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FILE - In this April 26, 2013 file photo, Judy Clarke, a defense lawyer whose high-profile clients include "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, and Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, speaks at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Clarke was appointed Monday, April 29, 2013 to the team representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
FILE - In this April 26, 2013 file photo, Judy Clarke, a defense lawyer whose high-profile clients include "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski, Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph, and Tucson shooter Jared Lee Loughner, speaks at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. Clarke was appointed Monday, April 29, 2013 to the team representing Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)
This Friday, April 19, 2013 photo shows the home of Katherine Russell's parents in North Kingstown, R.I. Russell, widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has been staying there. FBI agents visited the home Monday, April 29, 2013, and carried away several bags. (AP Photo/Joe Giblin)
Katherine Russell, right, wife of Boston Marathon bomber suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, leaves the law office of DeLuca and Weizenbaum with Amato DeLuca, left, Monday, April 29, 2013, in Providence, R.I. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)
FILE - This file photo provided Friday, April 19, 2013 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev's legal defense is in the hands of Miriam Conrad, the chief federal public defender for Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island. Conrad has asked a judge to appoint two additional lawyers with experience in death penalty cases. (AP Photo/Federal Bureau of Investigation, File)
BOSTON (AP) ? The defense team representing the Boston Marathon bombing suspect got a major boost Monday with the addition of Judy Clarke, a San Diego lawyer who has managed to get life sentences instead of the death penalty for several high-profile clients, including the Unabomber and the gunman in the rampage that injured former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Clarke's appointment was approved Monday by U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler.
Bowler denied, at least for now, a request from Miriam Conrad, the public defender of 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, to appoint a second death penalty lawyer ? David Bruck, a professor at Washington and Lee University School of Law.
Tsarnaev has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction during the April 15 marathon. Three people were killed and more than 260 injured when two bombs exploded near the finish line.
The suspect's lawyers could renew their motion to appoint another death penalty expert if he is indicted, the judge said.
Clarke's clients have included the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski; Susan Smith, who drowned her two children; Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph; and most recently Tucson, Ariz., shooter Jared Loughner. All received life sentences instead of the death penalty.
Clarke has rarely spoken publicly about her work and did not return a call seeking comment Monday. However, at a speech Friday at a legal conference in Los Angeles, she talked about how she had been "sucked into the black hole, the vortex" of death penalty cases 18 years ago when she represented Smith.
"I got a dose of understanding human behavior, and I learned what the death penalty does to us," she said. "I don't think it's a secret that I oppose the death penalty."
Bruck has directed Washington and Lee's death penalty defense clinic, the Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse, since 2004.
In other developments in the Boston case:
? FBI agents visited the Rhode Island home of the in-laws of the suspect's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and carried away several bags. The brother was killed in a gun battle with police.
Katherine Russell, Tsarnaev's widow, has been staying at the North Kingstown home and did not speak to reporters as she left her attorneys' office in Providence later in the day. Attorney Amato DeLuca says she's doing everything she can to assist with the investigation.
? President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed terrorism coordination Monday in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings. Obama expressed his "appreciation" for Russia's close cooperation after the attack.
The suspected bombers are Russian natives who immigrated to the Boston area. Russian authorities told U.S. officials before the bombings they had concerns about the family, but only revealed details of wiretapped conversations since the attack.
___
AP Special Correspondent Linda Deutsch in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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Getty ImagesAfter analyzing?the draft needs of all 32 teams, PFT will review how well each team addressed those needs. Up next: The Oakland Raiders.?
What?they?needed: Defensive line, quarterback, offensive line, cornerback, tight end, wide receiver.
Who they got:
Round 1: D.J. Hayden, CB, Houston.
Round 2: Menelik Watson, OT, Florida State.
Round 3: Sio Moore, LB, Connecticut.
Round 4: Tyler Wilson, QB, Arkansas.
Round 6: Nick Kasa, TE, Colorado.
Round 6: Latavius Murray, RB, UCF.
Round 6: Mychal Rivera, TE, Tennessee.
Round 6: Stacy McGee, DT, Oklahoma.
Round 7: Brice Butler, WR, San Diego State.
Round 7: David Bass, DE, Missouri Western.
Where they hit: Hayden, who survived a freakish life-threatening internal injury suffered in November, could be the Raiders? top cornerback in short order. With the second-rounder acquired from Miami, the Raiders added Watson, a tackle prospect with upside. Moore is a good scheme fit, and Wilson could prove a very good value if he plays to his best collegiate form.
Where they missed: The Raiders didn?t draft a defensive lineman until Round Six. There?s playing time to be had for ends Bass and Jack Crawford (2012 fifth-rounder) and tackles McGee and Christo Bilukidi (2012 sixth-rounder) behind the Raiders? veteran starters, but Oakland could use a little more help at both line positions. In McKenzie?s defense, the Raiders have numerous needs, and on first analysis, he did quite well to add talent and depth in this draft.
Impact rookies: Given the state of the Raiders? roster, all 10 drafted rookies have a chance to make the team, and several could earn game-day snaps of consequence in Year One, so we?re going to cast a slightly wider net than usual here.
Hayden has the best shot to start. He should compete with Tracy Porter and Mike Jenkins right off the bat. Moore is also a player to watch; the Raiders have revamped their LB corps this offseason but don?t have any standouts. A talented fresh face has a chance to make an impact early at this position. Watson?s best opportunity to start in 2013 is at right tackle, but that?s no sure thing, given his lack of experience.
Rivera is a potential sleeper, given the Raiders? lack of a clear-cut top target at tight end after the departure of Brandon Myers. And then we come to Wilson. Matt Flynn will get first run at the starting job. Wilson will have to be a quick study to challenge Flynn and Terrelle Pryor. However, it?s not out of the realm of possibility.
Long-term prospects: Give McKenzie credit ? this roster has improved at numerous positions compared to where it stood earlier in the spring. In the best-case scenario for the Raiders? Class of 2013, these three things happen: 1) Hayden is a starter-caliber player from the get-go; 2) Watson and Wilson build on their potential; 3) the Day Three picks other than Wilson provide solid depth, with one or two panning out better than Oakland expected.
Make no mistake: the Raiders have a lot of catching up to do in the AFC West. However, there?s vast opportunity for some young players to seize some key roles. The Raiders have to hope more than a few rise to the occasion.
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REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) ? In a dramatic about-face, Icelandic voters have returned to power the center-right parties that led the national economy to collapse five years ago.
With all votes counted Sunday, the conservative Independence Party and rural-based Progressive Party ? who governed Iceland for decades before the 2008 crash ? each had 19 seats in Iceland's 63-seat parliament, the Althingi.
The parties, who are promising to ease Icelanders' economic pain with tax cuts and debt relief, took 51 percent of the vote between them, and are likely to form a coalition government.
Voters shunned the Social Democrat-led coalition that has spent four years trying to turn the country around with painful austerity measures. The Social Democrats took nine seats and their former coalition partners the Left-Greens seven.
The pro-Europe Bright Future party took six seats and online freedom advocates the Pirate Party three.
"We are very happy, we are very grateful for the support that we see in the numbers," said Independence Party leader Bjarni Benediktsson.
Either 43-year-old Beneditksson or Progressive Party chief Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, 38, is likely to be Iceland's next prime minister.
The shift to the right following Saturday's parliamentary election will almost certainly shelve Iceland's plans to join the European Union, with which it has begun accession talks. Both the Progressives and Independents oppose joining the 27-nation bloc.
The two parties governed Iceland for several decades, often in coalition, overseeing economic liberalization that spurred a banking and business boom ? until Iceland's economy crashed spectacularly during the 2008 credit crisis.
A volcano-dotted North Atlantic nation with a population of just 320,000, Iceland went from economic wunderkind to financial basket case almost overnight when its main commercial banks collapsed within a week of one another.
The value of the country's currency plummeted, while inflation and unemployment soared. Iceland was forced to seek bailouts from Europe and the International Monetary Fund.
Since then, Iceland has in many ways made a strong recovery. Unemployment has fallen and the economy is growing.
But inflation remains naggingly high, and many Icelanders still struggle to repay home and car loans they took out ? often in foreign currencies whose value soared after the crash ? in the years of easy credit.
Some blamed the outgoing government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir for agreeing to internationally approved austerity measures and accused it of caving in to pressure to compensate Britain and the Netherlands for their citizens' lost deposits in the failed online bank Icesave. Icelanders have twice rejected Icesave repayment deals agreed to by Sigurdardottir's government.
Despite being widely blamed for the financial meltdown, the Independents and Progressives say they are now best placed to lead the economic recovery.
The Progressives have promised to write off some mortgage debt, taking money from foreign creditors. Benediktsson's Independence Party is offering lower taxes and the lifting of capital controls that he says are hindering foreign investment.
"I think people knew that hard times were ahead in 2009," Benediktsson said. "But they were hopeful, and they were introduced to a plan that would bring us quicker out of the crisis than has been the reality.
"So people are now looking forward and asking themselves ... what kind of a plan is the most likely one to bring more growth, more job creation, to close the budget deficit, and have Iceland grow into the future? These are the issues that I think these elections are all about."
______
Lawless reported from London. Associated Press writer David Mac Dougall in Reykjavik contributed to this report.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iceland-returns-center-parties-power-091136830.html
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JERUSALEM (AP) ? Israel responded to rockets fired from the Gaza Strip with airstrikes on sites used by Islamic militant group Hamas, which rules the Palestinian territory, the military said on Sunday.
It said its jets struck "a terrorist weapon storage facility and a Hamas training installation" after rockets landed in southern Israel the night before. It also closed a closed a key border crossing with the territory. Gaza health officials said nobody was hurt in the strikes.
On Saturday, thousands of Israelis had been outside in parks and forests celebrating the Jewish holiday of Lag Baomer with traditional bonfires. The rockets exploded in open areas and caused no injuries.
Rocket fire from Gaza has declined since a military campaign in November, before which militants were firing rockets on an almost daily basis and launching other attacks on Israeli towns across the border. Sporadic fire still persists however.
The military said it "will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians" and that it will not allow the situation to return to where it stood before the November campaign.
Israel holds Gaza's militant Hamas rulers responsible for all attacks from the territory. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack that the perpetrators will "pay a heavy price." Speaking at a government meeting Sunday, Netanyahu said he will "not allow a policy of sporadic fire" to continue. He said such fire will be met with a "very strong" response.
No group claimed responsibility for the attacks.
A shadowy extremist Muslim Salafi group has been behind recent attacks in the area, including one last month where rockets were fired from Egypt's Sinai Peninsula.
Hamas sees the Salafis as a threat to its rule and routinely arrest members of the ultraconservative movement in Gaza. Salafis view even Hamas's hardline interpretation of Islamic law as too moderate and the two groups have clashed violently in the past.
Along with the airstrikes, Israel responded to Saturday's rocket fire by closing the Kerem Shalom crossing with Gaza. It said another terminal will be open for humanitarian cases.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/israel-responds-gaza-rocket-fire-airstrike-050848643.html
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) ? Republicans are struggling to recruit strong Senate candidates in states that present the party's best opportunities to reclaim the majority, a sign that the GOP's post-2012 soul-searching may end up creeping into the midterm congressional elections.
It's admittedly early, with more than 18 months before the November 2014 elections.
But candidate recruitment efforts are well underway. And, so far, Republicans haven't been able to field a top-tier candidate in Iowa or Michigan, swing-voting states where the GOP hopes to make a play for seats left open by the retirement of veteran Democratic senators. Also, the GOP is facing the prospect of contentious and expensive primary races in Georgia and perhaps West Virginia, two GOP-leaning states where sitting senators ? one Republican, one Democrat ? are retiring.
With President Barack Obama not on the top of the ticket, Republicans may have their best chance in years to try to retake the Senate, which would put a major crimp on the president's efforts to enact his agenda and shape his legacy in the final two years of his presidency. Republicans need to gain six seats to win control of the Senate. Democrats will be defending 21 seats to Republicans' 14, meaning the GOP has more opportunity to try to win on Democratic turf.
Only recently, Republicans were reveling in the fact that several veteran Democrats were retiring in states where the GOP had not had a chance to win in decades. Last week, Democrat Max Baucus of Montana became the latest to announce his retirement in a state that typically tilts Republican.
But a combination of no-thank-yous from prospective Republican candidates in Iowa, slow movement among others in Michigan and lack of consensus elsewhere over a single contender have complicated the early goings of what historically would be the GOP's moment to strike ? the sixth year of a presidency, when the party out of power in the White House usually wins congressional seats.
Despite that historical disadvantage, Democrats are fighting to reclaim the majority in the House, where control will be decided by a couple of dozen swing states.
After embarrassing losses in GOP-leaning Indiana and Missouri last year, the new Republican Senate campaign leadership is responding by wading deep into the early stages of the 2014 races, conducting exhaustive research on would-be candidates, making hard pitches for those they prefer and discouraging those they don't, to the point of advertising against them. The hope is to limit the number of divisive primaries that only stand to remind voters of their reservations about Republicans.
"It's more about trying to get consensus and avoid a primary that would reopen those wounds, rather than the party struggling to find candidates," said Greg Strimple, a pollster who and consultant to several 2012 Republican Senate campaigns.
This year, the party's top national Senate campaign strategists are so concerned about squandering potential opportunities by failing to convince popular Republicans to run in key places that they visited Iowa last week to survey the landscape after two top Senate prospects ? Rep. Tom Latham, a prolific fundraiser, and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a rising star ? decided against running despite aggressive lobbying by the National Republican Senate Committee.
Its senior spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, and its political director, Ward Baker, met privately Wednesday with state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and state Sen. Joni Ernst, who have expressed interest. They invited Mark Jacobs, the former CEO of Reliant Energy, to breakfast Thursday. And they also tried again ? and in vain, it turns out ? to persuade veteran Gov. Terry Branstad, Iowa's longest-serving governor, to run for Senate instead of seeking another gubernatorial term.
Despite all that, the Washington delegation shrugged off the recruitment troubles, with McLaughlin saying: "It's more important to take the time to get it right than it is to rush and get it wrong."
McLaughlin and others have lamented the national party's decision not to intervene in the candidate selection last year, when Republicans lost races viewed as winnable in Indiana, Missouri and elsewhere.
Hence, the GOP's active role in Iowa this year.
The mission in Iowa: Beat Democrat Bruce Braley, a four-term congressman seeking to succeed retiring six-term Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Braley is the party's consensus prospect, winning Harkin's endorsement and already raising more than $1 million for his campaign.
Democrats are similarly set in Michigan, where veteran term Democrat Sen. Carl Levin is leaving office after six terms. The Democratic field has been all but cleared for three-term Rep. Gary Peters, who already has more than $800,000 toward his campaign. Last week, Debbie Dingell, wife of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, opted not to run for the Senate, after some of her key donors made clear they were for Peters.
But, as in Iowa, Republicans have faced recruitment challenges in Michigan.
So, the GOP's Senate campaign committee is planning a visit soon to Michigan, and hope to coax Rep. Mike Rogers into the race. There's a belief in GOP circles in Washington and in Michigan that the seven-term Rogers, a former FBI agent who now chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, would be a stronger candidate than two-term Rep. Justin Amash, a tea party darling with little money in his campaign account.
National Republican officials also are working to head off primaries in several states and are taking sides when they can't. That includes in West Virginia, which Mitt Romney won and where six-term Democrat Jay Rockefeller is retiring.
Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito quickly announced her candidacy and became a favorite of the GOP establishment. Some conservatives complained about her votes for financial industry bailouts, and former state Sen. Patrick McGeehan has announced plans to challenge her. National Republican Senate Committee officials said they would campaign ? and run ads ? against McGeehan if he appeared to be a threat.
In Georgia, several Republican candidates are considering trying to succeed the retiring Republican Saxby Chambliss. But so far, the two who have entered the race are arch conservative House members Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey. So far, national Republicans are treading carefully there to avoid enraging the conservative base. But the primary field could eventually include up to a half-dozen people.
At the local level, some Republicans are worried the delay is costing precious organizing and fundraising time.
"Every day Iowa Republicans spend talking about potential candidate deliberations ... is a day lost," said former Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn.
But others say that the meddling from Washington stifles the voices of voters, who they say ought to be in charge of shaping the party's future, even if the primary is loud and divisive.
"It's a truer reflection of where the Republican Party needs to go," said Iowa Republican Doug Gross, a veteran adviser to Branstad.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/gop-faces-senate-recruitment-woes-key-states-071637703.html
SOFIA (Reuters) - Bulgaria pushed back the privatization of the state railway company's cargo unit until after May's parliamentary elections, highlighting the difficulty of enacting economic reforms amid political instability.
The operator BDZ hopes to eventually raise about raise around 100 million levs ($67 million) from the sale to ease its 700 million levs debts and allowing it to tap a World Bank loan.
But Bulgaria has already twice extended the deadline for the disposal, in part due to mounting public pressure to halt the deal. Opponents of the sale claim it will not be conducted transparently and will lead to mass layoffs.
Dublin-based creditor Depfa Bank has also won a court order freezing the cargo unit's assets, putting a further block on the sale.
Bulgarians go to the polls on May 12 in an early election after mass protests against widespread corruption and low living standards toppled Boiko Borisov's center-right government in February.
Monday's deadline for offers has now been moved to June 10 after requests from prospective bidders, the privatization agency said in a statement.
The transport ministry is also holding talks with BDZ creditors to reach an agreement on debts so the freeze can be lifted. ($1 = 1.5037 Bulgarian levs)
(Reporting by Angel Krasimirov; Editing by Toby Chopra)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/bulgaria-delays-rail-sell-off-until-election-132649764.html
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Yet now, on April 25, Mitrione is off suspension and has a fight scheduled. Mitrione will fight fellow "The Ultimate Fighter" castmember Brendan Schaub on the July 27 UFC on Fox 8 show.
122 days passed between Mitrione's last two fights. By the time he gets in the cage with Brendan Schaub at UFC on Fox 8, 112 days will have passed since his knockout of Philip de Fries. How is that a suspension?
Here we have the problem with MMA and suspensions. This isn't like football or basketball, where every athlete has the same amount of events, and a suspension of five games means the same thing for everyone. In MMA, some fighters fight once a year. Some fight four times a year. For a suspension to mean anything, it has to be for several months, and a fighter's ability to get in the cage must be affected.
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Apr. 25, 2013 ? Sand-dwelling and rock-dwelling cichlids living in East Africa's Lake Malawi share a nearly identical genome, but have very different personalities. The territorial rock-dwellers live in communities where social interactions are important, while the sand-dwellers are itinerant and less aggressive.
Those behavioral differences likely arise from a complex region of the brain known as the telencephalon, which governs communication, emotion, movement and memory in vertebrates -- including humans, where a major portion of the telencephalon is known as the cerebral cortex. A study published this week in the journal Nature Communications shows how the strength and timing of competing molecular signals during brain development has generated natural and presumably adaptive differences in the telencephalon much earlier than scientists had previously believed.
In the study, researchers first identified key differences in gene expression between rock- and sand-dweller brains during development, and then used small molecules to manipulate developmental pathways to mimic natural diversity.
"We have shown that the evolutionary changes in the brains of these fishes occur really early in development," said Todd Streelman, an associate professor in the School of Biology and the Petit Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. "It's generally been thought that early development of the brain must be strongly buffered against change. Our data suggest that rock-dweller brains differ from sand-dweller brains -- before there is a brain."
For humans, the research could lead scientists to look for subtle changes in brain structures earlier in the development process. This could provide a better understanding of how disorders such as autism and schizophrenia could arise during very early brain development.
The research was supported by the National Science Foundation and published online April 23 by the journal.
"We want to understand how the telencephalon evolves by looking at genetics and developmental pathways in closely-related species from natural populations," said Jonathan Sylvester, a postdoctoral researcher in the Georgia Tech School of Biology and lead author of the paper. "Adult cichlids have a tremendous amount of variation within the telencephalon, and we investigated the timing and cause of these differences. Unlike many previous studies in laboratory model organisms that focus on large, qualitative effects from knocking out single genes, we demonstrated that brain diversity evolves through quantitative tuning of multiple pathways."
In examining the fish from embryos to adulthood, the researchers found that the mbuna, or rock-dwellers, tended to exhibit a larger ventral portion of the telencephalon, called the subpallium -- while the sand-dwellers tended to have a larger version of the dorsal structure known as the pallium. These structures seem to have evolved differently over time to meet the behavioral and ecological needs of the fishes. The team showed that early variation in the activity of developmental signals expressed as complementary dorsal-ventral gradients, known technically as "Wingless" and "Hedgehog," are involved in creating those differences during the neural plate stage, as a single sheet of neural tissue folds to form the neural tube.
To specifically manipulate those two pathways, Sylvester removed clutches of between 20 and 40 eggs from brooding female cichlids, which normally incubate fertilized eggs in their mouths. At about 36 to 48 hours after fertilization, groups of eggs were exposed to small-molecule chemicals that either strengthened or weakened the Hedgehog signal, or strengthened or weakened the Wingless signal. The chemical treatment came while the structures that would become the brain were little more than a sheet of cells. After treatment, water containing the chemicals was replaced with fresh water, and the embryos were allowed to continue their development.
"We were able to artificially manipulate these pathways in a way that we think evolution might have worked to shift the process of rock-dweller telencephalon development to sand-dweller development, and vice-versa. Treatment with small molecules allows us incredible temporal and dose precision in manipulating natural development," Sylvester explained. "We then followed the development of the embryos until we were able to measure the anatomical structures -- the size of the pallium and subpallium -- to see that we had transformed one to the other."
The two different brain regions, the dorsal pallium and ventral subpallium, give rise to excitatory and inhibitory neurons in the forebrain. Altering the relative sizes of these regions might change the balance between these neuronal types, ultimately producing behavioral changes in the adult fish.
"Evolution has fine-tuned some of these developmental mechanisms to produce diversity," Streelman said. "In this study, we have figured out which ones."
The researchers studied six different species of East African cichlids, and also worked with collaborators at King's College in London to apply similar techniques in the zebrafish.
As a next step, the researchers would like to follow the embryos through to adulthood to see if the changes seen in embryonic and juvenile brain structures actually do change behavior of adults. It's possible, said Streelman, that later developmental events could compensate for the early differences.
The results could be of interest to scientists investigating human neurological disorders that result from an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Those disorders include autism and schizophrenia. "We think it is particularly interesting that there may be some adaptive variation in the natural proportions of excitatory versus inhibitory neurons in the species we study, correlated with their natural behavioral differences," said Streelman.
In addition to the researchers already mentioned, the study included undergraduate coauthors Constance Rich and Chuyong Yi from Georgia Tech, and Joao Peres and Corinne Houart from King's College in London. Rich is presently in the neuroscience PhD program at the University of Cambridge.
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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/I3zAKn_ACS0/130426115636.htm
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There's now no need to dig around your PlayStation's downloads section for that fresh digital copy of Ni No Kuni you just picked up online at Sony's Entertainment Network store. Finally catching up to the likes of Steam (and other competition), your orders will now automatically start downloading a few minutes after booting up your PS3. PSN Stores has even uploaded a guided tour of the new function -- you'll find it after the break.
Via: PSN Stores
Source: Sony Entertainment Network
Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/UPGVNpnCu9w/
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(Reuters) - BlackBerry said its new smartphone BlackBerry Q10 will be available in Canada starting May 1 through Rogers Wireless, Telus Corp and Bell Mobility.
Q10 will be available starting at C$199 ($190) with a three-year contract. It will also be available on Virgin Mobile Canada.
BlackBerry said it expects Q10 device to be available in the United States by the end of May.
BlackBerry is trying to claw back market share lost to rivals such as Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co with its new line of devices powered by the revamped BlackBerry 10 operating system.
BlackBerry, which has changed its name from Research In Motion, has said it expects to report break-even results in the current quarter.
The company's shares closed at C$14.74 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Tuesday. They have gained 25 percent so far in 2013.
(Reporting by Ankur Banerjee in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/blackberry-q10-available-canada-starting-may-1-212512797--sector.html
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BULLECOURT, France (AP) ? When Didier Guerle fulfilled his grandfather's dying wish and had the fields of his farm searched, he set off a chain of events that brought people together across continents, and one family across generations.
The farmer called in his friend Moise Dilly, an expert in metal detection. Soon enough, Dilly came across something hidden underneath the lush grassland. "I took a spade and some time later I hit a shoe. There still was a bone in it."
As his grandfather had predicted, beneath the brutal World War I battleground, the remains and possessions of dead soldiers were found, including the silver identity bracelet for British Lt. John Harold Pritchard. Dilly's metal detector had been set off by a gun or other piece of metal on a body.
On Tuesday, almost a century after his death in the trenches, Pritchard finally found a proper grave and a ceremonial reburial in neighboring Ecoust-St. Mein, attended by his family and England's Prince Michael of Kent. Finally, he was no longer among the ranks of soldiers whose bodies were never found in the carnage of the Great War.
Pvt. Christopher Douglas Elphick and two unidentified men were buried in the same ceremony, which comes as nations prepare to mark World War I centenary commemorations next year.
Family members of Pritchard, a soldier chorister who performed as a child at the enthronement of British King Edward VII, sang for him at the white gravestone that now marks his memory. Among them was a great niece who used musical scores from his own choir days to study to become a professional singer. The grave is one of tens of thousands dotting the fertile fields in northern France which were scene to some of humanity's worst bloodshed.
"Lost for many years. Your battle is won," the etching on the stone says.
Among the crowd at the war cemetery stood Mark Cain, an American collector who came into possession of Pritchard's ceremonial sword about a dozen years ago. He became interested in the object and got in touch with the British armed forces archives about it. When he learned from the archives that Pritchard's remains had been found, he knew there was only one thing to do: give the sword back to the family.
"The sword has been traveling between continents for 100 years perhaps," Cain said. "I have been very honored to return it."
Pritchard's family was profoundly moved by the generosity. "I persuaded him to come to the burial because I cannot thank him enough," said Janet Shell, Pritchard's great-niece.
The value of the sword? "They will tell you it is priceless," Cain said after Pritchard's family was handed the sword by Prince Michael.
For Shell, it was music that reunited the family across a century. As a chorister of St. Paul's Cathedral, Pritchard has been on a remembrance plaque of the cathedral since 1921. Pritchard left for the war in the first wave of 1914 but came back to England after he was injured twice. "He was given the option of staying but John said 'no,' he wanted to get back to his men," she said.
The night before he left for France for the final time in 1916, he was stationed at the Tower of London. He played the piano for his mother and sister Ida and sang to a verse of poet Lord Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar" ? a metaphor about impending death which ends: "I hope to see my Pilot face to face/When I have crost the bar."
And the day's leaden clouds broke for Janet and three other professional singers in the family, as they brought the ceremony to an end with a moving a cappella rendition of the same song.
"It was sort of fitting in some way," said Shell. "It could not have been a better moment."
"Now this is bringing together four generations and we will never forget."
Pritchard was killed on May 15, 1917, in a nighttime battle which stopped his watch at midnight. He died in the second battle of Bullecourt on the Hindenburg Line, a fight that instead of saving the village fully razed it. Thousands of dead were scattered on both sides. Australians who fought there called it the "blood tub" and the two-week battle had little impact on the Great War itself.
The impact on the locals, though, was deep. Bullecourt literally had to be rebuilt from the mud up. Some people had no idea where their house once stood.
When Guerle's grandfather, Jean-Baptiste Savary, returned from the war, he wanted to forget, even though he knew bodies were strewn on his land.
"He told us that when I'm dead, you have to get all the soldiers out," said Guerle.
Out of respect, the land behind the farm was never ploughed, and only lightweight sheep were allowed to graze. "We did not want to trample the dead," Guerle said.
Neither he nor anyone else knows how many soldiers are still buried in his fields.
But Dilly said: "I guarantee you that there are still a lot of them there."
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/century-wwi-dead-soldier-unites-162923299.html
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By Rajendra Jadhav
JAMWADI, India (Reuters) - India may be heading for another bumper grain harvest, if the first forecast for this year's monsoon proves correct, but the rain may be too little - and too late - for southern and western states already parched by the worst drought in four decades.
Although last year's monsoon rains were, overall, just seven percent below normal, these states - including major sugar producer Maharashtra and cotton-growing Gujarat - went short, in some cases getting less than half the precipitation they needed.
A further drought this year could trigger mass migration to cities like Mumbai as families seek jobs and precious water. It would also hit crops, shrinking farm incomes and so reducing economic growth in the area, as well as fuelling food inflation.
India's struggling economy, Asia's third biggest, is at last showing some green shoots of recovery, but anything short of a drought-busting monsoon could put that at risk. A drought can wipe as much as 2 percentage points off economic growth, as farm output withers and consumption stalls.
"If the monsoon season is good, then farmers will earn money and start spending from October onwards. Till then we have to cope with the slowdown," said Kamalkant Deshmukh, a manager at Raghuvir Motors, which sells Hero motorcyles in Aurangabad in Maharashtra state.
His sales halved in the first three months of 2013 from a year ago, while India's overall motorcycle sales dropped an annual 8.3 percent in March.
A widespread drought could push India's overall economic growth rate in the current fiscal year ended March, 2014, down to as low as 5.1 percent from a current projection of 6 percent, said D.K. Joshi, chief economist at CRISIL Ltd.
Last Friday, global experts predicted that India would receive normal monsoon rains this year, and the Indian weather office is likely to confirm that with its own first official forecast on April 26.
But the massive subcontinent, which stretches from the tropics in the south to the Himalayas in the north, has more variations in soil type and climate than perhaps any other region in the world. Even during a normal monsoon season, many regions receive scanty rainfall while other battle with floods.
WELLS DRY UP
The June-September rains are crucial for the 55-60 percent of Indian farmland that lacks irrigation. Drought damages crops and yields, sometimes forcing the country to import food for its 1.2 billion population, spurring global prices higher.
Last year's rains were successful enough to mean India's sugar, rice and wheat output are all surplus to demand and, in some cases, breaking records. Government grain stocks are already overflowing and New Delhi is pushing exports to avoid wasting the rice and wheat to rot and rodents.
But the devil is in the detail.
Farmer Sanjay Wadekar from the village of Jamwadi in the western state of Maharashtra watched helplessly in recent weeks as wells on his land dried up and his 17-year-old sweet lime orchard died.
Now, he is planting cotton in the hope that the hardier, less thirsty crop will survive and bring some income.
"Due to the drought, I have lost my savings of the last few years. If the drought repeats again this year, I have no choice but to default on crop and tractor loans. I may have to sell some family gold for regular expenses," said Wadekar.
SUGAR CANE USED TO FEED COWS
Maharashtra, Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west and the southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh are all in desperate need of ample rains this year, spanning an area roughly equivalent to Southern Europe.
According to some estimates, sugar output may drop below demand for the first time in four years in 2013/14 because the drought in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Karnataka has reduced planting.
Sugar output has already been cut by 17 percent in Maharashtra, India's main producing state, and its grains production is down a similar amount.
Cotton output has also been hit, down over 29 percent in Gujarat, while Maharashtra's onion production - key for India's spicy dishes - is likely to drop more than 19 percent.
In addition, states have bought sugar cane for fodder to ensure the survival of dairy cows, which become the main source of income for farmers when drought hits their crops.
The drought is so bad in Maharashtra that drinking supplies are running short. Nearly 12,000 villages have been affected and tanker trucks are out supplying water. People in Jamwadi have to trudge nearly 2 km to find wells which still hold water.
"Many of our relatives are moving to Mumbai, where they are getting work and tap water," said 25-year-old Salma Beniwale, on her third round trip to the well on a recent day. "We are also thinking to go there as I don't think we will get water in May."
And it's not just drinking water that is precious.
"People have no choice but to defecate in the open," said Bajirao More, a farm laborer currently without work in Jamwadi. "Here we are struggling to secure drinking water. Using toilets means we have to make one more round to bring water."
(Editing by Jo Winterbottom and Ed Davies)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indias-drought-hit-states-track-monsoon-may-too-212112447.html
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Overcoming stress experienced from common phobias could be as simple as reframing it, according to a new study.
For stage fright in particular, thinking about the common manifestations of stress -- sweaty palms, heart beating at a million miles an hour -- in a positive light could help people to overcome the fear and perform better.
"Those feelings just mean that our body is preparing to address a demanding situation," study researcher Jeremy Jamieson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "The body is marshaling resources, pumping more blood to our major muscle groups and delivering more oxygen to our brains."
The study, published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science, included 69 adults who were given three minutes to come up with a speech about their strengths and weaknesses. About half of the study participants had experienced social anxiety before.
The researchers randomly broke the participants up into two groups: One group was told about why the stress response naturally produced by the body is a good thing, and that they should think about the stress sensations they feel before public speaking as a good thing. The other group wasn't given any advice about rethinking their view of stress.
Then, all the study participants gave their speech to judges, who looked displeased and bored as the participants talked. Then, after the speech, the study participants were instructed to do a number task where they counted backward from 996 in sevens; if they messed up, the judges made them start over.
Researchers found that the people who were given no reframing instruction were more threatened by this, compared with those who were taught to reframe their stress symptoms. The hearts of the people who were taught to reframe stress also pumped more blood, compared with those not taught about reframing stress.
Interestingly, researchers also found that those with the history of social anxiety didn't actually have any physiological differences from those without the history of social anxiety even though they reported feeling way more stressed before the public speaking activity.
The new findings lend more credence to the idea that it's not just the stressors, but our handling of the stressors that matters. Recently, a study in the American Journal of Cardiology showed that our perceptions of our own stress have an impact on our heart disease risks. Similarly, letting yourself get caught up in thinking about stress could also be bad for health in that it could raise your body's inflammation, another study showed.
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Marine scientists have long understood the detrimental effect of fossil fuel emissions on marine ecosystems. But a group led by a UC Santa Barbara professor has found a point of resilience in a microscopic shelled plant with a massive environmental impact, which suggests the future of ocean life may not be so bleak.
As fossil fuel emissions increase, so does the amount of carbon dioxide oceans absorb and dissolve, lowering their pH levels. "As pH declines, there is this concern that marine species that have shells may start dissolving or may have more difficulty making calcium carbonate, the chalky substance that they use to build shells," said Debora Iglesias-Rodriguez, a professor in UCSB's Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.
Iglesias-Rodriguez and postdoctoral researcher Bethan Jones, who is now at Rutgers University, led a large-scale study on the effects of ocean acidification on these tiny plants that can only be seen under the microscope. Their research, funded by the European Project on Ocean Acidification, is published in the journal PLoS ONE and breaks with traditional notions about the vitality of calcifiers, or creatures that make shells, in future ocean conditions.
"The story years ago was that ocean acidification was going to be bad, really bad for calcifiers," said Iglesias-Rodriguez, whose team discovered that one species of the tiny single celled marine coccolithophore, Emiliania huxleyi, actually had bigger shells in high carbon dioxide seawater conditions. While the team acknowledges that calcification tends to decline with acidification, "we now know that there are variable responses in sea corals, in sea urchins, in all shelled organisms that we find in the sea."
These E. huxleyi are a large army of ocean-regulating shell producers that create oxygen as they process carbon by photosynthesis and fortify the ocean food chain. As one of the Earth's main vaults for environmentally harmful carbon emissions, their survival affects organisms inside and outside the marine system. However, as increasing levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide causes seawater to slide down the pH scale toward acidic levels, this environment could become less hospitable.
The UCSB study incorporated an approach known as shotgun proteomics to uncover how E. huxleyi's biochemistry could change in future high carbon dioxide conditions, which were set at four times the current levels for the study. This approach casts a wider investigative net that looks at all changes and influences in the environment as opposed to looking at individual processes like photosynthesis.
Shotgun proteomics examines the type, abundance, and alterations in proteins to understand how a cell's machinery is conditioned by ocean acidification. "There is no perfect approach," said Iglesias-Rodriguez. "They all have their caveats, but we think that this is a way of extracting a lot of information from this system."
To mirror natural ocean conditions, the team used over half a ton of seawater to grow the E. huxleyi and bubbled in carbon dioxide to recreate both present day and high future carbon levels. It took more than six months for the team to grow enough plants to accumulate and analyze sufficient proteins.
The team found that E. huxleyi cells exposed to higher carbon dioxide conditions were larger and contained more shell than those grown in current conditions. However, they also found that these larger cells grow slower than those under current carbon dioxide conditions. Aside from slower growth, the higher carbon dioxide levels did not seem to affect the cells even at the biochemical level, as measured by the shotgun proteomic approach.
"The E. huxleyi increased the amount of calcite they had because they kept calcifying but slowed down division rates," said Iglesias-Rodriguez. "You get fewer cells but they look as healthy as those under current ocean conditions, so the shells are not simply dissolving away."
The team stresses that while representatives of this species seem to have biochemical mechanisms to tolerate even very high levels of carbon dioxide, slower growth could become problematic. If other species grow faster, E. huxleyi could be outnumbered in some areas.
"The cells in this experiment seemed to tolerate future ocean conditions," said Jones. "However, what will happen to this species in the future is still an open question. Perhaps the grow-slow outcome may end up being their downfall as other species could simply outgrow and replace them."
###
University of California - Santa Barbara: http://www.ucsb.edu
Thanks to University of California - Santa Barbara for this article.
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After a very public defense of rumors about the next Xbox's always-on Internet requirements, a new report claims that Microsoft creative director Adam Orth is no longer with the company. In a series of Twitter posts, Orth defended the move by countering that "every device" is now constantly connected, and then delivered a low-blow when someone responded suggesting always-on connectivity might not work great for customers in rural locations.Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/HU1Vhh8KJ7E/
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Herman Van Rompuy said on Monday that Europe would hold the course on austerity, but experts say there has been too little focus on growth and a lack of actual reforms.
US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew (l.) shakes hands with European Council President Herman Van Rompuy after a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels on Monday. Mr. Van Rompuy indicated that, despite US urging otherwise, Europe plans to stick with its austerity policies in the eurozone's periphery.
Virginia Mayo/AP
EnlargeThis week European Council President Herman Van Rompuy reaffirmed the European government's commitment to the austerity measures it has required of its struggling periphery. But experts say that austerity has only worked to an extent, due to too little focus on growth and a lack of actual reforms.
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Mr. Van Rompuy on Monday met with US Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in Brussels. But while Mr. Lew and the US encouraged Europe to shift away from its austerity policies towards more growth-oriented ones, Van Rompuy said that Europe was committed to its austerity-centric approach.
"European economies face high levels of debt, deep structural medium-term challenges and short-term economic headwinds that we need to confront," he said. "We have made significant progress in correcting internal imbalances in the euro zone since the second half of last year. But there is no room for complacency."
But much of Europe ? particularly the five eurozone countries known as the PIIGS: Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain ? continues to suffer. Three years after the EU and IMF intervened by promising financial backing and long-term economic growth in exchange for the short-term pain of austerity measures, one of the countries, Greece, is in a spiral dive while three others ? Spain, Portugal, and Italy ? are seriously struggling.
"For all countries, and particularly for Greece and Italy, the focus has been on the short-run increases in tax revenues and not on the long-run consequences of austerity," says Evi Pappa, an economics professor at the European University Institute in Florence.
"For economies in recession, sheltering growth is a key factor. But the Greek government, for instance, has been single-mindedly concerned with collecting taxes no matter what, and there has been no concern for growth," she says.
The Greek economy, whose malaise eventually infected neighboring Cyprus, reacted to austerity in a very different way than what the EU and IMF had anticipated. Hit by lower wages, unemployment and uncertainty, Greek businesses and citizens sharply reduced spending. That led to an overall reduction in incomes and consumption, thus causing Athens to collect lower tax revenues than expected. In turn, that prompted further tax increases and spending cuts by the government, effectively trapping the economy in a declining loop.
According to projections made by the International Monetary Fund at the beginning of the austerity policies in 2010, the Greek GDP should have been $323 billion in 2012. Instead, it was only $255 billion, 21 percent lower.
In addition, there is increasing evidence that the very main goal of austerity ? setting a stable trend towards balanced budgets ? has not been achieved.
Data compiled by Ugo Arrigo, a professor of government finance at the University of Milan Bicocca, show for example that the Italian government, through its austerity measures, expected to improve its net debt position by $64 billion in 2012. However, when the final 2012 data was released in February, the actual improvement turned out to be only $19 billion, less than 30 percent of the original goal.
The situation is not better elsewhere. While the IMF estimated at the beginning of austerity policies, in 2010, that the PIIGS would on average carry a debt to GDP ratio of 106 percent by 2012, the latest data put the actual figure closer to 125 percent.
"The reality is that it was not easy to see it coming. Economists did not have much experience of austerity policies in developed countries," says Giles Merritt, secretary general at the Brussels-based think tank Friends of Europe. "The EU turned out to be a lot more sensitive to those policies than previously thought."
Europe's institutions have not been blind to the complaints. The IMF itself published two papers in October and January ? one authored by its chief economist ? in which it discussed how European economies contracted more than it had originally forecast.
And the IMF and the EU have held an ongoing re-evaluation of the policy options available. For instance, the deficit targets for several countries, including Spain, Ireland and Portugal, have been relaxed in an attempt to foster growth.
And while so far the costs of austerity have been higher and the rewards lower than expected, the policy also brought about some positive change. Although the recession meant that government finances did not improve, the bite of austerity did force governments to start cutting some of the inefficient spending.
"Government finances in the euro periphery are structurally better," agrees Uri Dadush, director of the International Economics Program at the Carnegie Endowment.
That bodes well for the PIIGS' economic health in the future, says Vincenzo Scarpetta, a political analyst at Open Europe, a London based think tank. "In the longer term, structural reforms will yield results," he says. "In Italy the pension reform was a good one, and there were other reforms that at least partially did what was needed."
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BERLIN, April 11 (Reuters) - Bayern Munich have received more than 200,000 ticket requests for their Champions League semi-final game in Munich, thousands of which were made before they advanced against Juventus, the club said on Thursday. "We have been updating the figure constantly and at the moment it stands at 200,000 ticket requests for the semi-final home leg," a Bayern Munich official told Reuters. Bayern's stadium fits only 69,000 and that includes the 39,500 ticket holders and any fans travelling with their opponents. ...
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/cult-canceled-cw-010759541.html
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While executives at T-Mobile and MetroPCS may be ready to close their merger, some shareholders aren't -- major advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services has been recommending that MetroPCS investors vote against the deal unless T-Mobile can sweeten the pot. Consider it sweetened. T-Mobile's parent Deutsche Telekom has made a "final offer" that would slash the debt owed by the post-merger company by $3.8 billion (to $11.2 billion), reduce the interest rate on that debt by half a point and prevent Deutsche Telekom from selling its shares in the merged firm for 18 months, rather than the original six. The reshuffled finances may not sound very exciting on the surface, but they're enough to put MetroPCS in a tizzy: the carrier is delaying a shareholder vote on the deal from April 12th to the 24th to allow for some reevaluations. There's no guarantees that the new offer is enough to please the naysayers. Still, we'd venture that T-Mobile will get a warmer reaction than the last time it tried a corporate alliance.
Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Mobile, T-Mobile
Via: Bloomberg
Source: Deutsche Telekom IR (Twitter)
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An EMT works in the back of an ambulance as it leaves an Suwanee, Ga., subdivision after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
An EMT works in the back of an ambulance as it leaves an Suwanee, Ga., subdivision after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer runs after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A group of people huddle together after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer clears a path for an ambulance after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostages suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
A police officer leaves the scene after an explosion and gunshots were heard near the scene where a man was holding four firefighters hostage Wednesday, April 10, 2013 in Suwanee, Ga. A police spokesman said the suspect was dead and none of the hostage suffered serious injuries. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
SUWANEE, Ga. (AP) ? A gunman who was having financial problems held four firefighters for hours in a suburban Atlanta home, demanding his cable and power be turned back on, before being shot dead when SWAT members stormed the house, authorities said Wednesday. The hostages had cuts and bruises from explosions officers set off to distract the gunman before moving in, but they will be fine, a fire official said.
Minutes before the police announcement on the resolution, a huge blast could be heard a quarter-mile away from the home, shuddering through the Suwanee neighborhood, setting off car alarms.
Earlier Wednesday, five firefighters responded to what seemed like a routine medical call and were eventually taken hostage by an unidentified suspect inside the house, police said. The gunman released one of the firefighters to move a fire truck but held the other four.
Dozens of police and rescue vehicles surrounded the home and a negotiator was keeping in touch with the gunman, police said. The situation remained tense until the blast rocked the neighborhood of mostly two-story homes and well-kept lawns. Residents unable to get into their neighborhood because of the police cordon flinched and recoiled as the enormous blast went off.
Soon after the stun blast, officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect and a SWAT member was shot in the hand or arm, but should be fine, said Gwinnett County Police Cpl. Edwin Ritter. Ritter would not saw how the gunman was fatally shot, saying it was being investigated.
"The explosion you heard was used to distract the suspect, to get into the house and take care of business," Ritter said in a news conference minutes after the resolution. He said the situation had gotten to the point where authorities believed the lives of the hostages were in "immediate danger."
The gunman, who has not been identified, demanded several utilities be restored, Ritter said. According to public records, the home is in foreclosure and has been bank-owned since mid-November.
"It's an unfortunate circumstance we did not want this to end this way," Ritter said. "But with the decisions this guy was making, this was his demise."
Firefighters were able to use their radios to let the dispatch center know what was going on, said Fire Capt. Tommy Rutledge said, and Ritter said officials decided to "get control of the situation" and do it swiftly.
Rutledge said the medical call seemed routine and firefighters did not believe there was any danger. One engine and one ambulance responded. Ritter said authorities didn't yet know if the suspect may have faked a heart attack or some other problem to bring the firefighters to his home.
"Our firefighters responded to a call they respond to hundreds of times, and that's a medical emergency," Rutledge said.
Two ambulances could be seen leaving after the gunfire ended.
Asked what kind of weapon or weapons the suspect had, Ritter said he didn't immediately know. He said investigators were in the house where the suspect's body remained.
---
Lucas reported from Atlanta.
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