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Kenya says all hostages freed in mall siege, gunfire heard

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/kenya-says-all-hostages-freed-in-mall.html">Kenya says all hostages freed in mall siege, gunfire heard</a></h2>
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Kenya said its security forces were in control of the Nairobi shopping mall where Islamist fighters killed at least 62 people, and police were doing a final sweep of shops early on Tuesday after rescuing the last hostages.</div>
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An overnight silence outside the large, upmarket Westgate mall was broken at daybreak with a loud burst of gunfire from inside, suggesting the complex had not yet been fully secured. A lone military chopper circled above.</div>
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"Our forces are combing the mall floor by floor looking for anyone left behind. We believe all hostages have been released," the Ministry of Interior said on Twitter early on Tuesday, adding his forces were "in control" of the building.</div>
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A trickle of survivors left on Monday, but the fate of the missing was unclear four days after a group of between 10 and 15 militants stormed the mall, which with its rich clientele epitomised the African consumer bonanza that is drawing foreign investment to one of the world's fastest growing regions.</div>
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Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed said in a U.S. television interview that "two or three Americans" and a British woman were among the militants who led the attack, launched on Saturday and claimed by Somalia's al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab group.</div>
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Mohamed told the "PBS Newshour" show the Americans were "young men, about between maybe 18 and 19" years old. They were of Somali origin or Arab origin, and had lived in the U.S., "in Minnesota and one other place", she said.</div>
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U.S. authorities are urgently looking into information from the Kenyan government that residents of Western countries, including the United States, may have been among the militants, U.S. security sources said.</div>
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"We do monitor very carefully and have for some time been concerned about efforts by al Shabaab to recruit Americans or U.S. persons to come to Somalia," White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said.</div>
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Kenyan officials have tried to reassure the country that it would seize control of the situation.</div>
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"We appeal for patience, keep calm, avoid Westgate at all costs and wait for the official communication," the Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government in The Office of the President said on Twitter.</div>
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A press briefing was expected later on Tuesday.</div>
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Al Qaeda killed more than 200 people when it bombed the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi in 1998. When fighters from its Somali ideological counterpart stormed the mall on Saturday, they hit a high-profile symbol of Kenya's economic power.</div>
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Kenya has sent troops to Somalia as part of an African Union force trying to stabilise the country, which was long without a functioning government, and push back al Shabaab.</div>
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It has also suffered internal instability. President Uhuru Kenyatta, who lost a nephew in the weekend bloodbath, faces charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court for his alleged role in coordinating violence after disputed elections in 2007. He denies the charges.</div>
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Kenyatta has dismissed a demand that he pull Kenyan forces out of Somalia, saying he would not relent in a "war on terror."</div>
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British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said he believed six Britons had died in the attack. Other known foreign victims are from China, Ghana, France, the Netherlands and Canada. Kenyan officials said the total death toll was at least 62.</div>
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Speculation rose about the identity of the attackers. Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku had earlier said they were all men but that some had dressed as women.</div>
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Despite his comments, one intelligence officer and two soldiers told Reuters that one of the dead militants was a white woman, likely to fuel speculation that she is the wanted widow of one of the suicide bombers who together killed more than 50 people on London's transport system in 2005.</div>
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Called the "white widow" by the British press, Samantha Lewthwaite is wanted in connection with an alleged plot to attack hotels and restaurants in Kenya. Asked if the dead woman was Lewthwaite, the intelligence officer said: "We don't know."</div>
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From Mali to Algeria, Nigeria to Kenya, violent Islamist groups - tapping into local poverty, conflict, inequality or exclusion but espousing a similar anti-Western, anti-Christian creed - are striking at state authority and international interests, both economic and political.</div>
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John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria, said he believed insurgents such as those who rebelled in Mali last year, the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Nairobi mall raiders were also partly motivated by anger with what he called "pervasive malgovernance" in Africa.</div>
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"This is undoubtedly anti-Western and anti-Christian but it also taps into a lot of deep popular anger against the political economy in which they find themselves, in which a very small group of people are basically raking off the wealth," he said.</div>
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Kenya says all hostages freed in mall siege, gunfire heard Kenya said its security forces were in control of the Nairobi shopping m...

Obama, Clinton to launch healthcare campaign push Tuesday

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/obama-clinton-to-launch-healthcare.html">Obama, Clinton to launch healthcare campaign push Tuesday</a></h2>
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President Barack Obama will turn to his unofficial "secretary of explaining stuff," former President Bill Clinton, on Tuesday to help with a final push to extol the benefits of U.S. healthcare reform before new insurance exchanges go live on October 1.</div>
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Obama, who is in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, will meet with his most recent Democratic predecessor at the Clinton Global Initiative, a conference where the two men will talk about Obama's healthcare reform law, which Republicans continue to try to repeal.</div>
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A White House official noted that the conversation will take place one week before the new exchanges open, which the White House says will allow millions of Americans who do not have insurance to sign up for plans that fit their budgets.</div>
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The event also comes one day after the 20th anniversary of Clinton's call for healthcare reform in a speech to Congress.</div>
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Clinton's effort to overhaul the U.S. healthcare system while president, spearheaded by his wife, former first lady Hillary Clinton, failed in Congress, dealing them a major political blow. But it called attention to the plight of millions of Americans who did not have insurance.</div>
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That history will set the stage for Tuesday's event.</div>
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"The format of their conversation is designed to foster an enthusiastic and candid discussion between our current president and the last president to make tackling healthcare a priority, who share a deep passion for improving the quality and cost of care for American families and businesses," a White House official said.</div>
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Hillary Clinton, who is a potential presidential candidate in 2016 and served as secretary of state during Obama's first term, will introduce the two men.</div>
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Obama dubbed the former president his "secretary of explaining stuff" during the 2012 campaign. Clinton's aggressive outreach on behalf of Obama is credited with helping him vanquish Republican candidate Mitt Romney and win re-election.</div>
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Obama's attendance at the Clinton Global Initiative is also a boost for the Clintons. The couple could seek his backing if Hillary Clinton decides to run for president in three years.</div>
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HIGHLIGHTING BENEFITS</div>
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Republicans say the law will hurt the U.S. economy and give government too great a hand in its citizens' healthcare choices.</div>
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The Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill last week that would fund the U.S. government only if the law is ransacked.</div>
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Democrats - including Clinton and Obama - are trying to refute that criticism.</div>
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"Their conversation is expected to highlight how the healthcare law is creating more choice, competition and affordability for American consumers, how partnerships with the private sector are helping make it work, and how and why access to quality, affordable healthcare is a global priority for citizens abroad, as well as here at home," the White House official said of the planned chat between Obama and Bill Clinton.</div>
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The White House has enlisted the former president already this month to help pitch the law to Americans, many of whom remain skeptical or confused by it.</div>
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During a speech earlier this month, Bill Clinton made the case that Americans would be better off with the law, dubbed Obamacare, and urged opponents to make the best of it.</div>
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The White House said the Clinton-Obama discussion on Tuesday would kick off a six-month public awareness campaign about the law, coinciding with the October-March period during which Americans can sign up for new healthcare options.</div>
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Obama, Clinton to launch healthcare campaign push Tuesday President Barack Obama will turn to his unofficial "secretary of exp...

The upshot of the German election

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/the-upshot-of-german-election.html">The upshot of the German election</a></h2>
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People across crisis-weary Europe looked toward Germany on Sunday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel won re-election in a landslide. The victory cements her position as the most important leader in the European Union and the most powerful woman in the world.</div>
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Merkel’s popularity secured her conservative Christian Democrats their best result in 23 years (41.5 percent), as voters gave her credit for steering Germany away from the economic troubles affecting much of the rest of the continent.</div>
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“It was a strong vote to take responsibility in Germany, but also in Europe and the world,” the 59-year-old Merkel said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday.</div>
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Though she easily romped to a third term, Merkel will not be able to continue her center-right coalition of the past four years after her junior partners, the Free Democrats (FDP), failed to win seats in parliament for the first time ever. Once the kingmakers of post-war German politics, the FDP imploded as voters rejected the party’s unabashed free-market and pro-business ideology in the wake of the global financial crisis. </div>
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That means Merkel’s conservatives will have to tack leftward to attract either the center-left Social Democrats or environmentalist Greens into government.</div>
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Those developments, along with the rise of an upstart party skeptical toward Europe (more about that in a moment) were among the biggest surprises in an election campaign Merkel dominated from the start.</div>
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Her strong electoral mandate makes Germany’s chancellor central to resolving Europe’s economic crisis and a crucial partner for achieving President Barack Obama’s foreign policy aims.</div>
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Yahoo News takes a look at the most important ramifications of the German vote:</div>
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1. Angela Merkel is now Europe’s de facto boss. From alleviating the eurozone’s woes to hammering out a transatlantic free-trade deal, nothing important will get done without her. Obama is sure to have her number on the White House speed dial this morning.</div>
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2. Keenly aware of its troubled history, Germany has only reluctantly become the dominant political power in Europe. Merkel’s increased profile means Berlin is sure to have more global responsibility thrust upon it ― regardless of whether the German government wants it or not. After leaving close allies Britain and France in the lurch during their military intervention in Libya and recently rejecting a U.S. call for a strike in Syria, Germany will have a harder time trying to pretend it’s an oversized Switzerland.</div>
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3. Europe just became a little more German. The chancellor’s commanding re-election has also given her the political capital to take a more flexible approach toward solving Europe’s debt crisis. But in line with Merkel’s cautious nature, she probably won’t change course much. Assuming her conservatives form a grand coalition with the Social Democrats, Germany might put a bit more emphasis on stimulating growth in Europe. Another Greek bailout may be in the offing, but don’t expect debt mutualization through Eurobonds. And her austerity drive ― so hated in countries from Greece to Spain ― is here to stay.</div>
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4. The election also raised the specter of growing anti-European sentiment in Germany. A populist upstart party, Alternative for Germany (AfD), only narrowly missed the five percent hurdle to win seats in parliament. The surprising result showed, however, that calls to ditch the euro, Europe’s single currency, can win German votes. Merkel now has four years to get the eurozone’s economic house in order. Otherwise, mainstream German politics could become decidedly more antagonistic toward the euro specifically and Europe in general. The euro-skeptical AfD will almost certainly do well in next year’s European Parliament election, ensuring its role as Germany’s political gadfly.</div>
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5. Finally, flipping the bird will not help get you elected in Germany. Peer Steinbrück’s ill-fated bid to oust Merkel will ultimately be remembered for its countless gaffes, including the Social Democrat sarcastically posing for a national magazine while making a vulgar gesture with his middle finger.</div>
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The upshot of the German election People across crisis-weary Europe looked toward Germany on Sunday, as Chancellor Angela Merkel won ...

NASA Mars rover finds no sign of methane, telltale sign of life

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/nasa-mars-rover-finds-no-sign-of.html">NASA Mars rover finds no sign of methane, telltale sign of life</a></h2>
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Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has come up empty-handed in its search for methane in the planet's atmosphere, a gas that on Earth is a strong indicator of life, officials said on Thursday.</div>
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The rover landed on Mars in August 2012 to determine whether the planet most like Earth in the solar system has or ever had the chemistry and conditions to support microbial life.</div>
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Over the past decade, scientists using Mars orbiters and telescopes on Earth have reported plumes of methane in the Martian atmosphere.</div>
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The gas breaks down in sunlight, so its presence on Mars indicated that either biological activity or a recent geologic event was responsible for its release.</div>
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The gas, which lasts about 300 years in Earth's atmosphere, could be expected to stick around for 200 years on Mars. But Curiosity's findings, compiled over eight months, indicate that the methane may have virtually disappeared in a matter of years.</div>
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Based on the previous observations, scientists had expected to find about six times more methane in the atmosphere than the negligible amounts Curiosity found.</div>
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"There's a discrepancy," lead research Christopher Webster, with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, told Reuters. "Suddenly the whole interpretation of earlier observations is stuck."</div>
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Webster said it is possible but unlikely that the lack of methane is particular to Curiosity's landing site, a giant basin near the planet's equator.</div>
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Once methane is released from the surface, scientists believe it would spread fairly quickly through the planet's thin atmosphere.</div>
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"It's disappointing, of course," Webster said. "We would have liked to get there and find lots of methane."</div>
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The search is not over. Curiosity will continue to take air samples and test for methane as it continues its geology mission.</div>
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Scientists also plan another round of observations with Earth-based telescopes next year.</div>
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NASA Mars rover finds no sign of methane, telltale sign of life Florida (Reuters) - NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has come up emp...

U.N. panel to blame mankind for global warming, explain 'hiatus'

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/un-panel-to-blame-mankind-for-global.html">U.N. panel to blame mankind for global warming, explain 'hiatus'</a></h2>
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 A United Nations panel of experts met on Monday to review a draft report that raises the probability that climate change is man-made to 95 percent and warns of ever more extreme weather unless governments take strong action.</div>
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Scientists and officials from more than 110 governments began a four-day meeting in Stockholm to edit and approve the 31-page draft that also tries to explain a "hiatus" in the pace of global warming this century despite rising greenhouse gas emissions.</div>
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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) will go through the document line by line and present it on Friday as a main guide for governments, which have agreed to work out a United Nations deal by the end of 2015 to fight global warming.</div>
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"I expect the world will understand the simplicity and the gravity of the message that we provide," Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the IPCC, said after the opening session.</div>
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A shift towards a greener economy, based on renewable energies, would hold multiple benefits for society, he said.</div>
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IPCC drafts seen by Reuters say human activities, primarily burning fossil fuels, are "extremely likely" - at least a 95 percent probability - to be the main cause of global warming since the 1950s.</div>
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That is up from "very likely", or at least a 90 percent probability, in the last report in 2007 and 66 percent in 2001, draining hopes that natural variations in the climate might be the cause.</div>
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One of the hardest issues for the IPCC may be accounting for why temperatures have not risen much this century. "Fifteen-year-long hiatus periods are common," in historical climate records, an accompanying 127-page technical summary says.</div>
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A combination of natural variations, including a cyclical dip in energy emitted by the sun, and factors such as volcanic eruptions - which send ash into the atmosphere and help block sunlight - have caused the hiatus, it says, predicting a resumption of warming in coming years.</div>
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The report also finds that the atmosphere may be slightly less sensitive to a build-up of carbon dioxide than expected.</div>
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The range differs from scenarios of 1.1 to 6.4C gains by 2100 in 2007, largely because of new computer models.</div>
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The draft also says sea levels, which rose 19 cm (7.5 inches) in the 20th century, could rise by an extra 26 to 81 cm towards the end of this century, threatening coasts.</div>
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That rise is more than was projected in 2007, although that report did not take full account of melting ice in Greenland and Antarctica.</div>
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U.N. panel to blame mankind for global warming, explain 'hiatus' A United Nations panel of experts met on Monday to revi...

Why Moms Want to 'Gobble Up' Cute Babies?

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/why-moms-want-to-gobble-up-cute-babies.html">Why Moms Want to 'Gobble Up' Cute Babies?</a></h2>
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Sometimes just holding a cute newborn will make a person say, "I want to eat you up!" New research shows that for women, there might be a biological mechanism behind that expression.</div>
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The smell of a newborn triggers a surge of dopamine for new moms similar to the reward response that comes with satisfying a craving for food, the study researchers found.</div>
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Smells are part of a network of chemical communication signals between mother and child and they can be intense, said study author Johannes Frasnelli, a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the University of Montreal. [ ]</div>
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"What we have shown for the first time is that the odor of newborns, which is part of these signals, activates the neurological reward circuit in mothers," Frasnelli said in a statement. "These circuits may especially be activated when you eat while being very hungry, but also in a craving addict receiving his drug. It is in fact the sating of desire."</div>
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Frasnelli and colleagues recruited two groups of women: 15 without any kids and 15 first-time moms who had given birth three to six weeks before the experiment. (The study did not include men.)</div>
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Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), the researchers measured the participants' brain activity as they sniffed through an olfactometer, a device that's held up to the nose to detect smells. The researchers fed the olfactometer with the odor of different infants, collected in the form of cotton undershirts worn by 18 newborns.</div>
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The women were not told what they were smelling in the experiment, and they were asked to rate how pleasant, intense and familiar each odor was.</div>
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The researchers aren't sure if new moms undergo a hormonal change that leads to this surge of dopamine or if their reaction is influenced by the experience of smelling their own baby, the researchers say.</div>
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"It is possible that causes hormonal changes that alter the reward circuit in the caudate nucleus, but it is also possible that experience plays a role," Frasnelli said in a statement. And it's not clear if the reaction is specific to women since men were not included in the study.</div>
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The findings were detailed online this month in the journal .</div>
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Past research has suggested that in general — wanting to "eat up" a baby or squeeze a kitten — are actually forms of aggression. The researchers of that study suggested the aggression was due to an overload of positive emotions that led to a sense of lost control.</div>
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Why Moms Want to 'Gobble Up' Cute Babies? Sometimes just holding a cute newborn will make a person say, "I want to eat...

McConnell won't support Cruz on Senate test vote

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/mcconnell-wont-support-cruz-on-senate.html">McConnell won't support Cruz on Senate test vote</a></h2>
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 In a break with tea party-aligned Senate conservatives, Republican leader Mitch McConnell announced Monday he will not vote to block legislation aimed at preventing a partial government shutdown, even though Democrats intend to rewrite it to restore funds needed to keep the nation's three-year-old health care law in existence.</div>
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Referring to a bill the House passed last week, McConnell's spokesman said the Kentucky lawmaker supports the measure "and will not vote to block it, since it defunds Obamacare and funds the government without increasing spending by a penny."</div>
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The spokesman, Don Stewart, added that McConnell will vote against any Democratic attempt to restore funding for the health care law.</div>
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The announcement came shortly after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that anyone who votes to let the bill advance toward final passage will be choosing to allow the Democrats to restore the health care money by majority vote, one they will almost certainly win. "I think that vote disserves our constituents," he said.</div>
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With his announcement, McConnell put himself firmly in the camp of Republicans who are adamantly opposed to any partial government shutdown, no matter the other stakes involved.</div>
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A short time later, Sen. John Cornyn, like Cruz a Texan, and second ranking in the leadership, also announced he would not seek to block the legislation. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., took the same position in comments to reporters. "How can I vote against a bill that I support?" he asked rhetorically.</div>
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Democrats control 54 Senate votes, meaning they need six crossover Republicans to assure the spending bill does not fall victim to a filibuster that would doom its prospects. The announcements by McConnell and McCain likely indicate they will have no difficulty in gaining the support they need.</div>
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Earlier in the day, Cruz' battle to deny funding for the nation's three-year-old health care law got off to a shaky start when he first blocked action on unrelated items on the agenda, then quickly backed off.</div>
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"There will be time" later in the week to debate the health care issue, he told reporters as he left the Senate floor.</div>
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At the same time, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., arranged for an initial test vote Wednesday on House passed-legislation that would avoid a partial government shutdown on Oct. 1 while simultaneously canceling funding for the health care law.</div>
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A second key vote is set for later in the week as Democrats seek to keep the health care law intact and Cruz and other Republicans resist.</div>
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It was unclear why Cruz objected when Reid sought confirmation for four presidential appointees during the day, the kind that are routinely approved without votes in the Senate. Nor did he say why he changed his mind less than an hour later to permit confirmation. The four included two appointments to the Federal Election Commission, one Democrat and one Republican, a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, and a State Department nominee.</div>
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In between, Reid said he has the votes to prevail on the health care issue.</div>
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"Any bill that defunds Obama and his health care law is dead on arrival in the Senate," he said.</div>
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For its part, the Obama administration spent the day warning of dire consequences unless Congress approves funding beyond the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.</div>
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Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said Medicare beneficiaries could lose their fully-paid annual wellness doctor's visit if funding is cut off, prescription drug costs could rise, and millions of seniors who are enrolled in private Medicare coverage might be required to switch to the traditional fee-for-service coverage to continue receiving health care.</div>
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McConnell won't support Cruz on Senate test vote In a break with tea party-aligned Senate conservatives, Republican leader Mit...

Somali leader says threat of al-Shabab is global

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/somali-leader-says-threat-of-al-shabab.html">Somali leader says threat of al-Shabab is global</a></h2>
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 The Islamic extremist group claiming responsibility for the weekend terrorist attack at a Kenyan mall presents a threat not just to the region or Africa but to "the world at large," the president of Somalia said Monday.</div>
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President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said reports that some of the attackers may have been Somalis who lived in the United States illustrate the global nature of al-Shabab.</div>
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"Today there are clear evidences that Shabab is not a threat to Somalia and Somali people only," Mohamud said in a speech at Ohio State University. "They are a threat to the continent of Africa, and the world at large."</div>
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Kenyan authorities say dozens of people have died in the attack. Mohamud said he has spoken with the president of Kenya and plans to visit the country.</div>
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Mohamud said his government is committed to uprooting al-Shabab. He said maintaining security is his top priority as Somalia rebuilds after decades of civil war and terrorist threats. But a relapse is a possibility, he warned.</div>
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In his speech, he called on people from Somalia who are living in Ohio to consider coming home to help rebuilding efforts. Central Ohio has the second-largest number of Somalis in the U.S. after the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., area. The president said his current government has Somalis from the U.S., Australia, Britain, Canada, Sweden and elsewhere. Many more have returned to set up businesses.</div>
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"The government will prepare the ground for you to come," Mohamud said.</div>
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The president pledged to continue the policy of creating a unified country bringing together all regions. He also promised free elections in 2016. The key to success, he said, is a country stable in all ways.</div>
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"Stable in terms of security, stable in terms of politics and stable in terms of economy," Mohamud said.</div>
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Mohamud started his U.S. visit in Washington, then planned to travel Monday to New York for a speech at the United Nations.</div>
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Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday praised Mohamud's efforts building a government.</div>
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"There's work yet to be done in Puntland and Somaliland, and we encourage you to continue the work of reaching out, of reconciliation and rebuilding the democracy, and I know he's committed to that," Kerry added.</div>
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Outside Monday's university event and at another speech Sunday night, a few dozen Somali protesters challenged Mohamud, saying he was not committed to the constitution or creating a unified country, and he was siphoning too much international aid to the capital of Mogadishu.</div>
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"We would like him to unify the country, not separate the country," said Liban Abdi, who runs a health care business in Columbus and has lived in the city for 14 years.</div>
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Somali leader says threat of al-Shabab is global The Islamic extremist group claiming responsibility for the weekend terrorist a...

Sikh professor attacked by NYC mob in what may be hate crime

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/sikh-professor-attacked-by-nyc-mob-in.html">Sikh professor attacked by NYC mob in what may be hate crime</a></h2>
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A group of more than 20 young men viciously attacked a Columbia University professor over the weekend, apparently because they believed he was a Muslim.</div>
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Prabhjot Singh, a medical doctor and an international relations professor at Columbia, had facial surgery to correct his jaw after the beating, which occurred near his home in Harlem, according to his friend.</div>
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Singh told the New York Daily News that one of the more than 20 men who attacked him while he walked in his Harlem neighborhood yelled, “Get him, Osama.”</div>
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Sikhs, who adhere to a monotheistic faith that originated in South Asia, are often mistaken for Muslims because they wear turbans and beards, and have been the victims of Muslim bias attacks. (A few days after the September 11 attacks, a Sikh gas-station worker was murdered by a man who was out for revenge against Muslims.)</div>
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A Sikh advocacy organization has counted more than 300 hate crimes against Sikhs like Singh in the years following the Sept. 11 attacks, including a 2012 attack by a white supremacist on a Sikh temple in Wisconsin that left six people dead.</div>
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“Frankly, they don’t know who we are, they don’t know we’re a distinct religion,” said Jasjit Singh, the executive director of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund. About half of Americans think Sikhism is a sect of Islam, the group’s research has found, and most Americans think of terrorism in association with the turban. “The figure they most commonly associate with a turban is Osama bin Laden,” he said.</div>
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Singh, the Columbia professor, was a leading advocate for the FBI to include Sikh Americans in its hate crime statistics, which the agency recently agreed to do. Attacks against Sikhs were formerly lumped together by the FBI with anti-Muslim crimes. But Singh argued that specific anti-Sikh bias also occurred, quoting portions of white supremacist websites that called for all Sikhs to “go home” to India.</div>
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“The government must begin tracking and counting anti-Sikh hate crimes, just as it must continue to vigorously combat bias and discrimination against all Americans, including Muslims,” Singh wrote in the New York Times last year.</div>
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Sikh professor attacked by NYC mob in what may be hate crime A group of more than 20 young men viciously attacked a Columbia Univer...

MLB playoff contenders flush with success and failure as postseason beckons

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<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/mlb-playoff-contenders-flush-with.html">MLB playoff contenders flush with success and failure as postseason beckons</a></h2>
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Considering where their season has gone, perhaps the Texas Rangers should consider playing next season at O.co Coliseum.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In a contest of pure rottenness and unadulterated ugliness, nothing in baseball comes within a – gulp – sniff of the sewage problem that keeps turning the Oakland A's home into a toilet bowl. The Rangers are doing their best to catch up.</div>
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At their peak in the middle of May, they were up seven games on Oakland. As recently as Aug. 23, they held a 3½-game lead in the American League West. After sweeping Seattle in late August, they were 78-55.</div>
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They're 6-16 since. They haven't won one of their seven series. In 20 games this month, they've scored 67 runs. Only the Padres and Mets have scored fewer, and they play in perhaps the worst hitters' parks in the big leagues and without the benefit of the designated hitter.</div>
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This isn't the '95 Angels or the '07 Mets or the '11 Red Sox. It is a first cousin. After sweeping Seattle, the Rangers had a 95.8 percent chance of making the playoffs, according to coolstandings.com. After a 4-0 loss Sunday to the Kansas City Royals – all four of those runs coming on one Justin Maxwell swing with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 10th inning – the Rangers' chances have dwindled to 28.7 percent.</div>
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 <b>Texas Rangers</b> are the full complement. Neither Kohler nor American Standard could get rid of the stench emanating from this team.</div>
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Here's the thing: It's not just the offense. Derek Holland has been a mess this month. Over his last 10 starts, Matt Garza has allowed four or more earned runs seven times. The biggest fears of the Rangers' front office that was pressured by ownership to deal for Garza are proving true: He's nothing close to a frontline starter, and because they can't get draft-pick compensation for him, they're going to rue trading starter C.J. Edwards, whom evaluators absolutely love.</div>
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If there is a saving grace for the Rangers, it's their schedule. They headed home Sunday night with salvation staring at them: three games against the Houston Astros, losers of nine straight and 105 on the season. After that, Josh Hamilton and the Los Angeles Angels come to town knowing they can bury the Rangers and perhaps even salvage a .500 season.</div>
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<b> Tampa Bay Rays</b> don't seem to want to lose. Tampa Bay rattled off three straight victories against Baltimore and has won eight of its last 11. Just two weeks ago, the Rays seemed as though they were going the route of the Rangers. They stabilized enough to deserve only a pair.</div>
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The Rays control their own destiny. If they win six games – they finish a four-game set with Baltimore on Monday, then go to the New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays for three apiece – they lock up a wild-card spot. The pitching matchups against the Yankees are positively awesome, with Matt Moore against Hiroki Kuroda, David Price against CC Sabathia and Alex Cobb against Ivan Nova.</div>
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<b>Cleveland Indians</b>, though their 29th-ranked attendance is only 638 higher per game than the Rays. How Cleveland still hasn't bought in to this team – attendance Sunday: 26,168 – shows just how deep the lack of trust between ownership and its fan base truly is.</div>
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Considering what the Indians have done this season, and what the Browns did this week, that deserves to thaw.</div>
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The Indians were supposed to be mediocre at best this season, even with Terry Francona coming onboard, and they've managed not only to exceed every palatable expectation but do so with a finishing flourish well worthy of a postseason spot. The Indians had the easiest September schedule in baseball, and they have killed it. They won again Sunday, pushing their record this month to 15-6. They swept four-game series from the White Sox and Astros, which they should've. And now they finish with two more against Chicago and four at the 90-loss Twins.</div>
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 <b>Kansas City Royals</b> and their barbecue-sauced, belly-jiggling season of excitement that would be truly exciting if May and/or Ned Yost were not around.</div>
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Now: Yost deserves credit, certainly, for keeping Justin Maxwell in Sunday's game to hit that walk-off grand slam, probably the biggest home run by the Royals since Carlos Beltran hit an opening-day walk-off in 2004. Nobody had hit a grand slam to end a game that was tied 0-0 with two outs in extra innings since Sept. 14, 1967. It was a special moment.</div>
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<b> New York Yankees</b> find themselves in an even more dire position, a half-game back of the Royals, 2½ behind Texas, four off Cleveland and 4½ south of Tampa Bay. The coolstandings projections peg their playoff chances at 1.3 percent. And still, the bathrooms at Yankee Stadium are quiet, and it's not because of some fancy million-dollar urinal.</div>
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Francona and Red Sox manager John Farrell certainly deserve all the Manager of the Year run they're getting. Kind suggestion to the voters: Don't forget Girardi. While it's true managers can screw up a lot more than they can help, Girardi has deflected all of the Alex Rodriguez nonsense, survived copious injuries and done so without wearing it publicly, save for a few more grays along his hairline. He's a free agent, and an executive this week suggested he should just go elsewhere, with less scrutiny, far fewer everyday stresses.</div>
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 <b>Baltimore Orioles</b> have to look at this season as such a disappointment. Rare are the years in which the Yankees aren't contenders, and in those rare off seasons, teams like Baltimore must take advantage. That noise you hear is a porcelain quintet.</div>
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Between a historic Chris Davis season and all-around excellence from Manny Machado, Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy and Matt Wieters, the Orioles should be better than 81-74, better than sixth in the six-team wild-card race. Alas, the mess that has been their starting pitching – their 4.54 ERA is 27th in the major leagues – torpedoed them, and even if they sweep their remaining seven games, their season is likely done.</div>
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 <b>Detroit Tigers</b> are familiar, though they do understand missed opportunity. For one, they frittered away a chance to clinch a playoff spot while at home Sunday. More than that, the Tigers have been unable to turn the second-best run differential in the major leagues into so much as home-field advantage for the first round. Which means for the first two games of their 2013 postseason, they're likely going to the Toilet Bowl in Oakland. That, at very least, deserves a troika of swirling angels.</div>
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<b>Pittsburgh Pirates </b>are becoming increasingly familiar. Because the Pirates started so well, they've all but ensured a playoff spot. Their magic number is two.</div>
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On Aug. 8, the Pirates were 70-44. They held a four-game lead in the NL Central. Today, they are 89-67. They are two games back of St. Louis, which has three games against Washington and finishes with three against the Cubs. The Cardinals haven't played great for the last six weeks, and they still were able to gain six games on Pittsburgh because the Pirates have been that bad.</div>
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Lost amid the excitement of the winning record, the potential playoff spot, all the things that feel so new, is the exposing of the Pirates' weaknesses. With his stuff lacking, Jason Grilli is back in the closer role because of Mark Melancon's meltdowns. If Pittsburgh doesn't run over the Cubs at Wrigley, they could head to Cincinnati as their final destination all year. The Reds have the inside track for the play-in game against Pittsburgh, and considering where the Pirates once were, it's a tenuous position.</div>
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 <b>Miami Marlins</b>, who don't belong anywhere on this list of playoff contenders. With the havoc that's primed to go down there this week, though, they're worth a mention.</div>
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Three sources close to the Marlins believe the long-awaited shakeup is happening soon, and when it does, three people could lose their jobs: Larry Beinfest, Mike Hill and, most surprising of all, David Samson.</div>
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The three have been aligned in a power struggle with Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria. His troubles with Samson, the son of his ex-wife, have grown this season, sources said, and were exacerbated by Loria's belief that Samson was a source for the story about Tino Martinez's abuse of players that led to the hitting coach's resignation. Loria being Loria, all of this is subject to change. He planned on firing Beinfest and Hill last season before an about-face. This time, like last, Loria plans on reorganizing his front office around assistant GM Dan Jennings, who already has been given the go-ahead to recruit personnel with whom he'll surround himself, two sources said.</div>
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<b>Texas Rangers </b>and their merry band of September folders. It's not like this is new. On Sept. 24, 2012, the Rangers held a five-game lead with nine to go. By Oct. 5, their season was over, done in by a 2-7 finish and a one-game playoff collapse.</div>
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That was bad. Not making the playoffs at all would be worse, and that's where the Rangers find themselves at the moment. Because history shows that good teams do falter – that the Rays or Indians could very well be one of those teams – all is not lost. But after back-to-back World Series losses, back-to-back regular-season collapses like this would send the organization into serious introspective mode.</div>
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For now, the Rangers simply want to survive long enough to get Nelson Cruz back – yup, he's eligible to play if they do make it to October – and remind themselves they're not as bad as they seem. That's on the players in the clubhouse, and it's on the manager, Ron Washington, and it's on everyone who can hear the swirling getting louder, the deluge getting closer, and realize that they need more than a little bit of luck to make it stop.</div>
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MLB playoff contenders flush with success and failure as postseason beckons Considering where their season has gone, perhaps the Texa...

House GOP should stop acting like children

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/house-gop-should-stop-acting-like.html">House GOP should stop acting like children</a></h2>
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House Republicans are behaving like children threatening to shut down the government, especially when they have better options to move their agenda.</div>
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The House has passed a bill to keep the government funded at current levels after Sept. 30, less any funds for Obamacare. Senate Democrats will send it back to the House stripped of that provision, where it will likely fail.</div>
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Theoretically the government will run out of money; however, Uncle Sam will continue withholding taxes from paychecks and businesses must continue quarterly payments.</div>
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The president has authority to continue mandatory spending programs—Social Security and other benefits checks should go out— and to respond to emergencies involving the safety of human life and property. The latter may embrace a pretty wide swath but if history is any guide, the president will engage in some juvenile behavior of his own.</div>
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During the early days of sequestration, he sullenly threatened public safety by not realigning funds to keep enough air traffic controllers and food inspectors on the job.</div>
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Draconian warnings that prison guards and cooks will not be paid reflect such conduct. Will he release the inmates at federal penitentiaries to avoid keeping and feeding them in their cells?</div>
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President Obama wants to run America like a banana republic—impose whatever laws he likes and reduce Congress to a compliant debating society.</div>
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The law has not gained legitimacy among the majority of Americans to the peril of Democrats. In states where Senate races will be highly contested this fall and in House districts leaning Republican or likely to be contested, a significant majority of independent voters oppose Obamacare.</div>
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Shutting down the government will spoil that potential GOP support—especially because the president is in a position to make such a shutdown as painful as possible.</div>
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Obamacare is already creating huge headaches. So much so that businesses have been exempted from the requirement to provide health insurance to employees for one year. The state and federal health insurance exchanges are simply not ready to provide accurate pricing and coverage information to individuals who must purchase coverage under the law. Labor unions that supported the law are asking for permanent exemptions, and employers like Starbucks are compelled by the law's rigid application to drop insurance coverage for part-time workers.</div>
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That would give Republicans a platform for next fall, but they cling to false notions that the health care system was just fine before Obamacare. Alas, it was not and remains much more expensive than the German and many other European systems that deliver universal coverage and better results.</div>
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Obstructionist threats and obstinance won't make the GOP a governing party again, and will result in the election of a more Democratic House, a continuing Democratic Senate and another Democratic president to succeed Obama.</div>
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House GOP should stop acting like children House Republicans are behaving like children threatening to shut down the government, espe...

Suspected burglar falls through roof while fleeing cops

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/suspected-burglar-falls-through-roof.html">Suspected burglar falls through roof while fleeing cops</a></h2>
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Not every criminal is a criminal genius. </div>
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Case in point: The alleged burglar who fell through a roof while fleeing police in San Francisco.</div>
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Hey, they can't all be Butch Cassidy. </div>
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According to KPIX, the man had attempted to break into an ATM inside the bank. He crawled through an air ventilation shaft early on Friday morning, before the bank was open for business.</div>
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The would-be thief set off the bank's silent alarm, and police promptly responded. Cops saw him fleeing, running and jumping from one roof to another. </div>
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But then, like something out of a Looney Tunes cartoon, the thief fell through a hole in the rooftop just as he was preparing to surrender, KPIX reports. </div>
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Media Information Officer Gordon Shyy of the San Francisco Police Department told Yahoo News that the suspect, John Franklin, 33, landed in the attic of an apartment. No money was taken from the ATM, Shyy said.</div>
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Police Sgt. Wilfred Williams told reporters, "I've responded to several different silent alarm calls at banks, but this is the first time when someone fell through a roof."</div>
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The suspect wasn't seriously injured during the tumble, according to KPIX. </div>
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And thus ends the sad, sad saga of the hapless bandit of San Francisco.</div>
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Suspected burglar falls through roof while fleeing cops Not every criminal is a criminal genius. Case in point: The alleged bu...

Friends finally meet after 55 years

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/friends-finally-meet-after-55-years.html">Friends finally meet after 55 years</a></h2>
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Linda Martin of Gilbert, Arizona and Wendy Norrie of Eugowra, Australia share a 55-year friendship despite never having spoken to each other. The two became acquainted as pen pals for a fifth grade school project. Wendy’s fifth grade teacher, Mr. Wilcox, chose a U.S. school in the city of Wilcox, Nebraska because the town shared his last name. Then 9-year-old Wendy sent the first letter on October 3, 1958 to an 11-year-old Linda, and it sweetly read: “Dear Linda, Our teacher Mr. Wilcox received the letter your class sent to us. … He asked us did we want a penfriend from your class so I picked you.” Linda remembered, “We started out you know, explaining who we were and explaining a little bit about our family.” Their letter exchanges continued through the years with the girls writing to each other every couple of months, and then into adulthood there were annual letters during the holidays. Wendy said, “We’ve grown and matured and raised families and everything. It’s just somebody on the other side of the world that’s sharing your experience. It’s remarkable.” Recently Wendy wrote Linda that she planned to visit the United States for the first time and wanted to meet in person. Up until that point, the two pen pals had only exchanged hand written letters and never even spoke on the phone. To speed up their communication, they chose to use e-mail and arrangements were made to meet at Terminal 4 of the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Linda held an Australian flag and was joined by her husband and daughter during the exciting meeting. When Wendy emerged from her flight, the two friends’ joy was evident. Linda exclaimed, “It’s hard to put into words because it’s just awesome!” “It’s just the anticipation of it all has just been huge. But to actually get here and recognize her was just wonderful,” said Wendy. She will be spending several weeks with Linda and her family exploring the southwest, and Linda plans on visiting Australia in 2015. The decades long friendship has given the two so many stories and Wendy says that still, “There’s so much to say. It’s you know, as if we’re just beginning sort of thing.”</div>
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Friends finally meet after 55 years Linda Martin of Gilbert, Arizona and Wendy Norrie of Eugowra, Australia share a 55-year friendsh...

United Nations reports 'dramatic' progress in fight against AIDS

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/united-nations-reports-dramatic.html">United Nations reports 'dramatic' progress in fight against AIDS</a></h2>
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The global rate of HIV infection and the number of AIDS-related deaths have been dramatically reduced, thanks to expanding access to treatment, the United Nations said in a report issued on Monday.<br />
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In its annual update on HIV, which it said now infects around 35.3 million people worldwide, UNAIDS said deaths from AIDS and HIV infection <br />
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rates were falling, while the number of people getting treatment is going up.<br />
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AIDS-related deaths in 2012 fell to 1.6 million, down from 1.7 million in 2011 and a peak of 2.3 million in 2005. And the number of people newly infected with the disease dropped to 2.3 million in 2012 down from 2.5 million in 2011.<br />
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The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS can be transmitted via blood, breast milk and by semen during sex, but can be kept in check with cocktails of drugs known as antiretroviral treatment or therapy.<br />
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By the end of 2012, some 9.7 million people in poorer and middle-income countries had access to such AIDS drugs, an increase of nearly 20 percent in a year.<br />
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Since 2001, the U.N. report said, there has been a 52 percent drop in annual new HIV infections among children and a 33 percent reduction in newly infected adults and children combined.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrmg88h1F9621FnZw59N3Z7HIWqngi4MxXTePnh6_57W3DIuO96skab8IkJ2B9eT4JgYY6JYm3gHhW5NvvbLdAkt0otX7w-QIMHygKzBkEh-i82JN1z1pyy3mUt43KtP61lu3O7WP5EY/s1600/aids-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="United Nations reports 'dramatic' progress in fight against AIDS" border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDrmg88h1F9621FnZw59N3Z7HIWqngi4MxXTePnh6_57W3DIuO96skab8IkJ2B9eT4JgYY6JYm3gHhW5NvvbLdAkt0otX7w-QIMHygKzBkEh-i82JN1z1pyy3mUt43KtP61lu3O7WP5EY/s320/aids-1.jpg" title="United Nations reports 'dramatic' progress in fight against AIDS" width="320" /></a>In 2011, UN member states agreed to a target of getting HIV treatment to 15 million people by 2015. As countries scaled up treatment coverage and as evidence showed how treating HIV early also reduces its spread, the World Health Organization set new guidelines this year, expanding the number of people needing treatment by more than 10 million.<br />
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Michel Sidibé, UNAIDS' executive director, said the international community should aim to surpass the 2015 goal.<br />
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"Not only can we meet the 2015 target of 15 million people on HIV treatment, we must also go beyond and have the vision and commitment to ensure no one is left behind," he said in a statement with Monday's report.<br />
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The UNAIDS report found that despite a flattening in donor funding for HIV, which has remained near 2008 levels, individual countries' domestic spending on the epidemic has increased, accounting for 53 percent of global HIV resources in 2012.</div>

United Nations reports 'dramatic' progress in fight against AIDS The global rate of HIV infection and the number of AIDS-relat...

69 dead, 63 missing in Nairobi attack

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<h2 style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.newsupdate360.com/2013/09/69-dead-63-missing-in-nairobi-attack.html">69 dead, 63 missing in Nairobi attack</a></h2>
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At least 69 people are confirmed to have been killed and 63 more recorded missing in an ongoing Nairobi shopping mall siege, Kenya Red Cross said Monday.<br />
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The 63 recorded missing are thought to include both hostages still being held by Islamist militants fighting Kenyan troops inside the complex, as well as those possibly killed in the three-day-long siege.<br />
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Others may be hiding in the sprawling centre.<br />
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As the stand-off entered its third day, sustained bursts of rapid gunfire erupted at dawn and lasted 15 minutes, and soldiers posted around the mall ducked for cover.<br />
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Somali Shebab militants on Monday threatened to kill hostages they are holding as Kenyan troops move to end their siege.<br />
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Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said in a security update Monday that "a few" hostages remain in the mall, but would not give precise figures.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JCA2pMthgKISeuqSrteoqzrBhJfCBCyis3HyPbeocjt9JMEO__f2bjBQRC2LWY2_8HEYPQIXnZ7e2XpSwUjAP2q5pH08PVAluyka1D-Fp4JnYUi_RKKvDmv-3GHRmAhbeuHRvPMpK_A/s1600/69.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="69 dead, 63 missing in Nairobi attack" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4JCA2pMthgKISeuqSrteoqzrBhJfCBCyis3HyPbeocjt9JMEO__f2bjBQRC2LWY2_8HEYPQIXnZ7e2XpSwUjAP2q5pH08PVAluyka1D-Fp4JnYUi_RKKvDmv-3GHRmAhbeuHRvPMpK_A/s1600/69.jpg" title="69 dead, 63 missing in Nairobi attack" /></a>The Shebab have not said how many people were being held by the dozen-or-so attackers, who marched into the four-storey building at midday Saturday, spraying shoppers with machine gunfire and tossing grenades.<br />
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"We authorise the mujahedeen inside the building to take actions against the prisoners as much as they are pressed," Shebab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in a statement posted on an Islamist website.<br />
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69 dead, 63 missing in Nairobi attack At least 69 people are confirmed to have been killed and 63 more recorded missing in an ongoing ...

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