'God, what a big role to take on,' she tells MTV News of fan support for her to play Anastasia Steele.
By Kara Warner
Lucy Hale
Photo: MTV News
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The jurors in the sexual abuse trial began their deliberations Thursday after hearing vastly different portrayals of the former Penn State assistant football coach. Jerry Sandusky's attorney told jurors there was "not one piece of physical evidence," while prosecutors asked that Sandusky receive "the justice he really deserves." NBC News' Michael Isikoff reports from Bellefonte, Pa.
By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com, and Kimberly Kaplan, NBC News
Updated at 9:24 p.m. ET: Jurors in the child sexual abuse trial of former Penn State University assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky deliberated for more than seven hours Thursday without reaching a verdict.
Kimberly Kaplan of NBC News reported from Bellefonte, Pa. M. Alex Johnson is a reporter for msnbc.com. Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.Deliberations were scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. ET Friday in Centre County Court in Bellefonte, Pa., where Sandusky is charged with 48 counts alleging that he abused 10 boys over 15 years. Three other counts were dropped early Thursday.
Judge John Cleland said the jurors had asked to rehear the testimony of two key prosecution witnesses: former Penn State assistant coach Michael McQueary, who testified that he overheard Sandusky having sex with a young boy in a football locker room shower, and Jonathan Dranov, a family friend who testified that McQueary told him about incident. Those arrangements were to be worked out Friday morning.
The jury began its deliberations about 1:30 p.m. ET and worked straight through the afternoon and early evening, for nearly 7? hours, following closing arguments in which they heard two starkly different descriptions of the case against Sandusky.
The prosecution and the defense clashed over defense attorney Joseph Amendola's suggestion that the entire case was a conspiracy among police, prosecutors and the alleged victims and their lawyers, in hopes of a big payday in future civil trials.
"The system" prejudged Sandusky and "set out to convict him" even though the case against him makes no sense, Amendola said.
But Deputy Pennsylvania Attorney General Joseph McGettigan, the lead prosecutor, argued that it defied common sense to believe the police and court systems would have conspired to bring down a figure as beloved in the community as Sandusky, the former longtime defensive coordinator for Penn State's nationally famous football team and founder of the Second Mile charity for troubled children.
"What would we gain?" he asked.
Sandusky, 68, was charged in two grand jury indictments that accused him of having used his connection to one of the nation's premier college football programs to "groom" the 10 boys for sexual relationships.
Eight of the 10 alleged victims testified during the trial. Another whom the jury never heard from was Sandusky's adopted son Matt, whose lawyers said Thursday afternoon ? after deliberations had begun ? that he, too, had been abused by Sandusky.
Sources told NBC News that Matt Sandusky's potential rebuttal testimony was why Sandusky chose not to testify in his own defense.?(NBC News and msnbc.com generally do not identify victims of sexual assaults, but Sandusky chose to identify himself in a public statement released through his attorneys.)
Sources: Adopted son as possible witness helped keep Sandusky silent
Legal analysis: Sandusky's attorney hits home run in closing argument
"No one wins in this case. This is awful no matter what happens," Amendola said during the closing defense argument. "If Jerry Sandusky did this ? if he did this ? he should rot in jail. Bless his heart, that's my feeling.
"But what if he didn't do this? His life is destroyed."
Amendola repeated the phrases "it doesn't make sense" and "does that make sense?" like mantras throughout his 75-minute closing statement, highlighting what he said were inconsistencies and logical impossibilities in the evidence against Sandusky.
"All these alleged charges only go back to the mid-'90s, so out of the blue, after all these years, when Mr. Sandusky is in his mid-50s, Mr. Sandusky decides to become a pedophile? Does that make sense to anybody? Does that make sense?"
Amendola accused the eight men who testified that Sandusky had abused them as children of seeking to cash in on eventual civil trials against his client.
"We can understand these kids now want to be compensated ? the lawyers want to make all these dollars ? but it still doesn't mean Mr. Sandusky did this," he said.
Amendola also accused investigators of having coached the alleged victims to say what they wanted to hear because they had already decided to ignore possible evidence that Sandusky was innocent.
Ghosts of Sandusky's dreams haunt home where charity was born
Full coverage of the Jerry Sandusky trial
Legal analysis by Wes Oliver
"The system decided Mr. Sandusky was guilty, and the system set out to convict him," he said, focusing on the testimony of two state investigators whose testimony appeared to be contradictory.
But McGettigan contended that the holes the defense poked in the case were, in fact, proof that there was no collusion.
"Everybody would have had to have been on the same page. Not so," he said.
McGettigan said it was easy for the defense to claim a conspiracy when "you don't name them. You just say 'the system.'"
But he said "the system" is made up of real people, in this case dozens of them who all wopuld have had to be in collusion for the last 15 years: the 10 alleged victims, the 24 grand jurors, the investigators, the arresting officers, corroborating witnesses like Sandusky's former colleague Michael McQueary, social services professionals, and McGettigan and his co-prosecutors themselves.
"If you conclude there's a conspiracy, someone bring handcuffs in for me and ... anyone else involved," McGettigan said, before concluding:
"What you should do is come out and say to the defendant that he molested, abused and assaulted (the alleged victims). He knows he did it, and you know he did it.
"Give him the justice he really deserves. Find him guilty of everything.
Three more charges dismissed
Sandusky originally was charged with 52 counts, but Cleland, who had previously dismissed one of them, threw out three more Thursday morning.
Two were charges alleging involuntary deviate sexual intercourse with one of the 10 alleged victims, which Cleland said the evidence didn't support. Had the jury convicted Sandusky on those two counts, Cleland said, he would have been required to set the convictions aside.
The third count was a duplicate of another count, he ruled.
Sandusky made no comment as he arrived at court Thursday morning with his wife, Dottie, who testified Tuesday that she never heard or saw her husband engage in any inappropriate behavior with children during their 45 years of marriage.
Sandusky had been widely expected to testify Wednesday before his lawyers abruptly rested their case after a lengthy conference in the judge's chambers.
A source close to Sandusky said "there was no one factor that led to the decision," but NBC News reported Thursday that Sandusky decided not to testify after his lawyers were warned that prosecutors would call his adopted son, Matt, as a rebuttal witness if he did so. The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told NBC News that Matt Sandusky was prepared to deliver damaging testimony about his father.
NBC's Savannah Guthrie discusses why the prosecution didn't call Jerry Sandusky's adopted son as a witness if he was able to provide damaging evidence.
In his final instructions, Cleland told jurors that they had great leeway in determining whether Sandusky's alleged behavior, while possibly troubling, may not have been criminal.
For example, he said, "it's not necessarily a crime for a man to take a shower with a boy. It's not necessarily a crime for a man to wash a boy's hair or lather his back or shoulders or to engage in back rubbing."
The bottom line was Sandusky's intent, "not the child's reaction," he told the jurors, who heard eight of the 10 alleged victims testify that they were traumatized by Sandusky's alleged advances.
In other words, "you must distinguish a display of innocent affection from lust," Cleland instructed.
More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:
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The brief: PS Vita game intros
Hartley-Denton and Thatcher first incorporated Manchester-based studio Mi in 2007. Since then, the company has been working in three main areas: games, architecture, and brands and broadcast. The studio?s diversity and high quality production has won it work with a wide variety of clients, ranging from small local agencies to the likes of Sony and Activision.
Having worked with Mi previously, Sony wanted the team on board. The brief was to create intro cinematics for a suite of Sony?s augmented reality games, which would be bundled into the launch package of its latest handheld games console. Mi accepted the offer despite an incredibly tight five-week deadline. Operating with a skilled team and a super-efficient pipeline, the studio, in collaboration with Sony, first created many 2D concepts for the three different games, before transforming them into dynamic 3D animations. Dickinson begins the story?
"We first heard about the PS Vita project when an executive producer at Sony, Pete Smith, rang us to ask if we would like to do the intro pieces. We?d done concept work in a similar area for Sony before, so we didn?t have to pitch for it. They knew we understood the medium, what the exposition of the augmented reality games needed to explain, and trusted us to deliver. We jumped at the chance ? even on a daunting timeframe.
"The brief was to create cinematic intros that were meant to be exposition pieces and scene-setters that would lead straight into Sony?s suite of augmented reality games for the new Vita console. There are three games ? Cliff Diving, Fireworks and Table Football ? and each had an individual brief, because they differ quite considerably. However, they all had one aim: to get the transition of real world and augmented reality across in an engaging and entertaining manner. Sony wanted these games to bring their production values right up there to compete with the launch line-up of big name titles.
"We had a lot of free rein in the cinematics design but, of course, there were key messages to get across. I would say many things had an influence on the concepts for each animation. Diver Dan, who features in the Cliff Diving game, was inspired by Mr Magoo and Johnny Bravo. The Sky Sports Table Football skit was influenced by Monty Python and English comedians Vic and Bob. The Firework sequence drew upon a little bit of The Beverly Hillbillies. And, of course, Pixar?s short film Red?s Dream for the classic idea of putting personality into inanimate objects. I think that everything Pixar does influences everyone in CGI.
"We were very lucky that our experience led us to come to creative solutions that Sony loved very quickly, but the whole project was a very collaborative process. We had very frank and vital discussions with all the producers and senior producers at Sony and had consultations daily. This way, we got stages signed off with rounds of amends constantly. There?s no way we would have achieved the deadline without those guys? feedback and rapid sign-off at the right stages."
Technical director Gareth Thatcher on production?
"After the meetings with Sony to chat through some initial ideas, we then drew up the storyboards back at Mi and planned our approach to each intro. The next stage was to model and texture the environments, for which we referenced geometry into master files, enabling multiple artists to work on the same scenes.
"We used Maya and V-Ray for the Cliff Diving and Table Football animations, and 3ds Max, V-Ray and fluid dynamics engine FumeFX for Fireworks. We have both Maya and 3ds Max artists working in the studio, so we can swap which software we use, depending on the job and which artists are available.
"On the technical side, evolving our character pipeline between 3ds Max and Maya was quite an interesting development. We tend to work the other way around, taking animation from Maya to render in 3ds Max and V-Ray. But the mo-cap footballers and crowd geometry were all in 3ds Max format, so we used a script to export the geometry and record cache files to read back in Maya and render in V-Ray from there.
"To get this project completed on time, we had to work on multiple things at once. For example, while dealing with the environments, we were also underway with the first pass animations for each character. We needed to get animatics and iterations back to Sony quickly due to the tight deadlines. Once these and the layouts were approved, we then refined the animations, applied the lighting, depth of field effects and final colour corrections. All the while, London-based creative sound design company Zelig Sound was busy working on the music and sound effects.
"We collaborated with other game developers on the project too, including Spiral House, Exient and Four Door Lemon. The Diver Dan model was created by Spiral House in Liverpool, which we then took, and increased the resolution of the geometry and textures. We were surprised at how far all of these guys let us take artistic licence with all their great IP and base models. Without that trust and freedom, we would have been boxed into much more conventional intro pieces.(/p>
"Other than the tight deadlines we were working to, the most challenging aspect of the project was found in the intro. We had to start the house animations without any houses. We weren?t going to be receiving the models until a later date, and we really needed to push ahead with the animation due to the already tight schedule. We came up with a rig solution that drove a series of controls, which would in turn deform any geometry within them. When we received the final house models we replaced the proxy geometry, tweaked the animation and still had time to spare. In fact, everything came together for final output for the Vita with some time left over for tweaks.
"Since finishing the Vita project, we have also been able to complete work on another augmented reality intro for release later this year, and are now registered as Vita and iOS developers. We?re about to release our first iPhone and iPad game, so we hope this will be the start of a fantastic journey into the gaming world."
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Telephone switchboard operators are a thing of the past?the kind of job we only encounter in black-and-white movies. And just as technology and automation rendered those workers obsolete, in the modern age, it's also eradicating all sorts of other jobs; bank tellers, toll booth operators, and pharmacy clerks all may soon be a distant memory. We?re already starting to self-checkout at the grocery store, put in our own orders at McDonald's?and watch robots make our sushi.
At Foxconn, the world's leading electronics manufacturer that currently employs 1.2 million workers and 10,000 robots, humans are rapidly being replaced. Over the next three years, it plans to up the number of androids to 500,000.
RELATED: The Robot Revolution: Your Job May Be Next
Think your job is safe? You might want to think again. "The set of jobs that won't someday be done by robots is actually rather small and shrinking, as technology advances," says Mani Subramani, an associate professor with the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. Silicon Valley computer engineer Martin Ford, author of The Lights in the Tunnel: Automation, Accelerating Technology and the Economy of the Future, agrees. "Jobs that are in any way routine?including skilled jobs?are going to be threatened by automation," he says. Working in a cutting-edge field won't necessarily protect you, either. "New industries that rely on a lot of technology will be more?not less?likely to automate or use labor-saving technology," Ford says.
In fact, increasing automation played a significant role in our current economic crisis, according to Ford. "Big companies have gotten a lot more efficient and need less workers," he says. "This is a factor, to some extent, in the poor job market and flat wages for new college grads."
RELATED: Could Fast Food Robots Steal McJobs?
So what kinds of fields are a good bet for job seekers? Which industries should you aim for if you want to avoid being replaced by R2-D2? "Jobs that are non-routine or creative, or which involve complex human interaction, tend to be safer," Ford explains.
The good news is that there are plenty of emerging or growing industries?like those listed below?that will require a human touch for a long time to come.
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The Crazy DIY Spaceflight Project That Just Might Work
Source: Wired
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Russia's Alan Dzagoyev and Czech Republic's Roman Hubnik fight for the ball during the Euro 2012 Group A soccer match between Russia and Czech Republic, in Wroclaw, Poland, Friday, June 8, 2012. In the back is Czech Republic's Jan Rezek. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
Russia's Alan Dzagoyev and Czech Republic's Roman Hubnik fight for the ball during the Euro 2012 Group A soccer match between Russia and Czech Republic, in Wroclaw, Poland, Friday, June 8, 2012. In the back is Czech Republic's Jan Rezek. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) ? Racist abuse by Russian fans toward a Czech Republic player at a European Championship match was reported to UEFA on Saturday.
Expert spotters from the Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) network identified verbal insults targeted at Theodor Gebre Selassie, who is black, during Russia's 4-1 win on Friday in Wroclaw, Poland.
"There was some suggestion that the Czech defender went to take a corner and had a few problems," FARE executive director Piara Powar told The Associated Press.
Fans also displayed a nationalist "Russian Empire" flag which "we take as evidence of far-right sensibilities," Powar said in a telephone interview.
Film circulating online Saturday also showed some Russian fans attacking stadium stewards after the match.
Four security personnel were treated in a hospital but were not badly injured, a Polish police spokesman said. Police are studying security video footage to identify fans involved.
UEFA said in a statement that "around 30 fans" attacked the stewards, and "the situation was quickly and efficiently brought under control."
The reported incidents came in the second match of Euro 2012, which kicked off Friday amid concerns of potential racist incidents involving fans in co-host nations Poland and Ukraine.
However, Russia's fans are under scrutiny after UEFA linked up with FARE to appoint a 31-strong team of expert anti-discrimination spotters.
Two monitors, mingling with fans of each team at a match, will work to identify offensive banners, chants and behavior in stadiums, and report to UEFA within 24 hours.
Powar said FARE officials aimed to provide footage of Gebre Selassie being abused.
"We are trying to get that evidence, and it's not always possible to capture it on film," he said.
UEFA has pledged zero tolerance of discrimination at the three-week tournament.
The 16 competing teams' national federations are responsible for their fans' actions. They would be fined by UEFA before facing possible expulsion from Euro 2012 for repeated offenses.
"We don't expect UEFA to act on every report," Powar acknowledged. "It's tough to evidence everything that could be admissible in a hearing."
Concerns of racism at Euro 2012 were fueled last month by a British television program, entitled "Stadiums of Hate," showing discrimination and violent incidents at recent club matches in Poland and Ukraine. It was broadcast in Poland this week.
Racism marred the Netherlands' preparations for its opening match Saturday against Denmark after several spectators made monkey noises at players during a squad practice in Krakow, Poland, which was attended by 25,000 people.
UEFA President Michel Platini has said that his organization has given referees the power to stop and abandon matches if crowds racially abused players.
After Italy forward Mario Balotelli threatened to leave the field if abused, Platini warned players they would get yellow cards for acting alone to protest.
Gebre Selassie said this week that he would not walk off the field.
"I'm not ready to give up," said the 25-year-old player, whose father is Ethiopian. "I definitely won't leave. I'll stay until they throw stones at me."
___
Graham Dunbar can be reached at www.Twitter.com/gdunbarap
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Tyson Gay, second from right, crosses the finish line ahead of the pack during the 100-meter B race at the Adidas Grand Prix track and field meet on Randall's Island, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Tyson Gay, second from right, crosses the finish line ahead of the pack during the 100-meter B race at the Adidas Grand Prix track and field meet on Randall's Island, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Tyson Gay crosses the finish line ahead of the pack during the 100-meter B race at the Adidas Grand Prix track and field meet on Randall's Island, Saturday, June 9, 2012, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
NEW YORK (AP) ? Tyson Gay joked that his agent tricked him, promising a "low-key" race for his long-awaited return to competition, not the throng of TV cameras that greeted him at the Adidas Grand Prix on Saturday.
But the former world champion knew he needed the pressure of a big stage before he goes to the U.S. Olympic trials at the end of the month.
The 29-year-old Gay hadn't raced since hip surgery last July. He entered the "B'' 100 Saturday, more than two hours before reigning world champion Yohan Blake was scheduled to compete. Gay finished in 10.0 seconds running into a headwind, but success was measured in sprinting without pain and getting "all the jitters out."
Gay would have preferred entering a less high-profile event than a Diamond League meet in New York City. But coach Jon Drummond told him it was "better to it get out of the way than to go to trials and be really anxious and nervous."
Gay may run in a small meet in Texas before trials.
The American-record holder in the 100 won three gold medals at the 2007 world championships. But since then, he's been overtaken by Usain Bolt and beset by injuries.
The hip still bothers him, though he said Drummond hammers him about so many technical details, that distracts him from feeling the discomfort.
"It aches and pinches and grabs," Gay said. "But I've just got to go out there and run through the pain."
"Blade Runner" Oscar Pistorius failed to post an Olympic qualifying time of 45.30 seconds in the 400, finishing in 46.14. The double-amputee from South Africa will likely have two more chances before the end of the month to meet the standard to earn a trip to the London Games.
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The subway door closed.
I couldn't get out to join my mother to make the change to the express train.
I was 5. I was locked in. I was locked out. She was locked out too.
My newly-married children had an argument about washing out plastic bags for recycling. I watched, stood by, felt locked out.
My son published an op-ed piece in the New York Times and "forgot" to let me know.
I felt locked out.
I lock in to my camera when we go off together.
I lock in to my grandson -- when he attentively watches my lips move to learn how to say "HELP."
Our journey is a dialectic between being locked out and locked in.
I belong.
I do not belong.
I say to music students "You know you are in tune when you cannot hear yourself play," and that feels to me like they might have a locked-in experience.
In moments of losing self-awareness, separateness, self-consciousness -- the fusion, merger, exquisiteness of being locked in -- is bliss.
Locked out is not so comfortable: scary on the subway, painful in my helplessness when my children are hurting, deserted when someone I love stays away too long.
Over the years, with the inevitability of feeling locked out at times, I try to make the isolation an opportunity to get to know myself better, from outside to inside and back again -- wrestling to achieve balance and equilibrium.
Back to: Who am I?
Am I OK?
With or without this, am I OK?
Let's begin slowly to rebuild from ground up.
Go back to being locked in with myself.
From there I can create.
Or fall apart, I suppose.
Locked out could lead to something new.
Locked in comes and goes.
Locked out?
Go inside!
Locked out?
Think!
Feel it!
Locked out
could just
jolt creativity.
For more by Ruth Neubauer, click here.
For more on poetry, click here.
?
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It's deja vu all over again. The latest election year fight over the future of Citizens Property Insurance is coming down to a war between politicians representing the interior and North Florida counties, whose Citizens rates are low and whose constituents don't rely on the state-subsidized insurer, and politicians who represent the coastal and sinkhole counties who are dependent on the insurer.
Consider a letter sent today?to the interim head of Citizens, Tom Grady, from 23 members of the state House?and three state?senators urging the?insurer to move forward with its controversial plans to raise rates by as much as 30 percent in some areas.?There's not a South Florida?legislator in the bunch.
Contrast that with the?threat announced two weeks ago by Sen.Anitere Flores, R-Miami and Rep. Jose Felix Diaz, R-Miami, who said they will file legislation next year if Citizens moves forward with its plan to raise rates on homeowners in vulnerable areas. Sen.Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, and Rep. Carlos Lopez Cantera, R-Miami, have been equally critical.
Interestingly, in the middle is Gov. Rick Scott. He has urged Citizens to do what it takes to reduce Citizens' exposure to risk -- which translates into raising the cost of insurance -- at the same time he says he wants to make it a priority to lower the cost of living in Florida.
Here's today's letter from Central and North Florida legislators:
Dear Mr. Grady,We want lower homeowner?s insurance rates in Florida. There are so many things we wish were less expensive, including health care and gasoline .? But the recent debate about Citizens Insurance rates is not about the cost of the insurance ? it?s about who is paying for it.? That is why we applaud the current Citizens board for recognizing that the current system is unsustainable, and for working for meaningful reform.
The purpose of insurance is to cover risk.? Within the private market, where most consumers in Florida purchase their insurance, the customers pay for the actual cost to provide that protection ? without any government subsidy paid for by the taxpayers of Florida.? Not so with Citizens Insurance.
Adding new customers at subsidized rates is no more than a tax on every Floridian who does not have a Citizens policy ? whether they live in central Florida, Miami, or Jacksonville.? So the real question here is this: Should a government-created insurer of last resort be offering policies essentially at a loss, while continuing to expand, pushing out private sector insurers, and subsidizing some homeowners at the expense of others?
We don't think that?s good public policy. It?s not fair.? It?s not fiscally sound. And it certainly does not reflect the core beliefs of a majority of the state Legislature, who passed a law requiring that Citizens become as financially solvent? as possible ?? thus? reducing the need to tax all Floridians for future shortfalls in an emergency.
Citizens Insurance should move toward once again being the insurer of last resort ? not the beginning of a government-created single-payer system that supplants the private sector.? We understand and share the desire for lower homeowner?s insurance rates.? However, Floridians who are currently paying full-price for their insurance in the private market don?t deserve to pay a subsidy for those on Citizens.? We are greatly encouraged by the board?s desire for reform and its willingness to tackle this very complex and difficult issue.?
To that end, we urge the board to continue working to eliminate the threat of tax increases on Florida?s families and to bring fairness to the system for all regions of Florida.
Sincerely,
Sen. Don Gaetz????????????????????? Sen. Alan Hays????????????????????? Sen. Garrett Richter ????????????????????????????????? Rep. Ben Albritton???? ???????????? Rep. Dennis Baxley?????????????? Rep. Jim Boyd
Rep. Jason Brodeur????????????? Rep. Daniel Davis????????????????? Rep. Brad Drake
Rep. Eric Eisnaugle????????????? Rep. Matt Gaetz???????????????????? Rep. Bill Hager
?Rep. Mike Horner???????????????? Rep. Charles McBurney?????? Rep. Larry Metz
Rep. Bryan Nelson??????????????? Rep.? Kathleen Passidomo??? Rep.? Scott Plakon
Rep.? Elizabeth Porter????????? Rep.? Stephen Precourt???????? Rep.? Lake Ray
Rep.? Kelli Stargel???????????????? Rep.? John Tobia?????????????????? Rep.? Mike Weinstein
Rep.? Ritch Workman???????????????????
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GENEVA (AP) ? President Bashar Assad's government has agreed to ease humanitarian access to four of the hardest-hit provinces in Syria, officials said Tuesday, even as the regime plunged into further international isolation by labeling a string of U.S. and European diplomats unwelcome.
The deal allows visas for an unspecified number of aid workers from nine U.N. agencies and seven other non-governmental organizations and cuts red tape blocking supply convoys from entering the provinces where at least 1 million are in urgent need of aid, said John Ging, operations director for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Ging said he hopes it will be "days, not weeks" for aid to be delivered to the provinces of Daraa, Deir el-Zour, Homs and Idlib, and urged Syria to keep up its end of the bargain.
"Today marks a step of progress, in that there is now an agreement with the Syrian government on the scale, scope and modality for a humanitarian response in Syria," Ging told reporters in Geneva after emerging from a closed-door session to discuss the dire humanitarian situation in Syria.
"Whether this is a breakthrough or not will be evident in the coming days and weeks and it will be measured not in rhetoric, not in agreements, but in action on the ground."
Syria's uprising began with mostly peaceful protests, but a brutal government crackdown with tanks, machine guns and snipers led many in the opposition to take up arms. The violence has grown increasingly chaotic in recent months, and it is difficult to assign blame for much of the bloodshed as the country spirals toward civil war.
Last week, Western nations expelled Syrian diplomats in a coordinated move over a massacre in which more than 100 people were slaughtered over one weekend in Houla, a cluster of small villages. The U.N. says pro-regime gunmen were believed to be responsible for at least some of the killings, but Assad has insisted his forces had nothing to do it.
On Tuesday, Syria barred a string of U.S. and European diplomats, saying they were "no longer welcome"
The countries targeted by the expulsion order have already pulled their ambassadors from Damascus, but the move was symbolic of how far diplomatic ties have disintegrated over the course of the uprising that began last year in March.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said Damascus has decided to take a "reciprocal measure" against ambassadors from the U.S., Britain, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain. A number of French, German, Canadian, Bulgarian and Belgian diplomats also are affected, Makdissi said.
Because of visa delays and hassles over customs clearances and how to distribute the supplies, the U.N. has struggled to deliver aid and it has largely trickled in through the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
The U.N. launched the Syrian Humanitarian Forum, a gathering of diplomats to negotiate for access. Ging spoke Tuesday after chairing its latest session, where he said Syria's representatives also expressed support for the new plan.
Ging said many in need in the four provinces have been injured during fighting or have lost jobs or homes. More than 78,000 Syrian refugees were also being helped in Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, the U.N. refugee agency said.
More than 2,300 Syrian refugees have arrived in Turkey since June 1, increasing the total number of refugees to 26,747, Turkey's disaster and emergency management authority said on its website on Tuesday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of sources on the ground, said Tuesday that 113 soldiers have been killed in clashes with rebel forces across the country since Friday. The figure was impossible to confirm independently, but the Syrian government confirmed nearly 80 soldiers had been killed over the past three days.
______
Associated Press writer Bassem Mroue contributed to this story from Beirut.
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TORONTO (AP) ? A porn actor accused of videotaping a gruesome murder before posting it to the internet will be charged with threatening Canada's prime minister after mailing a severed foot to his Conservative party headquarters, police said Saturday.
Montreal Police Cmdr. Ian Lafreniere said Saturday that because it was addressed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper's party office they can lay an additional charge against Luka Rocco Magnotta.
Magnotta is also wanted for first-degree murder, defiling a corpse and using the mail system for delivering "obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous" material.
Lafreniere also said they still believe Magnotta, 29, is in France. Police have said Magnotta fled to France on May 26 based on evidence they found at his apartment. Police identified the victim as Chinese university student Jun Lin, 33. Police said they dated.
The case began Tuesday, when a package containing a severed foot was opened at the ruling Conservative Party headquarters. A hand was discovered at a postal facility, addressed to the Liberal party of Canada. A torso was found in a suitcase on a garbage dump in Montreal, outside Magnotta's apartment building.
Police suspect Magnotta filmed the murder. The video, posted online, shows a man stabbing another man with an ice pick while the victim lies naked and tied up. The first man later reveals he has slashed the other man's throat. He also dismembers the corpse and performs sexual acts with it.
An online video also shows a man who looks like Magnotta committing violent acts against kittens. The video contains at least one photo made available by Montreal police that identified the man as Magnotta. For nearly two years, animal-rights activists have been looking for a man who tortured and killed cats and posted videos of it online.
"This is the kind of guy that's looking for attention," Lafreniere said. "He likes to glorify himself with the web. The web will glorify him and the web is also going to bring him back to justice because there are a lot of pictures of him out there and it will help lead him to us."
Police said Magnotta's birth name is Eric Clinton Newman and that he is also known by the name Vladimir Romanov, and they described him as white and 5 feet 8 inches tall (1.78 meters) with blue eyes and black hair.
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From left, President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, former first lay Laura Bush and first lady Michelle Obama, pose in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012, during a ceremony to unveil the Bush portraits. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
From left, President Barack Obama, former President George W. Bush, former first lay Laura Bush and first lady Michelle Obama, pose in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012, during a ceremony to unveil the Bush portraits. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
Former President George W. Bush unveils his portrait in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)?
President Barack Obama talks with former President George W. Bush in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012, during a ceremony to unveil the Bush portraits. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
President Barack Obama points to former President George W. Bush during a ceremony to unveil his official portrait, Thursday, May 31, 2012, in the East Room at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Former President George H.W. Bush, left, and his wife, former first lady Barbara Bush, arrive in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 31, 2012, for a ceremony to unveil the official portrait of their son former President George W. Bush. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? It's Barack Obama's house now, but his predecessor and political foil, George W. Bush, stole the show at the White House on Thursday with his wisecracks and grin.
"Thank you so much for inviting our rowdy friends to my hanging," the former president said, referring to members of his family and former staff, invited back to the executive mansion for the unveiling of his and Laura Bush's official portraits. "Behave yourselves," he jokingly admonished his crowd.
Bush told the current president he was pleased to know "that when you are wandering these halls as you wrestle with tough decisions, you will now be able to gaze at this portrait and ask, 'What would George do?'"
Free from the stress of the presidency and after three years spent largely out of the spotlight, a relaxed and jovial Bush came back with his father, former President George H.W. Bush, for a rare gathering of three commanders in chief. Former first lady Barbara Bush was there, too, as were George W. and Laura's daughters, Jenna and Barbara.
While Bush, Obama and their wives spoke about the warmth between their families, there was little of that on display between the two presidents. They traded handshakes but no hugs. There was little casual small talk as they entered and exited the East Room or as they stood on stage together.
"We may have our differences politically, but the presidency transcends those differences," Obama said.
That the relationship between Obama and Bush is cordial but not close is hardly a surprise.
Obama is still bad-mouthing Bush's time in office, blaming him for the economic crisis, the soaring federal debt and the unfinished wars the Democrat inherited from his Republican predecessor. And in the midst of an election season, Obama is trying to lump the economic policies of his current Republican rival, Mitt Romney, in with Bush's.
Standing side by side in the grand, chandeliered East Room, Obama was mostly formal and subdued while Bush was lighthearted and engaging, relishing in the warm greetings from veterans of his two terms in office.
Bush said he was pleased that the White House portrait collection now starts and ends with a "George W." Noting that George Washington's portrait was famously saved by first lady Dolley Madison when the British burned the White House in 1814, Bush pointed to his own portrait and told Michelle Obama that "if anything happens, there's your man."
With a smile, the first lady assured him in her own remarks, "I promise, I'm going straight for" it in case of emergency.
The former president turned emotional as he spoke of his own portrait hanging near his father's ? "No. 41" as he called him. On the verge of tears, the younger Bush thanked his father, who attended the ceremony in a wheelchair, for "the greatest gift possible, unconditional love."
More than any other president in recent memory, Bush has not just intentionally faded from the public spotlight but all but disappeared from it. He wrote his own remarks for Thursday's event, as he no longer employs a speechwriter.
It was just one week ago that Obama, revving up campaign donors, turned Bush into a punch line. Obama depicted Romney as a peddler of bad economic ideas, helping the rich at the expense of the middle class. He then added: "That was tried, remember? The last guy did all this."
The president steered clear of the political jabs Thursday but didn't shy away from the economic crisis that began under Bush and has consumed Obama's term. Without laying blame for the recession, Obama said that after his election, Bush understood "that rescuing our economy was not just a Democratic or a Republican issue; it was an American priority."
Obama also recalled one of the most memorable moments of Bush's presidency from the days following the Sept. 11 attacks: "All of us will always remember the image of President Bush standing on that pile of rubble, bullhorn in hand, conveying extraordinary strength and resolve to the American people but also representing the strength and resolve of the American people."
Turning lighthearted himself, Obama also told Bush, "You left me a really good TV sports package. ... I use it."
Thursday's gathering of Bush-era aides had the feel of a college reunion. Before the presidents arrived, former staffers waved to each other and swapped stories. Even former White House reporters who covered the Bush administration came back for the event, crowding into the corners of the East Room.
While the few Democrats in attendance were far outnumbered by Republicans, the political tensions ran so low that even Vice President Joe Biden offered a hearty handshake and greeting to Karl Rove, Bush's longtime political adviser and a foe of countless Democrats.
"There he is!" Biden exclaimed as he turned over his shoulder to greet Rove who was seated a row behind.
Obama personally greeted the Bush family Thursday afternoon upon their arrival at the White House. The Obamas then hosted a private lunch for more than a dozen members of the Bush family in the Red Room.
Later Thursday, the Bushes visited former Vice President Dick Cheney at his home in nearby Virginia before they returned to Texas.
Current presidents hosting their predecessors for portrait unveilings is a long-standing political tradition at the White House. Bush held a similar ceremony for his predecessor Bill Clinton, who did the same for the elder Bush.
Artist John Howard Sanden painted the portraits of George and Laura Bush. The former president's portrait depicts him in the Oval Office in front of one of his favorite paintings, "A Charge to Keep." Laura Bush's portrait shows her in the Green Room wearing a long gown.
The former president's painting will hang prominently in the formal entrance hall to the White House, the Grand Foyer, a location Bush approved of.
___
AP White House Correspondent Ben Feller contributed to this report.
___
Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC.
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