Claire Danes Pregnant: Caption This Photo

Baby number one is on the way for Claire Danes and her hubby Hugh Darcy. In light of the news that Claire is preggers she has been chosen as Right Celebrity?s Caption This photo contest for the week, woohoo! News that the Homeland star was with child was revealed on the July 4th holiday. People.com was the first to report the story, which I will dish all about with you in one hot second. However before I get into that I want to tell you about our Caption This photo contest, it is so easy. As I am sure you are all aware by now all you need to do is check out the above pic of the momma to be and caption it by leaving your witty remarks in the below comments section. Then next week, Tuesday to be exact, make sure you check back when a hot new topic and photo are posted to see if your remarks were announced at the big winner! I told you easy and fun so get captioning. Ok now back to the news that Claire and Hugh are going to be parents. A rep for the actress confirmed the good news on [...]

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RightCelebrity/~3/tpHV-WYkfnM/

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Wildfire crews hoping for calmer weather

Crews battling wildfires in the West were hoping a holiday of calmer winds and higher humidity would help efforts against scores of fires burning across the region, while keeping a nervous eye for fireworks and other hazards.

A wildfire in Wyoming grew to 137 square miles Wednesday in Medicine Bow National Forest, a sparsely populated area about halfway between Casper and Cheyenne. The fire was only 25 percent contained.

Firefighters said structures were burned but it was too soon to know how many.

In Colorado, firefighters in Colorado Springs were hoping to push toward full containment of the most destructive blaze in state history. That fire has burned 28 square miles, killed two and destroyed almost 350 homes. It was 80 percent contained Wednesday.

In both Colorado and Wyoming, holiday temperatures were expected to peak in the 90s, continuing a relative cool spell after record heat last week helped prompt tinder-dry conditions. Humidity was higher, too, giving firefighters hope for progress against the blazes.

From wildfire disaster to Fourth of July extravaganza

Air Force tanker planes returned to the flight line for firefighting missions on Tuesday after a deadly weekend crash. C-130 planes were in the air Tuesday fighting a wildfire south of Laramie, Wyo., that grew to 14 square miles and has forced hundreds of people to evacuate their homes.

The forecast wasn't as kind in Montana, where a mammoth 380-square-mile in Custer National Forest was gobbling up pine, juniper and sage with help from gusty winds. The fire has burned 16 homes.

Firefighters gave the blaze "extreme" growth potential on Wednesday, with wind gusts up to 45 mph predicted. Temperatures were expected to reach the 100s.

Lightning, trains and guns blamed for wildfires

As firefighting efforts continued, holiday fireworks were canceled across the region. Colorado officials were calling off holiday displays from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, while law enforcement was warning of hefty fines for people caught violating personal fireworks bans across the region.

Residents in some parched areas were joining police. In one Colorado Springs neighborhood, a homemade sign read, "FAIR WARNING: Anyone using or allowing use of fireworks in this neighborhood will be dealt with harshly! And that doesn't mean just by the police!"

An investigation continued through the holiday on the cause of the deadly Colorado Springs fire. Eight agencies, led by the U.S. Forest Service, were investigating how the fire started, said Jeff Kramer, spokesman for the El Paso County Sheriff's Office.

"You're literally working that origin area down on your hands and knees," Paul Steensland, a retired U.S. Forest Service investigator, told The (Colorado Springs) Gazette.

The National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which coordinates wildfire-fighting efforts nationwide, said 45 large fires were burning Wednesday, including 36 fires in nine Western states. In Colorado alone, three fires have destroyed more than 600 homes and killed six residents.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48072119/ns/weather/

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Earthquake rocks Washington, Hancock, Baldwin counties

Shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday night, Middle Georgians experienced an earthquake that registered magnitude 2.7, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The epicenter was recorded 7 miles north-northeast of Deepstep, 11 miles south-southeast of Sparta, 12 miles northwest of Sandersville and 18 miles east of Milledgeville.

Washington County Emergency Management Agency Director Russell Riner said it was around Linton Road near the juncture of Washington, Hancock and Baldwin counties.

Nakia Chatman, who lives just outside of Washington County in Baldwin County, was watching the movie ?Independence Day,? when Chatman thought a car hit the house.

?My house just shook,? Chatman said. ?It shook real hard for about 15 seconds and stuff was rattling on the walls.?

At 10:03 p.m., a Washington County deputy investigated a report of a loud boom and a house shaking on Panther Branch Road, several miles from the epicenter.

One Washington County woman noted that her neighbor was shooting off fireworks, so she might not have noticed.

?They may be getting used to it up there,? Riner said of the lack of phone calls. ?We had another one a few years back.?

The quake apparently wasn?t enough to rattle folks in Hancock County, either.

?No, we haven?t had any reports or complaints about it,? said investigator Ricky Brown.

Near where Baldwin County meets Wilkinson County, Lisa Arnold was watching television when she heard what sounded like thunder, but there was no storm.

?It lasted several seconds,? said Arnold, who looked at the clock. ?If it?s an earthquake, I wanted to know exactly what time it was.?

She noted it was 9:52 p.m.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded the official time as 9:51:48 p.m.

?I didn?t feel any shaking, it was just the sound, but it kept going, Arnold said. ?I just knew it had to be an earthquake because it was like the last one.?

Baldwin County Sheriff?s Office dispatchers said they had no report of a quake passed on to them Wednesday, but had a ferocious storm in Milledgeville on Tuesday night.

Trees and power lines were down, and there were reports of damage along U.S. 441 between Wal-Mart and the Sonic on North Columbia Street.

Plywood was flying through the parking lot at Lowe?s and the Georgia Power sign was damaged, said Baldwin County volunteer firefighter Pres Haslam.

Source: http://www.macon.com/2012/07/04/2084203/earthquake-rocks-washington-hancock.html

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Packard Bell burrows affordable niche with EasyNote TE: 400 euros, 15.6 inches, AMD inside

Packard Bell burroughs affordable niche with EasyNote TE laptop 400 euros, 156 inches, AMD inside

While parent company Acer eyes deeper pockets and higher margins, Packard Bell is soldiering on with its EasyNote range of laptops for thrifty Europeans. Spotted by the friendly folk at Pocket-lint, the EasyNote TE has just reached stores and should scrape under the €400 (£300, $500) mark -- thanks partly to its avoidance of the premium Intel processor found in the EasyNote TV. Instead, the TE relies on AMD's updated E-Series processor (the slower 1.4GHz E1-1200 version, to be precise), which comes with capable Radeon HD 7310 onboard graphics and supports a USB 3.0 port (in addition to twin USB 2.0) and HDMI output. You'll also find a 15.6-inch 1366 x 768 display, 750GB of storage and a "multi-in-1" card slot -- which means the only spec we're missing is the RAM. Who'll take a bet on 4GB?

Continue reading Packard Bell burrows affordable niche with EasyNote TE: 400 euros, 15.6 inches, AMD inside

Packard Bell burrows affordable niche with EasyNote TE: 400 euros, 15.6 inches, AMD inside originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 05 Jul 2012 07:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/ya6-E2Ulqwg/

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Obama welcomes 25 military members as new citizens

President Obama greets U.S. service members while hosting a naturalization ceremony Wednesday to declare them American citizens.

By NBC's Shawna Thomas

WASHINGTON ? In a moving naturalization ceremony in the East Room of the White House, 25 active members of the military declared their allegiance to the United States and became U.S. citizens on Wednesday.

The group hailed from countries ranging from the Ukraine to Cameroon to Honduras. President Barack Obama used the event to highlight his recent immigration announcement and renew the call for comprehensive immigration reform.

The president proclaimed that ?America?s success demands comprehensive immigration reform? and that a ?Dream Act,? legislation that would give young illegal immigrants a path toward permanent residency, was still necessary.

?For just as we remain a nation of laws, we have to remain a nation of immigrants. That's why as another step forward we're lifting the shadow of deportation?from deserving young people who were brought to this country as children.? That's why we still need a Dream Act to keep talented young people who want to contribute to our society and serve our country,? the president said.

He used the 25 men and women in uniform before him as an example of how the American dream ?endures for all those?who are willing to work hard, play by the rules and meet their responsibilities.?

The president also declared the naturalization ceremony as? the ?perfect way to celebrate America?s birthday.?? He also said of the group, ?All of you did something profound.? You chose to serve.? You put on the uniform of a country that was not yet fully your own in a time of war.? Some of you deployed into harm's way. You displayed the values that we celebrate every Fourth of July: Duty, responsibility and patriotism.?

Last month, Obama announced a policy to stop deporting young illegal immigrants who entered the United States as children if they meet certain requirements.

After administering the Oath of Allegiance, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano?highlighted efforts by the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security to expedite the naturalization process for members of the military.

?Since 2001, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has naturalized over 80,000 members of the armed forces, bringing immigration services to our troops wherever they serve. And since 2009, we have offered non-citizen enlistees the opportunity to naturalize before completing basic training so they can graduate as American citizens,? she said. ??

It currently takes a few weeks to a few months for an immigrant who has enlisted in the U.S. military to become naturalized citizen.?? However, one must be a legal immigrant to enlist, therefore the president?s embargo on deporting young illegal immigrants does not give them an opportunity to enlist and find a way to citizenship via that pathway.

?

?

Source: http://pheedo.msnbc.msn.com/click.phdo?i=4f181fe4b81a02ae9f46a74b979bde6a

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SF City College could close in 8 months

The state's largest college could close after state accreditation evaluators gave the school just eight months to prove it has a viable survival plan. The financially struggling City College of San Francisco was ordered Tuesday to "make preparations for closure," the San Francisco Chronicle reported (http://bit.ly/LXHvbC). The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges cited "leadership weaknesses at all levels" as a reason that its accreditation is in jeopardy. Schools must be accredited to receive public funding, and the college would likely close without those funds. The commission could vote as early as June to pull the school's certification. About 90,000 students attend the school. City College of San Francisco must prove to the commission that it should retain its accreditation. The school's action plan is due Oct. 15. "During the 'show cause' period, the college must make preparations for closure" according to the commission's policy, Barbara Beno, the commission president wrote in a letter to the school. While the college has seen reduced funding in recent years, Beno said all schools in the state have faced similar problems, yet only three of the state's 112 community colleges are in precarious positions. The other two schools in trouble are College of the Redwoods in Eureka and Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. In a written response to the commission's findings, interim Chancellor Pamila Fisher said the school is "fully aware of the seriousness of the situation." "The ultimate responsibility rests with the trustees, administration, faculty and staff to reinvent City College so that it can continue to achieve its important mission, but in a more cost-effective and efficient way," she told the Chronicle. City College Trustee Steve Ngo said he was surprised by the commission's action, and that the school will work its way out of the predicament.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/48074107/ns/local_news-sacramento_ca/

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Why is Mitt Romney going to Israel?

The Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney, aims to attract Jewish voters by traveling to Israel and meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu?in July. ???

By Reuters / July 3, 2012

In this file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney celebrates after winning the Florida primary election, in Tampa, Fla. Romney is planning a trip to Israel later this month.

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File

Enlarge

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will travel to Israel in late July for a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu aimed at fleshing out his foreign policy credentials.

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Romney will be overseas in late July to attend the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympic Games in London. His campaign often promotes Romney's leadership of the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 as a key part of his biography as he tries to unseat President Barack Obama in the Nov. 6 election.

A former governor of Massachusetts, Romney lacks foreign policy experience. He would like to attract support from Jewish voters who traditionally back Democrats, and he has accused Obama of putting the U.S. relationship with Israel at risk in pushing Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians.

A campaign aide said Romney would meet with Netanyahu on his visit. The New York Times said Romney would also meet Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli President Shimon Peres, U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and leaders of the opposition Labor Party in Jerusalem.

Obama angered the Israelis a year ago when he embraced a goal long sought by the Palestinians, that the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem.

Romney said in a speech to the Republican Jewish Coalition in December that Obama has proposed that Israel adopt "indefensible borders" and had been "timid and weak in the face of the existential threat of a nuclear war" from Iran.

Netanyahu and Obama have had a thorny relationship and the right-wing Israeli leader has come under pressure in Washington not to take unilateral military action against Iranian nuclear facilities suspected of being part of a project to produce nuclear weapons.

(Reporting By Steve Holland; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/Y0vi9cFUAu4/Why-is-Mitt-Romney-going-to-Israel

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City College of San Francisco Is Threatened With Loss of Accreditation

The organization that accredits the City College of San Francisco has given the institution eight months to ?show cause? why its accreditation should not be revoked, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. That decision, conveyed to the college?s interim leader in a letter after a comprehensive review by the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges of the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, could result in a vote as early as next June to withdraw the struggling institution?s accreditation. Without accreditation, the college could not receive state funds or participate in the federal student-aid programs, a financial death sentence that would force it to close.

City College serves 90,000 full- and part-time students on a dozen campuses. It was warned in 2006 that it needed to fix eight major problems that could place its accreditation status in jeopardy. Now there are 14 problem areas.

Source: http://chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/city-college-of-san-francisco-is-threatened-with-loss-of-accreditation/45227

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The Shard: divisive new star of the London skyline

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/shard-divisive-star-london-skyline-051550764.html

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Rifts split Syria's opposition at Cairo meeting

Exiled Syrian opposition figures meet in New Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 3, 2012. The Arab League chief urged exiled Syrian opposition figures to unite at a meeting as a new Western effort to force President Bashar Assad from power faltered. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Exiled Syrian opposition figures meet in New Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 3, 2012. The Arab League chief urged exiled Syrian opposition figures to unite at a meeting as a new Western effort to force President Bashar Assad from power faltered. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Exiled Syrian opposition figures meet in New Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 3, 2012. The Arab League chief urged exiled Syrian opposition figures to unite at a meeting as a new Western effort to force President Bashar Assad from power faltered.(AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Egyptian security stands guard as a waiter carries away a tray from a Syrian opposition meeting in New Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, July 3, 2012. The Arab League chief urged exiled Syrian opposition figures to unite at a meeting as a new Western effort to force President Bashar Assad from power faltered. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

FILE - In this Wednesday, July 22, 2009 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, meets with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria. Syrian President Bashar Assad said he regrets the shooting down of a Turkish jet by his forces, and that he will not allow tensions between the two neighbors to deteriorate into an "armed conflict," a Turkish newspaper reported Tuesday, July 3, 2012. (AP Photo/SANA, File) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

FILE - In a March 30, 2011 file photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syrian President Bashar Assad, addresses the Parliament, in Damascus, Syria. A Turkish newspaper says Assad, speaking in an exclusive interview, has expressed regret over the shooting down of a Turkish jet by his forces. (AP Photo/SANA, file) EDITORIAL USE ONLY

(AP) ? Syrian opposition groups struggled to form a united leadership Tuesday at a meeting in Cairo that exposed the vast disagreements that have prevented them from effectively leading the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

The conference ended late Tuesday with an agreement on two documents, both of them vague. One provides a general outline to guide the opposition through a transitional period, while the other lays out the fundamental principles envisioned for a post-Assad Syria.

The delegates agreed in general terms on support for the Free Syrian Army, the dissolution of the ruling Baath Party and the exclusion of Assad or other senior regime figures from a place in the transition.

But they failed to reach an agreement on forming a unified body to represent the opposition.

Arguments were rife among the roughly 250 conference participants over key questions, including whether to ask for foreign military intervention to halt the violence and what role religion would play in a post-Assad Syria.

In other developments Tuesday, Assad told a Turkish newspaper that he regretted that Syria shot down a Turkish warplane last month, and a U.S.-based human rights group said the Damascus regime was running a network of torture centers across the country, citing victims' accounts of beatings, sexual assaults and electric shocks.

Opposition group members interviewed at the Cairo conference by The Associated Press brought into sharp relief their vast disagreements on issues not addressed in the draft charter, suggesting it papered over the divisions that have prevented them from presenting a united front to the international community.

"It's very dangerous at this point," said Abdel-Aziz al-Khayyar, who spent 14 years in Syrian prisons and is now part of the Syrian National Coordination Body. "If we fail to unify as the opposition, it is the greatest gift to the regime."

Since the March 2011 start of the uprising that activists say has killed about 14,000 people, Syrian exiles have organized scores of organizations to collect aid, distribute information and lobby the international community.

But all along, infighting has hampered their ability to court international support. And most groups are led by exiles who have lived outside Syria for years or decades, giving them little credibility with activists inside the country.

Indeed, many inside Syria resent the exile leadership, saying they have taken the glory without sacrificing to face the regime.

"We only recognize those who are working inside the country," Jamal Akta, a rebel commander in the northern Syrian city of Ariha, said recently. "We'll only recognize those people outside when they are standing in the ranks with us, when we see something tangible from them, real help, not words."

Syria's uprising began in March 2011 with protests calling for political reforms that Assad's security forces violently quashed. The dissent grew, and many in the opposition have since taken up arms against the regime, transforming the uprising into an armed insurgency. Activists say more than 14,000 people have been killed.

The vast differences among opposition groups were clearly on display at the Cairo conference, hosted by the Arab League, where participants argued late into the evening over the wording of a document meant to define their movement.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington applauded the conference for bringing together a broad range of opposition elements, and she said there was "significant progress" on "a political vision statement and a transition plan."

However, the meeting failed to resolve many large issues facing the opposition after 15 months of deadly violence.

The two largest opposition groups at the meeting distrust each other. Members of the Syrian National Council accused the Syrian National Coordination Body, known as the NCB, of being too close to the regime. For its part, the NCB accuses the SNC of being a front for the Muslim Brotherhood and Western powers.

Late Tuesday, it appeared that efforts to bring all groups under a unified leadership might collapse - not least of which because Kurdish activists walked out over how the draft charter spoke of their minority.

Sheik Morshid el-Huznawi, one of the Kurds to storm out, declared the conference a "failure."

Even members of the same group disagreed on key issues.

Al-Khayyar, the former prisoner, dismissed those calling for foreign military intervention as "voices that are not very important ... waiting for the world to give its kids to die for our cause."

Another member of the NCB, Abdel-Basit Hamo, said foreign help was welcome.

"When you're drowning and someone gives you a hand, do you ask whose hand it is first?" he asked.

Others disagreed on the role of religion in a post-Assad Syria.

"The revolution came out of the mosques, so with my respect to minorities, we want a civil state but we must also remember that more than 80 percent of Syria is Muslim," said Abdel-Ilah al-Mulham, a tribal leader from the besieged city of Homs and an SNC member.

He said he opposed laws that made men and women equal, saying this counters Islamic law in issues such as divorce and inheritance.

At one point, one attendee broke down in tears outside the meeting room.

"Thousands of martyrs and they can't unite?" said Thaer Al-Hajy, part of a group called the Syrian Revolution Coordination Union. "We are sitting here in hotels and they are down there dying."

One independent activist said all agreed that Assad must go, but that there are many different views of what follows.

"These are sensitive issues that go back to people's ideologies," said Ziad Hassan, 28. "It could take two years, not two days, to get over our differences."

International diplomacy has failed to stop the bloodshed in Syria. A peace plan put forward by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has collapsed, with the almost 300 U.N. observers sent to monitor a cease-fire stuck in their hotels because of continued violence.

On Saturday, world powers endorsed a new plan that calls for the formation of a transitional government with full executive powers. But at the insistence of Syrian ally Russia, the plan does not bar Assad from taking part - making it a nonstarter for the opposition.

In a rare interview with Turkey's Cumhuriyet daily newspaper, Assad spoke about the Annan plan for the first time, saying he was "pleased" that the decision about Syria's future was left to its people.

"The Syrian people will decide on everything," he said.

Assad also said he regretted that Syrian forces had shot down a Turkish fighter jet on June 22. Syria says the jet was flying low inside Syrian airspace. Turkey says it was shot down in international airspace after briefly straying over Syria.

"I say 100 percent, I wish we did not shoot it down," Assad said. But he stopped short of apologizing, saying Syria fired in self-defense.

Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch said Assad's security forces are running more than two dozen torture centers across Syria.

Interviews with more than 200 regime defectors and former detainees revealed more than 20 torture techniques, including sexual assault, acid attacks, punching staples into skin, tearing out fingernails, beatings with sticks and electric shocks to genitals and other body parts, the group said.

It said the apparently state-sanctioned torture constituted a crime against humanity and called on the U.N. Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

___

Hubbard reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara, Turkey, Matthew Lee in Washington and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed reporting.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-07-03-ML-Syria/id-c6c16fa1ff7849eca44a5eb274a10eef

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