You may have thought Facebook couldn't become any more of an artificial orgy of nostalgia than it already is, but if today's new test feature takes hold, get ready to wallow like you've never wallowed before. Very much in the vein of Timehop
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Garry and Brenda Hollands would annually trek to one of Christopher Knight's early campsites in Rome.
A bill was signed into law this month increasing penalties for those who sexually exploit people under various conditions.
Actress Anna Kendrick's version of the tune becomes a summer phenomenon, with Maine youths learning how to do the routines.
Police released security camera images today of the two armed men who robbed the Bangor Savings Bank in Winslow last week.
Competitors at an annual Skowhegan River Fest boat race Thursday will be paddling for the first time in 12-seat war canoes.
The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association in Unity said that Ted Quaday, of Santa Cruz, Calif., is the group's new executive director.
The Maine Warden Service this weekend is looking to step up the search for Appalachian Trail hiker Geraldine Largay, missing 9 days from the Spaulding Mountain area.
Maine search for missing hiker narrowed; wardens say time running out
Hiker confirms seeing missing Tennessee woman on Appalachian Trail
The lengthy application to open a charter school are due Dec. 2.
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Why Rouhani will have to start putting out fires, fast.
Hassan Rouhani, Iran's incoming president (Reuters)
One of the most important questions in the Middle East this year is whether Hassan Rouhani's election will mark a new era -- both for Iranians and the outside world. The answer could mean the difference between peace and yet another war. Rouhani's campaign certainly made lots of promises. One of his most striking posters was a bright blue textograph of his face crafted from a slogan promising "a government of good sense and hope." The Scottish-educated cleric energized an election many Iranians had considered boycotting after pledging that "freedoms should be protected." He also won over key youth and female votes by vowing in televised debates to "minimize government interference" in culture and society and to give women "equal rights and equal pay."
The upbeat promises have continued apace since the June 14 election, particularly on Rouhani's two English and Farsi Twitter accounts. "This victory was a victory of wisdom, #moderation, progress, awareness, commitment and religiosity over extremism & bad behavior," @hassanrouhani tweeted on June 15. The "bad behavior" was clearly a dig at outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose status has plummeted over the past year. He leaves office almost in disgrace.
Online, Rouhani even discreetly tipped his turban to the Great Satan. Four days after the vote, his account tweeted a decade-old picture of Rouhani visiting a U.S. field hospital set up after the devastating 2003 earthquake in historic Bam. He is pictured next to an American female medic.
Now Iran's new president has to deliver. After the Aug. 4 inauguration, Rouhani faces a grueling test of the popularity he won at the polls against five other candidates. Iran's economy is toxic. Political divisions border on schisms. Regional allies--both secular and Islamist--are literally under fire. And the outside world has threatened military action if Tehran does not compromise on its nuclear program. Rouhani will find few quick fixes either. His gentle smile will only get him so far.
***
"It's the economy stupid" applies as much in the Islamic Republic as in any capitalist society. Rouhani inherits an almost existential challenge in putting out the financial fires. The economic situation is beyond grim due to a combination of punishing international sanctions and Ahmadinejad's gross mismanagement.
Iran's currency has lost about half its value since mid-2012. At least one out of four young people is now unemployed--including 4 million university graduates--in a country where more than half the voters are under 35. The Central Bank put inflation at 36 percent this spring, but Rouhani said his incoming team estimated that it was closer to 42 percent. Disgruntlement is visible. Sporadic demonstrations, including a July rally by steelworkers outside parliament, have protested unpaid salaries and layoffs.
Iran's economic lifeline is oil. But crude oil exports were cut by almost 40 percent in 2012--to 1.5 million barrels per day, the lowest in more than a quarter century, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. By July 2013, the World Bank reported that Tehran had not paid back loans totaling $79 million for more than six months (out of $679 million due overall), which also meant Tehran would be ineligible for new funding and would find it harder to get new money from commercial creditors.
"For the first time since the imposed war [with Iraq from 1980 to 1988], our economic growth has been negative for two years in a row. And this is the first time that negative growth is accompanied by high inflation -- the highest inflation in the region or perhaps in the world," Rouhani told the country's parliament in July. In Iran's unusual political system, the president's biggest portfolio is the economy--and it could make or break his presidency.
***
During the presidential debates, Rouhani was quite conciliatory toward the outside world, at least compared with the defiant and discordant Ahmadinejad. "We need to move away from extremism," Rouhani said on national television. "We should maintain the country's interests and national security to provide conditions where we create opportunities." The key, of course, will be whether Iran and the outside world can settle longstanding questions about Iran's nuclear program.
Unlike the economy, Rouhani is uniquely qualified on this issue. He is a mid-ranking cleric, but he was also the national security adviser for 16 years. As chief nuclear negotiator, he brokered a rare deal with the West in 2003-4, when Iran temporarily suspected uranium enrichment, a fuel process that can be used for both peaceful nuclear energy and the world's deadliest weapon. He left the job shortly after Ahmadinejad took office in 2005.
Rouhani actually took a potshot at Ahmadinejad's team--including Saeed Jalili, the chief nuclear negotiator and another presidential candidate--in the campaign this summer. Among the six major powers negotiating with Iran, Jalili was famed for his long-winded tirades and stalling tactics that went nowhere during the five rounds of diplomacy since April 2012. The joke in Washington was that U.S. officials would actually not have minded if Jalili won the election, because at least they would no longer have to sit across from him at the negotiating table. He may have had the same reputation in Tehran.
"The nuclear issue will only be resolved through real negotiations, not just announcements," Rouhani said during the debates. "Iran's foreign policy should be placed in the hands of skilled, experienced people -- not people who do not know what they are talking about."
The sixth round of negotiations--with the United States, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia--is expected to resume this fall. "Iran will be more transparent to show that its activities fall within the framework of international rules." Rouhani said in his first press conference after the election. The International Atomic Energy Agency--the U.N. nuclear watchdog--particularly wants access to facilities and scientists so far off-limits to the outside world. The looming question is also whether the regime will finally agree to direct talks with the United States to expedite resolution.
"Relations between Iran and the United States are a complicated and difficult issue. It's nothing easy," Rouhani said at his first press conference. "This is a very old wound that is there, and we need to think about how to heal this injury. We don't want to see more tension. Wisdom tells us both countries need to think more about the future and try to sit down and find solutions to past issues and rectify things."
Rouhani knows the nuclear program intimately. He also knows that a deal that lessens or eliminates sanctions would in turn be the key to reversing Iran's rapid economic decline. "It is very good for [nuclear] centrifuges to spin," he said in the final debate on foreign policy. "But it's also good for the lives of people to spin." For all his realism, however, Iran's new president remains committed to the unique ideology of the world's only modern theocracy. He also opposed terms of a deal offered in 2009.
***
The central challenge for Rouhani is that he will not have the last word on virtually anything. In Iran's hybrid political system, a cleric is the ultimate executive. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has virtual veto power, sometimes in subtle ways, over everything from cabinet appointments to political agendas and foreign policy. The last three presidents ended up alienating the supreme leader--and losing influence for themselves and their political factions.
Tehran also has rival power centers. To win support for his initiatives, Rouhani will need to be a master wrangler to keep Iran's herd of bull-headed politicians in the same corral. He will have to navigate a balance between hardline principlists (so called for their rigid revolutionary principles) at one end of the spectrum and reform sentiments at the other, with many political shades between the two poles. For all their differences, Iranian and American politics actually have something in common--intense government rivalries that produce gridlock.
After the election, Rouhani told a packed press conference that his government would include "moderates, principlists and reformists. There will be no restrictions. I don't like the word coalition, it will go beyond factions and be based on meritocracy."
But blocks have already formed to hold Rouhani in check. Iran's unicameral parliament -- the Majlis -- is dominated by conservatives and hardliners, while Rouhani is a centrist. In a recent letter, 80 principlist members of parliament warned against naming "seditionists," a reference to reformers. Their six-point demands included absolute commitment by any appointee to revolutionary principles in domestic and foreign policies and total obedience to the supreme leader.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards also wield enormous political influence. Under Ahmadinejad, veterans from the 1980-88 war with Iraq strengthened their hold on top government jobs, both nationally and in the provinces. The Revolutionary Guards also are a dominant economic force, holding billions of dollars in government contracts having little or nothing to do with the military. They are not shy when it comes to getting their way.
So the honeymoon may be brief for Rouhani. Like his Western counterparts, he probably has 18 months to two years to produce something tangible before risking the leverage gained by his surprising first-round victory. Then he will have to begin thinking about the next election cycle.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Best-Of-The-Atlantic/~3/ZuMvTUJ_M8Q/story01.htm
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Sapa-AP | 2013-07-30 11:10:55.0
Image by: Gallo Images/ Thinkstock
Military Joint Task Force spokesman Ikedichi Iweya says "a couple" of people were wounded in Monday night's attack by suspected members of the Islamic extremist Boko Haram network.
But an Associated Press reporter watched security forces ferrying scores of wounded to hospitals after the explosions around a bar where people where drinking, playing snooker and table tennis.
Nigeria is fighting an Islamic uprising by militants based mainly in the northeast. The government has declared a state of emergency there. Kano city and state are in the northwest and not part of that emergency.
Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden," wants Islamic law in Nigeria.
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Answering questions about the Catholic Church while visiting Rio de Janeiro, Pope Francis said women need to have an equal role in the church, though did not address the idea of female priests. And when asked about gay people, the pontiff responded, "Who am I to judge?"
By Anne Thompson and Henry Austin, NBC News
Pope Francis on Monday said ?who am I to judge?? gay people as he discussed one of the most divisive issues affecting the Catholic Church. ?
Luca Zennaro / Pool via EPA
Pope Francis, who gave a press conference on his flight back from Brazil, said he had stayed away from the gay marriage debate on his trip because he wanted to stay positive.
?I have yet to find anyone who has a business card that says he is gay,? the pontiff said at a press conference in which he addressed the reports of a "gay lobby" within the Vatican.
?They say they exist. If someone is gay, who searches for the Lord and has goodwill, who am I to judge?? he added. "The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains this very well. It says they should not be marginalized because of this (orientation) but that they must be integrated into society."
However, Francis reaffirmed the Catholic Church's teaching that homosexual acts are a sin, Reuters reported..
He added that he thought lobbies of any kind -- including political ones -- were bad.
"The problem is not having this orientation. We must be brothers. The problem is lobbying by this orientation, or lobbies of greedy people, political lobbies, Masonic lobbies, so many lobbies. This is the worse problem," he said.?
The press conference, which lasted for an hour and 20 minutes, was held during the flight back from his week-long trip to Brazil. ?
The official position of the Catholic Church on the issue is that while homosexual desires or attractions are not in themselves sinful, the physical acts are. All priests take a vow of celibacy when they become members of the clergy.?
Father Thomas J. Reece, a senior analyst at the National Catholic Reporter, said he thought Francis meant that "if a person is a homosexual and that person is trying to live a good life, it?s not our place to judge them."
"This is very significant I think,? he said. ?I think that recently under Pope Benedict there was a move to say that homosexuals could not be priests, that if they were seminarians they should be thrown out," he said.
?I think that Pope Francis is saying something quite different here. Whether you?re a homosexual or a heterosexual the question is whether they can live a celibate life. Other things coming out of Rome were quite different, just a few years ago," he added.
Reece said it was not known whether there really was a "gay lobby" in the Vatican, but this is used to describe a group of homosexual priests who allegedly look out of each other and engage in sexual acts.
Mark Dowd, a former Dominican friar in the U.K. who left the church partly because he fell in love with a former friar, said it was ?very welcome that at least he [Francis] engages with the subject.?
However Dowd, who become a freelance broadcaster specializing in religion, doubted the comments represented a significant shift in the church, saying they made ?a nice headline? but not much else.
?On a scale of zero to 10 about where we need to be, that?s moving from about zero to three as opposed to nine or ten,? he said.
Felipe Dana / AP
The pontiff went to Brazil on his first visit overseas since he was elected in March.
The Pope said he had stayed away from the issue of gay marriage and also abortion on his week-long trip to Brazil because he wanted to stay positive.
Francis discussed a range of issues during the press conference, admitting that the church had not done enough to develop ?the theology of women in the church.?
He said that the church had spoken on the issue of women priests and expressed itself clearly on the issue of abortion, but he added that important female biblical figures had been overlooked.
"Mary is more important than the apostles," he said. "One must think about women in the church. We have not done enough theology on this."
History's first Latin American pope said he was "pretty tired" but with a happy heart after his first overseas trip.
He said he was amazed at the number of people who turned out to see him in Brazil, especially the three million who jammed Copacabana Beach for Sunday's Mass.
He added that he was unconcerned by the tumultuous start to the trip that included the discovery of a bomb at a shrine he visited and the mob scene that took place when his driver inadvertently made wrong turn.
"There's always the danger of a crazy person, but there is also the Lord," he said. "This being close is good for everyone."
NBC News' Ian Johnston and Reuters contributed to this report.
Related:
This story was originally published on Mon Jul 29, 2013 7:35 AM EDT
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Giovanni Ribisi had better hope he doesn't botch a job anytime soon. Flavio Garcia from the University of Birmingham cracked the security system that pairs an owner's key to their Porsche, Lamborghini or Audi, and Volkswagen's parent company wants that research to remain unpublished. The UK's high court sided with VW's owner and granted an injunction protecting the Megamos Crypto system. Afterward, Garcia was offered to print his findings, but without the all-important decryption codes. He refused, saying that the public has a right to see the holes in the systems it relies on and that this wasn't an attempt to give criminals a hand in boosting cars. While the court's logic is sound -- once revealed, all manner of "if this ever fell into the wrong hands" situations could arise -- it's unsettling to see government bend to corporate request. At least we know Eleanor can sit in the garage for just a little longer now.
Filed under: Transportation
Via: BoingBoing
Source: The Guardian
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A view of the driving wheel of a bus which crashed off a highway near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of an Italian tour bus for survivors of a crash in southern Italy that killed at least 37 people after it crashed into traffic and plunged into a ravine on Sunday night. Reports said as many as 49 people, mostly Italians, had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off a viaduct near a wooded area. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
A view of the driving wheel of a bus which crashed off a highway near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of an Italian tour bus for survivors of a crash in southern Italy that killed at least 37 people after it crashed into traffic and plunged into a ravine on Sunday night. Reports said as many as 49 people, mostly Italians, had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off a viaduct near a wooded area. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
A man is hugged by a Police officer outside a gym facility of an elementary school turned into a morgue, in Monteforte Irpino southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. An Italian tour bus crushed Sunday night through a sidewall of a highway bridge in southern Italy, and plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) into a wooded ravine, killing at least 38 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
People comfort each other outside a gym facility of an elementary school turned into a morgue, in Monteforte Irpino southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. An Italian tour bus crushed Sunday night through a sidewall of a highway bridge in southern Italy, and plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) into a wooded ravine, killing at least 38 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
People comfort each other outside a gym facility of an elementary school turned into a morgue, in Monteforte Irpino southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. An Italian tour bus crushed Sunday night through a sidewall of a highway bridge in southern Italy, and plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) into a wooded ravine, killing at least 38 people, authorities said Monday. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
A police officer looks at in the wreckage of a bus which crashed off a highway near Avellino, southern Italy, Monday, July 29, 2013. Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of an Italian tour bus for survivors of a crash in southern Italy that killed at least 37 people after it crashed into traffic and plunged into a ravine on Sunday night. Reports said as many as 49 people, mostly Italians, had been aboard the bus when it ripped through a guardrail, then plunged some 30 meters (100 feet) off a viaduct near a wooded area. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
ROME (AP) ? An Italian tour bus plowed through cars, crashed through the side wall of a highway bridge and plunged into a ravine, killing at least 38 people, authorities said Monday.
Rescuers wielding electric saws cut through the twisted wreckage of the bus looking for survivors overnight, and state radio quoted a local police chief as saying the bus driver was among the dead.
The bus lost control near the town of Monteforte Irpino in Irpinia, a largely agricultural area about 60 kilometers (40 miles) inland from Naples and about 250 kilometers (160 miles) south of Rome, hitting several cars before plunging some 30 meters (100 feet) off a viaduct on Sunday night.
It was not immediately clear why the bus driver lost control of the vehicle, but prosecutors were investigating technical problems and had ordered an autopsy on the driver.
Italy's Prime Minister Enrico Letta described the crash as a "dramatic moment" for his entire country.
"We are deeply pained by this tragedy that has touched many families and many children," Letta said from Athens, where he met with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras.
A reporter for Naples daily Il Mattino, Giuseppe Crimaldi, told Sky TG24 TV from the scene that some witnesses told him the bus had been going at a "normal" speed on the downhill stretch of the highway when it suddenly veered and started hitting cars. Some witnesses thought they heard a noise as if the bus had blown a tire.
"All possible causes are under examination. It could be a combination of causes," Avellino Highway Police Chief Salvatore Imparato said on Sky TG24.
The bus was carrying a group of weekend holidaymakers from the town of Pozzuoli, on the coast east of Naples. The group had arrived at a hotel on Friday afternoon, and had spent the weekend visiting the spa and an early home of Padre Pio, a late mystic monk popular among Catholics, Michele Montagna, the manager of the hotel, told Sky TG24.
Relatives visited a makeshift morgue in a middle school to identify the dead on Monday. The bus, meanwhile, was towed from the site to be examined for possible malfunctions.
Firefighters extracted 37 bodies from the wreckage. Most of the dead were found inside the mangled bus, which lay on its side, while a few of the victims were pulled out from underneath the wreckage, state radio and the Italian news agency ANSA reported. One person died at the hospital.
At least 10 people, including five children, remained hospitalized on Monday.
Cars that were hit by the bus stood on the highway. One car's rear was completely crumpled, while another was smashed on its side. It was not immediately known if anyone in those cars had been injured.
___
Salvatore Laporta and Gregorio Borgia contributed to this report from Monteforte Irpino, Italy. Derek Gatopoulos contributed from Athens.
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USC's provost, Elizabeth Garrett, said the university does not tolerate sexual misconduct in any form. Photo: Philip Channing/University of Southern California
Tucker Reed, a student at the University of Southern California, had been dating her boyfriend for several weeks before they got drunk and had sex for the first time on 3 December, 2010.
If not quite in love, they were serious about each other, and it should have been the consummation of their relationship. Instead, according to Reed, it was rape, and the beginning of a nightmare. "I said no. But my humanity didn't matter to him."
Los Angeles prosecutors decided not to pursue the case, and three years later the facts of that night remain disputed, but the aftermath now affects not just Reed but her ex-boyfriend, USC and other universities across the United States.
The 23-year-old, who said she has felt traumatised and suicidal, named her alleged rapist in a blog and posted photographs of him, triggering debate over the ethics of outing someone who has not been charged with or convicted of a crime.
Reed, the daughter of bestselling authors, also accused USC of failing to properly investigate the alleged assault and supply proper help, amounting to what felt like a second rape. She mobilised other students with similar stories. That has prompted a federal investigation, it emerged last week, into whether USC violated Title IX, a federal gender equality law.
Reed's campaign also helped galvanise similar complaints at other universities, including Swarthmore College, Dartmouth College and UC Berkeley, which now face scrutiny over allegedly hostile environments for women on campus.
It was a wake-up call, she told the Guardian, to victims' often silent suffering: "They are broken and bleeding and trying to heal. Many of them wouldn't even have attempted to seek justice because they know they wouldn't receive it."
The campaign is gaining momentum. Occidental College has hired two former sex crimes prosecutors to review its handling of sex abuse allegations following complaints earlier this year.
USC is now in the spotlight because of a federal investigation by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR), launched on June 26 after a formal complaint from Reed and others detailing 16 cases.
The OCR decided to investigate three of those 16. Some media reports inaccurately said it was probing more than 100 cases.
The provost, Elizabeth Garrett, defended the institution in a letter to faculty and staff on Friday, which said the university did not tolerate sexual misconduct in any form:
"There are not 100 students who have complained to the federal government about the process, as some have claimed. Instead, a student alleged that USC had not responded appropriately in 16 cases; the OCR accepted three of those cases for further investigation".
The OCR had dismissed the charge that there was a "hostile environment" at USC, she added. "It determined there was not sufficient evidence to pursue that claim, but it agreed to look into our grievance procedures, as well as the three specific cases. Our process is always open to review and improvement, and we will collaborate fully with the OCR and look forward to suggestions it might have."
Reed, speaking from her family home in Oregon, said the university had failed her and many others. In a survey of 200 students almost half ? 47% ? said they had experienced some sort of sexual violence and found the school's security, medical and psychiatric services to be inadequate, she said.
Its policies were fine; the problem was implementation, with some administrators unable or unwilling to respond effectively to claims of harassment, stalking and assault, she said. As a result few reported abuse. "The likelihood of getting justice for it is so slim you just don't go there."
Some critics on social media have accused Reed of distorting her own case, which police dropped citing lack of evidence, and seeking a vendetta against her ex. She continued dating him for two years after the alleged assault, which she reported in late 2012 after they broke up.
She had stayed in the relationship, she said, because although traumatised by the alleged assault she was in denial that it was rape, a common reaction when the assailant is known to the victim. Friends witnessed her distress the day after the alleged rape, she said. Plus she had subsequently secretly recorded her boyfriend confessing. "I took control over what happened to me," she said.
Reed is pursuing a civil claim against her ex. He is counter-suing for libel. She rejected suggestions she had ruined his life. "This person's actions, decisions, maybe ruined his life."
Two years younger than Reed, he graduated this year. Reed, who missed many classes after going public, is due to return in September for her final year.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/28/usc-response-rape-allegations-california
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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Syrian government forces backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants forged ahead with their assault on a key rebel district in the central city of Homs Sunday, activists said, as President Bashar Assad?s forces try to crush resistance in the few remaining opposition-held neighborhoods in the city known as the ?capital of the revolution.?
The push on Homs is part of a broader government offensive on rebel-held areas that has seen regime troops retake some of the territory they have lost to opposition fighters in Syria?s more than 2-year-old conflict. Assad?s forces turned their sights on Homs, the country?s third-largest city, after capturing the strategic town of Qusair near the Lebanon border last month.
Government troops have made headway in Homs in recent days, capturing a 13th century landmark mosque in the contested Khaldiyeh neighborhood that had been in rebel hands for more than a year. Homs holds immense symbolic and strategic importance to both sides, and the ferocity of the fighting for control of it has left much of the city in ruins.
The opposition accused the regime of pulverizing Khaldiyeh and said their victory was ?hollow.?
On Sunday, Syrian state TV had live coverage from Khaldiyeh, which is located on the northern edge of the Old City, broadcasting footage that showed gaping holes in apartment blocks, shattered buildings with collapsed floors and blackened facades. Soldiers and reporters walked through rubble-strewn streets. The military took TV crews working for pro-regime media outlets deep into the neighborhood, suggesting the army was confident it had secured the area.
An unidentified Syrian army commander standing before a destroyed building in Khaldiyeh told an embedded state TV reporter that the military expected to ?liberate? the last part of the district within the next two days.
Syrian government forces captured the ancient Khalid Ibn al-Walid Mosque in Khaldiyeh on Saturday. Syrian TV aired a report with video from inside the mosque, showing heavy damage. The video showed debris littering the floor and a portion of the mosque appeared to have been burned.
Famous for its nine domes and two minarets, the mosque has been a symbol for rebels in the city, and the government takeover dealt a powerful symbolic blow to the rebellion. On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam. Video showed the tomb?s roof knocked down.
The Observatory and other activists said government troops are backed by members of Lebanon?s Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside regime forces in their assault on rebel-held territory in the central region.
Syria?s main exiled opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, acknowledged that rebels had retreated from parts of Khaldiyeh, calling it a ?tactical withdrawal.?
?After the heavy bombardment of the Khaldiyeh area of Homs, using thousands of rockets, explosive barrels and large amounts of heavy weaponry ? Assad forces have managed to overtake a few yards of the land that they have pulverized,? it said in a statement.
It said Assad was attempting the lift the sagging morale of his soldiers by exaggerating its victory in Homs, and vowed that rebels would soon retake the area.
In addition to its symbolic value, Homs is a geographic lynchpin in Syria. The main highway from Damascus to the north and the coast, a stronghold of President Bashar Assad?s Alawite sect, runs through Homs.
An official in the Homs governor?s office said a car bomb exploded near a checkpoint on the Homs-Tartous highway, killing three people and wounding 5 others. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give official statements.
In northeastern Syria, the death toll from nearly two weeks of clashes between al-Qaida-linked fighters and Kurdish militiamen rose to 120, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group. It said the dead include 79 fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant and Jabhat al-Nusra, both al-Qaida-affiliated rebel groups. The Observatory monitors the Syrian war through a network of activists on the ground.
The latest round of fighting flared in Ras al-Ayn on July 6 in the predominantly Kurdish province of Hassakeh in the northeast near the Turkish border. Kurdish gunmen are fighting to expel the militants, whom they see as a threat.
Also on Sunday, the Coalition condemned the reported execution of scores of government soldiers by rebels in a northern Syrian village several days ago, and said ?those involved in such crimes will be held accountable.?
The group, made up of exiled opposition leaders, said in a statement that it was forming a commission of inquiry to investigate the incident in Khan al-Assal.
Syrian activists say rebels killed 150 government soldiers, some after they surrendered, on Monday and Tuesday in the village outside Aleppo, the country?s largest city.
State media said that 123 ?civilians and military personnel? were killed in a ?massacre? and others were still missing.
The Coalition said initial reports showed ?armed groups? not affiliated with the main rebel coalition were involved. It did not elaborate, but the al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra says its fighters participated in the battle.
Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said the crime ?will not pass without punishment,? vowing that the perpetrators will pay a ?dear price.?
In an interview with Syrian TV late Saturday, he said the ?massacre? aimed to spread fear and panic among people at a time when the Syrian military was achieving significant progress on the ground.
In a separate statement, the Coalition urged Egypt to release dozens of Syrians it said were arrested last week allegedly for violating residency regulations.
It said Egyptian police arrested at least 72 Syrian men and nine boys at checkpoints on main roads in Cairo. Some had valid visas or residence permits but were arrested ?on the pretext of not having residence permits,? it said.
The Coalition said regulations concerning Syrians? entrance into Egypt were changed. Since July 8, Syrians have been required to obtain entry visas and security clearance before they are allowed to enter Egypt.
It urged the Egyptian government not to deport Syrians, saying Cairo has an ?ethical and humanitarian duty to protect the Syrian people fleeing the tyranny? at home.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
Source: http://www.timesofisrael.com/syrian-troops-consolidate-gains-in-homs/
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PARIS (Reuters) - French advertising group Publicis said it plans to make a "major corporate announcement" on Sunday, after a media report on Friday said it was in merger talks with larger rival Omnicom.
A media briefing will be held at 8.00 a.m. ET on Sunday at Publicis headquarters in Paris, the company said in an email on Saturday.
Bloomberg reported late on Friday that Publicis and Omnicom were in late-stage merger talks to create what would be the world's largest advertising group.
Publicis spokeswoman Peggy Nahmany was not reachable for comment.
(Reporting by James Regan; Editing by Leila Abboud)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/publicis-says-major-corporate-announcement-183011530.html
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Attracting the LIfe You Desire: How to Live Mindfully to Create a Successful Life (Life Matters)
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Deep down inside, almost everyone is longing for a better life in some way, including more:
* Money
* Power and status
* Love
* A better job
* For your family
* Friendships
* Meaning and connection.
This invaluable guide is designed to be your toolkit to building your bridge from the life you have now to the successful one you desire.
Using your own definitions of what success means to you, this guide will help you to stop pushing away what you don?t want as you start to attract an abundance of what you do want.
You will soon start to see both subtle and major shifts in your level of success in many areas of your life, including your career, finances, relationships, health, and more. You will discover specific action steps you can take to make the life you dream of a reality.
Nothing will change in your life unless you change your mind about your life. It is up to you to take charge through mindful, not automatic, living, in order to begin the process of transformation in any area of your life you wish to improve.
You will soon enjoy the rewards of a deeply fulfilling life with an abundance of success, happiness, and joy by learning:
* How to attract what you want during this economic crisis
* A simple, yet powerful technique to make your dreams a reality
* How to unlock your freedom to achieve your goals faster than ever before
* How to unleash your creativity, inner power, and strength
* The three difficult questions that successful people ask themselves each day, and their answers
and more.
You will also discover what mindfulness is, how giving more can enable you to receive more, and how an attitude of gratitude can create even more abundance in your life.
This guide to attracting the life you desire through mindful living also gives step-by-step instructions in handy appendices at the end of the guide in order to help you apply what you have learned every day.
These secrets are not self-help tips or motivational stories. They are high-performance strategies that you can use immediately to start attracting more of what you do want through the positive power of mindful living.
To get started right now, download this guide and use the power of your mind and intentions to attract what you desire, and turn the life of your dreams into your daily reality.
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Word Count=17,400
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Attracting the LIfe You Desire: How to Live Mindfully to Create a Successful Life
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1: BEGINNING TO BUILD YOUR BRIDGE TO A BETTER LIFE
CHAPTER 2: IT?S ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE
CHAPTER 3: WHY MINDFULNESS MATTERS
CHAPTER 4: CHOOSING MINDFULNESS OVER BUSY-NESS
CHAPTER 5: CULTIVATING AN ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE
CHAPTER 6: MINDFULNESS TOOLS TO USE EVERY DAY
CHAPTER 7: SETTING YOUR GOALS, ACHIVIEVING YOUR GOALS
CHAPTER 8: THE POWER OF MINDFULNESS
CHAPTER 9: FACE THE LIFE YOU LEAD, TO ATTRACT THE LIFE YOU DESIRE
CHAPTER 10: THE THREE TOUGH QUESTIONS SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE ASK THEMSELVES
CONCLUSION
APPENDIX 1: PERSONAL CHECKLIST OF AFFIRMATIONS
APPENDIX 2: DAILY MINDFULNESS CHECKLIST TO ATTRACT THE LIFE YOU DESIRE
=====
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Annabelle Stevens and Carolyn Stone are two of the leading contributors to and editors of the Guru-Goddess.com and Healthful-Goddess.com and the authors of over four dozen non-fiction guides.
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NFL notes ? Green Bay QB ?disappointed? by friend?s PED admission.
Ryan Braun apparently has some work to do to repair his friendship with Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Describing himself as shocked and disappointed, Rodgers said Friday after the Packers? first training camp practice that Braun "looked at me in the eye on multiple occasions and repeatedly denied the allegations" that the Milwaukee Brewers slugger was using performance-enhancing drugs.
Braun this week accepted a season-ending 65-game suspension after admitting to violating baseball?s rules against using PEDs.
Rodgers felt duped by his buddy and business associate, a sentiment being expressed by many others in Wisconsin. A Milwaukee restaurant is named for two of the state?s most well-known athletes, and Rodgers last year defended his friend on Twitter, going so far as to bet his multimillion-dollar salary that Braun was clean.
"It?s disappointing, not only for myself as a friend but for obviously Wisconsin sports fans, Brewer fans, Major League Baseball fans," Rodgers said before a throng of media surrounding his locker. "It doesn?t feel great being lied to like that, and I?m disappointed about the way it all went down."
Rodgers and Braun have spoken since the slugger?s suspension. Asked if he considered themselves friends, Rodgers didn?t answer directly but said in part, "I trusted him, and that?s the thing that probably hurts the most."
Vikings? Peterson eager for HGH testing
Embracing the challenge has always been a part of Adrian Peterson?s persona. Bring it on, the star running back has often said with a smile.
He set the NFL?s single-game rushing record as a rookie for the Minnesota Vikings. His swift recovery from reconstructive left knee surgery last season included a jaw-dropping 2,097 yards rushing and the league MVP award. No matter how rare the feat he?s asked about, Peterson will usually insist it?s possible.
story continues below
There?s another test he?d eagerly take: for human growth hormone.
"I can?t wait until they draw my blood," Peterson said Friday after the team?s first workout of training camp.
The NFL and the players union have been working on an agreement for HGH testing procedures. Supplemental HGH is a banned substance that?s difficult to detect. It?s been used by athletes for what are believed to be a variety of benefits, whether real or only perceived, like increased speed and improved vision.
"To be honest with you, I?ve been hoping they did this a long time ago, you know, evening out the playing field and make guys be honest and truthful to themselves," Peterson said, later adding: "I?m all natural. I work hard. This right here, it?s a test for me personally, that I know that, ?Hey, I?m clean as a whistle,? and other guys as well. And then, like I say, it?ll bring some guys to the forefront and be like, ?Hey, I guess this is how this guy?s been performing so well.?"
Peterson said he believes HGH use is not uncommon around the league.
"You?ve got guys out there trying to provide for their families, they?re going to try to get that edge, get that advantage, especially if they?re not worried about trying to get caught," Peterson said. "Yeah, it?s being used."
Around the league
Bengals ? An MRI found that All-Pro receiver A.J. Green has a bruised knee that will force him to miss several days of practice. Green hurt his left knee near the end of Cincinnati?s first practice of training camp on Thursday. Green said an MRI that found no structural damage.
Next Page >Copyright 2013 The Salt Lake Tribune. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Source: http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/sports/56650040-77/rodgers-camp-peterson-training.html.csp
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RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) ? Pope Francis issued blistering, soul-searching criticism Saturday of the Brazilian church's failure to keep its flock from straying to evangelical churches, challenging the region's bishops to be closer to their people to understand their problems and offer them credible solutions.
In the longest and most important speech of his four-month pontificate, Francis drove home a message he has emphasized throughout his first international trip at World Youth Day: the need for priests and young Catholics to shake up the status quo, get out of their stuffy sacristies and reach the faithful on the margins of society or risk losing them to rival churches.
Francis took a direct swipe at the "intellectual" message of the church that so characterized the pontificate of his predecessor, Benedict XVI. He said ordinary Catholics simply don't understand such lofty ideas and need a simpler message of love, forgiveness and mercy.
"At times we lose people because they don't understand what we are saying, because we have forgotten the language of simplicity and import an intellectualism foreign to our people," he said. "Without the grammar of simplicity, the church loses the very conditions which make it possible to fish for God in the deep waters of his mystery."
In the speech outlining the kind of church that this new pope wants, Francis asked bishops to reflect on why hundreds of thousands of Catholics have left for charismatic Pentecostal congregations that have grown exponentially in recent decades, particularly in Brazil's slums or favelas, where their charismatic message and nuts-and-bolts advice have been welcomed by the poor.
According to Brazilian census data, the number of Catholics dipped from 125 million in 2000 to 123 million in 2010, with the church's share of the total population dropping from 74 percent to 65 percent. During the same time period, the number of evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals has risen from 26 million to 42 million, an increase of 15 percent to 22 percent of the population in 2010.
Francis offered a breathtakingly blunt list of explanations for the demographic shift.
"Perhaps the church appeared too weak, perhaps too distant from their needs, perhaps too poor to respond to their concerns, perhaps too cold, perhaps too caught up with itself, perhaps a prisoner of its own rigid formulas," he said. "Perhaps the world seems to have made the church a relic of the past, unfit for new questions. Perhaps the church could speak to people in their infancy but not to those come of age."
Francis asked if the Catholic Church of today still was able to "warm the hearts" of its faithful, if its priests took the time to listen to their problems and remain close to them, and act like a "mother" who not only gives birth to her children but cares for them.
"We need a church capable of rediscovering the maternal womb of mercy," he said. "Without mercy, we have little chance nowadays of becoming part of a world of 'wounded' persons in need of understanding, forgiveness and love."
The Vatican said Francis read the five-page speech in its entirety to the 300 or so bishops gathered for lunch in the auditorium of the Rio archbishop's residence, and noted that the talk was both the longest and most important to date of Francis' pontificate. He will issue a similarly lengthy and important speech on Sunday to the bishops of Latin America, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman.
The Argentine pope began his day with a Mass in Rio's beehive-like modern cathedral where he exhorted 1,000 bishops from around the world to go out and find the faithful, a more diplomatic expression of the direct, off-the-cuff exhortation he delivered to young Argentine pilgrims on Thursday. In those remarks, he urged the youngsters to make a "mess" in their dioceses and shake things up, even at the expense of confrontation with their bishops and priests.
"We cannot keep ourselves shut up in parishes, in our communities when so many people are waiting for the Gospel!" Francis said in his homily. "It's not enough simply to open the door in welcome, but we must go out through that door to seek and meet the people."
Francis himself is imposing a shake-up in the Vatican's staid and dysfunctional bureaucracy, setting in motion a reform plan and investigations into misdeeds at the scandal-plagued Vatican bank and other administrative offices.
Francis' target audience is the poor and the marginalized ? the people that history's first pope from Latin America has highlighted on this first trip of his pontificate. He has visited one of Rio's most violent slum areas, met with juvenile offenders and drug addicts and welcomed in a place of honor 35 trash recyclers from his native Argentina.
"Let us courageously look to pastoral needs, beginning with the outskirts, with those who are farthest away, with those who do not usually go to church," he said Saturday. "They too are invited to the table of the Lord."
He carried that message to a meeting with Brazil's political, economic and intellectual elite, urging them to look out for the poorest and use their leadership positions to work for the common good. He also called for greater dialogue between generations, religions and peoples.
"Between selfish indifference and violent protest there is always another possible option: that of dialogue," he said in a reference to the protests that have wracked Brazil in recent weeks. "A country grows when constructive dialogue occurs between its many rich cultural components: popular culture, university culture, youth culture, artistic and technological culture, economic culture, family culture and media culture." He added that religion plays a critical and unifying role.
He delivered those remarks at Rio's grand municipal theater, where he was welcomed with a standing ovation and shouts of "Francisco" and "Viva o Papa!" (Long live the pope).
On a few occasions, he looked up at the gilded theater boxes almost in awe from the stage and seemed charmed when a few dozen young students of the theater's ballet school, all with their hair in buns, sat down around him. At the end of the event, the little ballerinas all swarmed around Francis for a hug and a kiss.
Also receiving papal embraces were a handful of Brazilian Indians, dressed in their traditional, bare-bellied garb who lined up to kiss his ring. One man gave Francis a feathered headdress, which he gamely wore for a few moments.
Claudina Rosa, a 32-year-old secretary from Minas Gerais state who waited outside the theater in a downpour to catch a glimpse of the pope, applauded his call for dialogue.
"We don't have any way of accessing our leaders. They don't listen to us at all, so it's excellent that the pope call for dialogue in this way," she said.
Later Saturday, Francis was presiding over an evening vigil service on Copacabana beach that is expected to draw more than 1 million young people.
He returns to Rome on Sunday after the final Mass.
___
Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pope-shames-brazil-church-letting-faithful-182914059.html
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MONROE, N.C. -- A man was killed in an officer-involved shooting late Thursday night in Union County.
The Union County Sheriff's Office said deputies were called to a home on Wolf Pond Road to serve an arrest warrant for an assault that occurred during a domestic dispute earlier Thursday evening.
When deputies arrived on scene, they were told by a witness outside the home that the wanted suspect, Brent Taylor Catoe, fled into a growth of dense brush and trees immediately behind the house, carrying a shotgun and a handgun.
A K-9 team on the scene initiated a track of Catoe and officers located him a short distance from the home about 11:30 p.m.
They repeatedly ordered Catoe, 49, to drop the weapons and surrender. He refused to follow the commands of the officers, and pointed one of the weapons at the officers.
Officers fired in self-defense, striking and killing Catoe.
The sheriff's office is not releasing the names of the officers involved in the incident pending interviews by investigators and the SBI.
Investigators remained on the scene through the night conducting their investigation. The three officers directly involved in the incident were not injured, and will be placed on administrative leave, which is a standard procedure for all officer-involved shootings.
?Any loss of life is a tragedy, and our thoughts go out to the people affected by this incident," said Sheriff Eddie Cathey. "However, in a deadly force incident, officers are trained to protect their own lives, the lives of their colleagues and the lives of innocent civilians from those who would use deadly force against them. It appears at this time, our officers acted appropriately, consistent with their training, agency policy and state law."
The findings of the SBI investigation will be forwarded to the Union County District Attorney for his review and final ruling.
Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/52585420/ns/local_news-charlotte_nc/
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Source: indiatoday.intoday.in --- Saturday, July 27, 2013
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Updated?Jul 25, 2013 10:25 PM ET
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Following truck qualifying for the Mudsummer Classic, Tony Stewart left his perch atop the infield concession stand.
He hadn?t moved 10 feet from the bottom step Wednesday night when the Eldora Speedway track owner was approached by another grateful fan.
?Thank you, thank you, thank you,? the patron exclaimed, just another satisfied customer thrilled by NASCAR?s returned to its dirt track roots to a standing room-only crowd after a 43-year absence.
?If I had a dollar for every time somebody said ?thank you? in the last 48 hours, we?d be able to pay the purse again,? Stewart said. ?It?s been amazing how many drivers and crew members came up and said, ?This is cool.? I don?t know what the financials will be on this deal, but I don?t care. To me, to see everybody have a good time, that was worth it.?
Once the fireworks ended with victor Austin Dillon hoisting his golden shovel, Stewart was still beaming. The inaugural Mudsummer Classic delivered beyond his expectations.
?I don?t know how we could have asked for more tonight, to be honest,? Stewart said. ?To watch drivers and teams that had never been here before in a five-and-a-half hour period have 20 trucks on the lead lap after 55 laps. We run the World 500 here and have 26 cars and by Lap 54, we don?t have 20 cars on the lead lap. So it absolutely amazes me the depth of talent of drivers and crew guys to come to a discipline that?s totally different to all of them and to come out and do what they did.?
Stewart credited Goodyear with creating a tire that conformed to the dirt surface over the course of 5,751 laps of practice followed by qualifying heats, modified races and a last-chance shootout race for the trucks.
?For a dirt track not to have rubber laid down at that point is a miracle,? he said. ?It made it grippy in the main (event), but it made it to where the racing was even better."
Throughout the race ? and particularly the final 40-lap segment followed by a green-white-checker finish ? drivers were racing three-wide on the top while others used the bottom for position.
NASCAR was impressed with the show as well. NASCAR president Mike Helton, who acknowledged he attended the event ?as a fan more than anything? was not only thrilled with the quality of racing, but was encouraged by the ?level of excitement? the Mudsummer Classic generated.
?It gives us, NASCAR, and motorsports in general, an opportunity to show dirt track racing to the world,? Helton said on the SPEED broadcast. ?There?s going to be a lot of fans watching tonight?s race who will learn an awful lot about (dirt-track racing). ? So it?s fun.
?I wanted to see this race here. I compliment Tony (Stewart) on keeping Eldora, this facility, going, elevating it and doing what he?s done in giving us the opportunity to bring the Truck Series.?
Although there has been speculation the Mudsummer Classic was testing the waters for additional midweek racing and the possibility of the Nationwide Series or even Sprint Cup racing on dirt in the future, Helton and other NASCAR officials were cautious with their predictions while gauging the overall success of the race.
?How far that goes, we?ll have to wait and see,? he said. ?What makes tonight very special is the fact that it is a combination of Wednesday night racing on a dirt track, which has been a long-time coming from a lot of our fans who requested it. So, (the Mudsummer Classic) is very unique, and that?s what makes it special. What the future holds? We?ll see, but I know (it?s) something everybody is going to check off and say that was a historic moment.?
SOCIALIZING
?
NUMBERS GAME
5 ? Trucks that missed the 30-driver Mudsummer Classic field.
12 ? The place Jared Landers (Clint Bowyer?s dirt driver) finished in his NASCAR debut.
$28,375 ? Austin Dillon?s first-place winnings.
SAY WHAT?
When Turner Scott Motorsports co-owner Steve Turner was asked whether the rumors of his partner Harry Scott?s purchase of Phoenix Racing have been a distraction of late, he replied, ?I don?t know what you are talking about.?
?
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Miami-Dade morgue workers carry out a body out at the scene of a fatal shooting in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
Miami-Dade morgue workers carry out a body out at the scene of a fatal shooting in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
A resident of an apartment building where seven people were killed walks by police tape in Hialeah, Fla., early Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Benjamin S. Brasch)
Police cars line a street where a seven were killed at an apartment building in Hialeah, Fla., early Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Joey Flechas)
Miriam Valdes sits in a Hialeah, Fla., police patrol car as she awaits to return to her apartment in the building at the scene of a fatal shooting in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
Miami-Dade morgue workers place objects in a bag outside an apartment building at the scene of a fatal shooting in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)
HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) ? A man set fire to his South Florida apartment, killed six people, and held another two hostage at gunpoint before a SWAT team stormed the complex and fatally shot him Saturday, according to police and witness accounts.
The ordeal lasted eight hours, with Pedro Alberto Vargas running through the building, firing at random and eluding officers for part of it, police said.
Vargas, 42, set a combustible liquid on fire on Friday evening to start the blaze, police spokesman Carl Zogby said.
The building manager, Italo Pisciotti, 79, and his wife, Camira Pisciotti, 69, noticed smoke and ran to the apartment. Vargas came out and shot several times, killing both of them, according to the police account.
Vargas then went to his fourth-story balcony and fired 10 to 20 shots in the street, killing Carlos Javier Gavilanes, 33, who was parking a car outside, Zogby said.
Then, Vargas went to the third floor, kicked the door in on another apartment and killed a family of three: Patricio Simono, 64; his wife, Merly S. Niebles, 51; and a teen daughter.
Zogby said Vargas then ran through the building, firing "at random, in a very irrational fashion."
"He kept running from us as he fired at us, and we fired at him," Zogby said.
He forced his way into an apartment and took two people hostage at gunpoint.
Ester Lazcano lives two doors down from where the shooting began and said she was in the shower when she heard the first shots, then there were at least a dozen more.
"I felt the shots," she said.
Miriam Valdes, 70, lives on the building's top floor ? one floor above where the shooting began. She said she heard gunfire and later saw smoke and what smelled like burned plastic entering her apartment, and ran in fear to the unit across the hall.
A crisis team was able to briefly establish communication with Vargas. Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of the unit where he held the hostages.
Valdes said she heard about eight officers talking with him as she stayed holed up at the neighboring apartment. She said officers told him to "let these people out."
"We're going to help you," she said they told him.
She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.
Rodriguez said the talks eventually "just fell apart." Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire.
"They made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages," Rodriguez said. Both hostages survived.
Neighbors said the shooter lived in the building with his mother. Police don't believe she was home at the time of the shootings.
"He was a good son," Lazcano said. "He'd take her in the morning to run errands" and took her to doctor appointments.
But Valdes said he was known as a difficult person who sometimes got into fights and yelled at his mother.
"He was a very abusive person," she said. "He didn't have any friends there."
Zogby called Vargas' background "unremarkable." He said police are investigating any possible disputes between Vargas and the building manager but don't yet have any information on a possible motive. "Nobody seems to know why he acted the way he acted," Zogby said.
He said police had not responded to any prior calls at his home or found any criminal background on him.
On Saturday, Agustin Hernandez ? the brother-in-law of victim Niebles ? moved his relatives' things out of the apartment building and into his car. Among them were several photos, one showing the teen smiling in a red graduation gown, another of his sister-in-law in a white dress and pearls.
Hernandez said Simono was a friend of the building manager.
Police didn't identify the slain teen, but Hernandez's wife, Zulima Niebles, said her name was Priscila Perez.
Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said she was about to enter her senior year at the school.
"She was a lovely girl," Chavarri said through tears. "She was always happy and helping her classmates."
In Hialeah ? a suburb of about 230,000 residents, about three-quarters of whom are Cuban or Cuban-American ? the street in the quiet, apartment-building-lined neighborhood was still blocked by tape Saturday afternoon.
The building where the standoff occurred is an aging, beige structure with an open terrace in the middle. It has 90 to 95 units. The apartment where neighbors said the shooting started was charred, the door and ceiling immediately outside burned black.
Zogby called the whole building a crime scene. "He probably fired dozens of shots during the whole incident," he said.
"It could have been a much, much more dangerous situation."
___
Associated Press writer Suzette Laboy contributed to this report.
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