Young Somali pirates offered amnesty

Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP file

Masked pirate Hassan stands near a Taiwanese fishing vessel that washed up on shore near Hobyo, Somalia, after pirates were paid a ransom and released the crew in September 2012.

By Ian Johnston, Staff Writer, NBC News

Somalia?s president has offered an amnesty to young pirates amid a "drastic" fall in the number of attacks off East Africa.

In an interview with the AFP news agency Wednesday, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said that he wanted to offer an "alternative means of earning a living" to young Somalis caught up in the lucrative business of hijacking ships and yachts, then ransoming the passengers and crew.

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"We have been negotiating with the pirates indirectly through the elders," Mohamud said. "Piracy has to end."

But he stressed the amnesty offer did not apply to senior pirates. ?We are not giving them amnesty, the amnesty is for the boys,? he said

Captain Pottengal Mukundan, director of the International Maritime Bureau, which monitors piracy, said Thursday that there had been a "very drastic decrease" in the number of attacks of East Africa.

He said there had been just two attacks in the area so far this year, compared to 30 in January and February last year, a trend he described as "very, very positive."

The two recent attacks were unsuccessful and suspects in both incidents were later apprehended by international naval forces that patrol the seas off the Horn of Africa.

However, Mukundan stressed that "we cannot become complacent."

"There?s still a very high possibility that, if the guard is let down, attacks will happen," he said.

'Alternative jobs'
He said the naval presence in the area was one of the main reasons behind the drop in attacks.

Mukundan said pirates known to be guilty of attacks should be prosecuted, but added that an amnesty had worked well when it was tried in Nigeria in 2010.

"A number of militants who also doubled up as pirates and robbers did law down their weapons and look for alternative jobs," he said.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney?s Office said in a statement that five Somali men had been found guilty of "engaging in piracy and committing other offenses" in an attack on the USS Ashland on April 10, 2010.

According to their defense, the men were returning home in a skiff after taking refugees from Somalia to Yemen. The lawyers said they needed help and an AK-47 was fired toward Ashland to get its attention. Ashland returned fire, killing one and setting the skiff on fire.

"These men were pirates ? plain and simple," U.S. Attorney Neil H. MacBride said in the statement. "They attacked a ship hoping to hold it ransom for millions of dollars. Few crimes are older than piracy on the high seas, and today?s verdict shows that the United States takes it very seriously."

George Venizelos, assistant director in charge of the FBI?s New York Field Office, said the five men were "headed where they belong: to federal prison."

"Let this send a clear message of deterrence to anyone who threatens those who traverse the high seas," he said.

The five, who face life in prison, are due to be sentenced in July.

Related:

Somali pirate kingpin says he's giving up hijacking; UN skeptical

World sea piracy falls to lowest level since 2008

Hostages freed by Somali pirates after nearly 3 years in captivity

Source: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17132316-young-somali-pirates-offered-amnesty-amid-drastic-fall-in-attacks?lite

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House Passes Violence Against Women Act - On to President's Desk

The House voted today to pass a Senate-approved version of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act today, sending the bill to President Obama for his signature. An earlier vote on a controversial Republican version of the legislation was voted down.

"The Violence Against Women Act has long ensured that no woman would ever be forced to suffer in silence in the face of domestic violence and abuse," House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., wrote in a statement after the vote. "Today, a bipartisan majority of the House joined the Senate in reaffirming our pledge to America's women and families, strengthening this landmark law, extending protection to LGBT Americans, Native Americans, and immigrants, and preserving the security of all women."

"Today is truly a victory for women everywhere," Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), one of the chief backers of the bill, added.

S. 47 passed without amendment 286-138. Although 87 GOP lawmakers supported the vote, all of the opposition also came from Republicans.

Although it's another major piece of legislation that passed through the Republican-controlled House with a majority of Democratic votes, freshmen Rep. Joaquin Castro said the vote "reaffirms" Congress's commitment to "uphold the safety and well-being of our constituents above politics."

"Domestic violence is an issue that, sadly, affects all of our communities," Castro, D-Texas, wrote in a statement after the bill passed. "It is our duty to protect the victims of domestic violence and work to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice."

The bill was supported by Republicans like House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, Conference chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Budget chairman and former Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan, and Senate hopeful Rep. Shelley Moore Capito.

"While I am disappointed a stronger version of the Violence Against Women Act did not pass, I am proud that such important legislation was reauthorized today with bipartisan support," McMorris Rodgers, the top-ranked Republican woman in Congress, wrote in a statement. "Republicans remain committed to protecting all women against acts of domestic violence, and today we must remember why this bill first passed almost 20 years ago. Protecting women was our first priority then, and it must be our first priority now."

Majority Leader Eric Cantor, who joined McMorris Rodgers as one of the primary proponents behind the House GOP bill, was the most prominent Republican to oppose the Senate version of the bill. House Speaker John Boehner did not cast a vote, as is customary for the Speaker of the House.

Both chambers of Congress passed separate versions of the act in the last Congress, although those efforts expired with the end of the 112 th Congress.

"Every single day in America three women die at the hands of domestic violence. Yet this Congress allowed the Violence Against Women Act to expire more than 500 days ago," Democratic Caucus chairman Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., said on the House floor shortly before the vote. "The failure or reluctance of this House to do its work for the American people seems to have now become business as usual. This should not be the new normal."

"Over more than two decades, this law has saved countless lives and transformed the way we treat victims of abuse," President Obama wrote in a statement after the vote. "Renewing this bill is an important step towards making sure no one in America is forced to live in fear, and I look forward to signing it into law as soon as it hits my desk."

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/house-passes-violence-against-women-act-presidents-desk-191206178--abc-news-politics.html

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Ohio students commemorate slain classmates

CHARDON, Ohio (AP) ? One day after a teen gunman pleaded guilty in the deadly school shooting in northeast Ohio, students marked its one-year anniversary Wednesday with hugs, supportive messages and a somber march through town.

The march by Chardon High School students, walking arm-in-arm in the damp cold from the school to the town square, was an emotional highlight during the day's commemoration.

Photos of the three slain students were displayed, onlookers applauded marchers and firefighters hung a large American flag from an aerial ladder.

The march ended at the courthouse where the shooter, T.J. Lane, 18, had pleaded guilty Tuesday to all charges. Lane could face life in prison at his sentencing March 19.

The observance honored Daniel Parmertor and Demetrius Hewlin, both 16, and Russell King Jr., 17, who were killed in the Feb. 27, 2012, rampage. Three others were injured.

Students arriving for classes passed an outdoor school sign with the names of the victims and the message: "2-27 A Day of Remembrance." Across the street, a heart-shaped sign in the school colors of red and black had the message: "One Heartbeat."

The slain students' relatives on Wednesday sued Lane and his family, seeking damages and alleging negligent supervision by his parents and grandparents. Attorneys who filed the case said the families want to ensure Lane never profits from his crimes.

"Hopefully this lawsuit will help answer a lot of questions that still remain and help bring closure for the families and the community," attorneys Peter Marmaros and W. Craig Bashein said.

In Columbus, the Ohio House observed a moment of silence. Rep. John Patterson, who represents Chardon, said he planned to introduce a bill to designate highways in the names of the three victims.

Patterson told his colleagues that they couldn't control tragedies or fully prevent them. And the Jefferson Democrat encouraged parents to tell their children they love them.

The anniversary of the student deaths marks another year of mass shootings around the country ? 12 people gunned down at a Colorado movie theater; six killed at a Sikh Temple in Wisconsin; and 26 Connecticut first-graders and educators slain in Newtown during the Christmas season.

The march in Chardon rekindled memories of the walk taken along the same route by grieving students as they returned to classes three days after the shooting.

A senior student leader, Jessica Mysyk, said the past year has been a time of emotional healing.

"It was hard to even imagine setting foot back into the building where such a tragedy occurred," she told classmates gathered in the square.

Another senior leader, Will Porter, said nothing satisfactorily explains the violent attack.

"There are no explanations I can give that can help any of us understand," he said.

The day's activities in Chardon highlighted the anniversary but served to keep students busy with projects including writing messages of support, artwork, memorial wreaths and making security blankets for future victims of tragedies.

Rachel Loder, 16, who was a sophomore at the time of the Chardon shootings, received such a security blanket and cried and embraced it at difficult times during the past year, her father George Loder said.

"There have been many tears throughout the year," he said.

Loder said his daughter and her classmates have reciprocated by meeting weekly to make blankets, including more than 150 delivered to Newtown.

Counselors and therapists and about a dozen students from Virginia Tech, where a 2007 massacre left the gunman and 32 students and faculty dead, were available throughout the day to meet with students, Chardon principal Andy Fetchik said.

The Virginia Tech students have visited Chardon more than a half dozen times over the past year to promote healing, said Fetchik, wearing a lapel ribbon in the school's red and black colors.

"That's what our kids have been trying to do as they work with that group, is to send that message that one small act of kindness can go a long way," Fetchik said.

Prosecutors say Lane took a .22-caliber pistol and a knife to the school and fired 10 shots at students in the high school cafeteria. Lane was there waiting for a bus to an alternative school he attended.

Lane pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated murder, two counts of attempted aggravated murder and one count of felonious assault. Charged as an adult, Lane cannot get the death penalty because he was 17 at the time of the crimes.

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Associated Press writers Ann Sanner and Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this story.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-students-commemorate-classmates-slain-teen-185926606.html

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Evernote for iOS updated with new PDF viewer and Snippets for iPad

Earlier today, Evernote pulled the trigger on version 5.2 of its iOS application. The newfangled software introduces an updated PDF viewer that adds multi-page viewing, screen rotation lock, two-page display within landscape mode and the ability to search text inside a file. Other new app features include plain text note formatting and offline Notebook support for business accounts. iPad users now have access to Snippets list viewing, Business Notebook syncing and the ability to download third-party Trunk software from within the app. If your device is running iOS 5.0 or later and you'd like to sample this smorgasbord of new features, head on over to the App Store or visit the source link below.

Filed under: Software, Mobile

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Source: iTunes, The Evernote Blog

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/28/evernote-ios-updated-pdf-viewer-snippets/

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Can Red Bulls finally run the table?

Each day from now until the beginning of Major League Soccer?s 18th season, we will preview one Eastern Conference team and one from the West. First kick is March 2.

No. 3 in the East is the New York Red Bulls:

Significant additions and subtractions: In a trade with Real Salt Lake the Red Bulls got a reliable, hard-working scorer in Fabian Espindola and one of the league?s elite center backs in Jamison Olave. The club also added Brazilian veteran Juninho to boost the attack. (There are lots of Brazilian Juninhos out there; this is the Red Bulls? Juninho.)

The most newsworthy change is Rafa Marquez?s departure; if anything goes wrong this year, we can no longer blame the former Mexican international. (And that was typically the first stop along the blame train.)

Also moving out of Red Bull Arena is Sebastian Le Toux, who is back in the venue of his best success, Philadelphia. And Kenny Cooper was traded to Dallas, taking his team-leading 18 goals with him. The team also purged a few mid- to high-salaried veterans, like Jan Gunnar Solli and Teemu Tainio.

Strengths: No MLS roster looks more promising; back to front the Red Bulls have talent and options. Guiding them is now Mike Petke?s job, and the players seem to have connected with the longtime club figure ? Petke was a former Red Bulls player and then assistant coach ? in a way they never did with Hans Backe, who was fired last fall after three seasons in charge.

Petke hopes to get the best of his talented collection of attackers through a loosely structured attack, where interchange is encouraged in what he says will sometimes look like a 4-4-2, other times a 4-1-3-2, a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3.

Goalkeeper Ryan Meara, moving toward a possible Rookie of the Year honor last year before a late summer injury, and Luis Robles give Petke two terrific choices in goal. And speaking of choices, Heath Pearce is in the league?s top half of center backs, but probably top five in left backs. That kind of flexibility can only help as Petke builds the match-day lineups.

The central midfield will involve some ordering of Dax McCarty (rewarded with a new contract for that fantastic 2012 campaign), longtime EPL veteran Tim Cahill, Juninho and Thierry Henry.

Pressure points: The club has never won a major trophy, a fairly noticeable black eye for the team representing Major League Soccer?s largest media market. As ?pressure points? go, that?s a pretty substantial one, and an ongoing issue around Red Bull Arena. No one is more aware than Petke, a fan favorite in his playing days and the club?s all-time leader in appearance with 169 in league matches.

The trick with Olave is keeping him healthy enough that he justifies that relatively high salary for an MLS center back; Olave has averaged about 24 starts over the last five years, and he never quite looked the same after a hamstring injury last summer.

Henry has plenty of talent around him to provide some relief here and there, and he?ll certainly need it. (Plus, Henry doesn?t like playing on artificial turf.)

Difference maker: Henry turns 36 in August, but he still looks up for the job. The former French international (and league?s highest-paid player) supplied 15 goals and 12 assists last year, which are league MVP-worthy numbers. Plus, he never seemed to click between the white lines with Cooper, so the on-field chemistry with fellow attackers will presumably improve in 2013.

We can be 100 percent sure that Henry can still manufacture some very special moments; some of his goals over the last two years have been absolute beauties.

Potential breakout player: The club has three starting-quality left backs in Pearce, Roy Miller and Conor Lade. So we?ll see how much Lade can get on the field. ?Sooner or later, the talented, hard-working left back will get the chance to show why a player like Henry spent so much time talking him up last year.

Bottom line: There is a lot of pressure on Petke, 37, to find his feet quickly in this, his first professional head coaching assignment. Assuming he keeps the Red Bulls bus properly in lane, there is zero reason to believe they cannot challenge for the Eastern Conference crown. The roster is well-constructed throughout and blessed with difference makers at the top, even if a couple of them tend?to be on the brittle side.

(MORE: full roster of ProSoccerTalk?s Major League Soccer previews and predictions)

Source: http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2013/02/27/major-league-soccer-team-previews-new-york-red-bulls/related/

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Noah's triple-double too much for 76ers

CHICAGO (AP) ? Joakim Noah had 23 points, 21 rebounds and a career-high 11 blocks for his third career triple-double and the Chicago Bulls ended a two-game losing streak with a 93-82 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday.

Carlos Boozer added 21 points and 12 rebounds while Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng had 15 and 12 points, respectively, as the Bulls completed a three-game regular season series sweep.

Noah tied the Bulls record for blocks in a regulation game, previously set by Artis Gilmore in 1977.

Jrue Holiday paced the Sixers with 22 points, Spencer Hawes added 20 points and 15 rebounds while Evan Turner had 12 points.

The loss was Philadelphia's season-high seventh in a row.

The Sixers rallied from a 16-point third-quarter deficit to get within four points at 75-71 on Hawes' dunk.

But Nate Robinson hit a jumper and added a 3-pointer following a Noah block ? his ninth of the game ? to push Chicago's lead to 80-71.

Noah added a 3-point play with 4:32 to play to restore a double-digit lead at 83-71. Philadelphia never got closer than seven points the rest of the way.

Boozer opened with eight points and Deng added six as Chicago had a 19-16 first-quarter lead less than nine minutes into the game.

Boozer and Turner each had 10 as the Bulls led 23-22 by the close of the quarter.

Early in the second quarter, Chicago's Noah had back-to-back inside scores, hit a free throw and forced a turnover in a 55-second span as the Bulls went ahead 30-26.

Hinrich fired a perfect pass to Deng late in the quarter and the Bulls forward converted a 3-point play with 3.4 seconds left as the Bulls opened a 45-39 halftime lead.

Holiday had seven points in the quarter and closed the half with a game-high 13 points.

Hinrich scored his first points of the game early in the third quarter with a pair of jumpers as the Bulls maintained an eight-point lead. Chicago opened an 11-point lead as Noah's 3-point play that gave the Bulls a 53-42 lead.

The Bulls missed eight straight 3-point tries before Hinrich's long-distance shot gave them a 64-48 lead.

The Sixers found their shooting touch and trimmed the deficit to 68-62 on two Hawes' free throws with 50 seconds left.

NOTES: Bulls star Derrick Rose still hasn't said when he'll come back and Philadelphia coach Doug Collins said Chicago was proceeding correctly with Rose's slow return. "The Chicago Bulls have a tremendous investment in Derrick Rose, you want to make sure this young guy is going to be ready to go. ... With both teams struggling recently, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said it was important to maintain continuity even if there's a temptation to shake things up. "I think the preparation part is very, very important," he said. I don't think you can allow that to slip at all." ... Chicago guard Kirk Hinrich made his second straight appearance since missing three games with a right elbow injury. ... Bulls guard Richard Hamilton sat out Thursday's game with back spasms and Marco Belinelli started in his place.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/noahs-triple-double-too-much-76ers-035858162--spt.html

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NHL drafts the wrong players due to birthday bias

Feb. 27, 2013 ? A hockey player's birthday strongly biases how professional teams assess his talent, according to a new study by Grand Valley State University researchers. The findings were published in the online journal PLOS ONE.

The research, led by Robert Deaner, associate professor of psychology at Grand Valley, shows that, on average, National Hockey League (NHL) draftees born between July and December are much more likely than those born in the first three months of the year to have successful careers. In particular, 34 percent of draftees were born in the last six months of the year, but these individuals played 42 percent of the games and scored 44 percent of the points accumulated by those in the study. By contrast, those born in the first three months of the year constituted 36 percent of draftees but only played 28 percent of the games and only scored 25 percent of the points.

The study focused on Canadian players because in Canadian youth ice hockey there is a January 1 cut-off date. This means players born later in the year would have been consistently younger than their age group peers.

"There's no doubt that drafting professional athletes is an inexact science," said Deaner. "Plenty of sure-fire first-round picks fizzle while some late-round picks unexpectedly become stars. But our results show that, at least since 1980, NHL teams have been consistently fooled by players' birthdays or something associated with them. They greatly underestimate the promise of players born in the second half of the year, the ones who have always been relatively younger than their peers. For any given draft slot, relatively younger players are about twice as likely to be successful. So if teams really wanted to win, they should have drafted more of the relatively younger players."

Background and Significance

Previous studies have demonstrated relative age effects (RAEs), which occur when those who are relatively older for their age group are more likely to succeed. For example, in elite Canadian youth ice hockey, roughly 40 percent of players are born in the first three months of the year while only 15 percent are born in the last three months. Although RAEs are well established in many sports and educational settings, their underlying causes remain unclear. The new study provides the most direct evidence yet that selection bias is a crucial cause of RAEs. Selection bias means that evaluators, such as teachers and coaches, grant fewer opportunities to relatively younger individuals than is warranted by their talent.

"There are many possible causes of RAEs," said Deaner. "For instance, a youth coach may mainly select relatively older players because those players' greater size means they are actually more likely to help the team. Researchers believe, however, that selection bias is also a big cause of RAEs, but there has never been a direct test of selection bias. We could make this test because we had a good measure of perceived talent, the order or slot in which each player was drafted. And we had good measures of realized talent, how long they were able to stay in the NHL and how many points they scored there. Because relatively younger players consistently performed better than would be expected based on their draft slots, we've shown selection bias."

The researchers admit that they don't fully understand the selection bias they discovered. "We don't know yet why the evaluations of NHL teams are biased, but there are several ways it could work. Because being many months older than one's peers can be a big advantage as a child or early teen, the relatively older players might be more likely to be on the most elite junior teams when they are 17 or 18, and scouts might be swayed by that," said Deaner. "Another possibility, suggested by educational studies, is an 'underdog' effect. This would involve relatively younger individuals developing better work habits so that they improve more in adulthood."

The authors believe their pro hockey results have implications for education. Deaner noted: "We have to be careful about assuming too much because a teacher deciding which children should be tracked into advanced classes is a much different situation than hockey teams assessing which adults are likely to develop into NHL stars. But, for many reasons, one would think that NHL teams should be less biased than educators. First, NHL teams are evaluating adults not children, meaning that relative age differences are proportionally smaller. Second, NHL teams are aware of RAEs, but educators may not be. Third, NHL teams have vast resources to evaluate individuals while educators do not. Fourth, NHL teams pay a steep price for poor evaluation whereas educators may not. So overall, in many situations, evaluations of ability may be greatly colored by an individual's relative age. This may even happen when the teachers and coaches know about RAEs."

Co-authors of the study were Aaron Lowen of Grand Valley State University and Steven Cobley of the University of Sydney.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Grand Valley State University.

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

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Journal Reference:

1. Robert O. Deaner, Aaron Lowen, Stephen Cobley. Born at the Wrong Time: Selection Bias in the NHL Draft. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (2): e57753 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0057753

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

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/aiKTLbZhmbM/130227183506.htm

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