aground chide

Thursday, October 31, 2013

Spanish spy chief to address Parliament on spying

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, right, listens to a lawmaker as Spain's Deputy Prime Minister Soraya Sainz de Santamaria talks on her cell phone at the Spanish parliament, in Madrid, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Speaking in parliament, Rajoy said Spain was taking the surveillance allegations seriously and that the head of Spain's intelligence services will address Parliament over allegations that Spain was a target for surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy addresses to lawmakers at the Spanish parliament, in Madrid, Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013. Speaking in parliament, Rajoy said Spain was taking the surveillance allegations seriously and that the head of Spain's intelligence services will address Parliament over allegations that Spain was a target for surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency. He reiterated that if confirmed, such activity is “inappropriate and unacceptable between partners and friends.” Up to now the Spanish government insists it is unaware of any U.S. spying. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

MADRID (AP) — The head of Spain's intelligence services will give a closed-door briefing to a parliamentary committee about allegations that Spain was a target for surveillance by the U.S. National Security Agency, the prime minister said Wednesday. He did not announce a date for the session.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy spoke a day after NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander told a U.S. House Intelligence panel that millions of telephone records of European citizens were swept up as part of a NATO program to protect the alliance. Alexander said, however, the U.S. didn't collect the European records alone.

Up to now, Spain has insisted it is unaware of any U.S. spying.

Speaking in parliament, Rajoy didn't refer to Alexander's comments, but said Spain was taking the allegations of U.S. spying seriously. He said such activity, if confirmed, is "inappropriate and unacceptable between partners."

Rajoy said National Intelligence Center chief Felix Sanz Roldan would address the issue in a closed-door session of parliament's official secrets commission.

Opposition lawmakers urged Rajoy to press the U.S. for explanations and to clarify if Spain had helped the NSA and whether he had any part in it.

Meanwhile, two senior German officials were in Washington on Wednesday, part of Berlin's efforts to probe allegations that Chancellor Angela Merkel's cellphone was monitored by U.S. intelligence.

The heads of Germany's foreign and domestic intelligence agencies will also visit Washington "in the coming days," said Merkel spokesman Steffen Seibert. He did not say who the Germans were meeting.

French officials were focused on "the nature and the extent of American spying on our territory," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Romain Nadal.

French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said that the facts "seem well established" and "from this point of view, the denials of the director of the NSA seem improbable."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said his government wasn't surprised by reports of alleged U.S. monitoring of leaders of allied countries.

"I am persuaded that everyone knew everything or suspected everything," Lavrov said during a visit to Greece.

___

Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Derek Gatopoulos in Athens, Greece, contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-10-30-Europe-NSA-Surveillance/id-9642e775bb6e4c07ba9354081704f8df
Similar Articles: Origami Owl NFL Network K Michelle

Lyoto Machida's camp doubtful Vitor Belfort will fight him

Lyoto Machida made a booming statement at UFC Fight Night 30, finishing off a flawless victory over teammate Mark Munoz with a first-round head kick KO for his middleweight debut.

The win marked the last bout on Machida's contract and rocketed the former UFC light heavyweight champion into an immediate top-5 ranking in the UFC's 185-pound division. Afterward, with his eyes planted firmly on a title, the reinvigorated contender called out Vitor Belfort, the division's No. 2 ranked fighter who's currently slated to fight at light heavyweight against Dan Henderson.

"Vitor Belfort is the best option for me right now," Machida (20-4) told MMAFighting.com. "I want to fight him. It would be the best fight for me right now because he's well ranked in the middleweight division.

"Even if Vitor loses to Dan Henderson, I'd want to fight him in our weight class."

It's a match-up that certainly makes sense. UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and the division's former kingpin Anderson Silva are tied up until December 28, at the earliest, while Belfort (23-10) is the owner of what may be the division's most impressive current streak, having knocked out Michael Bisping and Luke Rockhold in back-to-back spectacular performances.

Nonetheless, Machida's management voiced doubts about the potential bout on Wednesday's episode of UFC Tonight.

According to Ariel Helwani, Machida's manager Jorge Guimaraes believes the match-up won't take place, simply because Belfort won't accept the fight.

Belfort has turned down fights in the past, with the most recent example being a proposed match-up against Tim Kennedy. It's largely the reason he's fighting Henderson at light heavyweight, as Belfort voiced hesitance about relinquishing his status as No. 1 middleweight contender, much to the displeasure of UFC President Dana White, who recently said that the Brazilian "drives me crazy."

Even still, Machida continues to await his next marching orders while Belfort and Henderson are set to square off in the main event of UFC Fight Night 32 on November 9, 2013 at the Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil.

Source: http://www.mmafighting.com/2013/10/30/5048434/lyoto-machidas-camp-doubtful-vitor-belfort-will-fight-him
Tags: Revolt TV Ed Sheeran Helen Lasichanh kanye west cnn

ABI Research says Samsung sold more smartphones than Apple, BlackBerry and Nokia combined in Q3 2013

Smartphone sales

Samsung is riding at the top of the smartphone food-chain — let's hope they remember how they got there

I was looking through the data at ABI Research today about Q3 2013 smartphone sales. At first glance, I saw the pie chart I expected to see, with Android having over 80 percent of the worldwide smartphone market and was ready to close the tab. We know Android outsells everyone, and that just wasn't news I wanted to share. But right before I clicked away, a number at the top caught my eye.

Samsung sold 35 percent of all smartphones sold in Q3 of 2013. That's a figure that's fairly easy to come up with in the past if you wanted to do a little work, but there it was, laid out just like that. After a little poking around at their data, and calling in Andrew, our financial and numbers wünderkind, we realized just what that means.

According to ABI Research, Samsung sells more smartphones than Apple, Nokia and BlackBerry combined.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/xD0nUHfu97Q/story01.htm
Related Topics: bcs rankings homeland Chobani Recall catherine zeta jones green bay packers

This Guy's Contraptions Help Wildlife Photographers Get Insane Shots

Being a National Geographic photographer demands going to great lengths to capture unique shots of wild—often dangerous—animals. It's a task that sometimes requires some very custom-built gear. Luckily, there's one man whose sole job is to craft these amazing gadgets.

Lawmakers To Grill Sebelius On Affordable Care Act

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius is testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill. She can expect some heated questions about the rugged rollout of the Affordable Care Act. President Obama, meanwhile, heads to Boston to talk about health care in the afternoon.

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep. More hearings come today on the messy rollout of the Affordable Care Act. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will face questions from the House, Energy and Commerce Committee. Now, yesterday, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid testified before a different committee. Marilyn Tavenner offered consumers an apology for the problems at the healthcare.gov website.

(SOUNDBITE OF HEARING)

MARILYN TAVENEER: We know that the consumer experience has been frustrating for many Americans. Some have had trouble creating accounts and logging into the site while others have received confusing error messages or had to wait for slow response times. This initial experience has not lived up to our expectations or the expectations of the American people and it is not acceptable.

INSKEEP: Now, as the hearings continue, the president goes to Boston today. He'll be talking about healthcare. And we're going to talk about healthcare now with NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson, who's on the line. Hi, Mara.

MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hi, Steve.

INSKEEP: OK. So why in Boston for the president?

LIASSON: Well, it's a bit of counterprogramming to the Sebelius hearings, but he'll also be making the point about the arc of enrollment. In Massachusetts, which of course was the model for his healthcare plan, only 123 people signed up in the first month. That's .3 percent of the eventual enrollment. And a full 20 percent signed up in the final month.

This is why the administration doesn't want to give enrollment numbers until mid-November. But...

INSKEEP: So they're basically trying to say it was very slow in Massachusetts.

LIASSON: That's right.

INSKEEP: Don't hammer us for being too slow.

LIASSON: That's right. But on a call yesterday, the administration admitted that there are limitations to the Massachusetts analogy. Yes, it was the model for the president's plan, but it's also very different - so much smaller - and it had bipartisan support from the very beginning.

INSKEEP: Now, here's some awkwardness. Republicans are pointing out news reports that a lot of people are seeing their policies, their old policies, cancelled or their premiums go up under the new Obamacare rules. Does the White House have any answer to that?

LIASSON: Well, it does, but here's the problem. In order to sell the plan back in 2009, the president said this a lot.

(SOUNDBITE OF SPEECH)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: If you like your healthcare plan, you will be able to keep your healthcare plan. Period.

LIASSON: But that's just not true in every case. What we're talking about here is about five percent of the population who are in the private individual market. They don't get their healthcare through their employer or through Medicare or Medicaid. And some of them - we don't know how many of them - are seeing their plans canceled when their 12-month contracts come up because their plans don't meet the new standards for coverage in the Affordable Care Act.

Now, some of these people are going to have to pay a little more. Some of them will pay less. The White House says in the end more people will end up with better coverage and in some cases cheaper coverage because of the subsidies. But the fact is, the Affordable Care Act is a disrupter. This is why the White House wanted this rolled out after the president was reelected.

And the problem is that the president raised expectations. He went out and said the website will be as easy to use as buying a plane ticket on Kayak. He said your insurance won't change if you like it. But health insurance is very complicated. There are premiums and there are deductibles and there are co-pays and the law affects different people in different ways.

So for every positive anecdote, you can find a negative one. The president made it sound so simple and those promises are now coming back to haunt him.

INSKEEP: But I do want to ask, Mara Liasson, because this is a debate that has been so heated, so intense, and the people who are saying that the president was untruthful or even that he lied are in some cases people who have talked about death panels in the law, who've said the IRS was going to be coming after people with squads of goons.

They've talked about socialism. There's been extraordinary rhetoric surrounding this entire debate for years. Is it a little late for anyone to complain about anybody being untruthful?

LIASSON: It's never too late...

(LAUGHTER)

LIASSON: I mean, the problem is that today, when Secretary Sebelius takes the stand - of course Republicans will call for her resignation, but she's going to get questions not just about the website. Now the focus is on this new line of attack: Why are people's plans being changed when the president said they wouldn't be? And why are people getting cancellation notices at the same time they can't get on the website to look for a new plan?

So yes, people - everyone has exaggerated and been untruthful in the past, but right now the big questions of credibility and competence are directed at the administration, and Sebelius is going to bear the brunt of them today.

INSKEEP: Mara, thanks as always.

LIASSON: Thank you.

INSKEEP: That's NPR national political correspondent Mara Liasson.

Copyright © 2013 NPR. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to NPR. This transcript is provided for personal, noncommercial use only, pursuant to our Terms of Use. Any other use requires NPR's prior permission. Visit our permissions page for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by a contractor for NPR, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio.

Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=241786950&ft=1&f=3
Similar Articles: randall cobb betrayal mariano rivera Brynn Cameron bradley manning

2nd mistress testifies in murder trial of Utah doc

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Another mistress of a former Utah doctor accused of killing his wife testified Wednesday that he had once described how he could induce a heart attack in someone that would appear natural.

Anna Walthall took the witness stand and said she began a six-month affair with defendant Martin MacNeill in 2005 when he was a consulting doctor at a laser hair removal clinic that she operated.

MacNeill described the heart attack method during "pillow talk," she said.

Walthall quoted MacNeill as saying, "'There's something you can give someone that's natural that's a heart attack that's not detectable after they have a heart attack.'"

No cause of death has been determined for Michele MacNeill.

Defense lawyers have argued that she had a heart attack and fell into a bathtub in April 2007 in the family home in Pleasant Grove, about 35 miles south of Salt Lake City.

Defense lawyers challenged Walthall by getting her to acknowledge she had been diagnosed with what was formerly called multiple personality disorder, but she insisted she was giving a true account of Martin MacNeill's statement.

Earlier in the day, two daughters of the MacNeills testified that their father had hired another mistress, Gypsy Willis, as a nanny soon after his wife died, but Willis did not cook or take care of the children and went to their father's bedroom at night.

Sabrina MacNeill, 19, testified that Willis didn't do anything a nanny would be expected to do.

"She made spaghetti once, and that was the only time she cooked," said Sabrina MacNeill. "She didn't do anything."

Another daughter, Alexis Somers, testified that Willis would come and go throughout the day, seemingly more focused on the doctor than the children.

Prosecutors say Martin MacNeill, 57, hounded his wife, Michele MacNeill, to get cosmetic surgery then knocked her out with painkillers and left her to die in a bathtub. His motive, they said, was to get rid of his wife so he could be with Willis.

Somers testified that her father bullied her mother to get the face-lift and insisted the plastic surgeon prescribe an unusual combination of painkillers and other drugs for her recovery.

Two days after the surgery, Somers said, she confronted her father after finding her mother knocked out by the powerful drugs.

Somers, also a doctor, recalled her father saying, "'I must have given her too much medicine.'"

Michele MacNeill had tried to delay the surgery until she could reduce her high blood pressure and weight and to wait until her daughter could help take care of her, Somers said.

Somers, who has adopted her mother's maiden name, described an argument between her parents about the timing of the surgery.

"He got angry at my mom and said, 'If you don't have the surgery now, you're not getting it,'" Somers testified.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2nd-mistress-testifies-murder-trial-utah-doc-202154714.html
Tags: Pretty Little Liars Heartbreaker Justin Bieber jessica biel area 51 Gia Allemand

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Fantastical 2 for iPhone wants to be your all-in-one calendar and reminder app

From its humble beginnings on OS X, Fantastical's contextual input changed the way plenty of people set appointments and reminders. When it arrived on the iPhone last November, the app became the first calendar software to reach number one on the App Store. Almost a year later, and Flexibits is ...

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/kUemOsCANSo/
Category: Texas A&m gravity kenya college football jeff bezos