'Duck Dynasty' patriarch Phil plans to leave show

TV

Ashley Majeski TODAY contributor

10 hours ago

Brian Doben / Parade

"Duck Dynasty" will return for a fourth season on August 14.

Hold onto your beards. It looks like there's about to be a shake-up in the "Duck Dynasty" world.

Phil Robertson, the Duck Commander creator and papa of the Robertson clan, recently told Parade that he (and his epic beard) plans to leave the show in the near future.

?Not long," Phil said of how much longer he intends to participate in the show. "But I think it?ll go on without me.?

Indeed it will. The A & E hit show -- which, according to Parade, is the No.1 nonfiction cable series, is set to premiere its fourth season on Aug. 14. The new episodes will feature Phil and his duck-hunting family in all sorts of new scenarios. We can also expect to meet Alan, Phil and Kay's clean-shaven son, who will return to the family business during season four after spending 20 years as a preacher.

During a recent speech at a California church, Alan said he chose to step in front of the cameras to help spread his religious message.

"Because of my association with the show, I'll get to minister to a lot more people," Alan told the congregation. "Any person that's an evangelist, that's what you want to do, so I had to give this up for something possibly bigger."

Alan's wife, Lisa, will also join the cast for season four.

Despite their newfound fame, Willie, who serves as CEO of the family business, says that the Robertsons are closer than ever.

?It?s probably the opposite of most reality shows," he said. "And nobody gets a big head because we?re doing it all together.?

Source: http://www.today.com/entertainment/duck-dynasty-patriarch-phil-plans-leave-show-6C10765762

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Feast of Lanterns: Pets parade through Pacific Grove - Monterey ...

Click photo to enlarge

Malika Shihadeh, 4, and her dog Rocco dress in bee costumes on Friday during the Feast of Lanterns Pet Parade in Pacific Grove. Saturday's all-day festival will be followed by the pageant at 8 p.m.

Malika Shihadeh, 4, and her dog Rocco dress in bee costumes on Friday during the Feast of Lanterns Pet Parade in Pacific Grove. Saturday's all-day festival will be followed by the pageant at 8 p.m.

Source: http://www.montereyherald.com/news/ci_23743180/feast-lanterns-pets-parade-through-pacific-grove

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Asia stocks flounder as China resists stimulus

MANILA, Philippines (AP) ? Asian stock markets floundered Friday as China pressed ahead with industrial restructuring that is partly to blame for slowing growth in the world's No. 2 economy.

Beijing ordered companies to close factories in 19 industries where overproduction has led to price-cutting wars, affirming its determination to push ahead with a painful makeover of the economy. That move followed weak manufacturing data on Wednesday.

Communist leaders are trying to reduce reliance on investment and trade. But a slowdown that pushed China's economic growth to a two-decade low of 7.5 percent last quarter had earlier prompted suggestions they might have to reverse course and stimulate the economy with more investment to reduce the threat of job losses and unrest.

Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average was down 3 percent at 14,129.98 as the yen rose against the dollar. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was little changed at 21,904.18. China's Shanghai Composite dropped 0.3 percent to 2,015.14.

Manuel Antonio Lisbona, from Manila's PNB Securities Inc., said the mixed trading could be attributed to continuing market reaction to feeble economic data from China and unexciting corporate earnings reports.

"It's a continuation of the sentiment for the past few days," he said. "The markets are still digesting the implications of the weak China data that came out earlier this week."

Elsewhere in the region, Australia's S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.1 percent to 5,042. Stocks in Singapore, Malaysia and New Zealand were slightly higher while benchmarks in the Philippines and Indonesia fell.

Andrew Sullivan, principal Asian trader for Kim Eng Securities, said the Japanese market has been affected by the strengthening of the yen overnight as people wait for comments from Prime Minister Abe about the next economic reform steps the government will take. He said the market is watching for signs of changes in agriculture, employment, the pharmaceutical industry and taxes.

Overall, trading has been quiet as a lot of people wait for next week's meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee in the U.S. for guidance on the tapering of U.S. government bond purchases, he said. Since late last year, the U.S. Federal Reserve has been buying $85 billion in Treasury and mortgage bonds a month ? a move that has kept long-term rates near record lows and supported economic recovery.

European stocks drifted lower Thursday amid mixed economic and corporate news. Not even an upbeat German business survey or news that the British economy has picked up steam could alter the prevailing selling mood.

U.S. economic figures failed to lift the mood on Wall Street much, with a bigger-than-expected 4.2 percent surge in durable goods orders in June downplayed because it was largely due to elevated aircraft sales. Meanwhile, a 7,000 increase in weekly U.S. jobless claims was more or less in line with expectations.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 13.37 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 15,555.61. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 4.31 points, or 0.3 percent, to 1,690.25.

The latest run of corporate earnings around the world also failed to excite. Though a number of companies like Facebook have impressed, investors have not shown much willingness to push markets higher on the back of corporate earnings. Among the latest releases, Facebook and General Motors impressed but German chemical company BASF disappointed.

In energy trading, benchmark crude was down 37 cents at $105.13 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 10 cents to close at $105.49 on Thursday.

The euro was little changed at $1.3280 from $1.3277 late Thursday. The dollar dropped to 98.79 yen from 99.15 yen.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/asia-stocks-flounder-china-resists-stimulus-045436180.html

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Central Florida sting nets 41 charged with sex crimes against children

July 25, 2013 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Forty-one people were arrested recently in what is being called the largest sting operation of its kind in Polk County, Florida. The weeklong undercover investigation involved a collaboration of multiple agencies to target individuals suspected of online sex crimes against children.

Detectives posed as minors online

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, 40 men and one woman were arrested in the sting after allegedly responding to Internet advertisements and chatting online with undercover detectives posing as minors. The accused individuals have been charged with a variety of criminal offenses, including:
- Transmitting harmful material to a minor.
- Attempted lewd battery.
- Traveling to meet a minor.

Several of those facing charges in connection to the sting had allegedly traveled to Polk County from nearby areas, including Orange County, Osceola County and Seminole County. Under Florida Law, it is a second-degree felony to travel any distance to engage in unlawful sexual conduct with a minor or any individual believed to be a minor. Convicted individuals can face harsh penalties, including up to 15 years in prison in addition to any other penalties they may be facing.

Tough on sex crimes against minors

The Polk County Sheriff's Department is well known throughout the region for its particularly aggressive approach to addressing sex crimes against children, and its intensity has continued to increase in recent years.

The PCSD was named Coordinator of the Central Florida Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in 2007, and since then the task force has grown to include dozens of representatives from state, local and federal agencies. The Lake County Sheriff's Department, which is also known for its tough stance on sexual offenses involving children, is also affiliated with the task force.

Enforcement efforts increase in recent years

In 2011 alone, according to a press release from the Polk County Sheriff's Department, the Central Florida ICAC Task Force conducted seven undercover operations and investigated 1,156 cases of suspected Internet crimes against children -- an increase of 37 percent from the year before. As a result of their investigations, in 2011 the task force arrested 306 people suspected of sexual offenses against children, including:
- Distribution of child pornography.
- Use of a computer to seduce a child.
- Traveling to meet a minor.
- Lewd battery.
- Use of a computer to solicit a minor to engage in sex.

Because the potential consequences can be severe and life-changing, it is important to get help right away from a skilled defense lawyer if you or a loved one is accused of a sexual offense in Florida. An attorney with broad knowledge of Florida's laws and judicial system can help ensure that you are treated fairly by investigators and prosecutors, and will fight tirelessly on your behalf to give you the best possible defense.

Article provided by Law Offices of Mark L. Horwitz, P.A.
Visit us at www.mlhorwitzlaw.com

---
Press release service and press release distribution provided by http://www.24-7pressrelease.com

Source: http://finance.bnet.com/bnet/news/read?GUID=24721236

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Dina Butcher, Bismarck, letter: Parade no place for 'obscene objects of bad taste'

BISMARCK ? To what lows will the extremist opponents of a woman?s right to make health decisions go?

Judging by the shaped plastic ?fetuses? that they threw to children watching the parade at the North Dakota State Fair, they have definitely reached an all-time low in bad taste. Even Rob Port , a tea-party pundit, took exception to this outrageousness in his ?Say Anything? blog.

How terrifying for those kids who picked up the items, expecting candy. Yuck!

I only wish that more of the lawmakers who?d voted for North Dakota?s new gaggle of unconstitutional bills had been marching in the parade so they could have been pelted by those obscene objects of bad taste. Again: Yuck!

Thankfully, various courts are ruling in clear language that these poorly reasoned actions by extremist legislators around the country are unconstitutional. But then, legislators knew that and did not care about how much taxpayers? money would be squandered to placate the hysterical voices of those who would deny infertile couples the joy of parenthood.

Tags: in the mail,?opinion,?updates

Source: http://www.grandforksherald.com/event/article/id/269132/

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Too Good to Be True

Does the red shirt mean she's ovulating? Not so fast ...

Photo by Ghenadie Rusu/Thinkstock

Are women three times more likely to wear red or pink when they are most fertile? No, probably not. But here's how hardworking researchers, prestigious scientific journals, and gullible journalists have been fooled into believing so.

The paper I'll be talking about appeared online this month in Psychological Science, the flagship journal of the Association for Psychological Science, which represents the serious, research-focused (as opposed to therapeutic) end of the psychology profession.*

"Women Are More Likely to Wear Red or Pink at Peak Fertility," by Alec Beall and Jessica Tracy, is based on two samples: a self-selected sample of 100 women from the Internet, and 24 undergraduates at the University of British Columbia. Here's the claim: "Building on evidence that men are sexually attracted to women wearing or surrounded by red, we tested whether women show a behavioral tendency toward wearing reddish clothing when at peak fertility. ... Women at high conception risk were more than three times more likely to wear a red or pink shirt than were women at low conception risk. ... Our results thus suggest that red and pink adornment in women is reliably associated with fertility and that female ovulation, long assumed to be hidden, is associated with a salient visual cue."

Pretty exciting, huh? It?s (literally) sexy as well as being statistically significant. And the difference is by a factor of three?that seems like a big deal.

Really, though, this paper provides essentially no evidence about the researchers' hypotheses, for three little reasons and one big reason.

First, some specific problems with this particular study:

1. Representativeness. What color clothing you wear has a lot to do with where you live and who you hang out with. Participants in an Internet survey and University of British Columbia students aren't particularly representative of much more than ... participants in an Internet survey and University of British Columbia students.

2. Measurement. The researchers asked people when their last menstrual period started. People might not remember. The interviewers ask for respondents' certainty, but respondents often overstate their certainty.

3. Bias. The article defines the "high-conception risk group" as women who had onset of menses six to 14 days earlier. I saw this and was suspicious. (I have personal experience with fertility schedules because my wife and I had a child in our mid-40s.) According to womenshealth.gov, the most fertile days are between days 10 and 17 of a 28-day menstrual cycle. Babycenter.com says days 12 to 17. I looked at Beall and Tracy's paper and followed some references, and it appears they followed a 2000 paper by Penton-Voak and Perrett, which points to a 1996 paper by Regan, which points to the 14^th day as the best estimate of ovulation. Regan claims that "the greatest amount of sexual desire was experienced" on Day 8. So my best guess (but it?s just a guess) is that Penton-Voak and Perrett misread Regan, and then Beall and Tracy just followed Penton-Voak and Perrett.

4. And now the clincher, the aspect of the study that allowed the researchers to find patterns where none likely exist: "researcher degrees of freedom." That's a term used by psychologist Uri Simonsohn to describe researchers? ability to look at many different aspects of their data in a search for statistical significance. This doesn't mean the researchers are dishonest; they can be sincerely looking for patterns in the data. But our brains are such that we can, and do, find patterns in noise. In this case, the researchers asked people "What color is the shirt you are currently wearing?" but they don't say what they did about respondents who were wearing a dress, nor do they say if they asked about any other clothing. They gave nine color options and then decided to lump red and pink into a single category. They could easily have chosen red or pink on its own, and of course they also could've chosen other possibilities (for example, lumping all dark colors together and looking for a negative effect). They report that other colors didn't yield statistically significant differences, but the point here is that these differences could have been notable. The researchers ran the comparisons and could have reported any other statistically significant outcome. They picked Days 0 to 5 and 15 to 28 as comparison points for the time of supposed peak fertility. There are lots of degrees of freedom in those choices. They excluded some respondents they could've included and included other people they could've excluded. They did another step of exclusion based on responses to a certainty question.

I just gave a lot of detail here, but in a sense the details are the point. The way these studies fool people is that they are reduced to sound bites: Fertile women are three times more likely to wear red! But when you look more closely, you see that there were many, many possible comparisons in the study that could have been reported, with each of these having a plausible-sounding scientific explanation had it appeared as statistically significant in the data.

The standard in research practice is to report a result as ?statistically significant? if its p-value is less than 0.05; that is, if there is less than a 1-in-20 chance that the observed pattern in the data would have occurred if there were really nothing going on in the population. But of course if you are running 20 or more comparisons (perhaps implicitly, via choices involved in including or excluding data, setting thresholds, and so on), it is not a surprise at all if some of them happen to reach this threshold.

The headline result, that women were three times as likely to be wearing red or pink during peak fertility, occurred in two different samples, which looks impressive. But it's not really impressive at all! Rather, it's exactly the sort of thing you should expect to see if you have a small data set and virtually unlimited freedom to play around with the data, and with the additional selection effect that you submit your results to the journal only if you see some catchy pattern.

In focusing on this (literally) colorful example, I don?t mean to be singling out this particular research team for following what are, unfortunately, standard practices in experimental research. Indeed, that this article was published in a leading journal is evidence that its statistical methods were considered acceptable. Statistics textbooks do warn against multiple comparisons, but there is a tendency for researchers to consider any given comparison alone without considering it as one of an ensemble of potentially relevant responses to a research question. And then it is natural for sympathetic journal editors to publish a striking result without getting hung up on what might be viewed as nitpicking technicalities. Each person in this research chain is making a decision that seems scientifically reasonable, but the result is a sort of machine for producing and publicizing random patterns.

There's a larger statistical point to be made here, which is that as long as studies are conducted as fishing expeditions, with a willingness to look hard for patterns and report any comparisons that happen to be statistically significant, we will see lots of dramatic claims based on data patterns that don't represent anything real in the general population. Again, this fishing can be done implicitly, without the researchers even realizing that they are making a series of choices enabling them to over-interpret patterns in their data.

Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/statistics_and_psychology_multiple_comparisons_give_spurious_results.html

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Egypt army chief calls for mass rallies in support of new regime

Egypt State TV via AP

Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi delivers a speech in Cairo on Wednesday.

By Ayman Mohyeldin and Charlene Gubash, NBC News

CAIRO ? The army chief who led the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi on Wednesday called for Egyptians to stage mass rallies later this week in support of the interim military-backed regime.

In a speech Wednesday, Gen. Abdel Fatah el-Sissi called on supporters to fill public squares across the country on Friday in support of a campaign by the army and police against "violence" and "terrorism."

His comments were a reference to the deadly clashes between opponents and supporters of Morsi, which have left dozens dead, and to a surge in suspected Islamic militancy in the Sinai Peninsula.

Hussein Malla / AP

Days of massive protests and a military ultimatum forced the country's first democratically elected president from office.

"I am asking the Egyptians next Friday, all of you come down. Why? To delegate me to face the violence and terrorism," he said in his speech at a graduation ceremony for naval and air defense forces.

"If violence is used, the army will fulfill whatever measures to combat violence and terrorism."

His comments came hours after two people were killed in Cairo when pro-Morsi demonstrators marched from a neighborhood to the location of the sit-in where protesters have been camped out since the president?s July 3 ouster.

Meanwhile, Egypt?s ministry of health said 19 people were injured when a bomb ? possibly a hand grenade ? was thrown at a police station in the city of Mansoura, capital of Dakhalia province.

The ministry said civilians were among the injured but it did not give a breakdown.

El-Sissi?s call was almost immediately condemned by a senior member of Morsi?s Muslim Brotherhood, Reuters reported.

?Your threat will not stop the millions from continuing to gather,? Essam El-Erian wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday, calling el-Sissi ?a coup leader who kills women, children and those at prayer.??

NBC News' Alastair Jamieson and Reuters contributed to this report.

Related:

?

This story was originally published on Wed Jul 24, 2013 7:24 AM EDT

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663309/s/2f183381/sc/20/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A70C240C196549110Eegypt0Earmy0Echief0Ecalls0Efor0Emass0Erallies0Ein0Esupport0Eof0Enew0Eregime0Dlite/story01.htm

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Nats promote A.J. Cole to Double-A - A.J. Cole (S) Washington Nationals

CollegeBasketballTalk

College hoops news and rumors
? CBT on NBCSports.com

Off the Bench

An irreverent, offbeat look at sports
? OTB on NBCSports.com

Source: http://www.rotoworld.com/content/playerpages/player_main.aspx?sport=MLB&id=6257

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Peace Light Memorial to be rededicated by Sons of Union Veterans? Camp 43

By Tom Mitchell

Published: Saturday, June 29, 2013, 2:16?a.m.
Updated 7 hours ago

KITTANNING ? Members of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, John T. Crawford Camp 43 will be doing their part to honor the memory of veterans who fought in the various battles of Gettysburg 150 years ago.

Richard Essenwein, state department commander and Camp 43 graves registration officer, said Camp 43 members will join with other Sons units at Gettysburg this weekend for the SUVCW's annual department encampment, a business session, and a re-dedication of the Peace Light Memorial. Various Sons groups will stay at the Eisenhower Inn and Conference Center.

?On Saturday we will be on the battlefield to rededicate the Peace Light Memorial,? Essenwein said. ?It was first dedicated by President Franklin Roosevelt 75 years ago as a memorial to all the brothers and sisters we lost in the Battle of Gettysburg, to a nation reunited, and to eternal peace. It will be a very somber and moving ceremony.?

Essenwein said that during such annual gatherings, the Sons make donations to charitable organizations in the towns in which they meet ? this year, in Gettysburg. One charity is selected by the state department's patriotic instructor and a second is selected by the ladies' auxiliary.

?Originally the charitable donations were presented at a campfire ceremony,? he said. ?But the parks department has regulations prohibiting fires on the battlefield, so the presentations will be made at the Conference Center. Camp 43 is proud and honored to play a role in this historic and solemn event.?

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Serbia gets green light to negotiate entry to European Union

Serbia: After decades of transformation, the former Yugoslav republic will begin negotiating to join the EU in January 2014. Once considered a pariah because of its role in the collapse of Yugoslavia, Serbia has made democratic reforms and captured fugitives wanted for war crimes.

By Adrian Croft and Justyna Pawlak,?Reuters / June 29, 2013

Kosovo Serbs gather to mark the anniversary of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo at Gazimestan, near the capital Pristina Friday. European Union leaders gave Serbia the go-ahead on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the bloc and also agreed to launch negotiations with Kosovo on a so-called association agreement on the path to eventual EU membership. The decision came after both countries reached a deal in April to improve relations.

Hazir Reka/Reuters

Enlarge

Serbia?won the green light on Friday to start negotiations by January on joining the European Union, capping a remarkable transformation in the prospects of the biggest former Yugoslav republic since the 1990s wars.

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The decision, taken at an EU summit, rewards?Belgrade?for an April deal to improve relations with its former province of?Kosovo, which broke away from?Serbia?in a 1998-99 guerrilla war.

EU leaders also agreed?Brussels?should launch negotiations with?Kosovo?on a so-called association agreement, which covers trade, economic and political relations and is a step on the path to eventual EU membership.

The leaders agreed talks would start in January 2014 "at the very latest" with?Serbia, which was long treated as a pariah because of its central role in the wars that tore through the?Balkans?after the 1991 collapse of?Yugoslavia.

"We are at a historic moment for the?Balkans?and for?Europe?as a whole,"?European Council?President?Herman Van Rompuy?told a news conference, noting that the decisions on?Serbia?and?Kosovo?came as?Croatia?prepares to join the?European Union?on Monday.

"These ... decisions are an immediate result of the courageous agreement?Belgrade?and?Pristina?reached last April," said Van Rompuy, who will travel to both capitals on Monday.

Serbia?and?Kosovo?have been at odds since?Kosovo?seceded in 2008 with Western backing. After months of EU-brokered talks, the two sides reached an agreement in April aimed at ending the virtual ethnic partition of?Kosovo?between its ethnic Albanian majority and a pocket of some 50,000 Serbs in the north.

The agreement still has to be fully implemented, and EU governments will assess progress before giving a final, formal go-ahead to talks later this year.

The EU negotiation process should help drive reforms in?Serbia, the largest country to emerge from the former?Yugoslavia, luring investors to its ailing economy.

Prime Minister?Ivica Dacic, leader of the co-ruling Socialists and ex-spokesman for late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic, said his government had worked hard for the EU bid.

"The date for (EU) accession talks is the first step of this great journey we are about to undertake," Dacic said in a live broadcast of a cabinet session.

Defence Minister?Aleksandar Vucic, head of the conservative Serbian Progressive Party, said the Balkan state must do more to consummate reforms. "This is the turning point in our modern history.?Serbia?has demonstrated that no one can stop its way forward," Vucic told ministers.

In?Belgrade?about 2,000 hardline nationalists rallied peacefully against EU accession and demanded the resignation of the government.

CURRENCY BUOYED

The Serbian dinar swung upwards to 113.5 to the euro after the EU agreement from a low of 114.05 earlier in the day, currency traders in?Belgrade?said.

Mladen Dodig, head of research at Erste Bank in?Serbia, said the date for EU membership talks would be a major support for reforms and improvement in the business climate, and would boost investor confidence and foreign investment.

"This will have a stabilising effect for financial markets and the foreign currency market, but I also expect structural reforms," said?Miladin Kovacevic, the deputy head of the Serb Statistics Office.

NATO Secretary-General?Anders Fogh Rasmussen?welcomed the EU's decision and said KFOR, the NATO-ledKosovo?peacekeeping force, would "continue to play its role by ensuring a safe and secure environment for all people in?Kosovo". KFOR, in?Kosovo?since June 1999, comprises 5,000 troops from 31 countries.

Dacic said this week he hoped?Serbia?could wrap up membership talks in 4-5 years, although the widely held view in?Brussels?is that it is unlikely to be admitted before 2020.

In the past few years,?Serbia?has made notable strides towards the EU thanks to progress on democratic reforms and the capture of fugitives wanted for crimes during the Yugoslav wars.

Serbs consider?Kosovo?the fount of their nation and Orthodox Christian faith, but?Belgrade?lost control over the territory in 1999 when NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians in a counter-insurgency campaign by Milosevic's security forces.

Kosovo?is now recognised by 100 nations, including the?United States?and 22 of the EU's 27 members.

Of?Serbia's fellow ex-Yugoslav republics,?Slovenia?joined the EU in 2004,?Croatia?follows on Monday and tinyMontenegro?began membership talks last year.?Macedonia?is a candidate, while Bosnia has yet to apply.

($1 = 0.7691 euros) (Additional reporting by Aleksandar Vasovic in?Belgrade?and Ethan Bilby in?Brussels; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/world/~3/Wz_lHHaqzbQ/Serbia-gets-green-light-to-negotiate-entry-to-European-Union

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House immigration bill?s co-author says debate could get ?ugly?

Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart. (AP)

A co-author of a bipartisan House immigration proposal is predicting a tough road ahead for the legislation, but he said on Friday that ultimately a compromise will "prevail."

Florida Republican Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said the process of negotiating a comprehensive immigration bill in the House could get "ugly" before a final bill passes. Diaz-Balart is part of the House's "Gang of Seven," a bipartisan working group that plans to unveil a version of an immigration overhaul they think can pass in the lower chamber.

?You're going to see ups and downs. You're going to see ugly things. You're going to see things that we don't like," Diaz-Balart said in an interview on Bloomberg's "Political Capital with Al Hunt" program. "Ultimately, however, I'm optimistic that the vast majority of the members in the House and the Senate, and the country, more importantly, recognize that we have a system that doesn't work and ultimately, when push comes to shove, in order to pass legislation, I think it's going to have to be something similar to what we've been working on. Ultimately, I think what will prevail is the desire to fix a system that everybody recognizes is broken.?

Members of the House immigration working group have declined to offer details about their bill, but Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat who is part of the closed-door discussions, said on Friday that the group is "at the end of the process" and will introduce a proposal soon.

The Senate on Thursday passed its own version of an immigration bill, which combines enhanced border security measures with a pathway to legality for immigrants currently living in the United States illegally. House Republican leaders have said they do not plan to hold a vote on the Senate legislation. In an interview with Yahoo News on Thursday, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said the House will move "deliberately" on immigration.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/news/house-immigration-bill-co-author-says-debate-could-193315685.html

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BlackBerry back in the red after posting surprise Q1 loss

Just as BlackBerry surprised investors last quarter by posting a profit, so too has it surprised this quarter by posting a loss. The company on Friday reported a fiscal first-quarter loss of $0.13 per share, missing expectations that it would post a profit of $0.06 per share. The company recorded revenues of $3.1 billion, which also missed the consensus projection of $3.36 billion. The company shipped a total of 6.8 million smartphones in the quarter, and it did not state how many of those were BlackBerry 10 devices.?BlackBerry shares plummeted more than 17% during Friday?s pre-market session following the company?s earnings report. BlackBerry?s full press release follows below.

BlackBerry Reports First Quarter Fiscal 2014 Results

WATERLOO, ONTARIO?(Marketwired ? June 28, 2013) ? Research In Motion Limited (doing business as BlackBerry?) (NASDAQ:BBRY)(TSX:BB), a world leader in the mobile communications market, today reported first quarter results for the three months ended June 1, 2013 (all figures in U.S. dollars and U.S. GAAP, except where otherwise indicated).

[More from BGR: Sony won?t abandon the PlayStation 3 after the PlayStation 4 launches]

Q1 Highlights:

• Revenue $3.1 billion, up 15% sequentially from the previous quarter
• North America revenue grows sequentially 30%, APAC revenue grows 35%, EMEA revenue grows 9%
• LATAM revenue declines 6% as Venezuela foreign currency restrictions negatively impact $72 million of service revenue recognition in the first quarter; company gross margins negatively impacted by 2%
• Shipments of 6.8 million smartphones, up 13% sequentially from the previous quarter
• GAAP loss from continuing operations of $84 million, or $0.16 per share
• Adjusted loss from continuing operations of $67 million, or $0.13 per share
• Venezuela foreign currency restrictions impact reported GAAP earnings and adjusted earnings by approximately $0.10 per share; excluding such impact, adjusted earnings in-line with previously provided outlook of approaching breakeven financial results
• Cash flow from operations of $630 million
• Cash and investments balance of $3.1 billion

Q1 Results

Revenue for the first quarter of fiscal 2014 was $3.1 billion, up 15% from $2.7 billion in the previous quarter and up 9% from $2.8 billion in the same quarter of fiscal 2013. The revenue breakdown for the quarter was approximately 71% for hardware, 26% for service and 3% for software and other revenue. During the quarter, the Company shipped 6.8 million BlackBerry smartphones and approximately 100,000 BlackBerry PlayBook tablets.

GAAP loss from continuing operations for the quarter was $84 million, or $0.16 per share diluted, compared with a GAAP income from continuing operations of $94 million, or diluted earnings per share of $0.18, in the prior quarter and GAAP loss from continuing operations of $510 million, or $0.97 per share diluted, in the same quarter last year.

Adjusted loss from continuing operations for the first quarter was $67 million, or $0.13 per share diluted. Adjusted loss from continuing operations and adjusted diluted loss per share exclude the impact of pre-tax charges of $26 million ($17 million on an after tax basis) related to the Cost Optimization and Resource Efficiency (?CORE?) program. This impact on GAAP loss from continuing operations and diluted loss per share from continuing operations are summarized in the table below.

The total of cash, cash equivalents, short-term and long-term investments was $3.1 billion as of June 1, 2013, compared to $2.9 billion at the end of the previous quarter, an increase of approximately $200 million from the prior quarter. Cash flow from operations in the first quarter was approximately $630 million. Uses of cash included intangible asset additions of approximately $335 million and capital expenditures of approximately $83 million.

?During the first quarter, we continued to focus our efforts on the global roll out of the BlackBerry 10 platform,? said Thorsten Heins, President and CEO of BlackBerry. ?We are still in the early stages of this launch, but already, the BlackBerry 10 platform and BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 are proving themselves to customers to be very secure, flexible and dynamic mobile computing solutions. Over the next three quarters, we will be increasing our investments to support the roll out of new products and services, and to demonstrate that BlackBerry has established itself as a leading and vibrant player in next generation mobile computing solutions for both consumer and enterprise customers.?

Outlook

The smartphone market remains highly competitive, making it difficult to estimate units, revenue and levels of profitability. Throughout the remainder of fiscal 2014, the Company will invest in BlackBerry 10 smartphone launches, and the roll out of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, to continue to establish the new BlackBerry 10 platform in the marketplace. The Company will also invest resources to evolve BlackBerry Messenger into a leading cross platform mobile social messaging application, and launch other revenue initiatives associated with new services and emerging mobile computing opportunities. Based on the competitive market dynamics and these investments, the company anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter. The company will also continue to implement the cost savings and process-improving initiatives it started last year, in order to drive greater efficiency throughout the company, and redirect capital from these savings to areas of investment that will drive future revenue growth.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-back-red-posting-surprise-q1-loss-111711477.html

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At Pride Parade, joy expected to overshadow anger

It would be hard to darken Chicago's Pride Parade ? the always colorful celebration of the city's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community ? but many expected this year's festivities to carry a whiff of anger.

There was lingering frustration with the state legislature after a same-sex marriage bill did not come up for a vote, and that brought talk of barring politicians from the parade.

But then the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark ruling striking down the Defense of Marriage Act inspired a surge of joy among the LGBT community, one that parade organizers expect to see reflected when tens of thousands flock to the streets of Lakeview on Sunday.

"I think everyone was buoyed up by the decision," said Richard Pfeiffer, coordinator of the Pride Parade, now in its 44th year. "I've been in a long-term relationship, and it certainly buoyed us up. I was in tears because I realized how it affected my life and how it affected so many other people's lives across the country."

John Knight, an attorney and director of the LGBT and AIDS Project at the American Civil Liberties Union of Chicago, agreed that the high court's ruling ? which assured the federal government will recognize same-sex marriages ? brought a much-needed dose of optimism.

"It was incredibly frustrating to be that close and to see that marriage bill fail," Knight said. "But I think the mental uplift of seeing the last federal law that explicitly discriminated against gay people taken off the books gives us a great deal of hope that it's just clearly inevitable marriage is going to be real in Illinois ? and very soon."

Opponents of same-sex marriage disagree about the impact that the Supreme Court's ruling will have on Illinois legislators, saying these lawmakers' votes generally reflect the opinions of people in their districts, not the opinion of the high court. Also, many opponents believe that seeing DOMA struck down will motivate those who believe marriage should be defined only as the union of a man and a woman.

Sunday's parade will feature more than 200 entrants, an array of floats, marchers from various organizations, bands and, of course, politicians.

"The parade is always both social and political," Pfeiffer said. "I think it will be a little more political this year. More marchers and people carrying signs. You'll see a lot of signage from people urging lawmakers to pass the (same-sex marriage) bill, putting pressure on legislators to get the bill going and get Illinois to catch up with the 13 other states that allow same-sex marriage."

While the Supreme Court's decision won't have much direct impact on Illinois couples who have entered into civil unions, Knight said the ruling provides additional fodder for a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and gay rights group Lambda Legal.

The suit claims that not issuing marriage licenses to gay and lesbian couples violates the equal protection and due process clauses of the Illinois Constitution.

"With DOMA gone, we now have the additional concrete injury of Illinois couples being denied federal benefits (because they can't marry)," Knight said. "There's also the court's very clear statements about the injury and the stigmatization that comes with providing this sort of second-class status through civil unions."

He added that, on the legislative front, it's key for LGBT advocates to keep pushing for marriage rights, something that will undoubtedly happen Sunday in a celebration more upbeat than most expected.

rhuppke@tribune.com

Source: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-met-pride-parade-0630-20130630,0,3664062.story?track=rss

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Put Up Your Nukes: Researchers Devise "Blind" Verification System for Nuclear Arms Treaty

In hopes of encouraging a reduction in nuclear stockpiles, researchers have proposed a new method to verify nuclear disarmament without revealing classified information

By Susan Matthews

The B61 nuclear gravity bomb (shown here) is assembled and disassembled at the Pantex Plant in Texas. Image: Department of Defense

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  We?ve long understood black holes to be the points at which the universe as we know it comes to an end. Often billions of times more massive than the Sun, they...

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Pres. Barack Obama has proposed that both the U.S. and Russia continue to deplete their nuclear weapons reserves, encouraging a one-third reduction to arsenal sizes. His June 19 proposal, which did not yet specify a time line for destruction of the weapons reduction, expands on the 2010 New START Treaty between Russia and the U.S., which calls for each country to possess no more than 1,550 warheads by 2018.

Efforts to cut stockpiles and thus decrease the risk of accidental nuclear detonations and launches have so far been hampered by risks posed by the verification process. Verification regimes require the exchange of classified information, which could encourage nuclear proliferation if it ended up in the wrong hands. So, a team of scientists from Princeton University has outlined a new verification system that would release no classified details about the weapons.

How to confirm destruction without risking proliferation has been an issue for several years, says Robert Goldston, a physicist at Princeton and co-principle investigator on the project. To prevent the release of classified information, the current method for checking compliance counts delivery systems for warheads, not the warheads themselves. Certain proposed systems make classified measurements and then feed the information directly to a computing system that records only the final verdict. But it is easier for a host country to fake the process or for others to snoop on the system when it relies on a computer, says Princeton physicist Alexander Glaser, the project?s other principal investigator. So the researchers came up with a ?zero-knowledge? verification system in which the inspector learns nothing classified.

Image: Jen Christiansen and Susan Matthews

The inspector would visit the host country, which would have a device called a neutron beamer ready. Passing neutrons through a warhead creates a signature: nuclear material absorbs some neutrons, and fission deflects some neutrons, scattering them. The number of neutrons that reaches a detector reveals if the warhead is nuclear. Unfortunately, this signature number is classified because physicists could work backward from it to understand both what materials are being used and how fission is occurring, essentially deconstructing the bomb?s contents.

The process of concealing the classified signature number borrows from a simple principle: Imagine having to confirm two bags of blue marbles are equal without knowing the number of marbles in them. Have someone add a set number of red marbles to both bags without telling you how many. Then, with your eyes closed count the number of marbles in each bag. If the totals are equal, you will know that the bags started off with identical numbers of blue marbles. In the new nuclear verification process, before inspection the host country and the inspector would agree on a number, termed N-max, which would confirm a warhead is nuclear. N-max is the sum of the signature neutrons (blue marbles) and an unknown number of preloaded bubbles that indicate neutrons (red marbles) that will be added to each count to disguise the true number in the signature. The process is first tested on a confirmed nuclear weapon, so that all subsequent warheads that reach N-max can be determined to be nuclear as well.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/~r/ScientificAmerican-News/~3/rLq8hNuT4C8/article.cfm

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Top officer rejects comparison of U.S., Chinese cyber snooping

By David Alexander

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer on Thursday dismissed comparisons of Chinese and American snooping in cyber space, saying all countries gathered intelligence on their potential adversaries but Beijing's problematic "niche" was intellectual property theft.

Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said the U.S. government was close to completing an update of its rules of engagement in cyber space and that Americans needed to understand a cyber attack could trigger a real-world military response.

"All nations on the face of the planet always conduct intelligence operations in all domains," Dempsey told an audience at the Brookings Institution think-tank after he was asked about intelligence leaks showing the National Security Agency targeted Chinese institutions for cyber spying.

He rejected suggestions that the leaks by NSA contractor Edward Snowden demonstrated hypocrisy on the part of the United States, which has been sharply critical of Chinese hacking of U.S. government and commercial computer networks.

"China's particular niche in cyber has been theft and intellectual property," Dempsey said. "I've had some conversations about that with them. Their view is that there are no rules of the road in cyber, there's nothing, there's no laws that they are breaking, there's no standards of behavior."

That disagreement is a point of friction in ties between the two countries and was discussed earlier this month by Presidents Barack Obama and Xi Jinping at a summit in California.

Dempsey said the two countries would have their first formal discussions next week to try to establish rules for conduct in cyber space "so we don't have these friction points."

STRONG ACCUSATIONS

The United States has become increasingly vocal about Chinese hacking, which officials say has cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars in lost intellectual property and is helping U.S. adversaries speed development of high-tech weapons systems.

The Pentagon's annual report on China in April for the first time directly accused the Beijing government and military of being behind the hacking.

Dempsey, in his remarks on cyber security at Brookings, said the government could not completely prevent insiders like Snowden from disclosing secrets if they were willing to break the law, but he said it could take steps to mitigate the risk.

He said a shift to so-called "cloud" or "thin client" computing could boost security and reduce the number of systems administrators needing with broad access. Deeper background checks and greater oversight also could be imposed, he said.

Snowden was a systems administrator working for Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii on an NSA contract when he disclosed details of secret U.S. surveillance programs.

"I think systems administrators is the right place to begin to clean this up ... because they have such ubiquitous access, and that's how he ended up doing what he did," Dempsey said.

Dempsey said the U.S. government is close to completing an update of its rules of engagement for dealing with a cyber attack, describing them as a "playbook" that outlines the roles and responsibilities of the different agencies involved.

He cautioned against assuming a cyber attack that caused significant damage would automatically be met with a cyber response of similar scope and destructiveness.

"I think what the president ... would insist upon, actually, is that he have the options and the freedom of movement to decide what kind of response we would employ," Dempsey said.

"That's why I say I don't want to have necessarily a narrow conversation about what constitutes war in cyber, because the response could actually be in one of the other traditional domains" of air, sea, space or land, he said.

(Reporting By David Alexander; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-officer-rejects-comparison-u-chinese-cyber-snooping-202236098.html

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Stocks gain on encouraging news on the US economy

FILE - In this Tuesday, May 28, 2013, file photo, trader William McInerney works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Global stock markets were mostly higher Thursday June 27, 2013 after the U.S. said quarterly growth may be weaker than expected, raising investors' hopes that the Federal Reserve would delay plans to wind down its stimulus program. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street after investors got a double dose of good news about the U.S. economy.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 114 points, or 0.8 percent, to close at 15,024 Thursday. It was the third straight triple-digit gain for the Dow. The Dow is still down slightly for the month.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up nine points, or 0.6 percent, at 1,613.

The Nasdaq rose 25 points, or 0.8 percent, to 3,401.

Consumer spending rose last month as incomes increased. Claims for unemployment benefits fell last week.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.48 percent.

Five stocks rose for every one that fell on the New York Stock Exchange. Volume was lighter than average, 3.3 billion shares.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/stocks-gain-encouraging-news-us-economy-201717103.html

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High court gay marriage decisions due Wednesday

WASHINGTON (AP) ? The Supreme Court is meeting to deliver opinions in two cases that could dramatically alter the rights of gay people across the United States.

The justices are expected to decide their first-ever cases about gay marriage Wednesday in their last session before the court's summer break. Hours before the court was to issue its rulings, crowds began lining up outside the Supreme Court building in hopes of getting a seat inside the courtroom.

The issues before the court are California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which denies legally married gay Americans a range of tax, health and pension benefits otherwise available to married couples.

The broadest possible ruling would give gay Americans the same constitutional right to marry as heterosexuals. But several narrower paths also are available, including technical legal outcomes in which the court could end up saying very little about same-sex marriage.

If the court overturns California's Proposition 8 or allows lower court rulings that struck down the ban to stand, it will take about a month for same-sex weddings to resume for the first time since 2008, San Francisco officials have said.

The high court rulings are arriving amid rapid change regarding gay marriage. The number of states permitting same-sex partners to wed has doubled from six to 12 in less than a year, with voter approval in three states in November, followed by legislative endorsement in three others in the spring.

At the same time, an effort to legalize gay marriage in Illinois stalled before the state's legislative session ended last month. And 30 states have same-sex marriage bans enshrined in their constitutions.

Among those waiting outside for the opportunity to hear the justices read their opinions was Ian Holloway, 34, of Los Angeles, who said he and his partner were optimistic the court would strike down his state's Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage in his state.

"We have rings ready. We're ready to go as soon as the decision comes down," he said. Others outside the court carried signs reading "2 moms make a right" and "I Do' Support Marriage Equality."

While most spectators appeared to be in favor of gay marriage, there were those against. Larry Cirignano, 57, said he had driven four hours from his home in Far Hills, N.J., when he heard Wednesday would be decision day. He carried a sign that read "M=" followed by symbols for man and woman.

Massachusetts was the first state to allow same-sex couples to marry, in 2004. Same-sex marriage also is legal, or soon will be, in Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington.

Roughly 18,000 same-sex couples got married in California in less than five months in 2008, after the California Supreme Court struck down a state code provision prohibiting gay unions.

California voters approved Proposition 8 in November of that year, writing the ban into the state's constitution.

Two same-sex couples challenged the provision as unconstitutional and federal courts in California agreed.

The federal marriage law, known by its acronym DOMA, defines marriage as between a man and a woman for the purpose of deciding who can receive a range of federal benefits. Another provision not being challenged for the time being allows states to withhold recognition of same-sex marriages from other states.

DOMA easily passed Congress and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996, the year of his re-election.

Several federal district and appeals courts struck down the provision. In 2011, the Obama administration abandoned its defense of the law but continued to enforce it. House Republicans are now defending DOMA in the courts. President Barack Obama subsequently endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

The justices chose for their review the case of 83-year-old Edith Windsor of New York, who sued to challenge a $363,000 federal estate tax bill after her partner of 44 years died in 2009.

Windsor, who goes by Edie, married Thea Spyer in 2007 after doctors told them Spyer would not live much longer. She suffered from multiple sclerosis for many years. Spyer left everything she had to Windsor.

Windsor would have paid nothing in inheritance taxes if she had been married to a man.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/high-court-gay-marriage-decisions-due-wednesday-071439132.html

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OWN to air 'All My Children,' 'One Life to Live'

In this undated promotional photo released by The Online Network, the cast of "One Life To Live" is shown. The Oprah Winfrey Network is hosting a summer fling for soap fans as the network has acquired the first 40 episodes of The OnLine Network?s reprisal of the popular daytime dramas ?All My Children? and ?One Life to Live? for a 10-week limited engagement. Half-hour episodes of each show will air Monday through Thursday beginning Monday, July 15 with "All My Children" at 1 p.m. EST and "One Life to Live" at 3 p.m. EST. (AP Photo/The Online Network)

NEW YORK (AP) ? "All My Children" and "One Life to Live" are returning to TV.

Oprah Winfrey's OWN network says it's acquired the first 40 episodes of the daytime dramas' revival on The Online Network. They'll air Monday through Thursday for a 10-week period beginning July 15.

In a statement Wednesday, OWN President Erik Logan said: "These shows have proven to be very popular with a significant, loyal fan base."

When the two soaps were canceled by ABC in 2011, fans begged Winfrey to give them a second life on OWN.

She responded by releasing a video message on her website saying she couldn't save the shows because "there just are not enough people who are home in the daytime to watch them."

___

Online:

http://www.theonlinenetwork.com

http://www.oprah.com/own

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/own-air-children-one-life-live-185211283.html

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Long layover: Ecuador says it could take two months to decide on Snowden's asylum

Russian officials say NSA leaker Edward Snowden is still in a Moscow airport.

By Whitney Eulich,?Staff writer / June 27, 2013

People wait before boarding an Aeroflot Airbus A330 plane heading to the Cuban capital Havana at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport June 27, 2013.

Alexander Demianchuk/REUTERS

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? A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Skip to next paragraph Whitney Eulich

Latin America Editor

Whitney Eulich is the Monitor's Latin America editor, overseeing regional coverage for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She also curates the Latin America Monitor Blog.

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For the fifth straight day former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden remains ?in transit? in a Moscow airport, officials there say, while Ecuador announced his political asylum bid could take up to two months to approve.

"If he goes to the [Ecuadorean] embassy, we will make a decision," Ecuador?s foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, said yesterday. He acknowledged the parallel with WikiLeak?s founder Julian Assange who has been holed up in the South American country?s embassy in London for over a year.

"It took us two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner than that," Mr. Patino said.

Mr. Snowden is wanted by the US government after he leaked top secret information on US surveillance programs to The Guardian, The Washington Post, and a paper based in Hong Kong where he first sought refuge. The US revoked his passport, but he managed to flee Hong Kong Sunday. Reuters reports that Ecuador denies granting Snowden special travel documents.

Snowden was expected to leave Russia on Monday on a flight to Cuba, however he did not board the plane. The Los Angeles Times writes that some speculate Snowden has already left the Moscow airport and is slowly making his way toward Ecuador?s Embassy there.

Ecuador has come under fire for offering Snowden asylum, to which embassy official Efra?n Baus told the White House, "Mr. Edward Snowden has requested political asylum in Ecuador ... this situation is not being provoked by Ecuador."

There have been calls in the US Congress to cut off aid to Ecuador.

"The fact is is that we're giving millions of millions of dollars to this country right now who may potentially be harboring somebody who could have been responsible for one of the most massive intelligence leaks in the history of both private contracting and our espionage world," national security analyst Aaron Cohen told Fox News in reference to Ecuador. "We've had trouble with these guys for a long time."?

Ecuador has received $144.4 million in US aid over the past five years, Fox reports.

Some speculate Ecuador is taking its time considering the asylum application in order to come across as seriously weighing the legal implications of Snowden?s asylum request; others point to the windfall of media attention Ecuador garners while the decision is pending.

Mr. Baus stated that Snowden?s application "will be reviewed responsibly, as are the many other asylum applications that Ecuador receives each year.? Ecuador does have an extradition agreement with the United States, but makes exceptions for political crimes, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

"This legal process takes human rights obligations into consideration," Baus said, inviting the US to submit its position on Snowden in writing so that it could be taken into consideration during the decision process.

Steve Striffler, a Latin America specialist at the University of New Orleans, wrote on CNN that Ecuador?s President Rafael Correa isn?t considering Snowden?s asylum request just to gain political points at home. He notes that after offering Mr. Assange asylum President Correa actually fueled opposition party criticism.

Politicians are always looking to score political points, and Correa has certainly had his moments. But when Correa offered Wikileaks journalist Julian Assange asylum in 2012, he had relatively little to gain politically beyond raising his international profile?.

Similarly, Correa will score relatively few political points by embracing Snowden in 2013. Correa's stance is best seen as a principled one. In broad terms, Correa's openness to Assange and Snowden, as well as his decision to close a U.S. military base in Ecuador, is part of an effort to deepen Ecuadorian sovereignty while strengthening Latin America's ability to limit the influence of the United States in the region.

This is perfectly within the rights of an independent nation, even one that has historically followed the U.S. lead.

Many have criticized Ecuador for the apparent irony in its support of freedom of information when it comes to individuals like Assange and Snowden sharing top-secret information, but deterring expression at home. The country recently passed a media law that contains "questionable or dangerous provisions" to clamp down on criticism by the press according to Reporters without Borders. Correa has called reporters there "rabid dogs" and "assassins with ink," according to the Monitor.

There could be some immediate political and economic consequences for Ecuador if it does indeed grant Snowden asylum, as well. The renewal of preferential treatment for trading certain products including roses and tuna is on the table, reports The New York Times.

Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue told the Times, ?The risks are enormous? It would bring the United States down very hard on him.?

Others, however, say preferential treatment was already at risk of not being renewed. ?The US Congress was already unlikely to renew trade preferences for Ecuador that are set to expire this summer,? according to a second Monitor story.

?The US doesn?t have too many measures it can utilize, other than to criticize,? says Jonas Wolff, a senior research fellow at the Frankfurt-based Peace Research Institute.

The Guardian?s Stephen Kinzer says Ecuador is a good choice for Snowden because even if Ecuador?s government drastically changes in coming years, the region as a whole has moved away from falling in line behind US policy.

Because President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela was the most flamboyant of these defiant leaders, some outsiders may have expected that following his death, the region would return to its traditional state of submission. In fact, not just a handful of leaders but huge populations in Latin America have decided that they wish for more independence from Washington.

This is vital for Snowden because it reduces the chances that a sudden change of government could mean his extradition. If he can make it to Latin America, he will never lack for friends or supporters.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/CLHWNQ3VFXw/Long-layover-Ecuador-says-it-could-take-two-months-to-decide-on-Snowden-s-asylum

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Snowden mystery deepens: All eyes on airport

Transit passengers eat at a cafe with a TV screen with a news program showing a report on Edward Snowden, in the background, at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Transit passengers eat at a cafe with a TV screen with a news program showing a report on Edward Snowden, in the background, at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Transit passengers check into a hotel at the transit zone in Sheremetyevo,airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

An airport worker passes a TV screen with a news program showing a report on Edward Snowden at Sheremetyevo,airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

A transit passenger takes a photo with a mobile phone in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo,airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

Transit passengers rest in the transit zone at Sheremetyevo,airport in Moscow Wednesday, June 26, 2013. Russia?s President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden has remained in Sheremetyevo?s transit zone, but media that descended on the airport in the search for him couldn?t locate him there.(AP Photo/Sergei Grits)

MOSCOW (AP) ? Moscow's main airport swarmed with journalists from around the globe Wednesday, but the man they were looking for ? National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden ? was nowhere to be seen. The mystery of his whereabouts only deepened a day after President Vladimir Putin said that Snowden was in the transit area of Sheremetyevo Airport.

An Associated Press reporter entered the area Wednesday by flying in from Kiev, Ukraine, and found ordinary scenes of duty free shopping, snoozing travelers and tourists sipping coffee, but no trace of America's most famous fugitive. If Putin's statement is true, it means that Snowden has effectively lived a life of airport limbo since his weekend flight from Hong Kong, especially with his American passport now revoked by U.S. authorities.

Adding to the uncertainty, Ecuador's foreign minister said Wednesday it could take months to decide whether to grant asylum to Snowden and that the Latin American nation would take into consideration its relations with the U.S. when doing so. Speaking during a visit to Malaysia's main city, Kuala Lumpur, Ricardo Patino compared Snowden's case to that of Julian Assange, the founder of anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, who has been given asylum in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

"It took us two months to make a decision in the case of Assange, so do not expect us to make a decision sooner this time," Patino told reporters.

Snowden, who is charged with violating American espionage laws, fled Hong Kong over the weekend and flew to Russia. He booked a seat on a Havana-bound flight Monday en route to Venezuela, but didn't board the plane. His ultimate destination was believed to be Ecuador.

Ecuador's President Rafael Correa shot back at critics on Wednesday, taking special aim at a Washington Post editorial that described him as "the autocratic leader of tiny, impoverished Ecuador" and accused him of a double standard for considering asylum for Snowden while stifling critics at home.

"The shamelessness of the century: Washington Post accuses Ecuador of double standard," Correa said on his Twitter page.

As a contractor for the NSA, Snowden gained access to documents that he gave to the Post and the Guardian to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.

Correa complained that the international press "has managed to focus attention on Snowden and on those 'wicked' countries that 'aid' him, making us forget the terrible things against the U.S. people and the whole world that he denounced."

The airport zone where Snowden is purportedly staying serves both connecting passengers traveling via Moscow to onward destinations and passengers departing from Moscow who have passed border and security checks.

The huge area unites three terminals: the modern, recently built D and E, and the older, less comfortable F, which dates to the Soviet era. The transit and departure area is essentially a long corridor, with boarding gates on one side and gleaming duty free shops, luxury clothing boutiques and souvenir stores selling Russian Matryoshka dolls on the other. About a dozen restaurants owned by local and foreign chains serve various tastes.

Hundreds of Russian and foreign tourists awaited flights here, some stretched out on rows of gray chairs, others sipping hot drinks at coffee shops or looking out through giant windows as silver-blue Aeroflot planes land and take off.

Business ran as usual at the terminals on Wednesday morning. An Asian girl, about 10 years old, slept peacefully on her father's lap. A middle-aged mother and her teenage daughter tried out perfume samples at a duty free store, while nearby a woman in a green dress picked out a pair of designer sunglasses. A pilot was buying lunch at Burger King.

Putin insisted Tuesday that Snowden has stayed in the transit zone without passing through Russian immigration and is free to travel wherever he likes. But the U.S. move to annul Snowden's passport may have severely complicated his travel plans. Exiting the transit area would either require boarding a plane or passing through border control. Both require a valid passport or other documentation.

Hordes of journalists armed with laptops and photo and video cameras have camped in and around the airport, looking for Snowden or anyone who may have seen or talked to him. But after talking to passengers, airport personnel, waiters and shop clerks, the press corps has discovered no sign of the leaker.

Russian news agencies, citing unidentified sources, reported that Snowden was staying at a hotel in the transit terminal, but he was not seen at the zone's only hotel, called Air Express. It offers several dozen capsule-style spaces that passengers can rent for a few hours to catch some sleep. Hotel staff refused to say whether Snowden was staying there or had stayed there in the past.

"We only saw lots of journalists, that's for sure," said Maxim, a waiter at the Shokoladnitsa diner not far from Air Express. He declined to give his last name because he wasn't allowed to talk to reporters.

The departure and transit area is huge and has dozens of small rooms, some labeled "authorized personnel only," where someone could potentially seek refuge with support from airport staff or security personnel. And security forces or police patrolling the area can easily whisk a person out of sight through back doors or corridors.

There are also a few VIP lounge areas, accessible to business-class passengers or people willing to pay some $20 per hour. Snowden was not seen in those areas.

Sheremetyevo's press service declined to comment on Snowden's whereabouts. A policeman at the airport laughed off a question from an AP reporter about where he might be. "Journalists have searched this place for three days and have found nothing. Was he ever here in the first place?" the policeman asked. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Hong Kong officials said they allowed Snowden to leave for Moscow because the U.S. government got his middle name wrong in documents it submitted seeking his arrest. Hong Kong immigration records listed Snowden's middle name as Joseph, but the U.S. government used the name James in some documents and referred to him only as Edward J. Snowden in others, Justice Secretary Rimsky Yuen said. The U.S. also did not provide his passport number and did not respond to requests for clarification, Yuen said.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks gave a terse update on Snowden earlier on Wednesday, saying in a statement posted to Twitter that he was "well."

WikiLeaks says that one of its staffers, Sarah Harrison, was traveling with Snowden, but the statement gave no indication if the update came from her, from Snowden, or from some other source. WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson did not immediately return a call and a text seeking further comment.

In a conference call with reporters on Monday, Assange said he was limited in what he could say about Snowden due to security concerns. He denied reports that Snowden was spending his time at the airport being debriefed by Russian intelligence officers.

_____

Yoong reported from Kuala Lumpur. Lynn Berry in Moscow and Raphael Satter in London contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-06-26-NSA-Surveillance/id-d0f1ecbdb3944b33a4e38474c6458f55

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