Hamas says it plans to join Abbas's PLO (Reuters)

GAZA (Reuters) ? Rival Palestinian factions took a significant step towards reconciliation on Thursday as the Islamist group Hamas said it planned to join Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

Abbas held a meeting in Cairo with leaders from the factions, including Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal, where a committee was formed to prepare for the inclusion of Hamas, as well as the smaller militant group Islamic Jihad, in the PLO.

There are still some serious obstacles that could prevent a final unity deal and attempts to reconcile in the past have failed.

Hamas and Abbas's Fatah faction have been rivals for years. In 2006, Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in a brief civil war, leaving Fatah dominant in the West Bank.

Hamas has refused to recognize Israel's right to exist or renounce violence, while the PLO has signed interim peace accords with the Jewish state. It was unclear how Hamas would be included in the PLO, given the discrepancy.

The committee will now prepare for an internal election of the PLO parliament in order to facilitate Hamas and the Islamic Jihad membership.

One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Hamas's Meshaal had told Abbas that his group was "in favor of peaceful resistance and a truce in Gaza and the West Bank at this stage."

The official offered no further explanation on what that might mean. Hamas has said in the past it would agree to a long-term truce with Israel, but remains sworn to its destruction.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Abbas's overtures to Hamas hurt the chances for peace and called on the international community not to grant the Islamist group legitimacy or recognition.

"Hamas is not a political organization that conducts terrorism. Hamas is a murderous, genocidal terrorist organization to the core," said spokesman Mark Regev.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; editing by Andrew Roche)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111222/wl_nm/us_palestinians_israel

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Merck gets approval for wider use of HIV drug (Reuters)

(Reuters) ? U.S. health regulators have approved an expanded label for Merck & Co's treatment for HIV for use with other antiretroviral drugs in children and adolescents.

The safety and effectiveness of the drug was evaluated in a clinical trial of 96 children and adolescents of ages 2-18 years with HIV-1 infection, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said in a statement.

The drug, Isentress, was first approved for use in adult patients in October 2007.

(Reporting by Shailesh Kuber in Bangalore; Editing by Don Sebastian)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/aids/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111221/hl_nm/us_merck

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House and Senate Republicans Are Now Openly Trashing Each Other (The Atlantic Wire)

The payroll tax debate in Congress is tearing asunder Reagan's Eleventh Commandment:?Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.

Related: The Remaining Sticking Points on a Payroll Tax Deal

In an unusual intra-party dispute, House Republicans rejected a bill supported by a majority of Senate Republicans to extend the payroll tax holiday for two months on Tuesday. Now that the votes are on the scoreboard, Republicans in both chambers are openly trashing each other's decision.?

Related: Obama Raises the Stakes on the Payroll Tax Impasse

"House Republicans? plan to scuttle the deal to help middle-class families is irresponsible and wrong," tweeted Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachussets.?"The refusal to compromise now threatens to increase taxes on hard-working Americans and stop unemployment benefits for those out of work," he elaborated in a remark to?The Hill.??Brown may have an excuse to trash-talk fellow Republicans, he faces a tough re-election bid against liberal hero Elizabeth Warren, but he wasn't the only one firing off barbs.?

Related: Government Shutdown Looms as Payroll Tax Talks Stall

Speaking out against Speaker Boehner, Republican Senator Dean Heller said the House's tactics were "about political leverage, not about what?s good for the American people. Congress can work out a solution without stopping the payroll tax-cut extension for the middle class,? reports?The Washington Post. On the House side, there were plenty of?searing?remarks.?

Related: Dems Cave on Millionaire Surtax

?I?ll be honest, I don?t know what the Senate was thinking,? said Republican Congressman Allen West of Florida on Tuesday. He called the deal brokered by fellow Republican and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell "crap." Laying on the criticism of McConnell, Republican Congressman Tom Latham of Iowa said "Mr. McConnell knew the position of our leadership was [we] wanted to do a year-long. I don?t know what happened.??

Related: Government Shutdown Averted

At the center of the disagreement is Boehner and McConnell but neither GOP leader is explaining how they wound up on opposite sides of the payroll tax debate. Most suspect Boehner failed to bring House Republicans onboard with the payroll tax deal after promising McConnell they would support it?but Boehner has said he supported a 1-year extension all along.?Roll Call?reports that House Republicans are actively trying to figure out what went wrong between Boehner and McConnell.?

"People didn?t quite understand how, when the Speaker left the meeting with Sen. McConnell and Sen. Reid, this abomination was what was sent back to us,? Republican Congressman Steven LaTourette tells the newspaper. He says Boehner seemed??befuddled. ... The question was asked directly of him. That question was asked, ?What?s the disconnect between you and Sen. McConnell?? And he said he doesn?t know.? When?Roll Call?asked him about the "now infamous high-five" celebrating the Senate deal, LaTourette said "It should have been a low-five." Follow Yahoo! News on , become a fan on Facebook

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111220/pl_atlantic/houseandsenaterepublicansarenowopenlytrashingeachother46464

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Egypt's 'Occupy Cabinet' Sit-In Has Turned into a Scary Riot (The Atlantic Wire)

Egypt's three-week long sit in against military rule, known as "Occupy Cabinet" is taking a terrifying turn as the ruling military junta has resorted to throwing rocks and using violence against this set of "Occupiers." Having seen the many different (including jokey) permutations of the Occupy Movement stateside, it's all a bit stark and shocking seeing those same symbols (the picture on the right is from graffiti on the "ministerial cabinet street..."), the same viral touchstones and that moniker translated (and co-opted) by Arab spring protesters who are now one part of a violent fight that transpired on Egyptian streets today. Today's violence comes as voting closed in the latest round of parliamentary elections. Egyptian news site Ahram online reports that the fight erupted early Friday morning and is still unfolding into what sounds like a full on riot .?"Men in plainclothes continues [sic] to throw rocks and glass from the Cabinet building on protesters down below in Qasr El-Aini Street", they report adding that:

Protesters have set a police kiosk by the Cabinet building on fire to disrupt the security forces attacking them from the roof. The dense plumes of smoke forced the assailants to retreat briefly. However, now that smoke has begun to fade, they are back in plain view throwing stones and other projectiles at the protesters in Qasr El-Aini Street.

And not unlike the viral videos that accompanied the Occupy Movement in the U.S. of pepper spray cops and injured protesters, viral evidence of the violence have begun to pop up under the injuries (warning: graphic), and people praying despite the falling bricks are being passed around, as well as video (below) of ?"Army Throwing Rocks At Protesters in Qasr Al Ainy". ?

Related: Estimated Bill for the Arab Spring: $55 Billion

Related: Obama to the British Parliament: 'We Will Not Relent'

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Related: 5,000 Soldiers Will Protect Mubarak on His Way to Court

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/africa/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/atlantic/20111216/wl_atlantic/egyptsoccupycabinetsithasturnedscaryriot46313

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APNewsBreak: Feds say Arpaio violated civil rights

FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - In a Monday, Dec. 5, 2011 file photo, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio discusses the latest in the document release on his office's handling of many sexual assault cases over the years in El Mirage, Ariz., during a news conference, in Phoenix. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

FILE - In a Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011 file photo, protesters hold up signs calling for the removal or resignation of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, during a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, in Phoenix. Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2011. Federal authorities plan to announce their findings Thursday, Dec. 15, 2011 in a civil rights investigation of Arpaio, who has been accused of using discriminatory tactics in its signature immigration patrols.(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

PHOENIX (AP) ? The federal government issued a scathing report Thursday that outlines how Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office has committed a wide range of civil rights violations against Latinos, including a pattern of racial profiling and discrimination and carrying out heavy-handed immigration patrols based on racially charged citizen complaints.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its release, is a result of the U.S. Justice Department's three-year investigation of Arpaio's office amid complaints of racial profiling and a culture of bias at the agency's top level.

The Justice Department's conclusions in the civil probe mark the federal government's harshest rebuke of a national political fixture who has risen to prominence for his immigration crackdowns and became coveted endorsement among candidates in the GOP presidential field.

Apart from the civil rights probe, a federal grand jury also has been investigating Arpaio's office on criminal abuse-of-power allegations since at least December 2009 and is specifically examining the investigative work of the sheriff's anti-public corruption squad.

The civil rights report said federal authorities will continue to investigate complaints of deputies using excessive force against Latinos, whether the sheriff's office failed to provide adequately police services in Hispanic communities and a large number of sex-crimes cases that were assigned to the agency but weren't followed up on or investigated at all.

The report took the sheriff's office to task for launching immigration patrols, known as "sweeps," based on complaints that Latinos were merely gathering near a business without committing crimes. Federal authorities single out Arpaio himself and said his office, known as MCSO, has no clear policies to guard against the violations, even after he changed some of his top aides earlier this year.

"Arpaio's own actions have helped nurture MCSO's culture of bias," wrote Thomas Perez, who heads the Justice Department's civil rights division, adding that the sheriff frequently gave such racially charged letters to some of his top aides and saved them in his own files.

"MCSO is broken in a number of critical respects. The problems are deeply rooted in MCSO's culture," he said Thursday.

The Justice Department's expert on measuring racial profiling said it's the most egregious case of racial profiling in the nation that he has seen or reviewed in professional literature, Perez said.

Investigators interviewed more than 400 people, including Arpaio, reviewed thousands of documents and toured county jails as part of its probe, he said.

If the sheriff's office doesn't turn around its policies and practices, the federal government could pull millions of dollars of federal funding.

Arpaio's office did not immediately respond to AP requests for comment.

The report will require Arpaio to set up effective policies against discrimination, improve training and make other changes that would be monitored for compliance by a judge. Arpaio faces a Jan. 4 deadline for saying whether he wants to work out an agreement. If not, the federal government will sue him and let a judge decide the complaint.

Arpaio, the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America, has long denied the racial profiling allegation, saying people are stopped if deputies have probable cause to believe they have committed crimes and that deputies later find many of them are illegal immigrants.

Arpaio has built his reputation on jailing inmates in tents and dressing them in pink underwear, selling himself to voters as unceasingly tough on crime and pushing the bounds of how far local police can go to confront illegal immigration.

The report also said he and some top staffers tried to silence people who have spoken out against the sheriff's office by arresting people without cause, filing meritless lawsuits against opponents and starting investigations of critics.

One example cited by the Justice Department is former top Arpaio aide David Hendershott, who filed bar complaints against attorneys critical of the agency along with bringing judicial complaints against judges who were at odds with the sheriff. All complaints were dismissed.

The anti-corruption squad's cases against two county officials and a judge collapsed in court before going to trial and have been criticized by politicians at odds with the sheriff as trumped up. Arpaio has defended the investigations as a valid attempt at rooting out corruption in county government.

The civil rights report said Latinos are four to nine times more likely to be stopped in traffic stops in Maricopa County than non-Latinos and that the agency's immigration policies treat Latinos as if they are all in the country illegally. Deputies on the immigrant-smuggling squad stop and arrest Latino drivers without good cause, the investigation found.

A review done as part of the investigation found that 20 percent of traffic reports handled by Arpaio's immigrant-smuggling squad from March 2006 to March 2009 were stops ? almost all involving Latino drivers ? that were done without reasonable suspicion. The squad's stops rarely led to smuggling arrests.

Deputies are encouraged to make high-volume traffic stops in targeted locations. There were Latinos who were in the U.S. legally who were arrested or detained without cause during the sweeps, according to the report.

During the sweeps, deputies flood an area of a city ? in some cases, heavily Latino areas ? over several days to seek out traffic violators and arrest other offenders. Illegal immigrants accounted for 57 percent of the 1,500 people arrested in the 20 sweeps conducted by his office since January 2008, according to figures provided by Arpaio's office.

Police supervisors, including at least one smuggling-squad supervisor, often used county accounts to send emails that demeaned Latinos to fellow sheriff's managers, deputies and volunteers in the sheriff's posse. One such email had a photo of a mock driver's license for a fictional state called "Mexifornia."

The report said that the sheriff's office launched an immigration operation two weeks after the sheriff received a letter in August 2009 letter about a person's dismay over employees of a McDonald's in the Phoenix suburb of Sun City who didn't speak English. The tip laid out no criminal allegations. The sheriff wrote back to thank the writer "for the info," said he would look into it and forwarded it to a top aide with a note of "for our operation."

Federal investigators focused heavily on the language barriers in Arpaio's jails.

Latino inmates with limited English skills were punished for failing to understand commands in English by being put in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day or keeping prisoners locked down in their jail pods for as long as 72 hours without a trip to the canteen area or making nonlegal phone calls.

The report said some jail officers used racial slurs for Latinos when talking among themselves and speaking to inmates.

Detention officers refused to accept forms requesting basic daily services and reporting mistreatment when the documents were completed in Spanish and pressured Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms that implicate their legal rights without language assistance.

The agency pressures Latinos with limited English skills to sign forms by yelling at them and keeping them in uncomfortably cold cells for long periods of time.

The Justice Department said it hadn't yet established a pattern of alleged wrongdoing by the sheriff's office in the three areas where they will continue to investigation: complaints of excessive force against Latinos, botched sex-crimes cases and immigration efforts that have hurt the agency's trust with the Hispanic community.

Federal authorities will continue to investigate whether the sheriff's office has limited the willingness of witnesses and victims to report crimes or talk to Arpaio's office.

"MCSO has done almost nothing to build such a relationship with Mariciopa County's Latino residents," Perez wrote.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-15-Arizona%20Sheriff-Civil%20Rights/id-4a302653340e4e269407ba63740c1dfa

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FOR KIDS: Eastern quakes can trigger big shakes

Scientists study the widespread impacts of tremors east of the Rockies

Web edition : Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

The most dangerous type of natural disaster, and also the most unpredictable, is the earthquake.?In the first week of November 2011, people in central Oklahoma experienced more than two dozen earthquakes. The largest, a magnitude 5.6 quake, shook thousands of fans in a college football stadium, caused cracks in a few buildings and rattled the nerves of many people who had never felt a quake before. Oklahoma is not an area of the country famous for its quakes.

Although less expected than quakes in California and Alaska, these ?mid-plate? tremors can do substantial damage. Some of the biggest known examples, centered over Missouri,?rattled the eastern half of the United States two centuries ago. Today, scientists are still puzzling over what triggered past quakes in these places?? and when similar ones might strike again.

Visit the new?Science News for Kids?website?and read the full story:?Eastern quakes can trigger big shakes


Found in: Science News For Kids

Source: http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/336842/title/FOR_KIDS_Eastern_quakes_can_trigger_big_shakes

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Increasing atmospheric concentrations of new flame retardants found

ScienceDaily (Dec. 14, 2011) ? Compounds used in new flame-retardant products are showing up in the environment at increasing concentrations, according to a recent study by researchers at Indiana University Bloomington.

The study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, reports on concentrations of two compounds measured in atmospheric samples collected in the Great Lakes region between 2008 and 2010. Authors are doctoral student Yuning Ma, Assistant Research Scientist Marta Venier and Distinguished Professor Ronald A. Hites, all of the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

The chemicals -- 2-ethylhexyl tetrabromobenzoate, also known as TBB; and bis(2-ethylhexyl) tetrabromophthalate, or TBPH -- are used to reduce flammability in such products as electronic devices, textiles, plastics, coatings and polyurethane foams.

They are included in commercial mixtures that were introduced in recent years to replace polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs), widely used flame retardants that have been or are being removed from the market because of their tendency to leak from products into the environment.

"We find that the environmental concentrations of these compounds are increasing rather rapidly," Hites said. "It's rare to find that concentrations of any compound are doubling within a year or two, which is what we're seeing with TBB and TBPH."

The researchers measured concentrations of TBB and TBPH in 507 air samples collected at six locations on the shores of the Great Lakes. The samples were collected by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, a joint U.S.-Canada project, conducted by IU researchers, to monitor airborne toxic chemicals that are deposited in the Great Lakes.

The results constitute the first self-consistent data set that shows environmental concentrations of TBB and TBPH increasing relatively rapidly. Previous studies have found the compounds in sewage sludge in California, marine mammals in Hong Kong and household dust and furniture foam in the U.S.

As would be expected, the IU researchers found the largest concentrations of TBB and TBPH in atmospheric samples collected in urban areas: Chicago and, especially, Cleveland. But the compounds were also detected in about half the samples from remote sites at Sleeping Bear Dunes and Eagle Harbor in Michigan and Point Petre in Ontario, Canada. They also were detected at rural Sturgeon Point, N.Y.

TBPH was detected more frequently and in higher concentrations than TBB. The concentrations are similar to those reported previously by Hites and Venier for PBDEs at the Great Lakes sites, suggesting the newer-generation flame retardants may be replacing their predecessors in the environment.

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

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Journal Reference:

  1. Yuning Ma, Marta Venier, Ronald A. Hites. 2-Ethylhexyl Tetrabromobenzoate and Bis(2-ethylhexyl) Tetrabromophthalate Flame Retardants in the Great Lakes Atmosphere. Environmental Science & Technology, 2011; : 111130152710007 DOI: 10.1021/es203251f

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://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111214094843.htm

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