Lawyer says French gunman's mother is released

PARIS (AP) ? Authorities investigating France's deadly shooting rampage have released the mother of the Islamist fanatic blamed for the killings but continue to hold his older brother and the older brother's girlfriend, officials said Saturday.

Police are trying to determine whether 24-year-old Mohamed Merah had any help in carrying out the execution-style murders of seven people that have shocked France and refocused attention on the threat of radical Muslim terrorists.

Merah's brother, Abdelkader, was flown to Paris for further questioning Saturday, along with his girlfriend, but a lawyer for Merah's mother, 55-year-old Zoulika Aziri, said she had been released without charge. Jean-Yves Gougnaud told reporters in the southern French city of Toulouse that Aziri's world had been "turned upside down."

"She is devastated," he told reporters after her release. "At no time could she have imagined that her son was the one who did it."

Aziri was freed late Friday from a police station in Toulouse, a judicial official said on condition of anonymity because the information wasn't cleared for public release.

Mohamed Merah, who claimed allegiance to al-Qaida, died in a hail of gunfire Thursday after a dramatic 32-hour standoff with police at his apartment in Toulouse. At one point, police brought his mother to the scene, but she refused to urge her son to surrender, officials said.

Merah had filmed himself carrying out attacks in southern France that began March 11 and killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three French paratroopers with close-range shots to the head, prosecutors say. Another Jewish student and a paratrooper were wounded, and five police officers were injured trying to dislodge Merah from the apartment.

Investigators are trying to figure out whether Merah, a Frenchman of Algerian descent, acted alone.

Key questions include how Merah, described by French intelligence boss Ange Mancini as "a little failure from the suburbs," was able to amass an arsenal of weapons ? including an Uzi sub-machinegun ? and rent a car, despite having no clear source of income.

Mancini told French broadcaster BFMTV that Merah told police during the siege that he bought the weapons for 20,000 euros, using money he acquired through break-ins and holdups.

Mancini said he believed that Merah was telling the truth about that, but suggested that forensic police would be examining the guns for clues as to where Merah got them.

"The weapons, too, will talk," Mancini said.

Merah had claimed that neither his mother nor his brother knew of his plans, but police union spokesman Christophe Crepin told reporters that detectives have already gathered evidence to suggest that Abdelkader may have helped his brother carry out the shootings.

Asked what police had on the brother, Crepin said there was evidence to suggest that Abdelkader Merah had "furnished means (and) worked as an accomplice."

Crepin refused to comment further, saying it was for a judge to decide what charges, if any, to bring. Under French law if either of the two continue to be held beyond the weekend, preliminary charges will have to be filed.

Abdelkader had already come under police radar, according to officials. He was questioned several years ago about alleged links to a network sending Toulouse-area youths to Iraq, but no action was brought against him at the time.

Back in the southern French city of Toulouse, where Merah held out in an apartment building for more than a day against one of France's most elite police units, residents were beginning to return home to inspect the damage.

Video footage shot by police of the inside of Merah's apartment showed a shattered three-room residence strewn with debris from the fighting and gaping bullet holes in the walls.

Building resident Farida Bohama was quoted by France's Le Figaro newspaper as saying nothing would ever be the same.

"I really want to move," she said.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects police union spokesman's first name to Christophe. Changes approach, upgrades attribution. Adds mother's lawyer's comment, photos.)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawyer-says-french-gunmans-mother-released-130311622.html

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Food And Drink ? Vegan Carrot Cake For Healthy Eaters

Below is a tasty vegan carrot cake recipe. If you?ve followed my prior recipes, you?ll know that I?m a massive fan of carrot cake recipe that are simple and delicious, and the one I?m going to share with you is not an exception to that rule. This is a vegan recipe, as I said, which means that it does not use any animal products.

Some vegans try to ensure that all edible foods are absent of animal content. Some people will go to great lengths in pursuit of this information. Not long ago I watched a documentary that highlighted animal products in food products that we would usually imagine are completely animal product free. Products like jelly beans and marshmallows (gelatin), mustard (eggs), shortbread (shortening) and even some breakfast cereals. This recipe, however, is 100% free of all animal products so it?s absolutely ideal for vegans.

The ingredients you will need are as follows:

- 1 cup soy milk

- 2 cups grated carrots

- Three (3) cups flour

- Two (2) cups water

- One cup sugar

- Half a teaspoon salt

- One and a half (1 1/2) teaspoons baking soda

- One and a half (1 1/2) cups raisins

- One and a half teaspoons cinnamon

- One and a half teaspoons allspice

- 1/2 teaspoon cloves

Preparation directions for this cake recipe:

1. Make sure that your oven is preheated to 350F (or will be once you?ve finished preparing everything ? about ten (10) minutes).

2. In a saucepan, mix together the water, raisins, carrots and spices. Bring to boiling point then simmer for eight minutes. Add the salt and sugar and continue to simmer for two (2) minutes longer. Now mix in the remainder of the ingredients.

3. Switch off the stove and continue to stir the blend continuously until it cools down.

4. In a large bowl, blend the flour with the bicarbonate of soda and the carrot and raisin blend. Fold these ingredients together.

5. Pour the batter into a lightly greased baking pan and place in the oven uncovered for approximately fifty (50) minutes. Keep a watch on it after half an hour as all ovens do vary a little. When it appears to be finished, poke the middle of the cake with a skewer and if no batter sticks to the skewer, remove the pan from the oven and permit it to cool for ten minutes.

That?s all that it takes to make a scrumptious vegan carrot cake recipe at home! I bet you thought it to be harder didn?t you? Let me know what you thought of it!

About the Author:

Yves Casson has a rich history in pastry and baking.

His flair for conventional cake recipes is found at Cake Recipe Secrets.

Yves latest superb recipe is this vegan Carrot Cake Recipe.

Source: http://food-and-drink.us/7201/vegan-carrot-cake-for-healthy-eaters/

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Indictment unsealed in LA Coliseum contracts probe

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? A felony indictment unsealed Friday accused former executives and concert promoters of a scheme to embezzle millions of dollars from the historic Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum as the once venerable site of Olympics, Super Bowls and political events was reduced to hosting rave concerts.

The 29-count, grand jury indictment released by Los Angeles County prosecutors alleges bribery, embezzlement, conspiracy and conflict of interest. It names two former Coliseum executives, two rave promoters and two other Coliseum contractors.

It claims that millions of dollars were stolen from the operations of the stadium that has been a landmark since the 1920s.

"My office has thoroughly investigated and will aggressively prosecute this public corruption case." District Attorney Steve Cooley said.

Among the events cited by prosecutors while opposing bail for the defendants was a drug-fueled rave where a young woman suffered an overdose and later died. However, the event was not part of the grand jury indictment.

Prosecutors claim the promoters were undeterred by the death and pressed for more raves, providing bribes to win access to the venue.

Four defendants appeared in court and a judge entered pleas of not guilty for them. Their attorneys have said they are scapegoats for mismanagement of the Coliseum.

Superior Court Judge Patricia Schnegg agreed to significantly reduce the original bail figures set for the men. She ordered them back for a hearing March 28.

At day's end, Todd DeStefano, assistant general manager for events, was being allowed to post $1.2 million bail as was Pasquale Rotella, the owner of Insomniac Inc. They were expected to be released.

Reza Gerami, owner of Go Ventures Inc, a promoter of music events also was held on $1.2 million bail and Patrick Lynch, former general manager of the Coliseum had his bail set at $800,000.

Prosecutors said they had not yet presented their bail plans and would not be released immediately.

Two contractors named in the indictment were out of town and had not yet surrendered.

Lynch, DeStefano and Gerami were brought to court in blue jail uniforms with their hands cuffed.

Rotella, who was out of town when the others were arrested Thursday, flew to Los Angeles and surrendered in court. He was taken into custody.

Outside court, Rotella's lawyer Gary Jay Kaufman said his client is a legitimate businessman who "built a company from a garage into selling out football stadiums." He and other defense lawyers said their clients are innocent of any wrongdoing.

"We're going to fight back," said DeStefano's lawyer, Michael Nasatir. "This guy is innocent. We're going to show he's innocent. They're out of line."

Rotella's company staged the infamous Electric Daisy Carnival in 2010 at which a teenage girl took an overdose of Ecstasy and later died. The event led to cancelling other raves at the Coliseum.

"In the past, electronic music concerts, also known as raves, were generally conducted illegally, without permits and with rampant drug use," prosecutors said in a motion opposing bail reduction. "More recently, their promoters have managed to bring the events to conventional venues but have faced resistance from the public due to continued drug use and other safety issues."

The motion by Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman said the promoters learned that "the best way to overcome such resistance is always to use an inside man."

He said the inside man was DeStefano, who provided them with access to the Coliseum and adjoining property at low rates. The documents submitted to the court claimed that the Coliseum lost $2.5 million while DeStefano, Lynch, Gerami and Rotella made millions, with DeStefano receiving bribes.

In addition, the indictment alleged that Lynch had a side deal with the provider of maintenance services at the Coliseum for kickbacks of more than $385,000.

The charges marked a low point in the storied history of the venue where Rafer Johnson carried the Olympic torch in 1984 and John F. Kennedy accepted the Democratic presidential nomination in 1960.

The Coliseum opened in 1923 and was the site of Olympics in 1932 and 1984. The 1959 World Series and Super Bowls I and VII also were held there.

Known for its distinctive peristyle arches and Olympic torch, the Coliseum has been seen in movies, commercials and was the locale of a mass conducted by Pope John Paul II during a papal visit. It can seat 93,000 people for football games.

It sits in Exposition Park, which also features the aged Sports Arena, museums a science center, huge rose garden and other facilities and lawns.

It has fallen on hard financial times in recent years. The adjacent University of Southern California, which leases the property as an athletic games venue, is seeking to take over day to day operations of the city-owned property.

Rotella's lawyer said his concert business will go on.

"The company has a robust leadership team in place implementing Mr. Rotella's vision and no events will be impacted," Kaufman said.

He said Insomniac has produced more than 250 music events for more than 2 million concertgoers in California, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.

Insomniac's premier annual event, Electric Daisy Carnival, is one of the biggest music festivals in the United States, he said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/indictment-unsealed-la-coliseum-contracts-probe-194522541.html

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V3 Secure Cloud

hnLab's antivirus and security suite products are quite popular in the company's native Korea. AhnLab is now pushing to grab some market share in the United States with the release of V3 Secure Cloud ($69.99/year for 5 licenses). Your subscription also includes five licenses to protect Android devices with V3 Mobile 2.0 (for Android). I'm not sure exactly what makes this suite popular in Korea, as the antivirus component is weak and several other components do nothing at all.

The suite installed quickly, though several infested test systems needed multiple tries to complete the mandatory initial update. I was surprised to find that the personal firewall component is disabled right out of the box. Digging into the settings, I found antiphishing, antispam, and email antivirus protection also disabled. I turned everything on; I hope every user will do the same.

Slow, Poor Malware Cleanup
Testing V3's malware cleanup took quite a while, as each scan required an hour. The average suite scans my standard clean test system in half that time. On finishing a scan, V3 lists what it found and offers to repair those threats. In several cases, it reported failure to complete the repair. An error message recommended against closing the results window without repairing all threats, but the product offered no recourse when repeated repair attempts failed.

During the scan process the real-time protection silently wiped out other threats, threats that didn't show up in the scan results list. To determine exactly what the product detected, I checked the log after each scan.

Overall, the results were dismal. V3 missed a number of samples and left behind executable traces for over half of those it did detect. Nearly half of those executable files remained running despite V3's alleged cleanup. Its 76 percent malware detection rate is the second from lowest among current products, and its overall score of 5.0 points is third from lowest. At the top we see Comodo Internet Security Pro 2012 ($4.99/year direct, 4 stars) with 97 percent detection and Norton 360 Version 6.0 ($79.99 direct for three licenses, 4.5 stars) with 7.4 points; Norton missed some threats that Comodo detected, but better cleanup earned it a higher overall score.

V3 faired especially poorly against rootkits. More than half of current products detect 100 percent of my rootkit samples; V3 only saw 86 percent. It left some rootkits running, some of them with their rootkit technology intact, earning a below-average score of 4.7 points for rootkit removal. Norton topped this test with 8.9 points.

Apparently my particular scareware samples are relatively easy to detect, as all but four suites detected them. V3 is one of those four. With 6.3 points for scareware removal, it's at the bottom of the heap. Norton aced this test, scoring a perfect 10. For an explanation of my testing methodology and scoring system, see How We Test Malware Removal.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/Jd8-ZOq3H1E/0,2817,2401819,00.asp

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New Church of England report seeks expansion and evangelisation of state-funded...

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Source: http://www.facebook.com/humanism/posts/297149513689789

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Sixty-six jobs, duties lost in the Quincy Public School District

Read?more: Local, Economy, Politics, Education, Community, Election, News, Quincy Public School District, QPS, Quincy School Board, Quincy Teachers, Education in Quincy, Quincy Education, Quincy Board of Education, Staff Cut from Quincy Public School District, QPD Deficit Reduction Plan, Deficit Reduction Plan, QPD Debt, Quincy Public Schools, Quincy Public School District Debt, Teacher Layoffs, Christie Dickens, Quincy Schools

QUINCY, ILL. -- Thirty-four positions and?thirty-two duties in the Quincy Public School District will be eliminated next school year.

The Quincy School Board officially voted Wednesday night to cut staff as part of a deficit reduction plan to trim $1 million from its budget.

Click here to see the entire list of cuts and the impact on the various schools.

"Anytime we have a reduction of staff it impacts students,?we want the very best for our students and the community and they deserve the very best," said Quincy Federation of Teachers president Valerie Bordenkircher.

Superintendent Lonny Lemon said, "This is not a good day for education. The emotional ties and the fact that we won't be able to provide the services to kids that we want to."

The largest swath of cuts came in the district?s classified and extra-curricular programs.

"Some of the kids that would be in art, a foreign language, a cut that may have been cut, that might be all that that student cares about and that is the hook that is keeping them involved in school," said?Bordenkircher.

Twenty-eight people were?cut in classified positions which include para-educators, librarians, cooks and custodians.

Twenty-nine staff members will be eliminated from extra-curricular positions. Most of the extra-curricular cuts come from clubs at Quincy Junior High School, department chairs and the elimination of Q Review.

Five certified employees, three certain extended contracts and one certified employee will also be cut

Assistant Superintendent Christie Dickens said staff members received informal notices about their future last Friday. Wednesday night's meeting made the cuts official.

"Let's hope that we've reached the very bottom of the valley. Hopefully the state can get their affairs in order," Lemon said. "The board has done a great job being fiscally responsible and hopefully we can get some help from the state."

District officials approve the hiring of a new business manager who will receive a $125,000 for three years with buyout provisions for two-thirds annual salary if terminated early.

Source: http://www.connecttristates.com/news/story.aspx?id=732955

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Rovio to get Angry Birds Space for Windows Phone: CEO

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Source: http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/kalw/arts.artsmain?action=viewArticle&id=1915170&pid=1&sid=7

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