary action to take against four Marine snipers who appear in a video that purports to show them urinating on dead bodies in Afghanistan.
No one has been charged in the case.
Lt. Gen. Thomas Waldhauser will name another officer to lead an internal Marine Corps investigation.
That investigation will be in addition to a criminal probe already under way by the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. Waldhauser will determine how to proceed once both investigations are completed.
Waldhauser is commander of Marine Corps Forces Central Command, whose area of responsibility includes Afghanistan.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
Pentagon officials worry that outrage over a video purporting to depict Marines urinating on Taliban corpses will tarnish the reputation of the entire military. Some also fear it could undermine prospects for exploratory Afghan peace talks.
After roundly condemning the Marines' alleged behavior, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and top military leaders on Thursday promised a full investigation and sought to contain the damage at home and abroad.
Panetta also said the incident could endanger the prospects for peace talks, although the Obama administration and the Taliban each voiced readiness Thursday to try negotiations while pledging to carry on the military conflict until their rival objectives are met. The separate statements by senior American and Taliban officials illustrated the improved environment for Afghan reconciliation efforts as well as the daunting task ahead.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service, the law enforcement arm of the Navy, is heading the main inquiry, which is expected to weigh evidence of violations of the U.S. military legal code as well as the international laws of warfare. Separately, the Marine Corps is doing its own internal investigation.
By Friday, the NCIS had identified all four of the Marines appearing in the video and interviewed at least two of them. At the time they were filmed urinating on the bodies, the four were members of the 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which fought in the southern Afghan province of Helmand for seven months before returning to their home base at Camp Lejeune, N.C., last September.
Two of the four, plus the commander of the battalion, had moved on to other assignments before the video appeared on the Internet, according to Marine Corps officials who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss an active investigation. The Marines' names have not been made public.
The commandant of the Marine Corps, Gen. James Amos, was preparing to name an officer to serve as the "convening authority" ? the officer who would be tasked with considering a course of action in light of any charges that might be brought against the Marines as a result of the NCIS investigation. Charges could lead to courts-martial or lesser administrative disciplinary actions.
Even the emergence of the Internet video depicting Marines urinating on what appear to be Afghan corpses didn't seem to immediately set back movement toward exploratory negotiations with the Taliban. Asked about possible implications for peace talks, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday the U.S. remained strongly committed to supporting Afghan efforts.
Panetta, however, said the incident could endanger the talks.
"The danger is that this kind of video can be misused in many ways to undermine what we are trying to do in Afghanistan and the possibility of reconciliation," Panetta said at Fort Bliss, Texas, adding it's important for the U.S. to move quickly to "send a clear signal to the world that the U.S. will not tolerate this kind of behavior and that is not what the U.S. is all about."
Before he left Washington for his troop visit in Fort Bliss, Panetta called President Hamid Karzai to promise a full investigation of the video affair and condemned the Marines' behavior as "entirely inappropriate."
As the video spread across the Internet in postings and re-postings, U.S. officials joined with Afghans in calling it shocking, deplorable, inhumane and a breach of military standards of conduct. It shows men in Marine combat gear standing in a semicircle urinating on the bodies of three men in standard Afghan clothing, including one whose chest was covered in blood.
It's not certain whether the dead were Taliban fighters, civilians or someone else.
The incident will likely further hurt ties with Karzai's government and complicate negotiations over a strategic partnership arrangement meant to govern the presence of U.S. troops and advisers in Afghanistan after most international combat troops withdraw by the end of 2014.
Anti-American sentiment is already on the rise in Afghanistan, especially among Afghans who have not seen improvements to their daily lives despite billions of dollars in international aid. They also have deplored the accidental killing of civilians during NATO airstrikes and argue that foreign troops have culturally offended the Afghan people, mostly when it comes to activities involving women or the Quran, the Muslim holy book.
Pentagon officials said the criminal investigation would likely look into whether the Marines violated laws of war, which include prohibitions against photographing or mishandling bodies and detainees. There's also the issue of violations to the U.S. Uniform Code of Military Justice, which governs conduct.
Karzai called the video "completely inhumane." The Afghan Defense Ministry called it "shocking." And the Taliban issued a statement accusing U.S. forces of committing numerous "indignities" against the Afghan people.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said he was deeply disturbed by the video and worried that its effects would spread beyond just the Marine Corps.
"Actions like those are not only illegal but are contrary to the values of a professional military and serve to erode the reputation of our joint force," Dempsey said.
On the streets of Afghanistan, the reaction was cool.
"If these actions continue, people will not like them (the Americans) anymore and there will be uprising against them," Mohammad Qayum, said while watching a television news story about the video that was airing in a local restaurant in Kabul.
Ahmad Naweed, a shopkeeper in Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban insurgency, said, "On the one hand, the Americans present themselves as friends of Afghanistan and ... they also try to have peace talks with the Taliban. So we don't know what kind of political game they are playing in Afghanistan."
___
Associated Press writers Pauline Jelinek in Washington, Deb Riechmann in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Juan Carlos Llorca in El Paso, Texas, contributed to this report.
___
Robert Burns can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/robertburnsAP
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