Kurdish mayor among dozens detained in Turkey on militant links

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey: Turkish police arrested dozens of Kurdish activists and politicians on Saturday, including a provincial mayor, in their latest push against alleged supporters of armed militants.

Selim Sadak, mayor of Siirt, was among about 60 people detained in simultaneous operations in three southeastern cities, police said. Many are local officials from the legal, pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) and civic groups.

Turkey has jailed thousands of Kurdish politicians, academics, lawyers, journalists and others since 2009 on charges they support the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought the state for autonomy in a conflict that has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984.

Turkey, the United States and the European Union list the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

The BDP said in a statement police operations were continuing.

The latest raids coincide with efforts in the capital Ankara to lift the parliamentary immunity of 10 lawmakers, nine of them from the BDP. This would pave the way to prosecute them, in a move that would weaken Kurdish representation in parliament and may fuel tension in the southeast.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan last week said he favoured stripping the Kurdish MPs of their immunity after they were filmed in August embracing armed PKK rebels who had stopped their convoy in the southeast.

Kurdish members of parliament are often under investigation, accused of links to the militants, but are protected from prosecution while they are in office. The BDP denies any outright ties to the PKK.

Erdogan has pledged greater Kurdish political and cultural freedoms since his party came to power in 2002 while applying increasing military pressure on the militants and, occasionally, the BDP, which he calls the PKK's "political extension."

Excluding the latest detentions, some 190 elected BDP officials are already in jail, including 37 mayors. Six BDP lawmakers are also behind bars after they were barred from taking up parliamentary seats they won in 2011.

Source: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2012/Dec-08/197760-kurdish-mayor-among-dozens-detained-in-turkey-on-militant-links.ashx

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The perfect church is beyond the pale of imperfect humanity

United States:?

The portly prophet G.K. Chesterton once observed that he knew the Catholic Church was for him because when he went into an Anglican or a Methodist church his umbrella was still at the back where he left it, but when he went to a Catholic church it had been stolen.

Oscar Wilde made a similar point when he quipped, "The Catholic Church is for saints and sinners, but for respectable people, the Church of England will do."

The whole problem with the Protestant Revolution is that Christians pulled out of the Catholic Church looking for a perfect church, and they've been pulling out of their own churches ever since ? still looking to either find or create a perfect church, and that church is St. Utopia's.

Here's what St. Utopia's looks like: it has a vibrant, good-looking pastor who, like Mary Poppins, is practically perfect in every way. They have a terrific youth ministry; worship is either a sublime liturgy or a terrifically relevant blend of hip-hop, youth culture, and Hollywood. They minister to the poor; they've got a wonderful outreach program. They have mission trips to the developing world. The "welcome team" makes everyone feel at home with gracious grins and soothing smiles.

It's a growing church. The fellowship and the friendship seem so real ?so caring ?so loving. They've gathered lots of people who have shopped around for the perfect church and settled at St. Utopia's. It's just what church should be right?

Maybe. Maybe not. I hate to pop balloons, but in my experience of over fifty years as a Christian, when it comes to churches and church leaders, things are almost always not what they seem. And the more perfect they seem, the greater the illusion.

Americans, in particular, are suckers for the snappy, snazzy world of "successful" churches. We're taken in by the slick shucksters of religion who create that wonderful feel-good church that is very seductive. It's part of our Protestant culture. One of the pastimes of Protestant America is to create new religions. We're always trying to improve the product and come up with one that is the latest, the best, and the most wonderful.

As a result our churches have become ever more artificial, shallow, and distant from the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Source: Patheos

Source: http://www.ucanindia.in/news/-the-perfect-church-is-beyond-the-pale-of-imperfect-humanity/19822/daily

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Gillmor Gang: Locked in the Trunk

Gillmor Gang test patternThe Gillmor Gang ? Doc Searls, Robert Scoble, Dan Farber, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor ? celebrated another undisclosed term of imprisonment in the siloed world of Twitter. Sure, we talked about lots of stuff. Microsoft losing its huge bet on Windows 8 and Surface. Netflix and Spotify carving up the media that used to be called TV and radio. How the Internet is too big to fail or be taken over.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/BbRCve8xJ3o/

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YouTube Is Launching A Redesign To Reduce Clutter And Put Videos Front And Center

youtube logoThe new version of the YouTube homepage is centered around the YouTube Guide, which shows all new videos from channels that users have subscribed to. It also recommends channels that you might like, based on viewing habits, as well as those that your friends are watching. The new Guide feature doesn't just live on the web in the browser, but will also be on mobile devices and connected TVs.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/qCo-vNN8XwY/

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3-foot tsunami wave hits Japan after big quake

A 7.3-magnitude quake strikes off Japan's northeastern coast, temporarily triggering some tsunami waves reaching up to three feet, but there was no concern of a widespread tsunami. TODAY's Erica Hill reports.

By NBC News staff and wire reports

Updated at 5:40 a.m. ET:?Tsunami waves up to 3 feet high hit the coast of Japan Friday, after a?strong earthquake in the sea that shook buildings 300 miles away in Tokyo.

The temblor was registered at a magnitude of 7.3 and struck at 5:18 p.m. local time (3:18 a.m. ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The earthquake hit in the same area as the devastating quake and tsunami in March last year that killed nearly 20,000 people and triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.

Friday's?quake struck about 200 miles southeast of Kamaishi, the USGS said. The epicenter was 6.2 miles beneath the seabed,?according to the?Japan Meteorological Agency.

Buildings in Tokyo swayed for at least several minutes, but there were no early reports of damage or injuries.

Coastal residents told to flee to higher ground
NHK television broke off regular programming to warn that a strong quake was due to hit shortly before the impact was felt. Afterward, the announcer repeatedly urged all near the coast to flee to higher ground.

The quake triggered a tsunami warning for?the Miyagi Prefecture, which was at the center of the 2011 disaster. It also sparked tsunami advisories for Pacific Coast areas of several other?prefectures.

But by 5:20 a.m. ET, two hours after the quake, the Japan?Meteorological?Agency had canceled?all tsunami advisories and warnings.

USGS via EPA

A handout image released by the U.S. Geological Survey shows the location of Friday's earthquake off the northeast coast of Japan.

Still, a batch of tsunami waves, measuring about 3 feet tall, hit the town of Ishinomaki, in Miyagi Prefecture, about an hour after the earthquake, according to Japanese television. Another tsunami wave, measuring about a foot tall, was detected at Ofunato.

Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

"I was in the center of the city the very moment the earthquake struck. I immediately jumped into the car and started running away towards the mountains. I'm still hiding inside the car," Ishinomaki resident Chikako Iwai told Reuters.

"I have the radio on and they say the cars are still stuck in the traffic. I'm planning to stay here for the next couple of hours," Iwai said.

A 6.2-magnitude aftershock struck at about 3:31 a.m. ET, but no damage or injuries were immediately reported.

Kyodo News via AP

People crowd at Sendai railway station in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, on Friday after the 7.3-magnitude earthquake disrupted train services.

Devastating 2011 quake and tsunami
The magnitude-9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that slammed into northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011 devastated much of the coast.

All but two of Japan's nuclear plants were shut down for checks after the earthquake and tsunami caused meltdowns at the?Fukushima?nuclear plant in the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl disaster.?

Worker at tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant: Firm sent crews into danger

The government declared in December that the disaster was under control, but much of the area is still free of population.

Tokyo Electric Power, the operator of the Fukushima nuclear plant, reported no irregularities at its nuclear plants after Friday's quake.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda canceled campaigning in Tokyo ahead of a Dec. 16 election and was on his way back to his office, but there was no immediate plan to hold a special cabinet meeting.

NBC News' Arata Yamamoto, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

More world stories from NBC News:

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

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Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/07/15746579-small-tsunami-waves-hit-japan-after-73-magnitude-earthquake?lite

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PFT: Broncos crush Raiders, win 8th straight

ShermanAP

Next Friday, Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman will attempt to overturn his four-game suspension for violation of the league?s policy against performance-enhancing drugs.

Per a source with knowledge of the situation, Sherman has two separate arguments.

First, and as initially reported by Mike Garafolo of USA Today, Sherman claims that he drank from the water bottle of a teammate that had been spiked with Adderall.? The teammate has both a prescription and a therapeutic use exemption, allowing the teammate to ingest Adderall, which contains amphetamines.

Sherman has denied that account in text messages sent to Curtis Crabtree of KJR, who works part-time for PFT.? However, we?ve confirmed Garafolo?s account.

Second, Sherman believes there were flaws in the method of obtaining his urine for testing.

It?s unknown whether both arguments will actually be advanced at the hearing.? Given that the two contentions are somewhat inconsistent (i.e., ?I accidentally ingested it? and ?the testing methodology generated a false positive?), Sherman would be wise to pick a horse.

The problem is that both horses likely will lose.? As to the water-bottle excuse, it won?t matter.? Players are responsible for anything that is in their systems.? As to the attack on the collection process, the problem is that the procedures for pursuing appeals allow the NFL to refuse to provide most of the evidence that would help the player establish irregularities.

As the source explained, these cases are lost not in the hearing room; they were lost at the negotiating table.? Unless and until the league and the union agree to testing procedures that require the NFL to prove with a high degree of certainty the accuracy of the collection and testing of a sample that, if positive, will result in a suspension, players will be at risk of being wrongly suspended.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/12/06/broncos-cruise-to-victory-over-raiders/related

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What happens to plant growth when you remove gravity?

Dec. 7, 2012 ? It is well known that plant growth patterns are influenced by a variety of stimuli, gravity being one amongst many. On Earth plant roots exhibit characteristic behaviours called 'waving' and 'skewing', which were thought to be gravity-dependent events. However, Arabidopsis plants grown on the International Space Station (ISS) have proved this theory wrong, according to a study published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Plant Biology: root 'waving' and 'skewing' occur in spaceflight plants independently of gravity.

In plant roots, 'waving' consists of a series of regular, undulating changes in the direction of root tips during growth. It is thought to be associated with perception and avoidance of obstacles, and is dependent on gravity sensing and responsiveness. 'Skewing' is the slanted progression of roots growing along a near-vertical surface. It is thought to be a deviation of the roots from the direction of gravity and also subject to similar mechanisms that affect waving. Even though the precise basis of these growth patterns is not well understood, gravity is considered to be a major player in these processes.

To test what happens to plant root growth when you remove gravity entirely, a research team from the University of Florida, Gainesville, USA, grew two types of Arabidopsis thaliana cultivars -- Wassilewskija (WS) and Columbia (Col-0) -- on the ISS. The plants were grown in specialized growth units that combined a plant habitat with a camera system which captured images every six hours. Imaging hardware delivered the telemetric data in real-time from the ISS, and comparable ground controls were grown at the Kennedy Space Centre.

The phenomenon of negative-phototropism in plant roots is well documented, but its role in orienting root growth is still being explored. The authors found that, in the absence of gravity, but in the presence of directional light, spaceflight roots remained strongly negatively phototropic and grew in the opposite direction of the shoot growth, as they do back on Earth. The path taken by the roots as they grew also retained the complex patterns of waving and skewing, characteristic of Earth-grown, gravity-influenced, roots. Furthermore, while in orbit, each cultivar retained its unique terrestrial skewing pattern.

However, the team observed that the degree of waving exhibited by the plants in space did not match what would be predicted for roots showing an equivalent amount of skewing back on Earth. In space, waving was far more subtle. This result reinforces the idea that waving and skewing represent two separate phenomena, and that gravity is not a mechanistic part of the basic waving and skewing processes.

Lead authors Anna-Lisa Paul and Robert Ferl commented "Although plants use gravity as an orientating tropism on the Earth's surface, it is clear that gravity is neither essential for root orientation, nor is it the only factor influencing the patterns of root growth. It seems that other features of the environment are also required to ensure that a root grows away from the seed, thereby enhancing its chances of finding sufficient water and nutrients to ensure its survival."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BioMed Central Limited.

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


Journal Reference:

  1. Anna-Lisa Paul, Claire E. Amalfitano and Robert J. Ferl. Plant growth strategies are remodelled by spaceflight. BMC Plant Biology, (in press) 2012 [link]

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

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

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/_azd-HK8tlw/121206203148.htm

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