ND farmer finds oil spill while harvesting wheat

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A North Dakota farmer who discovered an oil spill the size of seven football fields while out harvesting wheat says that when he found it, crude was bubbling up out of the ground.

Farmer Steve Jensen says he smelled the crude for days before the tires on his combines were coated in it. At the apparent break in the Tesoro Corp.'s underground pipeline, the oil was "spewing and bubbling 6 inches high," he said in a telephone interview Thursday.

What Jensen had found on Sept. 29 turned out it was one of the largest spills recorded in the state. At 20,600 barrels it was four times the size of a pipeline rupture in late March that forced the evacuation of more than 20 homes in Arkansas.

But it was 12 days after Jensen reported the spill before state officials told the public what had happened, raising questions about how North Dakota, which is in the midst of an oil boom, reports such incidents.

The spill happened in a remote area in the northwest corner of the state. The nearest home is a half-mile away, and Tesoro says no water sources were contaminated, no wildlife was hurt and no one was injured.

The release of oil has been stopped, state environment geologist Kris Roberts said Thursday. And the spill — spread out over 7.3 acres, or about the size of seven football fields, — has been contained.

Jacob Wiedmer, who was helping Jensen harvest his wheat crop, likened the Sept. 29 discovery to the theme song from "The Beverly Hillbillies" television show.

"It was just like Jed Clampett shooting at some food ..." he said of the oil coming from the ground. "Except we weren't hunting, we were harvesting."

Gov. Jack Dalrymple, who says he wasn't even told about what happened until Wednesday night, said the state is now investigating its procedures for reporting spills.

"There are many questions to be answered on how it occurred and how it was detected and if there was anything that could have been done that could have made a difference," Dalrymple said Thursday, when questioned at a news conference on a separate topic.

"Initially, it was felt that the spill was not overly large," Dalrymple said. "When they realized it was a fairly sizable spill, they began to contact more people about it."

Jensen said he had harvested most of his wheat before the spill, but the land is no longer usable for planting.

"We expect not to be able to farm that ground for several years," he said.

Tesoro Logistics, a subsidiary of the San Antonio, Texas-based company that owns and operates parts of Tesoro's oil infrastructure, said in a statement that the affected portion of the pipeline has been shut down.

"Protection and care of the environment are fundamental to our core values, and we deeply regret any impact to the landowner," Tesoro CEO Greg Goff said in a statement. "We will continue to work tirelessly to fully remediate the release area."

Wayde Schafer, a North Dakota spokesman for the Sierra Club, said the spill is an example of the lack of oversight in a state that has exploded with oil development in recent years.

"We need more inspectors and more transparency," Schafer said. "Not only is the public not informed, but agencies don't appear to be aware of what's going on and that's not good."

Eric Haugstad, Tesoro's director of contingency planning and emergency response, said the hole in the 20-year-old pipeline was a quarter-inch in diameter. Tesoro officials were investigating what caused the hole in the 6-inch-diameter steel pipeline that runs underground about 35 miles from Tioga to a rail facility outside of Columbus, near the Canadian border.

Roberts said state and federal regulators are monitoring the cleanup, and Tesoro estimated it would cost $4 million.

A natural layer of clay more than 40 feet thick underlies the spill site and has "held the oil up" so that it does not spread to underground water sources, Roberts said.

"It is completely contained and under control," Roberts said Thursday. "They got very lucky."

___

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nd-farmer-finds-oil-spill-while-harvesting-wheat-050659313.html
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Food and Wine Pairings

As I tell my students the basic premise of food and wine pairing is to harmonize and enhance the flavors of both the food and wine. The following are basic guidelines to take into consideration when pairing and matching food and wine.

Food & Wine Pairing 101

First rule of thumb is to eat and drink what you like, no matter what the “rules” are. And quite frankly there are no “rules”, just guidelines, to enhance your pairing experience. However, if you are willing to go on the food and wine ride, then you may want to apply a few principles to ensure a palate pleasing outcome.

First step on the pairing adventure is to loosen the reins on what you know about red wine being paired with beef and white wine being with chicken and fish. Yes, most generic pairings in these categories work but the logic behind it is “weight with weight”; heavy foods with heavy wines; i.e., filet mignon served with Cabernet Sauvignon; and grilled flank steak served with an oaked Chardonnay. Begin to think about the weight of the food when considering your wine.

Pasta with meat sauce or pasta with olive oil and grilled vegetables is a good example. Both are pasta dishes yes, however, it’s not the pasta that you’re pairing with the wine but rather the sauce and what you’re adding to the pasta. Ideally you want to pair your wine to the most dominant flavor of the dish.You wouldn’t pair the same wine with both dishes, for the pasta with a meat sauce you’ll be safe with a Dolcetto, or a Merlot and for the pasta with olive oil and grilled vegetables try a Pinot Gris or a Gavi. Armed with, the weight with weight knowledge, you’re ready to take on a whole new adventure with your food and wine.  Some quick points of reference when pairing are:

• Salty foods camouflage the sweetness of wine


• Acidic wines are softened with fatty or sweet foods


• Tannins are more pronounced with salty foods


• Sweet foods balance tannic wines


• Heavy proteins such as beef will soften tannins (bitterness) in red wine


• Spicy foods pair best with a low alcohol wine, a sweet wine and dry red wines

Sauvignon Blanc is planted in many wine regions around the world; Sauvignon Blanc is a crisp, dry white wine.

Guideline food pairings and matchings for Sauvignon Blanc:

South Florida Food and Wine Pairing

Meats & Fish: Shellfish, Sushi, Sole, Chicken, Pork

Cheese: Feta, Chévre

Fruits & Vegetables: Citrus fruits, Melons, Green Apples, Asparagus

Desserts: Lemon, and Apricot based desserts

 

 

 

 

Chardonnay  is a very neutral, and versatile wine that can be made in different styles, from heavy and oaky to lean and minerally. These styles are a result of the terroir in which they are grown and the fermenting process. Chardonnay is planted and grown all over the world.

Guideline food pairings and matchings for unoaked or lightly oaked Chardonnay

Meats & Fish: Salmon, Chicken, Pork, Shellfish

Fruit & Vegetables: Peach, Mango, Salads with Chicken (Chicken Caesar)

Sauces: Mild Curry

Pasta & Grains: Risotto, pasta in cream sauce

Dessert: Key Lime Pie, Granny Smith Apple Pie

 

Guideline food pairings and matchings for oaked Chardonnay

Meats & Fish: Salmon, Lobster, Scallops, Chicken Breast, Turkey Breast, Pork Loin

South Florida Food and Wine Pairings

Cheese: Asiago, Havarti, Mozzarella

Fruit & Vegetables: Asparagus, Avocado, Potatoes, White Mushrooms, Peas,  Squash,  Zucchini; Mangos, Peaches

Sauces: Mild Curry Sauce, Butter Sauces, Cream Sauces

Pasta & Grains: Risotto, Pasta [in cream sauce]

Dessert: Apple Pie, Pecan Pie, Butter Pound Cake

 

 

 

Riesling is a white grape, producing white wines. Riesling is an aromatic wine with flowery, perfume aromas as well as high acidity. It is used to make dry, semi-sweet, sweet and sparkling.

South Florida Food and Wine Pairing

Guideline food pairings and matchings for dry Riesling.

Meats & Fish: Smoked fish, Crab, Fish Tacos, Duck, Pork, Bacon, Chicken, Dim Sum, Ceviche

Cheese: Soft Cow’s Cheese

Fruits & Vegetables: Bell Pepper, Eggplant, Squash, Carrots

Dessert: Apple Desserts

 

Pinot Noir is a black wine grape that produces a red wine. Pinot Noir is grown around the world and is considered to produce some of the finest wines in the world. Pinot Noir is a fruit forward wine fruit-forward wine with notes of strawberry, cherry, raspberry and blackberry; and spice notes of cinnamon, and clove as well as earth nuances of herb, mushroom, and leather.

South Florida Food and Wine Pairing

Guideline food pairings and matchings for Pinot Noir

Meats & Fish: Duck, Goose, Squab, Lamb, Quail, Pheasant, Rabbit, Venison, Elk, Antelope, Ostrich, Buffalo, Beef, Lobster Bisque, Pork

Cheese: Creamy Bleu, Camembert, Gruyere, Goat, Brie

Fruits & Vegetables: Mushrooms, beans, Lentils, Eggplant, Fennel

Pasta & Grains: Wild Rice, Quinoa, Mushroom Pizza

 

Cabernet Sauvignon very much like Chardonnay is one of the world’s most widely recognized grape varietals. Cabernet Sauvignon is a black wine grape and is grown in most every wine producing region. Cabernet Sauvignon’s distinction comes from bell pepper, asparagus, jam, mint, black pepper, and eucalyptus.

South Florida Food and Wine Pairings

Guideline food pairings and matchings for Cabernet Sauvignon.

Meats & Fish: Steaks, hamburgers, Ribs, Sausages, Beef Casseroles, Beef Stew

Cheese:  Manchego, Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheddar Cheese, Blue cheese

Fruits & Vegetables: Currants, Endive, Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Portabello, Radicchio

Pasta & Grains: Pasta with Tomato Sauce, Jambalaya

Dessert: Chocolate Cake

 

Merlot is a black wine grape that produces red wine. Merlot is used as a blending grape as well as a single varietal, Merlot is planted in various wine regions around the world. The characteristics of Merlot show strawberry, black cherry, plum, cedar, tobacco, blackberry, fruitcake, and chocolate.

South Florida Food and Wine Pairings

Guideline food pairings and matchings for Merlot

Meats & Fish: Italian-style Sausages, Braised Short Ribs, Veal, Pork, Lamb, Roast Chicken, Roast Duck, Turkey Guineafowl

Cheese: Parmesan, Havarti, Swiss, Muenster, Provolone, Asiago, Smoked Cheddar

Fruits & Vegetables: Fried Vegetables

Sauces: Bolognese, Béarnaise

Desserts:    Chocolate Cake, Brownies, Chocolate Torte

 

Zinfandel  is a black wine grape that produces a robust red wine; also known as Primitivo grown in Puglia, Italy. Zinfandel is famously planted in California. Zinfandel’s distinctiveness takes on red berry fruit blackberry, anise, and pepper.

South Florida Food and Wine Pairings

Guideline food pairings and matchings for Zinfandel

Meats & Fish: Grilled Sausages, Ribs, Blackened Fish

Cheese: Triple-cream and aged cheeses

Fruits & Vegetables: Cranberries, peppers

Sauces: Cajun sauce, hot salsa

Desserts:  Spice cake, pumpkin pie, gingerbread, carrot cake

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98 million Americans were given polio vaccine contaminated with cancer-causing virus, admits CDC

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has once again been caught removing pertinent but indicting information about vaccines from its website. This time it involves the infamous polio vaccine, up to 98 million doses of which have been exposed as containing a cancer-causing virus that is now believed to be responsible for causing millions of cancers in America, according to the CDC.

The information was posted on an official CDC fact sheet entitled Cancer, Simian Virus 40 (SV40), and Polio Vaccine, which has since been removed from the CDC's website. Fortunately, RealFarmacy.com was able to archive the damning page before the CDC ultimately removed it, presumably because SV40 has been receiving considerable attention lately due to its connection to causing cancer.

You can view the link to the original CDC page on SV40 and polio vaccines, which is no longer active, here:
http://www.cdc.gov

You can view the full archived CDC page here:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com

As you will notice on the archived CDC page, the SV40 virus was allegedly first discovered in monkeys back in 1960, and not long after began appearing inexplicably in polio vaccines. The SV40 virus, according to this same page, has been linked to causing a variety of human cancers, including childhood leukemia, lung cancer, bone cancer, and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.

Though the CDC denies a definitive causal link between SV40 and cancer, it implies that the virus, which was supposedly removed from all polio vaccines in 1963, was problematic in relation to cancer development. More than 98 million people, in fact, may have been exposed to SV40 as a result of receiving government-recommended polio vaccines back in the 1960s, and many of these may have developed cancer as a result.

"More than 98 million Americans received one or more doses of polio vaccine from 1955 to 1963 when a proportion of vaccine was contaminated with SV40," explains the CDC. "[I]t has been estimated that 10-30 million Americans could have received an SV40 contaminated dose of vaccine."

So why the sudden removal of this important information from the CDC's website? The cached CDC page, as you will notice, makes sure to dissuade its readers from thinking that SV40 has been conclusively linked to causing cancer, even though it was demonstrated back in 1961 by the National Institute of Health (NIH) that SV40 is directly linked to causing tumor formation.

"Like other polyomaviruses, SV40 is a DNA virus that has been found to cause tumors and cancer," explains RealFarmacy.com. "SV40 is believed to suppress the transcriptional properties of the tumor-suppressing genes in humans through the SV40 Large T-antigen and SV40 Small T-antigen. Mutated genes may contribute to uncontrolled cellular proliferation, leading to cancer."

As far as specific conditions linked to SV40, Michele Carbone, Assistant Professor of Pathology at Loyola University in Chicago, found that the virus is present in many cases of both osteosarcoma bone cancer and the increasingly prevalent lung cancer variety known as mesothelioma. As it turns out, Carbone identified SV40 in about one-third of all osteosarcoma cases studied, and in 40 percent of other bone cancers. The same was true for 60 percent of all cases of mesothelioma.

"Many authorities now admit much, possibly most, of the world's cancers came from the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines, and hepatitis B vaccines, produced in monkeys and chimps," adds RealFarmacy.com. "It is said (that) mesothelioma is a result of asbestos exposure, but research reveals that 50 percent of the current mesotheliomas being treated no longer occur due to asbestos but rather the SV40 virus contained in polio vaccination."

Be sure to read the entire RealFarmacy.com report here:
http://www.realfarmacy.com

Sources for this article include:

http://www.realfarmacy.com

http://www.naturalnews.com

http://www.sv40foundation.org

http://www.science.naturalnews.com

Have comments on this article? Post them here:

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Source: http://www.naturalnews.com/041345_CDC_polio_vaccine_SV40.html

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New insights into sustainable buildings

Public release date: 16-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Maria Hrynkiewicz
maria@versita.com
48-660-476-421
Versita

The complex struggle of stakeholders -- the theory and best practices in the quest to accomplish eco-innovative buildings -- Umberto Berardi's book is a timely analysis of the global examples of green housing

With Green being the new black, it is no wonder that architects, investors and industry policymakers followed the suit to develop new benchmarks of eco-friendly design. In fact, in the last years we have seen a growing interest in looking at buildings not only from an energy-efficiency point of view, but increasingly also from a whole life-cycle perspective. The discussion on what kinds of buildings societies live and work in is shifting, with experts and legislators moving away from focusing simply on energy efficiency say, by adding new "greener" components, (i.e. more efficient mechanical systems, renewable energy or high levels of insulation) to a broader appreciation of sustainable buildings, taking into account their environmental, social and economic impact.

20 years after the First Conference on Sustainable Construction took place in Florida in 1993 academic publisher Versita has published Moving to Sustainable Buildings. Paths to Adopt Green Innovations in Developed Countries by Umberto Berardi. This first study of green innovation diffusion, sheds light, and provides a wide perspective, on the worldwide situation of the construction industry sector. It offers a detailed analysis of the U.S. green buildings while analogously investigating Italian case studies.

Umberto Berardi, himself a foremost researcher in the area of sustainable building innovation and arguably one of the most significant contemporary contributors in the field is aware of the multidisciplinary nature of this subject. In this well-researched publication he shares his impressive knowledge of the assessment, rating and improvement of buildings' sustainable qualities, the innovation processes that drive change in the building industry toward more sustainability. Berardi appreciates the complex struggle between the stakeholders in the project-driven and fragmented building industry, but all the same, he presents the organizational methods and strategies that can be deployed to understand and improve eco-innovative building. As a result, his monograph offers a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, which streamlines natural systems and technology. The book examines case studies of positive contribution of buildings to communities, which improve comfort for the users and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, but above all design that is fully livable and functional.

The book is a highly recommended reading for the academia and the practitioners. Prof. Bart Bossink Professor of Technology and Innovation at VU University Amsterdam and author of "Managing Environmentally Sustainable Innovation: Insights from the Construction Industry" welcomed the new title as "a gift to the readers". The book is organized at undergraduate level and will be of interest to engineers, architects, environment researchers and policy makers.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Public release date: 16-Jul-2013
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Maria Hrynkiewicz
maria@versita.com
48-660-476-421
Versita

The complex struggle of stakeholders -- the theory and best practices in the quest to accomplish eco-innovative buildings -- Umberto Berardi's book is a timely analysis of the global examples of green housing

With Green being the new black, it is no wonder that architects, investors and industry policymakers followed the suit to develop new benchmarks of eco-friendly design. In fact, in the last years we have seen a growing interest in looking at buildings not only from an energy-efficiency point of view, but increasingly also from a whole life-cycle perspective. The discussion on what kinds of buildings societies live and work in is shifting, with experts and legislators moving away from focusing simply on energy efficiency say, by adding new "greener" components, (i.e. more efficient mechanical systems, renewable energy or high levels of insulation) to a broader appreciation of sustainable buildings, taking into account their environmental, social and economic impact.

20 years after the First Conference on Sustainable Construction took place in Florida in 1993 academic publisher Versita has published Moving to Sustainable Buildings. Paths to Adopt Green Innovations in Developed Countries by Umberto Berardi. This first study of green innovation diffusion, sheds light, and provides a wide perspective, on the worldwide situation of the construction industry sector. It offers a detailed analysis of the U.S. green buildings while analogously investigating Italian case studies.

Umberto Berardi, himself a foremost researcher in the area of sustainable building innovation and arguably one of the most significant contemporary contributors in the field is aware of the multidisciplinary nature of this subject. In this well-researched publication he shares his impressive knowledge of the assessment, rating and improvement of buildings' sustainable qualities, the innovation processes that drive change in the building industry toward more sustainability. Berardi appreciates the complex struggle between the stakeholders in the project-driven and fragmented building industry, but all the same, he presents the organizational methods and strategies that can be deployed to understand and improve eco-innovative building. As a result, his monograph offers a thoroughly integrated approach to architecture, which streamlines natural systems and technology. The book examines case studies of positive contribution of buildings to communities, which improve comfort for the users and reduce environmental impacts through strategies such as reuse of existing structures, connection to transit systems, low-impact and regenerative site development, energy and water conservation, use of sustainable or renewable construction materials, but above all design that is fully livable and functional.

The book is a highly recommended reading for the academia and the practitioners. Prof. Bart Bossink Professor of Technology and Innovation at VU University Amsterdam and author of "Managing Environmentally Sustainable Innovation: Insights from the Construction Industry" welcomed the new title as "a gift to the readers". The book is organized at undergraduate level and will be of interest to engineers, architects, environment researchers and policy makers.

###

---

[ | E-mail | Share ]

?

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-07/v-nii071613.php

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All involved agree, sand dune rescue 'a miracle'

CHICAGO (AP) ? One minute, 6-year-old Nathan Woessner was scampering up a massive dune in northern Indiana with his dad and a friend. He was gone the next, without a warning or sound.

More than three hours later, rescuers pulled Nathan out from under 11 feet of sand on Friday. He showed no signs of life: He was cold to the touch, had no pulse and wasn't breathing. His limp body was put into the back of a pickup truck, which started toward a waiting ambulance.

The plan was to take him to the hospital rather than the coroner's office, even if he was dead, in order to "give the family and rescue workers hope," La Porte (Ind.) County Chief Deputy Coroner Mark Huffman said Monday.

As the truck bounced over the dune, a medic noticed something astonishing: The boy took a breath. Then, the cut on his head started bleeding. The jolt apparently shocked Nathan's body back to life, Huffman said. Nathan was rushed to the hospital and was crying in the emergency room when Huffman arrived a few minutes later.

"Man, I tell you that was such a great feeling," Huffman said. "This is not something that I as the chief deputy coroner get to report that often. It's an absolute miracle this child survived."

Nathan, of Sterling, Ill., remains in critical condition at the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital, but he is expected to recover and be released in 10 to 14 days, Dr. Tracy Koogler said Monday. Of greatest concern is his lungs, as the amount of sand he breathed in could lead to asthma-like symptoms, she said.

Don Reul, Nathan's grandfather, was getting ready for bed after a long day of tooling around on motorcycles in New York state with his wife and another couple when the phone rang. On the other end was the "hysterical" voice of his daughter, Faith Woessner.

"She said, 'Dad, Dad, we can't find him, he's under the sand," said Reul, a minister from Galva, Ill.

But he understood little else, and by the time he hung up, he believed that his grandson had fallen on the beach at Indiana Dunes National Seashore and had been pulled into Lake Michigan.

"I said Nathan has died, he's drowned," Reul told his wife.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, running for about 25 miles along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, is a popular vacation spot that has long attracted families, hikers and birdwatchers. The dune Nathan fell feet-first into is one of the tallest, the 123-foot-tall Mount Baldy.

Nathan's 8-year-old friend rushed to where his dad and Nathan's dad were, and told them Nathan had vanished. Reul said that by the time Nathan's father found the hole, he could hear his son, but not see him.

The two men frantically dug sand from the spot where Nathan had fallen, but stopped after it was about four feet deep, Reul said, realizing they may have driven Nathan "deeper and deeper." Faith Woessner, meanwhile, was begging people to help them dig.

Michigan City, Ind., firefighters soon arrived and excavating companies brought backhoes and other heavy equipment to try to catch up with the boy, who was still sinking into the sand. According to media reports, the first responders pushed a rod down into the sand in the hopes of finding the boy.

Hours passed without a sign of Nathan. Huffman, the coroner arrived, which Reul said must have been a sure sign that the rescuers feared the worst: It wouldn't be a rescue.

Then, volunteer firefighter Ryan Miller, the vice president of an excavating company, spotted the outline of what looked like a rotten tree about 11 feet down ? maybe more ? and pushed the rod until it stopped at the boy. Michigan City firefighter Brad Kreighbaum reached down and "felt what he believed to be Nathan's head," Miller said.

It was just in time, as there was no air pocket surrounding Nathan.

"He was fully encapsulated in sand," Miller said, noting it took about five firefighters to pull him out.

Once the family heard the boy was bleeding, Reul said, "Hope began to bubble up... that Nathan's not gone."

He was airlifted to the University of Chicago Medicine Comer Children's Hospital from an Indiana hospital Friday night.

"I expected him to arrive much sicker than he did," said Koogler, medical director of the pediatric intensive care unit.

Nathan was sedated so doctors could remove as much of the sand in his lungs as possible. She said Monday doctors don't see any more sand particles, but believe some is still in there.

Doctors also said early neurological tests didn't reveal any brain damage; Nathan can move his arms, legs, fingers and toes. Koogler also said Nathan's eyes appear to be fine, adding he must have had closed them while buried in the sand.

She said the biggest concern remains the boy's lungs, telling reporters Monday that Nathan could develop asthma-like symptoms in the months to come, but that the injury to his lungs was "not nearly as severe as I expected it to be."

Koogler said if Nathan continues to recover at the same rate, he would likely be taken off the ventilator by the end of the week and released from the hospital in 10-14 days, but may need another month in a rehab facility.

In six months, she said, 'I'm hoping that he's going to be acting like a normal 6- to 7-year-old, riding a bicycle, doing what a normal 6- or 7-year-old does."

Reul said that before he and his wife heard anything about his grandson, he experienced sharp, stabbing pains in his chest. Reul was not ready to say Monday that those pains happened at approximately the time his grandson fell into the sinkhole.

But he was sure of what happened after: "It is a miracle."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/involved-agree-sand-dune-rescue-miracle-205059378.html

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Big names in track fail test for banned substances

Tyson Gay felt healthy for the first time in years and was aiming high: He planned to step on the track at world championships and push Usain Bolt.

Not so fast.

The anticipated 100-meter showdown got scrubbed after Gay, the American record holder in the event, failed a drug test for a banned substance.

That revelation came Sunday, within hours of more bad news for track and field: Asafa Powell, the one-time world-record holder at 100 meters, and his Jamaican teammate, three-time Olympic medalist Sherone Simpson, tested positive for prohibited stimulants.

A sport that vowed it had cleaned itself up after decades of stories about disgraced, drug-fueled sprinters ? Ben Johnson, Marion Jones, Tim Montgomery, to name a few ? found itself in a very similar spot after this latest flurry of doping cases.

"A sad day," said Doug Logan, the former CEO at USA Track and Field. "But I don't see anything on the horizon that says this will be abated in any way."

Gay chose to withdraw from next month's world championships while his case plays out; the next step is a test of his "B'' sample, which could come as early as this week. Simpson's and Powell's status remains in limbo. Simpson was eligible for the 100, while Powell was waiting to see if he'd make the relay team.

"Will this be a cloud over (worlds)? I think it would be naive to say otherwise," said Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medalist and sprint analyst. "I sat down and thought about the events I'm looking forward to. There are people who are not there, for all the wrong reasons. ..."

Long considered a nonconforming pot-stirrer, Logan recently wrote a column arguing that the fight against performance-enhancing drugs in sports should be surrendered because, in his view, anti-doping rules make very little headway against a problem that never seems to disappear. He said Sunday's onslaught of failed tests only bolstered his point.

"People ought to open up their eyes and see that there's very little we're doing that is keeping those who are motivated to use the substances from using them," Logan said.

The sprinters, meanwhile, offered apologies while also claiming extenuating circumstances.

"I am not now ? nor have I ever been ? a cheat," Powell said on his Twitter account.

The 30-year-old sprinter, whose 100-meter record of 9.74 seconds stood until Jamaican teammate Bolt beat it in 2008, was calling for an investigation as to how a stimulant called oxilofrine entered his system and caused a positive test at Jamaica's national championships in June.

Simpson, who tested positive for the same stimulant, said she "would not intentionally take an illegal substance of any form into my system."

Gay was more contrite, though he also wasn't taking full responsibility.

"I don't have a sabotage story. I don't have any lies. I don't have anything to say to make this seem like it was a mistake or it was on USADA's hands, someone playing games," said Gay, who fought back sobs in a telephone interview. "I don't have any of those stories. I basically put my trust in someone and I was let down."

Gay was healthy again this season after being plagued by hamstring and groin ailments, along with a bad hip that required surgery.

He conceded this news would be tough for his fans.

"My reputation," Gay said, "has always been honest."

The 30-year-old, who won the world championship in the 100, 200 and 4x100 relay in 2007, took part in the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's "My Victory" program ? in which athletes volunteer for enhanced testing to prove they're clean ? and his results never raised red flags.

That changed after results of an out-of-competition test on May 16 came back positive. Neither Gay nor USADA CEO Travis Tygart would identify the banned substance.

Generally, first-time offenders are hit with two-year bans, though reduced penalties are sometimes given if there are extenuating circumstances, which both Gay and his coach, Lance Brauman, said there were.

"He mentioned that he (trusted) someone and that person was untrustworthy at the end the day," Brauman told The Associated Press in a phone interview. "Maybe I'm naive, but I believe him."

Max Siegel, the CEO of USA Track and Field, said in a statement: "It is not the news anyone wanted to hear, at any time, about any athlete." He said he looked to USADA to handle the case "appropriately."

While Gay's case gets sorted out on U.S. turf, the positives recorded by Powell and Simpson are part of a bigger doping crisis hitting Jamaica, the home of Bolt and the country that has won 28 medals over the last three Olympics.

In Sunday's editions, The Gleaner newspaper of Jamaica reported that five athletes had tested positive. Paul Doyle, the agent who represents Powell and Simpson, confirmed to the AP that his sprinters were among them. Shortly after Doyle's confirmation, Powell and Simpson each released statements acknowledging the positive tests.

The news stirred up angst on the island, where success on the track is a point of pride, but the rigor of the country's anti-doping program is under constant scrutiny.

"This does not augur well for track and field globally," said Rashalee Mitchell, a 29-year-old assistant social sciences lecturer at Jamaica's campus of the University of the West Indies. "It is fast serving to taint ... our proud and long-standing reputation of producing strong, excellent, raw, homegrown talent that has excelled on the world stage without any drug-related enhancement."

The news came a month after another Jamaican Olympic gold medalist, Veronica Campbell-Brown, tested positive for a banned diuretic.

Campbell-Brown is being suspended while a disciplinary panel reviews her case. Track's governing body said the case appeared to involve a "lesser" offense, which could mean a reduced sentence for the 200-meter champion at the 2004 and 2008 Olympics.

Shortly after news of Campbell-Brown's positives, her agent, Claude Bryan, said his client is not a cheat and she does not accept "guilt of willfully taking a banned substance."

Turns out, she's not the only one making that claim during what is turning into another summer of discontent for track and field.

"The one thing I am proud of is, unlike other sports, we have quite a good record, of no matter how big you are, you can get busted if you're not doing things the right way, according to the rules," Boldon said. "This is not a sport where if you're a big name, necessarily, you're protected."

___

Associated Press writer David McFadden in Kingston, Jamaica, contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/big-names-track-fail-test-banned-substances-074219722.html

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Login dialog for Windows Phone apps

		?
Line 1:		Line 1:
?	[[Category:XAML]][[Category:UI on Windows Phone]][[Category:Windows Phone]][[Category:Code Examples]][[Category:Security on Windows Phone]][[Category:Windows Phone 7.5]][[Category:Windows Phone 8]]	+	[[Category:UI on Windows Phone]][[Category:Security on Windows Phone]][[Category:Windows Phone 7.5]][[Category:Windows Phone 8]][[Category:XAML]][[Category:Code Examples]]
?	{{SeeAlso|* [[How to encrypt your application data in Windows Phone]]}}	+	{{SeeAlso|
?		+	* [[How to encrypt your application data in Windows Phone]]}}
?	{{Abstract|Certain applications may need access control because of the sensitive data they store. This article shows how to create a login dialog for protected access to this application/data.}} ?	?	{{Abstract|Certain applications may need access control because of the sensitive data they store. This article shows how to create a login dialog for protected access to this application/data.}} ?
?		?

---

Latest revision as of 14:27, 15 July 2013

Certain applications may need access control because of the sensitive data they store. This article shows how to create a login dialog for protected access to this application/data.

Article Metadata

---

Code Example

---

Tested with

SDK: Windows Phone SDK 7.1

---

Compatibility

Platform(s): Windows Phone 7.5 and later

---

Article

Keywords: popup dialog, login dialog, password, authentication

[edit] Introduction

Implementing a login dialog as a page in Windows Phone poses a problem: it's a bit difficult to get the navigation stack in order and fulfill the store requirements regarding navigation. This is partly because there is no method to exit an app in case of a wrong password. It's necessary to remove the login page from the page stack (using NavigationService.RemoveBackEntry, a method added in Mango) so that the app can be ended without going over the login page again when pressing the back button.

[edit] Solution

An easier way is to use a dynamically created popup on top of the main page.

As illustrated below, the popup is created in the Loaded handler of the page:

private void MainPage_Loaded(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (!app.IsAuthenticated)
{
p = new Popup();
LayoutRoot.Children.Add(p);
ApplicationBar.IsVisible = false;
?
// Set where the popup will show up on the screen.
p.VerticalOffset = 60;
p.HorizontalOffset = 25;
?
Border border = new Border();
border.BorderBrush = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.White);
border.BorderThickness = new Thickness(5.0);
?
StackPanel panel1 = new StackPanel();
panel1.Background = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Black);
panel1.Width = LayoutRoot.ActualWidth - 2 * p.HorizontalOffset;
?
Button button1 = new Button();
button1.Content = "OK";
button1.Margin = new Thickness(5.0);
button1.Click += new RoutedEventHandler(loginbutton_Click);
TextBlock textblock1 = new TextBlock();
textblock1.TextWrapping = TextWrapping.Wrap;
if (app.FirstRun)
textblock1.Text = "Please enter your choice of a password:";
else
textblock1.Text = "Please enter your password";
textblock1.Margin = new Thickness(5.0);
textblock1.FontSize = 30;
textblock1.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.White);
pb = new PasswordBox();
pb.KeyDown += new KeyEventHandler(pb_KeyDown);
panel1.Children.Add(textblock1);
panel1.Children.Add(pb);
if (app.FirstRun)
{
TextBlock textblock2 = new TextBlock();
textblock2.TextWrapping = textblock1.TextWrapping;
textblock2.Margin = textblock1.Margin;
textblock2.FontSize = textblock1.FontSize;
textblock2.Foreground = textblock1.Foreground;
textblock2.Text = "Please repeat the password";
pb2 = new PasswordBox();
panel1.Children.Add(textblock2);
panel1.Children.Add(pb2);
}
panel1.Children.Add(button1);
border.Child = panel1;
?
// Set the Child property of Popup to the border 
// which contains a stackpanel, textblock and button.
p.Child = border;
?
// Open the popup.
p.IsOpen = true;
pb.Focus();
}
else
// Set the data context of the listbox control to the sample data
DataContext = App.ViewModel;
}

The evaluation of the password happens in the login (OK) button handler, shown below. Please note that not matching password on the first run let the user reenter again.

private void loginbutton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
// Close the popup.
p.IsOpen = false;
if (app.FirstRun)
{
if (!pb.Password.Equals(pb2.Password))
{
MessageBox.Show("The passwords do not match. Please try again.");
p.IsOpen = true;
pb.Password = "";
pb2.Password = "";
pb.Focus();
return;
}
app.PwdHash = CryptoUtil.GetHashCode(pb.Password);
app.IsAuthenticated = true;
app.FirstRun = false;
App.ViewModel.LoadData();
}
else
app.IsAuthenticated = CryptoUtil.GetHashCode(pb.Password).CompareTo(app.PwdHash) == 0;
?
if (app.IsAuthenticated)
{
DataContext = App.ViewModel;
ApplicationBar.IsVisible = true;
}
else
{
tb = new TextBlock();
tb.Text = "Wrong password.";
tb.FontSize = 36;
tb.Foreground = new SolidColorBrush(Colors.Red);
tb.Margin = new Thickness(12);
tb.SetValue(Grid.RowProperty, 2);
LayoutRoot.Children.Add(tb);
ApplicationBar.IsVisible = true;
(ApplicationBar.MenuItems[0] as ApplicationBarMenuItem).IsEnabled = false;
?
DataContext = null;
}
}

Pressing the enter key on the password box imitates clicking the login button.

void pb_KeyDown(object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
{
if (e.Key == Key.Enter) // Enter equal OK button
loginbutton_Click(this, new RoutedEventArgs());
}

When the Back hardware key is pressed and the popup is open, the password check has to be executed.

private void PhoneApplicationPage_BackKeyPress(object sender, System.ComponentModel.CancelEventArgs e)
{
if (p.IsOpen)
{ // if the popup is still there... emulate OK button click
loginbutton_Click(this, new RoutedEventArgs());
e.Cancel = true;
}
}

During the first run of the app a password is queried from the user. The password itself is not stored in the application, rather it's hash code is stored. On successive occasions, the hash for the entered password is calculated and compared to the stored hash value. See How to encrypt your application data in Windows Phone.

[edit] Sample Code

The code for the login dialog has been added to the Media:EncryptionSample.zip sample from the How to encrypt your application data in Windows Phone article.

Source: http://www.developer.nokia.com/Community/Wiki/index.php?title=Login_dialog_for_Windows_Phone_apps&diff=202470&oldid=202462

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');
} else {
document.write('

Welcome, ' + readCookie("username") + '

'); } if(readCookie("regConfirmationStatus") && readCookie("regConfirmationStatus") == "pending") { document.write(''); document.write(''); } else { document.write('');} if(readCookie("ssoUser") == "true"){ document.write(''); } else { document.write(''); } } else { document.write('

Member Login:

'); }

Source: http://www.philly.com/r?19=961&43=168201&44=215316601&32=3796&7=195367&40=http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/20130714_The_senator_who_would_be_mayor_.html

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Home Based Business University - Internet Radio

[unable to retrieve full-text content]Home Based Business University Radio Show is here to promote opportunities both domestically and internationally. We will hear from Entrepreneurs from all countries around the world. We will learn about new and exciting ...

Source: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/homebasedbusinessuniversity/2013/07/15/home-based-business-university

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Boeing Dreamliner catches fire at London's Heathrow airport

By Rhys Jones

LONDON | Fri Jul 12, 2013 11:50pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - A Boeing 787 Dreamliner operated by Ethiopian Airlines caught fire at Britain's Heathrow airport on Friday in a fresh blow for the U.S. planemaker whose new model was grounded for three months after one high-tech battery caught fire and another overheated.

External scorching from the fire was located in a different part of the aircraft from the bays containing batteries, and the cause of the fire was unknown.

Boeing shares closed down 4.7 percent at $101.87, knocking $3.8 billion off the company's market capitalization after television footage showed the Dreamliner surrounded by firefighting foam at Heathrow.

Heathrow briefly closed both its runways to deal with the fire which broke out while the aircraft was parked at a remote stand. There were no passengers aboard the plane.

Pictures of the plane at Heathrow showed an area just in front of the tail that appeared to be scorched.

The Dreamliner's two batteries are in electrical compartments located low down and near the front and middle of the plane, while the visible damage to the Ethiopian plane appears to be on top of the fuselage, further toward the rear, according to video from the scene.

(Graphic of key areas of the 787: link.reuters.com/zed69t)

"A Boeing 787 Dreamliner suffered an on board internal fire," a Heathrow spokeswoman said. "The plane is now parked at a remote parking stand several hundred meters away from any passenger terminals."

Former U.S. National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said the Heathrow incident was extraordinary news, coming so soon after the fleet had returned to service, but he cautioned against jumping to conclusions.

"It's very early. No one knows where the fire started at this point," Rosenker told Reuters, adding it could be something as simple as a coffee pot left on in a galley.

Boeing said it was aware of the fire and it had people on the ground working to understand the causes of it. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said it was in contact with Boeing.

A spokesman for GS Yuasa, which makes the Dreamliner batteries, said he had not received any information on the London fire.

BIG BET

The 787 is Boeing's biggest bet on new technology in nearly 20 years. It cost an estimated $32 billion to develop and Boeing plans to use hundreds of innovations such as its carbon-fiber composite skin and electrical system to enhance other jets.

Boeing never disclosed the cost of the three-month grounding, which ended in April, but said it absorbed most of the expense in the first quarter while still posting a 20 percent rise in profit, and its shares are up 35 percent this year, even after Friday's loss.

The plane which caught fire in London was the first of the 787 fleet to resume flight after the battery-related grounding.

"This is terrible for the Dreamliner, any event involving fire and that airplane is going to be a PR disaster for Boeing," Christine Negroni, an aviation writer and safety specialist based in New York, said in a telephone interview.

"Because of the battery issue, the public is even more sensitive to events that happen to the Dreamliner. Even if they are normal, benign teething problems, that subtlety is going to be lost on the public," she said.

Another Boeing Dreamliner operated by Thomson Airways returned to Britain due to technical issues on Friday as a precaution, TUI Travel said.

Ethiopian Airlines said its aircraft had been parked at Heathrow for more than eight hours before smoke was detected.

Richard Aboulafia, a senior aerospace analyst at the Teal Group in Virginia, said early evidence, including images of the jet, suggest the battery is not the issue because of the location of the fire.

Another person familiar with the aircraft's configuration said the damaged area appears close to galleys and environmental control systems, but added that it was too early to link the fire to any specific equipment.

BATTERY FIX

Boeing's 787 Dreamliner was grounded by regulators in January after batteries overheated on two of the jets within two weeks, including a fire in a parked Japan Airlines plane in Boston.

Boeing was forced to halt deliveries of the jet while it was grounded and airlines stopped ordering the plane during that period. Orders have since resumed and Boeing has logged 83 Dreamliner orders this year, bringing its current order book to 930 planes.

The Dreamliner resumed flying in April, with Ethiopian Airlines being the first carrier to put it back into passenger service.

The high-tech jet came under intense scrutiny and Boeing redesigned the battery system to add more layers of protection against fire.

Teams of engineers were dispatched by Boeing worldwide to install the stronger battery casing and other components designed to prevent a repeat of the meltdowns that led to the first U.S. fleet grounding in 34 years.

The plan approved by the FAA called for Boeing to encase the lithium-ion batteries in a steel box, install new battery chargers, and add a duct to vent gases directly outside the aircraft in the event of overheating.

The NTSB has yet to issue a final report on the cause of the 787 battery problems but Boeing said its redesign addressed more than 80 potential causes. The NTSB said it would send a representative to assist in the Heathrow investigation.

The 787 uses a powerful electrical system to drive air conditioning and replace hydraulic functions, taking less power from the engines than traditional aircraft designs. That electrical system experienced fire during its development which also prompted changes in its electrical panels.

The Dreamliner which caught fire at Heathrow on Friday was delivered to Ethiopian Airlines in November last year.

It arrived at Heathrow from Addis Ababa in the early hours of Friday, according to the Flightradar monitoring website. The plane had been due to make the return journey later on Friday.

Asked whether the incident could lead to the renewed grounding of Dreamliner jets, a spokesman for Britain's Civil Aviation Authority said decisions on the airworthiness of particular models of plane were made by the European Aviation Safety Agency.

An EASA spokesman said it was too early to say whether the aircraft would be grounded again.

Several airlines said they were continuing to operate their 787s, including United Continental, Polish airline LOT, Japan Airlines and ANA, the world's biggest operator of the Dreamliner.

Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliners are powered by General Electric GEnx engines.

(Additional reporting by Estelle Shirbon, Mark Anderson, Michael Holden in London, Andrea Shalal-Esa in Washington, Alwyn Scott in Seattle and Tim Hepher in Paris; Writing by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Jane Barrett, David Evans, Tim Dobbyn and Mohammad Zargham)

Source: http://feeds.reuters.com/~r/reuters/topNews/~3/BwkjZPhBxBc/story01.htm

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INTERNET SALES ALL AMERICAN FORD

Job Title	INTERNET SALES ALL AMERICAN FORD ?
Source	?
Location
Date Posted	6/30/2013?
Job ID	17214229-0003521986-02?

Please see Job Details for Apply instructions.

INTERNET SALES
ALL AMERICAN FORD
IMMEDIATE OPENINGS!
Fast paced, high volume BDC Center. Upbeat personality, computer & phone skills a must! Internet sales experience a must. Auto experience a plus. Offering: Salary, commissions,
bonuses, benefits. Contact Joe Fisher at
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Back To Search Results

Source: http://jobs.northjersey.com/Jobs/Detail.aspx?jrss=17214229-0003521986-02

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Dow back over 15,000 on upbeat data and Fed reassurance

stocks

JeeYeon Park CNBC

June 27, 2013 at 4:56 PM ET

Stocks closed higher on Thursday, for a third-straight day, lifted by a string of upbeat economic reports and following several speeches from Federal Reserve policymakers suggesting the central bank has time before it starts reducing its bond-buying.

(Read More: US Economy Could Grow 5% in Late 2014: Fund Manager)

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 114.35 points, to close at 15,024.49, boosted by Boeing and Hewlett-Packard, logging its first three-day rally since late April. The blue-chip index posted its 15th triple-digit move of the 19 trading sessions in June, the most in a month since October 2011.

The S&P 500 advanced 9.94 points, to finish at 1,613.20. And the Nasdaq jumped 25.64 points, to end at 3,401.86.

"If we consolidate during the next couple of sessions, the bulls need to hold the 1,600 line or this inverse head and shoulders formation will be negated," wrote Elliot Spar, market strategist at Stifel Nicolaus.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, ended below 17.

Most key S&P sectors finished in positive territory, led by financials and consumer discretionary, while materials dipped.

Upbeat economic data from China also helped bolster sentiment. Industrial profits unexpectedly rose 15 percent in May year-on-year, defying expectations of a slowdown. Japan's Nikkei rallied nearly 3 percent, logging its biggest percentage gain in 13 sessions, while the Shanghai Composite Index finished flat.

"Any China data carries significant weight these days as investors are desperate for signs that the world's second biggest economy is still ticking along," wrote Stan Shamu, market strategist at IG.

On the economic front, weekly jobless claims fell 9,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 346,000, according to the Labor Department, largely in line with expectations. The four-week moving average for new claims fell 2,750 to 345,750. And consumer spending rebounded 0.3 percent in May, matching estimates, after a revised 0.3 percent decline in the prior month, according to the Commerce Department.

"I think it makes the Fed even more confident that they're doing the right thing," said Drew Matus, senior U.S. economist and managing director at UBS. "And if you look at these numbers, they suggest that the second quarter's going to be better than the first quarter."

And pending home sales for May soared 6 percent to hit a six-year high, according to the National Association of Realtors.

New York Fed president William Dudley said the central bank's asset purchases would be more aggressive than the timeline Chairman Ben Bernanke outlined last week if economic growth and the labor market turn out weaker than expected.

Dudley added that the recent market forecasts for an earlier rate gain are "quite out of sync" with the statements and expectations of the policy-making Federal Open Market Committee. Dudley is a voting member of the FOMC.

Fed Board Governor Jerome Powell agreed that markets over-reacted to the central bank's statements on tapering.

"Market adjustments since May have been larger than would be justified by any reasonable reassessment of the path of policy," Powell said in a speech. "To the extent the market is pricing in an increase in the federal funds rate in 2014, that implies a stronger economic performance than is forecast either by most FOMC participants or by private forecasters."

Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank President Dennis Lockhart, meanwhile, said the U.S. economy's path will determine the fate of the central bank's bond buying, but it would be appropriate to pull back a bit if the economy performs as expected.

"There is no 'predetermined' pace of reductions in the asset purchases, nor is the stopping point fixed," Lockhart said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Kiwanis Club of Marietta. "The pace of purchases, the composition of purchases and the ultimate size of the Fed's balance sheet still depend on how economic conditions evolve."

Markets have been fixated on Fed commentary this week, after Bernanke said last week that the central bank could begin to wind down its $85 billion monthly bond purchases before the end of the year. That sent already rising yields higher and sent stocks on a roller-coaster ride.

Treasury prices extended their gains as yields tumbled to session lows following the data and after the auction of $29 billion in seven-year notes saw healthy demand.

? 2013 CNBC LLC. All Rights Reserved

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/663286/s/2e939cdf/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Cbusiness0Cdow0Eback0Eover0E150E0A0A0A0Eupbeat0Edata0Efed0Ereassurance0E6C10A467525/story01.htm

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Twitter gives France data in anti-Semitic posts

PARIS (AP) -- Twitter has given French authorities information that can help identify the authors of a series of racist and anti-Semitic tweets that carried French hashtags, and the social media site also has agreed to work with a Jewish student group that sued for the data on other ways to fight hate speech.

The president of the Union of Jewish Students of France said Saturday that his organization, known as UEJF, was withdrawing a $50 million lawsuit against San Francisco-based Twitter Inc., which was originally filed as a means to pressure the company to comply and "end Twitter's indifference."

"We got Twitter to respect the laws of our country," Jonathan Hayoun said in a telephone interview. Propagating racial and anti-Semitic hatred is against French law.

Twitter's policies require international users to comply with local laws regarding online conduct and acceptable content, and the social network's free-wheeling style has in the past been stymied by European legislation. For instance, Germany restricts the use of Nazi-related symbols and slogans, such as the swastika or the phrase "Heil Hitler." Twitter blocked a neo-Nazi account in Germany last October.

In January, a Paris court ordered Twitter to turn over data that could help identify account holders who last fall posted the offending tweets, which included slurs and photos evoking the Holocaust. The anti-Semitic tweets, which started Oct. 10, were followed by racist posts against Muslims. Twitter then agreed to pull the tweets.

A joint statement Friday from Twitter and the UEJF said the social media site has turned over to the Paris prosecutor's press and public liberties section "data that may enable the identification of certain users that the vice-prosecutor believes have violated French law."

The statement also said the two sides agreed to "actively continue contributing together to the fight against racism and anti-Semitism, in keeping with their respective domestic laws and regulations." Those efforts will include "taking measures to improve the accessibility of the reporting procedure of illegal Tweets."

The Paris court had also ordered Twitter to make it easier for users of its French website to report any "illegal content." However, Twitter was not obligated to comply since the U.S. company has no offices in France.

The Jewish student group's president said it had reached a broader deal with Twitter that goes beyond the statement, but he refused to provide details, saying it was confidential.

French law forbids all discrimination based on ethnicity, nationality, race or religion and has done so since 1881. There has been a raft of legislation since then refining the broad ban, including a ban on inciting racial hatred. A 2004 act addresses the Internet, but is mainly directed at Internet service providers and hosts, saying they must contribute to the prevention of revisionist and racist data.

Hayoun, the Jewish group leader, said it was important that Twitter "stop directing its eyes only to American laws and the First Amendment of the American Constitution. In France, you can't say just whatever you want on the Internet."

He said he hopes the people who posted the offensive tweets would be punished because "Twitter is a public space, and just like it is forbidden to say `dirty Jew' in the streets it is forbidden to type it out on your keyboard and send it on Twitter."

Source: http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TWITTER_FRANCE?SITE=NVLAS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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