GQ Magazine's social media editor was in the middle of eating his chicken salad when he noticed the publication was getting more death threats than usual.
The subject of the rage: One Direction.
Fans of the English-Irish boy band, which graces the cover of the British edition of the magazine this month, are known as #Directioners -- and they're famously over the top when it comes to the shaggy-haired singers with accents that would make any tween swoon. They?ll?camp out for days,?skip class and take three different modes of transportation just to be in the same vicinity.
Now they have taken their fandom to a new, darker level by launching an Internet war against the fashion magazine's September issue, enraged by portrayals of band members?Niall Horan, Zayn Malik, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson that are?deemed unsatisfactory.
Trouble is, the war the #Directioners launched was aimed at the wrong Twitter handle. Instead of sending thousands of #hatetweets to British GQ (@BritishGQ), they sent them to American GQ (@GQMagazine), which had nothing to do with the British cover.
Tweets from the #Directioners indicate they are upset with the way the magazine portrays Styles? womanizing tendencies in the cover?s tease quotes with ?he?s up all night to get lucky? framing Harry?s name on the cover. The other band member?s tease quotes hint at some pretentiousness from Zayn and Niall.
Nate Erickson, who mans the social media for the U.S. magazine, said #Directioners started relentlessly attacking the magazine Monday, but it didn't stop him from finishing his chicken salad.
Erickson put a positive spin on all the hate, which he told NBC included a lot of talk about pointy implements, by welcoming all the magazine?s new fans and promising that GQ had hired two of the best detectives, with a photo attached of Mary Kate and Ashley Olson.
At the height of the "war", Erickson said there were thousands of tweets coming their way and it hasn't slowed down since. Surprisingly, the controversy hasn't brought in a lot of followers to the magazine.
"It seems Directioners just wanted us to step on Legos and put cacti up our 'bum-holes' rather than stick around for longreads about Swedish serial killers or Bryan Cranston," who Erickson said is the magazine's real cover star next month.
American GQ also published a Storify that highlighted some of its favorite tweets from #Directioners.
But it's not all death threats for GQ. The unprecedented number of tweets and media coverage of the #Directioners hate campaign has generally been good for the magazine, and Erickson said the band is pleased with it as well.
"We hope their fans can find something to like about it, too," he said. "Or at least get out for some fresh air. It's summer!"
[unable to retrieve full-text content]The use of plasmonic black metals could someday provide a pathway to more efficient photovoltaics -- the use of solar panels containing photovoltaic solar cells -- to improve solar energy harvesting, according to researchers.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are in the process of a complete rebuild and one of their newest players, Tristan Thompson, is slated to be a big part of that plan. The team is hoping to reach the playoffs for the first time since LeBron James left for Miami.?
Tristan is a fashionable player and has a keen sense of style. We caught up with him to go over some fashion tips for incoming NBA players.
Did you know that Tristan Thompson was such a stylish player? Let us know in the comments below.?
For republicans and monarchists alike, Prince George looks to have brought about general agreement on one issue at least: His very birth is a positive sign for the future of the monarchy.
John Fraser, the master at Toronto's Massey College and author of The Secret of the Crown: Canada's Affair with Royalty, says that even he feels sorry for republicans following the royal birth on July 22.
One of Fraser's favourite republican sparring partners, the eminent historian Michael Bliss, concedes the royals are "on a good run now" ? a view that seems to be ricocheting around the globe.
British journalist Claudia Joseph, author of Kate: the Making of a Princess, told Associated Press, "I think this baby is hugely significant for the future of the monarchy," at least partly because George is the first offspring of a "commoner" in 350 years to be an heir to the throne.
Meanwhile, the editors of the New Zealand Herald opined that countries like New Zealand now "may be less anxious to cast off a connection of heritage that presents no threat to their constitutional sovereignty."
And the Australian Times reports that the royal birth "could prove to be the change that was needed for Australia to renew its commitment to the Commonwealth."
Author and journalist John Fraser defends the Crown in this 2012 book. But part of its dedication is to 'Michael Bliss: Historian, Conservative, Republican.'(CBC)
Not everyone was overwhelmed, mind you. In Northern Ireland, after brooding over "an heir backlog within the House of Windsor," the Belfast Telegraph observed that "it is hard even to envisage the future for a royal child born in the age of Twitter."
And Andrew Vine, an assistant editor at the Yorkshire Post, took the BBC to task for what he calls its "nasty little caveat" -- by repeatedly using the phrase "as things stand" in stories about George that implies "doubt hangs over the future of the monarchy."
"It is impossible to avoid the conclusion that within the BBC lies a mentality that regards the monarchy as a tiresome and outdated anachronism, and by extension, the millions who rejoiced at news of the birth as little more than deluded peasants in thrall to the pomp, pageantry and spectacle of royal events, an easily-pleased rabble who turn ga-ga with starry-eyed adoration and abandon all critical faculty when the glass coach passes by," Vine writes.
What does history tell us about the monarchy?s future?
Last year Fraser and Bliss were debating the monarchy before large audiences across Canada. So after the new prince's name was revealed, CBC News checked in with the two eminent Canadians for their thoughts on the future of the Crown in Canada.
Bliss, ever the historian, looks to what recent world history tells us about about forms of government and counts fewer monarchies. "You don't have many countries that adopt a monarchy and you have various countries that get rid of it, so the historical trend is against the poor baby," he said.
He also pointed out the decline of the monarchy among Commonwealth nations over the last half-century. Only 16 of the 53 members nations recognize the Queen as their head of state.
"I would bet my money the baby will never be the king of Australia and New Zealand, and my guess is not of Canada either," Bliss said.
John Fraser says the test for the Royal Family is not the good times but how they weather 'the crises, and so far they look pretty resilient.'(Massey College)
When it comes to monarchy, much depends on public opinion, both he and Fraser agree. "The polls do show that with every generation of Canadians, there's less interest in the monarchy," says Bliss and he expects that trend to continue.
Fraser's view: "Any institution that depends on the goodwill of the masses has clouds over it, they're built in."
But he also noted that the same applies to parliamentary democracy or the American republican system.
Testing constitutional monarchy
"The test is not the good times, these nice times of renewal for the constitutional monarchy. But how it weathers the crises and so far they look pretty resilient," Fraser said about the the Royal family.
"They've been counted down so many times," he added. But "if you project from today, things are looking good."
Fraser argues that, in Canada, the monarchy "probably will continue, because to open up any kind of constitutional issue in Canada is always so fraught, and it had better be for a pretty important reason, and I don't think the constitutional monarchy actually constitutes a very important reason to hurl each other at each other."
Bliss concedes "there's a certain amount of truth in that, and that's the inertia factor, which is probably [Prince George's] best hope.
In 2008, with the opposition parties planning to bring down his government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper succeeded in getting then governor general Michaelle Jean to approve his controversial recommendation to prorogue Parliament. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
"The problem with that is that as we've seen at least once, maybe more often in recent history, the status quo can get us into some serious problems."
As Bliss sees it, "there is a serious flaw in the Constitution related to the monarchy, and the flaw is that the monarchy is so completely ceremonial and toothless that it is nothing more than a creature of the government of the day."
Abuse of prime ministerial power
That toothlessness results in the Governor General having no legitimacy to be a serious check on prime ministerial power, Bliss said.
It is a serious problem that "crops up whenever a prime minister appears to be abusing power, as in proroguing Parliament. In the next 65 years it's hard to think that Canada will sail along quietly, constitutionally."
This week the Quebec government said it would be an intervener in support of a court challenge to the legislation passed unanimously by the House of Commons in March that removed the gender bias in the rules on royal succession.
Since Henry VIII (in portrait), British monarchs have had the title, 'Defender of the Faith.' Prince Charles, shown here in 2004, has proposed dropping the 'the.' (Fiona Hanson/Reuters)
The challenge is mostly about the way the changes were implemented. The Quebec law professors bringing the case argue Canada's Constitution requires the consultation and agreement of all the provinces for a change of this magnitude to become law.
The federal government disagrees, arguing that a change to the rules of succession is not a constitutional amendment to the role of the monarchy. But Bliss says that this case could be "a real sleeping stick of dynamite."
Only Anglicans need apply
Another argument in the court challenge is that the change discriminates on the basis of religion because it requires the heir to be Anglican.
Fraser points out that, in Britain, there is the real possibility of the disestablishment of the Church of England as the state church. "The moment that happens, the denomination of the sovereign is irrelevant," he argues.
In 1521, Pope Leo X bestowed on Henry VIII the title "Defender of the Faith," and every monarch since then has taken on that title at their coronation. Prince Charles has argued for a slight but important change in the title ? dropping the word "the."
And while the suggestion provoked a firestorm, Fraser argues that Charles's view is important for the survival of the monarchy. "The monarchy has to be inclusive, not exclusive, that's his instinct and that's being passed on to his heir."
Historian Michael Bliss says we are entering the age of the geriatric monarchy, with the prospect of only elderly men succeeding each other once Charles becomes king.(CBC)
Fraser and Bliss both agree that Catherine has boosted the monarchy's popularity at the moment, essentially because shecomes across as a lovely young woman with an easygoing nature.
But Bliss points out that we are also in what he calls the age of the geriatric monarchy.
As things stand, to invoke the BBC caveat, after Queen Elizabeth the crown passes to her already 64-year-old son, Charles.
Given the longevity of the Windsors, and their opposition to abdication, the future of this royal family looks to be one of elderly men succeeding each other for at least three generations.
For Bliss, the likelihood there may not be another young queen like Elizabeth poses a problem for the monarchy's future image.
The Quebec law professors' motion for judgment on the Succession to the Throne Act:
Daniel Schwartz is both a Massey College alumnus and a former student of Prof. Bliss.
Even if you haven't seen one in person, you're probably at least familiar with the concept of a scratch-off world map?it hangs on the wall, you scratch off each country as you visit it, etc. But Lego Cuusoo user TPNK came up with a brilliant, far more tactile version made entirely out of?you guessed it?Lego pieces.
If you head to www.princehenryofwales.org, you'll see the official website of Prince Harry. But if you check out www.princegeorgeofcambridge.org, you'll see large letters proclaim "domain for sale." Hundreds of domains have already been registered under variations of the new prince's name ? in hopes of a profit.
Cyber-squatting ? or domain-squatting ? is the practice of registering domains which could be of particular interest to an individual or organization. This often includes variations of trademarked names and can sometimes even involve negative content related to the user who might be interested in the the squatted domain in order to pressure him or her into purchasing it.
?I?d never done anything like this before but I?d read about someone registering the previous Pope?s name and selling it on for a profit so I thought I?d see what was available," website designer David Henderson, the current owner of www.princegeorgeofcambridge.org, told the Telegraph.
As Henderson notes, domain-squatting is not really a new practice. In the past we've seen someone register peta.org in order to create a website called "People Eating Tasty Animals," much to the dismay of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). A man named Mike Rowe got into hot water with software giant Microsoft after registering MikeRoweSoft.com. Whitehouse.org and georgewbush.org house parody websites. The list goes on.
"I?m a big fan of the Royal family so I certainly don?t intend to hold them to ransom, I just thought it might be an address I could sell to someone in the future," Henderson clarifies.
Considering that domain registrar names.co.uk tells the Telegraph that over 400 domains based on Prince George's name have already been registered, it's possible that not everyone has the same mentality.
Poor Prince George won't even have much luck on Twitter either, where a Canadian man named George Wells has been sitting on the @PrinceGeorge handle since early 2009.
Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.
Google and Motorola will finally unveil their not-so-secret Moto X smartphone on Thursday, and new information will undoubtedly continue to leak right up until the phone is finally unveiled. In the most recent leak, Android blogger Taylor Wimberly has posted several images and purported new details surrounding the upcoming Moto X on his Google+ page.?Wimberly says?a sheet of special new Gorilla Glass that Google will call ?Magic Glass? covers the handset?s face and wraps around the sides, and he says the phone features laminated aluminum and zero-gap construction to help make it more sturdy. Leaked images showcasing the phone?s construction follow below, along with what well known gadget leaker @evleaks claims are official final Moto X press renders.
[More from BGR: Apple?s budget iPhone possibly outed as ?iPhone 5C? in leaked photo]
[More from BGR: Forget the new Nexus 7 ? Moto X is the star of the show]
CAIRO (Reuters) - Europe's top diplomat pressed Egypt's rulers on Monday to step back from a growing confrontation with the Muslim Brotherhood of deposed Islamist president Mohamed Mursi, two days after 80 of his supporters were gunned down in Cairo.
Raising the prospect of more bloodshed, the Brotherhood said it would march again on Monday evening towards a military intelligence headquarters.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union's foreign policy chief, became the first overseas envoy to visit the Egypt since Saturday's carnage, the second mass killing of Mursi supporters by security forces since he was overthrown by the army on July 3.
The bloodshed has triggered global anxiety that the army may move to crush the Muslim Brotherhood, which emerged from decades in the shadows to win power in the wake of Egypt's 2011 Arab Spring uprising against Hosni Mubarak.
Ashton, on her second trip to Egypt since Mursi's fall, met General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the head of the army and the man behind the overthrow of Egypt's first freely elected president. She also held talks with deputy interim president and prominent liberal politician Mohamed ElBaradei and interim Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy.
There were no immediate details on the talks. Earlier, Ashton said she would press for a "fully inclusive transition process, taking in all political groups, including the Muslim Brotherhood".
In comments carried by the MENA state news agency, ElBaradei said he had told Ashton that the country's new leadership was doing all in its power to "reach a peaceful way out of the current crisis, that preserves the blood of all Egyptians."
Ashton was also expected to meet members of the Freedom and Justice Party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political wing.
Her leverage is limited. The United States is Egypt's chief Western backer and source of $1.3 billion in military aid, though the EU is the biggest civilian aid donor to the country, the Arab world's most populous and a strategic bridge between the Middle East and North Africa.
The EU has attempted to mediate in Egypt's political crisis over the past six months as Egyptians have grown increasingly suspicious of U.S. involvement.
ROAD MAP
Mursi has been in detention since he was ousted and the military-backed interim government has placed him under investigation on charges that include murder.
The handling of him by the military suggests it believes it has the support of the majority of Egyptians. They turned out in huge numbers to protest against the Islamist leader before the army moved against him.
Army chief Sisi has emerged as the public face of the new order, enjoying fawning coverage in the Egyptian media and sowing doubts about the military's pledge to hand over to full civilian rule with a "road map" to parliamentary elections in about six months.
The Muslim Brotherhood says it wants nothing to do with the proposed transition, and thousands of its supporters have been camped out for a month at the Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque in northern Cairo demanding Mursi's reinstatement.
Dozens were shot dead by security forces at dawn on Saturday when they marched from the vigil after a day of rival mass rallies. The Health Ministry on Monday put the death toll at 80, up from 72. Nearly 300 people have died in violence since Sisi deposed Mursi.
Saturday's bloodshed was the worst since July 8, when security forces killed more than 50 Brotherhood supporters outside a Cairo barracks.
"The danger we face because of the political situation and the coup is greater than the violence we face in marches," said Brotherhood member Islam Tawfiq, 26.
Egypt's army-installed interim cabinet has vowed to clear the Brotherhood's mosque vigil after complaints from residents about the huge encampment on their doorstep.
Besides Mursi, other Brotherhood leaders are also being held, and in the early hours of Monday police arrested two senior members of the Islamist Wasat Party, allies of Mursi, the MENA news agency reported.
The round-up of Islamist leaders and Saturday's deaths have stirred fears that the military plans to drive the Muslim Brotherhood back underground, risking more instability in the country of 84 million people.
(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Michael Georgy, Matt Robinson, Asma Alsharif, Yasmine Saleh and Shaimaa Fayed; Writing by Matt Robinson; Editing by Giles Elgood)
Over the next two weeks here I will count down the days to the atomic bombing of Japan (August 6 and August 9, 1945), marking events from the same day in 1945. I've written hundreds of article and three books on the subject: Hiroshima in America (with Robert Jay Lifton), Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military) and Hollywood Bomb (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).
Here's my entry for yesterday, which covered July 25 and July 26, 1945. And here's today's entry for July 27.
July 27, 1945: Truman continued to meet with Allied leaders in Germany, as the Soviets got ready to declare war on Japan in early August ("fini Japs" when that happened, even without the bomb, Truman had written in his diary this week). Preparations at Tinian in the Pacific to get the first A-bomb ready for use, possibly within a week (weather permitting) were finalized, with the city of Hiroshima remaining as #1 target. It has been barely touched by Allied bombing so it would serve as the best site to judge the bomb's experimental effects.
The Japanese government today released an edited version of the "unconditional surrender" Potsdam declaration (which did not mention the atomic bomb) to their press and citizens, but had not yet rejected it. The Domei news agency had already predicted that the surrender demand "would be ignored." The U.S, after use of bomb, would later accept conditional surrender -- with Japan allowed to keep its emperor -- yet call it unconditional.
Eleven days after the first, and quite secret, atomic test at Trinity, which spread wide clouds of radioactive fallout over residents downwind -- livestock had been sickened or killed -- radiation experts had become concerned about the exposure for one family, the shape of things to come.
"A Petition to the President of the United States" organized by famed nuclear scientist Leo Szilard, and signed by sixty-eight of his Los Alamos colleagues -- the only real pre-Hiroshima protests -- urgently urging delay or extreme caution on the use of the new weapon against Japan, continued to be held in limbo and kept from the President while Truman remained abroad.
Greg Mitchell, former editor of Nuclear Times and Editor & Publisher, is the author of more than a dozen books, with three on the use of the bomb, including Atomic Cover-Up (on the decades-long suppression of shocking film shot in the atomic cities by the U.S. military) and Hollywood Bomb (the wild story of how an MGM 1947 drama was censored by the military and Truman himself).
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Follow Greg Mitchell on Twitter: www.twitter.com/GregMitch
Many of us, myself included, brush aside compliments in a subconscious effort to be self-deprecating, but this behavior actually does more harm than good.
If someone told me, "hey, that's a really cool Minecraft build," my first instinct would be to say "eh, you should go watch some YouTube videos, this is nothing." While my deflection might have been factually accurate, and helped me avoid appearing smug, all I really did was contradict my conversation partner. The Art Of Manliness explains:
When someone offers you a compliment, they?re saying that they?ve observed and assessed a praiseworthy quality in you. When you deflect or deny that praise, you?re basically contradicting them; you?re saying that they don?t have good judgment, discernment, or taste, or that they?re insincere ? that they don?t know what they?re talking about. You?re returning their kind words with an insult.
No matter how uncomfortable a compliment makes you feel, swatting it back at the person who offered it is just transferring your discomfort onto them. In most circumstances, it's better just to absorb it with a gracious "thank you," and move on. It will make the complimenter feel good, and heck, you can even try to enjoy it yourself. For more advice on the subject, be sure to check out the source link.
How to Accept a Compliment With Class | The Art of Manliness
Updated: Friday, July 26, 2013 6:22 PM
Posted: Friday, July 26, 2013 5:20 PM
The Florida Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association said July 26 it signed a purse agreement with Calder Casino & Race Course.
The agreement runs through Dec. 31. The two parties have been negotiating for some time.
"We ironed out the remaining details this week," Florida HBPA executive director Kent Stirling said in a release. "Our horsemen are pleased that South Florida racing will continue uninterrupted."
The Florida HBPA earlier told Calder it would pull its approval for the track to export its signal out of state if it couldn't strike a deal.
"With Florida racing in its current state of turmoil, both sides agreed it was best to approach this from a short-term perspective," Florida HBPA president Phil Combest said.
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Details of the contract weren't immediately available.
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Calder and Gulfstream Park are currently running head-to-head on weekends for the first time. The overlap will continue through June 2014 if the two tracks don't agree on a schedule.
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According to a report circulating the web, Google is officially retiring its Google+ Local application for iOS as of August 7th. However, as far as we can tell, that app has already been removed from Apple?s iTunes App Store, and links pointing to the app, when clicked, provide the message that ?the item you?ve requested is not currently available in the U.S. store.?
The report being cited by a number of publications is based on 9to5Mac?s blog post, which refers an email sent in by a tipster. We?ve also obtained a copy of the email, as well, forwarded to us by?Mark Traphagen?who had posted about the app?s closure on Google+. (See full email below).
In the email, Google explains that the Google+ Local app on iOS will be retired on August 7th, as the updated version of the Google Maps app can now offer a number of the functions the Local app once provided, including the ability to search by categories of places, read place information, reviews, pricing, and addresses, plus the ability to rate, review and share the places you?ve been to and discover.
In addition, the email says that after August 7th, users would no longer be able to access the Google+ Local app on their iOS device, but any reviews and ratings created would be available on both their Google+ profile and within the Google Maps app for iOS.
However, clicking today on the actual link to the app?from a Google Search result or other webpage, is currently broken. In addition, a search inside the iOS App Store for all Google apps?shows that the app is no longer available there. (Though we did spot what appears to be a beta test of something called Google Coordinate. What?s that all about?)
9to5Mac?s blog post uses an App Store affiliate link to point to the Google+ Local app, and this is now redirecting users who click to the Google Maps iOS application instead.
We?ve reached out to Google to confirm the situation, but it seem pretty apparent, as is. Google+ Local for iOS is no more, even though it?s not yet August 7th. (Update: Google confirms the app is being retired.)
Though much of the functionality has now made it over to Google Maps, the Local app was useful for its singular focus which made it an easy access tool for local listings. Maps is a more robust, feature-rich application, which doesn?t always work best when you?re in need of speed. But the Local app hadn?t been getting much attention in recent weeks, leading to several negative App Store reviews where users complained. One even said the project ?has been put on the back burner? and Google should ?just get rid of it.?
And so it seems Google did.
Under the Larry Page era at Google, the company has been busy streamlining its product lineup and areas of development, with a heavy emphasis on its social platform, Google+. Already, Google+ had absorbed Local on the web, but the Google+ iOS app doesn?t yet contain ?Local? as an option in the sidebar, which is why the email likely pointed users to the Google Maps flagship application instead of both it and the Google+ app.
The U.K porn ban includes more than just porn, according to participating ISP providers that spoke with the Open Rights Group. In addition to the opt-in requirement for porn, ISPs will also automatically ban a slew of other content areas that have nothing to do with porn. TalkTalk, one of the ISPs praised by Prime Minister David Cameron for its "great leadership" in implementing the Homesafe program, has a screen like this, with all of those boxes checked. Note the inclusion of less porny site-types like social networking and dating.?
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Other services will have something similar, with "the precise pre-ticked options may vary from service to service," according to Open Rights Group. Since people generally stick with default options, the set-up encourages people to "sleepwalk into censorship," says the Open Rights Group.?
RELATED: Why Is Tumblr Censoring #Gay Searches?
To make matters worse TalkTalk's Homesafe?is run by Huawei,?the controversial Chinese tech company with significant ties to the Chinese government. The partnership has some free-speech groups worried that all of the censorship decisions are going through a foreign government that also happens to have a penchant for suppressing free speech. Both Huawai and TalkTalk employees can decide what websites end up on the blacklists, a cause for concern. "It needs to be run by an organization accountable to a minister so it can be challenged in Parliament,"?Dr Martyn Thomas, chair of the IT policy panel at the Institution of Engineering and Technology, told the BBC.?
RELATED: The Internet War Over Creeps on Reddit
Prime Minister Cameron has given the ISPs the option to choose who runs the program, and has promised monitoring to ensure that the filtering is done right. But, really, how will anyone know? "There's certainly a concern about the process of how a web address gets added to a blacklist ? who knows about it, and who has an opportunity to appeal against it," added Thomas.?
New Delhi: India and France are expected to discuss the security situation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region along with the ongoing defence deals expected to be worth over Rs 80,000 crore between the two countries during Defence Minister-level talks to be held on Friday.
During the three-day visit of French Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, the two sides are expected to discuss the security situation in the Af-Pak region after the withdrawal of the American forces from there in 2014, Defence Ministry officials said on Thursday.
The two sides are also expected to discuss the over Rs 50,000 crore deal for 126 Rafale multirole combat aircraft and the Rs 30,000 crore Maitri air defence missile programme, they said.
During the one-on-one meeting with Defence Minister A K Antony, Le Drian is also expected to brief him about the French perspective on the global security scenario.
Sources said such a briefing has been held by France only for two countries - the United Kingdom and the US.
On the 'delays' in the conclusion of the negotiations for the Rafale deal, they said there has never been any date or timeline fixed for signing the contract and therefore, there would be no discussion on the 'delay' in finalising the deal during the meetings.
The sources said the over Rs 11,000 crore contract for upgrading the fleet of Indian Mirage-2000 aircraft was also finalised after negotiations of three years between the two countries.
Around 16 months ago, India had declared French firm Dassault Aviation's Rafale combat aircraft as the winner in the tender for supplying 126 fighter jets to India.
Sources said no deal would be signed during the visit of the French minister. During the visit, the French minister will also meet industrialists of the defence sector, members of the French community, and exchange views on global threats and current international issues with high-profile Indian researchers and scholars, as well as Members of Parliament, a French embassy release said.
On Saturday, he will visit Air Force Station, Gwalior, for a briefing on the IAF Mirage 2000 squadrons and interact with pilots, officers and technicians who fly and maintain the fleet.
He will also visit some historical places in Gwalior, which keeps alive the memory of French officers who, 200 years ago, contributed to the development of the armed forces of Gwalior's erstwhile rulers, it said.
In the recent times, France has been awarded several key tenders by India including the supply of six Scorpene submarines to the Navy and the multi-billion dollar 126 combat aircraft deal.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Using data obtained during six years of regular aerial surveys and genetics data collected by a consortium of research groups, scientists have strengthened evidence pointing to the central Gulf of Maine as a mating ground for North Atlantic right whales, according to a new study.
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Deep divisions among members of a Senate panel over whether to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, underscore the uphill battle President Barack Obama faces in fulfilling a 5-year-old promise to shutter the facility.
Opening the first Senate hearing on closing Guantanamo since 2009, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday that it's time to end a "sad chapter" in American history and close Guantanamo.
The Obama administration can do more to begin closing the prison, according to Durbin, but he said the blame for the failure to shutter the much-maligned facility rests primarily with Congress.
Restrictions enacted by Congress on the transfer of terror suspects at Guantanamo ? including a ban on moving detainees to the U.S. - have undercut President Barack Obama's authority and made it nearly impossible to close the facility, he said.
"It's time to lift these restrictions and move forward with shutting down Guantanamo prison," said Durbin, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on the Constitution, civil rights and human rights.
"We can transfer most of the detainees to foreign countries," he said. "And we can bring the others to the United States, where they can be tried in federal court or held under the law of war until the end of hostilities."
But Durbin's pitch ran into immediate resistance from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, the panel's top Republican. Cruz said if the facility is shut down there will be no place to send dangerous terror suspects.
He criticized the Obama administration for its "rosy assessment" of how much damage has been done to al-Qaida. That has led to the belief that "we can now take a holiday from the long difficult task of combating radical Islamic terrorism," Cruz said.
The White House position "seems to be to continue apologizing for the existence of Guantanamo, to continue apologizing for our detaining terrorists and standing up to defend ourselves, but to do nothing affirmative to address the problem," he said.
Even should the Democratic-controlled Senate vote to close Guantanamo, the GOP-led House of Representatives wants the prison kept open. The House voted 247 to 175 Tuesday to reject an amendment that would have allowed Obama to begin closing the facility.
Obama has stepped up the pressure to close the prison, driven in part by his revised counterterrorism strategy and the stain of the government force-feeding Guantanamo prisoners on hunger strikes to prevent them from starving to death.
At the same time, civil liberties groups and liberal lawmakers have criticized Obama for failing to fulfill his 2008 campaign pledge to close the installation and find another home for the 166 terror suspects being held there indefinitely.
As of Wednesday, 69 of the prisoners were classified as being on hunger strike and 45 of those taking part in the protest met the criteria for being force fed, said Army Lt. Col. Sam House, a spokesman for the detention center. Most of the 69 prisoners eat occasional meals but still meet the criteria used by the military to classify a person as a hunger striker, House said.
During a May 23 speech at the National Defense University, Obama announced a renewed push to transfer approved detainees to their home countries and lifted a ban on prisoner transfers to Yemen. The bulk of the prisoners eligible for transfer are Yemeni. Obama halted all transfers to the poor Middle Eastern nation in 2010, after a man trained in Yemen was convicted in a failed bombing attempt of an airliner over Detroit.
Obama promised other steps that have yet to be taken. He appointed Clifford Sloan, a Washington attorney, to reopen the State Department's Office of Guantanamo Closure. But he has yet to name an envoy at the Defense Department who would negotiate the transfer of detainees to third countries.
He also directed the Defense Department Defense to designate a site in the United States that could hold military commissions, a special tribunal for wartime offenses. That site has yet to be announced, however.
Durbin said that keeping Guantanamo open hurts the image of the United States and wastes taxpayer dollars. Durbin estimated it costs $2.7 million per year to house each of the prisoners at Guantanamo compared to the $78,000 annual expense of keeping them in a federal prison.
But Cruz pointed to the mass escape of prisoners held in two high-security jails on the outskirts of Baghdad this week that set free hundreds of inmates as a stark example of the dangers of relying on foreign facilities to hold terror suspects.
Two members of the House of Representatives, invited to testify, offered widely divergent opinions on Guantanamo's future.
Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kansas, a member of the House intelligence committee, called Guantanamo "critical to national security." The risk of closing the detention center and bringing prisoners to the U.S. is the "potential for endless litigation and rights expanded well beyond those afforded to enemy combatants," he said.
But Rep. Adam Smith of Washington, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said there is no benefit to keeping Guantanamo open. All the arguments about the need to detain and interrogate terror suspects and the necessity to continue to fight the war on terror can be accomplished by holding prisoners in the U.S., he said.
"It's just been stupefying over the last several years the degree with which people seem to have become unaware that we already hold hundreds of terrorists in United States supermax prisons," Smith said.
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Associated Press writer Ben Fox in San Juan, Puerto Rico contributed to this report.
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Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rplardner
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Michael B. Jordan will play Apollo Creed's grandson, with Sylvester Stallone returning to play Rocky, and "Fruitvale Station" director Ryan Coogler set to direct.
APARECIDA, Brazil (AP) ? Pope Francis is traveling toward the city of Aparecida for his first major event in Brazil.
Francis is on his first international trip as pontiff. He arrived in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.
The pope is spending the first part of Wednesday in Aparecida, where he will celebrate a Mass with local bishops and seminarians.
They'll gather in the huge basilica that holds up to 40,000 people and was built around the original statue of Brazil's patron saint and city's namesake, the dark-skinned Virgin of Aparecida.
There were no problems Francis' motorcade took him from a church residence in Rio to the airport for the flight.
A frenzied crowd of faithful had mobbed the pope's motorcade when he first arrived in Rio.
*George Zimmerman is not the only criminal in Florida.
The state?s government is having their feet held to the fire for the way they?ve chosen to translate the Stand Your Ground law into the acquittal of Zimmerman and false imprisonment of Marissa Alexander.
The EURweb reported that Mary Mary have joined with Stevie Wonder to boycott Florida until they abolish the law.
And the call to action has been heard and more of music?s heavyweights are answering the call and cancelling their concerts and standing with the socially conscious, legendary balladeer, according to veteran White House correspondent April D. Ryan of the White House Report.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Scientists have completed a study that finds a clear link between rates of breastfeeding and the likelihood of developing Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, even when typical risk factors were taken into consideration.
YANGON (Reuters) - A bomb exploded meters away from a radical Buddhist monk as he delivered a mass sermon in Myanmar, police said on Monday, the latest flare-up as inter-religious tensions simmer.
Five people were slightly wounded in the incident late on Sunday in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay.
Wirathu, the prominent monk who heads a movement accused of stirring violence against minority Muslims, said he believed the blast was intended to silence him.
The home-made bomb went off inside a parked car, according to police and witnesses. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Tensions have been smouldering between radical elements of Myanmar's Buddhist majority and its minority Muslims. Bouts of religious violence have killed at least 237 people and displaced 150,000 in the past year, testing the resolve of a two-year-old quasi-civilian government.
The device exploded during a ceremony conducted by Wirathu, who once called himself "the Burmese bin Laden". He is the chief proponent of a movement known as 969, which reformist President Thein Sein's office has described as a "symbol of peace".
Wirathu was unharmed, despite being just 40 feet from the blast, according to police.
Reuters investigations in two of the hotspots of unrest - Rakhine state and the central city of Meikhtila - have revealed the violence was started on both occasions by Buddhist mobs led by monks.
A novice monk was among those who received minor injuries in Sunday's blast.
"We can say it was a small hand-made bomb that caused the explosion. We are not in a position to reveal any more information at the moment since investigation is ongoing," a Mandalay police officer told Reuters by telephone, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
DEATH THREAT RECEIVED
Sources close to Wirathu could not be immediately reached for comment.
However, the monk told Radio Free Asia's Burmese service that he had previously received a sound recording containing a threat to his life, which he believed was the voice of a Muslim cleric.
The bomb, he said, was intended to silence him.
"I've no idea who exactly carried out this explosion. But it must have been done by those who usually carry out terrorist acts," he told Radio Free Asia.
"The motive could be to shut my mouth."
A witness said security had since been stepped up in Mandalay. Even prior to the explosion, security had been tight during Buddhist events held in the past week in the commercial capital, Yangon.
The explosion took place on the fifth and final day of mass sermons held by Wirathu. The president's office, which insists it wants to foster peace, tolerance and unity in ethnically diverse Myanmar, has described Wirathu as "a son of Lord Buddha". Buddhists make up about 90 percent of the estimated 60 million population.
The 969 movement has been accused of stirring anti-Muslim sentiment in a deeply Buddhist nation, where curbs on freedom of speech and assembly have eased since the end of military rule two years ago.
A Reuters investigation last month showed 969 monks were providing a moral justification for a wave of anti-Muslim bloodshed that could derail Myanmar's nascent reforms.
Government officials were unavailable for comment about Sunday's explosion. (Reporting by a Reuters reporter; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Ron Popeski)
HOOVER, Ala. ? The legal problems of current and former SEC players ? from ex-Florida and NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez to LSU running back Jeremy Hill ? cast a negative light on the league that has won seven consecutive national?championships.
It also highlights the challenges ? and responsibilities ? facing coaches who must weigh a player?s talent vs. the potential for trouble in or out of the locker?room.
The biggest spotlight by far has been on Hernandez, who?s pleaded not guilty to murder in the killing of Boston semi-pro football player Odin?Lloyd.
More pertinent to the upcoming season is??
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HOOVER, Ala. ? The legal problems of current and former SEC players ? from ex-Florida and NFL tight end Aaron Hernandez to LSU running back Jeremy Hill ? cast a negative light on the league that has won seven consecutive national?championships.
It also highlights the challenges ? and responsibilities ? facing coaches who must weigh a player?s talent vs. the potential for trouble in or out of the locker?room.
The biggest spotlight by far has been on Hernandez, who?s pleaded not guilty to murder in the killing of Boston semi-pro football player Odin?Lloyd.
More pertinent to the upcoming season is Hill?s uncertain status while facing a misdemeanor simple battery charge from an April 27 scuffle in a bar parking?lot.
Coaches at Southeastern Conference media days this week insisted they do their best to keep players behaving, which benefits the team, the players and the men paid millions to win in a powerhouse conference with high stakes and brutal?competition.
Florida?s Will Muschamp understands he can?t know what every player is doing every night away from the football building. ?You also can?t stick your head in the sand and pretend everything is OK, either,? Muschamp?said.
He said coaches and staff need to know who players are hanging out with off the?field.
?You?re 100 percent responsible,? Muschamp said. ?When you sign a student-athlete to come to the University of Florida, I look at his parents, guardians, whoever is important to him in his life, tell them it?s my job to be an extension of what?s already happened at home. But you?re 100 percent responsible for the young man. Everything that?happens.?
As Alabama?s Nick Saban put it: ?We can be the moral compass for our young people but we cannot always drive the ship. We cannot always be there to drive the?ship.?
In the heated arms race of recruiting, coaches also bear the responsibility for signing a player who might have had off-the-field?troubles.
Mississippi?s Hugh Freeze brought in one of the nation?s most surprising and highly rated talent hauls in February. Weighing risk vs. reward is a factor in recruiting decisions, he said, not just whether a kid is deemed a four- or five-star?talent.
?I do think you have to be very calculated in the risk you take because you?re under such scrutiny and you?re bringing them into your team,? Freeze said. ?We try to minimize the number of at-risk issues you might have, but you?re going to have?some.?
Alabama dismissed four players from school following their arrests stemming from two violent robberies on campus barely a month after the Crimson Tide claimed its second straight national?title.
Saban said every player he has kicked off has been someone the team?s leadership group felt needed to?go.
Even the week of media days started with legal?matters.
Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M pleaded guilty on Monday to a misdemeanor of not identifying himself to a police officer following a 2012 altercation at a bar near campus. That day, Vanderbilt?s James Franklin identified four players dismissed from school in June for an incident being investigated by police as a possible sex?crime.
Franklin said he and Vandy won?t sign players they believe have character issues for the sake of?winning.
?I can?t speak for other places or other institutions but not at Vanderbilt,? Franklin said. ?It?s never been that way in the past. It?s not that way presently. It will never be in the future. That?s not what we?re all?about.?
One of college football?s biggest stars, South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, said he avoids trouble caused by reckless Tweets or off-the-field?misdeeds.
?I don?t go to bars,? Clowney said. ?I don?t drink or anything. I just stay out of trouble, stay at home. I hang out with the same group of guys I grew up with, the same three guys every day. Just stay in the house. You can?t get in trouble in your own home, I?hope.?
? Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and the rest of the cast flew in from London for the fanboy convention
Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana and their castmates from Disney and Marvel's upcoming "Guardians of the Galaxy? staged the second mass surprise in as many hours at Comic-Con on Saturday, appearing before fans to talk about the movie with director James Gunn.
See photos: The Scene at Comic-Con 2013
Just moments earlier, more than a dozen members of the cast of ?X-Men: Days of Future Past? pulled a similar stunt with director Bryan Singer.
"Guardians," based on the popular Marvel comic, chronicles a pilot and a group of ex-cons on the run. The film is only two weeks into shooting, but the cast, including Pratt (left), Saldana, Benicio Del Toro and Lee Pace, all flew out.
Also read:?Comic-Con 2013: 'Avengers 2' to Follow Dark, Destructive 'Age of Ultron' Comic Book
Before showing a few minutes of footage introducing characters like Rocket Raccoon and Groot, host Chris Hardwick asked the cast to spill a little on their own roles.
Pratt plays Peter Quill, whom he the actor described as "a jerk who goes around space making out with hot alien girls and being a rogue." Yet then he decides to help a family he comes to care for.
Also read: Comic-Con 2013: Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Fassbender Surprise Fans With Entire ?X-Men: Days of Future Past? Cast
Saldana plays Gamora, a green-skinned humanoid, or, as Saldana put it, "an assasin from space."
While both Pratt and Saldana are familiar to fans at the convention for past work, Dave Bautista, a former WWE wrestler, is a new face for Hollywood and comic book fans.
?I wanted this more than I wanted anything in my life,? Bautista said. ?When I got the job I cried like a little baby.?
Don?t let the history books fool you about the sacking of Alexandria and its famous library. Those warmongering bookworms had it coming.
It turns out that Julius Caesar made the Egyptians a very reasonable offer when they got all uppity about him marching an army through ?their? land. Not only did he graciously ignore their belligerence and re-establish the longstanding trade agreement the Egyptians had foolishly tossed out (along with all their toys), but the Creative Assembly dev playing Caesar gave Egypt the opportunity to become a client state of Rome as well. A great offer, I think, but the Egyptian ambassador rejected it. I guess this means Total War.
Open the diplomacy tab in Rome 2 and you?ll see something called the Relations Pane: this contains a list of your actions throughout the history of the game, complete with the relevant faction?s response. It makes the often inscrutable nature of Total War?s AI more transparent, and helps put faction behaviour into wider sociopolitical context.
You can now see, for instance, that breaking off trade agreements with allies of Egypt won?t go down too well in Pharaohland, but Egypt seems to love it when you commit wartime atrocities against the Macedonians. Making AI responses more readable runs the risk of making them appear nakedly robotic, but it also opens the scope for more nuanced diplomatic strategies.
Diplomacy doesn?t work for Creative Assembly?s Caesar in this case, so the developers let me fight my first battle in Rome 2. Although CA first showed me the conflict from a Roman perspective, they now have me playing as the Egyptians. I?m not sure if I?ll be able to adjust until I delightedly spot my ranks of troops mounted on camels.
The reason I?m playing Egypt is that Rome will face on uphill struggle ? literally ? to win the Battle of the Nile. My larger army is mounted on top of some raised ground, while the reinforcements Caesar desperately needs are all aboard ships that must wrestle with my superior navy before they can land.
Rome II?s naval and land battles are now controlled on the same battlefield, and the boaty bit is my first priority: naval warfare feels closer to Shogun than Empire: you can still fight at range, but a volley of arrow fire is really just a polite way of introducing yourself before the prow of your ship slams into your enemy?s starboard side.
?Ramming is one of the key weapons for these ancient ships,? community communications manager Al Bickham explains. ?You?ll see they all have these big metal prows.? There?s no need to be subtle here: my navy outnumbers Caesar?s so I send my ships to entangle his before they can get to shore, pausing to zoom in as my crew leaps on board his vessels and murders everyone.
In the meantime, Caesar has sent a mounted unit up the hill to test my defences. Unfortunately, horses are easily spooked by camels ? their obvious superiors. I send out a unit of camelry (yes, that is the correct word) to meet the attackers, and the Romans quickly scatter. Caesar then marches the rest of his army up the hill to meet me head-on.
A standard Total War rout follows, and the obvious superiority of my forces means I don?t need to rely on clever tactics. I do get to try out some new defensive weapons, though ? flaming boulders that can be pushed down a hill as attackers draw near ? while my elephant units spectacularly demonstrate their superior mass as they plough head-on into Roman infantry.
The heavy-footed pachyderms scatter troops across the battlefield? and, um, head straight into a bunch of archers that I really should have moved out of the way. It?s all a bit easy, in fact, so Creative Assembly offer to let me try the battle from the Roman side.
I?m almost crushed. First I rush my navy to the shore, since I learned the fun way that the Roman forces are no match for the Egyptian fleet. Once there, however, a unit of mounted elephants comes charging out of a nearby forest and tears straight through my freshly disembarked forces.
In the meantime, I try to outflank the main body of the Egyptian army but the steep gradient makes manoeuvring hard work, and the Egyptians rush down to annihilate me, shamelessly copying my previous tactics. Once the elephant- mangled bodies are counted, I find that I managed to snatch a win ? by successfully holding down a capture point at the summit of the hill ? but it was Pyrrhic at best, and I suspect it won?t be this easy in the finished game.
Caesar?s battle against the Egyptian forces felt like classic Total War, with the extra nuances to the simulation adding tactical subtleties without requiring new approaches. With the polished RTS elements embedded in a similarly overhauled campaign map, Rome II offers players plenty of reasons to cross the Rubicon once more.
Author and journalist John Fraser defends the Crown in this 2012 book. But part of its dedication is to 'Michael Bliss: Historian, Conservative, Republican.' (CBC)
John Fraser says the test for the Royal Family is not the good times but how they weather 'the crises, and so far they look pretty resilient.' (Massey College)
In 2008, with the opposition parties planning to bring down his government, Prime Minister Stephen Harper succeeded in getting then governor general Michaelle Jean to approve his controversial recommendation to prorogue Parliament. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)
Since Henry VIII (in portrait), British monarchs have had the title, 'Defender of the Faith.' Prince Charles, shown here in 2004, has proposed dropping the 'the.' (Fiona Hanson/Reuters)
Historian Michael Bliss says we are entering the age of the geriatric monarchy, with the prospect of only elderly men succeeding each other once Charles becomes king. (CBC)
New Delhi: India and France are expected to discuss the security situation in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region along with the ongoing defence deals expected to be worth over Rs 80,000 crore between the two countries during Defence Minister-level talks to be held on Friday.
*George Zimmerman is not the only criminal in Florida.
