Free Map Of Iraq goings on

Source: Examiner.com ()

LOS ANGELES
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Kobe Bryant asked to be traded last spring in part because he wanted to play for a team that could contend for a championship. He just might have gotten his wish by staying put.

Bryant scored 26 of his 38 points in the second half, Andrew Bynum had a career-high 28 points to go with 12 rebounds and a season-high four assists, and the Lakers beat the Phoenix Suns 122-115 on Tuesday for their ninth win in 11 games.

The victory lifted the Lakers (18-10) to a season-high eight games over .500 and within one game of the Pacific Division-leading Suns (19-9), who lost for the fifth time in eight games.

Bryant, who complained about a lack of talent around him, has gotten plenty of help recently, especially from the 20-year-old Bynum, who shot 11-of-13 in outplaying Phoenix center Amare Stoudemire.

Bynum left to a roar of approval from the Staples Center crowd of 18,997 and a hand-slap from Bryant with 11.5 seconds to play.

Derek Fisher added 19 points, Lamar Odom had 15 points and 14 rebounds, and Trevor Ariza scored 14 points in his first start since being acquired from Orlando last month.

Steve Nash led the Suns with 24 points and 14 assists. Six of his teammates scored in double figures including Stoudemire, who had 19 points but only six rebounds, Shawn Marion, who had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Raja Bell, who also scored 15, and Grant Hill, who added 14.

The game was the first between the teams since the Lakers stunned the Suns 119-98 in Phoenix on Nov. 2. Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson angered Phoenix coach Mike D’Antoni when he called a timeout right after the Suns called one, with 4:55 to play and the outcome already decided.

Jackson said after that game that he was just getting a mandatory timeout out of the way.

“It’s not a big deal,” D’Antoni said before this game, citing his poor play as the main reason for his short fuse.

“That’s the whole crux of it,” D’Antoni …

Source: Hillsboro Argus - OregonLive.com ()

Oregon State University Extension Services of Washington
County was recently recognized as one of five Oregon 2007
Summer Sunshine awards from the US Department of Agriculture
in recognition of outstanding work to help children get
meals through the Summer Food Service Program.

The extension’s “Start Smart” program
integrated nutrition education and activities into its
summer lunch programs. The nutrition information and
activities were delivered by teams of youth interns.

Annie Kirschner from the Oregon Hunger Relief Task Force
said the extension has “really championed feeding
children in their communities and worked tirelessly, some on
a volunteer basis, to serve as many children as
possible.”

More than 40 percent of Oregon students qualify for free or
reduced price meals at school cafeterias across the state.
Many families rely on schools to make sure their children
get enough to eat each day.

However, many of those same children are left with few
options during the long summer break. The Summer Food
Service Program is a federally reimbursed program which
helps community organizations feed children for free in
low-income areas. Fewer than 25 percent of eligible children
are being served in Oregon, but the state has seen the
number of meals increase by 43 percent in the past four
years.

Nominees for the awards were evaluated on how innovative
their programs were and how they were cost effective,
sustainable and transferable.

Other Oregon winners included Our Savior’s Lutheran
Church in Seaside, the Multnomah County Commission on
Children, Families & Community, the Tillamook County
Commission on Children and Families and Patti Jobe, food
service supervisor at Jefferson County School District.

For more on how to involved, contact the Oregon
Department of Education at 503-947-5911. A map of summer
food sites is online at www.summerfoodOregon.org.

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NEW YORK
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To prepare for a prolonged writers strike, television networks have stockpiled a gladiator battle, a lie-detector game, a remade “Password,” a celebrity “Apprentice” and a competition for aspiring Pussycat Dolls.

Among the new shows to roll out in prime-time this winter, what’s the one programming genre the broadcasters are virtually ignoring?

The news.

With the exception of CBS ordering a few more “48 Hours: Mysteries” true crime yarns, the networks haven’t looked to their news divisions to fill holes expected when viewers’ favorite dramas and comedies are on hiatus.

Even a vital, true-life reality show can’t break through. The most wide-open presidential nominating contests since before television was invented will reach voters in January. At this point, the networks plan only to insert a minute or two of Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary results between commercials during prime-time.

“It’s not surprising that you’re not seeing news filling the gap caused by the writers’ strike,” said Robert Lichter, president of the Center for Media and Public Affairs. “More and more, the networks are only about whatever sells. They used to genuflect in the direction of the public interest. Now they only bow down before money.”

The programming plans are also a reflection of how much the business has changed in the decade since “Dateline NBC” was on that network’s schedule five nights a week, even when the writers were working.

That’s not to say prime-time will be empty of news programming in the coming weeks. ABC News will air back-to-back debates of Republican and Democratic presidential candidates on Saturday, Jan. 5, following the Iowa caucuses.

“Dateline NBC” will reappear on Sundays after the football season. The newsmagazine will also show the latest edition of its “To Catch a Predator” series, boiled to an hour and buried on the Friday night between Christmas and New Year’s. Once these …

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WASHINGTON
(Map, News)
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The CIA on Saturday rebutted suggestions the spy agency was uncooperative and hid from the Sept. 11 commission the videotaped interrogations of two suspected terrorists, saying it waited until the panel went out of business before destroying the material now in question.

The destruction in late 2005 of the videotapes of two al-Qaida suspects has upset a federal judge and riled the Democratic-controlled Congress, which has promised an investigation. The Justice Department also is trying to find out what happened and whether any laws were broken.

A recent memo by Philip Zelikow, the former executive director of the Sept. 11 commission, suggests the CIA was less than forthcoming when asked for documents and other information from the panel, which investigated the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA disputed that characterization and suggested the panel should have requested interrogation videotapes specifically if it wanted them.

“The notion that the CIA wasn’t cooperative or forthcoming with the 9/11 commission is just plain wrong. It is utterly without foundation,” spokesman Mark Mansfield said Saturday. “The CIA’s cooperation and assistance is what enabled the 9/11 commission to reconstruct the plot in their very comprehensive report.”

In a statement e-mailed separately Saturday, Mansfield suggested the commission should have been specific about wanting videotapes.

“Because it was thought the commission could ask about tapes at some point, they were not destroyed while the commission was active,” he said. Mansfield, citing similar comments this month by CIA Director Michael Hayden, added that “the tapes were destroyed only when it was determined they were no longer of intelligence value and not relevant to any internal, legislative, or judicial inquiries.”

Zelikow’s seven-page memo, Dec. 13, reviews the commission’s requests for information from the CIA.

It cites a Jan. 26, 2004, …

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CHICAGO
(Map, News)
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R. Kelly avoided having his bond revoked Friday in his child pornography case, but a judge admonished him for missing an earlier court hearing.

The R&B superstar apologized to Cook County Judge Vincent Gaughan, who set a May 9 trial date.

Kelly, 40, has pleaded not guilty to child pornography charges for allegedly videotaping sex acts with a young teenage girl in or before 2000.

He missed his Wednesday court appearance when his tour bus was delayed in Utah because its logbooks didn’t document enough rest time for the driver.

Gaughan said that in similar situations in the future, Kelly must fly to make his court dates on also ordered the singer to cancel a Jan. 13 concert to ensure that he makes a Jan. 14 court date.

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TOKYO
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A mechanical arm that can grab 120 items a minute from a conveyor belt won Japan’s Robot of the Year award Thursday, defeating a dozen flashier finalists, including a walking humanoid and a transparent torso for simulating surgery.

The government prize is the latest effort in an aggressive campaign to trumpet Japan’s robotics technology as the nation’s best vehicle to growth.

The award, now in its second year, sent a clear message that utility and business, rather than entertainment or academia, are at the forefront of the robotic push. Last year, a vacuum-cleaner robot won the contest.

Entries ranged from parts and Mindstorms software from Danish toy maker Lego Group to an industrial robot from Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. - maker of Subaru cars - a container-on-wheels that can lug 440 pounds of pharmaceuticals.

The three assembly-line mechanical arms from Fanuc Ltd. that won were distinguished for their practicality. They are already being used at food and pharmaceutical plants, where sanitation is critical and human error can be disastrous, said Ryo Nihei, a Fanuc manager.

Swiveling frenetically, they analyzed digital images of items scattered randomly on a swiftly moving conveyor belt and picked up the items using suction cups that blow air in and out at their tips. They then worked together to place line up the items in rows inside boxes.

Concerns about food safety have been growing in Japan following scandals involving false labels and out-of-date and substitute ingredients.

With no exposed wiring, the Fanuc robots are easy to wash and sanitize, Nihei said, and they can work 24 hours straight. And they don’t misbehave.

“The trend these days is to try to avoid having human workers at all. People can get dirty and introduce unwanted objects,” he said.

He say which companies are using the robotic arms.

The surgery robot, called Eve, sells for $2,200.

“We made …

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FLOWERY BRANCH, Ga.
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Bill Parcells will not be joining the Atlanta Falcons as head of football operations.

Parcells turned down the position, Falcons owner Arthur Blank said Wednesday in a statement. Blank said the team had an agreement in principle with Parcells, but after he told the Falcons he was considering an offer from the Miami Dolphins, negotiations fell through.

Parcells was considering an offer to join the team’s front office as vice president of football operations, a role that would put him in charge of finding the next coach for a team rocked by the suspension and imprisonment of Michael Vick and the sudden resignation of Bobby Petrino.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

ATLANTA (AP) - Bill Parcells could become the Atlanta Falcons’ vice president of football operations, a role that would put him in charge of finding the next coach for a team rocked by the suspension and imprisonment of Michael Vick and the sudden resignation of Bobby Petrino.

Parcells is considering an offer to join the team’s front office, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because talks were ongoing.

The Daily News in New York reported Wednesday that Parcells is on the verge of accepting the job, with only a few details to be worked out. In a story on its Web site, the paper said a deal could be completed later in the day with Falcons owner Arthur Blank.

“I think I probably will do it,” Parcells said. “The job description is to be the football operations overseer. We still have a little work to do, but I don’t think it’s anything major. I don’t expect any real deal-breaker. I don’t think there will be any major hangups.”

Parcells said he would not be the Falcons’ coach. He told the newspaper he would to hire a general manager and then work with that person to hire a new coach …

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WASHINGTON
(Map, News)
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The District of Columbia postmark will make a big comeback in time for its use on remaining holiday mail, D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton announced Tuesday.

The D.C. postmark all but disappeared after the 2001 anthrax attacks in Washington and the deaths of two district post office employees. Most D.C. mail was shifted to a Gaithersburg, Md., postal center, where it was processed. And it never moved back.

But the Gaithersburg facility used the Maryland postmark on all mail, simply because the Maryland and D.C. mail was being mixed together.

Now, the mail from the nation’s capital will be routed to machinery that uses a D.C. postmark, Norton said. D.C. Postmaster Yverne Moore joined Norton for the announcement.

The change was a “very good reason to say happy holidays to the District of Columbia - not only from me but from the postal service,” Norton said.

Norton said the postmark is as old as the city itself. She called it “a proud symbol our own identity and “every bit as important as the postal identifiers from Paris, London, Beijing and other world capitals.”

Source: ReliefWeb (press release) ()

The top United Nations envoy to Somalia has urged the international community to draw up a road map towards lasting peace and stability in the Horn of Africa nation that has not had a functioning national government since 1991, warning that continuing with "business as usual" would have dire consequences for the country and the region.
"The situation in Somalia is dangerous and becoming more so each day," Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah told the Security Council today. His briefing follows recent meetings with President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, the recently-appointed Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Nur Hassan Hussein, and members of Somalia’s opposition.
Despite 14 peace agreements over the last 17 years, the complexity of the conflict continues to increase and innocent civilians continue to die, Mr. Ould-Abdallah said. A recent upsurge in violence has forced the internal displacement of about one million Somalis and caused some three million to flee the country as refugees.
The Special Representative noted there is little reason to believe the situation will change if the international community continues with its current course of action, stating that there are "serious consequences for Somalia, the region and probably the world if the conflict is not addressed and a definitive, lasting solution agreed on."
He put forward three possible approaches for the Council’s consideration, the first of which is continuing with the status quo, or "business as usual." In that context, he pointed out that efforts exerted over the past 17 years have failed to restore stability and that national reconciliation remains elusive.
"The international community’s ‘wait and see’ attitude would only postpone the day of reckoning and would not meaningful progress towards lasting peace," Mr. Ould-Abdallah cautioned.
The second option would be an organized withdrawal …

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HAZLETON, Pa.
(Map, News)
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Talk about taking the plunge. Jeanie Dulski and Jamy Knittle actually took two plunges on Friday: First, they got married at Hazleton Municipal Airport, then they went skydiving.

As Dulski explained it: “Getting married is scarier than jumping out of a plane.”

Hazleton Mayor Lou Barletta performed the ceremony on the ground for Dulski and Knittle, both 30. About 45 minutes later, the bride and groom took a plane up to 10,000 feet and leaped out.

It was the second marriage but first skydive for Dulski, who made a tandem jump with an instructor. Knittle, who had skydived once before, jumped separately.

Barletta called it perhaps the most unusual wedding ceremony has performed.

“I’m sure my wife would like to see me jump out of an airplane without a parachute,” he joked.