Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GearFactor/~3/5Yh0wdFSP-o/
the glass castle jennifer hudson trial north korea threat brandon jacobs brandon jacobs brian dawkins emma roberts
Tuesday, May 7, 2013
The Upcoming Intel Media Box Could Be the Gateway to 4K
New York to sue BofA, Wells Fargo over mortgage practices
By Karen Freifeld and Aruna Viswanatha
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said on Monday he plans to sue Bank of America Corp
Schneiderman issued the announcement, which suggests lawsuits could be filed against the banks within two months, ahead of a widely anticipated report from the monitor for the multi-state settlement, which is expected to be critical of banks.
The planned action is the first involving allegations that top banks, which agreed last year to provide $25 billion in relief to homeowners and comply with a set of servicing standards to atone for foreclosure misconduct, are not living up to their obligations under the deal.
Schneiderman said that, since last October, his office had documented 339 violations of standards - 210 by Wells Fargo and 129 by Bank of America - dictating the timeline for banks to process mortgage modification applications.
Schneiderman said he would seek injunctive relief and an order requiring the two banks to comply with the settlement. His statement did not say he was seeking damages or penalties.
But it is unclear how far Schneiderman can take his efforts, because they come outside the primary channel authorized by the settlement for any potential violations.
The settlement authorized the monitor to first work with a servicer to correct any potential violations and sue only if the servicer does not fix the errors.
In an afternoon news conference, Schneiderman acknowledged the authority provided to the monitor, but said he could still move forward.
"There is more than one cop on the beat," he said.
The action draws further attention to the continuing plight of borrowers facing foreclosures some five years after the start of the housing crisis. Some borrowers say they wait months for word from their bank on a request to modify a loan, only to be told their paperwork has been lost.
It also highlights the banks' lingering mortgage headache, even if this latest move might not result in significant additional monetary penalties.
"Wells Fargo and Bank of America have flagrantly violated those obligations, putting hundreds of homeowners across New York at greater risk of foreclosure," the attorney general said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for Wells Fargo declined to comment. Bank of America said in a statement that it takes seriously the allegations of servicing problems and will work quickly to address them.
Bank of America and Wells Fargo are among five banks that agreed to the settlement in February 2012. At the news conference, Schneiderman declined to say whether the other three banks - JPMorgan Chase & Co
WATCHDOG REPORT COMING SOON
The National Mortgage Settlement was brokered between the banks and 49 state attorneys general.
While the settlement's monitor has issued several reports on monetary relief provided to homeowners under the settlement, an upcoming report will be its first assessment of compliance on troubled borrowers. That report, expected in the next few weeks, will include how quickly banks must respond to requests for loan modifications.
The monitor, former North Carolina Banking Commissioner Joe Smith, said in a statement on Monday that he appreciates Schneiderman's interest in the issue. He also said he will use the full force of his own power to hold banks accountable.
"Under the Settlement, there is a process that allows me to conduct reviews of the banks' compliance and report them to the public. I am following this process and look forward to sharing my findings and enforcement activities in June," Smith said.
A committee comprised of federal regulators and more than a dozen state attorneys general will have the first crack at pursuing any potential litigation. U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development General Counsel Helen Kanovsky, whose agency sits on the committee, said HUD takes violations of the settlement seriously and expected "further action to be taken" after Smith releases his findings.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who spearheaded last year's settlement, said in a statement that his office has been in discussions with Smith about several issues, including missed deadlines.
Some housing advocates welcomed Schneiderman's move ahead of other states and the settlement's monitor.
"We hope this action by the AG will push other state and federal regulators to draw a line in the sand against abusive mortgage servicing practices," Josh Zinner, co-director of the Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project in New York, said in a statement.
In an interview, Zinner said housing advocates had seen some improvement on the part of servicers since last year's settlement, but that a lot of problems still continued.
The February 2012 settlement released the banks from claims over faulty foreclosure practices and the mishandling of requests for loan modifications.
It was supposed to speed mortgage relief to homeowners in need and provide $2,000 payments to borrowers who lost their homes to foreclosure.
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld in New York and Aruna Viswanatha in Washington; Editing by John Wallace and Andre Grenon)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/york-ag-sue-bofa-wells-fargo-over-mortgage-144026003.html
zimmerman derek fisher lyrid meteor shower hippocrates andrew breitbart red wings penguins
Premeditation key in trial of soldier who killed fellow servicemen
By Eric M. Johnson
TACOMA, Washington (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier who pleaded guilty in the shooting deaths of five fellow servicemen at a military counseling center in Iraq faced a court-martial on Monday in which a judge's sentence will hinge greatly upon whether he finds premeditation.
Army Sergeant John Russell pleaded guilty last month to killing two medical staff officers and three soldiers at Camp Liberty, adjacent to the Baghdad airport, in a 2009 shooting the military has said could have been triggered by combat stress.
Russell, who was attached to the 54th Engineer Battalion based in Bamberg, Germany, struck a plea deal to avoid the death penalty in a case that marked one of the worst episodes of soldier-on-soldier violence in the Iraq war.
The court-martial before a military judge at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state will determine whether Russell acted on impulse, as his defense attorneys argue, or with malice of forethought, as alleged by military prosecutors.
He faces up to life in confinement without the possibility of parole, forfeiture of pay and a dishonorable discharge. At issue in the court martial is whether he "had the ability to premeditate his intention to kill," the judge, Colonel David Conn, said on Monday.
Russell's state of mind has been the focus of legal proceedings over the past year at Lewis-McChord. Defense lawyers said Russell suffered a host of mental ailments after several combat tours and was suicidal before the attack.
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS
Prosecutors said Russell, upset with a healthcare worker, stole a Ford SUV, loaded one 30-round magazine into an M16-A2 rifle, and drove 40 minutes to the stress clinic area.
There, he smoked a cigarette, removed identification tags and the gun's optic, and slipped into the clinic through the back entrance to commit the "five cold-blooded murders."
"He knew everyone in that clinic was unarmed, helpless, and defenseless," an Army prosecutor said during pre-trial hearings, according to court documents obtained by Reuters.
An independent forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Sadoff, concluded that Russell suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and psychosis at the time of the shootings. Sadoff suggested Russell was provoked to violence by maltreatment at the hands of mental health personnel at Camp Liberty.
"My plan was to kill myself," Russell said during his plea hearing. "I wanted the pain to stop."
Conn ruled on Monday that Sadoff, who relied on another doctor's findings that Russell had "brain abnormalities" in areas that govern behavior and emotion, could use those findings in his own testimony at the court-martial.
The other doctor, University of Pennsylvania psychiatry professor Ruben Gur, testified that two scans taken of Russell's brain at Lewis-McChord well after the shootings showed that regions of his brain key to regulating behavior had "significant abnormalities in brain structure and function."
Gur compared Russell's tests with those of 41 other males to show he was an outlier. An Army prosecutor countered by saying the group's average age was much younger than that of Russell, who is 48 and was on medication at the time.
"The analysis you do is just statistics," said Captain Durwood Johnson, an Army prosecutor.
Conn said afterward that scans done prior to those tests, closer to the time of the attack, did not show the same abnormalities and that he would have to take into consideration that certain conclusions drawn by Gur were "certainly not shared by others."
(Corrects to show psychiatrist is to testify at court-martial, paragraph 12)
(Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Doina Chiacu and Dan Grebler)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/premeditation-key-trial-soldier-killed-fellow-servicemen-224819438.html
Catching Fire trailer Marfa Texas leonhard euler venezuela kobe bryant tiger woods adam scott
European stocks subdued as US jobs cheer fades
In this Thursday, May 2, 2013, photo, Trader John Santiago works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose Monday May 6, 2013 after an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report pushed Wall Street to new highs. Malaysian shares jumped after the country's ruling political alliance won national elections. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
In this Thursday, May 2, 2013, photo, Trader John Santiago works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. World stock markets rose Monday May 6, 2013 after an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report pushed Wall Street to new highs. Malaysian shares jumped after the country's ruling political alliance won national elections. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
MILAN (AP) ? European stocks edged lower on Monday as the momentum from an unexpectedly strong U.S. jobs report last week faded.
While Asian stocks enjoyed a bound and Wall Street was set for a higher opening, European stocks showed little resilience and pulled back from highs set on Friday, when the U.S. Labor Department said employers added 165,000 workers in April. The figure was above forecast and hiring in February and March was also stronger than previously estimated. The unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, the lowest level in four years.
After enjoying gains last week, investors in Europe focused once again on the huge economic problems facing the 17-country eurozone. Unemployment has been hitting a series of record highs and governments don't have the money to spend on new growth programs.
By midday in Europe, Germany's DAX was 0.1 percent lower at 8,116.10 after hitting a record high on Friday. France's CAC-40 was down 0.3 percent at 3,902.95. London trading was closed for a bank holiday.
Wall Street appeared headed for more gains, with Dow futures rising 0.2 percent to 14,924. The broader S&P 500 futures rose almost 0.1 percent to 1,609.
Friday's job report counterbalanced weeks of mixed signals about manufacturing and corporate earnings and renewed hopes of a recovery in the world's largest economy.
"Markets just came back to life, helped by that strong reading from U.S. nonfarm payrolls. That number completely obliterated expectations," said Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG in Melbourne.
In Asia, Malaysia's KLSE Composite surged 3.4 percent to 1,752.02 after the country's governing coalition won national elections, albeit with a weakened majority, to extend its unbroken, 56-year rule.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent to 22,915.09. Australia's S&P/ASX advanced 0.5 percent to 5,156.20. Benchmarks in Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia also rose, while the Philippines fell. South Korea's Kospi lost 0.2 percent to 1,962.25. Japan's stock market was closed for a public holiday.
Benchmark oil for June delivery was up 65 cents to $96.26 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose $1.62 to close at $95.61 a barrel on the Nymex on Friday.
In currencies, the euro fell to $1.3103 from $1.3110 late Friday in New York. The dollar rose to 99.22 yen from 99.04 yen.
___
Pamela Sampson contributed from Bangkok.
Associated Presswhitney houston has died whitney houston death the vow the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby
Saturday, May 4, 2013
Study shows that individual brain cells track where we are and how we move
Friday, May 3, 2013
Leaving the house in the morning may seem simple, but with every move we make, our brains are working feverishly to create maps of the outside world that allow us to navigate and to remember where we are.
Take one step out the front door, and an individual brain cell fires. Pass by your rose bush on the way to the car, another specific neuron fires. And so it goes. Ultimately, the brain constructs its own pinpoint geographical chart that is far more precise than anything you'd find on Google Maps.
But just how neurons make these maps of space has fascinated scientists for decades. It is known that several types of stimuli influence the creation of neuronal maps, including visual cues in the physical environment ? that rose bush, for instance ? the body's innate knowledge of how fast it is moving, and other inputs, like smell. Yet the mechanisms by which groups of neurons combine these various stimuli to make precise maps are unknown.
To solve this puzzle, UCLA neurophysicists built a virtual-reality environment that allowed them to manipulate these cues while measuring the activity of map-making neurons in rats. Surprisingly, they found that when certain cues were removed, the neurons that typically fire each time a rat passes a fixed point or landmark in the real world instead began to compute the rat's relative position, firing, for example, each time the rodent walked five paces forward, then five paces back, regardless of landmarks. And many other mapping cells shut down altogether, suggesting that different sensory cues strongly influence these neurons.
Finally, the researchers found that in this virtual world, the rhythmic firing of neurons that normally speeds up or slows down depending on the rate at which an animal moves, was profoundly altered. The rats' brains maintained a single, steady rhythmic pattern.
The findings, reported in the May 2 online edition of the journal Science, provide further clues to how the brain learns and makes memories.
The mystery of how cells determine place
"Place cells" are individual neurons located in the brain's hippocampus that create maps by registering specific places in the outside environment. These cells are crucial for learning and memory. They are also known to play a role in such conditions as post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer's disease when damaged.
For some 40 years, the thinking had been that the maps made by place cells were based primarily on visual landmarks in the environment, known as distal cues ? a tall tree, a building ? as well on motion, or gait, cues. But, as UCLA neurophysicist and senior study author Mayank Mehta points out, other cues are present in the real world: the smell of the local pizzeria, the sound of a nearby subway tunnel, the tactile feel of one's feet on a surface. These other cues, which Mehta likes to refer to as "stuff," were believed to have only a small influence on place cells.
Could it be that these different sensory modalities led place cells to create individual maps, wondered Mehta, a professor with joint appointments in the departments of neurology, physics and astronomy. And if so, do these individual maps cooperate with each other, or do they compete? No one really knew for sure.
Virtual reality reveals new clues
To investigate, Mehta and his colleagues needed to separate the distal and gait cues from all the other "stuff." They did this by crafting a virtual-reality maze for rats in which odors, sounds and all stimuli, except distal and gait cues, were removed. As video of a physical environment was projected around them, the rats, held by a harness, were placed on a ball that rotated as they moved. When they ran, the video would move along with them, giving the animals the illusion that they were navigating their way through an actual physical environment.
As a comparison, the researchers had the rats ? six altogether ? run a real-world maze that was visually identical to the virtual-reality version but that included the additional "stuff" cues. Using micro-electrodes 10 times thinner than a human hair, the team measured the activity of some 3,000 space-mapping neurons in the rats' brains as they completed both mazes.
What they found intrigued them. The elimination of the "stuff" cues in the virtual-reality maze had a huge effect: Fully half of the neurons being recorded became inactive, despite the fact that the distal and gate cues were similar in the virtual and real worlds. The results, Mehta said, show that these other sensory cues, once thought to play only a minor role in activating the brain, actually have a major influence on place cells.
And while in the real world, place cells responded to fixed, absolute positions, spiking at those same positions each time rats passed them, regardless of the direction they were moving ? a finding consistent with previous experiments ? this was not the case in the virtual-reality maze.
"In the virtual world," Mehta said, "we found that the neurons almost never did that. Instead, the neurons spiked at the same relative distance in the two directions as the rat moved back and forth. In other words, going back to the front door-to-car analogy, in a virtual world, the cell that fires five steps away from the door when leaving your home would not fire five steps away from the door upon your return. Instead, it would fire five steps away from the car when leaving the car. Thus, these cells are keeping track of the relative distance traveled rather than absolute position. This gives us evidence for the individual place cell's ability to represent relative distances."
Mehta thinks this is because neuronal maps are generated by three different categories of stimuli ? distal cues, gait and "stuff" ? and that all are competing for control of neural activity. This competition is what ultimately generates the "full" map of space.
"All the external stuff is fixed at the same absolute position and hence generates a representation of absolute space," he said. "But when all the stuff is removed, the profound contribution of gait is revealed, which enables neurons to compute relative distances traveled."
The researchers also made a new discovery about the brain's theta rhythm. It is known that place cells use the rhythmic firing of neurons to keep track of "brain time," the brain's internal clock. Normally, Mehta said, the theta rhythm becomes faster as subjects run faster, and slower as running speed decreases. This speed-dependent change in brain rhythm was thought to be crucial for generating the 'brain time' for place cells. But the team found that in the virtual world, the theta rhythm was uninfluenced by running speed.
"That was a surprising and fascinating discovery, because the 'brain time' of place cells was as precise in the virtual world as in the real world, even though the speed-dependence of the theta rhythm was abolished," Mehta said. "This gives us a new insight about how the brain keeps track of space-time."
The researchers found that the firing of place cells was very precise, down to one-hundredth of a second, "so fast that we humans cannot perceive it but neurons can," Mehta said. "We have found that this very precise spiking of neurons with respect to 'brain-time' is crucial for learning and making new memories."
Mehta said the results, taken together, provide insight into how distinct sensory cues both cooperate and compete to influence the intricate network of neuronal activity. Understanding how these cells function is key to understanding how the brain makes and retains memories, which are vulnerable to such disorders as Alzheimer's and PTSD.
"Ultimately, understanding how these intricate neuronal networks function is a key to developing therapies to prevent such disorders," he said.
In May, Mehta joined 100 other scientists in Washington, D.C., to help shape President Obama's BRAIN Initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies), with the goal of trying to tease out how this most complicated of organs works.
###
University of California - Los Angeles: http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu
Thanks to University of California - Los Angeles for this article.
This press release was posted to serve as a topic for discussion. Please comment below. We try our best to only post press releases that are associated with peer reviewed scientific literature. Critical discussions of the research are appreciated. If you need help finding a link to the original article, please contact us on twitter or via e-mail.
This press release has been viewed 53 time(s).
amzn white house correspondents dinner phoenix coyotes bruce irvin charlie st cloud nba playoffs rosario dawson
Rule lets Oscar voters watch DVDs for some votes
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Oscar voters will no longer be required to see certain nominated films in a theater to cast their ballots.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Saturday that members will be mailed DVDs of documentaries, shorts and foreign language nominees ? categories that don't typically get lengthy stays on multiplex big screens.
President Hawk Koch says the move is an effort to expand member participation by giving voters as many opportunities as possible to see all the nominated films.
Prior to the final round of voting, the academy will mail members DVDs of films in Foreign Language Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film categories.
The nomination process remains unchanged.
Associated Pressjohn mccain game changer corned beef recipe rpi dst friends with kids pacific standard time
Friday, May 3, 2013
Syrian president showing renewed confidence
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, right, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, right, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, left, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, center, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, President Bashar Assad, center right, visits the Umayyad Electrical Station on May Day, a day after a powerful bomb hit the capital. in Damascus, Syria, Wednesday, May 1, 2013. (AP Photo/SANA)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies are showing renewed confidence that the momentum in the civil war is shifting in their favor, due in part to the rapid rise of al-Qaida-linked extremists among the rebels and the world's reluctance to take forceful action to intervene in the fighting.
His invigorated regime has gone on the offensive ? both on the ground and in its portrayal of the conflict as a choice between Assad and the extremists.
Several factors appear to have convinced Assad he can weather the storm: Two years into the uprising against his family's iron rule, his regime remains firmly entrenched in Damascus, the defection rate from the military has dwindled, and key international supporters Russia and China are still solidly on his side.
Moreover, the regime has benefited from the fallout created by audio distributed last month in which the head of the extremist Jabhat al-Nusra group, one of the most powerful and effective rebel groups in Syria, pledged allegiance to al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
There are signs of Assad's renewed confidence.
After dropping largely out of sight following an hour-long speech at the Opera House in central Damascus in January, Assad has appeared in two TV interviews in the past month. His wife, Asma, appeared in public in March for the first time in months, surrounded by women and children for a function honoring mothers.
"I can say, without exaggeration, that the situation in Syria now is better than it was at the beginning of the crisis," Assad said in an interview with state-run broadcaster Al-Ikhbariya on April l7.
"With time, people became more aware of the dangers of what was happening. ... They started to gain a better understanding of the real Syria we used to live in and realized the value of the safety, security and harmony, which we used to enjoy," he added.
On Wednesday, a smiling Assad made another rare public appearance, visiting a Damascus power station just a day after a bombing in the capital and two days after his prime minister escapade an assassination attempt.
Syrian TV showed Assad, looking confident and wearing a dark business suit, chatting with workers and shaking their hands on May Day.
"They want to scare us, we will not be scared. ... They want us to live underground, we will not live underground," Assad was shown telling a group of workers gathered around him in a garden.
Since the beginning of the uprising in March 2011, Assad's regime has tried to portray the movement as being driven by what it called terrorists and foreign-backed mercenaries. The government responded with a brutal military crackdown that led many to take up arms to fight back. Gradually, the rebellion turned into an armed insurgency, drawing in radicalized elements and foreign fighters from other countries.
Jabhat al-Nusra, designated a terrorist group by the U.S., has emerged as one of the most potent fighting forces.
Assad's regime has seized on the recording of Nusra Front's leader pledging allegiance to al-Qaida as proof it is fighting terrorists, prompting some members of the Syrian opposition to claim the audio was faked by the government to tarnish their movement.
"The regime is trying, and succeeding unfortunately, in brainwashing some segments of society into thinking that they are their protectors and whoever follows will massacre them," said opposition figure Kamal Labwani.
Many Syrians acknowledge feeling more secure under Assad.
A Christian Syrian tailor who fled last month to Lebanon said at least Assad was a known quantity. He said people fled when "heavily armed and bearded gunmen" from an anti-Assad group arrived in his hometown last month, setting up roadblocks and checking people's IDs. The tailor insisted on identifying himself only as Amin, his first name, for fear of reprisals from the regime or its opponents.
Despite losing large swaths of territory in northern and eastern Syria, Assad's military has retained his firm grip on Damascus, his seat of power, and key coastal areas. In recent weeks, his troops have made advances, pushing back rebels in parts of the Damascus suburbs and some areas where rebels regularly fire mortars on the capital.
Inspecting the site of a car bombing Tuesday in Damascus, Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar told reporters the attacks in the capital were in response to the "victories and achievements scored by the Syrian Arab Army on the ground against terrorism." Al-Shaar himself escaped a bomb that targeted his convoy in December.
Rami Abdul-Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which closely monitors the civil war, said the number of defections from the military as well as political circles has gone "significantly down" in recent months. Those who are now fighting are considered the "hard-core regime supporters" who will stay until the end, he said.
Syrians opposed to Assad accuse him of encouraging and planting extremists in the ranks of the rebellion, including releasing hundreds of jihadis from prison early in the uprising, knowing full well that they were bound to take up arms against it.
Ammar Abdulhamid, a Washington-based Syrian pro-democracy activist and director of the Tharwa Foundation, said that while the regime has probably lost control over these cells by now, their presence has helped it achieve its goal.
They can now point to these cells and their activities to bolster their message of "either us or the terrorists."
The Assad dynasty has long tried to push a secular and nationalist identity in Syria while flirting with extremists when it suited it. In 2003, the Syrian regime was known to be providing safe passage to jihadis to enter Iraq to fight U.S. forces.
"This is a game that the Assad regime has perfected by now. They create the problem and then they offer their services to the world to solve that problem," said Randa Slim, a research fellow at the New America Foundation in Washington.
Still, the extremists' role in the civil war has raised alarm among Syrians and officials in the West. Their presence has been among the chief reasons behind international reluctance to arm the rebels.
Allegations that the regime used chemical weapons have not triggered an international response, despite President Barack Obama's earlier assertion that use of such weapons would be a "game-changer" and a "red line."
Obama said Tuesday that the evidence available does not yet merit the quick use of U.S. military power.
Russia and China, Assad's main allies, have stuck by him during the course of the uprising, as have his supporters in the region ? Iran and Lebanon's militant Hezbollah group.
In a further boost, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech Tuesday that Syria's "real friends," including his Iranian-backed group, would intervene on the side of Damascus if needed.
Abdulhamid said that if groups like al-Nusra increase their profile in Syria, there will be a greater willingness among some Western leaders to listen to Assad's argument again.
"The mantra of 'Either us or the extremists' is slowly but surely regaining some of its popularity and relevance in decision-making circles in the West," he said.
Associated Pressbest superbowl commercials madonna super bowl halftime kelly clarkson super bowl giants super bowl 2012 half time show halftime show 2012 kelly clarkson super bowl 2012
Rubio seeks to boost border language in new bill
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio says a new immigration bill he helped write needs stronger border security provisions or it will fail in the House and may even have trouble getting through the Senate.
Rubio, who is the chief emissary to conservatives on the contentious legislation, said in a radio interview and in an opinion piece being published in Friday's Wall Street Journal that he's been hearing concerns in recent days that more work is needed to boost the bill's language on the border and he said he's committed to trying to make those changes.
In his Wall Street Journal piece, Rubio cited "triggers" in the bill that aim to make new citizenship provisions contingent on border security accomplishments. Critics say those provisions are too weak, because in some cases the Homeland Security secretary is tasked with undertaking studies ? but not with delivering results ? before millions in the U.S. illegally can obtain legal status.
Rubio also mentioned revisiting "waivers" in the bill that give federal officials discretion in applying the law, another flashpoint for conservative critics; concerns about the bill's cost; and the possibility of making legalization provisions for immigrants already here "tougher, yet still realistic." He didn't offer details.
"Clearly what we have in there now is not good enough for too many people and so we've got to make it better. And that's what I'm asking for and that's what we're working on," Rubio said separately this week in an interview with "The Sean Hannity Show" radio program.
"This bill will not pass the House and, quite frankly, I think, may struggle to pass the Senate if it doesn't deal with that issue, so we've got some work to do on that front," he said.
Rubio's comments came during Congress' one-week recess. Back home, lawmakers are hearing feedback about the 844-page bill. Rubio and seven Democratic and Republican senators ? the so-called Gang of Eight ? introduced the legislation April 17. The Senate Judiciary Committee is expected to begin voting on it next week.
In addition to improving border security, the bill would create new visa programs to bring many more foreign workers into the U.S., require employers to check their workers' legal status, and create a new pathway to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living here illegally.
The bill faces a tough road in the Democratic-led Senate and an even tougher one in the GOP-controlled House, and some supporters say it will only be successful if Republicans believe it does enough on the border.
The bill allocates $5.5 billion for border measures aimed at achieving 100 percent surveillance of the entire border and blocking 90 percent of border crossers and would-be crossers in high-entrance areas.
The Homeland Security Department would have six months to create a new border security plan to achieve the 90 percent effectiveness rate. Also within six months, the department would have to create a plan to identify where new fencing is needed. Once that happens, people living here illegally could begin to apply for a provisional legal status.
If the 90 percent rate isn't achieved within five years, a commission made of border state officials would make recommendations on how to do it.
After 10 years, people with provisional legal status could apply for permanent residency if the new security and fencing plans are operating, a new mandatory employment verification system is in place, and a new electronic exit system is tracking who leaves the country.
Critics say these triggers don't do enough.
"The triggers aren't triggers at all," Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., said in a statement. "The day the bill passes, there will be an effective amnesty for the vast majority of illegal immigrants ? abandoning the Gang of Eight's public promise of enforcement first."
But changes aimed at strengthening the border security provisions could cause heartburn among Democrats. Advocates and the Obama administration have been reluctant to see citizenship made contingent on border security. Immigrants here illegally already face a 13-year path to citizenship under the bill ? which Rubio said actually could stretch to as many as 20 years for some, given how long it takes to undertake certain steps ? and anything that could make it more onerous raises concerns with supporters on the left.
The border security agreement is "a very fragile and delicately worded part of the bill," said Angela Kelley, vice president for immigration policy at the liberal Center for American Progress. "To me it really goes to the fundamental question of workability."
Border security is just one issue that's likely to provoke a fight. There's also a brewing dispute over whether the bill should recognize gay unions so that gays could sponsor their partners to come to the U.S. Gay groups are pushing for an amendment in the Judiciary Committee to allow that, but Rubio and other Republicans have made clear it would cost their support.
White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked about the gay immigration issue on Air Force One en route to Mexico City on Thursday. "We have said that we support that provision, but we also think it's very important to recognize that the overall bill here accomplishes what the president believes needs to be accomplished," Carney said.
___
Follow Erica Werner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ericawerner
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rubio-seeks-boost-border-language-bill-192343126.html
Boy Meets World elizabeth taylor cam newton FedEx Gabriel Aubry cyber monday deals small business saturday
Can I refinance my FHA loan with a conventional loan? - Zillow ...
Yes, as long as you have sufficient equity. This could mean that you have:
1) You now have 20% or more equity (Loan Amt Divided by the Appraised Value)
2) Nothing has changed, and you still have less than 20% equity could possibly bring you a Conventional loan, still with PMI, but possibly less than MIP.
3) Even if none above apply, it would be good to take a look at an FHA Streamline. No appraisal is required.
1) You now have 20% or more equity (Loan Amt Divided by the Appraised Value)
2) Nothing has changed, and you still have less than 20% equity could possibly bring you a Conventional loan, still with PMI, but possibly less than MIP.
3) Even if none above apply, it would be good to take a look at an FHA Streamline. No appraisal is required.
If you have at least 5% equity, then it would be worth entertaining the thought of a Conventional loan vs.your current FHA.
Source: http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Can-I-refinance-my-FHA-loan-with-a-conventional-loan/490484/
forrest gump bernard hopkins devils la riots rachel maddow gia utah jazz
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)