Homeric epics were written in 762 BCE, give or take, new study suggests

Feb. 27, 2013 ? When were Homer's works written? One of literature's oldest mysteries is a step closer to being solved after a recent study that dates the The Iliad to 762 BCE and adds a quantitative means of testing ideas about history by analyzing the evolution of language.

The epic poem The Iliad, set amid the final year of the Trojan War, is attributed to the ancient Greek poet Homer and is foundational to Western literature, but scholars have not reached a consensus about whether it was written shortly after the war or centuries later. Archaeological and historical evidence have placed the text's origins in the 7th or 8th century BCE, but such records are sparse and often have an uncertain validity.

Santa Fe Institute External Professor Mark Pagel, an evolutionary biologist at Reading University (UK), and colleagues decided to ask what scholars refer to as "The Homeric Question" using a quantitative approach borrowed from study of evolution.

In determining when species emerged and in gauging their relatedness to others, biologists compare genetic and physical traits along with novel adaptations. Similarly, linguists compare words that share an ancestor (e.g., water in English and wasser in German both come from the proto-Germanic wator), as well as words that supplant earlier terms (the modern English dog, for example, largely replaced the Old English hund), to pinpoint when a lexicon or language was in fashion.

Pagel's team compared the Greek vocabulary in Homer's Iliad to modern Greek, relying on a 200-word lexicon found in every language and contrasting the distantly related Hittite as an indicator of divergence.

Their methods date Homer's language to 762 BCE. The statistical model, says Pagel, "is completely ignorant to history -- it doesn't know who Homer is and doesn't know Greek." Accordingly, the potential date ranges from the improbable extremes of 376 BCE to 1157 BCE. But the estimate attaches a robust likelihood to the date, and it ties nicely to Nestor's Cup, a vase dated to 723 BCE that is thought to carry an inscription from The Iliad.

The study reveals "an astonishing regularity in the way languages evolve," notes Pagel. "That we can blindly apply rates of language change to Homeric and modern Greek and come up with 762 BCE tells us language is behaving in a regular and predictive way."

Their study was published in BioEssays online on February 18.

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Journal Reference:

1. Eric Lewin Altschuler, Andreea S. Calude, Andrew Meade, Mark Pagel. Linguistic evidence supports date for Homeric epics. BioEssays, 2013; DOI: 10.1002/bies.201200165

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/52c15f7yoS4/130227183320.htm

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Actor Dale Robertson dies in California hospital

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ? Dale Robertson, an Oklahoma native who became a star of television and movie Westerns during the genre's heyday, died Tuesday. He was 89.

Robertson's niece, Nancy Robertson, said her uncle died at Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, Calif., following a brief illness.

Dale Robertson had bit parts in films including "The Boy with the Green Hair" and the Joan Crawford vehicle "Flamingo Road" before landing more high-profile roles such as Jesse James in "Fighting Man of the Plains."

In the 1950s, he moved into television, starring in series such as "Tales of Wells Fargo" (1957-62), "Iron Horse" (1966) and "Death Valley Days" (1968-70).

Robertson continued to work in TV in the 1970s, and in the 1980s he landed roles in the popular night-time soap operas "Dallas" and "Dynasty."

In 1993, he took what would be his final role, as Zeke in the show "Harts of the West," before retiring from acting to spend more time at his ranch in Yukon, Okla., where he lived until moving to the San Diego area in recent months, Nancy Robertson said.

Dale Robertson would want to be remembered as a father, a grandfather and an Oklahoman, she said.

"He came back a lot when he was in Hollywood, and he came back (to Oklahoma) after retiring," she said.

"I remember him as a larger-than-life fellow," she said. "When he was in town it was always very exciting. It always meant something magical was going to happen," such as another actor or performing artist accompanying him on his visits.

Born Dayle Lymoine Robertson to Melvin and Vervel Robertson in Harrah, on July 14, 1923, Robertson attended Oklahoma Military College at 17 and boxed in professional prize fights to earn money.

He joined the U.S. Army and fought in North Africa and Europe during World War II. Robertson was wounded twice and awarded the Bronze and Silver Stars and the Purple Heart.

While stationed at San Luis Obispo, Calif., he had a photograph taken for his mother. A copy of the photo displayed in the photo shop window attracted movie scouts, and the 6-foot-tall, 180-pound Robertson soon was on his way to Hollywood.

Will Rogers Jr., son of fellow Oklahoma-born actor and writer Will Rogers, once told Robertson to avoid formal training and keep his own persona.

Robertson received the Golden Boot Award in 1985, and was inducted into the Hall of Great Western Performers and the Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.

He was married several times, most recently in 1980 to Susan Robbins, who survives him along with two children.

Nancy Robertson said her uncle will be cremated and that a memorial service will be held in a few weeks.

_____

Former Associated Press writer Rochelle Hines contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/actor-dale-robertson-dies-california-hospital-011301126.html

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Camera inside spiraling football provides ball's-eye view of field

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
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Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon, Japanese researchers produce wide-angle video with single camera

PITTSBURGHFootball fans have become accustomed to viewing televised games from a dozen or more camera angles, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo suggest another possible camera position: inside the ball itself.

The researchers have shown that a camera embedded in the side of a rubber-sheathed plastic foam football can record video while the ball is in flight that could give spectators a unique, ball's-eye view of the playing field. Because a football can spin at 600 rpm, the raw video is an unwatchable blur. But the researchers developed a computer algorithm that converts the raw video into a stable, wide-angle view.

Kris Kitani, a post-doctoral fellow in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, is aware that a football league is unlikely to approve camera-embedded footballs for regular play. Even so, the BallCam might be useful for TV, movie productions or training purposes. Two demonstration videos are available on his website: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kkitani/Top.html.

One of his co-authors, UEC's Kodai Horita, a visiting graduate student last year at the Robotics Institute, will present a paper about BallCam on March 8 at the Augmented Human International Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.

Kitani said BallCam was developed as part of a larger exploration of digital sports. "We're interested in how technology can be used to enhance existing sports and how it might be used to create new sports," he explained. In some cases, athletic play may be combined with arts or entertainment; a camera-embedded ball, for instance, might be used to capture the expressions on the face of players as they play catch with it.

Other researchers have developed throwable cameras that produce static images or use multiple cameras to capture stabilized video. The BallCam system developed by Kitani and Horita, along with

Hideki Sasaki and Professor Hideki Hoike of UEC, uses a single camera with a narrow field of view to generate a dynamic, wide-angle video.

When the ball is thrown in a clean spiral, the camera records a succession of frames as the ball rotates. When processing these frames, the algorithm uses the sky to determine which frames were made when the camera was looking up and which were made when it was looking down. The upward frames are discarded and the remaining, overlapping frames are stitched together with special software to create a large panorama. Similar stitching software is used by NASA to combine images from Mars rovers into large panoramas and is increasingly found in digital cameras.

The algorithm also makes corrections for some distortions in the image that twist yard lines and occur because of the speed of the ball's rotation. Further work will be necessary to eliminate all of the distortion, Kitani said, and a faster camera sensor or other techniques will be needed to reduce blurring. Multiple cameras might also be added to the football to improve the finished video.

###

The Robotics Institute is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University:

Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

---

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?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 27-Feb-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Byron Spice
bspice@cs.cmu.edu
412-268-9068
Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon, Japanese researchers produce wide-angle video with single camera

PITTSBURGHFootball fans have become accustomed to viewing televised games from a dozen or more camera angles, but researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Electro-Communications (UEC) in Tokyo suggest another possible camera position: inside the ball itself.

The researchers have shown that a camera embedded in the side of a rubber-sheathed plastic foam football can record video while the ball is in flight that could give spectators a unique, ball's-eye view of the playing field. Because a football can spin at 600 rpm, the raw video is an unwatchable blur. But the researchers developed a computer algorithm that converts the raw video into a stable, wide-angle view.

Kris Kitani, a post-doctoral fellow in Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute, is aware that a football league is unlikely to approve camera-embedded footballs for regular play. Even so, the BallCam might be useful for TV, movie productions or training purposes. Two demonstration videos are available on his website: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kkitani/Top.html.

One of his co-authors, UEC's Kodai Horita, a visiting graduate student last year at the Robotics Institute, will present a paper about BallCam on March 8 at the Augmented Human International Conference in Stuttgart, Germany.

Kitani said BallCam was developed as part of a larger exploration of digital sports. "We're interested in how technology can be used to enhance existing sports and how it might be used to create new sports," he explained. In some cases, athletic play may be combined with arts or entertainment; a camera-embedded ball, for instance, might be used to capture the expressions on the face of players as they play catch with it.

Other researchers have developed throwable cameras that produce static images or use multiple cameras to capture stabilized video. The BallCam system developed by Kitani and Horita, along with

Hideki Sasaki and Professor Hideki Hoike of UEC, uses a single camera with a narrow field of view to generate a dynamic, wide-angle video.

When the ball is thrown in a clean spiral, the camera records a succession of frames as the ball rotates. When processing these frames, the algorithm uses the sky to determine which frames were made when the camera was looking up and which were made when it was looking down. The upward frames are discarded and the remaining, overlapping frames are stitched together with special software to create a large panorama. Similar stitching software is used by NASA to combine images from Mars rovers into large panoramas and is increasingly found in digital cameras.

The algorithm also makes corrections for some distortions in the image that twist yard lines and occur because of the speed of the ball's rotation. Further work will be necessary to eliminate all of the distortion, Kitani said, and a faster camera sensor or other techniques will be needed to reduce blurring. Multiple cameras might also be added to the football to improve the finished video.

###

The Robotics Institute is part of Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science. Follow the school on Twitter @SCSatCMU.

About Carnegie Mellon University:

Carnegie Mellon is a private, internationally ranked research university with programs in areas ranging from science, technology and business, to public policy, the humanities and the arts. More than 12,000 students in the university's seven schools and colleges benefit from a small student-to-faculty ratio and an education characterized by its focus on creating and implementing solutions for real problems, interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. A global university, Carnegie Mellon's main campus in the United States is in Pittsburgh, Pa. It has campuses in California's Silicon Valley and Qatar, and programs in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe and Mexico. The university is in the midst of "Inspire Innovation: The Campaign for Carnegie Mellon University," which aims to build its endowment, support faculty, students and innovative research, and enhance the physical campus with equipment and facility improvements.

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/cmu-cis022713.php

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US to bolster support for Syria rebels, Kerry says

PARIS (AP) ? The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Assad, and Kerry's comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve," Kerry said. "We need to help them to deliver basic services and to protect the legitimate institutions of the state."

The Obama administration is concerned about military equipment falling into the hands of radical Islamists who have become a significant factor in the Syrian conflict and could then use that materiel for terrorist attacks or strikes on Israel. But they're equally fearful that Syrians tired of constant instability will lose faith in an opposition that can do little to improve their daily lives.

Assad "needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this, and we need to convince him of that, and I think the opposition needs more help in order to do that," Kerry said.

A decision whether to vastly increase the size and scope of assistance to Assad's foes is expected by Thursday when Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome that leaders of the opposition Syrian National Coalition have been persuaded to attend, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the shift in strategy has not yet been finalized and still needs to be coordinated with European nations, notably Britain.

France, Syria's former colonial ruler, has been among the strongest supporters of the rebels, and French President Francois Hollande was the first Western leader to recognize their leadership.

"We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Basher al-Assad has to quit," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.

Officials in Washington said the United States was leaning toward providing tens of millions of dollars more in non-lethal assistance to the opposition, including vetted members of the Free Syrian Army who had not been receiving direct U.S. assistance. So far, assistance has been limited to funding for communications and other logistical equipment, a formalized liaison office and an invitation to opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib to visit the United States in the coming weeks. It could be expanded to include pre-packaged meals and medical supplies.

The officials stressed, however, that the administration did not envision American military training for the rebels nor U.S. provision of combat items such as body armor that the British are advocating.

Syria's rebels get most of their arsenal from capturing government bases, but they also are believed to receive help from Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Kerry, who spent summers in France as a child and speaks the language fluently, chatted in French with Hollande and opened his public remarks in the language.

"Now I have to speak in English or they won't let me go back home," he said.

People search for casualties under the rubble at a site hit on Friday by what activists said was a Scud missile in Aleppo's Ard al-Hamra neighbourhood, February 23, 2013. Rockets struck eastern ... more? People search for casualties under the rubble at a site hit on Friday by what activists said was a Scud missile in Aleppo's Ard al-Hamra neighbourhood, February 23, 2013. Rockets struck eastern districts of Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, on Friday, killing at least 29 people and trapping a family of 10 in the ruins of their home, activists in the city said. REUTERS/Muzaffar Salman (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) less?

___

Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-bolster-support-syria-rebels-kerry-says-150432278--politics.html

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Italy parties seek way out of election stalemate

ROME (Reuters) - Italy's stunned political parties looked for a way forward on Tuesday after an election that gave none of them a parliamentary majority, posing the threat of prolonged instability and European financial crisis.

The results, notably by the dramatic surge of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement of comic Beppe Grillo, left the center-left bloc with a majority in the lower house but without the numbers to control the powerful upper chamber, the Senate.

Financial markets fell sharply at the prospect of a stalemate that reawakened memories of the crisis that pushed Italy's borrowing costs toward unsustainably high levels and brought the euro zone to the brink of collapse in 2011.

"The winner is: Ingovernability," ran the headline in Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, reflecting the deadlock the country will have to confront in the next few weeks as sworn enemies are forced to work together to form a government.

Pier Luigi Bersani, head of the center-left Democratic Party (PD), has the difficult task of trying to agree a "grand coalition" with former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, the man he blames for ruining Italy, or striking a deal with Grillo, a completely unknown quantity in conventional politics.

The alternative is new elections either immediately or within a few months, although both Berlusconi and Bersani have indicated that they want to avoid a return to the polls if possible: "Italy cannot be ungoverned and we have to reflect," Berlusconi said in an interview on his own television station.

For his part, Grillo, whose "non-party" movement won the most votes of any single party, has indicated that he believes the next government will last no more than six months.

"They won't be able to govern," he told reporters on Tuesday. "Whether I'm there or not, they won't be able govern."

He said he would work with anyone who supported his policy proposals, which range from anti-corruption measures to green-tinted energy measures but rejected suggestions of entering a formal coalition: "It's not time to talk of alliances... the system has already fallen," he said.

The election, a massive rejection of the austerity policies applied by Prime Minister Mario Monti with the backing of international leaders from U.S. President Barack Obama to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, caused consternation across Europe.

"This is a jump to nowhere that does not bode well either for Italy or Europe," said Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo.

In a sign of worry at the top over what effect the elections could have on the economy, Monti, whose austerity policies were repudiated by voters who shunned his centrist bloc, met the governor of the central bank, the economy minister and the European affairs minister to discuss the situation on Tuesday.

The former EU commissioner and his team of technocrats, who were brought in to govern when Berlusconi was consumed by crisis and scandal, will stay on until a new administration is formed.

UNTHINKABLE WITHOUT GRILLO

Projections for the Senate by the Italian Centre for Electoral Studies indicated that the center-left would have 121 seats, against 117 for the center-right alliance of Berlusconi's PDL and the regionalist Northern League. Grillo would take 54.

That leaves no party with the majority in a chamber which a government must control to pass legislation and opened up the prospect of previously inconceivable partnerships that will test the sometimes fragile internal unity of the main parties.

"The idea of a majority without Grillo is unthinkable. I don't know if anyone in the PD is considering it but I'm against it," said Matteo Orfini, a member of Bersani's PD secretariat.

"The idea of a PD-PDL government, even if it's backed by Monti, doesn't make any sense," he said.

Berlusconi, a media magnate whose campaigning all but wiped out Bersani's once commanding opinion poll lead, hinted in a telephone call to a morning television show that he would be open to a deal with the center-left - but not with Monti, the economics professor who replaced him 15 months ago.

"Italy must be governed," Berlusconi said, adding that he "must reflect" on a possible deal with the center-left. "Everyone must be prepared to make sacrifices," he said of the groups which now have a share of the legislature.

The Milan bourse was down almost 4 percent and the premium Italy pays over Germany to borrow on 10-year widened to a yield spread of 338 basis points, the highest since December 10 and more than 80 points above the level seen earlier on Monday.

At an auction of six-month Treasury bills, Italy's borrowing costs jumped by more than two thirds with the yield reaching 1.237 percent, the highest since October and compared to just 0.730 percent in a similar sale a month ago.

The euro dropped to an almost seven-week low against the dollar in Asia on fears of a revival of the euro zone crisis. It fell as far as $1.3042, its lowest since January 10.

"What is crucial now is that a stable functioning government can be built as swiftly as possible," said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle. "This is not only in the interests of Italy but in the interests of all Europe."

However the view from some voters, weary of the mainstream parties, was unrepentant: "It's good," said Roger Manica, 28, a security guard in Rome, who voted for the center-left PD.

"Next time I'll vote 5-Star. I like that they are changing things, even if it means uncertainty. Uncertainty doesn't matter to me, for me what's important is a good person who gets things done," he said. "Look how well they've done."

A long recession and growing disillusionment with mainstream parties and tax-raising austerity fed the bitter public mood and contributed to the massive rejection of Monti, whose centrist coalition was relegated to the sidelines.

Berlusconi's campaign, mixing sweeping tax cut pledges with relentless attacks on Monti and Merkel, echoed many of the themes pushed by Grillo and underlined the increasingly angry mood of the Italian electorate.

But even if the next government turns away from the tax hikes and spending cuts brought in by Monti, it will struggle to revive an economy that has scarcely grown in two decades.

Monti was widely credited with tightening Italy's public finances and restoring its international credibility after the scandal-plagued Berlusconi, who is currently on trial for having sex with an under-age prostitute.

However he struggled to pass the kind of structural reforms needed to improve competitiveness and lay the foundations for a return to economic growth. A weak center-left government may not find it any easier.

For Italian business, with an illustrious history of export success, the election result brought dismay that there would be no quick change to what they see as a regulatory sclerosis that has kept the economy virtually stagnant for a decade.

"This is probably the worst possible scenario," said Francesco Divella, whose family began selling pasta under its eponymous brand in 1890 in the southern region of Puglia.

"We are very concerned about the uncertainty and apparent ungovernability," said Silvio Pietro Angori, chief executive of Pininfarina, which has designed Ferrari sportscars since 1950. "A company competing on the global markets like Pininfarina needs the support of a stable government that inspires trust."

One of the country's leading bankers summed up his personal reaction: "I'm in shock," he told Reuters. "What a mess!"

(Additional reporting by Barry Moody, Gavin Jones, Lisa Jucca, Steven Jewkes, Steve Scherer Writing by Philip Pullella and James Mackenzie; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/huge-protest-vote-leaves-italy-facing-deadlock-005214049.html

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In Syria, US mission creep with moral creep

President Obama is leaning toward providing nonlethal military equipment to certain rebels in Syria. Doing so runs moral risks. But doing nothing to stop the violence is also a moral risk. Can the US walk this fine line?

By the Monitor's Editorial Board / February 27, 2013

Syrian refugee girls attend class at the Bab Al-Salam refugee camp in Azaz, near the Syrian-Turkish border Feb. 27. REUTERS/

Hamid Khatib/Reuters

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Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the United States would not leave the Syrian opposition ?dangling in the wind? about American support for its democratic cause.

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?We are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President [Bashar] al-Assad,? Mr. Kerry said.

Note the words ?on the ground.? His comment hints at a major shift in President Obama?s strategy toward Syria. On Thursday in Rome, some 100 nations that back regime change in Damascus will meet to decide how to increase their influence in the nearly two-year-long conflict in which neither side is winning.

Because of lack of direct intervention, the US and other countries are losing leverage with the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition. And radical Islamic groups are gaining support. Pressure is mounting on the US to provide at least defensive military equipment, such as body armor, night vision goggles, and military vehicles.

If Mr. Obama moves toward providing such aid directly to rebels, he would enter a rabbit hole of moral choices. What if certain rebels have slaughtered pro-Assad civilians? What if they use such equipment for that purpose again? What if they pass US equipment to terrorist groups??

Such issues mean that Obama must make it clear to the American people that the US is engaging with possibly unsavory people merely as a way to guide events toward a positive outcome. His tactics may be morally uncertain but his goal must not be.

To be sure, not doing more to oust Mr. Assad has its own moral dilemma. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising began. Assad has had ample opportunity to step down. The US and other nations have backed numerous diplomatic initiatives. Now Obama seems ready to try ?hold your nose? diplomacy by backing carefully selected rebels.

The US is hardly new to such morally ambiguous tactics. In 2005, the US worked with Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq to end their support of Al Qaeda. Washington also engaged political leaders of the Irish Republican Army to bring peace to Northern Ireland. In 1980, the US voted to seat the Khmer Rouge at the United Nations. It held talks in 1995 with Serbia?s Slobodan Milosevic ? in Ohio. Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with Joseph Stalin, and Richard Nixon with Mao Zedong.

In such cases, the intent is to end violence, not broaden it, and to extend freedom, not restrict it. The main strength of the US in the world has been its moral standing. To enter into a temporary alliance with questionable groups must be done carefully.

As Portia says in Shakespeare?s ?The Merchant of Venice,? ?How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.?

Doing nothing in Syria to directly end the fighting has become an immoral choice. Assad is even raining down Scud missiles on civilians in the city of Aleppo. Now, if the US provides military equipment to rebels who are the ?good guys,? it is doing something. In this case, it is the higher moral right.

This may be ?realism? in foreign policy but it must be done to uplift the moral behavior of rebels clearly in favor of democracy.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/18nIsy_Eil0/In-Syria-US-mission-creep-with-moral-creep

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Preorders For TheGaming-Focused Razer Edge Tablet Start March ...

Surface Pro fanboys,?Take notice. Your hot little tablet will soon be the runner-up in the ever-growing category of ?incredibly expensive Windows 8 tablets aimed at a tiny, but rabid demographic?.

Razer just announced that the Edge and Edge Pro gaming tablet will ship in late March, with the startup accepting orders starting on March 1st.

All joking aside, the Razer Edge is pretty damn exciting. Born from the minds of Razer?s fans, the Edge is a hardcore gaming tablet ? no tired Fruit Ninja demo here. With a dedicated GPU and either a Core i5 or Core i7 CPU, the Edge can power through nearly any PC game on the market.

What?s more, Razer designed modular accessories for the Edge. There?s a large gaming pad, keyboard, and dock, allowing the Edge to essentially morph into different products as needed.

I spent sometime with the Edge at CES 2013 and was instantly impressed. It ran Dirt 3 seemingly as good as my monster desktop. But, also like my gaming PC, the Edge is expensive.

The Core i5 Razer Edge costs $999 while the Core i7 Razer Edge Pro costs $1299. Plus, each one of the accessories are sold separately. Just the Gamepad Controller is $249. A fully decked-out Razer Edge Pro with Gamepad Controller rings up for $1,698. Ouch.

The Microsoft Surface Pro has so far won over some Windows loyalists. They like the full computing power combined with the svelte form factor. The Surface Pro, with its Core i5 CPU, can power through most daily tasks and even handle some games, but, quite frankly, the husky Razer Edge is fully capable of beating it up and stealing its lunch money.

Source: http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/26/the-gaming-focused-razer-edge-tablet-preorders-start-march-1st-ships-later-in-the-month/

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HBT: Minor leaguer talks about PED pressure

While most of you like to call me a steroids apologist, the fact of the matter is that I am not pro-steroids. I am anti-hysteria and distortion. I am also against a baseball writing community that overwhelmingly thinks that the most worrisome and therefore most newsworthy aspect of PEDs in baseball is what it means for the record books and the Hall of Fame when there are far more important implications of PED use.

If you don?t believe me, allow me to quote myself from April 2007 ? the very month I began blogging about baseball on a regular basis. It was around that time ? months before the Mitchell Report came out ? that Kirk Radomski was making news and the names of some marginal players to whom he dealt were coming out. ?I opined then that, once we know more about PEDs in baseball, we?ll see that it?s likely a bigger problem among those marginal players ? the guys trying to crack the bigs or hang on; the 26th man in the organization who feels he need that extra oomph ? than it is among superstars:

I don?t say this in an effort to minimize the steroid problem. Indeed, minor?leaguers?and players who aren?t superstars constitute the vast majority of professional ballplayers. If my theory holds, the problem could be far greater than that which is portrayed by sportswriters who like to caricature only the most prolific sluggers as juicers. If I?m right, our concern over records and the Hall of Fame would seem pretty petty in comparison to the scores of regular?Joes?who are ruining their health as they walk the line between a lifetime of comfort and a?job at a warehouse. Players that the steroid moralizers in the media almost uniformly ignore.

Now, I got a few things wrong back then, of course. I probably underestimated the number of superstars who used PEDs and I hilariously lumped Alex Rodriguez in with the non-users because that?s the best information anyone had back then. But I think the dynamic still holds: it?s a way, way bigger moral problem for a marginal player to feel like he has no choice but to take steroids than it is ?for an already great baseball player to feel like he should take steroids to break some records.

This doesn?t mean that the superstars aren?t cheaters if they take PEDs and it doesn?t mean that they shouldn?t be held to account. What I?m getting at is that, in the great baseball conversation about PEDs, we should not care nearly as much as we do about records and legacies and we should care far more about what PEDs are doing down at the lower levels of baseball. ?We should spill way less ink about who we think ?the real Home Run King? is ? as if that matters ? and think way harder about those frequent minor league suspensions and what they mean to the people who are faced with the choice to take dangerous drugs or wind up out of baseball.

Against that backdrop is this excellent column from Eric Knott. Knott pitched 11 years in the minors and 24 games in the majors. He is the quintessential borderline guy who, if he had an extra couple of miles per hour on his heater, may have stuck. ?But he didn?t get those miles per hour, and he didn?t try PEDs in an effort to do so.

Knott gives a fascinating, clear-eyed and detailed rundown of the environment in baseball during the height of the Steroid Era, as well as what factored into his decisions about whether to use.

It?s an absolute must-read. There?s more useful information in this piece than anything that can be found in the Mitchell Report or the latest bombastic anti-PEDs screen from Johnny Sportswriter.

Source: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/26/must-click-link-a-career-minor-leaguer-talks-about-the-ped-pressure-felt-by-the-non-superstars/related/

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Airbus parent EADS sees 4Q earnings fall

BERLIN (AP) ? Airbus parent company EADS NV says its net profit declined by nearly half in the fourth quarter as the company took charges at its helicopter and defense electronics divisions.

Full-year earnings, however, were up 19 percent.

EADS said Wednesday that it earned ?325 million ($425 million) in the October-December period, down 47 percent from the previous year's ?612 million.

The company said it took charges of ?198 million at its defense electronics contractor Cassidian, in part reflecting restructuring costs.

Renegotiating contracts with government customers resulted in a ?100 million charge at helicopter maker Eurocopter.

However, fourth-quarter revenues rose 17 percent to ?19.22 billion, with the core Airbus division posting a 36 percent increase.

Full-year net profit increased to ?1.23 billion from ?1.03 billion in 2011.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/airbus-parent-eads-sees-4q-earnings-fall-072313394--finance.html

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3rd Annual "Run Me Home" 10k/5k/Fun Run | Leesburg Sports ...

Saturday, April 27, 2013, 7:30 am

Catoctin Elementary School, 311 Catoctin Cir SW, Leesburg, VA | Get?Directions??
$20.00

Okay folks, it is time to register for the 3rd Annual Run Me Home Race.?

So what are you waiting for? Dust off those running shoes, get a practice run in and sign up for Run Me Home.

If you have never run a distance race before, don?t be shy.? We have both a 5k and 10k distance and a Fun Run course for the kids.? Even if you just wish to walk the event in support of a great cause, we?d love to have you participate.

For you more experienced runners, the course is fast, scenic, and sanctioned by the US Track & Field Association.

The Run Me Home Race promises to become part of the fabric of Loudoun County for many years to come and we have raised over $20,000 for Loudoun County Foster Care & Adoption. So what are you waiting for?

39.10968

-77.57472

primary

/listings/catoctin-elementary-school

397363

/locations/8790376

Source: http://leesburg.patch.com/events/3rd-annual-run-me-home-10k5kfun-run

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NYC Valentine's Day sewage tour back by 'demand'

NEW YORK (AP) ? Lovers of the unusual are getting another chance to impress their Valentines this year in New York City.

The Department of Environmental Protection is again offering Valentine's Day tours of the Newtown Creek sewage treatment plant in Brooklyn's Greenpoint section.

The DEP says it's offering three tours this year due to "overwhelming demand."

The 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. tours were quickly filled. So another was added at 11 a.m. Thursday.

Highlights include the plant's giant egg-shaped digesters, which break down noxious waste into harmless sludge and gas.

During last year's tour, the plant's gung-ho superintendent warned the visitors a digester egg was about to emit a foul odor. It didn't disappoint.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/aa9398e6757a46fa93ed5dea7bd3729e/Article_2013-02-11-Valentine's%20Day%20Sewage%20Tour/id-61c1cd6b649242fabe2151da9662ecb9

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A Photo Of Bill Gates Using An 80-Inch Windows ... - Business Insider

Summary

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to... More ?

Source: http://www.businessinsider.com/a-photo-of-bill-gates-using-an-80-inch-windows-tablet-to-answer-questions-on-reddit-2013-2

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A decade after 'ER,' Edwards back on TV

This TV image released by ABC shows Anthony Edwards in a scene from "Zero Hour." Edwards plays Hank Galliston, a magazine publisher who descends into an historical mystery after his wife is kidnapped. "Zero Hour," premieres Feb. 14, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/ABC, Phillippe Bosse)

This TV image released by ABC shows Anthony Edwards in a scene from "Zero Hour." Edwards plays Hank Galliston, a magazine publisher who descends into an historical mystery after his wife is kidnapped. "Zero Hour," premieres Feb. 14, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/ABC, Phillippe Bosse)

This TV image released by ABC shows Anthony Edwards, left, Addison Timlin and Scott Michael Foster in a scene from "Zero Hour." Edwards plays Hank Galliston, a magazine publisher who descends into an historical mystery after his wife is kidnapped. "Zero Hour," premieres Feb. 14, 2013 on ABC. (AP Photo/ABC, Phillippe Bosse)

NEW YORK (AP) ? A decade after Dr. Mark Greene hung up his white lab coat for good on "ER," Anthony Edwards is back as the star of a new television series.

He plays Hank Galliston, a magazine publisher wrapped up in an historical mystery after his wife is kidnapped on ABC's "Zero Hour," which premieres Feb. 14 at 8 p.m. EST. The action thriller requires an audience to concentrate as the story unfolds layer by layer.

The road back to series television took Edwards many miles to travel ? literally thousands upon thousands.

Edwards' character Greene was the heart of what was then television's most popular drama before the actor bowed out after eight years. Upon leaving, "I didn't really have a plan other than I knew I wasn't going to jump into a series again and I knew that I was really tired and burnt out," he said.

Professionally, maybe. Personally, Edwards had a clear strategy. The California native moved his wife and four children to New York. He was going to spend time raising his kids and give his artist wife time to establish her career, before they took off on a dream adventure.

While fellow actors George Clooney and Julianna Margulies left "ER" quickly to try other things, Edwards committed himself to a four-year contract. At the time, the commitment seemed huge ? four years seems a lot longer at age 36 than it does now, when he's 50 ? but the decision set him up financially for life.

He bought a plane and took the family (and two teachers) on a 310-day trip around the world, through Africa, India, Southeast Asia and just about every exotic place you could imagine.

"It sounds like 'Howdy Doody,'" Edwards said. "But I've never met the older man who wishes he had spent less time with his kids while they were young. You don't meet anybody who says, 'God, I wish I had worked harder and was gone more.'"

He had an opportunity that few people have.

"I've always been able to pay for what I needed and always done what I've wanted," he said. "It got crazy when it was, yeah, we can buy a plane and go around the world, but that wasn't the goal. That was no more excessive than when I was 20 and I could buy a $150 pair of boots because I wanted them. It feels extravagant in the same way."

He didn't leave the business. Edwards was always comfortable behind the scenes, and had been close to leaving acting for directing before getting the "ER" job. He has his own production company, Grand Central Entertainment, and was an executive producer of HBO's "Temple Grandin." He did some film acting, in "Zodiac" and the memorable flop "Motherhood."

Showtime's loss proved ABC's gain. Grand Central developed a series about a high-end public relations firm that Edwards had planned to act in and when Showtime passed, he found himself with free time. Edwards started looking at other scripts and found "Zero Hour" to be "a total page-turner."

Zack Estrin, one of the show's four executive producers, couldn't believe his luck.

"It's an honor when somebody who could have his choice of shows chooses yours," he said. "It's like, the prom queen chooses you to have a dance."

Having a well-known actor attach himself to your project has its obvious benefits, and Estrin hopes some viewers try out "Zero Hour" just to see what Edwards is doing. The danger is that television has its cases of actors being so defined by an overwhelmingly successful role that viewers have a hard time seeing them do something else. Edwards believes the characters he has chosen guard against that.

"My career has never been based on the fact that I was an action hero or a specific kind of comedian," Edwards said. "What's fun about it is it appears a little bit boring, but for me the subtleties of what is going on is what makes it fun."

In many ways, Mark Greene was designed to be a person that viewers can relate to. Same thing with Galliston. The show needs a character to steady the boat, Estrin said.

"That's what Anthony is," he said. "He's somebody who's solid and dependable, somebody the audience can trust. On a show where you don't know who you can trust and who you can believe, it's important to have somebody at the center you know you can."

Keep your eyes open for an inside joke. In one episode where Galliston is depicted escaping from pursuers he puts on a lab coat and walks through a medical facility. Mark Greene lives!

The young actor who once learned by example from Hal Holbrook and Sean Penn is now leading the same way himself, demonstrating to younger cast members the importance of showing up on time and knowing your lines. Edwards enjoys the comfort of being back on a television set.

"I understand how a day on a set is supposed to go and it makes perfect sense," he said. "It's my playground. A question from a 12-year-old? That's when it gets tough. Raising kids is hard."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? David Bauder can be reached at dbauder"at"ap.org or on Twitter (at)dbauder.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-02-11-TV-Anthony%20Edwards/id-747dd100461d458bac2094517eb50917

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Drake Toasts Grammy Win With 'Started From the Bottom' Video

Rapper raises glass to Best Rap Album, Take Care, with Director X visual.
By Rob Markman, with reporting by Sway Calloway

Drake at the 55th annual Grammy Awards
Photo: Getty Images

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1701704/drake-grammys-started-from-the-bottom.jhtml

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Frustration

you have just left the orphanage at age 16 with some friends to find that you are in danger, along with your friends and a murderess is trying to kill you. (3 female 3 male roles)

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Frustration?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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Forum for completely Out of Character (OOC) discussion, based around whatever is happening In Character (IC). Discuss plans, storylines, and events; Recruit for your roleplaying game, or find a GM for your playergroup.
This is the auto-generated OOC topic for the roleplay "Frustration"

You may edit this first post as you see fit.

arrowinmahknee

Member for 0 years

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I'm very interested but could you give us something more to go off of. Such as character skeletons, roles, rules. Stuff like that, thanks.

Chocolate~Pyrus

Member for 2 years

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NERF Rebelle hands-on: foam arrows and AR for secretly vicious little girls

Look, we loved what Hasbro did with Lazer Tag last year. But, let's be honest, that thing was pure testosterone. We're not saying the ladies couldn't get down, but the alien-blasting AR solo games weren't exactly designed with little girls in mind. Rebelle ditches the lasers for NERF arrows and slaps a supposedly female-friendly coat of purple and pink paint on the whole thing. While the blasters still operate without the optional Mission Central App cradle ($15), it's once you get the whole kit together that things really start to fall into place. The attachment lets you drop in an iPhone (4, 4S or 5) and fire up the free companion app. (And don't worry Google fans, an Android version of the app along with a universal mount are also in the works.) Rather than focus on solo games and individual competition, the Rebelle Mission Central app encourages kids to form squads and compete not just for supremacy over their friends but also for in-game perks, like accessories for their avatars. Those virtual personas can be completely customized, allowing girls to fully embrace their secret agent fantasies.Of course, you can also document your foam-arrow battles and share them.

The blasters themselves are pretty standard NERF fare and all some basic variation on a crossbow design. The rotating barrel Crossbow ($25) has a pump-action and a rail for installing the cradle, a feature that's not on some of the smaller models like the pocketable, single-shot Sneak Attackers. The other model currently slated for cradle compatibility is the Heartbreaker Bow ($20), which sticks with a more traditional bow and arrow design and has a dash more wickedness to the design than some of the other blasters. The whole Rebelle line is expected to hit shelves in the fall -- so little brothers beware.

Gallery: NERF Rebelle hands-on

Edgar Alvarez contributed to this report.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/10/nerf-rebelle-hands-on/

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Senator vows to delay Obama's nominees over Libya

WASHINGTON (AP) ? A leading Republican senator said Sunday he would hold up Senate confirmation of President Barack Obama's nominees to head the Pentagon and the CIA until the White House provided more answers about the Sept. 11 attack against a U.S. installation in Benghazi, Libya.

The White House took aim at South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, a persistent critic of Obama's response to the terrorist assault, by urging quick approval of the president's second-term national security team and scolding any lawmakers trying to "play politics" with critical nominations.

Graham accused the White House of "stonewalling" requests to release more information about the attack that killed four Americans, including the U.S. ambassador to Libya. "We're going to get to the bottom of Benghazi," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."

A Democratic colleague branded Graham's threat to stall the nominations of former Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., to be defense secretary and John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, to be CIA director as "unprecedented and unwarranted." Senators should have the chance to vote on the fate of those nominees, said Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island.

The White House did not address Graham's demand for more information, but did note that Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified Thursday before Congress about the chaotic day of the Sept. 11 attack.

Republicans have accused the Obama administration of an election-year cover-up of the attack and at the hearing several suggested the commander in chief was disengaged as Americans died.

"We know nothing about what the president did on the night of September 11th during a time of national crisis, and the American people need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything, during this eight-hour attack," Graham said on CBS.

Graham contended that a six-person rescue team was delayed from leaving the Benghazi airport because of problems "with the militias releasing them and a lot of bureaucratic snafus," and he said he wants to know whether Obama called any Libyan officials to expedite their mission.

"I don't think we should allow Brennan to go forward for the CIA directorship, Hagel to be confirmed to secretary of defense until the White House gives us an accounting," Graham said, adding, "What did he do that night? That's not unfair. The families need to know, the American people need to know."

Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, said, "We believe the Senate should act swiftly to confirm John Brennan and Sen. Hagel. These are critical national security positions and individual members shouldn't play politics with their nominations."

Reed said that "to dwell on a tragic incident and use that to block people is not appropriate. To try to find information, to ask legitimate questions, as Senator Graham is doing is completely appropriate. But then to turn around and say, 'I'm going to disrupt, essentially, the nomination of two key members of the President's Cabinet,' I don't think that's appropriate, I don't think it's warranted, I think it is an overreaction that is not going to serve the best interest going forward of the national security of the United States."

Graham would have none of it.

"In a constitutional democracy, we need to know what our commander in chief was doing at a time of great crisis, and this White House has been stonewalling the Congress, and I'm going to do everything I can to get to the bottom of this so we'll learn from our mistakes and hold this president accountable for what I think is tremendous disengagement at a time of national security crisis," he said.

At the Senate hearing, Panetta testified that he and Dempsey were meeting with Obama when they first learned of the Libya assault. He said the president told them to deploy forces as quickly as possible. Graham asked whether Panetta spoke again to Obama after that first meeting. Panetta said no, but that the White House was in touch with military officials and aware of what was happening. At one point, Graham asked Panetta if he knew what time Obama went to sleep that night. The Pentagon chief said he did not.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/senator-vows-delay-obamas-nominees-over-libya-160555227--politics.html

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Gas Prices Jump Nearly 25 Cents In Last 2 Weeks

* U.S. retail gasoline averages $3.5918/gallon
* Rise comes in response to increases from wholesalers
* Brent crude oil hit nine-month high last week
NEW YORK, Feb 10 (Reuters) - The average price in the United States for a gallon of regular gasoline rose nearly 25 cents in the past two weeks, up steadily since December as refineries passed along their costs, a widely followed survey released on Sunday showed.
Gasoline prices averaged $3.5918 per gallon on Feb. 8, up 24.75 cents from Jan. 25, said Trilby Lundberg, editor of the Lundberg Survey.
"The amount of change is very big," Lundberg said.
"The wholesale price increases accelerated in the past two weeks and that's why we have the big rise."
The retail price of regular gasoline in the United States has risen for seven weeks straight, Lundberg said.
The current average price is up 8.17 cents from a year earlier, she said.
Prices had declined for 11 weeks between Oct. 5, when gasoline touched near $3.84 per gallon, and Dec. 21, when they started to rise again.
"Now that the wholesale price hikes have accelerated, the need for retailers to raise prices on the street is becoming acute," Lundberg said.
Brent crude oil futures hit a nine-month high above $119 a barrel on Friday, supported by data that showed strong growth in Chinese oil imports.
Brent's premium to U.S. oil futures has increased on expectations that Midwest crude stockpiles will remain elevated as constraints on the Seaway pipeline continue to limit shippers' ability to send crude to the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Among the cities surveyed, Los Angeles drivers paid the most at $4.10 per gallon, and filling the gas tank cost the least in Billings, Montana, at $3.05 per gallon. (Reporting by Marcy Nicholson; Editing by Dale Hudson)

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/02/10/gas-prices-last-2-weeks_n_2658571.html

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Protests erupt as India executes militant for parliament attack

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India hanged a Kashmiri militant on Saturday for an attack on the country's parliament in 2001, sparking clashes in Kashmir between hundreds of protesters and police who wielded batons and fired teargas to disperse the crowds.

President Pranab Mukherjee rejected a mercy petition from Mohammad Afzal Guru and he was hanged at 8 a.m. (0230 GMT) in Tihar jail in the capital, New Delhi. Security forces anticipating unrest had imposed a curfew in parts of insurgency-torn Kashmir and ordered people off the streets.

India blamed the 2001 attack on the parliament of the world's largest democracy on militants backed by Pakistan, targeting the prime minister, interior minister and legislators in one of the country's worst ever militant attacks.

Pakistan denied any involvement and condemned the attack but tension rose sharply and brought the nuclear-armed rivals dangerously close to their fourth war. Nearly a million soldiers were mobilized on both sides of the border and fears of war only dissipated months later, in June 2002.

The hanging was ordered less than three months after India executed the lone surviving gunman of a 2008 attack in the city of Mumbai in which 166 people were killed.

Saturday's execution could help the ruling Congress party deflect opposition criticism of being soft on militancy, as it gears up for a series of state elections this year and a general election due by 2014, while grappling with an economic slowdown.

"Congress has decided to be more proactive in view of the elections, not only in terms of economic policy but also matters like the hanging of Afzal Guru," said political analyst Amulya Ganguli.

"The Congress has now deprived the BJP of a propaganda plank," he said, referring to the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Government officials dismissed suggestions that electoral politics played a role in the decision to execute Guru.

In major towns of Indian Kashmir, where security forces have battled a Muslim separatist insurgency for decades, barricades were erected and hundreds of police and paramilitary force members were deployed.

"The hanging of Afzal Guru is a declaration of war by India," said Hilal Ahmad War, leader of a separatist faction.

Authorities shut down internet services and blocked social networking sites to try to stop unrest from spreading. The chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir state, Omar Abdullah, made a televised appeal for calm.

Scuffles also broke out in New Delhi between Hindu activists and demonstrators who gathered at a city-centre protest site to condemn the hanging, a Reuters witness said.

WARNING

Five militants stormed the heavily guarded parliament complex in New Delhi on December 13, 2001, armed with grenades, guns and explosives, but security forces killed them before they could enter the main chamber. Ten other people, most of them security officers, were killed in the clash.

Guru, an Indian national, was convicted for helping organize arms for the attackers and a place for them to stay. He had denied any involvement in the conspiracy.

India said the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad militant group was responsible. The group fights Indian rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir.

The hanging last year of Mohammad Ajmal Kasab, the lone surviving Pakistani militant involved in the 2008 Mumbai attacks, after a long lull in executions, prompted speculation that India would move quickly to execute Guru.

But unlike Kasab's execution, which sparked celebrations in the streets, Guru's case was seen as more divisive.

Some Kashmiri leaders warned that hanging Afzal would fuel the revolt in India's part of the Himalayan region in which tens of thousands of people have been killed since 1989.

Curfews were imposed in Srinagar, the region's summer capital in the Kashmir valley, and major towns including Baramulla, Guru's home town.

Kashmir is divided between India and Pakistan, both of which claim the region in full and rule it in part. They have fought two of their three wars over the region.

India has long accused Muslim Pakistan of arming and funding militants to fight Indian forces in Kashmir. Pakistan says it only provides moral support to the fellow-Muslim people of Kashmir, who Pakistan says, face heavy-handed Indian rule.

The dispute, a legacy of the division of the sub-continent at the end of British rule, is the main factor souring relations between the neighbors.

(Additional reporting by Fayaz Bukhari, Mansi Thapliyal, Ashok Pahalwan, Arnika Thakur and Satarupa Bhattacharjya; Editing by Ross Colvin and Robert Birsel)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/india-executes-kashmiri-militant-2001-parliament-attack-tv-032429522.html

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