Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/175055886?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Chilean doctors separate conjoined twins (AP)
SANTIAGO, Chile ? Chilean doctors successfully separated conjoined twin girls early Wednesday after a marathon 18-hour surgery widely followed in the South American country on television and the Internet.
The 10-month-old twins Maria Paz and Maria Jose are in stable condition even after losing a lot of blood and they are resting in the intensive care unit at Luis Calvo Mackenna Hospital, chief surgeon Francisco Ossandon said.
Parents Jessica Navarrete and Roberto Paredes kept an anxious vigil at the hospital in Santiago as doctors separated the twins at the thorax, stomach and pelvis. It was the seventh and most complex operation yet for the twins.
"Both were successfully separated," Ossandon said at a news conference. "We had a number of difficulties during the surgery, there were some surprises, but we were able to fix, solve the problems."
He added that the twins came out of the surgery in "good condition." Ossandon, however, didn't rule out future complications involving the effects from anesthesia and possible infections.
Navarrete said she was waiting for "a miracle from God" when the high-risk operation began Tuesday morning.
The Chilean twins presented a particularly difficult challenge because they were born sharing many of the same internal organs and even urinary system. About 100 people participated in the procedure, including 25 surgeons and anesthesiologists.
Perhaps providing some comfort to the parents was the hospital's history with conjoined twins. Staff there have separated three sets before. A fourth set, however, died during surgery due to cardiac complications.
According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, one out of every 200,000 live births worldwide results in conjoined twins. About 35 percent survive only one day, while the overall survival rate is 5 percent to 25 percent.
The twins were born in the Villarrica hospital about 470 miles (760 kilometers) from Santiago and were kept under constant medical care, surviving with the aid of an artificial respirator.
Earlier this year, doctors separated the twins' legs, urinary tracts, pulmonary systems and other parts of their bodies.
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The Android Market sale reaches its final day, we bid fond farewell to more dimes
The Android Market sale reaches its final day, we bid fond farewell to more dimes originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Obama fights for Jewish support amid GOP attacks (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama is working to court Jewish voters leading into the 2012 election, as Republicans seek to chip away at the president's support in the Jewish community by attacking him over Israel.
Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and other GOP hopefuls say Obama hasn't done enough for Israel and hasn't been tough enough on the Palestinians. The White House and Obama campaign officials dispute that, and Obama says his administration has done more to help Israel's security than past U.S. administrations.
But the constant criticism from Republicans has raised questions in the Jewish community that Obama supporters are increasingly working to rebut.
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Monday, December 5, 2011
Iran calls for calm in crisis with Britain (Reuters)
TEHRAN (Reuters) ? Iran called on the West to avoid a deepening diplomatic crisis following the storming of the British embassy in Tehran, saying it was an issue between Tehran and London alone, Iranian media reported on Saturday.
Britain closed its embassy after Tuesday's incursion by hardline youths and expelled all Iranian diplomats from London. The fallout for Tehran spread when several other countries recalled their envoys, including France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
"The British government is trying to extend to other European countries the problem between the two of us," Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was reported as saying by the semi-official Fars news agency.
"But of course we have told European countries not to subject their ties with us to the kind of problems that existed between Iran and Britain."
Western nations on Thursday significantly tightened sanctions against Iran, with the European Union expanding an Iranian blacklist and the U.S. Senate passing a measure that could severely disrupt Iran's oil income.
Iranian diplomats expelled from London arrived home on Saturday to supporters bearing flowers and chanting "Death to England."
"Spy embassy closed for good," read one of the many placards carried by the crowd of some 100 men and women, at Tehran's Mehrabad Airport, most of whom appeared to be members of the hardline Basij militia.
With swift condemnation from around the world, the embassy storming risks further isolating Iran, which is already under several rounds of sanctions.
The incident followed accusations from Washington of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador and a report from the U.N. nuclear watchdog suggesting Iran was pursuing nuclear weapons.
The United States and Israel have not ruled out military strikes if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute. Some Israeli leaders have again started to contemplate the idea of military action to prevent Tehran from making bombs.
POLITICAL RIFT
Mixed signals from Tehran over the attack have drawn attention to the deepening political rift within the Iranian leadership, a split created after Iran's disputed 2009 presidential vote.
Iran's foreign ministry immediately apologized for the storming of the embassy, but some hardline rivals of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised it, attributing it to a spontaneous outburst by hardline students in reaction to Britain's "historically hostile Iran policy."
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on state matters, and Ahmadinejad have remained silent, a sign of the unease within the clerical establishment over the crisis.
But in remarks reported on Saturday, Ahmadinejad said Iran would not yield to pressures.
"We will stick to our revolution's principles and values with all our power even if the entire world rise up against us," he told a group of clerics, his official website President.ir reported.
Hardline cleric Ahmad Khatami, one of four Tehran Friday prayer leaders appointed by Khamenei, condemned the embassy storming.
"I say this explicitly, that I am opposed to attacks on and occupations of foreign embassies in the Islamic Republic," the students news agency ISNA on Saturday quoted Khatami as saying.
"The attack by the students will lead to a feeling of insecurity among foreign diplomats in Iran," he said.
The protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds, smashing windows, setting fire to a car and burning the British flag in protest against new sanctions imposed by London.
Analysts say the closure of the embassies, by cutting off the channel of communication, will complicate finding a diplomatic solution to the nuclear dispute.
"The end of talks with major powers means confrontation and military strikes against Iran. This scenario scares the Iranian regime," said one analyst, who asked not to be named.
Analysts say Iranian authorities are concerned about a military strike against their nuclear facilities as well as a revival of anti-government street protests that followed the 2009 vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad's re-election.
"Sanctions are hurting the people and might force them to take to streets to vent their anger over the economy," said analyst Hamid Farahvashi.
"Some Iranian hawks favor a military strike that will reinforce their strength ... But wiser rulers want to preserve the system through an easing of the tension."
(Additional reporting by Sanam Shantyaei, Hashem Kalantari and Robin Pomeroy; Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Rosalind Russell)
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Samsung BD-D5500
The Samsung BD-D5500 Blu-ray player is the scaled-back version of the Editors' Choice BD-D5700 ($199.99, 4 stars). The two are very similar, but at $159.99 (direct), the BD-D5500 adds 3D support at the expense of integrated Wi-Fi and performance. You do get a nice selection of Web apps and services, and the player handles Blu-ray discs well, but mediocre DVD-upconversion performance and slower speeds hold it back. If you want a good Blu-ray player but don't want to spend much, consider the Editors' Choice?Panasonic DMP-BDT110 ($134.99, 4 stars), which is less expensive and faster than the BD-D5500.
Design
When unplugged, the 1.5-by-16.9-by-8.3-inch (HWD), 3.8-pound player's front panel has no distinguishing markings or buttons save for a silver Samsung logo on the left side and a covered USB port to the right. When plugged in but not turned on, it only shows a touch-sensitive power symbol next to the disc tray. When you power the player up, however, it comes to life and lights up an LED information display and touch-sensitive Stop, Play/Pause, Menu, and Eject buttons. The back panel holds an HDMI output, another USB port, component and composite video outputs, an optical audio output, and an Ethernet port.
Samsung offers dozens of online services and apps through its Smart Hub, including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, YouTube, and Pandora. The most commonly used media services are free (or paid through the services' individual accounts), but a handful of apps and services are "premium," and can cost a few dollars to download or access content, like the Mobiscope webcam browser or Bejeweled 2, both available for $4.99.
Performance
The BD-D5500 was sluggish in our lab tests, especially with startup times. The player took an average of 22.4 seconds to boot up, much longer than many Blu-ray players, like the BD-D5500's bigger brother, the Editors' Choice Samsung BD-D5700 ($199.99, 4 stars). It loads non-BD-Live discs in just 13.4 seconds. For standard Blu-ray discs, it took an average of 18.8 seconds to get to the disclaimer screen. For BD-Live Blu-ray discs, the player began loading online content in an average of 29 seconds, and started playing video in an average of 1 minute, 3.6 seconds. For a faster experience, the Editors' Choice Panasonic DMP-BDT110 starts up in just 2.4 seconds, and loads BD-Live discs in an average of 53.2 seconds. Also, the even-less-expensive Sony BDP-S380 ($109.99, 3.5 stars) starts up in 3.3 seconds and loads BD-Live discs in just 43.6 seconds.
We test Blu-ray players using the HQV benchmark Blu-ray, and in our trials, the BD-D5500 fared quite well, despite some minor film issues. 30 frames-per-second (fps) video looked fine, with few artifacts or motion problems. The player showed some judder with 24 fps film footage, however, especially with horizontal movement. This is a typical problem for Blu-ray players, though, and won't likely seriously impact playback.
The BD-D5500 played Blu-ray discs well. In 2D, the Blu-ray release of The Big Lebowski looked clear and smooth, but there was notable choppiness with the horizontally flying pin in the Gutterball sequence. The IMAX Under the Sea 3D Blu-ray looked good, and the player showed the 3D content with no issues. DVD upconversion was decent but unimpressive, with the player doing little to reduce the noise (or, granted, the nearly 30-year-old film grain) in Scarface. The BD-D5700 offers much-better upconversion, not to mention faster start-up times and built-in Wi-fi, but you won't get 3D support.
Samsung's BD-D5500 isn't a bad Blu-ray player, but it's a bit sluggish for the $160 price. If you're a Samsung fan and you can live without 3D support, go for the $200 version of the player, the BD-D5700. Even better, the Editors' Choice 3D-ready Panasonic DMP-BDT110 is both faster and less expensive.?
More Blu-ray Player reviews:
??? Samsung BD-D5500
??? Panasonic DMP-BDT110
??? Oppo BDP-93
??? Sony Internet TV Blu-ray Disc Player (NSZ-GT1)
??? Sony BDP-S780
?? more
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Sunday, December 4, 2011
Obama urges public help pushing payroll tax cuts
President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari)
President Barack Obama listens while touring a building under construction in Washington, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, part of his Better Building Initiative to promote energy efficient buildings. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama wants voters to get involved in the debate over extending the reduced payroll tax and he's asking them to tell members of Congress to keep the cut in place.
"Let your members of Congress know where you stand," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Tell them not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts."
Obama's address directs listeners to the whitehouse.gov website, where an online calculator lets them determine how much money it's worth to them to continue the 2 percent reduction in the payroll tax that took effect this year. A family with income of $50,000 a year would pay $1,000 more in payroll taxes if Congress does not act by the end of this year to extend that reduction.
Democrats want to expand the reduction in addition to extending it. Republican leaders say they're committed to passing an extension, fearing political fallout if payroll taxes rise on Jan. 1 on 160 million wage-earners. The GOP rank-and-file appears divided, with many Republican senators voting against an extension supported by their leadership this week.
There's also disagreement about how or whether to pay for any extension. Democrats favor a new tax on millionaires; Republicans prefer to cut federal spending.
"We're going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen. They shouldn't go home for the holidays until they get this done," Obama said in his address. "And if you agree with me, I could use your help."
Obama also took note of a new monthly jobs report out Friday that showed the economy added 120,000 jobs in November, a positive number. "We need to keep this growth going and strengthen it," the president said.
Republicans devoted their weekly address to promoting a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which is headed for a vote in the Senate after failing in the House last month.
Democratic leaders worked aggressively to defeat the measure in the House, saying that such a requirement could force Congress to cut billions from social programs during times of economic downturn and that disputes over what to cut could result in Congress ceding its power of the purse to the courts. The result was that the amendment got majority support but fell short of the two-thirds needed to advance a constitutional amendment.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said "the impending vote to amend the Constitution represents a choice between changing business as usual in Washington or embracing the status quo that we can no longer afford."
"The real reason many lawmakers don't want a balanced budget amendment is the exact reason why it's so essential," Snowe said. "They don't want their hands tied; they want to continue to spend without restraint."
Like Obama, she asked listeners to make their views known.
"Contact your senators and urge them to support our balanced budget amendment," Snowe said, "so that we finally seize the fiscal reins and reclaim our future for our children and our grandchildren."
___
Online:
Obama address: www.whitehouse.gov
GOP address: http://www.youtube.com/gopweeklyaddress
Associated Pressrosie o donnell brady quinn brady quinn nick fairley barry sanders barry sanders tim allen
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