Copyright ? 2000 - RedFlagDeals.com. All rights reserved. (Terms of Use, Privacy Policy)
Yellow Pages Group and the Walking fingers design logo are trademarks of Yellow Pages Group Co. in Canada.
grammy winners obama budget woolly mammoth belize resorts nikki minaj grammy performance shel silverstein niki minaj grammy performance
Watch: Harbin restaurant staffed by robot waiters
shanghaiist.comBy Erik Crouch The reign of our robot overlords begins in Heilongjiang province. The Robot Restaurant in Harbin features robotic waiters, cooks, and busboys, who?for now?are completely under the control of their human creators. These bots are more advanced than the noodle-slicing Ultraman of 2011, a...
Source: http://www.facebook.com/SGEntrepreneurs/posts/448128748574962
wheres my refund photo of whitney houston in casket carrot top george huguely whitney houston casket photo match play championship the national enquirer
GENEVA (AP) ? The U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday that as many as 200,000 people are being held in North Korean political prison camps rife with torture, rape and slave labor, and that some of the abuses may amount to crimes against humanity.
For that reason, said Navi Pillay, the world body's high commissioner for human rights, nations must mount an independent probe into North Korea's human rights record.
The U.N. Human Rights Council and the U.N. General Assembly, which includes all 193 member nations, have condemned North Korea's human rights record, but Pillay said stronger action is needed, including such a probe ? one authorized by the United Nations but performed by experts independent of the U.N. system.
The stinging criticism and call from the world body's top human rights official for "a full-fledged international inquiry into serious crimes" in North Korea comes a year after Kim Jong Un became the new leader of the nuclear-armed Asian country upon the death of his father.
"There were some initial hopes that the advent of a new leader might bring about some positive change in the human rights situation," Pillay said. "But a year after Kim Jong Un became the country's new supreme leader we see almost no sign of improvement."
Pillay's statement was based on extensive research submitted by a special investigator for the 47-nation Human Rights Council based in Geneva and meetings that she held there in December with two survivors of the prison camps, said Pillay's spokesman, Rupert Colville.
A U.N. report in September by special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman said some 150,000 to 200,000 people are estimated to be imprisoned in six North Korean camps for alleged political crimes. Pillay said she found "their personal stories were extremely harrowing" after meeting with the two survivors.
"They described a system that represents the very antithesis of international human rights norms. We know so little about these camps, and what we do know comes largely from the relatively few refugees who have managed to escape from the country," Pillay said. "The highly developed system of international human rights protection that has had at least some positive impact in almost every country in the world, seems to have completely bypassed" North Korea.
She said the camp system involves "rampant violations, including torture and other forms of cruel and inhumane treatment, summary executions, rape, slave labor, and forms of collective punishment that may amount to crimes against humanity." Living conditions are reported to include scarce food, little to no medical care and inadequate clothing.
"One mother described to me how she had wrapped her baby in leaves when it was born, and later made her a blanket by sewing together old socks," Pillay said.
While the world's focus remains on North Korea's nuclear program and its rocket launches, Pillay said, those important issues "should not be allowed to overshadow the deplorable human rights situation ... which in one way or another affects almost the entire population and has no parallel anywhere else in the world."
Pillay said North Korea also has used the death penalty to punish minor offenses and abducted South Korean and Japanese nationals over the years.
North Korea's mission to the United Nations in Geneva, which was given a copy of the report before its publication Monday, did not have an immediate public response to it.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/un-urges-focus-north-korea-human-rights-record-133320620.html
foster friess new orleans hornets ghost rider spirit of vengeance hornets prince johan friso windows 8 logo anguilla
JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? An official in South Africa says a woman suspected of murdering an American Embassy employee over the weekend will appear in court Tuesday.
The U.S. Embassy on Monday confirmed the death of Christopher "Norm" Bates, who was the information management officer at the Johannesburg U.S. Consulate. He was an 11-year State Department employee.
Police Lt. Col. Lungelo Dlamini said the 41-year-old Bates was allegedly stabbed to death Sunday morning around 3 a.m. at a Johannesburg apartment. Dlamini said a guard heard a woman screaming and saw the woman with a knife in her hand and Bates with stab wounds.
Dlamini said the 29-year-old woman would appear in court Tuesday.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/us-embassy-employee-murdered-south-africa-152455560.html
ryan leaf ryan leaf luke kuechly brad miller chandler jones peyton hillis fletcher cox
NEW YORK (AP) ? The family of a Reddit co-founder who committed suicide weeks before he was to go on trial on federal charges that he stole millions of scholarly articles is blaming prosecutors for his death.
Aaron Swartz hanged himself in his Brooklyn apartment Friday night, his family and authorities said. The 26-year-old had fought to make online content free to the public and as a teenager helped create RSS, a family of Web feed formats used to gather updates from blogs, news headlines, audio and video for users.
In 2011, he was charged with stealing millions of scientific journals from a computer archive at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in an attempt to make them freely available.
He had pleaded not guilty, and his federal trial was to begin next month. If convicted, he faced decades in prison and a fortune in fines.
In a statement released Saturday, Swartz's family in Chicago expressed not only grief over his death but also bitterness toward federal prosecutors pursuing the case against him in Massachusetts.
"Aaron's death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney's office and at MIT contributed to his death," they said.
Elliot Peters, Swartz's California-based defense attorney and a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, told The Associated Press on Sunday that the case "was horribly overblown" because Swartz had "the right" to download from JSTOR, a subscription service used by MIT that offers digitized copies of articles from more than 1,000 academic journals.
Peters said even the company took the stand that the computer crimes section of the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston had overreached in seeking prison time for Swartz and insisting ? two days before his suicide ? that he plead guilty to all 13 felony counts. Peters said JSTOR's attorney, Mary Jo White ? the former top federal prosecutor in Manhattan ? had called Stephen Heymann, the lead Boston prosecutor in the case.
"She asked that they not pursue the case," Peters said.
Reached at his home in Winchester, Mass., Heymann referred all questions to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's office in Boston, Christina DiIorio-Sterling. She did not immediately respond to an email and phone message from the AP seeking comment.
A zealous advocate of public online access, Swartz was extolled Saturday by those who believed as he did. He was "an extraordinary hacker and activist," the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an international nonprofit digital rights group based in California wrote in a tribute on its home page.
"Playing Mozart's Requiem in honor of a brave and brilliant man," tweeted Carl Malamud, an Internet public domain advocate who believes in free access to legally obtained files.
Swartz co-founded the social news website Reddit, which was later sold to Conde Nast, as well as the political action group Demand Progress, which campaigns against Internet censorship.
He apparently struggled at times with depression, writing in a 2007 blog post: "Surely there have been times when you've been sad. Perhaps a loved one has abandoned you or a plan has gone horribly awry. ... You feel worthless. ... depressed mood is like that, only it doesn't come for any reason and it doesn't go for any either."
Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig, faculty director of the Safra Center for Ethics where Swartz was once a fellow, wrote: "We need a better sense of justice. ... The question this government needs to answer is why it was so necessary that Aaron Swartz be labeled a 'felon.'"
Before the Massachusetts' case, Swartz aided Malamud in his effort to post federal court documents for free online, rather than the few cents per page that the government charges through its electronic archive, PACER. Swartz wrote a program in 2008 to legally download the files using free access via public libraries, according to The New York Times. About 20 percent of all the court papers were made available until the government shut down the library access.
The FBI investigated but didn't charge Swartz, he wrote on his website.
Three years later, Swartz was arrested in Boston. The federal government accused Swartz of using MIT's computer network to steal nearly 5 million academic articles from JSTOR.
Prosecutors said Swartz hacked into MIT's system in November 2010 after breaking into a computer wiring closet on campus. Prosecutors said he intended to distribute the articles on file-sharing websites.
JSTOR didn't press charges once it reclaimed the articles from Swartz, and some legal experts considered the case unfounded, saying that MIT allows guests access to the articles and Swartz, a fellow at Harvard's Safra Center for Ethics, was a guest.
Experts puzzled over the arrest and argued that the result of the actions Swartz was accused of was the same as his PACER program: more information publicly available.
The prosecution "makes no sense," Demand Progress Executive Director David Segal said at the time. "It's like trying to put someone in jail for allegedly checking too many books out of the library."
Swartz faced 13 felony charges, including breaching site terms and intending to share downloaded files through peer-to-peer networks, computer fraud, wire fraud, obtaining information from a protected computer, and criminal forfeiture.
JSTOR announced this week that it would make more than 4.5 million articles publicly available for free.
Swartz's funeral is scheduled for Tuesday in Highland Park, Ill.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/reddit-co-founder-dies-ny-weeks-trial-075550632.html
Nora Ephron mario balotelli mario balotelli espn3 kevin youkilis Tropical Storm Debby legend of korra
The household product category isn't the fastest-evolving in the technology scene. Our refrigerators and ovens are all "good enough" at this point that most folks don't worry that their food won't stay cold or won't cook all the way through. That doesn't mean there isn't some truly amazing innovation going on -- but, honestly, most of the potentially game-changing tech for your home did not make its grand debut at this year's CES. Instead we were treated to a few interesting products that were mostly a refresh of items from previous shows. Wireless charging continued to have a strong presence this year, and even seems on the verge of breaking into the mainstream. Then, of course, there were the companies, like Samsung, that decided there was no better place for a tablet than embedded in your kitchen appliances. Want to know what to expect from your household electronics in 2013? Head on past the break.
Continue reading CES 2013: Household roundup
Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/12/ces-2013-household-round-up/
acm passover recipes 2012 kids choice awards kansas ohio state wrestlemania results womens final four josh hutcherson
From left, Italy's Daniela Merighetti, second placed, Alice Mckennis of the United States, winner, and Anna Fenninger of Austria, third placed, celebrate on the podium of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
From left, Italy's Daniela Merighetti, second placed, Alice Mckennis of the United States, winner, and Anna Fenninger of Austria, third placed, celebrate on the podium of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Alice McKennis, from the United States, celebrates as she crosses the finish line to win an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
Austria's Anna Fenninger competes on her way to take the third place of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Lindsey Vonn of the United States competes on her way to take the sixth place of an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Marco Trovati)
Alice McKennis, from the United States, top, celebrates with her teammates after wining an alpine ski, women's World Cup downhill in St. Anton, Austria, Saturday, Jan.12, 2013. (AP Photo/Giovanni Auletta)
ST. ANTON, Austria (AP) ? Alice McKennis of the United States earned her first World Cup victory by winning a downhill Saturday, and Lindsey Vonn was sixth after returning from a nearly monthlong break.
McKennis had never finished in the top three before coming down the Karl Schranz course in 1 minute, 14.62 seconds to beat Daniela Merighetti of Italy by 0.07.
"I am overwhelmed, extremely happy and excited," McKennis said. "It's definitely a dream come true."
Anna Fenninger of Austria was third, and overall World Cup leader Tina Maze of Slovenia finished fourth.
Wearing bib. No. 4, McKennis used the advantage of an early start on a course that was softened by fresh snow during the past two days.
"I felt pretty good and I felt I had nailed it, but it's hard running so early as you don't know," McKennis said. "It was pretty nerve-wrecking waiting for the next hour. I was just freaking out the whole time."
Some racers, including fellow Americans Vonn, Julia Mancuso and Stacey Cook, clocked at least one faster split time. But no one matched McKennis' strong finish.
Vonn, the defending overall champion who returned to the circuit after recovering from an intestinal illness, was 0.34 behind, while her American teammate Laurenne Ross was fifth, 0.32 off the lead.
"I am extremely happy for our whole team, Alice winning today, and Laurenne," Vonn said. "The strength of our whole team has been fun to watch. It makes me happy to be part of such a great group of girls. The success we're having this year is pretty incredible."
After the top racers came down and she had all but secured the victory, the 23-year-old McKennis walked through the finish area looking at the stands, searching for her father Greg.
"He wasn't really much of a racer, but he put a lot of work in getting me here," said McKennis, who grew up at a ranch in Glenwood Springs, Colo. "I wouldn't be here without him, so a lot of credit to him. It's great having him here."
McKennis became the fifth American winner of a World Cup race this season after Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Steven Nyman and Ted Ligety, who took a giant slalom in Adelboden, Switzerland, just moments after McKennis won Saturday in Austria.
"It's been so exciting, especially watching the men's speed team get back up there," McKennis said. "And obviously Ted winning the race today, that's awesome. And Mikaela, she's incredible at such a young age (17), pretty inspiring."
McKennis said "we all push each other, we all want to be the best ... It's been a goal for every single one of us to get on the podium and we've almost done that with the speed team now."
Vonn won two downhill races this season but failed to finish the third, in St. Moritz, Switzerland, where Lara Gut of Switzerland placed first. Days later, Vonn went back to the United States to get her physical strength back after her illness and returned for training on snow in Austria last week.
"I feel great. I am really happy to be back. I love the adrenaline at the start and going fast again. I really felt good," Vonn said after the race. "These were definitely tough conditions. The snow was definitely not great, but the course workers did a great job on it. I almost didn't think that it was possible to run today because there was just too much snow."
Vonn and Cook, who finished 22nd, remained 1-2 in the downhill standings.
"I definitely made some mistakes. But in general I felt good and I felt like my skiing was where it should be. I felt strong," Vonn said. "Of course, it's downhill so I am hoping to be on the podium, but considering the conditions I am extremely happy with this result. You make one mistake and you are easily in 20th or 30th place. So I think, all things considered, it was a real good performance."
As snow at the top of the course was too soft, organizers decided to use the lower super-G start, shortening the initial 2.2-kilometer long downhill course by 436 meters.
"It was definitely a disadvantage to start later," said Vonn, who started 17th. "The later numbers had a hard time except for Merighetti, she skied amazing. This was a great result for my first race back."
A women's super-G on the same course is scheduled for Sunday.
Associated Pressblue ivy carter whitney houston death the vow the voice season 2 ron paul maine safe house jay z and beyonce baby
