Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/284242115?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, February 12, 2013
Obama to announce 34K troops to be home in 1 year
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama will announce in his State of the Union address that 34,000 U.S. troops will be home from Afghanistan within a year, two people familiar with his remarks said Tuesday.
That's about half the U.S. forces currently serving there, and marks the next phase in the administration's plans to formally finish the war by the end of 2014. The U.S. now has 66,000 troops in Afghanistan, down from a peak of about 100,000 as recently as 2010.
The U.S. is still finalizing plans for the size and scope of its military presence after the war ends. The White House has said it would be open to leaving no troops in Afghanistan, though it's likely that a small presence will remain, in keeping with the Pentagon's preferences.
The people familiar with Obama's remarks requested anonymity in order to discuss the troop drawdown ahead of the president.
Obama discussed the next phases of the drawdown with Afghan President Hamid Karzai during a day-long meeting in Washington last month, the first meeting between the two leaders since Obama's re-election. The two leaders agreed to accelerate their timetable for putting Afghan forces in the lead combat role nationwide, moving that transition up from the summer to the spring.
Obama will announce the troop drawdown and the future of the U.S. role in Afghanistan during a joint session of Congress that is otherwise expected to be dominated by the economy and other domestic issues.
Foreign policy has intruded in recent days, however, and the White House quickly condemned North Korea early Tuesday for its nuclear launch hours before Obama's address. The president is expected to make further remarks on this in his primetime speech.
Some private security analysts, as well as some Pentagon officials, worry that pulling out of Afghanistan too quickly will leave the battle-scarred country vulnerable to collapse. In a worst-case scenario, that could allow the Taliban to regain power and revert to the role they played in the years before 9/11 as protectors of al-Qaida terrorists bent on striking the U.S.
Many Americans, however, are weary of the war, according to public opinion polls, and are skeptical of any claim that Afghanistan is worth more U.S. blood.
The Obama administration gave the first clear signal in early January that it might leave no troops in the country after December 2014. Administration officials have said they are considering a range of options for a residual U.S. troop presence of as few as 3,000 and as many as 15,000, with the number linked to a specific set of military-related missions like hunting down terrorists.
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GOP pol backs youth citizenship path
A Colorado Republican congressman who only a year ago supported an end to birthright citizenship now backs a pathway to citizenship for young illegal immigrants.
Rep. Mike Coffman told a town hall crowd in Aurora, Colo., on Sunday of his position change, according to the Denver Post. While Coffman said he supports a pathway to citizenship for young illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, he wasn?t as sure about allowing adult illegal immigrants to become citizens.
Continue ReadingSen. Flake talks immigration with POLITICO
?I haven?t resolved the question about a pathway to citizenship for (adults) who?ve overstayed their visa or crossed the border illegally,? Coffman said.
A Coffman spokesman confirmed the position change in the story to POLITICO.
While the Republican party is reevaluating its position on an immigration overhaul en masse in the wake of a 2012 election cycle that saw their presidential cycle candidate garner less than 30 percent of the Hispanic vote, Coffman?s reversal stands out.
Coffman won his U.S. House seat in 2008, replacing Tom Tancredo, who became nationally known for his strident positions against illegal immigration. In the last Congress, Coffman co-sponsored a bill to end birthright citizenship.
But Coffman?s district became more moderate in redistricting, and the Hispanic vote continues to grow in Colorado. After getting two-thirds of the vote in 2010, Coffman defeated his 2012 opponent by fewer than 7,000 votes. President Barack Obama defeated Mitt Romney in the district.
Coffman, a veteran of both the Army and the Marine Corps, introduced legislation in late January granting citizenship to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the Untied States as children if they signed up for five-year stints in the military and were honorably discharged.
Source: http://feeds.politico.com/click.phdo?i=005f5b13613133269a9e039f574c198d
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Monday, February 11, 2013
Motorola Atrix 4G Confirmed For Android 4.0 Update!! Here's What To Expect
Motorola has just confirmed many of it's devices will be getting that coveted Android 4.0 software. While some doubted the Atrix 4G would get ICS, I stood by confidently and stressed many times that the OG Atrix would get the big update--- after all it's still one of the faster phones on the market, has the Tegra 2 dual-core chip which is almost built for some of ICS's advanced features such as hardware acceleration and of course, indirectly has Google's "direct" backing now. As you all know, the Atrix is one of most MOTO devices featuring the MOTOBLUR custom user interface enhancement. It's not my favorite UI, but it's something I have to deal with as an owner of the device--- whether I like it or not.
Motorola has stressed the update would come in Q3 so we have a few things to expect. Motorola owners remember very well that the much-anticipated Gingerbread 2.3 update came in Q3 of 2011--- so we can expect the update to arrive by the end of June at the earliest or in the middle of July at the latest. Also, there are a select group of Atrix 4G owners who are part of the soak testing program--- that is they beta test software normally week in advance before Motorola unveils the final update to the masses. Motorola will have to tweak the basic Android 4.0 code, slap on the MOTOBLUR UI skin on top, get certifications from AT&T, have the soak testers test the software in order to ensure any possible bugs are cleaned up before the final update is unveiled to the masses.
It's my understanding that Android 4.0 will GREATLY enhance the overall performance of the Atrix 4G. As owners know all too well, the MOTOBLUR UI from Froyo and now Gingerbread is sluggish to say the least. The software is painfully choppy and clearly not optimized for the powerhouse of the device. Of course a lot of owners threw on a launcher skin such as Launcherpro or ADW and noticed the UI is smooth and fluid like butter. Android 4.0 with the MOTOBLUR UI won't be fluid as some launchers out there, but you can expect the newest iteration of Android to take FAR less resources and also take advantage of the hardware acceleration, which will help with transitioning from screen to screen or scrolling up and down.
If you're an Atrix 4G owner, what do you think? I'm just throwing in my two cents, but I am VERY excited about this. Now there's no need for us to throw on a ROM or prematurely upgrade our phones. :-P
Roy
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Tuesday, February 5, 2013
Her knee shredded, Lindsey Vonn done for season
United States??Lindsey?Vonn is airlifted after crashing during the women's super-G course, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5, 2013. Lindsey Vonn has been helicoptered to hospital from the Alpine skiing world championships after crashing and apparently hurting her right knee in the super-G race. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
United States??Lindsey?Vonn is airlifted after crashing during the women's super-G course, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5, 2013. Lindsey Vonn has been helicoptered to hospital from the Alpine skiing world championships after crashing and apparently hurting her right knee in the super-G race. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Slovenia's?Tina Maze reacts as she see United States'?Lindsey?Vonn crashing during the women's super-G at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5,2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
United States??Lindsey?Vonn speeds down the course during the women's super-G course, at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5, 2013. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
Laura Kildow sister United States'?Lindsey?Vonn reacts after Vonn crashed during the women's super-G at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5,2013. (AP Photo/Kerstin Joensson)
Slovenia's?Tina Maze reacts after learning that United States' Lindsey?Vonn crashed during the women's super-G at the Alpine skiing world championships in Schladming, Austria, Tuesday, Feb.5,2013. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader)
SCHLADMING, Austria (AP) ? All it took was a moment. Lindsey Vonn landed hard and tumbled face first with a piercing shriek.
Just like that, the star American skier was on the ground with two torn ligaments in her right knee and a broken bone in her lower leg.
The cascading fall down the slope during the super-G at the world championships Tuesday knocked out the four-time World Cup champion for the rest of the season, the latest and most serious in a string of injuries for Vonn at skiing's biggest events.
The U.S. team said in a statement it expects her back for the next World Cup season and the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which start a year from this week.
The harrowing accident came after Vonn was lifted into the air off a jump in the opening race at the championships. As she hit the ground, her right leg gave way and she spun down face first, throwing an arm out to protect herself. She ended up on her back as she smashed through a gate.
On the television feed, Vonn was clearly heard screaming an expletive as she landed, then a despairing "Yes, yes," when someone asked, "Are you hurt?"
Race leader and eventual champion Tina Maze watched with her mouth agape. The concern also was obvious on the face of Vonn's sister, Laura Kildow, who has been traveling with her full time this season.
For 12 minutes, Vonn lay on the snow getting medical treatment before being airlifted by helicopter to a hospital in Schladming.
Vonn tore her anterior cruciate ligament and medial collateral ligament in her right knee, U.S. ski team medical director Kyle Wilkens said in a statement. The broken bone was described as a "lateral tibial plateau fracture."
Christian Kaulfersch, the assistant medical director at the worlds, said Vonn left the Schladming hospital on Tuesday afternoon and will have surgery in another hospital. "She first wanted to go back to the team hotel to mentally deal with all what has happened," Kaulfersch said.
Vonn's father, Alan Kildow, spoke with her by phone and said that she's, "mad at the way things turned out." His daughter told him that she landed in a clump of sugar snow, or ice crystals, that caused her to fall forward, he said.
"She's a tough character. A very determined and tough character," Kildow told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "She will be back."
Kildow said that surgery could take place as soon as this weekend, likely at the Steadman Clinic, in Vail, Colo. Recovery time varies, according to Dr. Tom Hackett, an orthopedic surgeon at the clinic and the team physician for the U.S. snowboard squad.
But Vonn could be looking at six-to-eight months before she's back on skis.
"It's not like at six months you say, 'OK, you can get back on a super-G course," Hackett said. "There's a progression to getting back on skis, getting back to taking some easy runs, getting back to some gates, and working your way back to some steeper terrain. There's a whole return to snow progression that we've developed over many years."
Time enough to get back for Sochi?
"I think so," Hackett said. "I would be very optimistic she could come back strong. She's a fierce competitor. She's a fighter and chances are that she will ? I would think ? essentially take all of that athletic energy and put it into her rehabilitation. There's a really good chance she could come back as strong as ever."
Comebacks are nothing new for Vonn, who has also been afflicted by injuries at her last six major championships ? from a thumb she sliced on a champagne bottle at the 2009 worlds in Val d'Isere, France, to a bruised shin that she cured with Austrian cheese at the Vancouver Olympics.
This one, however, could prove the biggest test yet for the 28-year-old who won the downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
Vonn took a month off this season after being hospitalized for an intestinal illness in November, and had just regained her form with two wins last month.
That was evident at the start of her Tuesday's run. She led Maze by 0.04 seconds at the first checkpoint and was just 0.12 back at the second interval and seemingly on her way to a medal, if not victory.
Exactly what went wrong was debated by competitors and officials at the championships.
The start of the race was delayed by 3? hours because of fog hanging over the course and it began in waning light at 2:30 p.m local time. Even before Vonn's crash, a course worker fell and also had to be airlifted. He was reported to have broken his nose.
All the delays made for what skiers call flat light ? overcast and dreary conditions ? when Vonn raced.
"Lindsey did a great job on top and Lindsey has won a lot of races in flat light so the flat light was definitely not a problem," U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml told the AP.
"We are upset obviously with what happened but if you don't know the facts and why they decided to start and what the weather forecast was it's hard to say without any reasoning," Riml said. "And they probably had a reason, otherwise they wouldn't have started."
Atle Skaardal, women's race director for the International Ski Federation, defended the decision to go ahead with the event.
"I can confirm that the visibility was great, there were no problems, and the course was also in good shape," he said. "I don't see that any outside factors played a role in this accident. ... The other factors were like they were supposed to be for ski racing."
Vonn's list of injuries at major championships is long.
Two years ago, she pulled out midway through the last worlds in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, because of a mild concussion. At the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Vonn skied despite a severely bruised shin to win the downhill and take bronze in the super-G.
At the 2009 worlds in Val d'Isere, she sliced her thumb on a champagne bottle after sweeping gold in the downhill and super-G, forcing her out of the giant slalom. At the 2007 worlds in Are, Sweden, Vonn injured her knee in training and missed her final two events.
And at the 2006 Turin Olympics, she had a horrific crash in downhill training and went directly from her hospital room to the mountain to compete in four of her five events.
The conditions Tuesday varied from racer to racer, and as the light began to fade even more, organizers stopped the race after only 36 of the 59 skiers had come down.
Maze skied immediately before Vonn.
"I saw it was a very high jump, so I knew I had to take the right line to make the next gate," she said. "World championship races often have special conditions and the mistakes from the girls were not because of the slope."
The two racers who started immediately after Vonn, former overall winner Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany and local favorite Anna Fenninger of Austria, each skied off course. In all, six women who started the course failed to finish. Still, Skaardal said he never thought about stopping the race.
"It's not a very difficult course but in some parts you couldn't see anything," said Fabienne Suter of Switzerland, who finished fifth.
Vonn's teammate Julia Mancuso also thrived in the difficult conditions and won the bronze medal.
"It's the same for everybody," U.S. speed coach Chip White said. "Everyone had to wait for a long time and that's always difficult. And the holds were every 15 minutes so it really doesn't give you a chance to go and do something else. You're always kind of on edge at the ready. It's a difficult situation but everybody had the same difficult situation."
Not long after Vonn was injured, NBC hosted a news conference in New York to discuss its coverage of the Sochi Games. A poster of a smiling Vonn hung in the room next to one of snowboarder Shaun White, evidence of the network's unsurprising expectations that she would be one of the biggest stars in Sochi.
The network's executives chose to put a positive spin on the injury.
"We expect her to be the comeback Olympian of the year," NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said.
___
Associated Press writer Eric Willemsen in Schladming and AP Sports Writers Pat Graham and Rachel Cohen contributed to this report.
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New tuberculosis vaccine doesn't protect infants
LONDON (AP) ? The world's most advanced tuberculosis vaccine failed to protect babies against the infectious disease, according to a new study in South Africa.
The vaccine, MVA85A, was designed to improve protection from the only existing tuberculosis vaccine, BCG, which is routinely given to newborns. Though the new vaccine appeared safe, scientists found no proof it prevented tuberculosis, an airborne disease that kills more than 1 million people worldwide every year.
Previous tests of the vaccine in adults had been promising and researchers said the trial provided useful data to inform future studies. There are a dozen other TB vaccines currently being tested.
Some health officials were discouraged by the results. "It's pretty disappointing," said Dr. Jennifer Cohn, a medical coordinator at Doctors Without Borders, who was not part of the study. "Infants are at really high risk of TB but this doesn't seem to offer them any protection."
MVA85A was developed at Oxford University and was tested in nearly 2,800 infants in South Africa who had already been given a BCG shot, between 2009 and 2011. About half of the babies got the new vaccine while the other half got a placebo.
They were followed for up to three years. In the group that got the vaccine, there were 32 cases of TB, versus 39 cases in the group that got a placebo. The vaccine's efficacy rate was about 17 percent.
No serious side effects related to the vaccine were reported.
The study was paid for by Aeras, the Wellcome Trust and the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium. The results were published online Monday in the journal Lancet.
"There is much that we and others can learn from the study and the data it has produced," said Helen McShane of the University of Oxford, one of the study authors, in a statement. She and colleagues are further analyzing the samples from the trial to better understand how humans become infected with TB bacteria.
McShane and her co-authors wrote that the vaccine could potentially protect adolescents or adults against TB since their immune systems work differently from those of infants. The shot is also currently being tested in people with HIV.
"If this vaccine is effective in adults, that would be hugely valuable because the majority of TB disease and deaths are among adults," said Richard White, an infectious diseases expert at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. "But no one knows the answer to that right now."
"A vaccine is likely to be a cost-effective way of preventing TB," he said, comparing the $650 million that has been invested into vaccine development in the past decade versus the more than $4 billion it currently costs to control the disease every year, according to the World Health Organization.
White also warned the world couldn't afford to ignore the spike in TB and its drug-resistant forms. "There are certain boroughs of London that have higher rates of TB than parts of Malawi," he said. "TB is such a big problem that we really need to throw the book at it."
___
Online:
www.lancet.com
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/tuberculosis-vaccine-doesnt-protect-infants-134730997.html
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Prime-time coverage of Winter Games to start early
NEW YORK (AP) ? Prime-time coverage of the Winter Olympics will start a day early next year in Sochi.
NBC officials said at a news conference Tuesday that the network will televise events the night of Thursday, Feb. 6, 2014. That night's coverage will include slopestyle snowboarding, likely starring American boarder Shaun White.
Such coverage will precede the opening ceremony for the first time. With 12 new events added for 2014, the IOC needed to expand the length of the games, which will start on Thursday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prime-time-coverage-winter-games-start-early-174341593--oly.html
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