American troops, civilians killed in Afghan attacks

Updated at 3:28 p.m. ET

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan Six American troops and civilians were killed in attacks on Saturday in southern and eastern Afghanistan as the U.S. military's top officer began a weekend visit to the country, officials said.

In the south, three U.S. service members and two U.S. civilian government employees were killed when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device detonated when it struck an international military coalition convoy, Col. Tom Collins, a spokesman for the International Security Assistance Force, confirmed to CBS News.

Collins also confirmed that another U.S. government employee was killed in an insurgent attack in the eastern province of Kunar.

In a statement, Secretary of State John Kerry, traveling to the Middle East, identified the civilians killed in the south as a foreign service officer at the State Department and a Defense Department worker.

The attack took place in Qalat, the capital of Zabul province. Zabul is next to Kandahar, the birthplace of the Taliban, and shares a volatile border with Pakistan. Kerry said the Americans were in Qalat to donate books to students at a school.

Kerry didn't release the civilians' names but said he had met the foreign service officer during his visit to Afghanistan last week.

"She was everything a Foreign Service Officer should be: smart, capable, eager to serve, and deeply committed to our country and the difference she was making for the Afghan people," Kerry said. "She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future."

Afghan civilians also died in the Qalat attack, Kerry said in the statement, which didn't include an exact number. Four other State Department workers also suffered injuries, one critically, according to Kerry's statement.

The attacks occurred the same day that U.S. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arrived in Afghanistan for a visit aimed at assessing the level of training that American troops can provide to Afghan security forces after international combat forces complete their withdrawal at the end of 2014.

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul confirmed that Americans were involved in an attack.

"There are American and Afghan casualties. We are still investigating the incident and cannot confirm details at this time," the embassy said in a statement.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility for the attacks.

The deaths bring the number of foreign military forces killed this year to 30, including 22 Americans.

It was unclear if the car bomber was targeting the coalition convoy or that of Provincial Gov. Mohammad Ashraf Nasery, who was driving to an event at a nearby school in Qalat, officials told The Associated Press. The explosion occurred in front of a hospital.

Nasery, who survived the attack, told The AP the car bomb exploded as his convoy was passing the hospital. He said a doctor was killed, and two of his bodyguards and a student from the school were wounded. The coalition convoy was leaving a base that is home to a provincial reconstruction team, or PRT, officials said.

"The governor's convoy was at the gate of the school," provincial police chief Gen. Ghulam Sakhi Rooghlawanay said. "At the same time the (coalition) convoy came out from the PRT and was passing by that place. The suicide bomber blew himself up between the two convoys."

Nasery said he thought his convoy was the intended target.

"I'm safe and healthy," he told The AP in a telephone call. "The target was my vehicle, but I survived."

Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/QRqJMuz9tDc/

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'Drunk Tank Pink' Finds Clues To Behavior

In his new book Drunk Tank Pink Adam Alter, an assistant professor of psychology and marketing at NYU, explains how subtle cues, such as the sound of someone's name or the color of a room, can influence behaviors and thoughts. Alter discusses the book, and his research on the psychology of decision-making.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/04/05/176339686/drunk-tank-pink-finds-clues-to-behavior?ft=1&f=1007

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South Africa: Mandela discharged from the hospital

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? Former President Nelson Mandela was discharged from a hospital on Saturday following treatment for pneumonia, the presidency said in news that cheered South Africans who had waited tensely for health updates on a beloved national figure.

Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who spent 27 years in prison for opposing white racist rule, was robust during his decades as a public figure, endowed with charisma, a powerful memory and an extraordinary talent for articulating the aspirations of his people and winning over many of those who opposed him. In recent years, however, 94-year-old Mandela became more frail and last made a public appearance at the 2010 World Cup soccer tournament, where he didn't deliver an address and was bundled against the cold in a stadium full of fans.

South Africans hold the former leader dear as a symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation stemming from his pivotal role in steering South Africa from the apartheid era and into democratic elections in 1994, at a time of great hope but also tension and uncertainty. The new South Africa, beset by economic inequality, crime and corruption, has not lived up to the soaring expectations of its people, but they still see hope through their icon, Mandela.

Primrose Mashoma, a South African, said she wished that Mandela would live, basically, forever.

"I wish him to stay maybe a hundred more years," she said.

A statement from the office of President Jacob Zuma said there had been "a sustained and gradual improvement" in the condition of Mandela, who was admitted to a hospital on the night of March 27.

"The former President will now receive home-based high care," the statement said.

Mandela had received similar treatment at his home in Johannesburg after a stay at a hospital in nearby Pretoria in December, when he was treated for a lung infection and had a procedure to remove gallstones. Earlier in March, the anti-apartheid leader was hospitalized overnight for what authorities said was a successful scheduled medical test.

During Mandela's latest hospitalization, doctors drained fluid from his lung area, making it easier for him to breathe.

On Saturday afternoon, shortly after the presidential statement on Mandela's discharge, a military ambulance was seen entering his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton. In recent years, Mandela had been spending more time in Qunu, the rural area in Eastern Cape province where he grew up. But his delicate condition required that he be moved to South Africa's biggest city.

Many South Africans refer affectionately to Mandela by his clan name, Madiba. Buildings, squares, and other places have been named after him, and his image adorns statues and artwork around the country. The central bank issued new banknotes last year that show his smiling face.

"I'm really happy about Madiba coming out," said student Anele Gcolotela, using Mandela's clan name, a term of affection. "I think it's been too long now."

After Mandela's release from prison in 1990, he was widely credited with averting even greater bloodshed by helping the country in the transition to democratic rule, negotiating with the guardians of the same system that had deprived him of freedom for decades. He became South Africa's first black president in 1994 after elections were held, bringing an end to apartheid.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been particularly vulnerable to respiratory problems since contracting tuberculosis during his 27-year imprisonment under apartheid. Most of those years were spent on Robben Island, a forbidding outpost off the coast of Cape Town where Mandela and other prisoners spent part of the time toiling in a stone quarry.

The elderly are especially vulnerable to pneumonia, which can be fatal. Its symptoms include fever, chills, a cough, chest pain and shortness of breath. Many germs cause pneumonia.

South African officials have said doctors were acting with extreme caution because of Mandela's advanced age.

In Saturday's statement, Zuma thanked the medical team and hospital staff that looked after Mandela and expressed gratitude for South Africans and people around the world who had shown support for Mandela. The South African government has sought to balance efforts to satisfy wide public interest in Mandela's condition with an intense campaign to preserve the privacy of an ailing figure who already has his place in history.

The African National Congress, the ruling party that led the struggle against apartheid and has held power since its demise, expressed its "happiness" at the discharge of its former leader from the hospital.

"We acknowledge the important role played by President Zuma and his office to keep the nation, the continent and the world informed about progress made on his treatment on a regular basis," the party said in a statement.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/south-africa-mandela-discharged-hospital-130600264.html

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Dead star warps light of companion red star, astronomers say

Apr. 5, 2013 ? NASA's Kepler space telescope, in concert with Cornell-led measurements of stars' ultraviolet activity, has observed the effects of a dead star bending the light of its companion red star.

The findings are among the first detections of this effect -- a result predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity -- in binary, or double, star systems.

The dead star, also called a white dwarf, is the burnt-out core of what used to be a star like our sun. It is locked in an orbiting dance with its partner, a small "red dwarf" star. While the tiny white dwarf is physically smaller than the red dwarf, it is more massive. When the white dwarf passed in front of its star, its gravity caused the starlight to observably bend and brighten.

"This white dwarf is about the size of Earth but the mass of the sun," said Phil Muirhead, Ph.D. '11, of the California Institute of Technology and lead author of the findings to be published April 20 in the Astrophysical Journal, titled "Characterizing the cool KOIs: A mutually eclipsing post-common envelope binary."

"It's so hefty that the red dwarf, though larger in physical size, is circling around the white dwarf," Muirhead continued.

The research team used Cornell-led ultraviolet measurements of the star called (Kepler Object of Interest) KOI-256 taken by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), a NASA space telescope operated by Caltech. The GALEX observations were conducted by Cornell researchers Jamie Lloyd, associate professor of astronomy and of mechanical and aerospace engineering; Kevin Covey, former postdoctoral associate now at Lowell Observatory; and Lucianne Walkowicz of Princeton University and Evgenya Shkolnik of Lowell Observatory.

Still in early phases and for which Cornell students are now being recruited by Lloyd, the GALEX program measures ultraviolet activity in all the stars in the Kepler field of view -- an indicator of potential habitability for planets.

Graduate student and co-author Jim Fuller also did a theoretical analysis of the star system in the context of its future and past evolutions.

The red dwarf orbits the white dwarf in just 1.4 days. This orbital period is so short that the stars must have previously undergone a "common-envelope" phase in which the red dwarf orbited within the outer layers of the star that formed the white dwarf, Fuller explained.

Moreover, the short orbital period means the red dwarf's days are numbered: In a few billion years, the intense gravity of the white dwarf will strip material off the red dwarf, forming a hot accretion disk of in-falling material around the white dwarf.

"This system is especially exciting because it allows us to accurately characterize the peaceful state of these systems before the violent mass-transfer phase begins," Fuller said.

Kepler's primary job is to scan stars in search of orbiting planets. As the planets pass by, they block the starlight by miniscule amounts, which Kepler's sensitive detectors can see.

So far, Kepler has identified more than 2,700 planet candidates. Still ongoing is the mission's search for planets similar to Earth in size and temperature that orbit a star like our sun. Ultimately, Kepler will reveal how common Earth-size planets are in the Milky Way galaxy.

To learn more about this particular star system, Muirhead and colleagues also used the Hale Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego. Using a technique called radial velocity, they discovered that the red dwarf was wobbling around like a spinning top. The wobble was too big to be from the tug of a planet. That's when they knew they were looking at a massive white dwarf passing behind the red dwarf, rather than a gas giant passing in front.

One of the consequences of Einstein's theory of general relativity is that gravity bends light. Astronomers regularly observe this phenomenon, often called gravitational lensing, which has been used to discover new planets and hunt for free-floating planets.

In this new study, scientists used gravitational lensing to determine the mass of the white dwarf. By combining this information with all the data they acquired, they were able to accurately measure the mass of the red dwarf and the physical sizes of both stars.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Cornell University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Philip S. Muirhead, Andrew Vanderburg, Avi Shporer, Juliette Becker, Jonathan J. Swift, James P. Lloyd, Jim Fuller, Ming Zhao, Sasha Hinkley, J. Sebastian Pineda, Michael Bottom, Andrew W. Howard, Kaspar von Braun, Tabetha S. Boyajian, Nicholas Law, Christoph Baranec, Reed Riddle, A. N. Ramaprakash, Shriharsh P. Tendulkar, Khanh Bui, Mahesh Burse, Pravin Chordia, Hillol Das, Richard Dekany, Sujit Punnadi, John Asher Johnson. CHARACTERIZING THE COOL KOIs. V. KOI-256: A MUTUALLY ECLIPSING POST-COMMON ENVELOPE BINARY. The Astrophysical Journal, 2013; 767 (2): 111 DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/767/2/111

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

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/uEUbZayfGuE/130405094732.htm

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Survivors angry over 'Pain & Gain' depiction

MIAMI (AP) ? The real-life murder, torture and kidnapping case from South Florida that's behind the coming movie "Pain & Gain" indeed reads like a script ? just not a funny one.

The fact that the film, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, is an action-comedy has angered survivors of the Sun Gym gang's crimes and those who investigated them nearly two decades ago.

"You are talking about real people. And in this particular case, especially when you're talking about the murder victims, these were innocent victims," said retired Miami-Dade Police Sgt. Felix Jimenez.

Zsuzsanna Griga told The Miami Herald that the movie's depiction of the gang as sympathetic bumblers just trying to get ahead is "ridiculous." Gang members murdered and dismembered her brother and his girlfriend.

"It's horrible what happened to them," said Griga, who lives in Hungary. She could not be reached by The Associated Press. "I don't want the American public to be sympathetic to the killers," she said.

The Paramount film, which opens April 26 and is directed by Michael Bay of "Transformers" and "Armageddon" fame, is adapted from a series of Miami New Times articles about a group of 1990s bodybuilders who hatched a brutal get-rich-quick kidnapping scheme that eventually escalated to murder. Paramount declined comment.

The New Times series told of mastermind Daniel Lugo, played by Wahlberg, his sadistic muscleman Noel Doorbal, played by Anthony Mackie, and Jorge Delgado, who is not portrayed in the movie, who were denizens of the Sun Gym, which was known for its hardcore bodybuilders. Johnson plays Paul Doyle, a fictional member of the crew.

Lugo, a charming conman who had served prison time for defrauding seniors, was the gym's manager. He hired Doorbal, a gym rat and steroids abuser, as a part-time employee and cut him in on a lucrative Medicare fraud scheme. Delgado, one of Lugo's clients at the gym, had once worked for Marc Schiller, a wealthy Miami businessman whom they targeted for kidnapping.

They attempted to abduct Schiller about half-dozen times, once disguised as ninjas (which the movie pokes fun at). They finally succeed, snatching Schiller in 1994 outside his deli. They kept him at Delgado's warehouse for a month and tortured him with lighters, a Taser, sleep deprivation and water boarding until he had his wife and children move to Colombia and he signed over his home, a life insurance policy and millions of dollars in investments. Schiller, who later pled guilty to Medicare fraud, said he had earned the stolen money honestly through an accounting practice and other investments and businesses.

The gang moved into his house and then tried to kill him. They forced him to get drunk, put him in a car and set it on fire. They then crashed it into a utility pole. When he staggered out, they ran him over with another car ? twice. Somehow, he survived.

Schiller, then 34, woke up in the hospital and told staff what had happened. He said they just went about their duties, so he contacted his attorney and hired a private investigator, Ed Du Bois. Numerous news reports over the years have said Schiller hired the investigator to get his money back; however, Schiller said he wanted the investigator to gather evidence that could be used to prosecute his kidnappers because "no was listening" to him.

Four months later, he sent Du Bois to the Miami-Dade police with the reams of evidence he had collected. Nothing happened.

Du Bois, who makes a cameo as a detective in the movie, gave the film company and director credit for making an adaption of the true story.

"If you read the original article, the basic elements are in the movie but there is a lot of Hollywood in that movie," he said.

In the movie, Schiller is renamed "Victor Kershaw." Played by Tony Shalhoub, who starred in TV's "Monk," Kershaw is described by Wahlberg's character as a criminal who deserves to have bad things happen to him. Surrounded by women in skimpy bikinis, he's seen in a pool while smoking a cigar.

That image, Schiller said, couldn't be further from the truth.

"It's not who I am," said Schiller, who now works in an accounting office. He says he was married and a homebody at the time of the kidnapping and never smoked cigars. "It's supposed to represent me but it doesn't."

The movie also gives some details about at least one killing that happened after Schiller's escape, although it is unclear how that is done. Paramount rejected an AP request to view the film in advance.

In reality, the gang targeted Frank Griga, a Hungarian immigrant who had gotten rich running a phone sex operation ? Doorbal's girlfriend knew him from the strip club where she worked. Under the pretense of proposing a business deal, the gang invited Griga and his girlfriend, Krisztina Furton, to dinner with the intent to kidnap them.

But Griga fought back and was beaten to death. Furton was killed with an overdose of horse tranquilizer. Their bodies were taken to the same warehouse where Schiller had been held and dismembered. The bodies were dumped and the parts were put into drums and buckets and then discarded around South Florida. (One movie trailer shows a small dog carrying a severed toe in its mouth around a posh home).

When Griga and Furton were reported missing, the investigation quickly focused on the Sun Gym gang. Delgado became a prosecution witness against Lugo and Doorbal, who were convicted of murder in 1998 and sentenced to death. They are awaiting execution. Delgado got 15 years. Others were also convicted for their roles.

Jimenez, the detective, was often assigned to show actors ? including Kevin Bacon ? what it was like to ride in a squad car. As they cruised, he would tell them about the Sun Gym case.

"Their response was: 'I know it's true. But you can't even make a movie out of it because nobody will believe that it was true.'"

___

Online:

"Pain & Gain" trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvMsuONpTLo

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/survivors-angry-over-pain-gain-depiction-092012347.html

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AMS detects excess of positrons, could suggest existence of dark matter

We've been waiting with bated breath all afternoon to find out what NASA, MIT and the Department of Energy has observed with the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer. Well, we still don't quite understand the exact nature of dark matter, but highly precise measurements of positron fraction (the ratio of positrons to electrons and protons) do bring us a small step closer to proving the existence of the theoretical material. The AMS found a small excess of positrons coming from all directions instead of a single source. That could indicate the presence of dark matter, which is believed to generate the antimatter particles when it collides and annihilates itself. As usual though, this is far from conclusive. The excess of positrons could be caused by a number of cosmic phenomenon, including pulsars, but researchers are hopeful that further testing will narrow down the possibilities. Those of you hoping for direct and obvious evidence of dark matter may be a little disappointed, but let's be honest -- you were being overly optimistic. Besides, don't you want some mysteries left to solve? For more information, check out the PR after the break.

Filed under: Science, Alt

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/fY7Srkd6Kzo/

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Lea Michele Thanks Fans for Cory Monteith Well Wishes

Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/04/lea-michele-thanks-fans-for-cory-monteith-well-wishes/

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