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Sunday, June 30, 2013
Deal of the Day ? HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14z-f000 AMD A4 Quad-core Sleekbook
Saturday’s LogicBUY Deal is the configurable?14″ HP Pavilion TouchSmart 14z-f000 customizable Sleekbook, starting at?$455.99. ?Features: AMD A4-5000 1.5GHz Quad-core 4GB RAM 500GB hard drive 14″ LED-backlit 1366X 768 BrightView LCD touchscreen Radeon HD 8000 graphics 802.11n WiFi Webcam HDMI. two USB 3.0 ports Windows 8 (64-bit) $479.99 – 5% coupon code = $455.99 with $9.99 [...]
Mayor Bloomberg Says Minorities Are Not Stopped By Cops Enough (@MikeBloomberg)
Jun 30, 2013 | 7:30 AM??? Written By: Mike Hughes
Mayor Bloomberg has landed himself in hot waters after making some rather controversial remarks about minorities not being stopped enough by police compared to that of white individuals. ?Bloomberg stated on his weekly WOR-AM radio, that police "disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little." ?
Councilman Robert Jackson was highly displeased with Bloomberg's remarks, along with many others, and voice his opinion about the mayor's choice of words.
"Our mayor's comments prove he just doesn't get it." ?
How do you feel about the mayor's comments?
Source: bigstory.ap.org
Source: http://www.vladtv.com/blog/169293/mayor-bloomberg-says-minorities-are-not-stopped-by-cops-enough/
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Songza introduces paid ad-free service that costs $0.99 a week
Songza joined the ad-free music streaming club today with a club of its own: Club Songza. Like the premium services on Spotify and Slacker, you'll have to cough up a few pennies to belong -- about 99 of them a week, to be exact. Listening to music without commercial interruption isn't the only benefit however; apparently paid subscribers will get additional goodies like twice as many skips and access to more premium content as well. Songza diehards can go ahead and sign up for the service at the source or simply live with that pesky advertising in the free version.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Club Songza, Songza
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/B_ncSXwQ3G4/
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Status of the states on same-sex marriage
Christian Olivera, of Newark, N.J., shouts toward the Statehouse Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Trenton, N.J., as he and other advocates for gay marriage in New Jersey gather, saying they'll press their case in the Legislature and the courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidates parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Gov. Chris Christie said he would again veto a same-sex marriage bill if it reaches his desk, and that Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a ban on federal benefits for same-sex married couples will have no effect on New Jersey, one of a handful of states that allows civil unions. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
Christian Olivera, of Newark, N.J., shouts toward the Statehouse Thursday, June 27, 2013, in Trenton, N.J., as he and other advocates for gay marriage in New Jersey gather, saying they'll press their case in the Legislature and the courts after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that invalidates parts of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Gov. Chris Christie said he would again veto a same-sex marriage bill if it reaches his desk, and that Wednesday's U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down a ban on federal benefits for same-sex married couples will have no effect on New Jersey, one of a handful of states that allows civil unions. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)
The Supreme Court issued a pair of decisions this week with major consequences for efforts to legalize or bar same-sex marriage. One ruling opened the way for California to become the 13th state to allow gay marriage; the other struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act and directed the government to recognize legally married same-sex couples.
In light of the rulings, here's a summary of the laws on same-sex marriage in all 50 states, and a look at how the Supreme Court action might affect them:
___
SAME-SEX MARRIAGE STATES:
CALIFORNIA: The Supreme Court cleared the way for gay marriages to resume in California for the first time since 2008, ruling that sponsors of the state's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban lack authority to defend it in court. A federal appeals court on Friday lifted the stay on same-sex marriages, saying the state is required to issue licenses to gay couples starting immediately.
CONNECTICUT: The state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in October 2008; marriages started the next month.
DELAWARE: A same-sex marriage bill was signed into law in May. A Democratic state senator and her partner will be the first couple in the state to have their civil union converted to marriage when the bill takes effect July 1.
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: The D.C. Council approved same-sex marriage in 2009; marriages began in March 2010.
IOWA: The state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage in 2009. Conservative lawmakers have sought to change state law to define marriage as between a man and a woman. Those efforts have failed so far because Democrats controlling the state Senate have blocked any legislation from coming up for a vote. That's unlikely to change unless the GOP takes control of both chambers in 2014.
MAINE: Voters approved same-sex marriage last November, reversing results of a 2009 referendum that quashed a gay-marriage bill.
MARYLAND: The Legislature approved same-sex marriage in February 2012; the issue then won voter approval in a referendum last November.
MASSACHUSETTS: It was the first state to allow same-sex marriage. The state's Supreme Judicial Court ordered it legalized in 2003; marriages started in May 2004.
MINNESOTA: A same-sex marriage bill was signed into law in May. It takes effect Aug. 1.
NEW HAMPSHIRE: The Legislature approved same-sex marriage June 2009.
NEW YORK: The Legislature approved same-sex marriage in June 2011.
RHODE ISLAND: A same-sex marriage bill was signed into law in May. It takes effect Aug. 1.
VERMONT: The Legislature legalized same-sex marriage in 2009. Earlier, Vermont was the first state to offer civil unions to gay and lesbian couples.
WASHINGTON: The Legislature approved same-sex marriage in February 2012. It then won voter approval in referendum on Nov. 6, 2012.
___
CIVIL UNION STATES:
COLORADO: Gay-rights advocates were pleased that Colorado lawmakers approved a civil-union law this year that extends marriage-like rights to same-sex couples. But they still plan to push for the full status of marriage. That would entail either a lawsuit or a voter initiative to overturn a gay-marriage ban approved by voters in 2006.
HAWAII: Lawmakers passed a civil union law in 2011. It's being challenged in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by two women who want to marry rather than enter into a civil union. Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie supports same-sex marriage and says the U.S. Supreme Court rulings bolster his argument that the Constitution requires it.
ILLNOIS: Lawmakers approved civil unions in 2011, but an effort this year to legalize gay marriage fell short despite a push from Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The bill's sponsor, Democratic Rep. Greg Harris, says the Supreme Court rulings improve the chances in the next legislative session. Meanwhile, a right-to-marry lawsuit filed by more than two dozen gay couples is pending.
NEW JERSEY: Acting under an order from the state Supreme Court, the Legislature legalized civil unions in 2006. However, a pending lawsuit contends that civil unions do not fulfill the court's mandate that gay couples receive equal treatment. A hearing is scheduled for August. The Democratic-led Legislature passed a bill last to recognize gay marriage, but it was vetoed by Republican Gov. Chris Christie.
___
STATES WITH CONSTITUTIONAL BANS:
ALABAMA: Voters overwhelming approved a constitutional amendment in 2006 limiting marriage to one-man, one-woman unions. Democratic Rep. Patricia Todd, the only openly gay member of the Legislature, says she and her partner plan to file suit challenging the ban. "The state only moves forward on civil rights issues when forced by the federal courts," she says.
ALASKA: Voters approved a ban in 1998. Changing the constitution would requires that voters approve a constitutional convention ? but they opted not to do so in 2012. The Legislature also could propose a constitutional amendment, but Republicans control both chambers, and there is no apparent rush to act. Alaska's U.S. senators, Democrat Mark Begich and Republican Lisa Murkowski, support same-sex marriage. But the state's lone U.S. House member, Republican Don Young, and its GOP governor, Sean Parnell, do not.
ARIZONA: Gay-rights activists are gathering signatures in hopes of placing a measure on next year's ballot that would overturn a 2008 ban. Republican Gov. Jan Brewer predicts voters will reject any such effort. One city, Bisbee, recently legalized local-level civil unions for same-sex couples. Tempe and several other cities are considering similar ordinances.
ARKANSAS: The gay-rights group Arkansans for Equality is asking the state attorney general's office to approve language for a ballot measure next year that would repeal the 2004 ban on gay marriage. The attorney general must certify the language before the group can begin collecting the 78,133 signatures from registered voters needed to place it on the 2014 ballot.
COLORADO: As noted above, gay marriage is banned under a constitutional amendment approved by voters in 2006. But Democrats now control the Legislature and passed the bill this year establishing civil unions. Gay-rights supporters are deliberating on how to challenge the ban ? it could be through a lawsuit or a voter initiative.
FLORIDA: Voters approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages in 2008. It would take approval from 60 percent of voters to overturn it if the issue gets on the ballot again. That would require either action by the Legislature ? which seems unlikely anytime soon ? or a petition drive that would require the signatures of more than 683,000 registered voters.
GEORGIA: A gay-marriage ban was approved in 2004 with support from 76 percent of the voters. No group has mounted a serious attempt to overturn that prohibition. Most politicians in Georgia publicly embrace positions opposing gay-rights measures, although Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed announced in December that he supports gay marriage.
IDAHO: Voters approved a ban in 2006 with 63 percent support. The Republican dominated Legislature is not expected to make any changes in the near future. GOP lawmakers have resisted appeals from gays to amend the Idaho Human Rights Act to include discrimination protections for gays and lesbians in regard to employment and housing.
KANSAS: Voters overwhelmingly approved a gay-marriage ban in 2005. With conservative Republicans in charge of both the House and Senate, no move to modify or repeal the amendment is expected.
KENTUCKY: Voters approved a ban in 2004; there's no serious talk of any imminent challenge. Chris Hartman, director of the Louisville-based Fairness Campaign, said the Supreme Court rulings may add momentum to the push for a state law protecting gays from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations.
LOUISIANA: A ban was approved by voters in 2004 with 78 percent support. Gay rights leaders say they will study the possibility of a challenge, but none is currently foreseen. Meanwhile, they will continue to lobby the Legislature for adoption rights and job protections.
MICHIGAN: A lawsuit to overturn a 2004 ban on same-sex marriage is pending in federal court. Detroit-area nurses April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse are suing to try to win the right to jointly adopt each other's children, and a judge suggested the case be stretched to include a challenge to the ban on gay marriage. Separately, gay-rights activists say they will try to get a measure on the ballot in 2016 to overturn the ban.
MISSISSIPPI: A ban was approved in 2004 with support from 86 percent of the voters, the highest percent among all the voter-approved bans in the U.S. There's no expectation it will be repealed except under a mandate from Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court.
MISSOURI: A ban was approved in 2004 with more than 70 percent support; there's been no effort to repeal it. The state Supreme Court is currently considering a legal challenge to a law that limits survivor benefits for deceased public safety officers to spouses who were in a "marriage between a man and a woman." The case was brought by the same-sex partner of a former Highway Patrol officer killed by a vehicle while investigating an accident.
MONTANA: Voters approved a ban in 2004; it's not under immediate threat. But gay-rights advocates believe that parts of the Supreme Court rulings could bolster their arguments in a case seeking domestic partnership recognition. In that lawsuit, gay couples are seeking inheritance, joint tax and other legal benefits.
NEBRASKA: Voters approved a constitutional gay-marriage ban in 2000. In light of the Supreme Court rulings, gay-rights activists are now looking at ways to challenge it. Doing so would likely require a citizen initiative and another statewide vote, though supporters aren't ruling out a lawsuit to challenge the amendment in federal court.
NEVADA: Although Nevada is among the 29 states with a constitutional ban, it also has a domestic partnership law providing extensive rights to same-sex couples. Legislators approved a resolution this year aimed at changing the constitution to allow same-sex marriage; it will need a second round of legislative approval in two years before going to a popular vote. Meanwhile, there's a case pending in federal court challenging the constitutionality of the ban.
NORTH CAROLINA: The most recent of the nation's gay-marriage bans was approved by North Carolina voters in May 2012. Gay-rights activists are looking at whether the Supreme Court rulings provide an opening to challenge it.
NORTH DAKOTA: A ban was approved by voters in 2004 with 73 percent support. The GOP-dominated Legislature also has voted repeatedly against gay-rights measures, including a bill in the last session to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, public services and the workplace.
OHIO: Voters approved a ban in November 2004 after an expensive ballot campaign that some analysts say boosted turnout among supporters of Republican President George W. Bush's re-election in the battleground state. The new Supreme Court rulings fueled the hopes of FreedomOhio, a coalition of gay marriage supporters that's working to overturn the ban in 2014.
OKLAHOMA: More than 75 percent of voters approved a gay-marriage ban in 2004. Repealing it would almost certainly have to be done through court challenges, since there appears to be little appetite in the Republican-led Legislature to embrace gay rights. Last session, the House voted 84-0 for a resolution to reaffirm marriage as a union between a man and a woman,
OREGON: Voters in this relatively liberal state approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage in 2004 with 57 percent support. It's now viewed as perhaps the most likely state to overturn such a ban; gay-rights activists and Democratic politicians are gearing up to place a repeal measure on the 2014 ballot.
SOUTH CAROLINA: In 2006, 78 percent of voters approved a constitutional ban. Little has changed since then. There were no bills introduced in the Legislature dealing with gay rights in 2013, and legislative leaders don't expect it to be an issue any time soon.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Gay marriage has been banned since the Legislature passed a law in 1996, and the prohibition was strengthened with a constitutional ban approved by voters in 2006. Activists say there are no current plans to ask voters to overturn it.
TENNESSEE: Voters approved a ban in 2006 with 81 percent support. It appears under no immediate threat.
TEXAS: Voters overwhelmingly approved a ban in 2005; there's been no organized drive to repeal it. However, gay-rights activism has increased in Texas in recent years, and Houston last year re-elected its openly lesbian mayor.
UTAH: Three same-sex couples have filed a legal challenge against Utah's gay-marriage ban, which was approved by voters in 2004. The case had been put on hold pending the Supreme Court rulings.
VIRGINIA: Voters approved a ban in 2006; it's unlikely that the Legislature dominated by conservative Republicans would take steps to repeal the ban. Gay-rights supporters haven't ruled out a lawsuit.
WISCONSIN: Voters approved a Republican-backed ban in 2006; repealing it would require votes in two consecutive legislative sessions, followed by a statewide referendum. In 2009, with Democrats in control, lawmakers passed statutes creating a domestic partner registry for same-sex couples. That registry is now under legal attack by a conservative group which argues that it violates the gay-marriage ban.
___
OTHER STATES:
INDIANA: There's a state law prohibiting same-sex marriage but as yet no constitutional ban. Leaders of the Republican majority in the Legislature hope the Supreme Court rulings will provide motivation to get the ban passed so it can be put before voters in 2014. GOP Gov. Mike Pence says he supports a stronger ban.
PENNSYLVANIA: It's the only state in the Northeast that doesn't extend legal recognition to same-sex couples. An openly gay Democrat, state Rep. Brian Sims, plans to introduce a bill that would legalize same-sex marriage. It may not get far in the GOP-controlled Legislature, but it could be an issue in the 2014 gubernatorial campaign. Incumbent GOP Gov. Tom Corbett opposes gay marriage; the three Democratic challengers support it.
NEW MEXICO: Its statutes contain no law that specifically prohibits or legalizes same-sex marriage. Democratic Attorney General Gary King's office released a legal analysis in early June concluding that same-sex marriage is not authorized at this point. But lawyers for two gay men from Santa Fe are trying to expedite a lawsuit seeking a ruling that gay marriage is legal.
WEST VIRGINA: Under a state law passed in 2000, West Virginia defines marriage as being between a man and a woman. The state does not have a constitutional ban, though some Republicans in the Legislature say they will intensify their push for one because of the Supreme Court rulings.
WYOMING: State law defines marriage as a civil contract between a man and a woman; there is no constitutional ban. Democratic state Rep. Cathy Connolly, a lesbian, pushed legislation earlier this year that would have permitted civil unions and banned discrimination against gays. Both bills died. She expects a proposal for legalizing gay marriage to be introduced by 2015; there's also the possibility of a lawsuit seeking marriage equality.
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Kerry: Progress made in peace talks
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inside Muqataa, the Palestinian Presidential compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, on Sunday, June 30, 2013. Kerry, engaged in breakneck shuttle diplomacy to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into peace talks, drove to the West Bank on Sunday to have a third meeting in as many days with Abbas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inside Muqataa, the Palestinian Presidential compound in the West Bank town of Ramallah, on Sunday, June 30, 2013. Kerry, engaged in breakneck shuttle diplomacy to coax Israel and the Palestinians back into peace talks, drove to the West Bank on Sunday to have a third meeting in as many days with Abbas. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Escorted by security, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, center, walks with Frank Lowenstein, senior advisor to the secretary on Middle East issues, as they return to their hotel just after 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 30, 2013 after finishing a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu that took over six hours. After the marathon meeting, Kerry decided to get some air by walking to a park near the hotel where he is staying and the meeting was held. Kerry is shuttling between Palestinian and Israeli leaders in hopes of restarting peace talks. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) ? U.S. Secretary of State Kerry says "real progress" has been made on Mideast talks but more work is needed.
Kerry told reporters on Sunday that there have been "positive discussions" and "very important discussions" toward peace between the Israelis and Palestinians during the past few days.
Kerry, who has been shuttling between meetings with leaders of both sides, spoke after a two-hour meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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Songza introduces paid ad-free service that costs $0.99 a week
Songza joined the ad-free music streaming club today with a club of its own: Club Songza. Like the premium services on Spotify and Slacker, you'll have to cough up a few pennies to belong -- about 99 of them a week, to be exact. Listening to music without commercial interruption isn't the only benefit however; apparently paid subscribers will get additional goodies like twice as many skips and access to more premium content as well. Songza diehards can go ahead and sign up for the service at the source or simply live with that pesky advertising in the free version.
Via: TechCrunch
Source: Club Songza, Songza
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Federal rule could upend states' shark fin bans
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) ? Several members of Congress representing coastal states are voicing concern about a proposed federal regulation that could pre-empt state bans on buying or selling shark fins.
Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman of California is being joined by representatives of New York, Florida and Guam in seeking changes to a proposal they say would take away a state tool to protect shark populations.
California, Hawaii, New York and several other states have passed regulations on the sale and trade of shark fins, which are used in a soup considered an Asian delicacy. California's ban on the sale, trade and possession of shark fins will go into effect Monday after a compromise allowed time for restaurants and businesses to use up their existing supplies.
A letter from the members of Congress and the representative of Guam states that a proposed rule by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries management division, the National Marine Fisheries Services, would undermine those laws. California state lawmakers were also circulating an opposition letter.
"If we are to address the problem of shark-finning head on, we must allow state and territorial statutes to complement the federal regulations and further the U.S. leadership in global shark conservation," states the letter, which has not yet been sent to the fisheries service but was given in advance to The Associated Press.
In addition to Huffman, it is to be signed by Democratic Reps. Sam Farr of California and Grace Meng of New York, Florida Republican Rep. Vern Buchanan and Democratic Delegate Madeleine Bordallo of Guam. Their letter is dated July 8, which is when the public comment period on the proposed rule is scheduled to end.
A request for comment was left with a press officer for the National Marine Fisheries Services.
The proposal under consideration says state and territory shark fin laws are pre-empted if they are found to be inconsistent with federal fishery management plans or regulations.
Conservation groups have begun circulating petitions against the proposal, but representatives of the fishing industry have argued that federal pre-emption is necessary to maintain fishing of commercially viable shark species.
Congress passed and President Barack Obama signed the Shark Conservation Act of 2010 in an effort to strengthen federal laws against shark finning in U.S. waters and require that sharks be landed with their fins still attached. Since then, the fisheries service has been working to craft regulations to implement the act.
Conservation and animal advocacy groups said fishermen have been able to sidestep the rules by taking only the fins of sharks and dumping the carcasses back into the sea.
Jill Hepp, director of shark conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts, said states should have the right to go beyond federal rules in protecting shark populations.
"If this goes forward as they are proposing, this has the potential to undermine the states' shark fin trade ban and it would be a considerable setback for global shark conservation," Hepp said.
But John Whiteside, an attorney for Sustainable Fisheries Association, a Massachusetts nonprofit founded by four seafood processors, said the federal government should have the final say over regulations, especially fish caught in federal waters.
Not doing so would violate trade laws and run afoul of treaties the federal government has with governments around the world, he said. Commercial fishing groups were successful at getting exemptions in some states for certain species of sharks, such as the dogfish, a small shark also used for fish and chips that is sustainably harvested.
However, California provides no such exemption.
"You're building a wall around the state of California from which the free flow of legal goods is forbidden," he said. "If you have these states around the country that build these little islands, you can't have the free flow of commerce and that's what this country needs."
Jennifer Fearing, California state director for the Humane Society, said California drafted its bill specifically to ban the sale of shark fins, no matter where the shark was caught.
"It's not California sharks being finned," she said. "It's dried processed shark fins arriving here already processed and dried. We have no idea where those sharks come from and the only way California can protect sharks globally is if they were not selling."
California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Oregon and Washington have passed laws banning the buying and selling of shark fins, according to The Humane Society of the United States. Similar bans are in effect in three U.S. Pacific territories ? Guam, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/federal-rule-could-upend-states-shark-fin-bans-203717163.html
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Saturday, June 29, 2013
Do Vegetarians Live Longer? - Men's Journal
More benefits of a vegetarian diet.
Skip the steaks and burgers and you might just live longer. A recent study of more than 73,000 adults found that, overall, vegetarians were 12 percent less likely to die of any cause than meat eaters. The mortality rates were even lower for meat-shunning men. And when looking at specific causes of death, the researchers found that vegetarian guys were significantly less apt to die from heart disease than meat eaters, while meat-versus-no-meat didn't seem to matter for women.
We've been hearing for a while now that vegetarian diets are ?ber-healthy and that red meat can up your chances of heart disease and certain cancers. But this study is especially telling because, besides its huge sample size, these weren't just any 73,000 people off the street. Every participant belonged to the Seventh-Day Adventist faith, which, according to the researchers, means they were way less likely to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes than the general population and more likely to exercise and maintain a healthy weight. That right there scratches out several other serious risk factors for heart disease and potential causes of death that otherwise could have influenced the results. "This population's lifestyle characteristics reduced the likelihood that other factors accounted for the lower death rates among vegetarians," says lead study author Dr. Michael Orlich, a professor of preventative medicine at Loma Linda University in California. So, diet really did make the difference.
As for why more vegetarian men than women were spared from heart-disease-related deaths, Orlich isn't entirely sure, but he has a solid guess. "It may be that men in general have higher risks of premature death from certain causes like cardiovascular disease than women do, which a vegetarian diet helps to reduce," he says. "This is a very important question that we want to investigate further."
So what makes vegetarianism so healthful? "A diet built on plant proteins, fruits, and vegetables tends to be lower in health offenders like saturated fat and cholesterol but higher in health promoters like fiber, potassium, magnesium, and vitamins B, C, and E, as well as phytochemicals such as carotenoids and flavonoids," says Jennifer McDaniel, MS, RD, spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. But that doesn't mean every meat-free food is a winner. "You still have to consider the quality of everything you eat," McDaniel says. "After all, cookies, soda, and potato chips are technically vegetarian."
Source: http://www.mensjournal.com/health-fitness/nutrition/do-vegetarians-live-longer-20130628
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Could Russia take in 'idealist' Snowden?
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who Russian officials say is spending his sixth day hiding somewhere in Moscow's cavernous Sheremetyevo airport, has still not been heard from or even spotted by journalists who've been eagerly combing the transit zone for a glimpse of him.
But his presence has not passed unnoticed in Moscow political circles, where a growing number of voices are suggesting that he should be brought in from the cold and offered asylum in Russia.
While a skeptic may perceive a cynical streak behind the unfolding public discussion ? a desire to exploit Mr. Snowden's situation for propaganda points against the US ? it might also be argued that some of the Western concepts being introduced into mainstream Russia political discourse, pretty much for the first time, may be hard to put back in the box later.
RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.
One prominent theme is the jarring notion that the old cold war paradigm ? the US-led "free world" versus the Soviet "evil empire" ? is being been stood on its head, and the US now looks like a ponderous, bureaucratic police state, while modern Russia has morphed into a beacon of hope for Western freedom-seekers.
"[Julian] Assange, [Bradley] Manning and Snowden are not spies who sold classified information for money. They acted on their beliefs. They are new dissidents, fighters against the system," the head of the State Duma's international affairs committee, Alexei Pushkov, tweeted Wednesday.
Mr. Pushkov, who excels at skewering Western "double standards," has maintained a steady stream of similar comments on his Twitter feed in recent days.
"The idealist Snowden was apparently convinced it would all turn out like a Hollywood movie: he will expose abuses and democracy will prevail. But life, and the US, are tougher," he tweeted Friday.
A somewhat different tack was taken by the head of the Kremlin's in-house human rights commission, Mikhail Fedotov, who told journalists that Snowden "deserves protection" and should file a request for refuge in Russia.
"If Mr. Snowden files such a request, then it can be considered by the president," Fedotov told the independent Interfax agency on Thursday.
"This situation is utterly clear to me from the point of view of human rights protection: a person, disclosing secrets concealed by special services, if these secrets are a threat to the society, a threat to millions people ? which refers to the total surveillance of the Internet ? such a person does deserve political asylum in this or that country," Fedotov said.
The official line, expressed by President Vladimir Putin, is that Russia will not hand Snowden over to the US but that he should move on, the sooner the better.
Before he goes, however, Russia's Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, has struck a special committee and invited him in to testify about the impact of NSA spying on Russian citizens.
Sen. Ruslan Gattarov, head of the Federation Council's working group to investigate Snowden's claims, says his main concern is not to investigate the NSA.
He insists the committee's key interest is to explore the alleged abuse-of-trust by giant Internet companies ? such as Google, Yahoo, and Facebook, and others with huge slices of the Russian market ? which Snowden's revelations suggest have handed over user data to the NSA.
"We don't want to get involved in secret service conspiracies. Whatever the NSA was doing is not particularly our concern," Mr. Gattarov says.
"We want to know how it happens that big global Internet companies, which operate in Russia, too, find it possible to leak user data to a third party. The public has been assured by these companies that our personal correspondence, our bank accounts, our Internet habits are all perfectly secure. But what we're learning from Mr. Snowden's exposures strongly suggest otherwise."
"So, we want to talk with him. As soon as he settles his status, we invite him to come to the Federation Council and discuss with us any evidence that is relevant to this probe," he adds.
Sergei Markov, a frequent adviser to President Putin, says the growing public debate over what to do about Snowden really is something new, and it puts the Kremlin in a difficult spot.
"Russia really would prefer if Snowden went somewhere else, but it is quite possible that we'd take him in if he asked for asylum here. It would create difficulties with the US, but Russia would lose a lot of credibility if it were to turn him down," Mr. Markov says.
"Of course, Snowden probably doesn't want refuge in Russia. He belongs to international civil society, the so-called 'warriors of freedom,' who probably dislike Russia as much as they do the US. He'd probably see Russian asylum as the total failure of his mission. But in Russian society, there is a real, very healthy discussion going on about this. People are reexamining their beliefs. For example, human rights advocates who normally just criticize the Kremlin are being forced to answer the question: Are you more pro-American, or more pro-human rights?" he says.
"If you're more pro-human rights, it means you should support Snowden even if it means offending the US."
RECOMMENDED: Do you know anything about Russia? A quiz.
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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/russia-debates-letting-snowden-cold-160350294.html
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Friday, June 28, 2013
Report: Facebook's Testing a New Group Chat Feature
Hoping to compete against Apple's iMessages, Google's Hangouts and apps like WhatsApp, Facebook is reportedly testing a new chat room feature that would allow for hosted group chats on the web.
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Public transit agencies deride 'patent trolls'
CHICAGO (AP) ? Public transit agencies nationwide are being targeted with questionable lawsuits by so-called patent trolls squeezing settlements out of financially strapped public entities unable to mount legal defenses against claims they are infringing on intellectual property protections, industry representatives said Thursday.
Lawsuits or threats of legal action have been lodged against at least 23 transit providers in some of the nation's largest cities, including New York, Boston and Chicago. Opponents say the claims are frivolous and are stifling innovation, draining resources and costing taxpayers millions.
"We are seeing this huge onslaught of patent lawsuits," said James LaRusch, chief counsel for the nonprofit American Public Transportation Association, which has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to protect its hundreds of member agencies.
Critics of the practice deride the firms as "patent trolls" because they appear to do little genuine business or technology development beyond buying up patents and using them to demand licensing fees from other companies.
Known in technical jargon as patent assertion entities, they have also gone after private sector companies but are increasingly targeting public and governmental agencies, including utilities, cities, the U.S. Postal Service and now transit providers. The resulting settlements are draining already depleted public coffers.
That shift is alarming some in Congress, where several pending bills could help limit the damage from frivolous claims. The head of the Federal Trade Commission is seeking an investigation of such firms and their business practices.
"This type of litigation undercuts the purpose of the patent system and exploits the fact that public agencies are at a disadvantage in defending themselves," said U.S. Rep. Daniel Lipinski of Illinois, the state's senior member on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The Chicago-area Democrat wrote to FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez this week to urge her to follow through with an investigation that would determine the scope of such activity and identify which companies are the most prolific filers of such legal claims.
The claims against transit companies have largely challenged the use of GPS-based tracking systems that alert customers to bus and train arrival times at stations and online.
The transit industry association is challenging the validity of the patents cited in the claims, but says many agencies have no choice but to settle to avoid litigation costs that can reach $2 million to $3 million even if they're successful.
The American Public Transportation Association believes there are only two companies targeting transit agencies with lawsuits. It is aware of 11 formal lawsuits and 12 other threats of legal action but believes there are many others that have not become public due to confidentiality clauses in the settlement deals.
The lawsuit the association filed Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan identifies the two companies as ArrivalStar S.A. in Luxembourg and its affiliate Melvino Technologies Ltd., an offshore firm in the British Virgin Islands.
Dowell Baker, a Lafayette, Ind., law firm that represents the two companies did not respond to a phone message seeking comment Thursday.
One of the law firm's claim letters, sent to the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority in February 2012, says it represents a founder of ArrivalStar who invented tracking technology used in public transportation and shipment of cargo and packages.
"ArrivalStar has licensed its technology to over 180 companies," the claim letter says. "Although many of these licenses were granted in settlement of patent infringement actions filed by ArrivalStar, many resulted from amicable business negotiations."
LaRusch, of the American Public Transportation Association, disputed the assertion that the companies have developed any technology.
"They don't develop anything. They don't produce anything. Their reason for being appears to be simply to file claims against people who go out and create things," he said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/public-transit-agencies-deride-patent-trolls-184526586.html
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Jarrett, Braxton among 2014 NEA Jazz Masters
NEW YORK (AP) ? Pianist Keith Jarrett says "only music excites me, and awards and ceremonies do not." But the pianist says he feels honored to receive the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award, joining many past recipients who've influenced him.
The NEA announced Thursday that its 2014 Jazz Masters ? the nation's highest jazz honor ? also include avant-garde saxophonist-composer Anthony Braxton, bassist-educator Richard Davis, and educator Jamey Aebersold.
Jarrett was cited by the NEA for his work in both the jazz and classical fields. His latest release, "Somewhere," marks the 30th anniversary of his trio with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette. His recording of J.S. Bach's "Six Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard" with violinist Michelle Makarski is due out in September.
___
Online:
www.arts.gov/honors/jazz
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jarrett-braxton-among-2014-nea-jazz-masters-184947735.html
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Stress: It should never be ignored, experts say
June 27, 2013 ? Work pressure, tension at home, financial difficulties ? the list of causes of stress grows longer every day. There have been several studies in the past showing that stress can have negative effects on health (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, high blood pressure and more). The Inserm researchers at unit 1018, "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre," working in collaboration with researchers from England and Finland have demonstrated that it is essential to be vigilant about this and to take it very seriously when people say that they are stressed, particularly if they believe that stress is affecting their health. According to the study performed by these researchers, with 7268 participants, such people have twice as much risk of a heart attack, compared with others.
These results have been published in European Heart Journal.
Today, stress is recognized as one of the main health problems. When people face a situation that is considered stressful, they may experience several physical, emotional and behavioural symptoms (anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, skin problems, migraines, etc.). Previous studies, particularly the recent studies performed within the Whitehall II cohort[1], composed of several thousand British civil servants, have already shown that the physiological changes associated with stress can have an adverse effect on health.
Herman Nabi, Inserm researcher at Unit 1018 "The Epidemiology and Public Health Research Centre," and his team went further and studied people who declared themselves to be stressed, in order to look more closely at whether there was a link between their feeling and the occurrence of coronary disease some years later.
Using a questionnaire prepared for the Whitehall II cohort, the participants were invited to answer the following question: "to what extent do you consider the stress or pressure that you have experienced in your life has an effect on your health," the participants had the following answers to choose from: "not at all," "a little," "moderately," "a lot" or "extremely."
The participants were also asked about their stress level, as well as about other factors that might affect their health, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and levels of physical activity. Arterial pressure, diabetes, body mass index and socio-demographic data such as marital status, age, sex, ethnicity and socio-economic status were also taken into account.
According to the results, the participants who reported, at the start of the study, that their health was "a lot" or "extremely" affected by stress had more than twice the risk (2.12 times higher) of having or dying from a heart attack, compared with those who had not indicated any effect of stress on their health.
From a clinical point of view, these results suggest that the patient's perception of the impact of stress on their health may be highly accurate, to the extent that it can predict a health event as serious and common as coronary disease.
In addition, this study also shows that this link is not affected by differences between individuals related to biological, behavioural or psychological factors. However, capacities for dealing with stress do differ massively between individuals depending on the resources available to them, such as support from close friends and family.
According to Hermann Nabi, "the main message is that complaints from patients concerning the effect of stress on their health should not be ignored in a clinical environment, because they may indicate an increased risk of developing and dying of coronary disease. Future studies of stress should include perceptions of patients concerning the effect of stress on their health."
In the future, as Hermann Nabi emphasizes, "tests will be needed to determine whether the risk of disease can be reduced by increasing the clinical attention given to patients who complain of stress having an effect on their health."
[1] Created in 1985, the Whitehall II cohort, consisting of British civil servants, is making a major contribution to research in social epidemiology and is considered internationally to be one of the main sources of scientific knowledge concerning social determinant factors for health.
Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/K2nponAqd5k/130627131839.htm
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Thursday, June 27, 2013
How the 1990s Imagined the Future of Marriage Equality
Today was a historic day for equality, as the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the misleadingly named Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Futurist thinkers have been imagining this day for years, and back in 1990 Newsweek gave hints about what marriage might look like in the world of tomorrow.
DOMA was signed into law in 1996 as a reactionary, bipartisan response to the slowly swelling tide of gay acceptance happening in the U.S. during the early 1990s. As Newsweek put it in 1990, it was "surprising" that gay and lesbian couples (with and without children) were beginning to be recognized as families by the American public. Surprising or not, "mainstream" American culture in the 1990s was coming to realize that what constitutes a family couldn't be defined by "Leave It To Beaver," or any other cultural touchstone that romanticized a familial past that never was.
The Winter/Spring special edition of Newsweek from 1990 is an interesting artifact from this pre-DOMA era. The magazine looked at the family of the 21st century in many of its different forms, including gay couples. While the magazine doesn't promise that gay marriage is on the horizon, they profiled a few different families with same-sex partners, including a couple from California who had adopted two children:
Among these nontraditional parents are Michael Pesce, 35, and Jonathan Jarnig, 36. Pesce, a social worker, and Jarnig, a maitre d' at a restaurant, live in a three-bedroom house in suburban Sacramento with their two kids, James, 7, and Carly, 5. Parenthood was always a compelling goal for both men; they even discussed it on their second date seven years ago. "I didn't feel like a whole person without kids," recalls Jarnig. "I didn't feel it was right for gay people to be robbed of a sense of family." The couple, whom the kids call Dad and Poppa, are among fewer than a dozen gay couples in the United States who have been granted "joint adoption," which means both fathers have the same secure legal relationship to the children.
The magazine went on to explain just how normal (and boring) the couple was. The gays: they're just like us!
"Our values really are the same as those of our parents," says Jarnig. "We just happen to be two men." "We're really quite boring," adds Pesce. "Just homebodies. We're Ozzie and Harry." Their home is one with rules and structure: no playing in the living room, cleaning up the family room after play, and no candy. But it's also one with love and understanding for the children, who are Hispanic siblings. "It's important to tell them every night that they're valued and loved," says Pesce.
In a sidebar to the story, Newsweek outlined the various rights of domestic partners that had been accruing in some progressive American cities since the late 1980s:
New York
In July 1989 the Court of Appeals held that a long-term, live-in gay couple may be considered a family under the state's rent-control regulations.
San Francisco
In June 1989 the Board of Supervisors passed legislation recognizing homosexual and unmarried heterosexual couples as families and allowed for registration of "domestic partners."
Madison
In August 1988 the city council OK'd sick and bereavement leave to domestic partners of city employees and extended the right of domestic partners to live in single-family zones.
West Hollywood
In December 1988 the California city became "self-insured" and offered medical benefits to domestic partners, extending a 1985 ordinance permitting domestic partners official registration and hospital and prison visitation rights.
The article put the U.S. family census figures into perspective for a 1990s audience. According to Newsweek's citation of the latest figures at the time, 1.6 million same-sex couples were living together in 1988, and about a quarter of America's 91 million households fit what the magazine called a "traditional" model for a family ? one that we can guess means a heterosexual married couple with children.
But how those same-sex couples were counted obviously varied, since only about 150,000 same-sex couples were accounted for in the ?same-sex unmarried partner? category in the official 1990 U.S. census ? far fewer than the 1.6 million number that Newsweek gave for just two years earlier.
Figures from the annual census reports underscore Leonard's argument. Fewer than 27 percent of the nation's 91 million households in 1988 fit the traditional model of a family. At the same time, the bureau has counted 1.6 million same-sex couples living together, up from 1.3 million in 1970, and 2.6 million opposite-sex couples sharing a household, up from just half a million in 1970. Reasons cited for these demographic changes include divorce, delayed marriage and the growth of the gay-liberation movement. For now the Census Bureau still excludes most nontraditional arrangements from its "family" category. But Paul Glick, until 1981 the department's senior demographer, thinks the federal legal definition of family could broaden considerably in the next 20 years.
And here we are, 23 years later with a definitive victory for marriage equality. Sure, there's still plenty of work to be done at the state level to ensure that families are treated equally. But at least at the federal level, the retrofuture promise of marriage equality in the United States has finally arrived.
Image: Newsweek special issue Winter/Spring 1990
Source: http://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/how-the-1990s-imagined-the-future-of-marriage-equality-585173811
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This Simple First Aid Kit Will Let You Save Yourself Single-Handedly
For most accidents around the home, all you really need is a simple first aid kit?and preferably one that's easy to use. Designed by Gabriele Meldaikyte, the Home First Aid Kit only needs one free hand, and is intended to be easy for even children to use.
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Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Singapore to Indonesia: Stop sending us your smog.
Air pollution in Singapore?rose to unhealthy levels this week because of illegal forest clearing in Indonesia,?prompting?Singapore?to urge Indonesia to do something to end the haze.
A masked man walks as the sun sets among buildings covered with haze at the Singapore Central Business District Thursday, June 20, 2013. Singapore urged people to remain indoors amid unprecedented levels of air pollution Thursday as a smoky haze wrought by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia worsened dramatically.
Joseph Nair/AP
EnlargeCloudy skies in Jakarta were no match for the breathtaking haze that hit Singapore?on Thursday?as air-pollution levels rose to record highs and sparked a war of words between diplomats in both countries over who should shoulder the blame.
Skip to next paragraph Sara SchonhardtIndonesia Correspondent
Sara Schonhardt is a Monitor contributor based in Jakarta, Indonesia, where she has been reporting since 2009.?Sara previously worked for various media in Thailand and Cambodia and received her master?s degree from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University.
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Companies have asked employees to work from home, the military has stopped training outdoors, and pictures of Singapore's iconic Marine Bay Sands towers barely visible through the haze have been splashed across social media platforms?and newspapers.
Despite the international blame game, the immediate cause was clear enough: fires used to clear land in Sumatra for farming and palm oil plantations. A local meteorological agency reported nearly 150 hotspots alone in Riau Province, itself a hotspot for mining, logging, and palm oil production.
Environmental advocacy group Greenpeace released a statement saying that the fires illustrated how Indonesia?s government policies aimed at reducing deforestation had failed?since half of them were in areas off-limits to land clearing.
Each year slash and burn practices in Indonesia shroud neighboring Singapore and Malaysia in thick haze. As deforestation has accelerated in recent years, it has worsened.
On Thursday,?Singapore sent a delegation from its environmental agency to Jakarta to call for immediate action.?Singapore?s environment minister, Vivian Balakrishnan, issued an angry statement?on his Facebook page saying no country or corporation ?has the right to pollute the air at the expense of Singaporeans? health and well-being.??
But Indonesia shot back its own statement: Singapore should stop ?behaving like a child,? said Indonesia?s?Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare, Agung Laksono, who oversees fire response.
Mr. Balakrishnan had asked the Indonesian government to name and shame the companies involved in the illegal burning. But Indonesia?s forestry ministry launched back, saying?Singapore and Malaysia shared the responsibility for putting pressure on the resource extraction industry since many of companies were based in their countries.
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UN diplomat: 10 incidents of chemical use by Syria
UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? A U.N. diplomat says Britain and the United States have notified the United Nations of 10 different incidents of alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian government.
The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because all the incidents have not been made public, said Wednesday that the Americans and British have found no evidence that the opposition possesses or has used chemical weapons.
Syria has refused to allow a U.N. investigation team led by Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom into the country to investigate allegations raised initially by Britain and France and then by the U.S.
Sellstrom was in Turkey Sunday and Monday, reportedly talking to doctors who treated victims of chemical use, and is expected to produce an interim report on his findings, the diplomat said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-diplomat-10-incidents-chemical-syria-151606349.html
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Personal Injury Claims: Don't Settle Without First Knowing Your Rights
The majority of Americans spend thousands of dollars each year on insurance. But because most of us never suffer the large losses, we may have very little experience in dealing with insurance companies. Many people don?t realize that insurance companies only have one goal, to avoid paying on claims, even to their own insured. And when they have to pay up, they will do everything they can to get you to sign the release and discharge your rights before you even know what they are.
In order to avoid these cheap tactics and games the insurance companies like to play, you need to hire an experienced Orange County accident attorney to deal with the insurance company and get you the just compensation that you deserve.
Generally speaking, whether an accident victim will recover the full compensation they are entitled to largely depends on the individual?s own knowledge of his or her rights. And since most victims are either unaware of the full extent of their rights or may be too busy dealing with their injuries, the insurance adjusters will take advantage of the situation by tricking the claimant into signing a release that places the claimant at a major disadvantage.
In short, insurance companies and adjusters are not sympathetic to the rights of injured claimants. This is precisely why you need to have an experienced Orange County accident attorney on your side that will have your best interests in mind and advise you of all of your rights before you enter into any settlement agreements.
If you or a loved one has been injured in an accident, you may be entitled to compensation. At the Law Offices of Samer Habbas, our legal team is dedicated to getting you the maximum compensation you and your family deserve for the injuries you have suffered.
To schedule a free consultation with Orange County accident attorney Samer Habbas, please call (888) 848-5084 today.
This entry was posted in Personal Injury and tagged Personal Injury. Bookmark the permalink.Source: http://www.habbaspilaw.com/personal-injury-claims-dont-settle-first-knowing-rights/
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NSA leaker's global flight appears stalled for now
QUITO, Ecuador (AP) ? Edward Snowden's stop-and-start flight across the globe appeared to stall in Moscow as the United States ratcheted up pressure to hand over the National Security Agency leaker who had seemed on his way to Ecuador to seek asylum.
In Ecuador's most extensive statement about the case, the foreign minister hailed Snowden on Monday as "a man attempting to bring light and transparency to facts that affect everyone's fundamental liberties."
The decision whether to grant Snowden the asylum he has requested is a choice between "betraying the citizens of the world or betraying certain powerful elites in a specific country," Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino told reporters while visiting Vietnam.
But what had been expected to be a straightforward journey to this South America nation dissolved into uncertainty by day's end. Snowden didn't use a reservation for a Havana-bound Russian airline flight that could have served as the first leg of a trip to safety in Ecuador, and his allies would not say where he was or what changed. Patino said Tuesday that he didn't know Snowden's exact whereabouts.
In Washington, the White House demanded that Ecuador and other countries deny Snowden asylum. It also sharply criticized China for letting him leave Hong Kong, and urged Russia to "do the right thing" and send him to the U.S. to face espionage charges.
A high-ranking Ecuadorean official told The Associated Press that Russia and Ecuador were discussing where Snowden could go, and the process could take days. He also said Ecuador's ambassador to Moscow had not seen or spoken to Snowden. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
Ecuadoreans debated whether accepting Snowden would be a step too far for leftist President Rafael Correa, who has won wide popularity with oil-funded social and infrastructure programs while picking public fights with his country's main export market, the U.S. Correa has expelled U.S. diplomats, shuttered an American military base and offered refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London to Julian Assange, praising the founder of Wikileaks for publishing reams of leaked secret U.S. documents. Assange has embraced Snowden and WikiLeaks experts are believed to be assisting him in arranging asylum.
With unprecedented international attention focused on Ecuador, many citizens said they felt giving asylum to Snowden would be courting trouble for no reason, particularly with a key U.S. trade agreement up for renewal in coming weeks.
"I think it's just being provocative," said Blanca Sanchez, 50, who sells cosmetics in the capital, Quito. "He needs to take responsibility for himself. This isn't our problem."
U.S and Ecuadorean officials said they believed Snowden was still in Russia, where he fled Sunday after weeks of hiding out in Hong Kong following his disclosure of the broad scope of two highly classified counterterror surveillance programs to two newspapers. The programs collect vast amounts of Americans' phone records and worldwide online data in the name of national security.
Assange declined to discuss where Snowden was but said he was safe. Assange said Snowden was only passing through Russia and had applied for asylum in Ecuador, Iceland and possibly other countries.
State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the U.S. had made demands to "a series of governments," including Ecuador, that Snowden be barred from any international travel other than to be returned to the U.S. The U.S has revoked Snowden's passport.
The White House said Hong Kong's refusal to detain Snowden had "unquestionably" hurt relations between the United States and China. While Hong Kong has a high degree of autonomy from the rest of China, experts said Beijing probably orchestrated Snowden's exit in an effort to remove an irritant in Sino-U.S. relations.
Secretary of State John Kerry urged Moscow to "do the right thing" and turn over Snowden.
"We're following all the appropriate legal channels and working with various other countries to make sure that the rule of law is observed," President Barack Obama told reporters when asked if he was confident that Russia would expel Snowden.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said the U.S. was expecting the Russians "to look at the options available to them to expel Mr. Snowden back to the United States to face justice for the crimes with which he is charged."
Carney was tougher on China.
"The Chinese have emphasized the importance of building mutual trust," he said. "And we think that they have dealt that effort a serious setback. ... This was a deliberate choice by the government to release a fugitive despite a valid arrest warrant, and that decision unquestionably has a negative impact on the U.S.-China relationship."
Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said China had harmed its relationship with the U.S. by allowing Snowden to leave Hong Kong. China's move set a "bad precedent" that could unravel extradition treaties or other legal agreements between countries, she said Monday in Los Angeles.
Assange and attorneys for WikiLeaks assailed the U.S. as "bullying" foreign nations into refusing asylum to Snowden. WikiLeaks counsel Michael Ratner said Snowden is protected as a whistleblower by the same international treaties that the U.S. has in the past used to criticize policies in China and African nations.
Ecuadorean analysts said accepting Snowden could jeopardize tariff-free access to U.S. markets for Ecuador's fruit, seafood and flowers. U.S. trade, which also includes oil, accounts for half of Ecuador's exports and about 400,000 jobs in the nation of 14.6 million people.
The U.S. Andean Trade Preference Act requires congressional renewal soon and hosting Snowden "doesn't help Ecuador's efforts to extend it," said Ramiro Crespo, director of the Quito-based financial analysis firm Analytica Securities. "The United States is an important market for us, and treating a big client this way isn't appropriate from a commercial point of view."
At the same time, high oil prices, a growing mining industry and rising ties with China may give Correa a sense of protection from U.S. repercussions. Many of the Ecuadoreans who re-elected Correa in February with 57 percent of the vote see flouting the U.S. as a welcome expression of independence, particularly when it comes in the form of granting asylum.
"This person who's being pursued by the CIA, our policy is loving people like that, protecting them, perhaps giving them the rights that their own countries don't give them. I think this is a worthy effort by us," said office worker Juan Francisco Sambrano.
In April 2011, the Obama administration expelled the Ecuadorean ambassador to Washington after the U.S. envoy to Ecuador, Heather Hodges, was expelled for making corruption allegations about senior Ecuadorean police authorities in confidential documents disclosed by WikiLeaks.
American experts said the U.S. will have limited, if any, influence to persuade governments to turn over Snowden if he heads to Cuba or nations in South America that are seen as hostile to Washington.
"There's little chance Ecuador would give him back" if that country agreed to take him, said James F. Jeffrey, a former ambassador and career diplomat.
Snowden is a former CIA employee who later was hired as a contractor for the NSA. In that job, he gained access to documents that he gave to The Guardian and The Washington Post to expose what he contends are privacy violations by an authoritarian government.
Snowden also told the South China Morning Post that "the NSA does all kinds of things like hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal all of your SMS data." He is believed to have more than 200 additional sensitive documents in laptops he is carrying.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nsa-leakers-global-flight-appears-stalled-now-051718996.html
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