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VATICAN CITY (AP) ? Following is the official English language translation provided by the Vatican of Pope Francis' Easter Sunday message, delivered in Italian from the central balcony of St. Peter's Basilica.

___

Dear brothers and sisters in Rome and throughout the world, Happy Easter! Happy Easter!

What a joy it is for me to announce this message: Christ is risen! I would like it to go out to every house and every family, especially where the suffering is greatest, in hospitals, in prisons.

Most of all, I would like it to enter every heart, for it is there that God wants to sow this Good News: Jesus is risen, there is hope for you, you are no longer in the power of sin, of evil! Love has triumphed, mercy has been victorious! The mercy of God always triumphs!

We too, like the women who were Jesus' disciples, who went to the tomb and found it empty, may wonder what this event means (cf. Lk 24:4). What does it mean that Jesus is risen? It means that the love of God is stronger than evil and death itself; it means that the love of God can transform our lives and let those desert places in our hearts bloom. The love God can do this!

This same love for which the Son of God became man and followed the way of humility and self-giving to the very end, down to hell - to the abyss of separation from God - this same merciful love has flooded with light the dead body of Jesus, has transfigured it, has made it pass into eternal life. Jesus did not return to his former life, to earthly life, but entered into the glorious life of God and he entered there with our humanity, opening us to a future of hope.

This is what Easter is: it is the exodus, the passage of human beings from slavery to sin and evil to the freedom of love and goodness. Because God is life, life alone, and we are his glory: the living man (cf. Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, 4,20,5-7).

Dear brothers and sisters, Christ died and rose once for all, and for everyone, but the power of the Resurrection, this passover from slavery to evil to the freedom of goodness, must be accomplished in every age, in our concrete existence, in our everyday lives. How many deserts, even today, do human beings need to cross! Above all, the desert within, when we have no love for God or neighbour, when we fail to realize that we are guardians of all that the Creator has given us and continues to give us. God's mercy can make even the driest land become a garden, can restore life to dry bones (cf. Ez 37:1-14).

So this is the invitation which I address to everyone: Let us accept the grace of Christ's Resurrection! Let us be renewed by God's mercy, let us be loved by Jesus, let us enable the power of his love to transform our lives too; and let us become agents of this mercy, channels through which God can water the earth, protect all creation and make justice and peace flourish.

And so we ask the risen Jesus, who turns death into life, to change hatred into love, vengeance into forgiveness, war into peace. Yes, Christ is our peace, and through him we implore peace for all the world.

Peace for the Middle East, and particularly between Israelis and Palestinians, who struggle to find the road of agreement, that they may willingly and courageously resume negotiations to end a conflict that has lasted all too long. Peace in Iraq, that every act of violence may end, and above all for dear Syria, for its people torn by conflict and for the many refugees who await help and comfort. How much blood has been shed! And how much suffering must there still be before a political solution to the crisis will be found?

Peace for Africa, still the scene of violent conflicts. In Mali, may unity and stability be restored; in Nigeria, where attacks sadly continue, gravely threatening the lives of many innocent people, and where great numbers of persons, including children, are held hostage by terrorist groups. Peace in the East of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in the Central African Republic, where many have been forced to leave their homes and continue to live in fear.

Peace in Asia, above all on the Korean peninsula: may disagreements be overcome and a renewed spirit of reconciliation grow.

Peace in the whole world, still divided by greed looking for easy gain, wounded by the selfishness which threatens human life and the family, selfishness that continues in human trafficking, the most extensive form of slavery in this twenty-first century; human trafficking is the most extensive form of slavery in this twenty-first century! Peace to the whole world, torn apart by violence linked to drug trafficking and by the iniquitous exploitation of natural resources! Peace to this our Earth! Made the risen Jesus bring comfort to the victims of natural disasters and make us responsible guardians of creation.

Dear brothers and sisters, to all of you who are listening to me, from Rome and from all over of the world, I address the invitation of the Psalm: "Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; for his steadfast love endures for ever. Let Israel say: 'His steadfast love endures for ever'" (Ps 117:1-2).

Greeting

Dear Brothers and Sisters, to you who have come from all over the world to this Square at the heart of Christianity, and to you linked by modern technology, I repeat my greeting: Happy Easter!

Bear in your families and in your countries the message of joy, hope and peace which every year, on this day, is powerfully renewed.

May the risen Lord, the conqueror of sin and death, be a support to you all, especially to the weakest and neediest. Thank you for your presence and for the witness of your faith. A thought and a special thank-you for the beautiful flowers, which come from the Netherlands. To all of you I affectionately say again: may the risen Christ guide all of you and the whole of humanity on the paths of justice, love and peace.

__

Copyright Vatican Publishing House

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/official-vatican-text-popes-speech-135245923.html

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On Easter Sunday, the most holy day of the Christian calendar, believers attended religious services ? whether among the packed crowds before a new pope in St. Peter's Square, at sunrise services in India and Pakistan, or at churches flanked by blast walls and security cordons in Iraq.

Here are some scenes from Easter Sunday around the world.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-photos-easter-celebrations-around-world-231217681.html

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(Reuters) - Occidental Petroleum Corp chairman and former chief executive Ray Irani is pushing to replace the oil company's current CEO, Stephen Chazen, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing "investors and people familiar with the company's operations."

However, several big investors who support Chazen have considered the possibility of trying to vote some directors, including Irani, off the board, the newspaper said, citing "people familiar with their plans."

The debate over the leadership of the fourth-largest U.S. oil company has divided major shareholders ahead of the company's annual meeting on May 3, the newspaper said.

The boardroom drama comes as shares of Occidental have fallen 18 percent in the past year, compared with an 11 percent rise for California rival Chevron Corp and a 4 percent rise for giant Exxon Mobil Corp .

Occidental, in a brief press release on February 14, announced that it was searching for someone to succeed Chazen, 66, after less than two years in the top job.

Yet, earlier this month at an industry event in New Orleans, Chazen told a group of investors that he did not volunteer to leave, the newspaper said.

Chazen is only the third CEO at Occidental in half a century. Irani was named CEO in 1990 by Armand Hammer, a flamboyant tycoon who spent three decades building the company up from a small firm of just three employees.

Chazen and Irani found both themselves targeted over their high compensation, until a shareholder effort to take board seats sparked reform in 2010. Chazen ended up earning compensation worth $31.7 million in 2011, down from $38.1 million the year before, while Irani made $49.8 million in 2011, down from $76.1 million.

The 78-year-old Irani, who is scheduled to retire at the end of 2014, owns a substantial amount of Occidental stock, the Journal said.

Occidental's lead director, Aziz Syriani, said in a statement that the company's independent directors, and not Irani, were making decisions about Chazen's eventual successor.

"Any suggestion otherwise, or insinuation that Dr. Irani is guiding the process, is completely and flatly wrong," Syriani said in the statement, which Occidental provided to Reuters.

An Occidental spokeswoman had no additional comment.

(Reporting by Julie Ingwersen; editing by Gunna Dickson)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/fight-over-leadership-divides-occidental-shareholders-report-164541947--finance.html

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TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) ? A campaign promising free shotguns for people to protect themselves in Tucson's most troubled neighborhoods has divided some residents in a community still reeling from a shooting rampage in 2011that killed six people, left a congresswoman and several others wounded, and made the city a symbol of gun violence in America.

The Armed Citizen Project is part of a national campaign to give shotguns to single women and homeowners in the nation's crime-ridden neighborhoods, an effort that comes amid a national debate on gun control after mass shootings in Arizona, Colorado and Connecticut.

While towns in Idaho, Utah, Virginia and Pennsylvania have debated ordinances recommending gun ownership, the gun giveaway effort appears to be the first of its kind.

"If you are not willing to protect the citizens of Tucson, someone is going to do it, why not me? Why not have armed citizens protecting themselves," said Shaun McClusky, a real estate agent who plans to start handing out shotguns by May.

Arizona gun proponents have donated about $12,500 to fund the gun giveaway and McClusky, a former mayoral and city council candidate, hopes to collect enough to eventually arm entire neighborhoods.

Participants will receive training on how to properly use, handle and store their weapon, as well as trigger locks. It costs about $400 per participant for the weapon and training.

Tucson police officials declined to discuss the gun program or public safety concerns, but statistics published by the department show violent crime was at a 13-year low in 2010, with 3,332 incidents. That compares with 5,116 violent crimes ? including homicides, sexual assaults, and robberies ? in 1997. Tucson averages about 50 homicides a year.

"Just like any other city in Arizona and in the nation we have our issues, but it is not crime-ridden," said Vice Mayor Regina Romero. "I would never say you have to carry a gun or you have to be afraid for your life."

Research has produced inconclusive results on whether defensive gun use lowers crime. Some research suggests guns result in more suicides and accidental deaths, while other studies have shown criminals are wary of gun owners.

"People don't want to confront an armed person at home," said Garen J. Wintemute, director of the UC Davis Violence Prevention Research Program. "But, separately, there is solid evidence that in communities with higher rates of gun ownership, burglary rates are up, not down, and that's because guns are hot loot."

Wintemute said it's likely the risk of violence in the home participating in the gun giveaway will go up.

But those behind the program argue shotguns are affordable, easy to use and don't require precise aim when shooting, making them the perfect home protection weapon. The goal is to arm hundreds of people in Tucson, Houston, New York, Chicago, Detroit and at least 10 other cities by the end of the year.

"It is our hypothesis that criminals have no desire to die in your hallway. We want to use that fear," said Kyle Coplen, 29, the project's founder and a University of Houston graduate student.

Tucson became a symbol of American's gun violence in 2011 when a mentally ill man opened fire at a political meet-and-greet hosted by then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords outside a Tucson-area supermarket. Giffords, who is still recovering from her critical wounds, has in recent months become a champion of universal background gun checks and other gun restrictions denounced by Second Amendment proponents.

Moved by Giffords advocacy, the Tucson City Council recently approved a measure requiring universal background checks at gun shows held on city property. City officials said the gun giveaway program appears to be legal, so they have no recourse to shut it down.

One of the neighborhoods targeted by the program is Pueblo Gardens, an ethnically diverse, blue-collar neighborhood in southern Tucson where residents say occasional shootings, drug busts and car thefts are not uncommon.

The no-frills landscape is dotted with pickup trucks, palm trees, window bars, cacti, chain fences and toy-littered lawns. Many residents own guns, if only because of the handful of sex offenders who call the area home. More than 90 percent of the humble, single-story homes are occupied by renters.

Pueblo Gardens could benefit from a public safety campaign, but some residents say they are appalled anyone would think the answer is more guns.

"We could take that $400 per shotgun and give it to these people so they could go buy groceries, pay rent, pay their utility bills, something useful," said neighborhood association president Cindy Fayala. "Vigilantism is not the answer."

McClusky argued that like signs posted in yards advertising alarm systems, signs that warn the homeowners have guns would get the message across, he said.

"I'd like to prevent them from becoming a victim," he said.

At least 13 single women in Houston have already benefited from the program.

Tiffany Braggs, 44, said she had never owned or fired a gun before she signed up for The Armed Citizen Project in Houston after her condominium management board warned residents of growing crime.

"I feel a little bit more secure knowing that I can defend my home and my children," said Braggs, who now plans to buy a handgun to keep in her purse.

Alan M. Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation in Bellevue, Wash., said he expects to see more gun giveaways as President Barack Obama and other leaders call for gun restrictions.

"All this is happening because it's a pushback," he said. "If others weren't screaming for more control you wouldn't see all the sales for guns and ammunition."

___

For more information about the national gun giveaway program, visit http://www.armedcitizenproject.org/

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/arizona-gun-proponents-launch-free-gun-program-073229701.html

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maddoxakilah20 · Mar. 29, 2013

Mar. 29, 2013 ? A chromosome is rarely found in the shape we are used to seeing in biology books, that is to say the typical double rod shape (the X pattern, to put it simply). It is usually "diluted" in the nucleus and creates a bundle that under the microscope appears as a messy tangle. In the last few years such chaos, however, has been "measured" and scientists have unveiled their secret: the genes in the tangle are actually arranged in regions that may perform a functional role.

A research coordinated by the scientists at SISSA of Trieste has now developed and studied a numeric model of the chromosome that supports the experimental data and provides a hypothesis on the bundle's function.

A chromosome spends most of its life "diluted" in the nuclear cytoplasm. To the untrained eye it may look like a randomly entangled thread, yet biologists claim the opposite: although a chaotic component does exist in the bundle, experimental measurements have identified regions that tend to contain specific genes. Thanks to such measurements, researchers have obtained maps of the chromosome in its diluted form, the one in which the DNA transcription processes occur.

Cristian Micheletti, a physicist of SISSA, the International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, has coordinated an international research team -- in which Marco Di Stefano and Angelo Rosa stand out -- that has devised an ingenious method which, on one hand, has allowed to verify the already known experimental measures and, on the other, to find data in support of a theory which explains why the DNA bundle is arranged in regions. "Employing the vast amount of publicly available data on gene expression, we have identified families of genes co-regulated within a chromosome" explains Micheletti. The co-regulated genes codify "in accord," but how such synchronization occurs is a mystery, since often the genes are located very far from one another on the DNA filament. "Two main hypotheses may be considered: either 'messengers' exist that travel back and forth from one gene to the other and coordinate the activity, or the DNA filament folding up inside the tangle brings the genes belonging to the same family physically close."

On the basis of the second assumption Micheletti and his colleagues have used the computer to induce the DNA numeric model to bring the co-regulated genes closer. "The outcome of the simulation has provided a map of chromosome arrangement that is very close to the one obtained through experimentation," explains Micheletti. "Besides, the model has successfully brought closer the genes belonging to the same family, as we had asked for, in 80% of cases, that is without too much effort, which corroborates the validity of the hypothesis and the effectiveness of the simulation."

The article was chosen by PLoS Computational Biology journal as the cover story for the March issue.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Sissa Medialab, via AlphaGalileo.

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

Journal Reference:

Marco Di Stefano, Angelo Rosa, Vincenzo Belcastro, Diego di Bernardo, Cristian Micheletti. Colocalization of Coregulated Genes: A Steered Molecular Dynamics Study of Human Chromosome 19. PLoS Computational Biology, 2013; 9 (3): e1003019 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003019

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/~3/5bCOx0FC-Ns/130329124420.htm

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) ? The first global treaty on regulating the multimillion-dollar international arms trade appeared to be nearing consensus, supporters said, though worries remained that Iran, India or other countries would back off an agreement that requires approval from all 193 U.N. member states.

Thursday is the deadline for reaching a deal and ahead of the vote optimism was growing that the long-debated treaty would become a reality.

"Signals are that the treaty stands a good chance of being adopted today," said Anna Macdonald, head of arms control at Oxfam, one of about 100 organizations worldwide in the Control Arms coalition, which has been campaigning for a strong treaty. "There have been concerns that Iran might block" consensus but an Iranian television station has reported "that Iran is going to support it."

Ahead of the vote, Macdonald said, a number of delegates met with Australian Ambassador Peter Woolcott, who is chairing the negotiations and presented the final draft of the treaty on Wednesday.

The draft treaty does not control the domestic use of weapons in any country, but it would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms, parts and components and to regulate arms brokers. It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

The final draft makes this human rights provision even stronger, adding that the export of conventional arms should be prohibited if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals.

Hopes of reaching agreement on what would be a landmark treaty were dashed last July when the U.S. said it needed more time to consider the proposed accord ? a move quickly backed by Russia and China. In December, the U.N. General Assembly decided to hold a final conference and set Thursday as the deadline.

U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations have been private, said Wednesday the United States was virtually certain to go along with the latest text.

"We understand that a handful of skeptical states have not been happy with the final treaty," Whitney Brown, senior director of international law policy at Amnesty International said Thursday.

But she said that with the majority of states very supportive ? including the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France which are all major arms exporters ? "and even former skeptics like Iran we think it will be very difficult for the skeptics to gain much traction this afternoon."

"We need a treaty," China's U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "We hope for consensus."

There has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $60 billion global arms trade. For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime.

"It's important for each and every country in the world that we have a regulation of the international arms trade," Germany's U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig told the AP. "There are still some divergences of views, but I trust we can overcome them."

In considering whether to authorize the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists or organized crime. The final draft would allow countries to determine whether the weapons transfer would contribute to or undermine peace and security.

The draft would also require parties to the treaty to take measures to prevent the diversion of conventional weapons to the illicit market.

Senator Lyndira Oudit of Trinidad and Tobago, a member of Parliamentarians for Global Action for a robust treaty, complained that the initial text was weak and had too many loopholes, but she said the final draft was stronger, had "some teeth," and "would be supported."

Oxfam's Macdonald said the scope of the weapons covered in the latest draft is still too narrow.

It covers battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons. The phrase stating that this list was "at a minimum" was dropped, according to diplomats at the insistence of the United States.

"We need a treaty that covers all conventional weapons, not just some of them," Macdonald said. "We need a treaty that will make a difference to the lives of the people living in Congo, Mali, Syria and elsewhere who suffer each day from the impacts of armed violence."

Ammunition has been a key issue, with some countries pressing for the same controls on ammunition sales as arms, but the U.S. and others opposed such tough restrictions. The draft calls for each country that ratifies the treaty to establish regulations for the export of ammunition "fired, launched or delivered" by the weapons covered by the convention.

The Control Arms coalition and diplomats from countries that support them, said this wouldn't cover hand grenades and mines.

India and other countries had insisted that the treaty have an opt-out for government arms transfers under defense cooperation agreements. The new text appears to keep that loophole, stating that implementation of the treaty "shall not prejudice obligations" under defense cooperation agreements by countries that ratify the treaty.

"Making this treaty was like making a sausage: Everyone has added an ingredient," said Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

"Unfortunately, that has produced a document that leans much too far towards satisfying the concerns of the Arab Group and Mexico. The former view it as a rebellion prevention plan, while the latter wants a text that edges towards its view that the domestic firearms market in the U.S. should be subject to treaty regulation," he said.

But Daryl Kimball, executive director of the independent Washington-based Arms Control Association, said, "The emerging treaty represents an important first step in dealing with the unregulated and illicit global trade in conventional weapons and ammunition, which fuels wars and human rights abuses worldwide."

He said the text could have been stronger and more comprehensive, but it can still make an important difference.

"The new treaty says to every United Nations member that you cannot simply 'export and forget,'" Kimball said.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/optimism-un-over-1st-global-arms-trade-treaty-012555634.html

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What?s New in the Teaching and Learning Resources Portal?

The Teaching and Learning Resources Portal on the UBC Wiki hosts a collection of resources and articles on a diverse range of teaching and learning topics, strategies, issues, and tools.

The following new bibliographies/resources have been recently added to the portal:

You can submit a bibliography request around teaching and learning topics by filling out a request form.

For more information contact: Shaya Golparian, Ph.D., CTLT Resource Room Coordinator, at ctlt.resourceroom@exchange.ubc.ca.

iPeer Building Block ? Integrating iPeer with Connect

iPeer image Back in January, a new version of iPeer was released, and alongside it, an iPeer building block was developed to integrate iPeer with the Connect learning management system (Blackboard Learn). iPeer is an open source web application that allows instructors to develop and deliver rubric-based peer evaluations, review and release student comments, build progress report forms online, and analyze evaluation results. The iPeer building block allows users to create iPeer courses within Connect. Users can synchronize class lists, and push and pull groups to and from iPeer and Connect. It also allows the instructor to add an iPeer grade into the Connect Grade Center.

iPeer was originally developed in the UBC Faculty of Applied Science, and is currently being developed, hosted, and maintained by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology (CTLT). Each term, approximately 70-80 UBC instructors use iPeer in their course. It is used by the Faculty of Applied Science, Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Education, Sauder School of Business, and UBC Okanagan. Since it is an open source application, others outside of UBC have been using it as well.

For more information about iPeer, email ipeer.support@ubc.ca or visit the Student Peer Review section of the e-learning website. You can learn more about the iPeer building block by visiting the documentation page, which was released in February.

This article was published in the March 2013 CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues. Below is a list of the articles included in the issue:

Find out more information about the CTLT Newsletter, Dialogues.

Source: http://ctlt.ubc.ca/2013/03/28/new-teaching-and-learning-resources-2/

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Google is finally opening up its Google Shopping Express service to the public today, with the same day delivery service being made available as a test to select users in San Francisco and the Peninsula from San Mateo to San Jose. Participating retailers include, as we've previously reported:?Target, Walgreens, Staples, American Eagle, Toys?R?Us/Babies?R?Us, Office Depot, San Francisco?s Blue Bottle Coffee, Raley?s Nob Hill Foods, and Palo Alto Toy & Sport.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/FMw-KSJXJuk/

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Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2013/03/tabloid-klaim-kim-kardashian-faking-pregnancy-for-major-payday/

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Spamhaus, a nonprofit that maintains blacklists of spammers, is the target of a massive denial of service assault.?

By Matthew Shaer / March 27, 2013

Spamhaus, an anti-spam organization, has been attacked by hackers.

Reuters

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Spamhaus, a nonprofit organization with headquarters in both London and Geneva, was founded in 1998, with the goal of identifying and helping to block large quantities of spam. According to its website, Spamhaus currently maintains several large block lists, which are used by a range of universities, Internet service providers, military institutions, and corporations to shield computers from the "vast majority of spam sent out on the Internet."?

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But if you spend your time identifying professional spammers, you're going to end up ticking off a few people. The latest broadside against Spamhaus came earlier this month, when the organization added a company called?Cyberbunker to its blacklist.

Supporters of Cyberbunker, a Web-hosting site based in the Netherlands, then reportedly launched a massive denial-of-service, or DDoS, attack against Spamhaus.?

By yesterday, those attacks were coming in at a whopping 300 gigabits per second, nearly overwhelming the Spamhaus site. Sites such as Boing Boing and the Register have called it the?worst such assault in public Internet history.

In an interview with the BBC, Steve Linford, chief executive for Spamhaus, said that his team had managed to keep company servers online.?"We've been under this cyber-attack for well over a week," Linford said. "But we're up ? they haven't been able to knock us down. Our engineers are doing an immense job in keeping it up - this sort of attack would take down pretty much anything else."

Meanwhile, over at VentureBeat, John Koetsier agrees that the 300 gigabites per second of incoming data does constitute the "biggest-ever DDOS attack." But he points out that the scale of the attack was largely confined to Western Europe; thus far, the US remains largely unaffected.?

Last fall, several major banking institutions in the US, including?JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, and PNC Bank, were hit by DDoS barrages.?

"What these attacks appear to have shown is there are some attackers that have a full suite of DDoS methods," Matthew Prince, CEO of security company Cloud Flare told Ars Technica at the time, "and they're trying all kinds of different things and continually shifting until they find something that works. It's still cavemen using clubs, but they have a whole toolbox full of different clubs they can use depending on what the situation calls for."

For?more tech news, follow us on?Twitter @venturenaut.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DTjuY-U89vQ/Spamhaus-targeted-by-most-powerful-DDoS-strike-in-history

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With the launch of Stocksy this week, Bruce Livingstone is officially taking another shot at building a digital stock photography service. His last attempt, iStockphoto, which he founded in 2000, has since become one of the largest resources for stock images, media and design elements on the Web. And, as a result, Livingstone has become known as one of the pioneers of "microstock" or "micropayment" photography.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/V0VbSMTugVc/

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BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) ? Motown songwriter-producer Deke Richards has died at a hospice at age 68.

Richards, whose real name was Dennis Lussier, died Sunday at the Whatcom Hospice House, Peace Health St. Joseph Medical Center spokeswoman Amy Cloud confirmed Monday.

Richards had been battling esophageal cancer, according to a statement from Universal Music.

As leader of the Motown songwriting, arranging and producing team known as The Corporation, Richards was involved in writing and producing many Jackson 5 hits, the Universal Music release said. Those songs included the Jackson 5's first three No. 1 hits - "I Want You Back," ''ABC," and "The Love You Save."

He also co-wrote "Love Child" for Diana Ross & The Supremes, as well Ross' solo "I'm Still Waiting."

Other recording artists for whom Richards produced or wrote songs include Bobby Darin, Martha Reeves & the Vandellas.

He is survived by his wife, Joan Lussier, a brother and two nephews.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-03-25-US-Obit-Richards/id-f2064c4203a749019dc4fec3724da371

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The Main Event ? More live matches than ever before, Q-and-As featuring WWE Superstars, plus exciting contests for your chance to win a number of prizes!

Superstar Signings ? Get an autograph with your favorite WWE Superstar or Diva at stations located in the arena seats throughout WrestleMania Axxess.

Legends Signings ? Get an autograph with your favorite WWE Legend at these stations.

See the signing schedules?| Helpful information to know before attending Axxess

WWE Memorabilia ? Experience WWE history while walking through this area showcasing authentic WWE mementos, including items from the 2013 Hall of Fame Class.

WrestleMania Timeline ? Check out the WrestleMania timeline spotlighting the greatest moments in WrestleMania history.

WWE Vehicles ? View the 4x4 that ?Stone Cold? Steve Austin rode to and around the ring at WrestleMania XXV for the ultimate beer bash, Mr. McMahon?s infamous limo and Alberto Del Rio?s Rolls Royce that was destroyed by Edge at WrestleMania XXVII.

WWE Championship Titles ? Get up close and personal with past and present WWE championship titles in this historical display.

WWE Photo Shoot ? Take a photo with your favorite WWE Superstar or Diva!

WWEShop ? WWE fans of all ages will have the opportunity to browse and purchase the hottest WrestleMania 29 gear and products with the option of purchasing online products at nearby kiosks.

Cenation Trivia and Audio Booth ? Test your trivia knowledge for a chance to win great prizes! Plus, record your own John Cena?inspired entrance music!

Money in the Bank ? Here is your opportunity to grab hold of the Money in the Bank briefcase and win a future WWE Title bout! Take a photo and share with your friends and family!

WWE Universe Open Casting Call: ?Christmas Bounty? Presented by WWE Studios ? The WWE Studios team is looking for talent during WrestleMania Axxess!? You have an opportunity at auditioning for a role in WWE Studios? upcoming film, ?Christmas Bounty.??Your audition could be posted on WWE's YouTube channel for all to check out ? do you have what it takes?

Cover Shoot Presented by WWE Magazine ? Have your photo taken and inserted onto the cover of a WWE Magazine.

?Pain & Gain? Photo Booth ? Visit the ?Pain & Gain? photo booth for a free picture with the stars of the film, and make sure to check out the autograph stage where you can meet your favorite WWE Superstars!

National Guard ? The National Guard is proud to be the presenting partner of WrestleMania Axxess! Stop by the National Guard Autograph Station to meet your favorite WWE Superstars and Divas, test your skills at their football toss or get your photo taken with the National Guard?s NASCAR Show Car and Patriot Chopper.

See photos from last year's WrestleMania Axxess?| Find out ticket information

Welcome Mat ? Get what you need at this out-of-the box welcome center.?Fans will be offered literature and assistance at this entrance feature.

WWE Broadcast Center ? On Thursday night, be part of a special taping at WrestleMania Axxess to air the following night on SmackDown? and you may be on TV!?

Concessions ? Take a break from all the excitement that WrestleMania Axxess brings by visiting the concessions, where you can enjoy a quick bite to eat and an ice-cold beverage.

Photo Axxess ? Share your WrestleMania Axxess experience with friends and family on social media.

WWE Community Partners Area ? WWE is committed to leveraging the power of its brand and platforms to help address important social issues worldwide.?Check out our featured community partner areas located in the lower-level lobby of the IZOD Center during WrestleMania Axxess: Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Make-A-Wish, Be a STAR and Special Olympics 2014 USA Games. Visit wwecommunity.com for more!

WWE Action Figure Headquarters Presented by Power Slammers ? WWE toys at Mattel?s Action Figure Headquarters!

?WWE ?13? Game Zone Presented by 2K Sports ? Compete against your friends and get your hands on the critically acclaimed video game that boasts incredibly realistic graphics and game play, as well as the largest roster of WWE Superstars, Divas, and Legends to date.

Fruity Pebbles Bedrock ? Check out Fruity Pebbles Bedrock, where you can test your strength, make a splash into the giant foam Fruity Pebbles pit, or even get you picture taken posing down with a virtual John Cena!

*WrestleMania Axxess attractions are subject to change.

WrestleMania Axxess Tickets
Available now at:
- Ticketmaster.com
- Charge by phone: 800-745-3000

2013 WWE Hall of Fame Tickets
- Ticketmaster.com
- Madison Square Garden Box Office
- Charge by phone: 800-745-3000

Monday Night Raw Tickets
Don't miss the fallout from WrestleMania as?Monday Night Raw comes to IZOD Center in East Rutherford, N.J., on April 8.

Source: http://www.wwe.com/shows/wrestlemania/29/wrestlemania-axxess-attractions

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maddoxakilah20

Welcome back to BracketRacket, the one-stop shop for all your NCAA tournament needs.

Today, we see what happens when Ohio State hits a buzzer beater, ride shotgun with NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler and see why the cool kids are referring to Fort Myers, Fla., as "Dunk City."

But first, let's acquaint ourselves with the Sweet 16, shall we?

___

REGIONAL SEMIS SET

On a day that boasted several close-but-not-quite upset threats, Florida Gulf Coast (aka. Dunk City or Florida Dunk Coast) bucked things with a 10-point win over San Diego State to become the first No. 15 seed ever in the Sweet 16. Indiana and Ohio State beat even lower seeded teams Sunday ? and had much more stressful games.

"These guys are rock stars," TBS announcer Len Elmore said as a few Eagles players walked up into the stands at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to nab some seats during the first half of the Creighton-Duke game.

Of the 8.15 million brackets filled out on ESPN.com, just under 1 percent ? about 77,000 ? had Florida Gulf Coast making the Sweet 16.

Fewer than 3,000 have them winning the title.

They'll join No. 12 seed Oregon and 13th-seeded La Salle as the lowest seeded teams in the Sweet 16. Also in: top seeds Louisville, Kansas and Indiana, along with Duke, Ohio State, Michigan State, Wichita State, Arizona, Marquette, Miami, Syracuse, Florida and Michigan.

___

CRAFT'S MOMENT

Fans, meet Aaron Craft, the bracket-buster buster.

Minutes after Craft hit a game-winning 3-pointer over a 6-foot-7 defender to send Ohio State to the Sweet 16, the AP's Tom Withers saw the guard walking up the short ramp to a news conference area. Before he went in, Craft paused and said something just a little bit too rude for print here that showed even he was surprised by the ending.

Much of America agreed, buzzing about Craft enough to quickly make him a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, even though he told Withers he doesn't have an account.

That'll be disappointing for the 1,200 fans who clicked to follow a phony Craft handle in the three hours following the game.

Ohio State is the only top-5 seed left in the wacky West Region, where Gonzaga, New Mexico, Kansas State and Wisconsin have all lost in the first weekend.

As for the shot itself, Craft said the play was originally meant for Deshaun Thomas but Craft audibled because Iowa State changed defenders.

"Just made a read. If they wouldn't have switched, probably would have been a different play," Craft said. "The shot I took right before that felt pretty good. I thought I could make the next one, and was able to do so."

If you missed the play, here's the highlight: http://bit.ly/105BhHi

Note Craft waving off Thomas to seize the moment himself.

___

OH, THE AGONY

Each joyful moment in the NCAA tournament brings anguish to someone on the other side.

USA Today Sports is pulling together a photo gallery of those reactions, aptly titled "March Sadness." See it here: http://usat.ly/XyYZvu

___

CELEB ALUM: ELLIOTT SADLER

What's the best way to follow up a $29,000 racing payday? For NASCAR driver Elliott Sadler, it's apparently a Sunday partially spent watching basketball and getting a haircut.

Sadler ? a 37-year-old racer who earned a basketball scholarship at James Madison but got hurt before he could play ? placed seventh on Saturday at the Royal Purple 300, a Nationwide Series race in Fontana, Calif.

And even with busy preparations, Sadler said he still tried to catch some of the tournament.

"I definitely tried to watch as many games as I could this weekend, even being at the race track. In between practices and events at the track, I stayed in our team's hauler to catch the latest games," Sadler said.

Sadler, who's in a bracket challenge on ESPN with his fans, said his predictions are still in OK shape since he picked Louisville, Florida, New Mexico and Miami to make the Final Four. Only New Mexico is gone.

He thinks Louisville has the best shot to win it all because of good guards, strong perimeter defense and a tough schedule.

But he says the unexpected wins are what make the tournament special.

"My favorite part is that it is an even playing field," Sadler said. "It gives the underdogs, the Florida Gulf Coasts of the world, the chance to get their time in the spotlight."

___

DUNK CITY

Gotta be handy with the song covers if you want your parody video to go viral.

Making the YouTube rounds is a Florida Gulf Coast fan's reimagining of Tyga's "Rack City." The 15-seed's hoops version? Dunk City. See it here: http://youtu.be/7MWGx0x25yo

The new song includes this poetic verse: "Smashing those brackets should be illegal."

A little obvious, but definitely more effort than a Harlem Shake.

And for the inevitable Sweet 16 remix after the win over San Diego State, there's plenty of highlight B-roll to choose from, including Chase Fieler's drive and dunk over Stephens (http://bit.ly/ZiAWDJ), one of two alley-oops to Eric McKnight within a minute (http://bit.ly/13p8HbL) and Bernard Thompson's celebration throw-down in the game's final two minutes (http://bit.ly/Zm4RYk).

___

VANDY'S VINCE

Vanderbilt's women's basketball team doesn't have a big celebrity following, but being in Nashville there is the occasional sighting.

Coach Melanie Balcomb tells the AP's Pat Eaton-Robb that country star Vince Gill created quite a distraction at one game when he took a seat behind the bench.

Yes, that Vince Gill, who got a star last year on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, has sold millions of albums and won 18 Country Music Association awards, including a five-year run as male vocalist of the year in the early '90s.

"We're all whispering going, 'That's Vince Gill. No it's not. It's Vince Gill, it's Vince Gill," Balcomb said.

Balcomb said there was one person on the bench, a graduate assistant from New York, who didn't understand all the fuss. She eventually screamed out: "Who is Vince Gill?"

"And that's when everything got really quiet," said Balcomb. "And, I was like, 'Oh my God, he heard it. It was the worst thing."

Vanderbilt can expect to get a few more followers if the Commodores can pull off an upset Monday in the second round against top seed Connecticut.

___

STAT OF THE DAY

A lot of talk flowed over the weekend about the Big Ten having four schools in the Sweet 16, but a pair of Big Ten teams were defeated by Florida schools on Sunday night in Austin. With Florida and Miami advancing along with Florida Gulf Coast, it's the first time three schools from the Sunshine State have reached the regional semifinals.

Florida and Florida Gulf Coast play each other in the next round.

___

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Chico, please." ? TV personality and former NBA star Charles Barkley, to cap a CBS postgame argument about foul calls in Ohio State-Iowa State with fellow analyst Kenny Smith. A few minutes later, the phrase became a trending topic worldwide on Twitter.

___

Oskar Garcia is a news editor for The Associated Press in Honolulu. Write to him at ogarcia(at)ap.org and follow him on Twitter at http://twitter.com/oskargarcia

___

SUNDAY'S RESULTS

Midwest Region

Duke 66, Creighton 50

West Region

Ohio State 78, Iowa State 75

La Salle 76, Mississippi 74

South Region

Kansas 70, North Carolina 58

Florida 78, Minnesota 64

Florida Gulf Coast 81, San Diego State 71

East Region

Indiana 58, Temple 52

Miami 63, Illinois 59

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-03-25-BKC-BracketRacket-032513/id-9a0b55b4b211462e9cecd662114deab3

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maddoxakilah20

The buzz around the budget iPhone has grown deafening, with new reports about the device coming out on a weekly basis. This will be a product launch with a unique impact because of two trends that define the current smartphone market. First, the overall smartphone volume growth is projected to slow down from more than 50% in the fourth quarter of 2012 to about 36% in Q4 2013. Second, the Q4 2012 growth rates of the three biggest Asian smartphone vendors have remained superheated, with Samsung (005930) at 76%, Huawei at 89% and Sony (SNE) at 56%. What made this was possible was Apple?s slowdown to 29% growth during the past Christmas season and the notably weak year-on-year numbers from Nokia (NOK), ZTE and BlackBerry (BBRY).

[More from BGR: Buying the new Blackberry Z10 in Manhattan was a chilling experience]

If the budget iPhone really arrives this summer, it will drop smack in the middle of the tension created by slowing global smartphone volume growth and the extremely ambitious volume growth targets of the largest Asian vendors. Obviously, Sony?s momentum has now improved even more with the smash success of the Xperia Z in Europe and Asia over the past two months. Samsung is about to make a substantial volume leap with the Galaxy S 4 launch in April. It is clear that Samsung, Huawei and Sony are all gunning for 50%-plus volume growth in 2013, even as total smartphone market volume growth is slowing down to 30%.

[More from BGR: America?s top copyright cop wants to make it a felony to stream songs without permission]

The quarterly smartphone volumes of Nokia and Blackberry have dropped to 4 and 7 million units, respectively. The new smartphone leaders simply don?t have that much flesh left to rip from the haunches of the two fading champions. The new product lines of Nokia and BlackBerry are highly likely to stabilize their overall quarterly smartphone volumes in coming quarters close to the Q4 2012 level even if the sales are deeply disappointing. More likely, the combined Nokia and BlackBerry market share will actually climb a bit during the first three quarters of 2013. The period of making easy gains off the Nokia-BlackBerry volume dive is over.

That leaves a tough equation for the industry to deal with. The budget iPhone is likely to boost Apple?s year-on-year volume growth for the second half of 2013 to well above 40%, possibly over 50%, even if the model is priced at $350 in retail without subsidies. If it?s priced at or below $300, the volume boost could be a lot bigger. What would that mean for the rest of the field if the global smartphone volume growth continues its cooling, likely to around 30% during the second half of 2013?

Apple is in a unique position because all the other leading brands have made fairly aggressive moves to the budget category a lot earlier. Apple?s average selling price at around $650 is so high that it was initially regarded as impossible for a mass-market phone vendor back in 2007. There clearly is huge pent-up demand for a brand new iPhone retailing at below $400, particularly since the new iPhone model prices tend to top $700 in non-subsidized markets. Because non-subsidized markets make up more than 80% of the global handset markets, the budget iPhone is a big deal indeed.

A lot is now riding on the precise pricing of the cheaper iPhone: The difference between $275 and $375 in retail is fairly massive in markets like Brazil and Russia. But either sort of budget iPhone would completely reshape the Christmas season market share outlook, possibly spelling doom for a variety of mid-tier brands from HTC to LG.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/why-budget-iphone-throw-smartphone-market-chaos-151143634.html

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maddoxakilah20

Workplace communication is assuming greater importance in the rapidly changing global business environment. An organization?s bread and butter come from the workplace and although communication may be working effectively at higher echelons, any breakdown in workplace communication can adversely affect the entire organization. It is necessary for companies to ensure that lower level communication is transparent and effective. Organizations attach great importance to corporate level communication with regular and informative newsletters emanating from Head Office. However, the quality and extent of communication may be dismal at supervisory, sales and shop-floor levels. The interpersonal skills of workers, supervisors and team leaders are especially critical at such levels as these are people with whom frontline managers develop working relationships.

Over time, such relationships become close and personal, but the opposite can also happen. Many exit surveys have shown that employees have left an organization because of poor working relationship with an immediate superior. Therefore, it is essential that managers institutionalize effective lower-level communication channels. Of equal importance is communication between and within levels. Intra-national and international competition is now so fierce that everyone in the organization needs to collaborate closely on solving organizational challenges and achieving agreed strategic objectives. Any organization saddled with communication barriers is erring on the wrong side. The main reason behind ineffective communication at workplace is the loose perception that lower level communication is just a cake-walk. Unlike normal day-to-day communication, workplace communication covers different levels and aspects such as marketing, customer relations, management etc. With such diversity, managers must be equipped with unique skill sets for effective communication at workplace. Workplace communication involves individuals, teams or large groups.

One should also lend credence to the life-cycle and size of the organization. The importance of setting up structures, systems and processes for effective lower level communication should never be underestimated. Organizational and employee communication surveys can determine how well communication systems and practices are contributing to the organization?s performance; or how much they are hindering performance. This information can help managers in devising an effective employee communication strategy. Whatever be the type of organization or the nature of its business, communication practices impact every facet of the company. Although managers spend most of their time communicating, it does not mean that meaningful communication occurs in all exchanges. Once a memorandum, letter, fax, or e-mail has been sent, many are inclined to believe that communication has taken place.

George Bernard Shaw said; ?The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.? This quote pretty much sums up the root cause of all conflicts in the workplace. Often, it is seen that managers do not realize the importance of communication at work and fail to convey their ideas, organizational goals, vision, etc. with enough clarity. When seniors in the organization neglect the need for open and clear communication, the work culture is negatively impacted with consequent loss of productivity. An organization where sharing of information is poor, workplace issues crop up resulting in high employee turnover and wastage of organizational resources is unprofessional. To avoid these, effective communication at work should be encouraged which can help in:

Team building
Creating job satisfaction
Increased transparency
Enhanced productivity
Better work prospects
Proper utilization of resources
Reduced incidences of conflicts
Shortened project completion time
Development of long-term relationships

Advances in technological communication have stymied an individual?s ability to connect on a personal level with co-workers. The modern means of mobile telephony, SMS and emails have their importance, but they have one downside. They have done away with the age-old and necessary informational effects like the facial expressions, body language, speaking cadence and intonation. Since effective workplace communication is largely interpersonal, technology is not much of a help in this respect. It has been widely accepted that great professional relationships cannot be fully developed without the keen awareness of personal courtesy, act of attentive listening, whole-hearted participation and situation-appropriate body language.

Source: http://www.blogbigtime.com/improved-workplace-communication-is-a-key-to-business-success/

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maddoxakilah20

Parents often have worries when it comes to the education of their children. Will they get good grades? Will they have trouble making friends in school? Do they have learning disabilities? Will they get into trouble? One of the worries I have as a parent is about the quality of the education my child receives. In my pursuit to determine what will provide a high-quality education (and what will not), I have compared private education to public education. I assumed that at the end of my search, I will have been convinced that private schooling is best. What I have found has surprised me.

?In my search, I ran across an interesting report that compares public to private educational settings (Braun, Jenkins & Grigg, 2006). In this study, researchers compared assessment scores from large samples of private and public schools and the results were as expected. In general, private school students scored higher in math and reading skills, with the gap widening as grade level increases (Braun et al., 2006). However, when student variables were controlled for, the differences were much less significant (Braun et al., 2006). These student variables include gender, race, disabilities, socioeconomic status, absenteeism and access to books and computers in the home.

Now, being the analytical thinker that I am, I realized that it is possible that it was not the school itself that makes a student 'smarter', but?rather the student's individual factors. All students?larn and perfrom?differently, and perhaps their sucess can be determined by personality, genetics, environment, or parental interventions. In the summary section of the report, I found support to my hypothesis: The variance decompositions associated with the analyses comparing all private schools to all public schools indicate that there is greater variance among students within schools than among schools (Braun et al., 2006). In addition, when student-level covariates are included in, the averages of private school means is lower than the averages of public school means (Braun et al., 2006).

?

What does this mean for my son? It means that I can stop looking for a private school to place him in. It also means that I vow to be an active participant in his learning. I now know that the quality of his education does not depend solely on the school he attends, but also upon his environment and upon himself. It is the students themselves that make the school, with a little help from their parents and their environment.

?

Reference:

Braun, H., Jenkins, F., and Grigg, W. (2006). Comparing Private Schools and Public Schools Using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (NCES 2006-461). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Source: http://www.personal.psu.edu/bfr3/blogs/asp/2013/03/to-publicize-or-to-privatize.html

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maddoxakilah20

Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was found dead at his home near London on Saturday. NBC's Lester Holt reports.

By Becky Bratu, Staff Writer, NBC News

Exiled Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky, a prominent Russian opposition figure, was found dead at his home near London on Saturday, British officials told NBC News. He was 67.

His death was also reported in a Facebook post by his son-in-law, Egor Schuppe. "Boris Berezovsky dead," the post read.

Ben Stansall / AFP - Getty Images, file

A picture dated Oct. 4, 2011 shows Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky leaving the Court of Appeal in Central London. Berezovsky, the exiled Russian oligarch and long-time opponent of the Kremlin, has died in Britain at the age of 67, his spokesman said on March 23, 2013, without giving further details.

Police would not directly identify Berezovsky, but when asked Saturday about him by name they said "the death of a 67-year-old man at a property in Ascot, Berkshire" was being treated as "unexplained" and a full investigation is ongoing.

Ascot lies about 25 miles west of London.

"The area around the property has been cordoned off in order to allow the investigation to take place," the Thames Valley police statement read.

Officers, including some trained in dealing with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear threats, were conducting a number of searches as a precaution. Police said Berezovsky's body was still in the property Saturday night.
?
"I would like to reassure residents that we are confident there is no risk to the wider community," Supt. Stuart Greenfield said. "The property is part of a large estate so a number of roads are closed off at the moment and will remain so for the time being."

Berezovsky accumulated his wealth in the early 1990s, when Russia's privatization of state assets turned chaotic. He orchestrated the re-election of Boris Yeltsin in 1996 and played a role in Vladimir Putin's rise to prominence, but he fell out of favor with the latter after Putin became president of Russia in 2000.?

Berezovsky fled Russia for Britain in 2001 after criticizing Putin's government. He was granted political asylum in Britain in 2003.

Berezovsky was a close friend of Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko, who was fatally poisoned with radioactive polonium in London in 2006.

Last year, a court ordered him to pay $53.3 million in legal costs to fellow Russian tycoon Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea Football Club, after losing a legal battle against him. The legal and other costs of that lawsuit amounted to about $250 million.

?

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653387/s/29e97bd2/l/0Lworldnews0Bnbcnews0N0C0Inews0C20A130C0A30C230C174312210Erussian0Etycoon0Eberezovsky0Efound0Edead0Ein0Elondon0Dlite/story01.htm

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maddoxakilah20

Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky was not killed by chemical or radioactive material, British police said today, but still calling the 67-year-old's death unexplained.

Berezovsky, once one of Russia's most visible and wealthiest men, was found dead Saturday at his home in Ascot, England, where he had been living since he left his homeland in 2000 as President Vladimir Putin's government was moving to bring criminal charges against him.

Thames Valley Police Scenes of Crime officers were carrying out a forensic investigation today at Berezovsky's estate.

"We are at the early stages of the investigation and we are retaining an open mind as we progress," Detective Chief Inspector Kevin Brown, the deputy senior investigating officer in the case, said.

"The investigation team are building a picture of the last days of Mr. Berezovsky's life, speaking to close friends and family to gain a better understanding of his state of mind. We are acutely aware of the level of interest into his death and are focused on conducting a thorough investigation as we would with any unexplained death."

News of Berezovsky's death sparked speculation that he might have been killed like ex-KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko, who died in 2006 after he was poisoned with polonium-210 while drinking tea at a London meeting.

Berezovsky openly accused Russian President Putin of personal involvement in the ex-spy's killing, and on his deathbed, Litvinenko blamed Putin for his death.

A year after Litvinenko's death, Berezovsky said Scotland Yard had warned him about a plot on his life, but British police never confirmed his claim.

Police today said any speculation about Berezovsky's death would be premature.

"It would be wrong to speculate on the cause of death until the post-mortem has been carried out," he said. "We do not have any evidence at this stage to suggest third-party involvement."

Police went to Berezovsky's home Saturday after receiving a phone call from an ambulance service that a man had been found dead at the Ascot home.

One of Berezovsky's employees told police he had called the ambulance service after finding the Russian's lifeless body on the floor of a bathroom. He said he'd become concerned because he hadn't seen Berezovsky since 10:30 the night before, and began searching the house. When he found the locked bathroom door, he forced it open and found Berezovsky, police said.

A paramedic with the ambulance service declared Berezovsky dead, police said.

Berezovsky was a supporter of former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, but quickly came into conflict with Putin, Yeltsin's successor.

He accused Putin's government of involvement in the apartment house bombings in Moscow and two other Russian cities that the government blamed on Chechen terrorists and used as a pretext for Russian troops to sweep into Chechnya for the second war there in half a decade.

When Russian authorities began moving to bring fraud, embezzlement, money laundering and other charges against him, Berezovsky said the criminal investigation was politically motivated, and he fled to Great Britain. Moscow sought his extradition, but the British refused.

Berezovsky continued to fund Russian opposition groups, in 2007 claiming he had given as much as $400 million to various organizations over the years, and even today a presidential spokesman said Putin considered Berezovsky an enemy.

"We know for certain that he spared no expense in support of processes, within Russia and beyond, that could be said to have been directed against Russia and Putin," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the independent cable television channel Rain. "He definitely was Putin's opponent and, unfortunately, not only his political opponent, but most likely in other dimensions as well."

Berezovsky's considerable fortune had reportedly been strained in recent years, first by a divorce settlement with his second wife, then when he lost a multibillion-pound High Court case against fellow Russian Roman Abramovich and was ordered to pay 35 million pounds (about $53 million) in legal costs.

He was also fighting a legal battle with his former partner, Elena Gorbunova, with whom he had two children and who claimed the businessman owed her millions. Legal fees for the case reportedly cost him 250,000 pounds (about $380,000) in just two months.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Official Vatican text of pope's speech

AP PHOTOS: Easter celebrations around the world

Leadership fight divides Occidental shareholders: report

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Arizona gun proponents launch free gun program

DNA: How to unravel the tangle

Optimism in UN over 1st global arms trade treaty

New Teaching and Learning Resources | Centre for Teaching ...

What?s New in the Teaching and Learning Resources Portal?

iPeer Building Block ? Integrating iPeer with Connect

Thursday, March 28, 2013

Google Starts Testing Google Shopping Express In SF, With Free Delivery From Target, Walgreens, Staples And More

Supreme Court, in next gay marriage case, eyes federal law (reuters)

Tabloid Klaim: Kim Kardashian Faking Pregnancy for Major Payday!

Spamhaus targeted by most powerful DDoS strike in history

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

iStockphoto Founder Returns To Stock Photography With Stocksy, A Co-op That Puts Artists (And Quality) Before Profits

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Motown songwriter-producer Deke Richards dies

WrestleMania Axxess attractions

BracketRacket: Craft's shot, Sadler and Dunk City

Monday, March 25, 2013

Why the budget iPhone would throw the smartphone market into chaos

Improved Workplace Communication is a Key to Business Success ...

To Publicize or to Privatize? - Applied Social Psychology (ASP)

Russian tycoon Berezovsky found dead in London

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky's death 'unexplained'

Bloomberg vs. the NRA: Mayor vows to spend $12 million on ads