Celebrity panda at center of Thai-China deal

BANGKOK (AP) ? Thailand's celebrity baby panda Lin Ping is almost 4 years old now. It's time to move to China, find a mate and have cubs.

The move won't be permanent, however, thanks to a deal hammered out between the two countries that will cost Thailand $1 million a year, the Thai foreign minister said Friday.

Once the star of a Thai reality show, the panda's future has been a topic of high-level negotiation for months. Last year, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra asked then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao to consider extending the panda's loan contract which ends on its 4th birthday, May 27.

A breakthrough was announced Friday, when the Chinese Embassy informed Thai authorities that Lin Ping can stay in Thailand until October, said Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul. Lin Ping will then relocate to China, where authorities will find her a male partner, and the two will be allowed to return to Thailand to mate, he said.

"Normally every baby panda born overseas must return to China to breed," Surapong said, but the Chinese made an exception due to close bilateral ties with Thailand.

Lin Ping was born in Thailand's Chiang Mai Zoo to two adult pandas that were on loan from China. Her birth was front-page news in Thailand and the panda family starred in a much-loved but lethargic reality show that broadcast live from the pandas' zoo habitat for almost three years.

China has not set a date for Lin Ping's return to Thailand but will try to ensure it is within a year, Surapong said. She will be allowed to remain in Thailand for up to 15 years, at a cost of $1 million per year, said Surapong.

"The new fee is four times higher," he said. The old contract called for a $250,000 panda loan fee. "But (we) can accept that."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/celebrity-panda-center-thai-china-deal-102338310.html

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Report: Hospitals charge vastly more for same care

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Hospitals within the same city sometimes charge tens of thousands of dollars more for the same treatment, according to figures the government released publicly for the first time Wednesday. The federal list sheds new light on the mystery of just how high a hospital bill might go ? and whether it's cheaper for uninsured patients to get the care somewhere else.

But it doesn't answer the big question: Why do some hospitals charge 20 or even 40 times more than others?

"It doesn't make sense," said Jonathan Blum, director of the government's Center for Medicare. The higher costs don't reflect better care, he said, and can't be explained by regional economic differences alone.

Blum said he hopes making the information available without charge to the public will help generate answers to the riddles of hospital pricing, and put pressure on the more expensive hospitals.

The fees that Medicare pays hospitals aren't based on their charges, Blum said. But patients who are without government or private medical coverage are subject to them. The new information should help those patients decide where to get care, he said.

There are vast disparities nationally. The average charges for joint replacement range from about $5,300 at an Ada, Okla., hospital to $223,000 in Monterey Park, Calif.

It's not just national or even regional geography. Hospitals within the same city also vary wildly. In Jackson, Miss., average inpatient charges for services that may be provided to treat heart failure range from $9,000 to $51,000, the Department of Health and Human Services said.

Hospitals usually receive less money than they charge, however. Their charges are akin to a car dealership's "list price." Most patients won't be hit with these bills, because they are paid by their private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid at lower rates. Insurance companies routinely negotiate discounted payments with hospitals.

"These charges really don't have a direct relationship with the price for the average person," said Chapin White of the nonprofit Center for Studying Health System Change. "I think the point is to shame hospitals."

The charges do show up on the bills of people without medical coverage, many of whom try to negotiate smaller fees for themselves. And they could affect people paying for care that is outside their insurance company's network. Hospitals say they frequently give the uninsured discounts.

"This is the opening bid in the hospital's attempt to get as much money as possible out of you," White said of the listed charges.

And some people pay full price, or try to afford it, because they don't know they can bargain for a discount, White said.

The department released a list of the average charges at 3,300 hospitals for each of the 100 most common Medicare inpatient services. The prices, from 2011, represent about 60 percent of Medicare inpatient cases.

"Hospitals that charge two or three times the going rate will rightfully face scrutiny," Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius told reporters.

And consumers will benefit from more information about a mystifying system that too often leaves them with little way of knowing what a hospital will charge or what their insurance companies are paying for treatments, Sebelius said.

Previously, the price information that the government collects from hospitals wasn't available to the average consumer, although the data could be purchased for uses such as research, officials said.

The department also is making $87 million in federal money available as grants to states to improve their hospital rate review programs and get more information about health care charges to patients.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hospitals-charge-vastly-more-same-care-160640948.html

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Canadian tourist dies in Mexico after falling from balcony

TORONTO - A Canadian tourist has died in the Mexican resort of Cancun.

Local media reports say the 21-year-old, identified as Sydney Taylor, died early Tuesday after apparently falling about 10 metres from the balcony of her second-floor hotel room.

They say the victim was identified by her Canadian roommate.

There was no immediate word on the woman?s hometown, but a spokesman for Acadia University in Nova Scotia says the victim graduated from the school last month.

In Ottawa, Foreign Affairs confirmed that a Canadian had died in Mexico, but did not provide any details.

It says Canadian consular officials are in contact with local authorities to gather more information and that consular assistance is being provided both in Mexico and to the woman?s relatives in Canada.

Source: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/canadian-tourist-dies-in-mexico-after-falling-from-balcony-1.1272162

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From Carriage Horses To Chihuahuas And Cockatiels, An Appeal ...

A mayoral forum Monday offered candidates a rare chance on the campaign trail ? to prove they?re the biggest ally to the city?s furry friends.

Seeking to one up each other on four-legged bona fides, the hopefuls mixed policy proposals with boasts about their vegetarian kids and their families? beloved pets.

Republican John Catsimatidis used his opening statement to tell how his family summoned the FDNY for an elaborate rescue of his daughter?s cockatiel ? which was successful ? and his wife attempted mouth to mouth resuscitation on their dying cat, which was not.

Not only that, but he has ?cat? in his name.

?I?m John Catsimatidis. Some people call me 'The Cat Man.' I love animals,? he said.

In making the case for a bill barring landlord from denying apartments to seniors because they own pets, former City Councilman Sal Albanese cited a chihuahua named Joey he said had helped prolong his mother in law's life for several years.

When she passed away, the pooch was the ?estate? that he and his wife inherited, he said.
? Not to be outdone, former Controller Bill Thompson said his family had adopted two rescue cats.?

And Controller John Liu offered up a strong opinion on pet owners who shell out thousands on so-called ?pure-bred? animals. ?We?ve rejected that notion for human beings. Why would we allow that to continue for dogs and cats?? Liu said. He backed a measure to require city pet stores to sell only animals from shelters or rescues.

If having pets in the family was a talking point, so too was having vegetarians.

?I have a confession to make ? I?m not a vegetarian yet,? said Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who quickly noted that his two kids are. ?I am very proud of the fact that my wife and I have raised two vegetarians.?

Candidates who didn?t show for the forum were tarred as anti-animal. Catsimatidis, who, like the others on the panel, thought the mass extermination of geese in Prospect Park in 2010 due to aircraft safety concerns was overkill, threw in a swipe at rival Joe Lhota. ?

?My opponent?wanted to kill all the deer in Staten Island,? he charged.

But the biggest punching bag was City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, a longtime target of the group that hosted the forum, New Yorkers For Clean, Livable, and Safe Streets, which is part of an anti-Quinn political committee that has aired attack ads against her.

Allie Feldman, who heads the group, set the tone by asking audience members to take out their phones and call Quinn about banning horse carriages.

?There is one thing that everyone in this room can agree on and that is that Christine Quinn has not been a friend to animals,? she said.

Later, each candidate was offered a chance to speculate about why Quinn would not take action against the carriages, and each echoed the charge first made by Liu that it?s because ?she hasn?t gotten the OK from Mayor Bloomberg.?

But only de Blasio supported NY CLASS?s key goal of completely banning the horse-drawn carriages, while others talked about testing out alternatives or phasing them out gradually. ?

?This is inhumane,? de Blasio said. ?We don?t say, look at that, it?s inhumane, but it?s so quaint and historic, lets continue it. It doesn?t make any sense.?

Update: Quinn spokesman Mike Morey said: "Chris Quinn is the proud owner of two rescue dogs and although she disagrees with the organizers' goal of banning carriage horses, as Speaker of the City Council she has a strong record on animal rights, including expanding funding for spay and neutering programs through an overhaul of licensing fees, increased safety measures for kennels, and she passed laws cracking down on the abuse of animals. Furthermore, as mayor she has committed to making the New York City shelter system a NO KILL shelter system."

Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2013/05/from-carriage-horses-to-chihuahas-and-cockatiels-an-appeal-for-the-animal-love

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Heritage Foundation puts $6.3 trillion price tag on amnesty (Powerlineblog)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS Feeds and Widgets via Feedzilla.

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Windows Phone 8's YouTube app goes from glorified bookmark to full application in latest update

The Windows Phone 8 YouTube app has been woefully underutilized, acting more or less as a bookmark that redirects users to the web. No more, as the app's getting a major update today that makes it act more like a standard WP8 app -- you can pin various components right into your Live Tile set and play videos (as music) in the background, even when your phone's locked. Standards like social sharing and search are also in there, and a "new and innovative playlist design" rounds out the refresh. Perhaps the Microsoft / Google relationship is mending? We can't be sure, but this is certainly one step in the right direction. We've dropped the full list of new features beyond the break, and you can grab the app update for yourself right here.

Filed under: Cellphones, Handhelds, Software, Mobile, Microsoft, Google

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Source: Windows Phone Store, Microsoft

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/Rt7hzCptn6s/

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This Guy Got Swallowed By A Hippo And Survived

Look, a lot of people have crazy life stories to tell. They bought a used car formerly owned by Bob Saget or they were on a camping trip, peeing behind a tree when a bear walked by. Quality stories all. But this South African tour guide was, and I can't emphasize this enough, actually in the mouth of a hippopotamus. So, yeah.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Cmq4w5L5uNE/this-guy-got-swallowed-by-a-hippo-and-survived-492024472

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Obama dares Ohio State graduates to reject cynical voices

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) ? A year to the day after kicking off his victorious re-election campaign on this college campus, President Barack Obama returned to Ohio State University and told graduates that only through vigorous participation in their democracy can they right an ill-functioning government and break through relentless cynicism about the nation's future.

"I dare you, Class of 2013, to do better. I dare you to dream bigger," Obama said.

In a sunbaked stadium filled with more than 57,000 students, friends and relatives, Obama lamented an American political system that gets consumed by "small things" and works for the benefit of society's elite. He called graduates to duty to "accomplish great things," like rebuilding a still-feeble economy and fighting poverty and climate change.

"Only you can ultimately break that cycle. Only you can make sure the democracy you inherit is as good as we know it can be," Obama told more than 10,000 cap-and-gown-clad graduates gathered for the rite of passage. "But it requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship."

The visit to Ohio State ? the first of three commencement addresses Obama will give this season ? was a homecoming of sorts for Obama, who has visited the campus five times over little more than a year, starting with his first official campaign rally here last May. He made many more stops elsewhere in Ohio as he and Republican Mitt Romney dueled for the Buckeye State, and its 18 electoral votes were pivotal to Obama's victories in both 2008 and 2012.

There was little direct mention of party politics Sunday, but ample allusion to the partisan battles that cramped many of Obama's legislative efforts in his first term and have continued unabated into his second.

In an apparent reference to his failed push on gun control, he bemoaned that a small minority in Congress find excuses to oppose things that most Americans support.

"This is a joyous occasion, so let me put it charitably: I think it's fair to say our democracy isn't working as well as we know it can," Obama said.

Invoking the end of the Cold War, 9/11 and the economic recession, Obama said this generation had been tested beyond what their parents could have imagined. But he said young Americans have responded with a deep commitment to service and a conviction that they can improve their surroundings. He urged graduates to run for office, start a business or join a cause, contending that the health of their democracy "requires your dedicated, informed and engaged citizenship."

"You've grown up hearing voices that incessantly warn of government as nothing more than some separate, sinister entity that's at the root of all our problems," Obama said. "You should reject these voices. Because what these suggest is that somehow our brave, creative, unique experiment in self-rule is just a sham with which we can't be trusted."

Among the 10,143 students receiving diplomas at this sprawling state university Sunday were 130 veterans, including the first class to benefit from the new GI Bill that Congress passed after 9/11, university officials said.

Ohio State also bestowed an honorary doctorate on Obama, applauding his "unwavering belief in the ability to unite people around a politics of purpose." Also honored was photographer Annie Leibovitz, whose images of Obama and his family have become iconic reflections on the nation's first black president.

Obama's other two commencement speeches this season will be later in May at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., and at Morehouse College, an all-male school in Atlanta.

___

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/obama-dares-graduates-reject-cynical-voices-170009309.html

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1 dead, 44 injured in blast in Tanzania church

ZANZIBAR, Tanzania (AP) ? A woman died and 44 people were seriously wounded when a bomb exploded in a Roman Catholic church in northern Tanzania, a Tanzanian police official said Sunday

The woman died in hospital as a result of the bombing in the Arusha church just before Mass, which was attended by the papal envoy to Tanzania, said Magesa Mulogo, the regional police commissioner of Arusha.

Mulogo said eyewitnesses report that the bomb was thrown from a motorcycle into the church. Mulogo said the driver of the motorcycle has been arrested.

The Vatican's ambassador to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco Montecillo Padilla, was attending the official opening of the church when the explosion occurred. He escaped unhurt.

Mulogo said the motive of attack is not known but Tanzania has in the recent past experienced sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/1-dead-44-injured-blast-tanzania-church-150110970.html

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Israel strikes Syria, says targeting Hezbollah arms

By Dominic Evans and Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah.

As Syria's two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran's confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky.

"Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the targets, the Jamraya military base.

But for all the angry rhetoric in response from Tehran and from the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it was unclear whether the second such raid in 48 hours would elicit any greater reaction than an Israeli attack in the same area in January, which was followed by little evident change.

The Syrian government accused Israel of effectively helping al Qaeda Islamist "terrorists" and said the strikes "open the door to all possibilities"; but Israeli officials said that, as in January, they were calculating Assad would not pick a fight with a well-armed neighbor while facing defeat at home.

Denying it was weighing in on the rebel side on behalf of Washington - which opposes Assad but is hesitating to intervene - officials said Israel was pursuing its own conflict, not with Syria but with Iran, and was acting to prevent Iran's Hezbollah allies receiving missiles that might strike Tel Aviv if Israel made good on threats to attack Tehran's nuclear program.

What Israel was not doing, they stressed, was getting drawn into a debate that has raged in the United States lately of whether the alleged use of poison gas by Assad's forces should prompt the West finally to give military backing to oust him.

Israel was not taking sides in a civil war that has pitted Assad's government, a dour but mostly toothless adversary for nearly 40 years, against Sunni rebels, some of them Islamist radicals, who might one day turn Syria's armory against the Jewish state.

It is a mark of how two years of killing in which at least 70,000 Syrians have died has not only inflamed a wider, regional confrontation between Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Sunni Arabs, some of them close Western allies, but have also left Israel and Western powers scrambling to reassess where their interests lie.

Egypt, the most populous Arab state and flagship of the 2011 Arab Spring revolts where elected Islamists have replaced a Western-backed autocrat, has no love for Assad. But on Sunday it condemned Israel's air strikes as a breach of international law that "made the situation more complicated".

ROCKETS TARGETED

Israel does not confirm such missions explicitly - a policy it says is intended to avoid provoking reprisals. But an Israeli official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the strikes were carried out by its forces, as was a raid early on Friday that U.S. President Barack Obama said had been justified.

A Western intelligence source told Reuters: "In last night's attack, as in the previous one, what was attacked were stores of Fateh-110 missiles that were in transit from Iran to Hezbollah."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his aim for Israel was to "guarantee its future" - language he has used to warn of a willingness to attack Iran's nuclear sites, even in defiance of U.S. advice, as well as to deny Hezbollah heavier weapons.

He later flew to China on a scheduled trip, projecting confidence there would be no major escalation - though Israel has reinforced its anti-missile batteries in the north.

Syrian state television said bombing at a military research facility at Jamraya and two other sites caused "many civilian casualties and widespread damage", but it gave no details. The Jamraya compound was also a target for Israel on January 30.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television showed a flattened building spread over the size of a football pitch, with smoke rising from rubble containing shell fragments. It did not identify it.

Syrian state television quoted a letter from the foreign minister to the United Nations saying: "The blatant Israeli aggression has the aim to provide direct military support to the terrorist groups after they failed to control territory."

Obama defended Israel's right to block "terrorist organizations like Hezbollah" from acquiring weapons after Friday's raid, and a White House spokesman said on Sunday: "The president many times has talked about his view that Israel, as a sovereign government, has the right to take the actions they feel are necessary to protect their people."

It was unclear that Israel had sought U.S. approval for the strikes, although the White House spokesman said: "The close coordination between the Obama administration, the United States of America, is ongoing with the Israeli government."

Obama has in recent years worked to hold back Netanyahu from making good on threats to hit facilities where he says Iran, despite its denials, is working to develop a nuclear weapon.

On Sunday, some Israeli officials highlighted Obama's reluctance to be drawn into new conflict in the Middle East to explain Israel's need for independent action.

Syria restricts access to independent journalists. Its state media said Israeli aircraft struck three places between Damascus and the nearby Lebanese border. The city also lies barely 50 km (30 miles) from Israeli positions on the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran, which has long backed Assad, whose Alawite minority has religious ties to Shi'ite Islam, denied the attack was on armaments for Lebanon and called for nations to stand firm against Israel. A senior Iranian commander was quoted, however, as saying Syria's armed forces were able to defend themselves without their allies, though Iran could help them with training.

Hezbollah, a Shi'ite movement that says it is defending Lebanon from Israeli aggression, declined immediate comment.

ISRAELI CONCERNS

Analysts say the Fateh-110 could put the Tel Aviv metropolis in range of Hezbollah gunners, 100 km (60 miles) to the north, bolstering the arsenal of a group that fired some 4,000 shorter-range rockets into Israel during a month-long war in 2006.

"What we want is to ensure that inside the Syrian chaos we will not see Hezbollah growing stronger," Israeli lawmaker Tzachi Hanegbi, a confidant of Netanyahu, told Army Radio.

"The world is helplessly looking on at events in Syria, the Americans in particular, and this president in particular," he added of Obama. "He has left Iraq, Afghanistan and has no interest in sending ground troops to Syria ... That is why, as in the past, we are left with our own interests, protecting them with determination and without getting too involved."

Video footage uploaded onto the Internet by Syrian activists showed a series of blasts. One lit up the skyline of Damascus, while another sent up a tower of flames and secondary blasts.

Syrian state news agency SANA said Israeli aircraft struck in three places: northeast of Jamraya; the town of Maysaloun on the Lebanese border; and the nearby Dimas air base.

"The sky was red all night," one man said from Hameh, near Jamraya. "We didn't sleep a single second. The explosions started after midnight and continued through the night."

Central Damascus was quiet on the first day of the working week, and government checkpoints seemed reinforced. Some opposition activists said they were glad strikes might weaken Assad, even if few Syrians have any liking for Israel: "We don't care who did it," Rania al-Midania said in the capital. "We care that those weapons are no longer there to kill us."

(Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Maayan Lubell, Dan Williams, Jeffrey Heller and Crispian Balmer in Jerusalem, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Roberta Rampton Aboard Air Force One and Arshad Mohammed and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Will Waterman)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/explosions-shake-damascus-syria-says-israel-attacked-001502034.html

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Google+ widget lets you embed Photo Spheres on any website

One of the biggest highlights of Android's jump to 4.2 was the addition of Photo Sphere, a 360-degree panoramic shooting mode that pans vertically as well as horizontally. It's a neat trick, but the only way to share it was on Google+ or on a device running Android 4.2 or higher. Now, thanks to a new widget that utilizes the Google+ Platform API, you can embed an interactive 360-degree slideshow on any website you choose -- so long as your photos are stored on G+ and PicasaWeb. If you're willing to play around with a bit of code, have a peek at the source to get started.

[Image credit: Colby Brown]

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Via: Colby Brown Photography, Google+

Source: Google Developers

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/2gbpYw7-sCs/

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Calif. wildfire grows, but weather may aid fight

Firefighters from Riverside, Calif. work to extinguish a brush fire at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A Southern California wildfire carving a path to the sea grew to more than 15 square miles and crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

Firefighters from Riverside, Calif. work to extinguish a brush fire at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A Southern California wildfire carving a path to the sea grew to more than 15 square miles and crews prepared Friday for another bad day of gusting winds and searing weather. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A firefighter keeps watch as the wildfire burns along a hillside in Point Mugu , Calif. Friday, May 3, 2013. Firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes, but temperatures remained high and humidity levels are expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu)

Fire trucks keep an eye on a burned structure at the Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) at Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. The 15 1/2-square-mile blaze was only 10 percent contained on Friday, and the work of more than 900 firefighters, aided by air tankers, was just beginning. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A firefighter carries tools down a burned hill after a wildfire in Point Mugu on Friday, May 3, 2013. A huge wildfire carved a path to the sea and burned on the beach Friday, but firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes. Temperatures remained high, but humidity levels were expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A resident waters the burned area next to his home in Point Mugu, Calif., Friday, May 3, 2013. A huge wildfire carved a path to the sea and burned on the beach Friday, but firefighters got a break as gusty winds turned into breezes. Temperatures remained high, but humidity levels were expected to soar as cool air moved in from the ocean and the Santa Ana winds retreated. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) ? A wildfire tearing through a coastal region in Southern California nearly tripled in size as high temperatures fueled the flames, but a fire official said early Saturday that a favorable shift in the weather will likely help crews make progress against the flames.

The fire 50 miles northwest of Los Angeles mushroomed to 43 square miles Friday as 900 firefighters used engines, aircraft, bulldozers and other equipment to battle the flames.

Forecasters said a weekend of increased humidity should help teams fighting the early-season blaze.

"It's a total turnaround from what we had," said Kurt Kaplan, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Oxnard. "It should be a much better day for firefighters tomorrow."

Capt. Mike Lindbery of the Ventura County Fire Department said early Saturday that crews intended to take advantage of lower temps and higher humidity.

"That will give us a chance because it's going to really bring that fire activity down quite a bit. I think we will make some significant progress," Lindbery said.

Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through the Camarillo Springs area has caused damage to just 15 structures, though it's threatening thousands.

Residents were grateful so many homes were spared.

"''It came pretty close. All of these houses ? these firemen did a tremendous job. Very, very thankful for them," Shayne Poindexter said. Flames came within 30 feet of the house he was building.

Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said parts of the Newbury Park community of Thousand Oaks were under mandatory and voluntary evacuations. Overnight, he said firefighters planned to stockpile resources along a road that lies between the fire and Malibu, protecting homes on the fire's eastern front. Its cause of the fire is under investigation.

The good fortune of the Camarillo Springs area wasn't the result of luck or clairvoyance by firefighters. It came after years of planning and knowing that sooner or later just such a conflagration was going to strike.

Camarillo Springs, which was nothing more than rugged backcountry when homes began to go up there 30 years ago, was well prepared.

Its homes were built with sprinkler systems and fireproof exteriors from the roofs to the foundations. Residents are required to clear brush and other combustible materials to within 100 feet of the dwellings, and developers had to make sure the cul-de-sacs that fill the area's canyons were built wide enough to accommodate the emergency vehicles seen on TV racing in to battle the flames.

Residents in the area are also particularly vigilant about clearing brush from the hillsides next to their yards, Kruschke said. Normally, firefighters remind people in such areas to do that every June, but in Camarillo Springs people do it every few months. The work paid off this week.

The type of blaze that hit the area usually doesn't strike Southern California wild-land until September or October, after the summer has dried out hillside vegetation. But the state has seen a severe drought during the past year, with the water content of California's snowpack only 17 percent of normal.

That created late-summer conditions by May, and when hot Santa Ana winds and high temperatures arrived this week, the spring flames that firefighters routinely knock down once or twice a year quickly roared up a hillside ? out of control.

On Friday, the wildfire stormed back through canyons toward inland neighborhoods when winds reversed direction.

After jumping Pacific Coast Highway 20 miles north of Malibu, the fire burned for a time on a beach shooting range at the Point Mugu Naval Air Station.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year ? about 200 more than average.

In Riverside County, a 4 1/2-square-mile fire that destroyed a home burned for a third day in mountains north of Banning. It was 75 percent contained.

Fifty-five miles away from Camarillo, in the hills above Glendale, a blaze broke out Friday afternoon, prompting evacuations and closure of a freeway as it quickly charred 75 acres.

In Tehama County in Northern California, the size of a wildfire north of Butte Meadows was revised down from more than 15 square miles to 10 square miles, state fire spokesman Daniel Berlant said.

The fire, which was 20 percent contained, was burning in a remote area and wasn't posing an imminent threat to any structures.

___

Associated Press writers Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-05-04-California%20Wildfires/id-a470b06c14b44cb7944d1d18913d554c

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Don't blame Canada: Former ambassador to Iran on Argo, America, and nukes

Canada's envoy to Tehran at the time of the Islamic revolution and the US hostage crisis, says Argo disappointed him and that he's worried about where Iran's nuclear program might lead.

By Ariel Zirulnick,?Staff writer / April 26, 2013

Former Canadian Ambassador to Iran Ken Taylor and his wife Pat, pose for photographers at the premiere of the film Argo in Washington, Oct. 2012. Taylor, who protected Americans at great personal risk during the Iran hostage crisis of 1979, has achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie 'Argo' swept theaters and the Academy Awards.

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Former Canadian Ambassador Ken Taylor is neither the James Bond lookalike he hoped might portray him in the Hollywood blockbuster "Argo" nor is he quite the Austin Powers double he says might have been a more accurate choice.

Skip to next paragraph Ariel Zirulnick

Middle East Editor

Ariel Zirulnick is the Monitor's Middle East editor, overseeing regional coverage both for CSMonitor.com and the weekly magazine. She is also a contributor to the international desk's terrorism and security blog.?

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But he's achieved some name recognition in the US since the 2012 movie swept theaters and the Academy Awards, and he has plenty to say about Iran in 1979 and the country it has become since.?

Mr. Taylor was Canada's ambassador to Tehran in 1979 when the US embassy there was stormed and dozens of Americans were taken hostage. Six Americans escaped and spent months holed up with him, waiting for their extraction.

Those months are the premise of the Ben Affleck-directed movie, which Taylor mildly says took ?a bit of poetic license.?

Speaking before a gathering of the New England Canada Business Council in Boston yesterday, Taylor, who now lives in New York, joked that after friends saw "Argo" at the 2012 Toronto Film Festival, they called him and said, ?I thought Canada was involved.?

According to Taylor, he replied, ?That?s odd, So did I.?

As the tense months of being trapped inside the embassy wore on, Taylor tried to reassure the Americans that they would be home by Thanksgiving, then Christmas, then the Super Bowl. He warned the US that ?they?re going to wonder if Washington forgot about them.?

Taylor revealed little about the actual operation that got the six men and women safely back to the United States. But, he joked, at least the movie showed that he ?opened the front door of the embassy with great dexterity.?

Iran then

When Taylor arrived in Tehran in 1977, ?the country was booming.?

There were rumors that Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi ? more commonly referred to as simply ?the Shah? ? was preparing to buy Pan American Airways. It did not seem like the ?stalwart of the West? was going anywhere.

For all the blame heaped on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for not predicting the Islamic Revolution, almost nobody saw it coming, he said. Afterward, the Ayatollah?s secular advisers told Taylor that even they didn?t expect the Shah?s government to fall like it did. ?

Revolutionary fervor did not sweep up the whole country the way it seemed to be portrayed in "Argo." And Taylor said a great disappointment for him was the way the movie portrayed Iranians, some of whom became ?marvelous friends? with him during his posting in Tehran.

?The movie was too heavy handed,? he said. ?It gave no idea that there is another side to the Iranian character. Everybody isn?t on the street. Everybody isn?t part of the revolution.?

Too many sanctions, too little talking

He is on board with the growing chorus of voices in Washington urging the Obama administration to ease up on its sanctions-heavy approach to negotiations with Iran although he acknowledges that Iran needs to give ground too.

Sometimes sanctions work, he says, citing South Africa during the apartheid era, but ?sometimes they strengthen resolve.?

When asked his opinion of whether Tehran has nuclear weapon ambitions, he cautions that ?Iran is an opaque society,? and there?s too little information to guess.

?I think they?ve got some military use in the back of their mind,? he says. ?But they don?t want to destroy themselves ? Maybe they are working at capabilities, but not necessarily producing [a nuclear weapon].?

That the military option for halting Iran?s nuclear development is ?on the table? worries Taylor, who points to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as cautionary for anyone considering going to war with Iran.

"A bombing mission would be a fatal error. It would solve nothing,? he says. ?It would postpone [Iran?s nuclear program] for two to three years,? but nothing more, because Iran?s nuclear facilities are too dispersed.

He says, ?I wake up every morning hoping [the military option] is still on the table? ? instead of being used.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/csmonitor/globalnews/~3/hjWdZ6cfd7U/Don-t-blame-Canada-Former-ambassador-to-Iran-on-Argo-America-and-nukes

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Today in APIs: @Pay Two-Click API, Cabforce API, and 23 New APIs

@Pay announced the release of their first open API. The Cabforce API is ready to help with European transportation booking. Plus: Mozilla launches Firefox OS Simulator 3.0?and 23 New APIs.

@Pay Released Two-Click Payment API

@Pay is a payment processing company that specializes in simplified web and email checkout. Founded in 2010 by CEO John Killoran, @Pay was originally intended to encourage generosity. The premise being that, ?the easier it is for people to be generous, the more generous they?ll be.? Since then the platform has evolved into a sophisticated two-click purchasing process. The company provides the @Pay Two-Click API, allowing developers integration possibilities. Check out the API documentation and quick-start guides for help getting started.

Taxi Booking Via the Cabforce API

One of the newest APIs added to the ProgrammableWeb API directory is the Cabforce API. Cabforce allows users to make transportation arrangements for all major European travel destinations. The companies goal is to:

?enable distribution of high quality and reliable pre-booked airport transfers and any other taxi rides within travel industry.?

The API documentation for this service is made available upon request.

API News You Shouldn?t Miss

23 New APIs

Today we had 23 new APIs added to our API directory including an add message screens within apps service, a minor celestial body information database, a biotechnology in the public interest service, a taxi booking and payment service and a price tracking tool. Below is more details on each of these new APIs.

AddNag API: AddNag provides a platform for displaying and sharing content in mobile applications. Developers can create ?nags?, simple pages that appear upon opening an app that can be used to convey reminders, special offers, tutorials, etc. AddNag?s functions are available for integration via API. Further documentation can be accessed by logging in to the AddNag website.

Asterank Minor Planet Center API: The International Astronomical Union?s Minor Planet Center (MPC) is responsible for the designation of minor bodies found within our solar system. This includes minor planets, comets, and natural satellites. The MPC is also responsible for collecting, computing, checking, and disseminating astrometric observations and orbital information for those minor bodies.

The Asterank MPC API enables users to apply constraints to the more than 600,000 asteroids documented in the MPC?s MPCORB.DAT files. Because the Asterank database runs on MongoDB, queries must use Mongo?s JSON format. Information in the Asterank MPC database is updated nightly.

BioBricks Public Agreement API: The BioBricks Foundation is a public-benefit organization created to ensure that synthetic biology is conducted ethically and transparently, for the benefit of all people and the planet. The BioBrick Public Agreement is a free legal tool allowing institutions, individuals, and companies to make their standardized biological parts freely available.
The BioBrick Public Agreement API provides developer access to the resources within the Public Agreement database. The RESTful API currently supports only GET calls over HTTPS and returns XML formatted data. Other methods and JSON formatted data are planned for future development.

Cabforce API: Cabforce allows users to search for and book taxi rides and airport transfers online. They provide services for all major European travel destinations and are currently expanding into the U.S., Asia, and Australia. Cabforce works with certified service providers who operate clean, non-smoking cars and are guaranteed to arrive on-time. Bookings are always con?rmed, and Cabforce provides 24/7 customer service in English.

Cabforce customers pay an all-inclusive flat rate online via credit card, eliminating the issues of overpriced fares and unfamiliar currencies. Cabforce?s services can be accessed directly on the website or programmatically via API. Documentation for the API is available upon request.

Camel API: The Camel API is a price tracking tool from Cosmic Shovel supporting programmatic management of price watches on popular shopping sites. In addition to Amazon, the tool can track Backcountry, Best Buy, Newegg, and zZounds prices. The Camel API supports POST/GET calls over HTTPS and uses HTTP basic access authentication. JSON and XML formatted responses are supported.

Code.org Local School Database API: Code.org is a non-profit foundation dedicated to spreading computer programming education. On their website, they provide the Local School Search, which allows users to locate schools near a given location that offer programming courses. The database powering this service is accessible programmatically via JSON so that third parties can integrate it into their own applications. Public contact information is listed, but not private contact information.

Collins Dictionary API: Collins is a publisher of dictionaries and other reference works. The Collins Dictionary API provides developer access to the features and content of collinsdictionary.com. Exposed resources include definitions, synonyms, pronunciations, translations, new words, and word games. Data is JSON formatted.

CORE API: CORE (COnnecting REpositories) facilitates free access to scholarly articles aggregated from Open Access repositories. Additionally, CORE harvests, enriches, and makes accessible metadata and full-text PDF content from many repositories.
The CORE API provides developer access to this metadata and text. The API is accessed via HTTP GET and POST calls, requires an API Key, and returns XML or JSON formatted responses.

Edicy Site API: Edicy is a cloud-based service for building and hosting multilingual websites and managing their content. It is optimized for both desktop and mobile viewing, provides built-in SEO, and comes with customizable themes.

The Edicy Site API allows users to access public Edicy site contents through a JSON-based API. This API is read-only and can be used to retrieve articles, comments, and other page elements.

eLife API: The eLife journal seeks to improve access to new research and discoveries in the fields of life sciences and biomedicine. It provides researchers with a publishing option that?s designed to be publicly available and widely disseminated. To aid in dissemination, eLife makes its content available via REST API as well as through RSS and OAI end points. Content can also be accessed through a number of external endpoints that are not managed by eLife.

Ftsee API: Ftsee is a service that tracks detailed information about securities that includes their products, competitors, and suppliers. Each security has its own message stream full of information that users can view, favorite, and share. Ftsee users can follow as many securities as they like through the service.

The Ftsee API can be used to retrieve low-level data and get alerts when there is unusual activity surrounding a security. It also provides real-time social analytics that include sentiment, volume, and trends for major securities and foreign exchange rates.

Load Impact API: Load Impact provides load testing and reporting to e-commerce and B2B sites. The Load Impact API provides developers with programmatic management of features such as data stores, load zone information, tests, and user scenarios. The API supports HTTP calls, returns JSON formatted data, and requires an API Key.

MacMillan Dictionary API: Macmillan is a reference work publisher whose primary products include encyclopedias and dictionaries. The Macmillan Dictionary API provides developer access to Macmillan?s online dictionary, exposing resources such as definitions, pronunciations, grammar, synonyms, and more.

MangoPay API: MangoPay is a full-stack payment platform for accepting online payments and managing e-money. It gives users the ability to create e-wallets, transfer money between e-wallets, allow group payments, hold escrow funds, and collect fees in a variety of ways. MangoPay provides advanced payment features such as recurring payments, single-click payments, and refunds on cards. The platform accepts payments from more than 150 countries in the local currencies. MangoPay?s functions can be accessed programmatically via REST API.

Municipal DataWorks API: Municipal DataWorks (MDW) is an asset management solution designed to assist municipalities in maintaining and managing their tangible capital assets. MDW stores data on the attributes and condition of an asset, tracks repairs, and converts data into information that policy-makers can use to estimate the level of investment required to maintain infrastructure.

MDW is based on the Municipal Infrastructure Data Standard (MIDS). Combined with MDW?s non-proprietary database, it allows users to take ownership of their data and make it available for integration with third party software applications. Integration is accomplished using a SOAP API, which allows users to retrieve information from MDW, save information to MDW, perform remote electronic data collection, and more.

Plagtracker API: Plagtracker is a free service for determining whether a given text is original or plagiarized. Users can upload their papers to the site, and Plagtracker will scan them for plagiarism and return a report on its findings. Plagtracker?s API enables webmasters and developers to analyze texts and URLs for originality and to see whether they?ve been duplicated elsewhere online.

Quandl API: Quandl is a portal to numerical data (especially time-series data) that is stored on the internet. It allows users to search over 5,000,000 financial, economic, and social datasets. Once found, data can be downloaded, visualized, saved, shared, authenticated, validated, uploaded, indexed, merged, and transformed. Every dataset on Quandl is available through its REST API, regardless of where, how, or in what format the data was originally published.

Skimap.org API: Skimap.org is an online database of ski area maps. The database includes maps from resorts worldwide, as well as historical maps. The Skimap.org API provides developer access to the websites resources, including region data, ski area data, and map files. The RESTful API returns XML or JSON formatted responses.

Styfee API: Styfee is a webservice that provides internalization and localization (i18n/L10n) services. So far, this includes reference services for languages, currencies, timezones, countries, and date and measurement conversions. This information can be retrieved programmatically via REST calls. Styfee has no interest in working with exchange rates for the time being.

Thinkery API: Thinkery is a fast, lightweight tool for storing notes, bookmarks, todos, and other such items. Notes are organized using hashtags, which can be color-coded to group them or make them stand out. Items can be retrieved using an as-you-type search. All notes, bookmarks, and other bits of information stored with Thinkery are private unless the user chooses make them public. Thinkery is accessible directly online, using mobile applications, or via REST API.

Voice RSS API: Voice RSS makes Text-To-Speech (TTS) capabilities available online for free. It does this using a RESTful API, which allows developers to integrate TTS functions into their applications. Voice RSS accepts text in any of 26 languages and returns a high quality audio stream in a human-sounding voice. A live demo is provided to give potential users a preview of the API?s capabilities

WhatsOnMyBookshelf API: WhatsOnMyBookshelf is a web-based book trading community. Users list the books they own and can trade with other users to read and discover new books as well as earn points which can be accumulated earn more books. The WhatsOnMyBookshelf API allows users to authenticate users, get user information, register users, and register books by ISBN number. The API has SOAP and REST versions depending on what type of calls are being made.

xmlstats API: Xmlstats is a straightforward API for obtaining MLB (Major League Baseball) and NBA (National Basketball Association) statistics in either XML or JSON format. Using the RESTful API, users can retrieve a list of events for a given date, the current standings table, the box score for a game, and each team?s results for the current season for both the MLB and NBA.

Source: http://blog.programmableweb.com/2013/05/03/today-in-apis-pay-two-click-api-cabforce-api-and-23-new-apis/

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