Obama: No wheeling or dealing to extradite Snowden

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Senegalese President Macky Sall after a joint press conference at the presidential palace in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Senegal's national slogan, printed on the wall behind them, reads 'One People, One Goal, One Faith.' President Obama arrived in Senegal Wednesday night to kick off a weeklong trip to Africa, a three-country visit aimed at overcoming disappointment on the continent over the first black U.S. president's lack of personal engagement during his first term. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

U.S. President Barack Obama, left, shakes hands with Senegalese President Macky Sall after a joint press conference at the presidential palace in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Senegal's national slogan, printed on the wall behind them, reads 'One People, One Goal, One Faith.' President Obama arrived in Senegal Wednesday night to kick off a weeklong trip to Africa, a three-country visit aimed at overcoming disappointment on the continent over the first black U.S. president's lack of personal engagement during his first term. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)

President Barack Obama and Senegalese President Macky Sall leave after a news conference at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama gestures during a news conference with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference with Senegalese President Macky Sall at the Presidential Palace, in Dakar, Senegal, Thursday, June 27, 2013. Obama is visiting Senegal, South Africa, and Tanzania on a week long trip. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? The United States won't be scrambling military jets or engaging in high-level diplomatic bartering to get National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden extradited to the U.S., President Barack Obama said Thursday.

Dismissing him as "a 29-year-old hacker," Obama sought to downplay the international chase for Snowden, lowering the temperature of an issue that has already raised tensions between the U.S. and uneasy partners Russia and China.

Obama said the damage to U.S. national security has already been done and his top focus now is making sure it can't happen again.

"I'm not going to have one case with a suspect who we're trying to extradite suddenly be elevated to the point where I've got to start doing wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues, simply to get a guy extradited so he can face the justice system," Obama said at a joint news conference with Senegal's President Macky Sall.

Snowden turned 30 last week. He was working as a government contractor with security clearance when he seized the NSA documents.

Snowden's intercontinental efforts to shirk U.S. authorities ? taking him from a hotel hideout in Hong Kong to an airport transit zone in Moscow, where he's believed to be holed up ? has already undercut Obama's efforts to strengthen ties with China and threatened to worsen tensions with Russia just as Obama is seeking Moscow's cooperation on Syria. At the same time, Snowden's attempts to seek asylum from Ecuador and other nations have underscored Obama's limited sway in a number of foreign capitals.

Obama said he hadn't personally called either Russian President Vladimir Putin or Chinese President Xi Jinping to request their cooperation.

"I shouldn't have to," he declared.

Obama said such matters are routinely dealt with at a law-enforcement level, calling Snowden's extradition "not exceptional from a legal perspective." He said the U.S. has a wide-ranging economic relationship with China that shouldn't be dwarfed by the hunt for one fugitive, and that the U.S. has had "useful conversations" with Moscow over efforts to return Snowden to the U.S. Putin has called Snowden a "free man" and refused to turn him over to Washington.

"My continued expectation is that Russia or other countries that have talked about potentially providing Mr. Snowden asylum recognize that they are a part of an international community and they should be abiding by international law," Obama said, noting that the U.S. doesn't have a formal extradition treaty with Russia.

Snowden has acknowledged seizing highly classified documents about U.S. surveillance programs that collect vast amounts of U.S. phone and Internet records. He shared the information with The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers. He also told the South China Morning Post that the NSA hack Chinese cellphone companies to steal text message data. The Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, has said Snowden still has perhaps more than 200 sensitive documents.

"I get why it's a fascinating story," Obama said. "I'm sure there will be a made-for-TV movie somewhere down the line."

The White House has said Hong Kong's refusal to detain Snowden has "unquestionably" hurt U.S. relations with China. After Hong Kong's government claimed it had to allow Snowden to flee because the U.S. got Snowden's middle name wrong in documents requesting his arrest, Obama's Justice Department said the U.S. didn't buy that excuse, calling it "a pretext for not acting."

The Hong Kong government had also previously mentioned that it asked the U.S. for more information on NSA's hacking of targets in Hong Kong, suggesting the issue played some role in its decision.

Obama said the fact Snowden walked off with so many secret documents shows significant vulnerabilities at the NSA that must be solved. But Obama said he's also focused on fostering a "healthy effective debate" about the balance between security and privacy in America.

"In terms of U.S. interests, the damage was done with respect to the initial leaks," Obama said.

Obama's comment came on the first full day of a weeklong, 3-country trip to Africa, his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago.

___

Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2013-06-27-Obama-NSA%20Surveillance/id-342b03e579f242e7822b2fa45df15ce9

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RolePlayGateway?

Race: Huntsmen
They are essentially a purer form of the Hunters, more in touch with there origin from the dragons. They can either be born a Huntsman, or be given the power from a dragon.

Dragons: Dragons are small, winged lizards that are about the size of a forearm. Each dragon controls one element. They generally live to be about 10,000 years old.

Markings: A tattoo of a European style, the winged lizard type, dragon on the forearm, which goes from just after the elbow to just before the wrist. The body and tail of the dragon take up the top of the forearm while the legs and wings extend down his forearm. It is always on the right arm.

Powers: Much like most Hunters and the Resurrected, a Dragons' Huntsman also has a power that requires some dragon blood, which is present in the blood of Hunters and Resurrected, that is not their own. They can sense the souls of the other races as to judge whether they should be hunted or allowed life.

Philosophy: We are the judges of the Hunters and the Resurrected. We help the good and end the evil.

Political state: At war with the Hunters.

History: The Dragons' Huntsmen was created by the almighty dragon council that existed during times that only the Library of Dragons, the hidden storage of all the Dragons' Huntsmen's knowledge, has records of. It is believed that the dragons gave this power to the Huntsmen when the second or third generation of Resurrected began to abuse their ability to come back to life. The Dragon's Huntsmen are the first breed of Hunters to exist, being one of the few that could passed down by family.

As the Resurrected began to grow to greater size, so did the Huntsmen. Both groups lived and balanced in secret for thousands of years. At some point during this time period, all ten of the Hunter's Forges were created, three of which the current Hunters know about and control.

Around 300 years ago, some people who found the secret of both sides of the 'super natural' and wanted that level of power. They created the Dragonless Huntsmen, also known as Hunters, which was a new race of Huntsmen that was less powerful than the Dragons' Huntsmen, but also capable of being made without the aid of a dragon. About 50 years after the original creation, the 'Hunters,' as they deemed themselves, began to hunt Resurrected. No one knows what caused the original war, but since the creation of the war, they have adopted the mission of exterminating the Resurrected.

Hunter's Forge: A Hunter's Forge is a place where metal can be given the property of a Hunter's weapon. 2 recipes exist, each with a different input and result.

• Hunter's blood plus metal - This creates a durable metal that is capable of killing Resurrecteds once and for all. The metal becomes lighter and more durable than what it was made from.
• Huntsman's blood plus Resurrected blood plus metal, dragon's blood can be used as a substitute for the bloods - This creates a metal that is severely lighter and stronger than its base, and is often referred to as Dragon's [insert base metal here]. This metal has the blood boiling effect of Hunter's metal, except it works on all three races.

Society: The Dragons' Huntsmen is a group of Huntsmen who act as the judges for the Hunters and the Resurrected. Their culture and religion is based around dragons, as that is who gave them their powers. When someone has been in training for a year, they get their dragon. This dragon acts as their guide, and is always at least 1000 years old before being assigned a human. They believe dragons to be the beasts of creation, and revere them as such.

Dragons' Huntsmen are also very rare compared to the Hunters, but also better trained and more powerful. Where a Hunter, or a Resurrected, is a set above humans in speed and strength, a Dragons' Huntsmen is a step above them. They are often beyond the elite warriors of the Hunters, but far more reclusive and rare.

The trial to officially join the ranks of the Dragons' Huntsmen is call the Dragon's Trial. Through this trial, the initiate is put before 6 dragons who are not bound to a human. They then test the initiate to prove that he has the right amount of purity.

Others: When rating people, Dragons' Huntsmen use 2 terms for people who they believe deserve to live.

• Pure of Heart - The person has committed a crime, but the crime is justified to the point that the person is still good, or the person feels guilt for the crimes that they have committed.
• Innocent of mind - Someone who has not committed a level of crime that is recognized by the Dragons' Huntsmen.

Source: http://feeds.feedburner.com/RolePlayGateway

Jane Wicker Snowden

Video Discovery Has Lost Its Way; Rockpack, Backed By Qualcomm, Pascal Cagni And More, Wants To Find It

Video -- as Instagram's recent launch, Yahoo's would-be?and actual?acquisitions, and others' new content initiatives show -- is a hot property today, with more people than ever before consuming video online, and advertisers scrambling to catch that wave. While Google's YouTube is by far the biggest player in this space, video -- like the medium itself -- is a moving target that will see a number of new players continue to enter the scene, that that long tail has bred a whole sub-genre of video apps dedicated to video discovery. The latest of these, London-based?Rockpack, is launching today, with a focus on simplicity, personalization and curation that it believes will make itself stand apart from the crowd.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/PbRjoI6x-i8/

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Obama clashes with African host over gay rights

DAKAR, Senegal (AP) ? President Barack Obama on Thursday praised the Supreme Court's ruling on same-sex marriage as a "victory for American democracy" but clashed with his African host over gay rights in a sign of how far the movement has to go internationally.

Obama said recognition of gay unions in the United States should cross state lines and that equal rights should be recognized universally. It was his first chance to expand on his thoughts about the ruling, which was issued Wednesday as he flew to Senegal, one of many African countries that outlaw homosexuality.

Senegalese President Macky Sall rebuffed Obama's call for Africans to give gays equal rights under the law.

"We are still not ready to decriminalize homosexuality," Sall said, while insisting that the country is "very tolerant" and needs more time to digest the issue without pressure. "This does not mean we are homophobic."

Obama said gay rights didn't come up in their private meeting at the presidential palace, a mansion that looks somewhat similar to the White House. But Obama said he wants to send a message to Africans that while he respects differing personal and religious views on the matter, it's important to have nondiscrimination under the law.

"People should be treated equally, and that's a principle that I think applies universally," he said.

A report released Monday by Amnesty International says 38 African countries criminalize homosexuality. In four of those ? Mauritania, northern Nigeria, southern Somalia and Sudan ? the punishment is death. These laws appear to have broad public support. A June 4 Pew Research Center survey found at least nine of 10 respondents in Senegal, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda and Nigeria believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society.

Papi Nbodj, a 19-year-old student who stood by the road to the presidential palace to see Obama's arrival, said homosexuality is against the religious beliefs of most in Senegal.

"We are in a Muslim country, so we certainly cannot have it here," he said. "And for me it's not OK to have this anywhere in the world."

Sall sought to reassure Obama that gays are not persecuted in Senegal. But under Senegalese law, "an improper or unnatural act with a person of the same sex" can be punished by up to five years in prison.

Ndeye Kebe, president of a human rights organization that works with homosexuals called Women's Smile, disputed Sall's contention that gays are not discriminated against.

"I know of around a dozen people who are in prison for homosexuality as we speak," she said. "There wasn't any real proof against them, but they were found guilty and they are in prison."

And as recently as February of 2008, police rounded up men suspected of being homosexual after a Senegalese tabloid published photographs of a clandestine gay wedding in a suburb of Dakar. Gays went into hiding or fled to neighboring countries, but they were pushed out of Gambia by the president's threat of decapitation.

As for Wednesday's court ruling, Obama said he's directing his administration to comb through every federal statute to quickly determine the implications of a decision that gave the nation's legally married gay couples equal federal footing with all other married Americans.

He said he wants to make sure that gay couples who deserve benefits under the ruling get them quickly. Obama said he personally believes that gay couples legally married in one state should retain their benefits if they move to another state that doesn't recognize gay marriage.

"I believe at the root of who we are as a people, as Americans, is the basic precept that we are all equal under the law," he said. "We believe in basic fairness. And what I think yesterday's ruling signifies is one more step towards ensuring that those basic principles apply to everybody."

Obama also offered prayers for former South African President Nelson Mandela, who is gravely ill, ahead of Obama's planned visit to his country this weekend. Obama said he was inspired to become political active by Mandela's example in the anti-apartheid movement of being willing to sacrifice his life for a belief in equal treatment.

"I think he's a hero for the world," Obama said. "And if and when he passes from this place, one thing I think we'll all know is that his legacy is one that will linger on throughout the ages."

Hundreds awaited Obama behind barricades later at Goree Island on Africa's westernmost point, where Africans were said to be have been shipped off into slavery across the Atlantic Ocean. Obama peered out at the crashing waves through the island's "Door of No Return," at first by himself and later joined by his wife, Michelle, and two daughters. Emerging minutes later, Obama said the site painted a powerful picture of the magnitude of the slave trade as he reflected on the ties many in the U.S. share with the continent.

"For an African-American, an African-American president, to be able to visit this site gives me even greater motivation in terms of human rights around the world," he said.

Obama's focus in Senegal is on the modern-day achievements of the former French colony after half a century of independence. Sall ousted an incumbent who attempted to change the constitution to make it easier for him to be re-elected and pave the way for his son to succeed him. The power grab sparked protests, fueled by hip-hop music and social media, that led to Sall's election.

"Senegal is one of the most stable democracies in Africa and one of the strongest partners that we have in the region," Obama said. "It's moving in the right direction with reforms to deepen democratic institutions."

But such people-powered democratic transitions are not always the story of the African experience. Fighting and human rights abuses limited Obama's options for stops in his first major tour of sub-Saharan Africa since he took office more than four years ago. Obama is avoiding his father's homeland, Kenya, whose president has been charged with war crimes, and Nigeria, the country with the continent's most dominant economy. Nigeria is enveloped in an Islamist insurgency and military crackdown.

Obama's itinerary in Senegal was designed to send a message, purposefully delivered in a French-speaking, Muslim-majority nation, to other Africans in countries that have not made the strides toward democracy that Senegal has. Obama also met with civil society leaders at the Goree Institute and visited the Supreme Court to speak about the importance of an independent judiciary and the rule of law in Africa's development.

___

Associated Press writers Rukmini Callimachi and Robbie Corey-Boulet in Dakar and Julie Pace in Goree Island, Senegal, contributed to this report.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter at https://twitter.com/nedrapickler

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-clashes-african-host-over-gay-rights-134627018.html

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Researchers strike gold with nanotech vaccine

June 25, 2013 ? Scientists in the US have developed a novel vaccination method that uses tiny gold particles to mimic a virus and carry specific proteins to the body's specialist immune cells.

The technique differs from the traditional approach of using dead or inactive viruses as a vaccine and was demonstrated in the lab using a specific protein that sits on the surface of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).

The results have been published today, 26 June, in IOP Publishing's journal Nanotechnology by a team of researchers from Vanderbilt University.

RSV is the leading viral cause of lower respiration tract infections, causing several hundred thousand deaths and an estimated 65 million infections a year, mainly in children and the elderly.

The detrimental effects of RSV come, in part, from a specific protein, called the F protein, which coats the surface of the virus. The protein enables the virus to enter into the cytoplasm of cells and also causes cells to stick together, making the virus harder to eliminate.

The body's natural defence to RSV is therefore directed at the F protein; however, up until now, researchers have had difficulty creating a vaccine that delivers the F protein to the specialised immune cells in the body. If successful, the F protein could trigger an immune response which the body could 'remember' if a subject became infected with the real virus.

In this study the researchers created exceptionally small gold nanorods, just 21 nanometres wide and 57 nanometres long, which were almost exactly the same shape and size as the virus itself. The gold nanorods were successfully coated with the RSV F proteins and were bonded strongly thanks to the unique physical and chemical properties of the nanorods themselves.

The researchers then tested the ability of the gold nanorods to deliver the F protein to specific immune cells, known as dendritic cells, which were taken from adult blood samples.

Dendritic cells function as processing cells in the immune system, taking the important information from a virus, such as the F protein, and presenting it to cells that can perform an action against them?the T cells are just one example of a cell that can take action.

Once the F protein-coated nanorods were added to a sample of dendritic cells, the researchers analysed the proliferation of T cells as a proxy for an immune response. They found that the protein-coated nanorods caused the T cells to proliferate significantly more compared to non-coated nanorods and just the F protein alone.

Not only did this prove that the coated-nanorods were capable of mimicking the virus and stimulating an immune response, it also showed that they were not toxic to human cells, offering significant safety advantages and increasing their potential as a real-life human vaccine.

Lead author of the study, Professor James Crowe, said: "A vaccine for RSV, which is the major cause of viral pneumonia in children, is sorely needed. This study shows that we have developed methods for putting RSV F protein into exceptionally small particles and presenting it to immune cells in a format that physically mimics the virus. Furthermore, the particles themselves are not infectious."

Due to the versatility of the gold nanorods, Professor Crowe believes that their potential use is not limited to RSV.

"This platform could be used to develop experimental vaccines for virtually any virus, and in fact other larger microbes such as bacteria and fungi.

"The studies we performed showed that the candidate vaccines stimulated human immune cells when they were interacted in the lab. The next steps to testing would be to test whether or not the vaccines work in vivo" Professor Crowe continued.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/5VWEsxow-z0/130625192547.htm

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Stock Futures Point Higher; Synaptics Leaps On ... - Investors.com

Stock futures were higher, but trimming earlier gains ahead of Wednesday's open despite a cutback in first-quarter GDP growth estimates.

Dow futures were ahead 66 points. Nasdaq 100 futures traded up 20.25 points and S&P 500 futures were 9.5 points higher.

The stock market today opens in search of direction, with only mild losses so far this week. The S&P 500, the Nasdaq and the Dow were down 0.3% through Tuesday's close and sitting at the top of the week's trading range. All three indexes are well below their 50-day moving averages and the market remains in a correction.

Mortgage application activity decreased 3% last week, down for a fourth-straight week as interest rates posted their largest one-week increase since 2011, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Refinance applications slowed 5% to the lowest level since November 2011. New purchase applications increased 2%.

Estimates for first-quarter GDP growth were revised lower, to 1.8%, according to the Commerce Department, from a prior estimate of a 2.4% gain. Economists had projected no change for the latest estimate. The GDP price index edged up 1.2%, in line with the 1.1% initial estimate.

Discount store Five Below (FIVE) tumbled 5% in pre-market action after announcing late Thursday it would postpone a secondary stock offering. A company statement cited current capital market conditions. The stock has been fighting to hold support at its 10-week moving average. Shares have been consolidating since March after clearing an IPO base.

Touchpad and computer controller maker Synaptics (SYNA) bolted 13% ahead of the open. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company late Tuesday raised its revenue outlook for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ends this month. The stock has declined for six straight weeks and is well below the 10-week average.

Leading stocks milled about in a narrowly mixed rage. Valeant Pharmaceuticals (VRX) topped the IBD 50 list with a 2% gain. Its four-week pullback stopped short of a test of 10-week support, ending Tuesday 19% above a flat base buy pint of 71.89.

Overseas, Europe's market leaned firmly higher with the CAC-40 in Paris up 2% and Frankfurt's DAX ahead 1.5% heading toward afternoon trade. In China, Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rebounded 2.4%, while the Shanghai Composite ended 0.4% lower. Tokyo's Nikkei 225 booked a 1% loss.

Gold mining issues and ETFs were taking a pounding in early action as gold futures slumped 3%. Oil was off a fraction, trading above $95 a barrel and up not quite 2% for the week.

Source: http://news.investors.com/investing-stock-market-today/062613-661439-stock-future-higher.htm

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Supreme Court strikes down key part of DOMA, dismisses Prop. 8 case (cbsnews)

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